Post-Birthday Thoughts and a Recipe

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Clay's 50th birthday dinner was a success despite my cooking angst. Ten of us gathered around the table and Clay was the center of attention, as was his due. Many thanks to Larry & Donna, Dick & Marjie, Stephen & Becky, Bruce and Miles for your wonderful company on this momentous occasion.

The March 2005 issue of Bon Appetit was my saving grace. Check out the Dinner with Friends, by Rozanne Gold. Instead of braising the legs of lamb, I roasted them - the recipe follows. I did follow the recipes for the Shrimp, Cucumber and Mango Salad and the White Beans with Tomatoes and Spinach to the letter and they were perfect and delicious. Perfectly delicious! I especially liked the white bean dish. It complemented the lamb so well and was so fresh and lovely. I must admit that when I first read the recipe, because of my time constraints, I was tempted to substitute ready-cut tomatoes for the fresh grape tomatoes the recipe called for. Do not do this! The fresh, sweet and slightly acidic taste of the grape tomatoes made all the difference and was well worth the effort.

Roast Leg of Lamb

Lots of garlic, cut into slivers

Many sprigs of fresh rosemary

Olive oil

Sea salt

Fresh ground black pepper

Red wine

Have your oven at 475 degrees.

Remove most of the white fat from the surface of the leg of lamb. Make slits in the flesh on all sides. Tuck a sliver of garlic and some rosemary into each slit. Rub the leg all over with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and fresh ground tellicherry pepper. Drizzle a bit of olive oil into a roasting pan and lay some long sprigs of rosemary down. Place the leg of lamb on top of the rosemary.

Put in the 475 oven for 20 minutes. Pour about 1 cup of good red wine over the lamb and reduce heat to 350 degrees. I used a (local) Robert Goodman Pinot Noir because that is what we served with dinner. Roast the lamb until the internal temp is 135 to 140 degrees for medium rare.

You can make a pan sauce if you wish - I'll go into that at a later time - or just read the above mentioned article. Suffice it to say, I didn't. There just wasn't time and the lamb was so perfect on its own with the beans around it - the beautiful colors of pink lamb, white beans, green spinach and red tomatoes were wonderful! Some would say that it's a crime to go to all this trouble and not make a sauce. Well, they would be right. Also, they might be wrong. The lamb was succulent, tender and darn tasty unadorned.

Where's My Muse?

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It's happening again...
I've hit the creative cooking wall and am dead in the water (to wildly mix metaphores).

This sad state of affairs has been going on for a week, and today is Clay's birthday and I have 10 people coming to dinner. I should be at the grocers or in the kitchen right now, but here I am pounding the keys looking for inspiration on my monitor instead of in a cookbook.

Speaking of which, I just bought Alfred Portale Simple Pleasures. On first scan through, I can see that I will be using this well written, nicely photographed book often. But not today it seems.

In my kitchen at the moment are two (count 'em, two!) legs of lamb. One is bone-in, the other boneless. This is "neighborhood lamb", folks. Comes from our neighbors just across the road. They are herbicide and pesticide- free, grass-fed animals and every year we buy one, cut and wrapped to specs and flash frozen. If you love lamb, as we do, this is nirvana.

And because he loves lamb, Clay wants it for his 50th birthday dinner. So there they sit, defrosting in the kitchen, not speaking to me. Not saying, "Oh, roast me!" "Braise me!" "Grill me!" Nada. I am bereft of inspiration. And not because I don't want to prepare a fantastic meal. I do! I really do. Where, oh where is my muse?

Check out the braised lamb dinner for 6 in the March 2005 issue of Bon Appetit. This is what I've been looking at for a week. It has all the elements of great comfort food, especially on a rainy day such as today. Plus it's elegant enough for a birthday party. I'll report back if I make all or part of the recipes.

Meanwhile, Happy 50th Birthday Clay! I love you. And I've got to get cooking...

When Life Gives You Lemons...

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As my dearly departed friend George always said, "Life is short, eat dessert first!", so...

It's Saturday afternoon and I'm wanting to make a light dessert to go with dinner featuring grilled steak. The lemons sitting in the fridge's veggie drawer are getting rather old. Not wrinkled yet, but definitely old-ish. Lemon curd seems like a good idea.

There are a ga-jillion recipes out there for lemon curd, with slightly fewer techniques for making it. Since I try to cut carbs, I'm always tweaking desserts, using Splenda instead of sugar, ground nuts instead of so much flour and, to make desserts a little less fat, using an egg substitute instead of whole eggs. I give you the following:


Lemon Curd Becomes a (Sort of) Lemon Mousse

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp. lemon zest (use a microplane)
2/3 cup Splenda (or sugar)
4 eggs or 1 cup egg substitute
6-7 tbsp. butter, cut into pieces

In a double boiler, whisk eggs and Splenda until combined. Whisk in lemon juice and zest. Stir over simmering water until mixture thickens and is quite hot. Do not bring to a boil, the eggs will curdle. This can take up to 10 minutes or more and you cannot leave this and go do something else. Trust me.

When the curd is thickened, remove from over the simmering water and whisk in the butter, a piece at a time, until completely incorporated. Allow the curd to cool then refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Having said all that - this curd did not turn out as expected. The Splenda didn't balance the astringency of the lemon juice and the whole thing didn't get quite as thickened as other curds I've made.

Well, what to do...
I took a cup of heavy cream (lo-fat just went out the window), whipped it with a bit of real sugar (ditto lo-carb), and folded it into the curd. Thus a mousse (kinda, sorta) was born and all was right with the world.

The rest of dinner went like this:

Grilled New York steaks - medium rare

A saute of mushrooms, shallots, garlic, thyme and port, reduced to a lovely sauce, went over the steaks.

Peeled and thinly sliced yams, roasted in the oven with the ubiquitous olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground tellicherry pepper, under a foil cover. After the yams were softly roasted, the foil was removed and the yams were allowed to get crispy at the edges.

A cauliflower mash with Fat Free 1/2 & 1/2 and a pat of butter. S&P to taste.

A salad of mixed spring greens, sliced red bells, hothouse cukes and baby fresh mozzarella, tossed with Roy's Italian Dressing, made in Eureka.

We poured a nice Sterling Vintner's Cab that Jennifer found at Trader Joe's in Santa Rosa. And for the second night in a row enjoyed the company of Clay's sister, sitting at the table late into the night, eating, sipping wine and talking, talking, talking.

By the way, Miles forgot that he had to work and didn't come to dinner!

Fresh Local Crab & Oysters

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My sister-in-law, Jennifer, is visiting this weekend. Yesterday we went for a long walk into town and along the beach. We stopped at the market on the way home and picked up some fresh-boiled crab, local Humboldt Bay oysters, Brio sour dough bread, and Desserts on Us Baklava.

Over Gin Martinis, the oysters were shucked, butter was melted with lots of garlic and a few drops tabasco sauce. Sour dough bread, brushed with butter and garlic, was heated in the oven. The crab was washed, cracked and placed in a large bowl. A bunch of organic California asparagus was roasted in the oven (see previous recipes).

Clay sauteed the oysters in a bit of the butter sauce. To the table went the crab, oysters, steaming hot sour dough, roasted asparagus, extra butter sauce and a bottle of really good Syrah.

We spent the next several hours talking, eating, sipping wine, butter dripping from our fingers, candles flickering in the night.

Small, sweet bites of baklava finished off this simple, fabulous, cozy meal.

Simply Catfish

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Last night's dinner was more in keeping with the new spring season.
I went out to the garden (in the rain) and picked a very large armful of red chard. Catfish filets were defrosting on the counter.

Clay and I had been munching on small slices of Arcata's Brio Olive Bread, McKinleyville's Cypress Grove Chive Chevre (sitting in a pool of Napa Valley Olive Oil Manufactory - extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar), Blue Lake's Fish Bros. smoked, wild caught king salmon, and kalamata olives. I mention these products by name to honor the culinary and entrepenurial spirit that is so alive and successful right here in our back yard.

After enjoying the above, which was a meal in itself, we wanted a very light dinner so I prepared the following:

Catfish Filets on a Bed of Chard

Wash the dirt off the chard and tear the leaves from the stem, tearing the leaves into medium size pieces. Put in a colander so water can drain, but don't dry the leaves.

Drizzle a tiny amount of olive oil into a large roasting pan. Place the chard (leaving some of the water that gets caught in the leaves) in the pan - I stuffed the pan to the top with the amount of chard that I had. Don't worry, it will cook down.

Place the catfish filets on top of the chard, not overlapping. I used about 6 catfish filets so we would have leftovers for Clay's tacos.

Drizzle another bit of olive oil over all of this. Sprinkle with generous amounts of salt and freshly ground tellicherry pepper and then squeeze the juice of a whole lemon over the whole thing.

Place in a 350 oven for about 1/2 hour, more or less, depending on the amount and size of the fish.

When the fish was cooked through, I sprinkled toasted sesame seeds over each filet. I cut through the chard that was between each filet, and with a spatula, scooped up a filet along with the chard underneath. Put it on a plate and Voila! Nothing but fresh goodness!

On a wine note, we opened a bottle of Fetzer Barrel Select Syrah, Mendocino County 2000. It's very, very good. AND, I believe it can be purchased from Bevmo.com right now for around $7.50 a bottle.

Thanks to Dianna and Mike for the wine!

I Know it's Not November, but ...

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Yesterday was the first day of Spring and one would think that I'd have whipped up something light and spring-like for dinner. But I didn't. The weather has been stormy and windy and my newly blooming flowers are in a state of shock. The temperature has plummeted and it feels like the middle of winter. To "celebrate", Clay and I went out to dinner and a movie. Wanting to write something, I offer you the following.

A number of Thanksgivings ago, faced with some left-over smoked turkey and not wanting to make soup (how un-american of me!), I came up with this spur-of-the-moment dinner, definitely influenced by the season.


Smoked Turkey Croquettes with Cranberry, Pear & Ginger Sauce

• 1/3 cup pistacios
• Peel from 1 lemon, no white pith
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 Tbsp. fresh thyme
• A large plateful of leftover turkey pieces
• Bread crumbs (no specific amount, just use your judgement)
• 2-4 eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor, grind the pistacios finely and set aside.
Next pulse the lemon peel, garlic and thyme until combined and in small bits and set that aside.
Grind the plateful of turkey pieces until it looks like, well, ground turkey.

In a large bowl, combine the pistacios, herb mixture and turkey. Add bread crumbs and blend well. In a separate bowl, beat just until blended, 2-4 eggs, depending on how much turkey mixture you have. Add eggs to the turkey mixture, mixing well. (I use my hands for this. They're the best tools I have!) Shape mixture into patties and saute in olive oil with a bit of butter until browned and crisp. Serve with the cranberry, pear, ginger sauce below.

Cranberry, Pear, Ginger Sauce

• 1 cup cranberries (may be frozen), coarsey chopped
• 1 pear, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
• 2 Tbsp candied ginger, chopped
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp cayenne (optional, but it really adds to the flavor)
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2-3 Tbsp orange juice or orange-pineapple juice

Combine first 5 ingredients in small saucepan over med-low heat, stirring until brown sugar starts to melt. Add juice, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the consistency of chutney, or to your liking. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool. Be careful, this syrupy mixture is very hot. Can be prepared several days ahead of time and stored in the fridge. Bring to room temp to serve.

I just thought of an addition to this sauce. If you can get your hands on a gloriously red jalapeno pepper, char it, peel it, seed and de-vein it, chop it finely and add it to the sauce along with or instead of the cayenne. This is, of course, if you like your sauce more on the spicy side.

Albacore!

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During the late summer, we are very lucky to be able to buy line-caught albacore tuna directly off the boats. We loin them ourselves and put them in the freezer. They thaw very quickly so are a good thing to have around when it's mid-afternoon and I suddenly remember that I haven't taken anything out of the freezer to cook that evening. Such was the case last night. I went out to the garden and picked a huge armload of kale and two beautiful spring red onions and here's what we had for dinner.

Baked Albacore with Spring Red Onions

• 4 small albacore loins
• 2 spring red onions, tops and bulbs thinly sliced
• Annie's Organic Papaya Poppy Seed Dressing
• Olive oil

Set oven to 325.

Drizzle a small roasting pan with a bit of olive oil. Place the sliced onion bulbs in the pan and put the loins on top of them. Drizzle a generous amount of the dressing over the loins and then sprinkle with the sliced green tops of the onions. Bake in the oven for 15 - 17 minutes or until the meat is cooked through but not dry.

Meanwhile, cut the stem ends of the kale in smallish (1/2 inch) slices. Heat a large pot with about a tablespoon of olive oil over med-high heat. Saute the kale stems until they soften, adding a few minced garlic cloves when the kale releases its juices. Chop the remaining kale leaves and add to the pot. At this point, I needed something else to go in the pot. I had about 3 tablespoons left of the olive oil/black fig balsamic vinegar dipping sauce from the night before so I dumped it into the kale. Stir until all the leaves are coated and cook until everything is tender but retains its green-ish color. Remove from heat.

To plate, mound kale in center of plate with an albacore loin on top and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Eat and ENJOY!