Making something delicious out of “scraps” is one of the pleasures of cooking. It’s simple to make a piece of steak or a chop appetizing, but transforming an admittedly ugly-looking piece of pig – a tail in this case- into a dish worthy of a classy fine dining restaurant needs technique and some creativity. So, when a friend […]
Under Pressure: Fried Pig Tail, Deviled Quail Egg, Beans and Sauce Ravigote Read More »
Autumn is here and so are the wonderful winter hard squashes. I still have a few packages of frozen pumpking puree from last year and now is definitely the time to use them. For this dish I used a package of pureed Hubbard squash. I used a recipe from Batali’s “Babbo” cookbook for the flan, or sformato. It’s a
Pumpkin Flan, Purple Carrots and Truffled Mushrooms Read More »
This eggplant terrine is the very first recipe in Marc Vetri’s book “il Viaggio di Vetri” and it looked so intriguing from the moment I read it. I’ve never really made proper vegetable terrines before, plenty of meat terrines of course, but not a vegetarian layered and molded terrine that holds together beautifully. Vegetarian versions are lots of times held
Eggplant Terrine, Panelle, Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes Read More »
For the past few weeks, every Thursday, a farmers’ market have been setup in the plaza center right next to my office. I did not honestly expect much but was pleasantly surprised. A couple of vendors are selling fresh eggs, there several with good summer vegetables, a very good bread stand, several prepared food and “treats’
Quick Market Dinners Read More »
I have cooked pheasant a couple of times before and was always underwhelmed. I hear wild pheasant is a different animal and is delicious, but this farm-raised, store-bought bird is always ho-hum. The legs are tough and stringy with numerous little tendons/bones and the breast meat seems to dry out very fast even though it
Porcini Pheasant, Creamed Corn, Carrot-Orange Sauce Read More »
Just like the venison dish I posted about earlier, this dessert happened because of Diana. More specifically, it was because of her dislike of gingerbread cookies. Earlier in December I had made some gingerbread cookie dough in hopes of making gingerbread men with my son, however Diana was sure that he will not like those
Gingerbread, Pumpkin and Walnut-Pear-Bourbon Ice Cream Read More »
The whole reason this dish came together are those neat looking Cocottes, the small red ceramic dishes. Diana, always keeping an eye for good deals, picked them up as a Christmas present for me at Tuesday Morning for a good price. I knew I would be using these things as soon as I possibly could.
Confit of Venison Shoulder, Cauliflower Gratin and Bean Puree Read More »
The combination of pumpkin (or butternut squash in this case) and banana seems has been something I’ve wanted to try out for a while. Specifically since I saw it in an Alinea dish combined with duck. In the Alinea cookbook the recipe is for a pumpkin soup and bite of grilled duck breast with a
Thai Duck, Barley, Pumpkin puree and Banana pudding Read More »
I got those really nice baby beets from a friend who grows them in his garden and wanted to do something nice with them. What I ended up with was this cool, delicious and fancy salad. The beets: These were roasted with garlic in an aluminum foil packet. Then I carefully peeled them and trimmed them
Peas, Beets and Yogurt Read More »
Monday, March 25, 2009 I tried making tofu a few months back and it was a total failure. I used Mark Bittman’s recipe from his vegetarian cookbook. He offers several options to curdle the soy milk and produce tofu including vinegar. I chose to use Epsom salt. It is used in a very small quantity
VDP: Homemade Tofu Read More »