chez johnny jump up

Ridwan made an incredible nine-course meal for John's birthday. I was lucky enough to attend and help out.

Here are some shots of the finished dishes (photos by Mike Seeman):

black truffle souffle

celery remoulade, frisee, crispy duck confit

fried artichoke, capers, lemon-heirloom jam

smoked salmon, baby greens,

matchstick potatoes, creme fraiche

kabocha squash soup, bacon lardon, fried bread

roast beef, yorkshire pudding,

horseradish cream, mustard

whipped delice d'argental, caramelized fig, balsamic syrup

carrot cake

poached pear, candied walnut

Potato and Squash Gratin

Up until I made this, summer squash was one of the three foods I did not like. Now, at least in potato gratin form, I think it's delicious. So, even if you don't like squash, give this recipe a try. It made eating a potato gratin actually feel healthy (regardless of whether or not that's true). It's also really beautiful.

You'll need:

a mix of potatoes-- I used 2 purple potatoes & 8 small Russian Butterballs. Yukon Gold would work as well.

2 large crookneck squash

2-3T butter

1t olive oil

1/4c heavy cream

some hard cheese (I used Gran Padano; Parmesan or Pecorino would work too)

salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel potatoes if desired. Slice very very thinly with a mandoline or food processor (fitted with a slicing blade). Slice squash as well.

Grease a baking dish and toss squash and potato slices on to form a bottom layer. Salt and pepper; dot with butter; grate some cheese on top. Repeat, making at least 2 more layers. Dot top layer with butter and put extra cheese. Pour cream on top.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove foil and bake until potatoes are tender, liquid has evaporated, and top is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Thanksgiving 2008

No pictures in this post; just an update on Thanksgiving, since people have been asking. I'm not doing a real post for two reasons-- one, we basically did the same thing as  last year, since last year's Thanksgiving was so ridiculously good; and two, I didn't have a camera on hand for pictures. Honestly, some of the tastiest things are the least photogenic-- stuffing, for example. So the menu was: (most of the recipes are on last year's post, linked above)

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

Brined & BBQ'd Organic Turkey

Gravy (made from turkey stock, which we made the day before)

Wild Mushroom Stuffing (recipe below)

Butternut Squash Gratin

Spicy Cranberry Relish

Jelled Cranberry Sauce (yeah, the Ocean Spray kind. I love the stuff.)

Lemony Brussel Sprout Hash

Sour Cream Cheesecake (my dad's delicious contribution)

The wild mushroom stuffing was really amazing, and can easily be a vegetarian main dish or brunch dish any time of the year. We tweaked last year's recipe a bit. Here goes:

Make cornbread and let it sit out overnight so it dries out a bit.

Cut the cornbread into crouton-sized (1/2inch) cubes. Toss cubes and all crumbs into bowl. Add 2T each chopped thyme & sage; add olive oil and toss until well-coated.

Spread seasoned cornbread cubes and crumbs onto a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees until golden. Cubes should be crunchy. It's ok if the crumbs get a little dark.

Clean 2lbs mushrooms. We used 2/3lb shittake, 2/3lb oyster, 2/3lb chanterelle. Reserve the shittake stems.

Add shittake stems to 4c chicken (or veggie) broth and bring to a boil. Lower to a strong simmer and cover. Cook about 20 minutes, until reduced by half. Strain. You should have 2c mushroomy broth.

Slice mushrooms.  Slice 5 large shallots. Saute shallots and mushrooms in about 1T butter and 1T olive oil until golden brown, about 20 minutes (they'll release liquid, and then start drying out and browning). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the cooked mushrooms to the strained broth.

An hour before serving, beat 1c heavy cream with 3 eggs. Combine with mushroom mix and cornbread cubes only. Pour into gratin dish. Sprinkle cornbread crumbs on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, until set (a thin knife inserted into the gratin will come out clean).

When is a pumpkin edible?

Who knows? I sure don't. This looked edible to me:

It was a bit strange looking inside. The meat was porous and the seeds were an incredible dark green.

crazy technicolor seeds!

So I cleaned it out:

And got it ready for roasting:

But once it was cooked, the flesh was stringy and watery and surrounded by a mold-colored layer. So I called Durst Organic Growers, whose sticker (still) adorned the pumpkin's extremely hard shell. After extended consultation with the grower, I learned that some of their pumpkins are edible, while some are not. Unfortunately, there's no indication on the product sticker as to the product's consumability; I offered him the product number and he said they're all the same.

Based on the texture of the cooked squash, I decided it'd be best to abstain. I tasted it and it wasn't great-- not evil-tasting, but not creamy and delicious pumpkinyness either.

Here's the real question that remains:

Are these golden-green seeds edible?

A Shabbat Feast

This feast, generously subsidized by Birthright, was a wonderful opportunity to make something I normally cannot afford: veal shoulder. This beautiful five pound roast is stuffed with herbs and garlic, rolled in porcini dust, and cooked slowly in my homemade chicken stock, red wine, and tomato paste, with some marrow-filled veal bones tossed in to beef up the sauce.

the herb & garlic stuffing

the bones & the roast

adding liquids

After cooking, you refrigerate the roast overnight, scrape off all the fat, carve the meat and reduce the sauce, sneaking a bite of marrow on toast as you remove the bones. I adapted my recipe from Epicurious's, adjusting things like the balsamic and porcini (I added more).

I served this with a barley and roasted vegetable pilaf-- I roasted the butternut squash and parsnips with balsamic vinegar and fresh thyme, separately so each cube would get creamy on the inside and caramelized on the outside...

combined in one pan for easy cooling

...then tossed them with the cooled cooked barley, reheated the pot, and added lemon zest, toasted almonds and mint.

As an appetizer, I made a salad of arugula, julienned apple & celeriac (celery root) soaked in lemon juice & olive oil, smoked trout, warm goat cheese and spicy-sweet walnuts with a dill-pomegranate (thanks Maia!) cream dressing.

J, of the Green Kitchen next door, made dessert: dried cherries soaked in reduced sour cherry juice, served over Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream with Chessman cookies.

Coffee and Chili Braised Short Ribs; Scalloped Potatoes; Acorn Squash Veloute; Broccoli Rabe

This is my third short rib variation. They have all been delicious. This one was especially flavorful. I made scalloped potatoes because the meat didn't have much sauce, and broccoli rabe as a strong-flavored veggie to hold up to the intense chili flavor of the meat. The acorn squash veloute we began with had the delicate flavor of this interesting squash with a zingy cayenne twist.

My excuse this time for the imperfect pictures is that we just plain forgot to take them until we were halfway through eating. Sorry.

We started with a glass of
St George Absinthe

Acorn Squash Veloute

with a swirl of cream

This recipe is from Epicurious.

You'll need (serves 8):

2 large onions, chopped
2 large acorn squash
2T freshly grated ginger
5c chicken broth
2T tomato paste
cayenne pepper to taste

1T cumin seeds
1T mustard seeds

Peel, clean and chop squash into 1" cubes. This is a pain in the ass.

Saute onion 10 minutes. Add squash and ginger, saute 5 minutes. Add 4c broth. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender, 20-30 minutes. Puree.

Stir in tomato paste and cayenne and simmer 10 more minutes. You can make soup ahead until this point. Add more broth to thin soup when you reheat it.

Saute cumin and mustard seeds in oil about 2 min. Sprinkle on top of soup to serve. (The seeds aren't just decorative-- they add a lot of texture and flavor.)

Coffee and Chili Braised Short Ribs

there was not much left when we
remembered to take a picture...

This is loosely based on a Mark Bittman recipe. You can use whatever kind of chilies you want.

You'll need:

short ribs, either English cut or Flanken cut. You'll need about 1 per person. I normally use English cut; I got Flanken by mistake, but it wasn't a problem. Be sure to cut off all the visible fat; it's unnecessary-- especially the huge layer on Flanken-cut ribs.

1 large onion, diced
1 shallot, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 dried chipotle chilies, seeded and chopped as small as possible
2 dried gaujillo chilies, seeded and chopped as small as possible
1T ancho chili powder
1 1/2c dry red wine
1 1/2c strong coffee (not espresso)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Salt and pepper short ribs. Brown in hot grapeseed oil on all sides. Remove from pot when browned. If necessary, clean out black bits with a paper towel and/or add more oil. Saute onion, shallot, garlic, chilies, and chili powder over medium-low heat, about 20 minutes. Add wine and coffee and reduce by half.

Return browned ribs to sauce. Cover pot and place in oven about 2 hours, turning ribs halfway. There shouldn't be too much liquid left at the end, but make sure the ribs don't dry out while cooking.

Scalloped Potatoes

variation: layer swiss chard leaves between potatoes

You'll need:

3lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, cleaned and sliced into rounds as thin as you possibly can. A mandoline is useful for this; I wish I had one.

1/2 onion, super thinly sliced
2T chopped fresh thyme
2T butter
1/4c parmesan
2 1/2c half & half or cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

each layer should look like this

Place potato rounds in a thin layer in the bottom of a well-buttered gratin dish. Top with salt, pepper, onions, thyme, and a spoonful of cheese. Continue layering until you run out of potatoes. Pour half & half on top. Top with more parmesan and any leftover thyme (not onions). Bake, covered with foil, until potatoes are tender, about 1 1/4 hours. Then uncover and put under broiler, or crank up oven heat, to brown top.

Broccoli Rabe

You'll need:

2 bunches broccoli rabe, or broccoli raab, or rapini (it's all the same thing)
2 shallots, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1T chili flakes
4T olive oil
grated cheese to top-- I can't remember the name of the cheese I used, but it should be hard and nutty, with enough flavor to hold up to the greens.

Clean broccoli rabe-- remove thick stems and wash well. Place in boiling, salted water for 2 minutes. Drain well. At this point, you can put the blanched greens in the fridge 'til you want to serve them.

Just before serving, heat oil and saute shallots, garlic, and chili flakes for 2 minutes. Add broccoli rabe and warm through. Top with grated cheese, salt and pepper to taste.

The Cheese

When I went to the Cheeseboard to buy the cheese for the broccoli rabe, I couldn't help getting an oozingly ripe Chatelain Brie, some Montagnolo (I promise: even if you don't like blue cheese, you'll like this one), and some other one whose name I forget. So we had a cheese course, too.

The Wine

This was the first wine. I thought it
went really well with the soup.

This was the second wine. It is as old as I am.
The cork was disintegrating. It was delicious.
If only women aged like wine.

Thanks for the wines, Mr. Anonymous.

Sausage and Broccoli Rabe Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash is really very cool, and a nice lighter, healthier alternative to pasta. Of course, it doesn't taste like pasta-- in fact, it doesn't taste like much at all-- so whatever you put on it is going to stand out. I chose a combination of sweet, bitter, and spicy here-- using Aidell's Apricot-Ginger sausage, broccoli rabe, and hot peppers.

You'll need (serves 2-3):

1 spaghetti squash
1 long sausage (like Aidell's apricot-ginger) or 2 normal sweet italians
1 bunch broccoli rabe (this bears very little resemblance to broccoli. You can substitute any cooking green.)
5 cloves garlic, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1T cayenne
1T crushed red pepper
1/2c red wine or Madiera
4 anchovies
1T tomato paste
1c baby roma or other grape tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise
2T grapeseed oil
grated pecorino to top

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Poke holes in squash with a skewer or knife and place whole squash in baking dish with some water. Bake about 1 hour until soft. Cut in half to open. Scoop out seeds. Using a fork, pick out the flesh (it should magically turn to long pasta-like strands) and place in bowl. Set aside. (You can do this in advance, which would make this a good weeknight dish.)

Blanch broccoli rabe in salted water to remove some bitterness, if you want.

Slice sausage (you want meaty slices-- about 1/4-1/2"). Heat oil until almost smoking in a not-nonstick pan. Add sausage and cook until brown. Scoop out with a slotted spoon or spatula and set aside.

Add sliced onion to oil in pan. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring, until fond (browned bits from the sausage) is absorbed by the onions. Add anchovies, cayenne, red pepper, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and cook 2 minutes. Add tomato paste; let brown before stirring in. Add garlic and broccoli rabe; cook 2 minutes. Add reserved sausage and wine. Stir, scraping anything stuck on the bottom of the pan. Add tomatoes. Bring to a boil and cook until most of the liquid is absorbed and tomatoes are soft, about 5 minutes.

Add squash and stir to combine. If there's still liquid in the pan, continue cooking until all liquid is absorbed. Serve topped with lots of grated pecorino.

Pork Chops with Apples and Butternut Squash

I bought brined pork chops from Cafe Rouge. If you don't have access to pre-brined chops, just brine them overnight in salt, sugar, and water. This meal is dedicated to Liz, who requested a recipe using fewer than five ingredients. This more or less fits the bill.

The pork should be cooked after the apples are sliced and the squash is done, as it only takes 15-20 minutes. Start doing the squash 1 1/2 hours before you want to eat (you can forget about it for the first hour, though).


Pork Chops

You'll need:
1 1lb chop/person, with plenty of fat on the outside, about 1 inch thick
pepper
1T olive oil
1T butter

Pat chops dry and pepper both sides generously. Do not salt. Heat oil & butter in a cast iron or other oven-safe heavy skillet. When foaming subsides, brown chops on both sides, about 3 min/side.

Apples

You'll need:

2 apples/person
1 shallot/person

Quarter, core, and peel apples (it's easiest in that order). Slice them thinly and set aside with a bit of lemon juice, so they don't turn brown. Also slice the shallots, thinly.

When chops are browned, remove them from the pan and add shallots, apples, salt and pepper. Cook about 10 minutes, until apples are soft and begin to caramelize. Return the chops to the pan and place the pan in a 400 degree oven (with the squash, which should be almost done).

Squash

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
2T butter, cut into small pieces
goat cheese to top (I used Bucheron)
salt
pepper
1T whole allspice, freshly ground
1/2c walnut pieces, toasted (be really careful toasting nuts-- they burn very easily. When they're as toasted as you want them to be, remove them from the pan onto a cool plate immediately).

Start this way in advance (at least 1 1/2 hours). Toss everything together and place in 400 degree oven. When squash is tender and browned (about 1 hour), mash or put through a potato ricer into a small gratin dish.

Mix squash puree with toasted walnuts and butter pieces. Dot with goat cheese and put back in oven until cheese is bubbly and brown and pork chops are done.

Thanksgiving!

might be my favorite holiday. I don't think I have to explain why. This is the first year I've done the bulk of the planning and cooking, though I couldn't have done the latter without my mom's help (and without her, we wouldn't have had dessert, which I conveniently neglected from my menu). Please excuse the late posting; it's my sister's fault (though she is responsible for the cranberry bean shelling and brussel sprout cleaning-- step one in her path to culinary greatness).

Chestnut Soup

tasty but light enough to start off the meal

I didn't follow the recipe in this link very closely-- I doubled the veggie base and spices-- but it's a good start.

Brined and Barbecued Turkey

might have been the best turkey ever

This was a compromise between my brining plans and my dad's insistence on barbecuing, with fantastic results, thanks to Traci Des Jardins. We followed this excellent recipe but didn't strain the brine. Yay women chefs!

Giblet Gravy

lots of roux-browning, a mirepoix, giblets,
and turkey necks went into this delicious gravy

Cranberry Sauce Trio

Canned Jellied Cranberry Sauce (bottom)-- my personal favorite

Earl Gray Cardamom Cranberry Sauce (top)-- thanks to my fellow foodie Katie

Spicy Orange Cranberry Relish (right)-- modified from Jacques Pepin's recipe in this lovely book

Cornbread Pudding Stuffing

The "pudding" part is the cream & eggs that make this the best stuffing ever. An homage to my sister, the self-professed stuffing hater, who made sure there was none left before going back to college.

Recipe, in a few steps:

Cornbread: Make easy cornbread and let sit, covered, overnight (reserve the rest of the can of creamed corn). The next morning (yes, cooking is a two-day affair), cut into small cubes (the size of croutons) and toss with good olive oil, salt, pepper, and chopped fresh thyme & sage. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and crunchy. Refrain from snacking while you make the mushrooms.

Mushrooms: Stem about 2lbs of shiitake mushrooms, reserving the stems. Chop stems finely and bring to a boil with 4c chicken broth. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until reduced by half. Strain through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth and reserve mushroomy broth.

Thickly slice mushroom caps and thinly slice shallots. Saute in butter and olive oil until mushrooms are browned and delicious. Toss with broth.

An hour before serving, whisk together 1/2c cream and 2 eggs. Mix with mushrooms and cornbread croutons and spread mixture in a gratin dish. Sprinkle cornbread crumbs (that gathered in a delicious mess of herbs and oil at the bottom of your baking pan) on top of stuffing and bake until set at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Butternut Squash Gratin with Fried Sage

you saw this here but without the sage, which is delicious fried in butter

Fresh Cranberry Beans

Cooked with a quartered onion and a few garlic cloves, then drained and tossed with thyme and olive oil, these are simply delicious, and only available a few weeks a year. They have beautiful speckled pods that unfortunately get thrown away. Do let me know if you know of a way to use them.

Lemony Brussel Sprouts

roughly this recipe-- we used it last year and had no leftovers.

And, of course...

yes, this is a magnum of 1988 Chateau Duhart-Milon

And the dessert I would have forgotten...

My Mom's Absolutely Delicious Tarte Tatin

You might think that all this food was enough for a dozen people. It was. We were only five.