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. 



Grapevine Smoked Duck Breasts with Peaches

Sometimes the most simple recipes are the most amazing.  Take this weekend's recipe from Mimi.  Smoked duck breasts with peaches.  Cross hatch the fatty side of the duck breasts, rub them with salt and pepper.  Put them in a hot skillet fat side down to render some of the fat.  Smoke them over grapevines.  Saute peach halves in the duck fat.  Super simple and totally incredible.  These duck breasts were perfect on their own.  They will be amazing in many different preparations.  Like a few slices on top of risotto.  Or, on a salad.  Or, in a sandwich.  Or on pizza.

I will say that my thermometer for the grill died a couple of months ago.  I bought what I thought was a replacement but this one isn't supposed to be used on the grill.  So, it was either guess or keep poking.  I guessed.  And, I guessed too early.  So, once we cut into our duck and it was a bit too rare for us, I sliced the breasts and brought them to the right temp in the bit of peach flavored duck fat that was still sitting in the skillet.  I'll probably use the same technique next time because we liked how evenly done the breasts were. 

Here's how it came together:

Still Celebrating!!

Happy New Year!

We celebrated with our normal seafood fest.  This year, though, we toned it down a bit.  It's usually a multi-course extravaganza with loads of leftovers.  This year we had a few leftovers to use for dinner with Mom.  But, not like most years. 

We've just kept celebrating from Christmas on...  We'd bought a duck to fix Christmas evening but truth be told we were having so daggone much fun relaxing that we never got it made.  The next evening I pulled out my trusty FARM Bloomington cookbook by Chef Daniel Orr and followed his directions for roasting duck.  Believe it or not, it was wonderfully moist and NOT greasy.  Now, what I'd do differently is really glaze it so it doesn't need barbecue sauce.  And, you could remove the skin and crisp it up.  We just removed it and tossed it...  Much healthier!

Then, Jim and Donna had their annual games party.  We both look forward to an evening of games, camaraderie, and snacks.  I took my friend Brett's pimento cheese.  It's kicked up from the normal pimento cheese we love.  Brett adds in some pickled jalapenos and toasted pecans. Did I get a photo?  Nope, so you'll just have to imagine. 

The first year I met Connie we talked about what we like and don't like about New Years Eve.  Neither of us like the big parties.  Staying home and having a special dinner is much more our style.  I asked what he'd like for dinner and he said, "Seafood."  He's from Boston and that's what a special meal is.  Seafood.  Off to the fish market I went.  Where I proceeded to buy about one of everything.  We must've had eleven courses.  You name the seafood, we had it.  Over the years, we've narrowed the menu down considerably.  This year it was grilled oysters and a seafood salad.  That's it.  It was pretty perfect! 

We used the leftover crab in a wonderful pasta dish.  When I read the recipe I knew it was the one for us because it not only had crab but also crème fraiche.  And, I had a cup of homemade crème fraiche from quiches with the kids.  I also had a bit of leftover tasso ham from the oysters and caviar from the salad...  Needless to say they were a great addition to the pasta!

New Year's Day is always a party at my brother's house.  Except this year there were going to be 29 there.  And, Mom has a bad back.  And, she's about 4'8 now and pushing 90 years old.  She and my brother John agreed she should stay home.  So, Connie and I took dinner to her instead of going to John and Pam's.  Actually, we stopped by their house since I'd promised to bring a Casa D'Angelo salad.  Then, we headed to Mom's.

I made pork loin in sauerkraut just like Pam's mom does.  But, I did mine in the crockpot to see how it turned out.  Fabulous!  Then, I made smashed potatoes.  It's a recipe from a restaurant in Santa Fe called SantaCafe.  These potatoes were so fabulous I bought the cookbook when there some 15-20 years ago.  Looks like it's still open so that's good news!  At any rate, these are lumpy potatoes with carrots and green chilies.  Not your normal mashed potatoes.  The first and only time I've made them for the crew at John and Pam's house, Pam's mom asked if I'd like for her to finish them.  You know, get the lumps out.  I said, no thank you, they're supposed to be that way.  She was scandalized.  Lumpy potatoes!!!  You see, they LOVE their mashed potatoes and they must be totally lump free.  My side of the family however prefers some lumps and bumps. 

You know, I just looked through photos to see what I'd want to put in this post and realized I totally forgot about one fabulous meal.  We make Mom's vegetable soup from scratch.  Using stew beef and beef bones.  We also had the trimmings from the beef tenderloin we were taking to the kids.  The butcher was kind enough to cut the beef bones in half.  We roasted them and feasted on the marrow.  It went on toast with some Himalayan pink sea salt shavings.  (Thank you, Liz!) 

Then, we used the beef to make a fabulous recipe from Michael Symon's Carnivore.

Throughout all of our cooking adventures, Wee Mac remains too tense.  Here he is valiantly guarding some cookbooks...

Let's start with New Year's Eve since this was the recipe to beat all recipes!  I got the recipe out of Wine Spectator.  It was in an article about the Reveillon dinner at Emeril's in New Orleans.  The original recipe called for 36 oysters and veal demiglace.  Since there were two of us I cut it down to 1/6th the original recipe and subbed in some beef Better Than Bouillon for the demiglace.  The original recipe called for 3/4 c of demiglace.  That would've translated to two tablespoons.  I used a teaspoon of the BTB. 

Emeril's Grilled Oysters

Ingredients:

6 oysters, washed and patted dry
2 oz butter, at room temp
2 T veal demiglace (I used one tsp of beef Better than Bouillon)
1/2 fresh sage leaf, finely minced (I used about 1/4 t of rubbed sage)
1/4 t minced garlic
1/2 t lemon juice
1/4 t finely grated lemon zest
1/4 oz tasso ham, finely minced
smidge crushed red pepper flakes
1 T panko breadcrumbs
1/2 c finely grated romano cheese

Directions:

Mix the butter with everything through the red pepper flakes. 

Shuck the oysters being careful to conserve the liquor.  Put the oysters on a bed of rock salt.  We used a 9x13 pan for six oysters.  Sprinkle the oysters with the panko.  The recipe actually called for a teaspoon of the panko.  By the time I was done sprinkling, I used closer to a tablespoon. 

Then, top the oysters with the butter mixture. 

Sprinkle them with the romano cheese. 

Since it was so cold out that the grill would've been fussy, we chose to broil the oysters.  Broil or grill just until the cheese has melted. 

adapted from Wine Spectator


Smashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

5 small-medium russet potatoes, coarsely chopped
2 handfuls of baby carrots, chopped
2-4 T butter
1/3 - 1/2 c sour cream
4 oz can chopped green chilies (or chopped fresh green chile)
5 dashes Tabasco sauce (I omit this sometimes)
pinch cayenne pepper
1/4 c chopped green onion
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In a medium saucepan with water to cover, simmer the potatoes and carrots for about 20 minutes or until very soft.  Drain well.  Add the butter.  Smash with a potato masher.   Do NOT use a mixer as that will get them too smooth.  Mix in the other ingredients.  These make fabulous potato pancakes for leftovers...


Pan Roasted Sirloin with Mushrooms and Soy

Ingredients:

1 2-lb top sirloin steak
kosher salt
1/2 t sugar
2 T plus 1 T canola oil
1 lb mushrooms cleaned and sliced (he called for chanterelles.  I had creminis)
1 shallot, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T fresh thyme leaves
1/2 c dry red wine
1 T soy sauce
1 T grainy mustard
1 T unsalted butter

Directions:

You're supposed to start by rubbing the beef with a mixture of 2t of salt and the 1/2 t of sugar then refrigerating it overnight.  Problem was that I wanted to fix the beef for that very evening.  So, I just skipped the refrigerate overnight step.  If you do follow those instructions, please make sure to bring the beef to room temp for about half an hour before browning it...  Now, to brown it, heat 2 T of the oil in a skillet.  Once it's shimmering, pat the beef dry and put it in for about 3-4 minutes per side.  That'll give you medium rare.  Remove the beef and allow it to rest.  Make sure you put it on a plate or cutting board that'll allow the juices to accumulate and not run off. 

Now, in the skillet that you browned the beef in,

add the remaining tablespoon of oil.  Heat it to shimmering and add the mushrooms. 

You'll want them to get nicely browned so they'll need to cook for about 4-5 minutes.  Use medium high heat when cooking the mushrooms.  Now, reduce the heat to medium and start adding the other ingredients. 

First the garlic for about a minute.  Then, the thyme for another minute.  Then, the wine.  You'll want it to reduce by half before adding the balance of the ingredients.  Add the juices that've accumulated.  Slice the sirloin in very thin slices, against the grain.  Spoon the sauce over the beef.

adapted from Carnivore by Michael Symon



Crab Pasta with Prosecco and Meyer Lemon Sauce

Ingredients:

2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 large shallot, sliced
1/8 t red chili flakes
3/4 t kosher salt, divided
1 1/2 c dry prosecco
1 c crème fraiche
zest of 2 Meyer lemons
2-3 T Meyer lemon juice
1 lb shelled, cooked crab
1 lb fresh fettucine
1/4 c chopped flat-leaf parsley


Directions:

The sauce will come together in about the time it takes to get the pasta cooked.  Start a large pot of salted water.  You'll want to bring it to a boil then add the pasta so it finishes cooking at the same time the sauce is ready.  While that's heating up, sauté the shallot and chili flakes in the oil in a medium skillet.  Once the shallot is softened, whisk in the prosecco and crème fraiche.  Over medium high heat, bring the mixture to a boil.  Once it's reduced to about 1 3/4 cups (which will take 10-15 minutes,) stir in the lemon zest, 2 T of lemon juice and the crab.  Remove the crab sauce from the heat. Toss the sauce with the al dente pasta and serve topped with some chopped parsley.