I’ve been carbo-overloading today as if I was running a marathon tomorrow.
:::Anyone who knows me is hysterical laughing on the floor right now, hoping they don’t pee their pants:::
Elsa decided to show up this morning with a LOT of rain and wind. I dealt with some window leakage at work, other “stuff”, and decided the Friday Company Lunch for the 13 of us physically in the office was pizza and Caesar salad from Stachey’s in our complex. (Carbo Load #1)
I over ordered, so some Caesar salad came home tonight after work.
Had I taken anything out of the freezer for dinner? Of course not. So Rana’s Chicken and Roasted Garlic ravs to the rescue. (Carbo Load #2)
Made a quick roasted garlic sauce to put on top of the ravs, and put out some of the Caesar, and grabbed a piece of the fluffy, soft pita Stachey’s always serves with their salads. (Carbo Load #3).
Tonight’s dinner courtesy procrastination - I’ve been planning to make this meal for a week at least.
But anyway better late than never - and YUM!
Spanish tortilla, chorizo with a bit of sherry, and sautéed spinach.
Meant to make fennel and orange salad, but I was on the phone the whole time I was cooking, and washed up the mandolin after the potatoes, so that’s for tomorrow.
I think this is the tastiest tortilla I’ve made to date. And the faux alioli didn’t hurt - it was deliciously garlicky.
Need to work on getting the tortilla not to stick - or at least paying attention while cooking it rather than absent-mindedly doing it while deep in conversation
She wasn’t pretty, but she was muy delicioso. Spanish night - albondigas al ajillo - a recipe i’ve been making for about 25 years now. A bit ambitious for a work day (24 cloves of garlic! and i didn’t have the already peeled ones) but it turned out great. my tomatoes weren’t very juicy, the sauce for the albondigas is usually a little more tomato-y, but not much; it’s not a tomato sauce, it’s a garlic sauce! Pan con tomate, my favorite tapa of all time, and garbanzos con espinacas y champiñones - a blend of two dishes, with garlic too, harissa, and lots of smokey Spanish pimenton.
Mrs. P prepared another awesome dinner tonight with enough leftovers for another dinner. She made deep fried soft shell crabs and avocados; figs stuffed with blue cheese and pine nuts; roasted delicata squash; asparagus, and a delicious sauce consisting of homegrown herbs, capers, and vermouth, to go with the crab and asparagus. It all went great with a nice Spanish Garnacha.
Yesss… I actually had real alioli, but apparently it went bad while I was procrastinating.
So plan B - mayo (Duke’s - first time trying it), microplaned garlic, and some lemon juice to fix the flavor of the mayo. And a pinch of salt. SO GOOD.
Love the soft shells! Here in Baltimore, some places serve soft shells in a sandwich, but I much prefer them as-is. The sandwich is too difficult to eat. Did you use cornmeal in the coating?
3 tbls. olive oil
2 heads garlic (about 20-24 cloves), peeled and left whole
3 1-inch slices french bread
1 lb. ground beef or combination of ground veal, pork & beef
4 tbls. minced fresh italian parsley
1 tsp. salt (or a little less if using bouillon for broth)
1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 lg. egg
All-purpose flour for coating
1-1/2 cups beef or chicken broth (or any combo of dry white wine/dry vermouth/dry sherry/broth)
2 medium tomatoes.
Heat 2 tbls. oil in skillet and add all but 3 or 4 garlic cloves. cook until golden and remove. toast 1 slice of bread in the same oil. break up the bread and grind together with cooked garlic in blender or food processor. set aside.
soak the remaining 2 bread slices in water to cover, then squeeze water out. mince the remaining cloves of garlic and combine in a lg. bowl with the soaked bread, 2 tbls of parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg and ground meat. mix well with your hands. form little cocktail sized balls. toss meatballs with flour in a shallow bowl to coat. shake off excess flour.
Heat rest of oil in large skillet. add meatballs and cook over medium heat until browned on all sides. pour stock mixture over meatballs. cut tomatoes in half, and using a grater, and grate tomatoes directly into skillet. discard skin. stir in the reserved ground garlic-bread mixture. cover and simmer for 30 mins. if the sauce is too think uncover the skillet and raise heat and cook until thick. sprinkle remaining parsley over meatballs and serve immediately with toothpicks.
Closer to an Alfredo. Butter, roasted garlic, heavy cream, a healthy dose of freshly cracked pepper and grated Parm-Reg. After that was well whisked, I added a tiny bit of a medium-thick paste of flour and heavy cream, and whisked that in. It ended up a bit thicker than I would have preferred and I should have thinned it with a couple teaspoons of water or white wine, but I was hungry and just went with it as is.
