Goin to Chicken

Wine: Pleiades xv Old Vines from Silverlake Wine

We cooked two dishes from Sunday Supper at Lucques. Her recipes are exceptional, but take some work to accomplish. These are really worth the effort.


Saba is like Balsamic but better! Saba is the sweet reduction of grape must, simmered in copper kettles over an open flame. It is the exact same must used for balsamic vinegar, but cooked down more, to about one-third its original volume. Aged for two years in chestnut and oak barrels, Saba is a pure, sweet, syrupy expression of the Trebbiano or Lambrusco grape. With a fantastic fruity character, Saba has hints of grapes, plums, and raisins. Try drizzling it over cheesecake, dressing a fruit salad, serving it on panna cotta, using it in marinades, or serving it over ice cream.

We started with a salad: Coleman’s Farm’s Treviso with Gorgonzola, Walnuts and Saba. Instead of Treviso we used radicchio a very close relative. The recipe calls for Saba and we were almost out. Saba is a great product but difficult to obtain. To make it even more difficult, we have a favorite Saba, imported from Modena, by Manicaretti. A few weeks ago, we asked Chris at The Cheese Store of Silverlake if he could get it for us. He surprised us this weekend by producing it. It was a real surprise for us! It is great dealing with someone who will special order foodstuffs for us. We also purchased the Gorgonzola from The Cheese Store.

For the second course we made an incredible chicken. We actually started it on Sat. to cook on Monday! I will simply name it, as it appears in the cookbook. It tells you the main ingredients! The recipe is way too complicated to write here. Buy the book! In the book there is a fabulous picture of the dish. It is a shame the Blog doesn’t have a smell function. It had a wonderful aroma! The name of the dish is: Braised Chicken with Saffron Onions, Italian Couscous, and Dates. It has a multi-layered texture and taste. For some reason we don’t remember ever eating this on Monday night at Lucques. We must have been on vacation the Sunday night she served this. Glad we were able to recreate it!

Chicken Buried in Vermicelli

Wine:

Melville Syrah 01
Domaine d’Orfeuilles Vouvray 2002
Kosta Brown 2005 Pinot Noir Rose


We have eaten several times at Corina’s new restaurant near us in Attwater Village named: Canale. One of our favorite appetizers she serves is a Pissaladiere, which is a Pizza from Provence which is thin crusted, and covered with caramelized onions and black olives. It is very good.

A couple of weeks ago I received the new copy of Cooks Illustrated and there was a recipe for Pissaladiere. I don’t usually bake pastry (especially) with yeast, but decided to give it a try.

We looked through several cookbooks and decided to combine the Cooks Illustrated version with the version in the Mediterranean Cooking cookbook by Paula Wolfert. There were a few small differences. Paula for example allows you to use tomatoes we didn’t want any tomatoes on ours.

I made a Herb Salad to go with the pizza: Italian Flat Parsley, Watercress, Cilantro, Basil.

For the main course we made a dish from the Los Angeles Times: Chicken Buried in Vermicelli. It will be in a new cookbook: Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey & Lebanon by Claudia Roden. It was fun tracking down some of the ingredients in Persian and Italian groceries in nearby Glendale. The dish is made with Cinnamon, ginger, blanched almonds, etc. We cooked to boiled 2 chickens with lots of onions, reduced the sauce, boned the chicken, added additional spices. The pieces of chicken in the thick sauce are places at the bottom of the dish and then completely covered with the noodles. The crispy
are then placed on top of the noodles. It is a very good dish and we would make it again!


For desert we had Brownies from La Brea Bakery.

Pizza and Malaysian Chicken

New on the BLOG! See a YouTube Movie of us Cooking!
Make sure the computer speakers are turned on!




Wine: Pleiades Old Vines from Silver Lake Wine

We made a Pizza as a first course in our dinner. We love the corn meal crusts that you can buy from Vicola Pizza in San Francisco. When we lived in San Francisco we used to go to Vicola for Pizza. It is located near city hall.

We used grated Fontina Valsa from The Cheese Store of Silver Lake. We then covered the cheese with the vegetable mixture we created from the Hollywood Farmer’s Market: Tomatoes, Leeks, Onions, Pimento and Sage. We baked them with lots of Balsamic, Olive Oil and Thyme. We then topped the pizza with torn Prosciutto and grated Parmesan Cheese. It makes a fabulous Pizza. I am not sure if we can still purchase the Vicolo Pizza shells in Los Angeles. I need to find out!

We then made a Malaysian Chicken recipe that was in the New York Times. It was OK, but not worth making again. It was however fun to go shopping. It needed a lot of interesting Asian ingredients and it was fun going to several markets to try and find them. The chicken is cooked in a very unusual method. The spices and chicken broth are cooked in a pan until the sauce becomes very thick. The chicken is then added and is cooked for about 1 ½ hours. By that time almost all of the liquid has cooked out, leaving just the cooked spices and chicken and oil that is rendered from the chicken. The chicken is then fried in the oil.

In addition we made a Thai Rice with coconut milk.

The Leftovers

Wine: Cuilleron Syrah 2005

We followed Mark’s advice. We did NOT make Steak Hash. Instead we followed the Corned Beef Hash Recipe from the cookbook: Julia Child & Company. We simply left the meat out.

It is a great recipe.

2 ½ cups minced onion
2 tbl butter
2 tbl olive oil
3 tbl Flour
¾ cup or more beef bullion
4 cups diced boiling cups
½ tsp minced herbs (sage, oregano, thyme or mixture)
5 to 6 tbl fresh parsley
Salt and pepper
½ cup heavy cream

Sauté onions in butter and oil for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender, then raise heat slightly and let them brown a bit.

Lower heat again; blend in the flour and a little more butter or oil if needed to make a paste. Stir and cook slowly for 2 minutes.
Blend in 3/ cup bouillon, let boil a moment, then mix in potatoes, corned beef, and parsley, and cream.
Taste carefully for seasoning.
Firmly press the hash down all over. Cover and cook slowly for 15 minutes. When crust forms on bottom turn potatoes so crust goes into the body of the potatoes. Repeat process until potatoes are complete.
10 to 15 minutes before serving press down hash for final crust.

We sliced the steaks and served it at room temperature with a Horseradish Sauce.

At the Hollywood Farmer's Market we purchased: Tomatoes, Leeks, Onions, Pimento and Sage. We baked them with lots of Balsamic, Olive Oil and Thyme. It makes a great vegetable side.

We decided that Mark was absolutely correct to serve the meat this way. We even had leftovers and made some steak sandwiches for lunch later in the week.

Cathy's Pre-Birthday Steak-a-Thon

Wine:

Tschermonegg 2003 Cuvee Styria
Gevrey Chambertin 1990


John called to tell us he was coming to LA to sell some wine and wanted to stay with us. We were planning a steak dinner as a pre-birthday dinner for Cathy. I had ordered 2 Porterhouse Steaks from Gus Meats. I called and left and requested a 3rd one. I knew we would have way too much steak with three, but we like leftovers and knew we would do something great with all the extra meat.

In the morning I went to Gus Meats to pick up the three steaks. They were huge! 2.5 pounds each! Cathy called me on my cell to inform me that a 4th steak had just been airmailed to us from New York. Michael and Tamara send us a Kobe Porterhouse from Lobel’s for her birthday. I seriously wondered if all 4 steaks could fit on the grill.

After picking up the steaks I went to Joan’s on Third, which has great takeout. I bought their great Pita Chips and Hummus. We have had, and have made pita chips but NONE are as good as Joan’s. She definitely gets the Pita Chip medal!

In addition, at Joan’s I picked up two sides to serve with the steak: a great Fresh Corn Salad, and a Fennel Salad made with fennel and fresh oranges.

Cathy and I made a Roasted Fingerling Potatoes from The Zuni Café Cookbook.
It is a great recipe and unusual in that you add wine to the potatoes and cook covered.

The consensus was that the Kobe Steak from Lobel's was more tender, the Gus steaks were more flavorful.

For we made the Upside Down Fig Cake, one final time for this season.

John was our featured guest, and really walked into a fabulous dinner!

We did have a lot of left over steak! My sister and Sharon were going to be in the neighborhood on Friday (she had a medical procedure) and we planned to serve the leftover steak to them. However, she needed to go directly home and so we had the leftover by ourselves on Friday night. But we still had lots of leftover steak. I came up with the idea of making a Roast Beef Hash out of the remaining steak.

On Saturday night we went to Campanile and mentioned to Mark Peel the Chef / Owner that we planned to make the hash with the leftover steak. He said the meat was to good to use in a hash, we should make Steak Sandwiches. On Sunday when we were at the Hollywood Farmer's Market as usual and I purchased some Cipollini Onions and an Asiago Cheese Bread from LA Bread Stand. I sautéed the onions for at least an hour, and then toasted the bread. I made sandwiches for lunch by spooning lots of the sautéed onions on the toasted bread layering sliced room temperature steak on the bread and covering (mine not Cathy’s) with creamed horseradish. A fabulous sandwich! Forgot to take a picture. We still plan to make the hash!

Best of Summer

Wine: Project – 3000 Syrah

Fig and tomato season is coming to an end, so we decided to make again a summer dinner.

First we had Yellow Tomato Gazpacho from the recipe in Sunday Supper at Lucques. It is a great cold soup. We really like the soup, cold and spicy with fresh cherry tomatoes and olive oil floating on top. Oh well, fall means stews, braises and short-ribs!

We then had the Chicken with Figs, Onions, Couscous from The Zuni Café Cookbook. It is wonderful. I like the sauce of figs and vinegar. It soaks into the couscous and extremely tasty.

John Visits Again

Wine:

Baglio Di Pianetto Ficiligno – 2003
Vietti Barbera D’Asti – 2003

John Carpenter came down and stayed with us on another wine selling trip. We still had the Goat Cheese Torta made from The Babbo Cookbook. It sure does last. It is great. John loved it.

We then made one of favorite Salads: White Nectarines, Macarena Almonds, Prosciutto, Saba, Arugula. Nectarines are in the market and are very sweet. Simple but great salad, sliced the nectarines, combine all ingredients coat with Saba. We get the almonds, prosciutto at The Cheese Store of Silver Lake.

We made Lentil Pasta. This is one of our favorite pastas. You wouldn’t believe that it does not have meat in it. It is very rich and re-heats well. John loved it. We started by roasting fresh tomatoes from the farmers market, making Summer Candied Tomatoes. The recipe for both the Tomatoes and the Pasta can be found on our blog of: Friday July 28th, so I won’t republish it here. The pasta has spinach in it and we probably purchased some of the last spinach available because of the e-coli problems.

We had purchased fresh green figs at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market. And we made another Fig Upside Down Cake. It was great, and it is another dish that keeps in the refrigerator!

Billy Two Ways

Wine: From Billy / Kevin Charles B. Mitchell Estate Cabernet Franc

We had leftover Goat Cheese Torta from Mario Batali The Babbo Cookbook, and it made a great appetiser.

When we are were at The Cheese Store of Silverlake, we spotted duck confit in the refrigerated case. Cathy remembered a recipe from Sunday Supper at Lucques by Suzanne Goin for Black Rice with Duck Confit. We decided to make it but have never cooked with black rice before. First we had to find black rice, but couldn’t. Luckily we called Cheese Store of Silver Lake and the woman that answered the phone recommended a large Oriental Market in Echo Park called A1 Market. She remembered seeing black rice there. We had never been in it, so we decided to go there. Interestingly, Bill who gave us the wine we drank that night, had previously mentioned the market to me, but I hadn’t gone to it.

We found the market and it has an amazing variety of foods from all over: Mexican, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc. I am sure it will be a great source for us in the future. Needless to say, they had many varieties of black rice! The rice is cooked differently from regular rice, 2 cups of washed black rice and 6 cups of water. The rice is boiled uncovered. We separately baked the duck legs (after scrapping off the duck fat) to crisp the skin. It was very tasty and now we have a new rice for future recipes! The recipe has a great sauce that we made from pulots. The Zaigers invented pluots from interspecific plums and apricots respectively.

More Mario

Wines:
Stefano Farina Barolo 2001
Robert Sinsky Vin Gris of Pinot Noir 2005
Melville 2001 Syrah

In the Babo Cookbook Cathy spotted a recipe for a Goat Cheese Torta. It is made from goat cheese, a pesto made with mint and parsley, and fig jam. It is layered and very good. One great advantage, beyond its delicious taste, is that it lasts for several weeks in the refrigerator. We purchased the Fig Jam at The Cheese Store of Silverlake. It is the best Fig Jam we have ever had; it is imported from France and named: Matin des Pyrenees. Wow!

Bea joined us for dinner. We decided to grill Veal Chops using Mario Batali – The Babbo Cookbook recipe: Veal Chop Joe’s with Chanterelles, Roasted Garlic and Campari. We had never made this recipe before. Chanterelles are available at the Hollywood Farmers Market and it was a perfect fit. I purchased the veal chops from Gus Meats and he sold us the “Spago Chops” which were very thick double cut veal chops! Usually veal has a bland taste, but these chops were fabulous. We even had a couple left over.

Our friends, Joy and Brenda, who live in Napa, had told us of a Fresh Fig Upside-Down Cake from LA Times. Since it is fig season, we decided to make it.
The cake turned out to be great. It keeps well in the refrigerator and is great when it is zapped in the microwave for 1 minute. It was great of them to turn us on to the cake.

Fig Upside-Down Cake

---------
1/3 cup Melted Butter
1/3 cup Brown Sugar, packed
5 – 6 (or more) ripe figs cut lengthwise into ½ inch slices
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
----------
1 1/3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons backing powder
½ teaspoon salt
----------
1/2 cup softened butter
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 egg

Pour melted butter into bottom of 8-inch-square baking pan.
Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over bottom of pan
Arrange fig slices in single layer over bottom of pan (cut side down!)..
Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons pine nuts into spaces around figs pressing into brown sugar.
Set aside.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl.
Add softened butter, milk, vanilla, lemon zest and egg. Beat on medium speed about 2 minutes, scraping side of bowl. Stir in remaining pine nuts.
Pour over figs in baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes or until cake tests done in center.
Cool in pan about 5 minutes.
Loosen cake around edges of pan.
Place serving platter over cake and turn over.
Shake gently, then remove pan.

We modified the recipe by mixing all pine nuts into batter. Also, instead of slicing figs in slices, we simply sliced in half.

A Bit of Santa Fe

Wine: Synthesi Aglianico Del Vulture 200

We decided to revisit the Babo Cookbook. There is a recipe for Grilled Pork Loin that we previously had made. We decided to make it again. This time we toned down the Red Pepper. It has a dry rub that is made from the Dried Porcinis, sugar and red pepper. They are placed in the Cuisinart and blended till they become a fine powder. The meat is then coated with the rub and refrigerated over-night.

When the grill is ready you scrape off most of the coating. It has absorbed juices from the meat and is no longer dry. It smells great!

Simply grill the meat.

Our friends who own the Santa Fe Weaving Gallery, Barbara and Jill, sent us a cookbook: Cooking with Café Pasqual. We have eaten lunch at the restaurant many times, when we have visited Santa Fe.

We made two recipes from the book. A Cold Beet and Chipotle Soup and a Fresh Corn Cake. We found the soup too much like borscht from our youth. Although it would never be that spicy in a Jewish home!

The Corn Cake was more interesting. It was moist and light, A cross between corn bread and a corn soufflé. It went well with the Pork.

Fig Pasta and More!

Wine: Puelles Rioja 2002

We ate at Campanile and had a totally unusual Fig Pasta, it was sweet and buttery and tasted of the fig. It was most unlike a traditional pasta. We love figs and they were in season, so we decided to do some research and see if we could find a recipe. I say we,it was really Cathy! Once again, Lynn Rossetto Kasper had a recipe in The Splendid Table Cookbook.

Fig Pasta
The key is to only cook the sauce in the last minute or so that pasta is cooking. It needs the briefest of cooking time or the figs will break down.

4 Ounces unsalted butter
1 lb figs cut in 1/8ths
Shredded zest of 1 lemon
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup heavy cream
1 ½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Add the zest to hot butter, cook about 30 seconds.
Add figs and pepper and cook about 1 more minute.
Add cream and drained pasta and cook about 30 seconds more toss in the cheese and serve!

It is very unusual and good. Kasper describes the dish as a Renaissance-inspired dish. Not everything has to be new to be good. We will definitely make it again!

We then grilled Pork Chops using the recipe from Jar.

Char Sui Pork Grilled Pork Chops The recipe was published in Bon Appetit in March 2006 in an article about Jar.

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 cup oyster sauce
1/4 cup black bean garlic sauce
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon red food coloring
6 12- to 14-ounce pork rib chops, each about 1 1/2 inches thick



Mix first 6 ingredients in large bowl for marinade. Place chops in extra-large resealable plastic bag. Add marinade to bag. Seal top, releasing excess air. Turn bag to coat chops. Refrigerate 3 to 5 days, turning bag occasionally.

Preheat broiler, adjusting rack 8 inches below heat source. Line rimmed baking sheet with heavy-duty foil. Remove chops from marinade. Place chops on prepared pan with some marinade still clinging. Broil until chops are cooked through and thermometer inserted horizontally into center registers 145°F, watching closely to prevent burning (chops may char slightly in spots), about 9 minutes per side. Transfer to plates and serve.

Corn is in season so we bought fresh corn at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market and grilled it. Grilled Corn: After shucking we salt, butter, wrap in aluminum foil and throw on the Grill. After about 5 minutes of cooking I remove the foil and roll the corn directly on the grill browning and caramelizing the corn.

We will have great leftovers!

Tomato and More Tomato

Wine: Cuilleron Syrah 2005

We went to Lucques, like we do every Sunday night that we can, and had a wonderful Tomato Gazpacho. When we returned home Cathy checked the Sunday Supper at Lucques cookbook and found the recipe for: Yellow Tomato Gaspacho.

The soup is very easy to make, spicy in a way I like, with chopped a jalapeños, red pepper, red onion relish. When you serve it you top it with the relish, cherry tomatoes and cilantro and olive oil. The inspiration is keeping the relish out of the soup until you serve it. By adding it as a garnish at the end the vegitables remain crispy and intense. A fabulous summer soup.


We then had a large second course (or at least Cliff’s portion was) of both a simple pasta and a wonderful roast chicken. Cathy adapted both of the recipes from Lynne Rossetto Kasper: The Splendid Table.

The Penne Pasta Balsamic was made using Kasper’s Candied Tomatoes recipe. The candied tomatoes were added to the cooked pasta after they had been sautéed briefly with lots of Balsamic. Finally chopped basil was added.

The Roast Chicken with Herbs was a roasted chicken with lots of Garlic and Rosemary under the skin. The herbs are put under the skin the day before so the flavors can flow into the chicken. The chicken is then placed in the refrigerator for 24 hours. When the chicken was cooked it was delicious. The skin (my favorite part) was very crispy.

We never seem to grow tired of fresh tomatoes!

Penne with Balsamic

Wine: Le Clos du Caillou Cotes du Rhone 1998


White Nectarines are fresh and sweet at the Farmer’s Market. We made a Salad with Arugula, Almonds, Prosciutto and dressed it with Saba

Continuing our use of heirloom tomatoes we made one of favorite pastas. The recipe is from Rogers and Grey: Italian Country: Penne with Tomato and Balsamic Vinegar. What makes this such a good recipe is that when the penne is cooked it is thrown back into the pan and slightly cooked with lots of butter. Then lots of balsamic is added to the pasta. Finally the sauce and basil are added to the pasta.

It is served with Pecorino Cheese. Often I find Pecorino to salty. Chris at The Cheese Store of Silverlake sold us a Pecorino that wrapped in Grape leaf. It was very good and not overly salty. It was the best pecorino I have ever tasted. It was the perfect complement to the pasta. We had lots of leftovers and continued to enjoy the pasta for several days.

Rogers and Rogers

Wines: Chateau Gloria St. Julien 2000
Les Argiles Vouvray 2004

The Zuni Café Cookbook


When ever we go to San Francisco we eat at the Zuni Café. It seems we also get their Chicken for two. They have published various renditions of the recipe. This one is from their cookbook: The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. We make it at least once every summer.

Zuni Roasted Chicken with Bread Salad

Papa Al Pomodoro from Italian Country Cook Book Rogers / Gray
Serves 10

4 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into thin slices
¾ cup olive oil
9 pounds ripe sweet tomatoes, peeled and seeded, or 4 ½ pounds canned plum tomatoes, drained of most of their juices
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 loaves stale bread
1 large bunch fresh basil
Extra-virgin olive oil

Put the garlic and the olive oil into a heavy saucepan and cook gently for a few minutes. Just before the garlic turns brown, add the tomatoes. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the tomatoes become concentrated. Season with salt and pepper, then add 2 ½ cups water and bring to a boail.

Cut most of the crust off the bread and break or cut into large chunks. Put the bread into the tomato mixture and stir until the bread absorbs the liquid, adding more boiling water if it is too thick. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. If the basil leaves are large, tear into pieces. Stir into the soup with ½ to ¾ cup of extra virgin olive oil. Let sit before serving to allow the bread to absorb the flavor of the basil and oil. Float some more extra-virgin oil on top of each bowl of soup.

Pasta Under (Not With) the Stars

Wines:

Concerto Reggiano Lambrusco - 2004
Chateau La Conseillante Pomerol 1982

Our friend John who owns The Wine House in San Francisco, often stays with us. He imports wines and comes to Los Angeles to sell them. We decided to a cook a dinner for him and he brought us a 1982 Pomerol for the dinner.

Los Angeles had been unusually warm and humid. What Global Warming? See the movie: An Inconvenient Truth for the sorry details. At least when the snow caps melt and the water rises, being on top of a hill we will be safe!

The warm weather dictated the menu and the dining location. We decided to eat on the deck overlooking the city and it was a beautiful night.

We started with drinks and a Goat Cheese, Salami Almonds and Olives. We had recently had the Salami from Fra’ Mani at La Terza. It was excellent. We had other sausages from Fra’ Mani but not the Salami. We asked Chris at The Cheese Store of Silverlake if he was getting the Salami and he just happened to have ordered it. It is very good.

We then had Melon and Prosciutto. The melon season is in full swing and every melon we have selected has been excellent.

When we first came to Los Angeles, John came down to visit us and we went to an Italian Restaurant: Locanda Veneta. We had a fabulous Pasta made with Tomatoes, Spinach and Lentils. It is exceptionally rich and you would think it has Meat in the sauce, but it doesn’t. We obtained the recipe and make it every summer using fresh heirloom tomatoes. We first made Oven Candied Summer Tomatoes using a recipe by Lynne Rossetto Kasper from The Italian Country Table.

Oven Candied Summer Tomatoes

Cut up tomatoes into wedges combine with salt and 1 cup extra-virgin oil. Place pulp up on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake 30 more minutes more, reduce heat to 250 and bake to edges of tomatoes start to darken. Remove from oven cool 20 minutes. Transfer to a glass dish pour oil from pan over the tomatoes and let set uncovered for 4 – 6 hours. Refrigerate till use.

Here is the Pasta Recipe using the tomatoes.

Massimo's Spaghetti with Spinach and Lentils

Yield: 6

Ingredients:

3/4 cup lentils
Water as needed
1 bn spinach
6 x Roma tomatoes halved
Salt to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper to taste
1 sm bunch Italian parsley chopped
2 x garlic cloves minced
Dried oregano to taste
Olive oil as needed
1 sm carrot minced
1 x red onion minced
1 x celery stalk minced
1 lb spaghetti
1 tbl butter - (to 2 tbspns)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Method:
Rinse lentils, then cover with water and soak 2 hours. Drain.

Rinse spinach and remove stems, keeping some water on leaves. Saute spinach in skillet over medium heat until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside.

Place tomatoes in 9-inch square baking pan, cut-side up. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, parsley, garlic, dash oregano and 1 tablespoon oil. Roast at 450 degrees until very tender and lightly browned, 20 to 30 minutes. Set aside.

Heat 1/3 cup oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add carrot, onion and celery and saute until vegetables are golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Add lentils and enough water to come 2 to 3 inches above lentils. Cook over low heat until lentils are al dente, 30 to 35 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup cooking water. Return reserved water to lentils and set aside.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in large saucepan over high heat. Add spinach and tomatoes, breaking them up with wooden spoon. Saute 1 minute. Add lentil mixture and cook 2 to 3 minutes longer.

Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente, about 10 minutes. Strain and pour spaghetti into saucepan with lentil sauce. Cook together 1 minute over high heat, adding butter and Parmesan cheese while tossing.

This recipe yields 6 servings.

We finished with Brownies from Clementine and Dulce De Leche Ice Cream from Hagen-Daaz.

We then just sat out on the deck and enjoyed the warm weather.

Perfect summer night!

Chicken and Figs

Wines:

Baglio di Pianetto Ficiligno 2003 White Sicilia
Bugey Cerdon
Le Clos du Caillou Les Roches Rondes 1998 Cotes du Rhone


Heirloom tomatoes are now in the market! We are glad to see them return plentifully to the Hollywood Market. Expect to see lots of recipes with them in the next several postings. Cliff usually eats yoghurt for lunch (would you believe?). But during tomato season instead he eats lots of tomatoes at lunch time.

In addition we are growing our own and will soon start harvesting from our stock. Our friends Bill and Kevin down the street have a huge garden with lots of tomatoes so we will probably be raiding them too! One of the most difficult parts of growing tomatoes (actually quite simple if I just thought about it ahead of time) is that I plant them all at the same time and they ripen at the same time. Memo to my self – next year plant them about every 2 – 3 weeks. That way there will always be ripe ones.

We started with a Burrata and Heirloom Tomato Salad. We get our Burrata at the Cheese Store of Silverlake. Basil, Salt, pepper, good olive oil. Yum!

I am combining two dinners for this post. We had leftover Chicken and Fig (by plan – we like leftovers).

For the 2nd meal we made a Salad of Nectarines, Spanish Marcona Almonds, Arugula, Prosciutto, Saba and Walnut oil it was fresh and delicious.

Figs are fresh at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market. We made a recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: Chicken Braised with Figs, Honey and Vinegar. We purchased very sweet green figs. The dish is easy to make. It is first braised on top of the stove then finished in the oven. I hope we make it again this summer.


We have lots of fruit trees in out back yard. Plums are ripe so we made a Plum Crisp for dessert. We used the crisp recipe from Mark Peel & Nancy Silverton Cook at Separate Homes.

It was an excellent summer meal!

Grilled Lamb

Wine:

Bugey Cerdon Methode Ancestrale Rose Sparkling Wine
Chateau Maris 2003 Minervois


We have just returned from Santa Fe and entertaining out of town guests, so we were ready to cook!

The weather in Los Angeles was very warm and we knew we would grill outdoors at night and eat on our deck. We decided to make Grilled Lamb Loin in Yogurt Marinade. Although we don’t go out for Indian Food a lot, the preparation and flavors definitely are Indian! We really liked it! With that we made a rice dish from The Moro Cookbook. We have eaten at Moro’s in London and like their Spanish / Moroccan dishes. We made the Augergine and Tomato Pilav. It is very much a Spanish Rice and very good.

When the sun finally set we drank bubbly rose while preparing the wine.
With the Rice and Lamb we had a bottle of Chateau Maris.

Once again we had German Chocolate Cake from Perfectly Sweet.

Grilled Lamb Loin in Yogurt Marinade
2/3 cups Yogurt
4 garlic cloves crushed
1 ½ inch piece of fresh ginger peeled, grated
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 boneless lamb loin about 2 pounds (we used loin lamb chops)

Mix yogurt and seasonings together and pour over lamb to coat completely. A large zip-lock bag works well for this. Marinate the loin in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Every once in a while turn bag to make sure meat is totally covered. Remove meat 1 hr before grilling. Drain and wipe off excess marinade. Grill to completion.

You can make a sauce by heating the leftover marinade with ½ cup of yogurt.

Porcini Pasta

Wine: Bugey Cerdon methode ancestrale Sparkling Rose (This has become our sparkling rose of choice on hot summer nights).

We had eaten at Campanile on the Saturday night before our trip to Santa Fe and we had a wonderful appetizer: Porcini Tarjarin with Garlic, Fleur de Sal, and Farmehouse Egg Yolk. It is basically like Spaghetti Carbonara with the egg pasta and yolk cooked by the heat of the pasta. Tom an.d Susie had recommended it highly to us when we arrived at the restaurant.

Since we were leaving town on the morning of the 5th for Santa Fe, we decided to have an easy dinner by ourselves, make Porcini Tarjarin (a new name to us) and eat it on our deck and watch the 4th of July Fireworks. The only critical issue was: would they Hollywood Farmer’s Market be able to provide us with Porcini mushrooms. David had them and we were set to make the pasta.

It was excellent. A great new pasta for us! The night was quite warm and we totally enjoyed the fireworks, thinking they were just for us.

We had our pasta, drank lots of wine, watched the fireworks and went to bed awaiting our trip to the land of Green Chili, Cold Margaritas and friends.

Jar-B-Que II

Wines:
Bugey Cerdon methode ancestrale Sparkling Rose (Cliff & Cathy)
Saracina Sauvignon Blanc 2003 (Bea)
Ramian, Mt.Veeder-Napa Valley and there was something on the label About the year 2003 (Bea) an exceptionally good wine!


We had Bea over on this very warm night. Perfect night for eating on the deck.

Since corn was in season we made Corn Soup from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. Basically it is a LOT of Corn and chicken broth. We made medallians of butter and chopped herbs to which we added edible flowers that we chopped up. The butter was then placed back into the refrigerator to harden and sliced over the soup at serving time. It was very good.

While I was out in front of the house preparing the fire for the pork chops, Ester another neighbor, originally from Denmark, was on her nightly walk. I stopped her, invited her to the patio for some wine. She enjoyed her self, but didn’t stay for dinner. Memo to myself – Never invite someone from Denmark to have corn soup, apparently in Denmark corn is only fed to pigs. Who knew?

Once again we followed the recipe for Char Sui Pork Chops Jar Restaurant uses. We had purchased the pork chops on Saturday at whole food, had them custom cut to be 1 ½ inches thick and had been marinating them for 3 days turning them in the marinade every 12 hours. It is a great recipe. I bar-b-que them on the grill about 5 minutes each side, then put the lid on and let them smoke for another 5 minutes or so.

We had purchased a Japanese rice maker with our neighbor Kazue's assistance. She showed us how to repeatedly wash Japanese rice until the water ran clear.
She had taken us to a Japanese market and showed us packets of vegetables with seasoning that you can add to the rice while it is cooking. Rice with Vegetables cooked this was is exceptional.

Once again our favorite German Chocolate Cake from Perfectly Sweet that we buy at Whole Foods.

It was a great warm night that was highlighted by a Rocket being shot off from Vandenburg Air Force Base, It streaked through the sky and left a beautiful con-trail. I read in The Los Angeles Times the next day that the rocket was a new Spy Satellite. Hopefully it isn’t looking at us!

The wines were all Great!

We walked Bea home on the night night.

Farmer's Market Brunch

In summer when the weather cooperates we love to have Sunday Brunch on our deck. We first go to the farmer’s market and then usually go to the Cheese Store of Silverlake to purchase accompaniments for the fruit.

We saw the first black mission figs of the season so we knew we have Figs and Prosciutto. We also saw the first Heirloom Tomatoes. So we had to have a salad with Tomatoes, Buffalo Motzorella Cheese, Olives, Pesto and onions macerated in vinegar.

A perfect Summer brunch!

Corn Pasta

Wines:
Canalgrande Barbera & Bonarda Vendemmia 2004
Vin Du Bugey-Cerdon “La Cueille” Sparking Wine Methode Ancestrale
Maison Joseph De Bucy Meursalult Narvaux 1999



When we went to Campanile on Saturday night, Jay the General Manager had a taste a sparkling red wine. It is very low in alcohol and excellent on a warm summer evenings. We purchased a bottle at Silverlake Wine. It was a perfect aperitif!

When we ate at Campanile we had some extra Green Beans that we brought home. We had made a Salad with Sun Gold Tomatoes, Buratta Cheese from the Cheese Store of Silverlake, Lettuce, Pesto, and the green beans. We eat salads like this all summer, based on what is freshest at the market.

We had purchased corn (tasting it raw first this time, to get the sweetest corn at the market. We then made Corn Pasta with Pancetta from Cheese Store of Silverlake. The recipe is from the Zuni Café Cookbook.

We had fresh Cherries once again for dessert. They claim they are almost at the end of the season. An article in The Los Angeles Times food section said the cherry harvest this year was very poor. We didn’t notice it. There were always lots of cherries at the farmer’s market.

Pork Corn-Corn

Wine: Canalegrande Vendemmia 2004 Jay at Campanile had served us this wine. We really liked it. He told us we get it at Silverlake Wine. We did. Expect to read about a lot of dinners where we serve this wine.

I guess we are on a Mario Batali run. We made his Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Porchini Mushroom Rub. Very interesting and good preparation, Cathy cut down the red pepper flakes. A rub is made out of Red Pepper Flakes, Ground Dried Porcini mushrooms and brown sugar. The dry rub is allowed to marinate in the refrigerator with the pork over night then scrapped off before grilling. We grilled outdoors. The flavor of the meat is great. I really liked the way brown sugar caused the meat to get very crispy on the outside while pink inside.

We made Corn Sticks from a recipe from Bradley Ogden's Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. We have old (or at least they look old) cast iron molds. Each mold creates 7 fat bread sticks in the shape of an ear of corn, including the outline of the individual cornels. We had a dozen ears of corn for a side dish (we plan on leftovers) and Cathy added a cup of un-cooked corn to the bread stick batter. The recipe is great, crispy sticks of corn bread. Unfortunately we learned a lesson. The corn was not as “corny” tasting as we wanted, we won’t buy corn again at the market with out actually tasting the uncooked corn. You can’t tell by sight. These were good looking ears that even Murakami would like. (That is a joke, if you have read anything by Haruki Murakami.)

Cathy sauted the rest of the Corn with Bacon and shallots and served it a side dish with the pork.

For desert once again Cherries from the Hollywood Farmer's Market.