Sunday Dinner - Kate Style

As all too often happens, work has been interfering with play.  Cooking, blogging, reading, gardening, relaxing on the screened porch with a glass of wine.  All of that and more have taken a back seat to a huge transition in our business.  Someday soon, I'll have a new website and can share some of the info.  It's all good.  I'm just looking forward to getting more work/play balance in our lives. 


Frequently, I'll jot down recipes and ideas and never post them.  Haven't even had time to do that.  We've made our weekly loaves of bread in the bread machine.  Some, like the lemon oregano and the sage onion have been spectacular.  Some like the most recent have been dense and not appealing...    We made the best lobster rolls ever.  With browned butter.  Oh, my, those were GOOD!  We made fondue for the first time ever.  I went to my first Raymond James Women's Symposium in Tampa and got to see my friend, Sarah, on a panel.  Connie ziplined at Craig and Diane's one year anniversary party.  We watched Peyton's jersey get retired.  Chad and Kelly got married.  A trip to Fort Wayne to see Garrison Keillor meant dinner at Casa D'Angelos.  We saw Khazir Khan.  And, we loved a concert with our friends Mark and Chris.  Drinks with my brother John and sister-in-law Pam.  We went to a couple of dinners at Chef JJ's.  And, a couple at Chef Josephs.  A hurricane fundraiser (bbq) and a salmon cookoff at Bent Rail Brewery.  One dinner there when we just didn't have the energy to do anything but order.  But when it came to blogging, the mountain of unread newspapers and magazines always drew me to that side of the great room.  Tonight, though, I really must record what we had for dinner.  It was too good and I want to be able to make it again.  Please accept my apologies for the guesses on the measurements.  It was a last minute thrown together substitution for the much more complicated meal I'd planned for this evening.  And, I'm REALLY glad I had to substitute!


Here are some photos along the way of the last six weeks...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight I'd planned crab legs with a champagne beurre blanc.  Wasn't happening when dinner prep started at 7:30.  My original intent was to get something out of the freezer that I'd actually made and frozen for lunch but had yet to take into the office.  Then, I saw the frozen duck breast and thought how wonderful that'd be with pear cranberry salsa.  There were pears that had to be used up.  I'd gone onto eatyourbooks.com and looked at various pear salsas.  The pear and cranberry combo had most appealed to us.  But, I didn't want to go to the basement and hunt for the 1996 Cooks Illustrated.  Odds are good it's down there.  I just didn't want to hunt.  So, if I did duck along with pear cranberry salsa what else would be good and quick?  Neither of us wanted potatoes or rice.  Lentils sounded good.  Lentils with artichoke hearts.  And, maybe lemon.  I'd figure it out as I went along. 

The duck breast went into a bowl of warm water to thaw - still in it's package.  Lentils went into a pan to cook.  A loaf of multi-grain bread went into the bread maker.  And, everything else started going into two bowls...

Pear Cranberry Salsa

2 ripe pears, not peeled, diced

1/2 c fresh cranberries, pulsed in the processor until they're diced

1/2 c walnuts, chopped

1 small or 1/2 large jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced

1/2 small red onion, minced

1 T sherry vinegar

2 T extra virgin olive oil

Mix it all together and allow it to stand for about 30 minutes prior to serving.

Lentil Artichoke Salad

1/2 c green lentils, cooked

1/2 red onion, diced

1/2 T olive oil

1/4 c dry white wine

1/2 c crumbled feta cheese

1 T capers

1 t lemon zest

1 T lemon juice

2 T extra virgin olive oil 

Cook the lentils.  Saute the onion in the olive oil and deglaze the pan with the white wine.  Drain the lentils and toss everything together.  Serve at room temperature.

Duck Breast with Pear Liqueur

1 duck breast

1 T flour

1/4 c pear liqueur

Score the duck skin in a cross hatch pattern.  Be careful to not cut the meat.  Heat a skillet until it's hot enough for water droplets to sizzle.  Brown the duck breast with the fat side down.  Flip it and cook until it's your preferred doneness.  Remove the duck from the skillet and tent it with foil to keep it warm.  Whisk the flour into the rendered duck fat.  Cook it until it's browned.  Gradually pour in the pear liqueur, whisking as you pour.  You may need to add a tablespoon of water.  Slice the duck and serve with the sauce. 



Blood Orange Mojitos, Wine Poached Pear Salad, Chicken Spiedini and Lemon Couscous

Saturday late afternoon was for shopping.  The fan on the porch broke last year while being cleaned.  Without one of its blades it made a horrid kerchunk, kerchunk sound whenever it was turned on.  The light fixture in the pantry was down to one bulb out of three.  The other two had broken off and we couldn't get our fingers in to clear the debris.  The table between our rocking chairs on the porch lost a leg last winter.  It's almost spring and we're very anxious to be able to use the porch again. In fact, as I type this I've actually got the sliding door to the porch open for the first time since last year.  YAY!   Can't get too excited though as snow is in the forecast for tonight... 

Our first stop was Tuesday Morning.  In theory we went there to look for the replacement table.  In reality, they typically have some bargain cookbooks.  Connie knew the real reason we were going there and was happy to go along with my addiction.  Hey, at least it's cookbooks and not something like shoes!  Three cookbooks later, we were on our way.  As usual I started reading one of the cookbooks as we drove around.  First up was Adventures in Grilling by Willie Cooper.

By the time we got to our last stop I'd identified three recipes to try that evening.  They were all built around a couscous recipe from Michael Symon's 5 in 5 cookbook that I totally adore.  He'd suggested chicken with the couscous so that's the recipe I was looking for.  I really wanted to fix a great dinner because it'd been a couple of weeks since we'd actually been home for a dinner and not had leftovers or been out somewhere or another for dinner. 

What did we think?  Amazing dinner.  We started with blood orange mojitos.  The recipe didn't call for stirring them up.  After Connie gave me my glass and I tasted it, I grabbed an ice cream sundae spoon and gave it a good stir.  Fabulous.  Then, we had poached pear salad.  YUM!  We rarely give fives.  Both of those were.  I'd taken a chicken spiedini recipe and treated it as a marinade.  And, I'd made the couscous.  Both were very good.  But, they were only fours.  Which is still pretty darned good in our book!

Blood Orange Mojito

Ingredients:

Serves four

20 mint leaves plus four mint sprigs
4 fl oz simple syrup (we use 2:1 sugar to water)
3 fl oz white rum
4 fl oz fresh lime juice
750 ml club soda
2 blood oranges

Directions:

Muddle the mint leaves and simply syrup in a cocktail shaker.  Be gentle and don't tear the mint leaves.  Fill highball glasses with ice.  Pour in the mint-infused simple syrup then add the rum and the lime juice.  Squeeze half a blood orange into each glass.  Stir gently and top with a mint sprig.

adapted from Grilling Adventures


Poached Pear Salad

serves 2

Ingredients:

for the poaching liquid:

1 c white wine (I used chardonnay)
1/3 c granulated sugar
1 t lavender
1 T honey
1/2 vanilla bean, halved and vanilla scraped into the mix

for the salad dressing:

1/2 light olive oil
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
2 T champagne vinegar
2 T Dijon mustard
1 shallot, minced
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper


for the salads:

1 Bartlett or D'Anjou pear, peeled, halved and cored
arugula or watercress or spinach
blue cheese
toasted walnuts or pecans, toasted

Directions:

Combine the poaching ingredients in a medium saucepan. 

 the photo above is me scraping a vanilla bean. the background is bacon for a grilled cheese later in the week...

Cook over medium heat for ten minutes or until the sugar has dissolved.  Add the pears and poach for about 15 minutes until the pears are softened but not mushy. 

While the pears are poaching, mix everything for the dressing but the oils in a small bowl.  Whisk constantly while pouring in the oil.  When the dressing is emulsified, it's ready.  Cool the pears in the poaching liquid.  To prepare the salad, brush the pears with oil and grind black pepper over them.  (I skipped this and the grilling.)  Grill them for about two minutes on medium direct heat.  Serve sliced on a bed of greens, drizzled with dressing and topped with crumbled blue cheese and toasted nuts.

adapted from Adventures in Grilling


Chicken Spiedini

Ingredients:

1/4 c olive oil
1 T each fresh rosemary, oregano and marjoram, roughly chopped
1/4 c dry white wine
4 chicken thighs

Directions:
Stir together the olive oil and herbs. 

Make the marinade with half of the olive oil mixture and all of the white wine.  Marinate the chicken for 15-20 minutes at room temperature. 

Grill, turning once and basting with the balance of the olive oil mixture.  Remove from the grill when the internal temperature has reached 160.  Allow the chicken to rest for 10 minutes prior to serving.  Tent the meat with foil to keep it warm.

adapted from Adventures in Grilling


Lemon Couscous

Ingredients:

1 c couscous
grated zest and juice of one lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
1 c halved cherry tomatoes
1 c boiling water
1/4 c pine nuts, toasted
1/2 c fresh mint leaves
3 T extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Mix the first five ingredients.  Cover and let sit for five minutes. 

Add the other ingredients.  Fluff with a fork and serve. 

adapted from 5 in 5 by Michael Symon