Sausage Bugliali

Whole Leaf, pick up and eat, no fork!

Sausage and Polenta, what a great combination. We purchased some sausages from McCall’s Meat and Fish. We used the recipe from The Fine Art of Italian Cooking by Giuliano Bugialli. You can get the recipe from our blog of: Feb. 25, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.

The Polenta we use is: ARTISAN HANDMADE COARSE RUSTIC POLENTA INTEGRALE from Anson Mills. We feel it is the best polenta.

We started with a Caesar Salad using the Zuni Cookbook Recipe that we always use. We do use a trick that Nancy Silverton suggested, blending the Caesar dressing in a blender not by hand. It is much easier. You can get the recipe from our blog of: July 25, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.

What a great dinner!

Porchetta

Ready for the Oven

Asparagus with Burrata and Hazelnuts with Brown Butter

Perfection

Porchetta, Balsamic Potatoes and Onions with Crispy Skin

We went to McCall’s Meat and Fish to purchase some chicken for dinner. In the meat case I saw I giant Porchetta. McCall’s makes there own Porchetta.  They season the meat, wrap it and then age it. I love pork and this was a giant piece: 7-1/2 pounds, no bone all to be eaten. I looked at Cathy and we agreed we had to make it! One of the joys of purchasing food at McCall’s is they love to give suggestions of how to cook their meats (and fish). Nate gave us the recipe and then gave us some advice: “Invite some people over to eat it – there is too much food”. So we started calling and got a group of friends to come over and join us for dinner.

The recipe for cooking is actually easy. Low and Slow! The skin was perfectly crunchy – it was ideal. We had 7 people over, there were lots of leftovers and I had some fabulous pork sandwiches for lunch.

We started with an Asparagus Topped with Burrata Cheese, Brown Butter and Hazelnuts. The asparagus is arriving at all of the markets now. Although we get asparagus imported from Mexico, we feel the Asparagus from the California Delta is the best - especially Zuckerman Farms.

We cooked the pork in the oven on a rack and placed potatoes with cut-up onions under the pork to catch the delicious, healthy drippingsJ. The skin was super crunchy, it was perfection!

Here is Nate's Recipe for the Porchetta. We loved it! He sells it all ready for the oven, no seasoning is necessary.

Porchetta (Nate McCall)

7-1/2 pound Porchetta

·      Leave at Room Temp 1 -2 hours

·      On Roasting Rack in Oven 500 Degrees 20 minutes

·      Drop oven to 250 3 - 4 Hours

·      Remove for 30 minutes to 1 hour (uncovered)

·      Finish in oven 500 Degrees 10 – 15 minutes

Pork and Lobster Fried Rice

We had eaten at Newport Seafood, my favorite Chinese restaurant in the world! We ALWAYS get their Special Lobster. We had lots of leftover Lobster and its Special Sauce. I picked all of the meat and sauce off of the lobster. We also had left over Pork from ChiSpacca. We then made Thai Fried Rice using the Pork and Lobster. How good is that? Damn good! We loved it. You can get the recipe from our blog of: Feb. 28, 2013. Click the date to get the recipe.

With the Thai Fried Rice we served the remaining Aloo-Gobi that Krushna had cooked for us.

For dessert we ate Ice Cream with Kahlua.

Pork Roast and Potatoes with Aloo Gobi

Round and Round, Drip Drip

A beautiful plate!

Help! My Ice Cream is drowning in Kahlua!

For Krushna and Kashmera’s last dinner in the States, I decided to Rotisserie a 6 Bone Pork Roast. We dry-rubbed the Pork with Mozza's Fennel Rub (they sell it), Cathy added Fennel Powder to the rub. It was fantastic! Some of the best pork I have ever eaten. I really don’t know if I just got lucky in my grilling (I used lots of Apple Wood) or the pork from McCall’s Meat and Fish was an exceptional cut or if the Kitchen Gods just wanted to smile on me, no matter, it was great! We put a pan of Potatoes with Onions and some Balsamic in the bottom of the rotisserie and the potatoes cooked getting marinated by the pork drippings. Krushna made my all time favorite Indian dish: Aloo-Gobi (potatoes and Cauliflower). For dessert we served Ice Cream with Kahlua.  We had left over pork (yea!) that made for wonderful lunchtime Pork Sandwiches!

Shumon Cooks an Indian Dinner

We wanted to have Okra. Shumon made it for us. He absolutely loved the fact that our Magimix could easily slice the Okra (Bhindi), making a very tedious chore completely disappear. The Indians have a way of cooking Okra so that it isn’t slimy like it is often served in America. It is very crisp. With the Okra Shumon brought Kicheri. I was served Kichuri in India when I had a bit of Delhi Belly, but this was not the medicinal kind. It was spicy and delicious.

Extra Guest at Dinner

Krushna likes junk food!

Steaks with dry Marinade

Shrimps waiting for the curry

The Indians can cook!

Shrimp Curry and Rice

Can you spot the extra guest?

More dessert for Tom

I promised to grill steaks and purchased two beautiful steaks from McCall’s Meat and Fish. We used a dry-rub on them, starting with a recipe from The Babbo Cookbook by Mario Batali. It is a great dry-rub. You can get the recipe for the dry-rub from our blog of: March 20, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.

Krushna cooked the Shrimp Curry, frying the shrimp first then adding them to the Curry Sauce. We served rice with it made Indian Style, boiled not steamed. The cats joined us for the steak!

For the dessert we served the leftover Cake and Pie from Valentines Day. They were both still excellent.

Valentine's Day - Indian Style

Chicken Curry

Why aren't I eating this with my hands?

Valentine Cake

Apple Cranberry Pie

Tim explains body parts falling off!

We knew we didn’t want to go out to dinner on Valentine’s day. It is a fools night out. We decided instead to invite our friends over for dinner of Chicken Curry - cooked by Krushna. I don’t know who got the bigger thrill: All of us eating the curry or Krushna using our Japanese Shun Kitchen Shears. He had me immediately order him a set. They are absolutely the best. Krushna couldn’t believe how easy it was to cut up a chicken with them.

We had purchased an Apple-Cranberry Pie from McCall’s (the 3rd we had bought in the last week). Scott and Tom brought a great Valentine Heart Shaped Cake, Robert and Darryl brought Chocolates from Valerie Confection and Tim and Michael brought Wine. Shumon helped cooked and brought Parathas. It was a very cooperative dinner. At the end of the dinner Tim regaled us with stories I won’t repeat.

Skrei via the New York Times

Notice the Gin and Tonic

We went read an article in the New York Times about a Norwegian Arctic Char called: Skrei.

Here is the full article: Call it the Rolls-Royce of cod. Skrei is the Norwegian name for mature cod that’s line-caught as it returns from the Arctic to spawning grounds off the coast from January to April. Catching and enjoying it has been a Norwegian tradition since the days of the Vikings, but today fishing for skrei is closely monitored and sustainable, with a quota of only 10 percent of the estimated fish population. This year a limited supply has made its way to New York, in markets for home cooks, and at some restaurants. At Oceana in Midtown, the chef, Ben Pollinger prepares it simply broiled, with a choice of sauces, including hollandaise. The snowy flesh of the fish offers mild richness and a denser, silkier texture than regular cod, as it cleaves into meaty shards on the plate. If you’re making it at home, broiling is the way to go with the thick fillets; just practice your hollandaise first: Norwegian skrei is $16.95 a pound at Lobster Place, Chelsea Market, 212-255-5672, lobsterplace.com.

I forwarded the article to Nate at McCall’s Meat and Fish and challenged him to get the fish. He immediately emailed back that they actually had the fish to sell. We went over and bought some. We asked how he would recommend that we cook the fish. He said we should sauté it, then add Clams that we steam in wine with onions and tomatoes and herbs. It was a delicious and elegant meal. Steamed rice made the perfect accompaniment.

Indian Veg Dinner on the Patio

Chefs in the Kitchen (Notice the Gin and Tonic)

Yum!

Outdoor dinning

Chocolate Cake

Kashmera and Krushna our Bollywood friends from Mumbai came to America for a vacation and stayed with us. Krushna for the last 8 years has been star of a major TV show in India: Comedy Circus. Kash has been in Bollywood movies, TV and Stage. Krushna loves to cook, and is an excellent cook. We were joined by Shumon for many of the dinners and he too loves to cook Indian food. Tuesday is a Veg day for Krushna and Kashmera, so no meat graced our table. Thank god Gin and wine aren’t made from Animal products!

Krushna had his first taste of “Hayman’s Old Tom Gin”, which is my favorite, and he loved it. It is a great tasting gin, I highly recommend it.

The Indian cooks created a wonderful meal. I have no recipes for any of it, but this is what we had: Kichuri, Paratha, Aloo Gobi (my favorite potatoes and cauliflower) Baingan (Egg Plant), Aloo Bhartha, Rata. It was a warm night and we ate outside on the front steps.

For dessert we had a Chocolate Cake from Proof Bakery.

Cheese Soufflé

We arrived back from our trip to India and for our first dinner to cook we wanted to go very easy. We were still suffering from a bad case of Jetlag.

We decided on a Caesar Salad, using The Zuni Café recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. The recipe is long, the time to make it is easy. We cheated and used store bought croutons! Using a trick we learned from Nancy Silverton, we simply put all of the dressing ingrediants in a blender and let it create the dressing. It works fine. You can find the recipe in our blog of: July 25, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.

For the main course we made a Cheese Soufflé. After the spicy Indian food, it is about as mild a dish as you can make. We use the recipe from The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. It is a classic. It was delicious and looks as good as it is! You can find the recipe in our blog of: Feb. 15, 2013. Click the date to get the recipe.

Winter Night Treat

Guillermo arrived from Italy for a few weeks and we decided to have a dinner for him and Tom and Scott. Scott brought some great Cheeses from North Carolina. Who knew North Carolina had artisanal cheese?

We started with an unusual Red Onion Soup With Cheese Toasts  We saw the recipe in the New York Times. Unlike most onion soups you don't broil the bread and cheese on top of the soup. You just toast the cheese and add it to the soup. The soup is made from Red Onions only. It was very good.

For the main course we made: Pork Tiella with Wild Mushrooms and Potatoes. This is a favorite of mine. A real one dish hearty meal. You can get the recipe from our blog of: December 10, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.

For dessert a Chocolate Cake from Proof.

Lots of great conversation as Guillermo explained the sexual politics of Italy vs Mexico vs America.

Red Onion Soup With Cheese Toasts

New York Times

Ingredients

•                Olive oil

•                3 pounds red onions, peeled, sliced 1/8-inch thick

•                Salt and pepper

•                1 cup dry red wine

•                2 bay leaves

•                1 small bunch thyme, tied with string

•                8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

•                2 tablespoons brandy (optional)

•                6 slices day-old bread, lightly toasted

•                6 ounces grated Gruyère

•                1 teaspoon chopped thyme

•                1 tablespoon chopped sage

1.

Set 2 large, wide skillets over medium-high heat. When pans are hot, add 1 tablespoon oil and a large handful of sliced onions to each pan. Season onions with salt and pepper, then sauté, stirring occasionally, until they are a ruddy dark brown, about 10 minutes

2.

Transfer onions to soup pot and return pans to stove. Pour 1/2 cup water into each pan to deglaze it, scraping with a wooden spoon to dissolve any brown bits. Pour deglazing liquid into soup pot. Wipe pans clean with paper towel and begin again with more oil and sliced onions. Continue until all onions are used. Don’t crowd pans or onions won’t brown sufficiently.

3.

Place soup pot over high heat. Add wine, bay leaves, thyme bunch and garlic. Simmer rapidly for 5 minutes, then add 8 cups water and return to boil. Turn heat down to maintain a gentle simmer. Add 2 teaspoons salt. Cook for 45 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. (May be prepared to this point up to 2 days in advance.)

4.

To serve, add brandy to soup, if using, and simmer 5 minutes. Remove the thyme. Make the cheese toasts: Heat broiler. Place toasted bread on baking sheet. Mix grated cheese with chopped thyme and sage, along with a generous amount of pepper. Heap about 1 ounce of cheese mixture on each toast. Broil until cheese bubbles and browns slightly. Ladle soup into wide bowls and top with toast.

Eyes Wide Shut

Shumon stopped by for dinner. The previous night we had been to Mozza's Chi Spacca and had fabulous Tomahawk Pork Chop and brought leftovers home. Once again we made Thai Fried Rice. It is a great recipe. You can find it on our blog of: April 4, 2013. Click the date to get the recipe.

We started with Cheese and Crackers and Parata that Shumon gets at a Bengali Food Store. For dessert he brought us a traditional Coconut and and Rice dish made with a filling of molasses called Bhapa Pitha. They were both great and even Polenta the cat liked the Pita.