Thursday, December 27, 2007

Two Out of Three Worked!



















Wine:

Nocenxio Marche Rosso
Chateau de Cazeneuve Coteaux du Languedoc 2005
Foxglove Chardonnay Edna Valley 2006
Cesanese del Piglio 2003

We wanted to cook a warm winter dinner. We had recently been to Mozza and had an amazing soup that you eat with a fork. It is called: Riboletto. It is a very thick soup that is then poured over toasted bread and baked. The soup when served is completely non-liquidity. The soup was fabulous at Mozza. Our version was not. Oh well. We won’t make it again, but we can get it at the restaurant!

The rest of the meal was great however. We had lots of excellent wine. We then had our favorite Macaroni and Cheese. It is always a winner! We also served the wonderful Fruit Cake that we make every year. It gives fruit cake a good name!

Billy and Kevin joined us, then we played lots of mah jong!

Macaroni and Cheese from Paris Bistro Cooking by Linda Dannenberg
===================================================

This is the BEST Mac and cheese recipe we have ever had! We make it several times per year.

Gratin de Macaroni a l’Ancienne
(Old-fashioned Baked Macaroni)


12 oz Elbow Macaroni
7 oz Prosciutto cut in Strips
3 oz blanched bacon
1 1/2 Cups Crème Fraiche
1 ½ cups Milk
Salt and Fresh ground black pepper
6 tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 ½ cup Grated Gruyere Cheese

Preheat the oven to 425

Cook the macaroni in salted boiling water until still quite firm.
Drain. Mix the macaroni with the prosciutto, bacon, crème fraiche, and milk and adjust the seasoning. Add about ½ cup of the grated Gruyere.

Spread in a buttered shallow ovenproof glass or earthenware casserole.
Sprinkle the remaining cheeses on top.

Bake for 25 minutes, until the cheese is browned on tap and liquid is completely absorbed. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Barbara Visits






















Wine:

Clos Pegase 2002 Palisades Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
Podere Casale Gutturnio Riserva 2001
Lw Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-pape 1998
Domaine Yaymond Dupont-Fahn Bourgogne 2006
Donnhoff Niederhausen Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese 1998

Our friend Barbara arrived from San Francisco and we cooked a dinner for her. Billy and Kevin joined us.

We started with one of our favorite salads from The Cuisine of California: Sauted Red Cabbage Salad with Pancetta and Broiled Goat Cheese. It is a wonderful warm salad.

For the main course we made a Pork Roast. We purchased the pork from Harvey Guss. It was great. The recipe was from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. We really liked it and will make it again.

We also made Mashed Potatoes from the same cookbook. It is a very rich recipe.

I know that Fruit Cake has a bad reputation, however we make one every year that is just great. It has none of the candied fruit in it, just rasins and walnuts. It is very good. It is in The New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne.

We had lots of very good wine!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Risotto of the Vigil


















Wine: Chateau La Canorgue 2006

We bought some really excellent pears at Whole Foods.. They were very sweet. We made a Salad, of arugula, pear slices, toasted walnuts, saba, and a great Basque Blue Cheese from The Cheese Store of Silverlake. I sprinkled some fresh pomegranate seeds on the salad to add Christmas color.

For the second course we made a special risotto. It is from The Splendid Table cookbook by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. We really recommend this Italian cookbook.

The risotto is called: Risotto of the Vigil. It is made with beef, carrots, onions, celery, sage leaves, cabbage and salt pork. In addition, Cathy added marrow bones for extra richness. However, Cathy thought to replace the salt pork with a fatty chunk of prosciutto. It was an inspired exchange. At the end Parmesan Cheese is mixed in and sprinkled over the Risotto. We make the risotto once a year around Christmas. The risotto was great.

We had purchased more beef than we needed (a chuck roast), so we cubed the remaining unused beef and raided the pantry to create a great a great Vegetable Beef Soup. I added onions, garlic, celery, potato, tomato to the stock. It was delicious. Los Angeles has been cold and raining and we have really enjoyed the soup for lunch.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

All White Dinner
























Wine:
Crocker Starr 2006 Sauvignon Blanc
Macon Verze Grand Vin de Bourgogne 2006


Bea was able to join us for dinner!

It is time for my Colonoscopy. Yuk. So, in preparation I am on a white diet this week. We made an absolutely delicious Cauliflower Soup form the Chez Panisse Vegetables Cookbook. I really liked it!

For the main course we had one of my all time favorite dishes Macaroni and Cheese. However this is not like any Macaroni and Cheese from Paris Bistro Cooking by Linda Dannenberg. It is very special and very rich! It has been cold in Los Angeles and this was a perfect winter dinner.

For desert we had ice cream.


French Cream of Cauliflower Soup
================================

1 large Cauliflower (2 – 3 pounds)
1 onion
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons crème fraiche
Salt
Nutmeg
Chervil
1 tablespoon butte

Cut off the stems of the Cauliflower and any green leaves. Break up the flowerets. Wash them in cold water. Reserve a handful of flowerets to garnish the soup.

Peel and slice the onion thin. In a soup pot, stew the onion slices and flowerets in the butter with a little water for 20 – 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, without letting them brown. Add water to cover and cook for 25 minutes covered, over medium heat. Meanwhile, parboil the reserved flowerets in boiling salted water for 8 minutes or so, keeping them crunchy.

Puree the soup in a blender and reheat gently to just under boiling. Add the the crème fraiche and season with salt and nutmeg to taste. Add 1 tablespoon butter.
Serve the soup very hot, garnish with the whole flowerets and a few sprigs of chervil.

Serves 4


This is the BEST Mac and cheese recipe we have ever had! We make it several times per year.

Gratin de Macaroni a l’Ancienne
===============================
(Old-fashioned Baked Macaroni)


12 oz Elbow Macaroni
7 oz Prosciutto cut in Strips
3 oz blanched bacon
1 ¼ Cups Crème Fraiche
Salt and Fresh ground black pepper
6 tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 ½ cup Grated Gruyere Cheese

Preheat the oven to 425

Cook the macaroni in salted boiling water until still quite firm.
Drain. Mix the macaroni with the prosciutto, bacon, crème fraiche, and milk and adjust the seasoning. Add about ½ cup of the grated Gruyere.

Spread in a buttered shallow ovenproof glass or earthenware casserole.
Sprinkle the remaining cheeses on top.

Bake for 25 minutes, until the cheese is browned on tap and liquid is completely absorbed. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Indian Dinner






















We decided to cook an Indian Dinner. Bea had been ailing and this was the first night she was able to join us in quite a while. The first course was an easy choice.
We have made Grandmother's Cauliflower with Cheese many times. It is from Madhur Jaffrey's memoir: Climbing the Mango Trees. It is absolutely delicious. If you don't like cauliflower this is the dish you should make!

For the mail course Cathy found a very unusual to us Indian recipe. She calls it: Maria Fernanda Sousa's Arroz de Pato of Duck Risotto. The recipe is from another cookbook by Madhur Jaffrey: Flavors of India. The recipe is from Goa. Goa is on the Arabian Sea on the West Coast of India and was colonized by Portugal. It is the only part of India that is Catholic. It has beaches like Hawaii and in the 60's it is where a lot of hippies hung out. (Pot is legal in India). The recipe is very much like an Italian Risotto or Spanish Paella. We made it with basmati rice. It made the dish very light. It was delicious. We took the leftovers and sauted it adding egg, soy sauce and copped scallions and made a great fried rice! A very multicultural dish!


Grandmother’s Cauliflower With Cheese (Vali Gobi)
=================================================
SERVES 4-6
I don't have my grandmother's exact recipe. I never asked her, being too young at the time to know better. But the recipe here is a good approximation (as Jimmy Durante, the American come¬dian, used to say, "Da nose knows") and utterly delicious.

Do not use jalapeno or serrano chilies for Indian dishes. They have the wrong texture and flavor. Green bird's-eye chilies or any long, slim, thin-skinned variety, such as cayenne, are ideal. If you can't find them, use ½ - 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper instead of 1/4 teaspoon.
2 tablespoons olive or other vegetable oil
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 1/2 pounds (8 cups) medium-sized
cauliflower florets, cut so each floret has a stem
1 3/4 cups grated fresh tomatoes
3/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons heavy cream
One 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated to a pulp on the finest part of a grater or Microplane
2 fresh hot green chilies, cut into slim rounds
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1/4 cup coarsely grated sharp Cheddar cheese
Preheat the oven to 45o°F.
Pour the oil into a large, preferably nonstick saute pan over medium-high heat. When it is hot, put in the cumin seeds. Let them sizzle for 10 seconds. Add the cauliflower florets, and stir them around for 2 minutes. Add the grated tomatoes, ginger, chilies, cayenne, turmeric, ground coriander, and salt. Stir to mix. Stir and cook for 5 - 6 minutes, or until the tomatoes are almost absorbed and the cauliflower is almost done. Add the cilantro and mix it in.

Put the contents of the pan into an ovenproof dish about 8 inches square, add the cream, mix, and sprinkle the cheese over the top. Put in the top third of the oven and bake for 10-12 min¬utes, or until the cheese has melted and developed a few light brown spots. Serve hot. For dessert we Ice Cream with Don PX 1971 poured over it!


Maria Fernanda Sousa's Arroz de Pato - Duck Risotto
===================================================


Where there is a lot of fresh water, there are, invariably, ducks. Goa, apart from its coastal sea, has rivers, ponds and, perhaps most important, paddy fields where ducks can splash and feed. The local populace feels free to turn them into vindaloos and risottos.
This is what Maria Fernanda, an aristocratic Goan with much Portuguese blood, serves on Christmas Day, along with a dozen other dishes that come in a steady stream, starting off with a soup of potatoes and dill called Caldo Verde. Many of the dishes, such as this one and the soup, are not at all "spicy." Instead, they barken back to Maria Fernanda's Portuguese connection, to southern Europe and gentle seasonings such as garlic and onion and tomatoes.
Rice risottos, known as arroz refogado, are really crosses between pilafs and risottos and may be made with meat, peas, saffron or local sausages. This "arroz" requires basmati rice and a nice duck. On advising us on which kind of duck to buy, Maria Fernanda said firmly, "Make sure that it is a nice, plump, local duck. I do not want one that has walked all the way from Kerala, eating fish from every paddy field along the way!" It is best to make the stock a day in advance as it can then be refrigerated and skimmed of surface fat.
This rice dish may be eaten as a meal by itself, with a salad. It is a perfect lunch or light supper. You could also serve it as part of a grand banquet.
FOR THE STOCK: YOU ALSO NEED:

Freshly ground black
1 (41/2 Ib) duck
2 medium-sized onions, peeled and halved
2—3 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 celery stalk, cut into 3 pieces

You Also Need

3 cups basmati rice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium-sized onions, peeled and finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 medium-sized tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A generous pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 large pork sausages (sweet Italian, Spanish chorizos or Portuguese chouricos),
boiled, covered, in a littlewater until cooked through and cut into 1/2 inch slices
15-20 black olives

Put the duck and all the other ingredients for the stock in a large pan. Add water to cover and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to medium-low and simmer gently for 1 hour, or until the duck is very tender. Strain and save the stock. Save the duck. When the stock has cooled, cover and refrigerate it.
When the duck is cool enough to handle, remove all the meat. Cut the meat into neat pieces (or pull it into coarse shreds). Set aside the meat pieces with skin.
Skim off any fat from the stock. It should measure 4 cups. If there is more, reduce it over high heat. If less, add water.
Meanwhile, wash the rice in several changes of water and then soak in water to cover for 30 minutes. Drain and leave in the strainer.
Heat the oil in a heavy, wide, preferably non-stick pan over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the onions. Stir and fry until the onions are lightly browned. Put in the garlic
and tomatoes, salt, pepper and sugar. Stir and fry until the tomatoes are soft and reduced. Put in the drained rice. Stir it gently for 2-3 minutes, making sure not to break the grains. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add the lemon juice and cover tightly. Turn the heat to very low and cook for 25 minutes or until the rice is cooked through. Do not uncover the pan during this period.
Pre-heat the oven to 350°F (In an ovenproof dish, put a layer of rice, then a layer of duck meat without skin. Continue this until all the lean duck meat is used up. End with a layer of rice. For the top layer, put some pieces of duck meat with skin and the sliced sausages in a neat design. Cover the rice entirely. Bake for 10-15 minutes until heated through and browned lightly at the top. Scatter the olives over the top and serve.
Serves 6 - 8