A Smoky Pop-up Dinner

A Smoky Pop-up Dinner

We knew we wouldn’t have leftovers from Thanksgiving. We had been invited to two different dinners. Leftover turkey is one of the joys of T-day. So, before Thanksgiving we were reading in the New York Times about Greenberg’s - a Texas provider of Smoked Turkey’s shipped ready to eat. So we ordered one to be shipped to us the week after T-day. We ordered a small one, only 7 pounds (we have cooked chickens that were bigger).

The Turkey arrived and Billy and Robert stopped by to check it out. We invited them over for dinner and wound up serving a mini T-day dinner. We had previously made a delicious thick soup from Ad-Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller: Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup. The recipe calls for 8 oz of bacon, but because Nueske's Bacon comes in a 12 oz pack we used all of it, making the soup extra smoky. It matched the Turkey.

We also made from the Ad Hoc Cookbook an exceptional pudding that is an unusual turkey dressing: Leek Bread Pudding. If you don’t like traditional dressing this is for you. It is much lighter and the Brioche gives it a wonderful texture. Surprisingly, it has cheese in it, but the cheese flavor does not predominate. We will definitely make it again.

Finally for dessert we had a delicious Apple Pie from Clementine. It is absolutely the best frozen pie you can make and should always have one in your freezer!

The turkey was delicious and very meaty. We would definitely order it again! Sadly, but healthily, the skin is not crisp and because you serve the turkey at room temperature not crisp.

We had served a wonderful wine: 2007 Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Piesport Goldtropfchen Riesling Spätlese that was fabulous with the turkey. Everyone wanted to order the wine, so in the middle of the dinner we went on-line and collectively ordered 30 bottles! We are prepared! We also drank a Reignac 2004 Bordeaux Superieur that was an excellent match for the turkey.

Leek Bread Pudding

Ad Hoc at Home

Thomas Keller

2 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices leeks (white and light green parts only)
Kosher salt

4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter

Freshly ground black pepper

12 cups 1-inch cubes crustless Brioche or Pullman sandwich loaf

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

3 large eggs

3 cups whole milk

3 cups heavy cream

Freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup shredded Comte or Emmentaler

Just as custards work well in the savory portion of the meal, although they're more often served as a dessert, so do bread puddings. This one is a great complement to the Prime Rib Roast and Pan-Roasted Duck Breasts. But you could also top it with Oven-Roasted Tomatoes and serve it as a vegetarian meal.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Put the leek rounds in a large bowl of tepid water and swish so that any dirt falls to the bottom of the bowl. Set a medium saute pan over medium-high heat, lift the leeks from the water, drain, and add them to the pan. Season with salt and cook, stirring often, for about  5 minutes. As the leeks begin to soften, lower the heat to medium-low. The leeks will release liquid. Stir in the butter to emulsify, and season with pepper to taste. Cover the pan with a parchment lid, and cook, stirring every 10 minutes, until the leeks are very soft, 30 to 35 minutes. If at any point the butter breaks or looks oily, stir in about a tablespoon of water to re-emulsify the sauce. Remove and discard the parchment lid.

Meanwhile, spread the bread cubes on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan about halfway through, until dry and pale gold. Transfer to a large bowl. Leave the oven on.

Add the leeks to the bread and toss well, then add the chives and thyme.

Lightly whisk the eggs in another large bowl. Whisk in the milk, cream, a generous pinch of salt, pepper to taste, and a pinch of nutmeg.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the cheese in the bottom of a 9-by-13 -inch baking pan. Spread half the leeks and croutons in the pan and sprinkle with another ¼ cup cheese. Scatter the remaining leeks and croutons over and top with another 1/4 cup cheese. Pour in enough of the custard mixture to cover the bread and press gently on the bread so it soaks in the milk. Let soak for about 15 minutes.

Add the remaining custard, allowing some of the soaked cubes of bread to protrude. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup cheese on top and sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until the pudding feels set and the top is brown and bubbling.

SERVES 12 AS A SIDE DISH,

6 TO 8 AS A MAIN COURSE

Lentil and sweet potato soup

Ad-hoc at Home

Thomas Keller

8 ounces applewood-smoked slab bacon

3 tablespoons canola oil

2 cups thinly sliced carrots

2 cups coarsely chopped leeks

2 cups coarsely chopped onions

3/4 to 1 teaspoon Yellow Curry Powder or Madras curry powder

Kosher salt

1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes

2 Sachets (1 bay leaf, 3 tyme sprigs, 10 black peppercorns, 1 garlic clove smashed and peeled)

2 cups (about 8 ounces) Spanish Pardina lentils or French de Puy lentils, small stones removed, rinsed

8 cups Chicken Stock

1 to 2 tablespoons red .wine vinegar Freshly ground black pepper

Cilantro leaves

The sweet potatoes make this a rich soup. The curry powder sharpens the flavor, and the cilantro brightens the rich ingredients. The bacon and cilantro used as garnish could be served on the side and added at the table if you prefer.

Cut the bacon into lardons that are 1 inch long and 1/2 inch thick

Heat the canola oil in an 8- to 10-quart stockpot over medium heat. Add the bacon, reduce the heat to low, and render the fat for 20 to 25 minutes. The bacon should color but not crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and set aside.

Add the carrots, leeks, onions, and curry powder to the pot and stir to coat in the bacon fat. Season with salt, reduce the heat to low, cover with a parchment lid (see opposite), and cook very slowly for 30 to 35 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Remove and discard the parchment lid.

Meanwhile, peel the sweet potatoes. Trim them and cut them into 1/2-inch dice. Put the potatoes, one of the sachets, and 2 teaspoons salt in a large saucepan, add cold water to cover, bring to a simmer, and cook until the potatoes are just tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and spread on a tray to cool; discard the sachet.

Add the lentils, second sachet, and stock to the vegetables, bring to a simmer, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, until the lentils are tender. (At this point, the soup can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.) *   

Spread the bacon in a small frying pan and crisp over medium-high heat.

Add the vinegar to taste to the soup, then add the potatoes and heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve the soup garnished with the bacon and cilantro leaves.

SERVES 6 (MAKES 10 CUPS)

Making A Parchment LID To make a parchment lid, fold a large rectangular piece of parchment paper in half to give you a square bigger than the pot to be covered. Beginning at the crease, fold over the edge to create a narrow triangle. Continue to fold the triangle over until you have reached the opposite side of the parchment paper. To gauge the size, place the tip over the center of the pot to be covered and mark the edges of the pot with your thumb, then cut the end off there. With a pair of scissors, cut 1/4 inch off the narrow tip of the triangle. Trim the pointed edges of the triangle to form a smooth rounded edge. Unfold the triangle. It will be a circle the size of your pot with a steam hole in the center. Put the paper lid in the pot so that it rests gently on the food you're cooking.

Winter Meal

We went to a Schreiner's Meat Market in Montrose. It is a German market that sells an unbelievable selection of homemade sausages and smoked meats. We purchased a smoked ham-hock and decided to make soup. The weather has been cold, damp and rainy and it definitely was perfect for a hot soup.

We made Heirloom Bean and Escarole Soup from the cookbook Ad Hoc by Thomas Keller. I don’t know why but I always forget that escarole is like a lettuce. It is a delicious soup.  Perfect dish for a cold night. You can get the recipe from our blog of: Dec. 8, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.

As long as we were porking out, we decided to make Loin Of Pork  "A L'Apicius" from It’s About Time by Michael Schlow. I really liked the dish. The pork was glazed with the sweet and tangy sauce. It is unusual for a pork dish to be cooked with curry powder and it added a 3^rd dimension to the flavors.

Loin Of Pork  "A L'Apicius"

It’s About Time

by Michael Schlow

1         cup honey

4          ounces (1/2 cup) red wine vinegar

1         teaspoon curry powder

¼         teaspoon cayenne pepper

2         ounces (4 tablespoons)canola oil

1         center loin of pork, trimmed of any excess fat (about 3 pounds, 6 inches in diameter)

Salt and pepper

4          ounces (1/2 cup) water

3 to 4 ounces (6 to 8 tablespoons) Chicken Stock water can be substituted)

2         tablespoons butter

Does this sound like a fancy dish, or what?

Relax — it just sounds fancy. I make this all of the time at my house and even at guest-chef events, because people really seem to enjoy the balanced seasoning of sweet, spicy, tart, and aromatic.

Since you already have an audience sitting around the dinner table, and you are discussing everything from politics to history, I thought I would give you the history part of the conversation. Your family will really be im­pressed; in fact, they will suggest you audition for Jeopardy someday soon.

Apicius was a Roman chef and bon vivant whose first cookbook only contained sauces. (I wonder how he ever got that idea past his agent!) He liked to experiment with his cooking and created dishes using nightingales' tongues and camels' heels, among other oddities. These dishes were apparently meant to startle the complacent citizenry, but other interesting things came out of it: The historian Pliny credits Apicius with the idea of force-feeding geese to enlarge their livers, some of our very first foie gras!

Apicius eventually went broke and committed suicide to save his pride, but now you can enjoy his roast pork loin and do your part to help his legacy live on. You can serve this with just about anything — roasted pota­toes, rice of any kind, or just vegetables.

Makes 6 dinner-sized portions

Heat the oven to 300°F.

·      Mix the honey, vinegar, curry powder, and cayenne pepper in a bowl and I set aside.

·      Place a large, ovenproof pan on the stove over medium heat and add the canola oil.

·      Season the pork liberally with salt and pepper and place in the pan.

·      Cook pork gently, just 30 seconds per side, to obtain a light change in color. Do not sear.

·      Pour the honey mixture over the pork

·      Pour the water into the bottom of the pan, taking care not to pour in on the pork

·      Place the pan in the oven and roast for 1 hour, turning the pork and basting it with the pan juices every 3 to 5 minutes

·      Turn the oven off

·      Remove the pork from the pan, place on a baking sheet, and return it to the oven to stay warm, about 10 minutes, while you prepare the sauce

·      Transfer the pan juices to a medium-sized sauce pot.

·     Add the chicken stock or water to the sauce pot and reduce over medium heat until about Vi cup remains.

·     Swirl in the butter, stirring until melted, and remove from heat.

·     Remove the pork from the oven and carve into thick slices. Arrange on a platter, drizzle the sauce over the top,and serve.

White Truffles are here!

We were at The Cheese Store of Silverlake and Chris told me they had their first white truffles of the season. Mucho expensive, but we couldn’t resist. We bought one fairly large one ¾ of an ounce. We also purchased some truffle butter.

We first made a Sunday lunch with scrambled eggs topped with shaved truffles. It was perfect! No recipe needed, scramble eggs, thinly slice truffles (truffle slicer works best) top eggs with truffles. Eat slowly savoring every bite.

We used ½ of the truffle on the eggs.

For the other half of the truffle, we made a pasta with truffles. When the noodles were cooked and drained, we returned the noodles to the warm pot we cooked the pasta in, and added truffle butter (can’t have too much of a good thing). We then served the pasta topped with the truffles.

Two extremely wonderful truffle dishes, that are candidates for courses in my last meal.

Ad Hoc Dinner

We made two recipes one from the Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller. The other for Rice with Roasted Cauliflower was in the LA Times. It is always a joy to find a new, unusual recipe that we have never made before and the Rice with Roasted Cauliflower was new to us. It is vaguely Indian and maybe that is why we liked it so much. I really recommend giving it a try.

We made his Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs with Olives, Lemon and Fennel previously and really liked it. Talk about the flavors of Provence. This dish has it! The final sauce of leeks flavored with the fenel and olives was delicious poured over the Ad Hoc rice. This is a great meal for a cold winter night.

You can find the recipe in our blog of: Dec. 10, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.

Ad Hoc's rice with roasted cauliflower

Los Angeles Times

Total time: 45 minutes

Servings: 8 to 10

·      1/2 head white cauliflower, cut into florets

·      2 tablespoons canola oil

·      Salt

·      Pepper

·      Pinch of curry powder

·      6 cups water

·      1 cup Carolina, or long grain, rice

·      1 teaspoon red chili flakes

·      2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

·      2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

·      1/4 cup chopped green onions

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, toss the cauliflower with the canola oil and season with one-fourth teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper, or to taste.

3. Place the cauliflower in a roasting pan (reserve the bowl) and roast until the cauliflower is a deep brown and tender throughout when pierced with a knife, 20 to 25 minutes, tossing every few minutes for even coloring and cooking. Remove the cauliflower from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees.

4. While the cauliflower is roasting, cook the rice: In a large saucepan, add the water and a generous pinch of salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the rice and chili flakes and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook the rice just until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain the rice well, then spread the rice in a thin shallow layer in a large baking dish.

5. Place the rice in the oven to dry out for 5 minutes. Remove, then stir in the olive oil. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired with salt and pepper.

6. Place the cauliflower back in the bowl and toss with the curry powder. Taste and season, if desired, with additional salt and pepper.

7. Gently stir in the warmed rice and butter, tossing until the butter is melted and evenly coats the rice and cauliflower. Stir in the green onions and serve immediately.

Sausage and Beans

We saw a recipe for Herbed White Bean and Sausage Stew in the New York Times and couldn’t resist making it. You could call it Pork and Beans, but if you added preserved duck you could call it a French Cassoulet. We purchased the sausage at McCall’s Meat and Fish. The recipe was delicious and yielded lots of leftovers.

We started with an Arugula Salad with dates, shaved Parmesan Cheese and Almonds, all from The Cheese Store of Silverlake.

New York Times

October 29, 2010

Herbed White Bean and Sausage Stew

Time: 2 1/2 hours

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more for serving

1 pound sweet Italian sausage, sliced 3/4-inch thick

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 medium carrots, finely diced

2 celery stalks, finely diced

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 pound dried Great Northern beans, rinsed and picked through

2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste

2 thyme sprigs

1 large rosemary sprig

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar, more for serving

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, more to taste.

1. Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and brown until cooked through, about 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate lined with a paper towel.

2. Add the tomato paste and cumin to the pot. Cook, stirring, until dark golden, about 2 minutes. Add the carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the beans, 8 cups water, salt, thyme, rosemary and bay leaf. Turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to low and simmer gently until the beans are tender, about 2 hours, adding more water if needed to make sure the beans remain submerged.

3. When the beans are tender, return the sausage to the pot. Simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning. Ladle into warm bowls and serve drizzled with additional vinegar and olive oil.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Pasta All Amatriciana

We made Zuni’s Café’s version of the much-loved dish from Abruzzo, PASTA ALL 'AMATRICIANA. The exceptional cookbook by Judy Rodgers is called: The Zuni Café Cookbook.

You can find this recipe in our blog of: Nov. 21, 2007. Click the date to get the recipe. One of the joys of the pasta is that it is made from caned tomatoes making it a year around treat! We used bacon and pancetta this time in the sauce. We prefer the Pecorino cheese, which we always buy at The Cheese Store of Silverlake. The choice of pasta is critical with this dish. Even though the recipe says you can use alternative pastas we would only recommend using: bucatini. It really soaks up the pasta sauce.

The Didn't Pace Yourself Dinner

JJ arrived and we decided invite to Billy / Kevin and Robert / Darryl over for dinner. The watch word for the dinner that was definitely disregarded was “Pace Yourself”. We started out with Popcorn with Truffle Butter. Couldn’t be easier to make: Pop your popcorn and the coat with melted truffle butter and a little salt. Everyone liked it.

Crab with Dynamite Sauce has become a signature dish for us. Once again we made it. The sauce is terrific but it MUST be made with Japanese Mayo. We started with a recipe that we found on The Fine Lobster Blog called: Creamy Spicy Lobster: a twist on a Nobu Classic. Everyone loves it! We served Japanese Rice with it. We purchased excellent canned Lump Crab meat from McCall's Meat and Fish. It is called: MeTompkin. Look for it! The recipe can be found in our blog of: Sep 5, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe. With the crab we served Uni and Seaweed. They were a great accompaniment to the crab.

For the main course we made a Smoked Salmon. We had purchased a beautiful salmon filet from McCall’s Meat and Fish. We decided to slow cook the salmon in the egg. This is a great (and easy recipe). We used the recipe for Honey-Cured, Smoked Salmon from Cooking with Fire and Smoke by Phillip Stephen Schulz. You can find the recipe in our blog of: Jan 15, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe. We served Corn with Lime and Broccoli that with the salmon.

For dessert we made a ChewyDate Bars from the City Cuisine cookbook.

Darryl and Robert brought Brownies. Unfortunately due to not-pacing yourself, there are no pictures of the dessert. Those who attended will understand.

Chewy Date Bars

City Cuisine

By Susan Feniger Mary Sue Milliken

1 POUND PITTED DRIED DATES, CHOPPED

1 CUP WATER

1 CUP GRANULATED SUGAR

1/2 CUP FRESH LEMON JUICE

3 CUPS ROLLED OATS

2 1/2 CUPS ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR

1 3/4 CUPS PACKED BROWN SUGAR

3/4 TEASPOON BAKING SODA

3/4 TEASPOON SALT

1 3/4 CUPS (3V2 STICKS) UNSALTED BUTTER, MELTED

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter a 9 x 12-inch pan.

Combine dates and water in a saucepan. Cook at a low boil for 5 minutes, until mixture is as thick as mashed potatoes. Stir in sugar and remove from heat. Add lemon juice and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, mix together oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add melted butter to dry mixture. Stir to evenly moisten.

Spread half oat mixture in baking pan to form an even layer. Cover evenly with all date mixture. Spread remaining oat mixture over top.

Bake about 40 minutes, until top is golden brown and pebbly. The edges should start caramelizing. Set aside to cool, in pan on rack, about 1 hour. Run a sharp knife along inside edges to loosen. Invert, trim edges, and cut into squares.

Makes 12 Large Squares

Bye Bye Tim

Tim was heading to Shanghai, China with his father and other family members. We decided to have him over for a farewell dinner. We also invited Alan.

We started with a salad of Arugula, Blue Cheese, grapes and Saba. It was delicious. I really like the idea of fruit in Salads. It gives a great flavor balance to the bitterness of the Arugula and the sweetness of the Saba.

For the main course we made the biggest damn chicken I have ever seen! It was a chicken that thought it was a turkey! We used a recipe that we really like and make over and over. The combination of the onions, and roasted potatoes baking under the chicken and getting marinated by the chicken juices is a real winner. The recipe is: Roast Chicken with Preserved Lemons Adapted from Laurent Tourondel. It is a wonderful one-dish recipe. You can get the recipe from our blog of: Jan. 23, 2008. Click the date to get the recipe.

Alan who apparently knows every bakery in LA brought us dessert. Yum.

Mary Beth Dinner

Mary Beth had a arrived from Arizona to stay with us for awhile. Her husband JJ would arrive a few days later. She is an old college friend of Cathy and teaches Cinema in University of Arizona, in Tucson. She was over on business meeting with various movie studios (glamorous life, no?).

We made a simple, delicious dinner for Mary Beth. Two standby’s we have made many times. Always winners!

If you haven’t tried the Mac n’ Cheese, I guarantee this will be the best Mac n’ Cheese you will ever make! We get the cheeses from The Cheese Store of Silverlake. You can get the recipe from our blog of Feb 2, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.

We once again started with what we call The Hungry Cat Salad. We really like the avocado in it. It is easy to make and excellent. You can get the recipe from our blog of Nov 21, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe.

Pork-a-Thon

We invited Darryl and Robert over for dinner. It was a real endurance test, there was so much great food.

I had stopped by McCall’s Meat and Fish and saw Nate butchering a whole Berkshire Pig. The pig was amazing very pink with layers of fat. It looked delicious. This kind of a pig is rare and difficult to get. We got what was probably the best cut from the entire pig: The Shoulder. We had the meat but weren’t sure what we would make with it.

The weather has been cool and wet here in LA. It was very yucky, and winter like. I did something I often do when I am looking for a recipe; I searched this blog, this time for “Pork”. I found a recipe for Pork Stew with Prunes and Onions. It is from the cookbook: The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen by Paula Wolfert. We had made the recipe September 26, 2007. We had loved the dish then and subsequently had forgotten about it. Click the date to get the recipe. It can be made days in advance, it only tastes better when re-heated. The book calls for it to be served over baked Polenta but we made Fresh Polenta from a recipe from the Zuni Café Cookbook. You can get the recipe from our blog of: Feb. 22, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.

Robert started the dinner by making Striped Bass over Fresh Vegetables with a Bona Calda Sauce (an anchovie based sauce). This for normal dinners would have been sufficient main course. For us of course….

We then served a responsible sized pasta course of the Pork Ragu we had hade made on Oct 12, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe. It is delicious.

Finally we served the Pork Stew with Prunes and Onions over Polenta.

We finally finished up with a delicious Sour Cherry Tart that Darryl had baked.

It was an excessive night. We need to do it againJ

Pork Ragu

The New York Times had a recipe for a Pork Ragu. We decided to make it. It called for a bone-in pork butt. I tried to buy it and learned some interesting things about pork nomenclature. I assumed (wrongly) that pork shoulder came from the front legs of a pork and pork butt came from the hind legs. Wrong! They are both from the top of the leg, sitting next to each other. The butt can only be found at the top of the pigs front legs, who knew? Here is a link to a good article on it: Porkmap.

This recipe is really great. You simmer the pork meat in broth and then let it cool and then pull the meat off the bone. The meat is then returned to the broth to absorb the flavors and liquid, making it flavorful and moist. The lemon is then added to the pork. Bottom line, this dish is like the best pork burrito meat that you have ever had. It is DELICIOUS! Give it a try!

The Cheat: Ragù How-To

As for the malfatti, it is but a moment’s work to break pieces of boxed lasagna into shards and to cook these exactly as you might dry linguine or shells. Mix everything together, shower with the arugula and cheese and serve. This is true restaurant cooking for the home: a recipe born of a professional kitchen’s need to use up leftovers, then cheated upon to strike away extravagances like suckling pigs, fresh-made pasta and veal stock. See what you think. Anderer said that when he tasted it for the first time with his staff, everyone started murmuring. “I knew we had a good dish then,” he said. “The general feeling was, ‘Yeah, let’s put it on the menu.’ ” 

Recipe: Pork Ragù al Maialino



1 pork shoulder, bone in, roughly 4 pounds

Kosher salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium white onion, peeled and cut into large pieces

1 rib celery, cut into large pieces

1 small fennel bulb, trimmed and cut into large pieces

1 quart chicken stock (or enough to almost cover the pork)

3 sprigs fresh thyme

Freshly ground black pepper

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 9-ounce boxes dry lasagna, broken into 3-inch shards

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons grated grana Padano cheese

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Small handful arugula leaves, cleaned.

1. Using a sharp knife, remove the thick skin from the pork, leaving a sheen of fat on top of the meat. Season aggressively with salt and place in the refrigerator until ready to use, as long as overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place a deep saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. When it shimmers, gently cook the onion, celery and fennel until they begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Add the stock and thyme and bring to a simmer, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Rinse pork to remove excess salt, dry with a paper towel and add to seasoned broth. Cover and place in the oven for 90 minutes or more, until the meat just begins to pull away from the bone.

3. Allow both meat and broth to cool on the stove top for 30 minutes, or until you can touch the meat with your hands. Remove the pork and gently pull the meat from the bone, then tear the chunks into bite-size shreds. Place these in a large bowl.

4. Strain the liquid into a separate bowl and then pour enough of it over the meat to barely cover. (Use the rest for soup.) Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

5. Put a large pot of salted water over high heat and bring to a boil.

6. Place a large pan over medium-high heat and add the pork and braising liquid. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the butter and stir to emulsify.

7. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in salted water according to the directions on the package, 10 to 12 minutes. When it is finished, drain and add to the sauce along with a splash of pasta water. Simmer for 1 minute, then add the lemon juice, half of the cheese, a tablespoon of olive oil and the parsley. Stir to incorporate.

8. Serve immediately, topped with arugula and the remaining cheese. Serves 4.

Adapted from Nick Anderer at Maialino in New York.

Wild Mushroom Pasta Gratin

There are a lot of Chanterelle Mushrooms in the market this fall - we decided to make Wild Mushroom Pasta Gratin from Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters. It is a delicious baked pasta. We really liked it.

We made a first course of a great salad from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook: Radicchio with Croutons, Hardboiled Eggs and Anchovy Vinaigrette. It is an excellent salad and easy to make. The recipe is can be found on our blog of: Jan 31, 2007. Click the date to get the recipe.

Wild Mushroom Pasta Gratin

Chez Panisse Vegetables

Alice Waters

1 ounce dried porcini Mushroom

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1-1/2 cups reduced chicken stock

1 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper

Nutmeg

1/2 pound fresh wild mushrooms (chanterelles, cepes, hedgehogs, etc.)

1 or 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 pound fettuccine

Reggiano Parmesan cheese

Put the porcini in a bowl and cover with boiling water.

While the porcini soak, make a thin bechamel sauce: Melt 1 table-spoon of the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook gently for a few minutes. Warm the chicken stock and cream and whisk into the flour and butter. Season lightly with salt and pepper and a scraping of nutmeg. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of the porcini soaking liquid to the sauce, being careful not to disturb any sand that has settied to the bottom of the bowl. (The strength of the mushroom liquor will vary; add it to taste.) Simmer the sauce for 30 minutes or so.

Clean the fresh wild mushrooms and slice thin. Lift the porcini out of their liquor, chop them, and saute with the other mushrooms in the rest of the butter. Season with salt and pepper, and when the mushrooms are nearly cooked, add the garlic and the parsley. Add the sauce to the mushrooms and taste. If needed, strain in more mushroom liquor.

Preheat the oven to 425 °F.

Cook the pasta and add it to the mushroom sauce; taste and correct the seasoning. Put the pasta in a buttered gratin dish or in individual dishes and top with grated Parmesan. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the top is crusty and golden.

Serves 4 to 6.

Bon Voyage Billy

We decided to take it easy and have a Chicken Pot Pie from Clementine, one of our favorite take out restaurants. We try to keep several of their delicious foods in our freezer. The have great soups, apple pie and absolutely the best Frozen Chicken Pot Pie. We started by making the Caesar Salad from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. We love their recipe. You can get the recipe from our blog of: July 25, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe. Billy and Kevin were leaving for Hawaii the next day and we invited Billy over for a goodbye byte.