Yellow

Had the an all yellow meal tonight: Sauvignon Blanc, scrambled eggs with cream-reduced mushrooms (OK there was one stalk of chives chopped up in there) and a nice Vermont cheddar stirred in, corn on the cob with butter. A caramel meringue, which seemed to be added to the options by either the houseguest or my daughter, with a "Help Yourself" note attached.

It is possibly true that I should not have started with the Sauvignon Blanc.

But I did also get a vat of ratatouille and a nice bowl of tabouli with herbs from my actual "garden" made for the Alaska State Council on the Arts dinner tomorrow.

So all yellow at 9 pm is just fine.

Epic Fail-French Macarons

 

We've been invited to a Seder, and I volunteered to make French Macarons, thinking that as long as I didn't use regular powdered sugar, they'd be kosher for Passover. My first effort, when we returned from France a couple of years ago, was pleasantly successful 

but somehow I failed to save that recipe. The recent Fine Cooking had an article on making them, which I tried last month, moderately, but not completely, successfully. 

I read on-line that it is easy to make your own powdered sugar in the blender, so I did. How important could the cornstarch be? 

Did a little research on other recipes for macarons, since the Fine Cooking  one had not worked perfectly for me and I knew there was one out there that is. Found one that used an Italian meringue method, which I vaguely remembered. The batter was lovely. All seemed well. But they totally did not work! Each tray baked out differently, and not well - hard, or the tops slithered off, or they dried out. Taste great, but not Macarons....further reading: the starch in the powdered sugar helps stabilize the liquid in the egg white. Hmmmm. Read further and found that you can make kosher for Passover powdered sugar using potato starch. So I got some potato starch, and decided to give the Fine Cooking  recipe a second go.

This batch was OK, although there are no little "feet", (which I did get with the first rendition of this recipe) but much better than the Italian meringue recipe. I filled some with ganache and some with sour cherry marmalade from American Spoon Foods. We will see what the verdict is tomorrow. "Next year...." perhaps they will be Laduree quality. 

Valentines day

Being married for nearly 30 years means not having to buy expensive extravagant gifts to prove you love each other. Instead, a glass (or two) of excellent sparking wine, a rack of lamb with a crust of mustard and herbs, a (heart shaped) galette of matchstick potatoes and celeriac, a green salad, and a fruit salad with a nice red frog's Leap does the trick. Chet Baker (thanks for the suggestion Deanne) and a toasty wood fire made a lovely evening.

Should I just rename this blog "Eating Alone'? II

Very cutely, John expressed concern yesterday that because he'd be in Sitka doing a wine tasting tonight and not here to cook dinner for me, I'd eat poorly. He made a big meatloaf so there would be leftovers. I pointed out that usually when he was gone I made a nice meal for myself, laid it out decoratively, pulled wine from the underwear stash, took a photo of the whole affair, and in fact had a nice dinner.

So it was me and the dog at work early this morning, and through the day to the evening First Friday, a rousing event with a lovely show by a very talented young photographer, and hundreds through the door.

Home about 8 with the CSA box from Mat-Su which contained red chard!

Fed the patient, long-suffering dog. 

Put the "Hello Stranger" Genius mix on. 

Had a glass of the former house favorite, Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc, recently moved to a new distributor, so we will have to develop a new house favorite.

Diced up some little fingerling potatoes and a little red potato, some green onions.

Cleaned and sliced up the chard, a big tomato and minced a big healthy clove of garlic.

Melted a little butter and olive oil in a small saute pan and started the potatoes.

Melted a little butter and olive oil in another larger pan and started the chard stems.

Put some previously washed greens on my plate and sprinkled with olive oil, lemon juice and a bit of Balsamic vinegar, kosher salt and pepper.

Tossed the potatoes, and the stems. Added green onions to the potatoes, and tossed to mix. Added the leaves to the stems and tossed to coat with oils. Covered the chard to steam a bit.

Sliced a couple of slices off the meat loaf, and put a pan on with a bit of butter to saute them.

Added the tomatoes to the chard, and tossed to coat with oil and juices. Covered for a couple of minutes.

Put the chard & tomato melange on the plate, top with the heated meatloaf slices, and add the sauteed potatoes.

Light the candles and pull the Carr's Napa Cabernet Sauvignon from the secret stash.
Sam Cooke - What a wonderful world.

Should I just rename this blog "Eating Alone'?

So everyone is away, running. John is running a wine tasting in Sitka, Henry is running food at Zephyr, Ren is running the Klondike, and Coco is, oddly enough running up the hill. (Bad dog!)(OLD dog!)(you can't even WALK let alone RUN!! What is this about?)

Consequently I am home for dinner alone, and late. We have:
Lots of mushrooms
Cream
Thinly sliced boneless pork chops
plenty of organic veggies and a bunch of nectarines.
cooked rice (for the old dog)
Naturally, John being out of town, there is no wine in the house except in my secret wine stash.

So:
Cleaned and sliced a leek, and began simmering it in some butter in a small saute pan.
Peeled and sliced a couple of ivory carrots (suddenly carrots come in blonde). Added them to the simmering leeks.
Sliced up a whole pile of mushrooms.
Put a dollop of butter (there will be cream later, so let's just not pretend we are on a diet here) in a saute pan, and smashed a clove of garlic and added it to flavor.
Removed the garlic, lightly salted, peppered, and floured two little chops, and put them in the hot butter to brown on both sides.
While that was happening, got out some of the lettuce conveniently washed and ready and put it on the plate. Sprinkled it with olive oil, red wine vinegar, kosher salt and coarse ground pepper.
Time to add the mushrooms to the chops, and look at that! a little Schmidt Sohne Riesling Kabinett to splash on top. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and add a goodly splash of heavy cream. Allow to simmer gently to cook the little chops through.
While that is happening, warm up some cooked rice in the microwave, slice up a pretty swell nectarine and arrange it in a little bowl.
Put the rice on the plate with the lettuce, arrange the chops on top and dress with the mushroom cream sauce. Put the carrots and leeks next to them and light the candles. 
Dig out a nice bottle from my secret stash - Achaval Ferrer Malbec 2008. My little wine app says it will be figgy, plum-y, raspberry, and violet. Sounds perfect. And good with sausage. Well, a pork chop in a riesling cream sauce will do quite nicely.

Roast Beef

Home alone, but trying to cook stuff that the various night owls and later morning risers can eat for midnight snack or brunch. Tonight I decided to roast off a little bottom round - makes a chef salad, good sandwiches (forgot to buy rye bread) and is just nice thinly sliced.

Got home about 6:30, turned the oven on to 450 to preheat and took the dog for a preprandial meander. Got back, salted and peppered the roast (2 1/2 pound) pretty thoroughly. Peeled a couiple of garlic cloves, and poked holes in the roast to embed the garlic in the meat. Heated a large skillet over high heat with olive oil and butter (somewhat of a mistake) and seared the roast on all sides until nicely browned.

While that was happening, sliced up 1/2 of a Walla Walla sweet onion fairly thickly, and cut about 2 cups of mushroom caps into quarters. It was necessary to clean the burnt butter out of the skillet before putting the onions and mushrooms in and dousing with cheap red wine, just a bit to cover the bottom of the pan a bit.

Put the skillet with meat resting on the vegetable bed into the oven and reduced the heat to 350.

Set out a plate with the last of the cleaned (a couple of nights ago)greens, added radish and carrot and croutons (also made a couple of nights ago). Set the timer for 30 minutes and went to finish folding the laundry.

30 minutes later, the roast looked done (slightly puffed up, a nice browned crispiness, and a skewer stuck in center came out vaguely warm.) Moved the roast to a platter to rest and (with a hot pad!) moved the skillet to the stovetop on high heat to reduce the meat and vegetable juices with a tablespoon of butter. Makes a nice sauce.

Dressed the salad with the feta/mint/marjoram vinaigrette from Deborah Madison's book (made that the other day too...), spooned the onions and mushrooms along side, and then thinly sliced the roast beef, perfectly done if I do say so myself, to lay over the top.

And I hope there will be some left for tomorrow's sandwiches!

Need Perfect Pommes Frites!

We've been lucky enough to get a healthy helping of halibut this spring, and I really want to finally try making halibut and chips. I love the french fries from Cafe Campagne in Seattle, does anyone have any recipes/tips on making them at home? What kind of slicer is the best for making frites? Merci.