Summer Rose and Green Dinner

Wine: Jolivet Attitude 2004 Pinot Noir Rose

This dinner turned out to be the perfect early summer Rose and Green Dinner.

On Monday we had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Campanile, with Walt and Debbie. Mark had a summer bar-b-que: Chicken, Sausage, Ribs, Corn on the Cob etc. It was great. On the Saturday night before Mother’s Day, we had given Mark Sausage we had shipped from Fra’ Mani in Oakland. He really liked it and decided to order 40 pounds for this dinner! At the end of the dinner there were some left overs that we took home.

We first had Vignoli at the River Café in London. It is a late spring, early summer appetizer. It is very green. It is made with: Fresh Shelled Peas, Fava beans, mint onions etc. In their Cookbook: Italian Country Cook Book, Judy Rogers and Rose Gray call for Artichokes but we decided to leave those out. As it was it took a lot of shelling for just the Peas and Fava Beans. It was a beautiful day and we shelled them outside at sunset while drinking the Rose. We served the dish as a side dish rather than an appetizer. It is the essence of fresh vegetables.

We reheated the Roasted Potatoes we made for the steak dinner and they were great!

We served the left over Bar-b-que from Campanile at room temperature.

We finished off the Nectarine Crisp.

Peter Luger in LA

Wines:



Wispering dove 2002 Oakville Reserve Cabernet sauvignon (bea)
Kosta-Browne 2005 Pinot Noir Rose Russian River Valley
Les Argiles Vouvray 2004 Francois Chidaine
Prinz Hallgartener Jungfer 1997


We decided to cook steak once more, but this time we purchased the Steak from Peter Luger in New York. We have had them before and we feel they are absolutely the best! We always get the Porterhouse. They ship it fresh with ice packs and include their Peter Luger Steak Sauce (I like it Cathy doesn’t) and Chocolate in the shape of Silver Dollars.

At the Sunday Farmer’s Market we asked David West (King of Mushrooms) to save us some morels and porcini mushrooms that we would pick up at the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmer’s market. We usually don’t go to that market, but Cathy had the day off so we decided to pop over and check it out. David had some great Mushrooms that he saved for us.

Afterwards we stopped at Santa Monica Seafood. They have great fish and in addition have two appetizers that we love so we pick them up.
Smoked Mussels are incredibly smoky and make a great appetizer.
Indian Salmon is cured and slightly sweet. It is very dense in texture and is just great. We wound up eating them on the deck. It was very warm, and along with Bea’s wine, it was a nice way to watch the sunset.

We then made a Salad with the Porcini Mushrooms, macerated onions, and parmesan cheese from The Cheese Store of Silverlake.

We grilled the Steaks from Peter Luger. They are huge, very thick! They cooked perfectly on the Webber. I first grilled them about 4 minutes on each side, to get the burn mark cross hatching I like, then I put the lid on and let them bake for another 10 minutes or so. They turned out rare but warm all the way through. Just the way we like it. We had two steaks, and the three of us (Bea joined bringing some great wine) we could only eat one steak! Plus Bea got some take home! We are looking for our leftovers later this week.

Cathy made her great Potato Recipe. It is baked baby Yukon Gold Potatoes, with balsamic vinegar, shallots, salt and pepper. It is always a winner.

Cathy also found a new recipe that turned out fabulously. It is a Gratin of Spinach, Morels and Cream. Spinach and mushrooms always go with steak but this was incredible.

Nectarines and Peaches had just come into the market and we decided to make our first stone-fruit desert of the year (if you don’t count cherries). We decided on using Nectarines. The Nectarines Crisp is made with Candied Ginger. We served it with Dolce De Leche Ice Cream by Haagen-Dazs. I love pies and crisps and this is a great one.

Finally we served the Prinz dessert wine. The weather was great and we walked Bea home.


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New York Times: May 17, 2006
Mushroom and Spinach Gratin


Total time: 40 minutes

Servings: 6

Note: From chef Guy Savoy at Restaurant Guy Savoy in Las Vegas

1/4cup ( 1/2 stick) butter, divided

2 bunches spinach (about 2 pounds)

1 pound button mushrooms

Sea salt

Pepper

1 cup whipping cream

1. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over low heat until it turns a nut brown color. Skim off any foam and set aside.

2. Wash the spinach and remove stems. Pat dry on paper towels. Clean the mushrooms with a damp towel. Peel and trim the mushrooms, reserving trimmings for the sauce. Slice the mushrooms as thin as possible.

3. Lightly sauté the mushrooms in the reserved brown butter. Season with one-half teaspoon salt and one-eighth teaspoon pepper. Allow to cool enough to handle.

4. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet, add the spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 2 minutes. Season with one-half teaspoon salt and one-eighth teaspoon pepper and keep warm. Drain off excess liquid from the spinach.

5. Put the heavy cream and mushroom trimmings in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Let reduce by one-third, and purée in a blender until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside and keep warm.

6. To assemble the gratin, place the wilted spinach in the bottom of a 9-inch gratin dish. Arrange the mushroom slices in a spiral pattern, the slices overlapping each other, on top of the spinach. Spoon over the mushroom cream. Put the gratin under the broiler 4 to 5 minutes until golden brown on top.

First Cherries

May 23
Wine: Celius Toscana 1999

One of our favorite salads is Cesar Salad. The best one that we have ever had is at Zuni in San Francisco. In her great cookbook, The Zuni Cookbook by Judy Rodgers gives the definitive recipe. The recipe is a real testimony to necessity of using quality ingredients. Salt packed anchovies and parmesan cheese from the Cheese Store of Silverlake were key ingrediants along with virgin olive oil. Another Zuni touch is serving the romaine leaves whole, not breaking them up. You can then eat them with your fingers.

We made Lamb Pasta using the wine that Roger had brought us. We used both ground lamb and small cubes of lamb in the sauce.

Cherries had arrived at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market. We tasted many and found some great ones! These would be the first cherries of the season. For dessert we served Dolce De Leche Ice Cream from Haagen-Dazs with the fresh Cherries smothered with Grand Manier

First Grill of the Season

Joes New Office
Armenian Food
Wines:
Bea: BV Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 1990
Cliff & Cathy:
Domaine d’Orfeuilles www.orfeuilles.com Sparkling Vouvray Demi-Sec
Roger: Santa Ema Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

We decided to have our first grilling of the year, and I ordered from Harvey's Gus Meat three 1 ½ inch porterhouse steaks. His are always the best in LA. Bea had recently been transferred to a job closer to Silver Lake so she said she would bring a special wine. She did!

Roger, a neighbor had called us and said he was at Clementine did we want him to bring home anything. Earlier in the week we had finished our supply of Clementine Chicken Pot Pies (they are the best). We try to keep some in the freezer. I asked Roger to pick up some pot pies for us.

One of our neighbors, Joe, is an architect. He just moved his office into an old garage in Echo Park. He redid the space and it was very cool. On my morning walk he invited us to come to opening telling us there would be lots of great Armenian food. So we decided to go to opening, just have some wine and a couple of appetizers and then come home and grill. He had an unbelievable spread of food. It covered several large tables. We had some wine, met some neighbors and then came home to cook.

When we got home there was a message from Roger that he had the pies. I walked over to his house picked up the pies and invited him to join us for dinner.
Roger came over bringing some wine.

I lit the fire just had it started to drizzle. Not sure how to handle grilling in the rain (which was predicted) I decided to have another wine and see what would happen. I invisioned opening the garage door and possibly moving the grill under it. I was open to other suggestions. Amazingly the gods were with us and the drizzle stopped.

Chris from Cheese Store of Silverlake had given us some frozen mushroom raviolis to try out. It is also morel mushroom season, and Cathy had purchased some at the Hollywood Farmers Market. Cathy invented a dish that turned out fabulously. Browned butter with shallots, sautéed morels poured over the mushroom raviolis toped with grated parmesan from Cheese Store of Silverlake. A huge hit.

We grilled the steak. We had fresh corn on the cob that we buttered, salted, wrapped in aluminum foil then grilled. At the very end, I dumped them out of the aluminum foil and grilled additionally to pick up the smoky taste.

We drank the great aged Cabernet that Bea brought with the steak. Very soft and luscious.

For dessert we had picked up Apple Tarts from Campanile which we topped with Haagen-Dazs Dulce de Leche Ice Cream.

Chicken and Preserved Lemons

Wine: Chateau Maris 2003 Minervois

Spring is fava bean season. We again made Fava Bean Puree. Of course, the biggest effort is the double peeling. Once it has been peeled the actual making of the puree is fairly straightforward. We love it over toasted bread!

Cathy had copied a recipe for Chicken with Preserved Lemon from the New York Times. Preserved lemons are practically our favorite fruit. We love to cook with them.

Roast Chicken with Preserved Lemons
Adapted from Laurent Tourondel
Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

1 6 1/2- to 7-pound chicken
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) soft butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons finely diced onions, plus 2 large onions, sliced
1/4 cup finely diced preserved lemons (available at Middle Eastern markets and specialty food stores)
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
3 pounds unpeeled fingerling potatoes, cut in two lengthwise
8 large garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1/4 cup olive oil.

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Using a cleaver, chop wings from chicken at joint closest to breast; reserve.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine butter, one tablespoon rosemary, diced onions, lemons and bread crumbs to form a thick paste. Using your fingers, separate skin from breast of chicken, and slather mixture under skin about 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle skin liberally with salt.
3. Place wings in a roasting pan, and place chicken on top. In a large mixing bowl, combine remaining rosemary, the potatoes, garlic, sliced onions, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to mix well and add to pan around chicken. Roast, occasionally basting chicken and tossing potatoes, until juices run clear when chicken is pierced with a knife at joint of leg, about 1 1/2 hours. Carve and serve each portion with some seasoned skin and potatoes and onions.
Yield: 6 servings.


Once again, from Simply Sweet: German Chocolate Cake

From Gods Orecchiette to our Lips

Wine: Domaine Des Relagnes Cotes-Du-Rhone 2003

Cliff had a cold for a week and apparently is guilty of giving it to Cathy. Sunday night we cancelled going to Lucques (our usual Sunday dinning). Instead since we were sick, we had Thai delivered from our local Silver Lake Thai Restaurant: Rambutan.

On Monday, we always eat at Campanile, but due to the immigration demonstrations the restaurant closed. We know many immigrants both legal and illegal and are in total sympathy with their desire to obtain legal status.

Since Campanile was closed and we were sick it seemed like a perfect night to cook at home. For a first course we had the left over Larb from Rambutan. We planned to cook only one course: Orecchiette Pasta with Rapini (Broccoli di Rape). It is made with sausage and gave us another reason to use the sausage from Fra’ Mani Handcrafted Salumi. The sausage had passed the test, we really like it. We let Chris at The Cheese Store of Silverlake know, and hopefully he will stock it! Cathy had adapted the recipe from Julia Child: Cooking with Master Chefs. It is another winning pasta recipe. It was great the first night and will make delicious leftovers.


For dessert we had a Chocolate Chip Cookie we had previously purchased at one of our favorite places: Clementine.