Monday, January 31, 2011

My Favorite Roast Chicken



We started with a Salad made from Arugula, Parmesan Cheese and Dates, dressed with a little olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar.

This is absolutely my favorite roast chicken. The combination of crispy skin with the preserved lemon and breadcrumbs tucked underneath are perfect. The combination of the onions, and roasted potatoes baking under the chicken and getting marinated by the chicken juices is a real winner. The recipe is: Roast Chicken with Preserved Lemons Adapted from Laurent Tourondel. It is a wonderful one-dish recipe. You can get the recipe from our blog of: Jan. 23, 2008. Click the date to get the recipe.

After we ate the chicken on a 2nd night we did as we always do, and threw the carcass in a pot with carrots and onions and made a Chicken Stock which we froze for future use. It is better than any store bought stock!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Winter Beef Stew




The cold weather in LA called for one of the ultimate winter dishes: Provencal Beef Stew. It is from the Patricia Wells cookbook: Bistro Cooking. The stew is all thrown in a pot, marinates overnight and cooks in the oven or on the stove top. One pot stew. It is delicious.

With it you make an easy Macaroni and Cheese from the same cookbook, using some of the juices from the stew. Our kind of dinner! This is also one of those dishes that gets better and better as you re-heat the leftovers! The recipe can be found in our blog of: March 21, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Cote de Boeuf






We have been exploring Cote de Boeuf. Robert has been our guide to the cut of meat, insistent and correct as to how to cook it. It basically is a large bone in Rib Steak. The first thing we had to do was disabuse ourselves of the notion of grilling it outdoors.

The meat should be roasted in the oven after browning all sides on top of the stove in a cast iron pan. Further we wanted to use dry-aged steak and Nate at McCall’s Meat and Fish insisted that we could not grill this meat, the smoke from the charcoal would disrupt and overwhelm the taste of the dry aging. He cut us a fantastic steak that was exceptional. He also suggested browning the meat in clarified butter which we did.

With the Cote de Boeuf and vegetables we served a Baked Potato topped with White Truffle Butter. Outrageously good.

We browned the meat on all sides in a cast iron skillet that had a little clarified butter in it. We then put the meat on a rack placed on top of the pan and placed it in an oven preheated to 300 degrees. We cooked until the interior was about 130. I then removed the meat to let it rest before slicing, taking the pan with steak drippings and butter and Sauted Arugula with balsamic vinegar to place on the plate beneath the steak slices. With the steak we served mixed vegetables that we had purchased at Forage.

For dessert we had Carrot Cake, also from Forage.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Lentil Pasta





I think one of the easiest tastiest salads to make is the one that we call: The Hungry Cat Salad. We first saw it made at The Hungry Cat Restaurant in Hollywood and asked them for the recipe, which they were nice enough to give us. We don’t use a lot of avocados and that might be the reason I like the salad. You can get the recipe, such as is on from our blog of: Nov. 21, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.


When we reheated the pasta (it reheats easily in the microwave) we made a different salad.  We had had dinner at Palate and had brought home a small piece of Short Rib. So, we made a delicious Salad with Arugula topped with the shredded leftover Short Ribs.

In the summer when tomatoes were at their best we made several batches of Oven Candied Summer Tomatoes from: The Italian Country Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. We then froze the tomatoes for use in the winter when delicious tomatoes are hard to come by.

We used the frozen tomatles for our main course: Lentil Pasta. The Italian Lentil Pasta from the restaurant Locanda Veneta in Los Angeles is one of the best. It is so rich, you would swear it was made with meat. You can get the recipe from our blog of: July 22, 2008. Click the date to get the recipes for both the pasta and the tomatoes.

Saturday, January 01, 2011

New Years Delayed





We had our New Year’s Eve dinner on the night of the 1st. It turned out that the fish dinner that we had planned for New Year's Eve wouldn’t work, because Jerry was allergic to fish.

So we decided to serve the entire New Years Dinner a night delayed. We knew that Robert and Darryl were returning from a week in the Midwest and decided to invite Billy / Kevin to join us.

Bad News / Good News. Billy / Kevin having partied a little too much on New Years Eve, sent their regrets (that is the bad news). There was more Caviar and Smoked Salmon for the 4 of us that did eat the delayed dinner (that is definitely the good news).

We made Toast Points from the Bread that I baked and served Smoked Salmon Tartar from a recipe we had found in the Los Angeles Times. This is a great appetizer and easy to make.

We then served the Caviar with Chopped Egg, Onion and Cream Fresh. I read in a book once that the thing that goes best with Caviar is: More Caviar. We had plenty!

At The Cheese Store of Silverlake we had purchase a large black truffle. We made a Pasta then coated the pasta with Truffle Butter and finally topped the pasta with Sliced Truffles. The flavor was intense!

For dessert, we finally cut our Fruit Cake we make every year. I know that fruit cake gets a bad rap, but this one has no dried fruit in it and it is delicious. It is from a from a recipe by Craig Claiborne in the New York Times. We look forward to it every year. For some reason to make it special, we only make it once a year, although you can make it anytime and would love it!

Robert and Darryl regaled us with stories of their family adventure in Milwaukee. They did much cooking, liked the Pizza (isn’t that strange) and hated the hamburgers. I will take heed if we ever venture to Milwaukee.

It was just like New Year's Eve, without the funny hats and noise makers and having to stay up till midnight!

A Truly Terrific Tartar Made of Salmon
CHEF'S SECRETS
June 06, 1991|ROSE DOSTI | TIMES STAFF WRITER
Smoked salmon is the secret of this extraordinary salmon tartar. L'Ermitage executive chef Michel Blanchet purchases fresh Norwegian salmon whole, cures fillets with kosher salt and sugar, then soaks them in oil for 24 hours. Finally he smokes the fillets in a smoker fueled with herbs.
If you don't want to go to the trouble of smoking your own salmon, use a good commercial brand or transform leftover bits and pieces of smoked salmon into a tartar for a spectacular--and easy--party or picnic appetizer.
http://articles.latimes.com/images/pixel.gif
L'ERMITAGE SALMON TARTAR
9 ounces smoked salmon
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 tablespoon chopped capers
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons sour cream
Toast points
Chop smoked salmon with sharp knife. In large bowl combine salmon, onion, capers, parsley, lemon juice and sour cream. Mix well. Serve with toast points. Makes 1 1/4 cups, about 6 appetizer servings.

Mary Ann’s Fruitcake
From: Craig Claiborne’s
The New York Times Cookbook


1            pound golden seedless raisins
1            pound pecan meats, broken
3            cups sifted flour
1            teaspoon salt
1            pound butter at room temperature
2            cups sugar
6            eggs, separated
1            teaspoon baking soda
1            tablespoon warm water
1/4            cup Grand Marnier



  1. Place the butter in the bowl of an electric beater. Start beating and gradually add the sugar. Cream the mixture well and add the egg yolks one at a time, beating constantly. Blend the soda and water and add it, beating. Beat in the Grand Marnier. Pour this mixture into the nut mixture and blend together with the hands.

  1. Beat the whites until stiff and fold them in with the hands. Continue folding until the whites are not apparent.

  1. Spoon and scrape the mixture into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Bake for 2 to 2x/4 hours, or until the cake is puffed above the pan and nicely browned on top. If the cake starts to brown too soon, cover with aluminum foil. Remove the cake from the pan shortly after it is baked. Tapping the bottom of the cake pan with a heavy knife will help loosen it. Store the cake for at least 10 days. If desired, add an occasional touch of Cognac or rum to the cake as it stands. Keep it closely covered and refrigerated until ready to use.

Yield: 1 10-inch cake.