Either we repetitively made more or less the same dishes, that I’ve posted here before, or I’m starting losing the habit of taking photos before the meals.
Some of the random dishes.
Roasted duck breast marinated with espelette pepper and paprika, roasted Brussel sprouts.
Cold beetroot onion soup with hot potatoes, cream and chives. Sweet and sour due to sherry vinegar, some lime juice and the sweetness of beetroot. Husband isn’t a fan of beet but he asked for more.
This isn’t photogenic, but it was my attempt to reproduce a 3-star chef’s signature dish by Eric Frechon (selling 75 - 80 euro in his restaurant as starter), showed in last week’s Top Chef France. Cooked the leek under a grill under burnt, yes charcoal burnt with a soft core inside the burnt leaves. Sliced open the leek and added oyster, seaweed butter, Timut pepper and some crispy breadcrumbs and served with a lemon juice with chives, oyster tartar. The restaurant version included other seafood like crab, crayfish etc and you would be served with 2 leeks instead of 1 for each of us at a party. It was a success with neighbours, there was a slight smokey taste, the contrast of leek and oyster and lemon was good.
Pizza from SE dough I froze a couple weeks ago. Salami finocchiona, bacon, a little goat cheese, fresh and shredded mozz, oregano, chili flakes, topped with arugula, chili crisp at the table. Needed more cheese. And I want a bendier crust, and darker. Big salad on the side.
Thank you! Mrs. P spends quite a bit of time on designing and planting the different trees, plants, vines, and flowers on the deck (and matching the colors with the furniture and pillows ). We just expanded our deck this year so it took even longer. She spent 3 hot days over the weekend planting the trees , plants, and vines (which were sitting in our home due to the unusually cold Spring we were having in NJ. It finally warmed up enough to permanently plant everything). She still has a little more planting to go, plus constant fertilizing and maintenance during the season.
Tonight was pork chili verde with brown rice, topped with cilantro, avocado, black olives; chili lime corn & avocado. For a made up recipe, this was great.
Tonight I made Hawaiian pizza served up with mixed greens with smoked blackberry vinaigrette and leftover lemony kale salad. I had many more than 2 pieces .
Never really learned to make french omelettes, but with all these eggs lately, why not? Obviously still working on technique… Bacon kimchi omurice today.
Chicken Scallopini. It is similar to Marsala only I used dry vermouth as the wine (any call for white wine, I use dry vermouth-- same for substituting sweet vermouth for red wine when called for-- just adds a lot more depth), the chicken is cut into medallions instead of left whole as cutlets, and there is less butter and cream in the sauce. It is a much lighter version, and I actually liked it more. Side of orzo with spinach, adding to the “lighter” theme as opposed to using rigatoni or mashed potatoes, for example.
Stuffed zucchini with breadcrumbs (both Italian and panko), mozzarella, pecorino, parsley, garlic, olive oil, zucchini innards, and a touch of Trader Joe’s fermented Calabrian chili paste. No recipe. Just two zucchini that I didn’t want to go to waste. And FYI: that chili paste packs a punch!
But not exactly. I just needed something to guide me. But I appreciated that this leaned towards mushrooms and cream as opposed to the piccata-esque lemon-based sauce that most Scallopini uses. I used shallots instead of regular onion, but I’ve never found that mattered. I also used slightly less butter and cream than called for, and upped the wine and chicken broth.
Tonight’s dinner was ragda pattice - stewed white peas with potato patties, topped with onions, sweet and green chutneys, and sev (chickpea noodles).
Unusual for us to have indian multiple times in the week, but I had boiled a bunch of potatoes that were about to go bad, and peeled them yesterday. I thought I’d make shepherds pie tomorrow, because I also had Kalbi going sous vide and had done tofu the same way for the vegetarians. But when I woke up, the white peas were already soaking so I figure someone was craving this!
This is easy-at-home street food, and relatively healthy to boot. Comforting and tasty and made by someone else, which is always nice
BF’s turn in the kitchen tonight, and he wanted to make the frozen raviolis that I got from the FM a couple weeks ago. Somehow I missed seeing “Sausage ‘Flavor’” on the box. and look at that crap-list of ingredients! I didn’t even glance at it when I got them, just stuck them in the freezer. Lesson learned.
Have to say, though, they weren’t half bad. I wouldn’t get them again, but… not the worst. Rao’s Marinara helped.
So funny you say that. If we are having one of many “brown meals” as they are called, whether a heavily fried dish or just a meat-and-potatoes kind of thing, at some point my brain goes, “Shit! We need some green!”
Last night, I made cheesesteaks for us and he experimented making battered/seasoned fries from scratch which were absolutely delicious. But there I was scurrying for some green. All I had was broccoli in the fridge and unable to think of what I could do to incorporate them (besides frying them too! LOL), I said, “To hell with it”. There was no green last night.
). We just expanded our deck this year so it took even longer. She spent 3 hot days over the weekend planting the trees , plants, and vines (which were sitting in our home due to the unusually cold Spring we were having in NJ. It finally warmed up enough to permanently plant everything). She still has a little more planting to go, plus constant fertilizing and maintenance during the season.
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