Dressing Up Pasta Leftovers

One easy, quick way to make last night's pasta a little more interesting is to add a poached egg. When you break the yolk, it oozes deliciousness and coats the pasta. This works well for a pasta that doesn't have much sauce (tomato or cream) to begin with.

Another nice pasta trick that works well with a cut like spaghetti is to make a pasta frittata: just mix in a few eggs and bake until set, then cut into wedges. This makes a good lunch (served with a salad) or first course (served alone).

All Offal, All the Time

All Offal, All the Time

February 29, 2008

Our offal dinner-- the somewhat belated Winter Feast of the series Katie & I have been doing-- was held, somewhat appropriately, on Leap Day. I think I can wait til the next Leap Day (or bissextile day) to do this again. It was rather rushed, labor-intensive, and (at least partially) kinda gross (yes, even I can't handle prolonged exposure to gooey, goopy brains as I pull the membrane and veins out...).

I didn't help that our old meat standby, Verbrugge's, completely let us down. We were supposed to pick up the brains and kidneys the morning of the feast (they should be eaten as fresh as possible). Verbrugge's decided to call us that morning to let us know that they couldn't get them. After some very frantic phone calls, I located frozen kidneys at Andronico's (who knew? they also have hearts, tripe, and sweetbreads), and beef brains (we wanted lamb or calf) at Mi Ranchito Bayside Market (Berkeley). But when I went to buy the brains, it turned out that all they had was a frozen 5-lb tub. A little too much for this party. So, a few more calls later, we located pig brains at 99 Ranch (Richmond) and I went off in search (thanks for the company, J). 99 Ranch is a simply fantastic asian market, but they don't really speak English, so trying to get something specific is pretty difficult (I once tried to get seafood stock. Don't even try. They don't have it.). But eventually I found the pig brains, below the tocino and next to the pig uterus and bung (intestines)-- here's a good post on those products, fyi. They were fresh, not frozen, which was a little worrisome, but they were only $2, so we decided to give them a try. We had, after all, promised brains to our delighted guests.

Unfortunately, our recipe depended on lamb or calf brain-- the kind that stays together-- and this poor piggy brain fell apart as soon as it left the container. So, instead of making nice fried slices, we fried the few clumps I'd managed to clean and had them as pre-dinner snack. They were as good as anything deep-fried is, but the brains themselves didn't have much flavor. We'll try again though-- stay posted.

Thanks to Karen for the dessert and photos and to Ridwan for coming early to help (and cleaning too)!

So, the menu:

Chicken Liver Mousse
with pickled red onions


Deviled Kidneys


Braised Tongue with
Caper, Cornichon, and Caperberry Sauce
and
Potato-Chard Gratin


Blood Orange Sorbet
with candied peels
and phyllo crisps

Cooking Pictures (view at your own risk):

The Brains

uncooked, uncleaned

uncooked, cleaned

fried up in tasty clumps

The Tongue

looks like a tongue. feels like a tongue.

bubbling away with aromatics
(notice the brand!)

cooked and sliced, soaking up sauce

The Gratin

This was so pretty uncooked,
topped with chopped chard stems
in red, orange, and yellow

The Dessert

beautiful blood oranges, and a lime

candying the peels

Home sick and it's gross out Lunch

Bulgur risotto:

Melt butter and olive oil in skillet. Saute one large sliced shallot; when translucent, add 1c bulgur, and more butter if necessary. Saute about 5 min, until all the grains are buttered and toasty (make sure they don't clump together). Add about 1/2 c vermouth; when entirely absorbed, start adding chicken broth gradually, stirring. Only add more once it's all absorbed. I soaked some shiitake mushrooms and added the soaking liquid as well.

When risotto is almost cooked, add sliced mushrooms and whatever vegetables you have-- I added some chopped roasted swiss chard stems I cooked yesterday.

Remove from heat and add flaked fake crab, or whatever else you want (I really, really like fake crab. Most people don't.) Add pepper and (if you didn't put crab) grated cheese. Serve.

Friday Night Dinner

Mostly from recipes...

Mushroom Veloute (Jacques Pepin)

Swiss Chard Frittata: Wash 2 bunches of chard and remove stems. Choose 6-8 of the flattest, most intact leaves and lay half on an oiled 12-14" non-stick frying pan. Fill with premixed: 2 eggs, 3/4 c fresh breadcrumbs, shredded chard, 1/3 c toasted pine nuts, salt & pepper. Cover with remaining leaves, tucking the ends in. Cook over low heat, covered with a lid that pushes down on the frittata. When bottom is golden (about 15 min), flip carefully and cook until set (about 15 min more). I served wedges at room temperature, garnished with arugula, roasted tomatoes in 3 colors, marinated beets sliced into matchsticks, and thin rounds of watermelon radish.

Salmon in Crespelle (epicurious.com) with sauteed baby potatoes, tossed with parsley and tarragon.

Dessert was apple crisp with homemade vanilla ice cream.