sybarites

Summer Garden Salad with Chili-Garlic Shrimp
Last month, in addition to this last ditch, food-centric attempt to INSIST that it was still summer, I was forced to conclude two things: 1) my iPod is really and truly gone, *sniff* stolen by some rat bastard who, though I don’t believe in Karma, had better suffer for that, and, 2) fresh corn on the cob tastes better than canned corn and is worth the extra trip to the grocery store.

Against my will, I obliged and made a special trip* to Safeway for the corn as we had all the ingredients for this “summer” dish and had missed just this item and the fresh lettuces meant to support the salad from below. I begrudgingly admit that it was worth it. It seems strange that we so rarely come across a recipe we don’t like so I’d like to suggest a tool for clarification: in my mind, all food exists on a Continuum of Like (see below).

For the record, there is only a miniscule percentage of consumables that I would not even make an attempt at consuming and which, therefore, fall off the far left end of the Continuum. This percentage contains, so far, the following:
– live octopus
– live crickets
– live snake
– severed, marinated duck heads
– duck fetus, still inside the egg
(I mean no disrespect to the duck, it’s other parts are very enjoyable to consume.) Love exists in a category all on its own. Lobster Sauteed in Butter and Brandy with Tarragon falls into the Love category.

Using this tool, I would argue that this recipe falls somewhere between ‘Like’ and ‘Really Like’. Because of all the vegetables, the salad was hearty enough to be supper and strong-willed enough to stand firm until lunch-time the next day; not many salads can do that. The shrimp were just this side of spicy but what pushed them closer to ‘Really Like’ was their flavour: chili-garlic sauce mixed with cumin makes for a sweet-ass marinade/cooking liquid for shrimp.

Also, it should be noted that avocado were a part of this recipe and, though I would never say this to their face, the salad wouldn’t have been that different if they weren’t there. In fact, I might omit them the next time we make this next summer (a.k.a. forever away). But don’t tell them I said that.

* The amount of whining associated with this chore was surpassed only by The Petulant Peanut Trip of June 2005, which shall be remembered in perpetuity.

Pizza with Roasted Garlic, Bell Peppers and Two Cheeses.
Somehow it seems we’ve been eating a lot of pizza lately. Not that I’m complaining, I mean, one really can’t go too far wrong with pizza. This one in particular, I would rate as ‘Like’ (see The Continuum of Like in Last Gasp of Summer).

I think the roasted garlic is the key ingredient here. Plus, the smell of garlic roasting in the oven that permeates the whole apartment is an added bonus. All the other ingredients, on their own, were pretty plain but, added together = ‘Like’. At any rate, we didn’t have any leftovers, so that’s a sign.

We used ricotta cheese instead of feta on this pizza because we had ricotta and no feta. Also, I made a home-made pizza dough for this from Oprah’s In The Kitchen With Rosie cookbook; it’s easy to make and produces a nice, thin crust, which I prefer. The pre-made ones from the store always seem kind of soggy and expensive. Nothing expensive should ever be soggy.

Yet another yummy recipe from the Kitchen of Testing of America. Talk about yer comfort food- this must be at the top of Henry Lunchbox and Sally Housecoat’s Top 10 Best Down-home Recipes of The Unity-States. Though, with such a simple name, it could also masquerade as a clever, tongue-in-cheek kind of gourmet nonsense served at The French Laundry. (The title of the dish on the menu would quaintly read: “Mac & Cheese” and the description would read something like: “a delicate gratin of black-pepper flecked, wholegrain, fresh pasta with six locally-made cheeses, topped with a golden crust of panko and organic parsley, peashoot greens and a soupçon of chile-oil reduction sauce and mango-chutney glaze. $56.00)

Regardless, we actually watched the episode of the programme when they made this recipe. The goal was to produce something that was satisfying and ‘adult’, creamy and cheesy, with a crunchy, golden-baked topping. I like that they test multiple variations of the recipe and then show the audience the failures before launching into the Champion Recipe. The failures on this one were awful, gummy, sticky blobs of pasta made even more unappetizing by the way the host picked up big spoonfuls and then let the pasta flop back down into the dish.

The Champion, however, looked extremely good so we gave it a try. Because Marc follows directions precisely, it turned out looking just like the one on TV and tasted marvelous. It’s a simple thing – pasta with cheese sauce – but when done well like this, it deserves more credit. It has more calories and fat content than I care to review as it is made with whole milk, contains no fruit or vegetables and uses obscene quantities of cheddar and monterey jack cheese. But, oh, so delicious! It meets the challenge: creamy? check; cheesy? oh yeah, check; yummy, crunchy, breaded topping (made with butter, of course)? check, check, check! I don’t think it would qualify as ‘adult’ though, unless it was served with spinach salad or at the French Laundry. Or by someone in a French Maid costume.

P.S. This warmed over beautifully into molten, cheesy splendor.

The third butternut squash recipe means we are well into fall. Butternut Squash, Bacon and Rosemary Phyllo Pizza is about as far away from pizza as you can get&#8212no bread, no tomato sauce and no cheese topping. The flavors were well balanced and varied. The rosemary brings out the earthiness of the butternut squash. The smokey bacon balanced the squash. The parmesan in the crust and the sweet red onions brought it all home. Butternut Squash, Bacon and Rosemary Phyllo Heaven would be more accurate.

P.S. We drank one of only two wines last year that successfully qualified as Cheap & Good: LoTengo, a Malbec from Argentina. It’s about $10 and we will drink it until they stop selling it. Janet

P.P.S. Marc doesn’t believe in Phyllo Heaven. Janet

Curry Tuna Cakes with Vegetable CouscousThis recipe meets my flavour expectations and Jan’s budgetary values. It’s also a quick weekday meal. Veggies and chicken broth adds interest to the otherwise-boring couscous. The crispy curry tuna is pleasant and compliments the couscous well.

The Blue Bottle Company made the best coffee I have ever had. We were heading toward Haight and looking for a coffee when we saw a sign on the sidewalk beside an alley. We go down to find a little hole in the wall coffee shop with a metal shop in the back

I order a macchiato, and Janet gets a cappucino. When he asks me whether it was to stay or go, I had to look around because there didn’t seem to be any place to sit down. There were a couple of old wooden chairs on the sidewalk and a micro bar to stand around, which I had overlooked. 20 minutes later, I’m walking down the street in a daze, repeating “Wow, that was good coffee.” We went back two more times. On one occassion I saw a woman’s cafe au lait with a fern leaf pattern across the top. Absolutely incredible.

Upon my return, I discovered that their coffee is listed in the top ten things to eat in San Francisco. Apparently they have a 24 hour limit between between roasting and brewing. After 24 hours they give the beans to charity.

This was our last episode of cooking prior to departure for San Francisco. We expected to eat ourselves stupid in SF (a prophesy that was, indeed, fulfilled) and wanted one last light meal in preparation for the onslaught of gluttony. The word ‘steamed’ seemed to fit that bill and thus, the Steamed Red Snapper with Ginger, Chiles, and Sesame Oil.

I have to preface the rating of this recipe by saying that I love ginger. Given several choices of drinks, or desserts, etc, I will always pick the one with ginger in it. Ergo, I really liked this fish with ginger. The note on the recipe says that “the aromatics (ginger, scallions, chile) are easily absorbed by the fish” and I would have to agree. It was nice to taste these things steamed into the fish but not have them overpower the whole thing and make it impossible to taste anything else. Unfortunately, Marc’s piece was riddled with bones so I think that might have detracted from the good taste. But on the plus side, we got to use one of the chile peppers from our tiny, orange chile plant. Is there some rule that dictates ‘the smaller the chile, the hotter the taste’? If not, there should be.

With the red snapper, we made Baby Carrots with Tarragon. I have to preface the rating of this recipe by saying that I LOVE tarragon (if that wasn’t already obvious from the previous post and its reference to tarragon tasting of heaven*). It turns out that not only is Tarragon dazzling in its starring role in Bernaise sauce, it also puts on a brilliant performance with the Carrots. In fact, it won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for this performance and the Carrots, in their starring role, were extremely jealous and were later rumoured to have gotten drunk and made fools of themselves at the after-party. Probably, they will start dating Katie Holmes. But I digress- though we used adult carrots for this recipe, it was simple enough to be quick and easy but delicious enough to warrant a Would-Serve-To-Guests rating.

*According to Chris, that is a textbook example of sacrilicious.

To drink: It’s a bit of a blur in my memory. Because we were leaving the next day, chances are good that we drank some sad, little, neglected red in the back of the fridge. It couldn’t have been that bad, because I don’t remember it. ‘Course, it couldn’t have been that good…

Meanwhile, Sammy (pictured below), earned the Oscar for Best Choreography in a Drama Series which was no small feat, as he was up against Shirley MacLaine for Not Without My Daughter Sophie’s Choice.

There is alot of butter in this. That should be all a person need know in order to convince her/him that Eggs Benedict is the best breakfast in the world. However, if one should need more convincing, I would argue that:
1- we have exhaustively tested many, many variations of this recipe and have come to the conclusion that the correct combination of ingredients is thus: one half english muffin, toasted to crispy-chewiness; one slice of Tuscan ham folded over to cover all of the muffin; one free-range egg, perfectly poached in water with tarragon vinegar and not one of those stupid egg-poacher instruments or *shudder* the microwave; an extremely generous amount of bernaise sauce, flecked with fresh tarragon, drenching the whole benedict, if not the whole plate.
2- bernaise sauce can beat hollandaise sauce any day of the week with one hand tied behind its back.
3- fresh tarragon is what heaven must taste like (if there was one).

Unfortunately, the pictures we took of this breakfast really did not do it justice. Though, to be fair to the benedicts, nobody looks good drenched in bernaise sauce.

Just in case G, G, M & D wish to try this variation on the next occasion that warrants the making of the Eggs Benedict, this is the recipe for the bernaise:

2 T. fresh tarragon, chopped
1 big-ish shallot, chopped
1 T. fresh parsley stalks, chopped
1/4 cup (?) tarragon vinegar
1/2 t. black peppercorns

1 egg yolk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 T. fresh tarragon, chopped

Slap the first 5 into a saucepan and reduce until it becomes about 2 T. Strain the liquid from solids. On the top half of a double-boiler, whisk the egg yolk over a little heat until it turns a lighter shade of yellow. Take it off the heat and add the reduction. Carefully, whisk in the melted butter. If it’s too runny, add more melted butter and/or heat it up a bit. Keep it warm until the drenching or it might break. Add the fresh tarragon and more tarragon vinegar, to taste.

Chicken Soup with Butternut Squash and Shiitakes
I was waiting all summer to cook this. Janet made this for me a couple of times last winter, but wouldn’t let us make it again until the fall.

“It’s not summer food.”

This is my favorite soup. The tarragon and shiitakes add an incredible flavor. The chicken thighs cooked on the bone also helped. The recipe came out of Jan’s Quick from Scratch book, so I can’t link to the recipe. You’ll just have to beg us for it.

Grilled Hoisin-Soy Steaks with Shiitake and Bok Choy

Who cares about dinner?! Marc gave me an iPod nano!! The making of this dinner is a mystery to me because I was deeply engrossed in figuring out all the features, testing all the functions and then downloading innumerable songs, audiobooks and photos. That thing is bloody brilliant. But I digress.

When I finally tore my eyes away from my new toy, Marc had set this plate full of good food in front of me and directed me to open the wine. No complaints here. Despite some failed attempts at toasting the sesame seeds (why is toasting nuts and seeds such a challenge for us? we put things under the broiler and promptly forget they are there), and some exclamations of frustration at said attempts, the end result was very good. The rib-eyes were marinated and then broiled to a perfect pink-in-the-middle-doneness and the bok choy, broiling alongside the meat, was cooked but still crunchy. See the shiitakes? Those ended up being nicely soft and absorbant for the yummy sauce which ended up all over everything and added just the right amount of sweetness and a kind of smokiness, I think. It was a big plate-full and yet I had no trouble consuming it all- what a shock.

What was the wine? Um, again, something red. I forget. I have to listen to music, now.

Janet