A lovely day yesterday

• Talking to some new friends while waiting for the 8 o'clock mass to end so we could go in for the 9:30.
• Assisted at communion without dropping any hosts or spilling any wine.
• Pastry and coffee and conversation with Katka and the wonderful wife on the terrace at Randolph's.  Very European.
• Coffee and San Cristobal on the deck, while reading a Patrick Melrose novel until joined for more conversation and laughter and a fashion show, first by Cassie and Abby after they finished shopping at Viva Vienna and before heading back to Great Falls for a birthday part, and then by Katka and the wonderful wife.
• Visiting with Roger and Joseph when they came to retrieve Joe's Viva Vienna toys that had been left at our house.
• 
• Watching Katka and Joseph play ball.
• All of this in glorious weather.
• Fish tacos (with a wonderful lime-cilantro sauce) for supper.
• An old article by Avery Dulles.
• A couple episodes of The West Wing.
• And so to bed.

The return of Chef dan-YEL

An unusual streak of pretty good meals recently.

• Cheesy broiled flounder, which Katka usually makes with tilapia and which I made with turbot (pron. TUR-but, not TUR-boh)
• Broiled lamb chops
• Stuffed portabello, with goat cheese (!),  kale(!), and a few other vegetables
• Rigatoni and sausage with tomato cream sauce
• Turbot with meuniere sauce, using gluten free flour
• Pâté de Maison

Breaded tubot one night and breaded sole another, using panko bread crumbs, were also good.  No recipe needed for this -- just heat some canola and put the fish in.  I do usually have to google the order in which breading is done -- flour, egg, crumbs

Footnotes: 

• Not everything was a success.  My attempt at macaroni and cheese was bland, bland, bland.  And the spicy rice I served with the portabello was a big disappointment.
• Pâté de Maison?

Grilled Swordfish

Grilled Swordfish with Lemon, Mint and Basil received dozens of 5-star reviews and I was eager to try it.
 

The lemon, mint, basil part, however, turned out to be nothing special.
 

But in the process of cooking the dish, I somehow wound up grilling the fish perfectly.  The recipe calls for 3 minutes per side.  The right firing schedule, it turns out, is 3 1/2 minutes on one side (with the grill lid up) and 5 1/2 minutes on the other (with the lid down).  And, of course, the burners should be wide open.
 

As I said, the herbs and juice were just so-so.  But the fish, cooked this way, was fabulous.

Pesto? Presto!

Who knew pesto is so easy?  Serve it on penne alongside a grilled salmon steak, a fresh corn on the cob, and a glass or three of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo for a really fast, really easy, really good supper.

Fish Soup?

Yep.  Not bad either -- I'd give it maybe a B. (The recipe lists several types of fish that can be used; I chose cod.)

And speaking of unusual meals, how about Moroccan shrimp with couscous?  Again, not bad -- another B -- even though I made a couple mistakes in preparing it.

The world turned upside down

One day a week or so ago I cooked expensive filet mignon, baked potato, and broccoli for dinner.  The steak and potato were fine, but the best thing about the meal was the broccoli!  What has the world come to when broccoli is better than filet mignon?  Last friday, I did Shrimp a la Greque, mashed potatoes, and, again, broccoli.  And again, the broccoli stole the show!  Here's the recipe.  Try it!

Last-minute marinade

The other day I was looking for a sauce or marinade I could use on grilled salmon, one I could slop on the fish and not have to refrigerate for an hour or two before moving to the grill.  The one I came up with, as best I can recall, was:

• 2 Tbl Dijon
• 3 Tbl soy sauce
• 6 Tbl olive oil
• 1 Tbl minced garlic
• Brush sauce on fish 10 minutes before grilling.

It was better than nothing, but not especially tasty.  The wonderful wife and Katka disagreed; they thought it was excellent.

(I don't know where I found the recipe; I record it here so that maybe I'll be able to find it again some day.)

Not only . . . But also

Not only do real men eat quiche, they also bake it -- and madeleines too! Or at least little pound cakes shaped like madeleines.

Beautiful meals

Supper the last two nights looked like it came straight from one of those glossy cooking magazines.  Of course, I didn't photograph either dish.

Monday was tortilla -- or tortilla de patata, if you prefer.  Basically, an omelet with a lot of potatoes and onions.  Unfortunately, it didn't taste very good:  Way too much potato, even though I used exactly what the recipe called for.  If I ever do it again, which I doubt, I'll use only half as much potato and I'll use a third more egg.  (I thought the Caesar Salad that night also fell short, but, happily, Mary Ellen and Katka said it was excellent.)

Tuesday night was Cobb Salad -- chicken, bacon, tomatoes, hard boiled egg, blue cheese, etc.  It was as good as the tortilla was bad.  It was also a lot of work.  If I ever do it again, I'll cook the chicken and the bacon ahead of time, and probably do some of the chopping ahead of time too.

PS:  The cobb salad link above is the recipe I used, but I changed some of the proportion:  whole avacado, 12+ ounces of chicken, 10 or 12 strips of bacon instead of the ham, 1 head of Romaine, 3- tomatoes, 0 watercress.  I also doubled the amount of dressing.

Chef Dan-YEL, again

Abby approved of Chef Dan-YEL's first attempt at crepes this morning, though I suspect her reaction was conditioned more by the strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream than by the pancakes.

Abby wasn't around for dinner, unfortunately, but those who were had very nice things to say about an warm orzo and shrimp salad. Tomorrow at lunch we'll find out whether it's any good chilled.

Chef Dan-YEL, again

Four recent hits:

• Cucumber and tomato salad. Does anybody really need a recipe for this? Anybody besides me, I mean. Here it is.

• Beef bruschetta. That's what I'm calling it, anyway. Brush a little olive oil on baguette slices, spread some blue cheese and top with a little roast beef. (We first tasted it at a going-away party for one of the wonderful wife's many friends.)

• Grilled shrimp. 4 minutes on one side, 1 on the other. Then finish cooking in a pan in which a sauce of butter, garlic, and lemon juice has been warming. Very scampi; very good. I served it with corn on the cob and baked potato, but it would go very well with cut pasta. Credit where it's due.; the recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, but it isn't available on-line.

• Orecchiette with canned tuna. What could be simpler? It's delicious warm and maybe even better chilled. The recipe is here, but beware: I think the measurements are way off. Next time I'll use three cans of tuna, one bag of arugula, half a box of pasta.

Chef Dan-YEL, Again

Sunday breakfast: Eggs,

• Over hard and served on a plate for the wonderful wife.
• Cheese omelets, served on buttered rye toast, for Katka and me.

Pretty darned good!

Monday dinner: Caesar Salad with chicken thighs that had been marinated in Italian dressing. I don't know what anyone else thought of it, but I give it an A+. If I'd paid for it in a restaurant, I'd have been very satisfied.

Tuesday's dinner: Cous cous with shallots, garlic, and almonds; poached salmon; summer squash ribbons. At least a B+. The salmon was the real surprise. I like to bake salmon because frying and grilling tends to make the fish too dry. But it's 90-something degrees here, and I didn't want to turn the oven on. So I asked the guy at the fish counter (Captain Bob) if I could cook it on the stove in a covered skillet ("skillet" is the word we chefs use instead of "frying pan"). He said "Sure. Just add a little liquid." I translated "a little liquid" to mean about a quarter cup of olive oil (EVOO) and half a cup of Chardonnay. It came out great! At supper, the wonderful wife explained that cooking that way is called poaching. Who knew?

Tonight's dinner: Shrimp with pasta, cooked with garlic in chicken broth, and 7-layer salad. The wonderful wife thought the shrimp tasted like scampi; I think she was right. I'll give the meal another B+. Update: Leftovers make a very good cold pasta salad, as I discovered at lunch today.

Chef Dan-YEL, again

Re: Moosewood Cookbook's "Spinach-Rice Casserole":

• The recipe calls for 2 pounds of spinach. Two pounds! I used 22 ounces -- the perfect amount.
• If you prepare the dish for two sweet women, they'll tell you it's very good. They're lying. It's terrible.

Chef Dan-YEL

Notes to self:

• For couscous paella with shrimp, 5 or 6 ounces of couscous is plenty; use at least a pound and a quarter of shrimp
• Broiled asparagus should cook for maybe 10 minutes (that link is not to the recipe I used, which called for 20 to 25 minutes)
  
• Medium size baked potatoes = 70 minutes at 350 degrees

Recipe(s) of the day

Chicken almondine with lemon green beans (Adapted from here.)

• 1/4 c sliver unsalted almonds
• 1 T flour
• 1/4 t smoked paprika
• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2-inch thickness, and cut into several pieces
• 1 lb green beans (it's what they had at the market)
• zest of one lemon
• juice of 1/2 lemon

1. Grind 1/8 cup almonds to a powder using your chopping device of choice (or a mortar and pestle).

2. Combine ground almonds, flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Dredge chicken breasts in this mixture and set aside (I just put them all in a zip lock bag and gave it a shake.

3. Heat a large skillet after spraying it with cooking spray. Sauté chicken for 3ish minutes per side, or until cooked through. Remove from heat.

4. To serve, sprinkle remaining almond slivers over chicken.

5. I served it with brown rice and green beans.


Dilled Tomatoes (Source)

• 4 large vine-ripe tomatoes, halved horizontally and seeded
• Kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 shallots, minced
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Preheat a 350-degree oven. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper. Lay the tomatoes, cut side up, in a single layer in a nonreactive baking dish. Pour the oil over them and sprinkle with shallots, garlic and dill. Turn cut side down and roast 20 minutes or until tomatoes are soft and skins loose. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and let them cool a few minutes. Slip the skins from the tomatoes. Keep the tomatoes warm in their liquid. Serve drizzled with pan liquid.

I served it with grilled swordfish and orzo.

B y the way: A secret to good orzo: Stir in a tablespoon of butter before serving.

Bad plays, good meals, great friends

Esther and John and Mary Ellen and I saw "The Liar" at the Shakespeare Theater in May (tickets courtesy of Cassie and Roger). It was bad: A farce that wasn't funny, made worse by the fact that many in the audience guffawed every time they heard a rhyme. And since the play was in verse, there were lots of rhymes. People! If you're going to go out in public, grow up! Before the play we ate at a restaurant Esther knew of, Bistro D'oc, across the street from Ford's Theater: A very good 2-course dinner with a glass of wine for less than $25 per person. And lots of laughter and good conversation. All in all, a wonderful outing.

The four of us went to Shepherdstown at the end of July and saw "Breadcrumbs" and "Lidless." They were not bad. But neither were they especially good; the actors were far better than their material. (One of the acting standouts was Eva Kaminsky.) We arrived at mid-day on Sunday, spent the night at the Bavarian Inn, and returned Monday morning. Before the first play, we had a very good, very inexpensive lunch at the Blue Moon Cafe; after the second, a very good, very inexpensive supper at (believe it or not) Tony's Pizza, and next morning a very good, very inexpensive breakfast at, I think, Betty's Restaurant. Lots of laughter and good conversation on the ride out, while schlepping around Shepherdstown, and on the ride back. All in all, a wonderful outing.

Last night we all saw "The Importance of Being Earnest" at H Street Theater. It was bad -- another farce with all the humor drained out of it. Half of the cast had thin voices, made even more difficult to hear/understand by the upper-class British accents they were attempting. Even worse, the men's parts were played by women and the women's roles by men -- a silly gimmick that accomplished nothing except to distract from the story and the funny lines. Before the play we had a delicious, long, liesurely, outdoor dinner at a restaurant John suggested: Montmartre on 7th St. SE, a block from Eastern Market. Lots of laughter and good conversation. All in all, a wonderful outing.

Recipes

OK, so maybe you're not thrilled with my beef stroganoff recipe.

I guarantee you'll like this one: http://tinyurl.com/yz4vylu

Waste not, want not

So a couple days ago you cooked steak for your wonderful daughter's birthday dinner.

A lot of steak.

Too much steak.

What do you do with leftover steak?

You make beef stroganoff, that's what, and it comes out tasting better than the meat at the birthday party.

"How do you make beef stroganoff?"

I'd be happy to tell you if I could find the recipe I used. But I can't. Very roughly, however:

• 12 oz mushrooms, quartered
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 2 cups of beef broth
• 2 tablespoons flour
  
• 2 cups of sour cream
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• leftover steak, sliced into thin, bite-sized pieces
• salt and pepper (of course)
• 
  
• Cook the mushrooms in butter until brown, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat.
  
• Cook onions in butter about 5 minutes.
• Add tomato paste. Whisk
• Add flour. Whisk.
• Add beef broth. Bring (?) to boil. Add sour cream, mushrooms and leftover steak. Cook until meat is warmed through.
  
• Serve over egg noodles.

UPDATE: I found the recipe and updated the post accordingly (1/4/10). My memory was surprisingly good. I forgot the Dijon mustard, the lemon juice, and the parsley, but when I made it I left out the lemon juice and parsley anyway. My version, above, reflects the fact that I used leftover meat and the fact that I used a lot more than 1/4 cup of sour cream. I incorrectly remembered that the recipe called for wine; it doesn't.

Fish story

I cooked a good meal yesterday -- my first in months! Grilled trout with a vinaigrette of scallions, rosemary, capers, olive oil, and vinegar.

Sorry you missed it.

(For an appetizer we had red wine and bruschetta. Ooooh!)

I've got bad news and I've got good news

The bad news:

GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE....What with financial Armageddon crashing down on our heads as we speak, it's hard to believe that the worst news of the week was actually buried on page A2 of the Washington Post. But it was:

In 2007, carbon released from burning fossil fuels and producing cement increased 2.9 percent over that released in 2006, to a total of 8.47 gigatons....This output is at the very high end of scenarios outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and could translate into a global temperature rise of more than 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, according to the panel's estimates.

We are so screwed.

Kevin Drum

The good news:
A wonderful recipe for bruschetta.

Postscript: Producing cement causes global warming? Like, more than producing steel or rubber or Cheerios?