Baked Ziti

Baked Ziti with Vegetable Sauce is one of my favorite pasta dishes. The recipe can be found on our blog of: October 21, 2014. It is one of the many dishes that could turn me into a vegetarian. It is scrumptious! Shumon joined us for some outdoor dining on the warm summer night.

We finished the dinner with Ice Cream, Cookies and a Fig Compote that Cathy made from some extra figs that we had.

Rotisserie Chicken

Shumon joined us for Rotisserie Chicken. We started with a Tomato Salad with homemade Pesto Sauce. The recipe for the Pesto Sauce can be found on our blog of: July 30, 2016. Click the date to get the recipe.

We like Rotisserie Chicken with its crispy skin. The juices from the Chicken drip down into the pan of Potatoes and Onions. Cathy decided to par-boil the potatoes for a few minutes before dicing and putting them in the rotisserie. In the past, sometimes the potatoes would not get completely cooked. This ensured that they would be perfect!

We stuffed the two chickens using the recipe for Roast Chicken for Two and from The Balthhazar Cookbook by Keith McNally, Riad Nasr & Lee Hansen. This is a great recipe that keeps the chicken very moist. You can find the recipe on our blog of: June 23, 2012. Click the date to get the recipe.

Polenta Likes Melon Scarpetta Tomato Pasta

Polenta likes Melon!

Our cat Polenta loves to lick melon after we serve it. Parsifal our other cat (and Polenta's brother) has no interest in melon. Cats are so fascinating!

We served Melon and Prosciutto as a first course.

Tomatoes are in season so we made one of our favorite recipes: Scarpetta’s Pasta. You can get the recipe for Scarpetta’s Pasta from our blog of: August 24, 2015. Click the date to get the recipe.  Click the date to get the recipe. 

Best way to get Cholesterol Ever!

Can you top this?

Oh my! What a dinner. Cheese Platter, 40-Day Dry Aged Steaks from McCall's Meat and Fish, Fresh Corn on the Cob, Tomato Salad with home made Pesto and Burrata Cheese,  Oven Roasted Potatoes and Peach Pie!

We like our Steaks on the rare side. It works out pretty excellently for a 1 inch thick steak if you grill them for about 6 minutes on one side and flip and 4 minutes on the other side. Remove from the heat, let them rest uncovered for about 10 minutes then slice to serve. We like serving them over Arugula that is been dressed with a little Balsamic Vinegar.

The recipe for the Pesto Sauce can be found on our blog of: July 30, 2016. Click the date to get the recipe.

Oven-Roasted Potatoes (Patate al Forno) recipe is from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. These potatoes are exceptionally crispy (especially if you overbake them a little). You can find the recipe on our blog of: August 10, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.

Burp! This is as good as it gets!

Gad Zuks!

Zucchini Pasta is one of my favorites. The Pasta isn't made of Zucchini, the sauce is. We often make this dish. The zucchini is sliced very thin and sautéed until dark and crisp. They cook down to very little, so start with a lot of zucks. You can find the recipe for this simple and delicious pasta in our blog of: June 19, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.

We started with Melon and Prosciutto.

Cool picture of Cathy, had to include it!

Indian Food

We had a joint dinner with Shumon. We made a new dish for us: Stir-Fried Crab and Sweet Corn. It had promise but we both agreed we probably wouldn't make it again. It is from a new cookbook with a great title: Flavorwalla. Unfortunately the dish didn't live up to the hype. Oh well. If you try it let us know how it worked out.

Shumon made an old family recipe: Cauliflower, Potatoes and Lentils. It was very good. I love Cauliflower in all of its presentations. Indians really know how to cook it!

Stir-Fried Crab and Sweet Corn

Floyd Cardoza

Flavorwalla

This quick stir-try doesn’t need any accompaniment—it stands on its own beautifully. It can be served hot from the skillet (no wok required), o you can chill the corn base and then fold in the crab and tarragon to serve as a satisfying salad. Spoon it into baked mini tart shells for a really lovely hors d'oeuvre.

To prepare the roasted corn, you can fire-roast it right on your gas stove. Or, if you have the grill going a day or two ahead, throw the corn on and grill it until marked in spots, then just cut the kernels off and refrigerate or freeze until needed. Alternatively, if you live near a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, pick up a bag or two of frozen roasted corn. Be sure to let frozen corn sit out at room temperature to defrost before using it; adding frozen corn to the hot pan will quickly lower the temperature of the skillet and cause you to steam, rather than stir-fry, the corn,

serves 4

3       tablespoons canola oil

3       cups diced onions

¼       cup salted peanuts, lightly chopped

1       tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger

1       tablespoon minced garlic

1-1/2       teaspoons thinly sliced seeded wet kokum

1                  serrano chili, finely minced

3       cups fire-roasted corn or defrosted frozen fire-roasted corn

¼       teaspoon ground star anise

3       cups fresh or high-quality canned lump or jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over to remove shells

Leaves from 3 tarragon sprigs, coarsely but gently chopped

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

In a large saute pan or chicken fryer, heat the oil over high heat until shim­mering. Add the onions and stir-fry until lightly colored but still firm, 8 to 12 minutes. Push the onions to one side of the pan and add the peanuts, gin­ger, garlic, kokum, and chile to the other side. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Stir the onions into the peanut mixture. (The recipe can be made through this step up to 1 day in advance, cooled, and refrigerated. Return the mixture to the pan and heat over medium-low heat until hot, then turn the heat to high for the next step.)

Add the corn and star anise and cook, stirring, until the corn is heated through.

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Swordfish Donbury

We had leftover Teriyaki Swordfish and we used a recipe for Nobu's Scrambled Eggs Donburi. We always have liked Donburi and Nobu’s restaurant Matsuhisa, is one of our favorites. This is a recipe that I really liked and will repeatedly make – it is a great use for leftovers! You can find the recipe on our blog of: April 29, 2014. Click the date to get the recipe.

Lasagna on a Summer Night

Prosciutto and Melon perfect summer treat on a warm night. We saw on the menu that Al'Acqua was featuring one of our favorite Lasagnas. We had made previous plans but wanted the Lasagna. I called the restaurant and ordered two lasagna's to go. On a later night it made for very easy no work meal! 

Swordfish Teriyaki

Pat and Doshi gave me a cookbook for my birthday: The Japanese Grill. This was the first two dishes we cooked from it, they were very good, we look forward to making more recipes from the book. The Foil Baked Onions are super simple and would go well with other foods besides Japanese. Think steak! The Swordfish Teriyaki was excellent. We purchased the wonderful fish at McCall's Meat and Fish.

Foil Baked Onions with Soy Sauce

The Japanese Grill

Tadashi Ono & Harris Salat

The beauty of grilling onions this way is that they almost magically transform from sharp to irresistibly car­amelized and sweet. The soy sauce enhances the natural flavor of the onions to make them even more delicious.

Serves 4

2 medium Spanish onions (about 2 pounds), halved across the center

¼ cup soy sauce

Cut four 12-inch-long pieces of heavy-duty aluminum foil and fold each in half. Liberally brush each onion half with soy sauce, and place on foil, cut side down. Fold over the foil to wrap the onions completely.

Preheat a grill to medium. Place the foil-wrapped onions directly on the grate. Grill for about 35 minutes, turning the onions after about 10 minutes, and again after about 20 min­utes. Test the onions for doneness by pressing the sides with tongs. If the onions give easily, they're ready. Unwrap the onions and serve.

Swordfish Teriyaki

The Japanese Grill

Tadashi Ono & Harris Salat

Serves 4

We use this original style of teriyaki sauce to give grilled fish an intense savory flavor and aroma plus a glossy lacquered sheen. In Japan this dish is typi­cally prepared with yellowtail, but here we use swordfish, which is just as good and easier to find. You can also substitute any dense, meaty fish like shark, mahi mahi, or salmon. Finally, if you want to experiment with other flavors, try spiking the teriyaki with a bit of dried or chopped fresh dill, rosemary, thyme, or tarragon.

¼        cup plus 2 tablespoons soy sauce

2        tablespoons sake

¼        cup mirin

1        tablespoon sugar

4        swordfish steaks 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick), skinned, about 2 pounds

Sansho, for accent

Add the ¼ Cups of sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar to a saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute, remove from the heat, and let the marinade come to room temperature.

Brush the remaining 2 tablespoons of soy sauce on all sides of the swordfish steaks. Reserve ¼ cup of the marinade and set aside. Pour the remaining marinade into a baking dish or rimmed sheet pan. Lay the swordfish steaks in the marinade and gently turn them 4 times to generously coat all over. Let the swordfish marinate for 15 minutes.

Preheat a grill to medium-hot. Brush the cooking grate clean and oil it well. Grill the swordfish for about 6 minutes for medium-rare: Start by grilling the fish for about 2 minutes on each side. Flip the swordfish and brush on the reserved mari­nade. Grill the swordfish for about 2 more minutes, flipping every 30 seconds and brushing on more marinade after each turn. The swordfish will turn a rich honey color as it grills, but be very careful not to burn; if it starts to blacken, pull the fish off the grill. Accent with sansho and serve immediately.

Goan Shrimp Curry

I always love our recipe for Goan Shrimp Curry. I am not exactly sure why, but I felt this was the best version we have ever done. I think it was the Peppers. The dish was a little spicer than usual. It was SOOO good. We have made this many times and it is a real keeper. If you haven't made this we highly recommend it. You can find the recipe on our blog of: August 9, 2008. Click the date to get the recipe. 

We started with a Tomato Salad with Burrata Cheese. We had a small piece of my leftover Birthday Cake for dessert. The weather in Los Angeles has been very warm at night and we have been eating most of our dinners outside overlooking the twinkling lights of LA.