Leftovers and More

French Onion Soup

For a first course, since it was winter and getting cool (at least by LA standards), we made French Onion Soup. We always use Julia Child’s recipe. It is very rich with lots of beef broth and cheese. We usually grate the Gruyere Cheese over toast in the soup then broil the cheese. We decided to perform an experiment and grated the cheese on one of the bowls of soup. For the other bowl we thinly sliced the cheese and put it on the soup. What we discovered was that it made no difference once the cheese melted. So, since it is easier to slice then grate, we will slice the cheese in the future.

Lobster Pasta

We wanted to use the leftover Lobster from New Years. We had this incredibly rich lobster butter that we had used to poach the lobster. We had saved the butter and knew we would be re-using it. We made pasta and then melted the butter, and added the lobster. It was very rich and wonderful.

Smoked Salmon Spread

We had smoked salmon and made a salmon spread that we have always liked.
We first found it in the Los Angeles Times. It is very easy to make.

Salmon Spread

8 oz smoked salmon cut up
2 tbl chopped onion
1 tsp chopped drained capers
2 tbl sour cream
1 tsp lemon juice or to taste

Mix and serve on crackers or toast points


Pork Braised in Milk and Polenta

This was one more dinner we made in the post holiday vacation. This is one of our all-time favorites. It was one of the first dishes that we jointly made, years ago. It sounds weird to braise pork in milk, but is an excellent preparation. The milk eventually boils off, creating a dark thick sauce as it combines with the pork drippings during cooking. The recipe we use is from Marcella Hazan: The Classic Italian Cookbook. Matt Molina who used to cook at Campanile, and now is the executive chief at Mozza, served it once and made an addition that we have incorporated. He added sautéed onions, garlic, lemon peel and sage to the recipe. It was a good addition to the recipe.

1. 2 tablespoons butter
2. 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3. 2 pounds boneless pork loin, with some fat on it
4. 1 teaspoon salt
5. freshly group pepper
6. 2 ½ cups milk
7. 2 chopped onions sauted with chopped garlic and sage leaves and lemon peel

Use a casserole pan slightly larger then the pork. Heat the butter and oil and brown onions 1 or 2 chopped garlic cloves some fresh sage leaves and lemon peel. When golden remove from pan.

Add the pork and on a medium high heat braise on all sides till brown. Reduce the heat and slowly add the milk and salt and pepper. Bring to boil then reduce heat to medium and cover with lid slightly open. Cook 1 ½ to 2 hours turning the meat every 30 minutes. By the time the meat is cooked, the milk should have evaporated, leaving a brown nutty sauce. Remove the pork and add the onion and garlic to the sauce in the pan and heat.

Let the meat slightly cool, slice and serve with sauce.

We made polenta to serve as a side with the pork. For this version of polenta we had purchased truffle butter and added it to the polenta. It was unbelievably fragrant. It made the polenta very special.

We took the leftover and make a casserole with it. Take a large ceramic dish, butter and then layer with polenta, sliced pork, the sauce, more polenta. When ready to serve top with grated parmesan and bake at 350 till sizzling.

New Years 2007

Our neighbors collectively decided we would hold a progressive - dinner one course at each house. We started at Shelley and Dave’s house. They served great cured salmon, tuna tartar, scallops and Shrimp. Lots of Champagne, wine and pomegranate martini’s.

We then trouped down in the dark (for some reason the street lights didn’t work) so it made it fun to walk in the dark from house to house.

At our house we made a potato leek soup that had lobster and caviar. We had to butter poach the raw lobster and I had never removed a lobster from its tail when it was uncooked. I learned. Bea was dragging a suitcase on wheels (our official wine cart) filled with all kinds of wine and we served our bubbly Domaine J. Lauens Brut then the wine Bea brought - le secret ivre. Our other neighbor Bea phoned to say although she couldn’t join us, she had cooked some sides to eat with our main course.

We all poured out of the house and walked down to Bea’s to pick up her contributions and drop off some soup. Bea had a cold and couldn’t join. She had cooked a potato kugel and a luxion kugel (Noodle based). We then walked up to Les and Linda’s for the main course - dragging Bea’s wine behind. Their daughter had a party and about 50 folks were dancing and partying – one part of the house had been reserved for us, so they effectively had two parties going on in the same house at the same time - we were in “The not a party zone” area.

The shiksa can cook! Linda made her famous brisket. She gives credit to Les’s mom for the recipe. It was excellent as usual. We served Bea’s two sides and a vegetable casserole that Mike made. We drank two more bottles of wine that Bea brought. (There are two different Bea’s in this story – if you are confused).

We then walked out through the party of young dancers and walked next door to Terry and Mike’s for desert. Mike had baked a pecan pie that was great. We had tea and more champagne. Mike heard all kinds of noise outside so he checked and realized it was New Year’s. We had missed the actual countdown, but that probably due to the fact we were having a good time! The party eventually ended and we walked Bea home and returned to our house deciding to leave the dishes for another day!

It was a great way to spend New Year’s Eve! We will see what 2007 brings!














For a short clip of our dinner, click below turn your speakers on.

Risotto, Wine and Mahjong

Wines:

Robert Mondavi 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon
Domaine J. Laurens Brut Blanc de Blancs
Caymus 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon
Tom Eddy 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon
Francis Tannahill 2001 Passito Washington Gewurztraminer



Bill and Kevin came to dinner last night. The plan was to cook, eat, drink and play some mahjong. They staggered out and home about 1:30am. The dinner was great, 5 bottles of wine were fantastic and the mahjong was fun. Bill is trying to teach everyone he knows how to play. I think the eventual goal is we start playing for money and then when he wins he can stay retired. We will see.

We started drinking with the Blanc de Blancs eating Indian Candy (a sweet smoked salmon) and Smoked Mussels. We often pick these up when we go to Santa Monica Seafood.

We then made for them the Radicchio Salad from The Zuni Café Cookbook. It is a great easy to make salad. The cookbook says it is the second most popular salad at Zuni (in San Francisco). Given all of the times that we ate there, we have never had it. It is made with chopped Radicchio, croutons, anchovy vinaigrette and chopped eggs. It is very good.

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, celery, sage leaves, 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.

For desert we had an Apple Pie with Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream. Clementine one of our favorite take-a-way restaurants, sells the frozen uncooked Apple Pie and it keeps well. When it is baked, it is just like a home cooked pie.

You can watch a movie from last night in our kitchen by clicking below.

Chanukah on Christmas Day

Chanukah on Christmas Day

Wine: Renard 005 Syrah California
A delicious Pouilly Fussé that Hope and Arnie brought


Because we were in Southeast Asia, we missed our traditional Chanukah Latke Dinner. So we decided to serve it on Christmas Day. We invited my sister and Sharon along with our cousins Hope and Arnie and their daughter Arlen.

We started with a favorite salad: Persimmons, Pomegranate, Arugula, Almonds, Saba, and topped with Prosciutto. We got most of the ingredients at The Cheese Store of Silverlake.

We then served the Latkes with Beef Bourginon. Of course we had sides of Apple Sauce and Sour Cream.

For desert we had a fabulous Flourless Chocolate Cake from LA Bread and a Cinnamon Cake that Hope and Arnie brought from The Corner Bakery.

It was a great family dinner. We got to repeat it the next night when Martin came over for dinner.

A Zuni Dinner

Wine: Pleiades XV Old Vines



This was the first dinner we cooked since returning from Southeast Asia. We decided to keep it simple. We cooked to dishes from The Zuni Café Cookbook. We chose them because we wanted recipes that would NOT require us to go to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market early Sunday morning. We are still affected by Jet Lag.

For the first course we made Caesar Salad. Zuni’s is the best ever! The key for us is the Romaine Hearts, anchovies packed in salt, and a great parmesan cheese (always from Cheese Store of Silverlake).

For the pasta a delicious one from the cookbook: Pasta with Braised Bacon & Roasted Tomato Sauce. The important thing in this recipe is great bacon – we used Nueskes Bacon. The cheese we used was an aged pecorino. This recipe is nice because you actually used canned whole tomatoes, you don’t need fresh tomatoes. It will definitely give us some great leftovers!

We went the La Brea Bakery at Campanile Restaurant to purchase some rolls for breakfast and they had the perfect pasta for this dish: Bucatini. It is a thick tubular pasta, and really holds the sauce.

Pre-Thanksgiving Training

Wine: Pleiades XV Old Vines


The night before Thanksgiving we cooked at home. This will be our last post until we return from vacation. We are going to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia. We leave Sunday.

If I have time and energy you will be able to follow our travels Here.

For this dinner we decided to finally make the Pasta with Sausage and Rapini.
I had been waiting a few weeks for this. We wanted to use Sausage from
Fra'Mani. We had to wait for Chris at The Cheese Store of Silverlake to get it in. It finally arrived! We also picked up some great Aged Pecorino Cheese. That we used to top the pasta. Cathy combined to recipes for the pasta. One is from the Julia Child cookbook: Cooking with Master Chefs. In this case, Julia was cooking with Lydia Bastianich. They call the dish: Orecchiette with Broccoli di Rape and Sausages. The other recipe is from Chez Panise. A surprise to us was that the Broccoli d Rape from our neighborhood grocery store was excellent. We previously had purchased the Broccoli from the Hollywood Farmer’s Market.

We started with a Caesar Salad. As always we use the recipe from The Zuni Café Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. One of the great things about the salad is that she doesn’t have you cut the romaine leaves. Thus you have this salad with large leaves and you eat it by hand, no fork! It becomes very sensual. It is the best recipe and we always order it when we go to Zuni in San Francisco.

We will have some leftovers from this dinner!

We Could be Vegetarian

Saint Cosme Cotes-Du-Rhone – 2004


We planned to make a Broccoli Rabe Pasta with Orecchiette and Italian Sausage. However, we could not find the sausage we were looking for, so we decided to abandon the dinner plans. When the sausage comes in, we will make the pasta.

Cathy had been reading “Climbing the Mango Trees” by Madhur Jaffrey. It is an memoir of her youth in India. The book has several recipes in it, although it is not primarily a cookbook. One recipe that caught Cathy’s eye is entitled: Grandmother’s Cauliflower with Cheese. We decided to make that dish in place of the pasta. The dish is WONDERFUL. It is amazingly rich and tasty. It isn’t very hard to make and we really liked it!


Grandmother’s Cauliflower with Cheese
==============================
1 Teaspoon whole cumin seeds
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ pounds (8 cups) medium sized cauliflower florets cut so each has a stem
1 ¼ grated fresh tomatoes (we used Italian canned tomatoes)
1 inch fresh grated ginger
2 fresh hot chilies cut into rounds (not jalapino or serrano, we used Thai Chilies)
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (we omitted!)
¼ teaspoon ground tumeric
1 tablespoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup fresh chopped Cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons heavy cream
¼ cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Pour oil into a large non-stick skillet 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 for about 2 minutes.
Add the grated tomatoes, ginger, chilies, cayenne, tumeric, ground coriander, and salt. Stir to mix.
Cook 5 – 6 minutes, or until tomatoes are almost all absorbed and the cauliflower is almost done. Add the cilantro and mix in.
Put the contents of the pan into an ovenproof dish add the cream mix, sprinkle with cheese. Put in top third of oven and make for 10-12 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and developed a few light brown spots. YUM!!

We had quite an evolution on what we would serve with it. First we thought we would make rice. Then we thought we would make a risotto and add the cauliflower. Then we decided we would make a rice pilaf to serve with it. Then we STRUCK GOLD!
We were looking in the The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean by Paula Wolfert. We found a recipe that sounded unusual. It is named Steamed Crusty Rice Pilaf with Potatoes. Who ever heard of Rice and Potatoes in the same dish?
Starch-on-starch, got to be great!

Steamed Crusty Rice Pilaf with Potatoes
===============================
2 cups basmati rice
Salt
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Wash the rice in three changes of water, rubbing the rice with your hands to remove excess starch. Soak the rice in quart of water mixed with 1 tablespoon salt at least 2 hours.

About 1 hour before serving, bring 1 quart water and 1 tablespoon salt to boil in a deep saucepan. Drain the rice, add to the boiling water and cook over high heat 5 minutes, stirring often. Drain the rice and rinse it in several changes of water.

In a 10-inch nonstick skillet, sauté the onion in 1 ½ tablespoons of the butter over medium heat until soft and golden.

Transfer the onions to a side dish and add 2 tablespoons of butter to the skillet. Make an overlapping layer of potatoes slices, then top with the sautéed onions. Season with salt and pinch of pepper. Tightly cover the skillet and place over medium-low heat 3 to 4 minutes to steam.

Spread the drained rice on top of the potatoes and onions. Place a paper towel over the rice and cover tightly with a lid to keep steam from escaping. Cook 10 minutes over medium-low heat, then reduce the heat to low and cook another 30 minutes. Melt the remaining butter and drizzle over the rice. Cover again, remove from the heat, and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Invert onto a wide, flat plate. It the potatoes stick to the bottom of the skillet loosen them with a thin-bladed spatula, and replace them on the rice bed. Serve Hot.

This was a great recipe and we certainly make again!

We could be Vegetarians

More Goin on the Table

Wine Copain / L’hiver 2005 Syrah


We cooked to fall dishes from Suzanne Goin’s great cookbook.: Sunday Suppers at Lucques.

We made the great Leeks Vinaigrette. It is one of my favorite dishes. The dish is a wonderful appetizer. It is made with Prosciutto, Mustard vinaigrette and Chopped Egg. I love mustard, and the vinaigrette is made with mustard. We purchased a special mustard - you need to ask Chris at The Cheese Store of Silverlake is he has any.

For the main dish we made Risotto With Winter Squash with radicchio and parmesan cheese. It is a great risotto and the winter squash gives it a special intense flavor.

We also knew that we would have leftover Leeks and decided to make a Pizza later on using the cooked leeks as the basis of the pizza topping. We topped the leeks, Chantal cheese and prosciutto. Watch out Nancy!

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.