recent cooking

Happy Saturday!  I have banana bread in the oven and an easy afternoon ahead.  Hey, why not cast our minds back to past weekends and see what was cooking.

Two of my ASU classmates, Melissa and Patty, came over a couple of weeks ago.  First time seeing them in a few years.  Good to see them and catch up in person.  I went with an old restaurant favourite of mine for that dinner:  South Miami Cuban stew. 

A Paul Prudhomme recipe.  Authentic to Miami?  No idea.  I have always liked it, though.  A meaty stew with which I served a salad and some bread and a scoop of rice.  The leftovers came in handy in days after that, too.  Dessert was a nice one, too:  a rhubarb upside down cake. 

Oh, I love upside down cakes!  This one is lightly flavoured with anise seed, and although rhubarb is a rare (and expensive!) find in SoCal, it's worth it.

The next weekend was dinner for Geoff

and Kent. 

They have now been in the south of France for several days where they hope to fully relocate to.  It's quite the move, having sold their desert home.  We wish them best - and we hope to visit!  In the meantime, though, I cooked up the most enormous lamb shanks I have ever encountered and served them with a parsnip puree. 

I also made a lemon and blueberry trifle

that was a little better the next day and the day after, to be honest.  The cake gets to be more custardy that way.

Some recent cooking, then.  Not bad cooking either.  Tonight will be a simple pasta with some meatballs, a simple dinner.  Now to check on those banana bread loaves....

a Tuesday dinner

Conrad messaged me late afternoon yesterday, before he got home from the office but after I was home from a day of meetings at an airport hotel.  A frustrating day for him, he said.  Being the good (I hope I am good) husband that I try to be, I knew that dinner had to be a nice one for him.

And I think it was.

Humble bragging or something?  Perhaps.  But sometimes the cooking is going just right.  I set to work on dessert first, using up the leftover fresh rhubarb from the weekend to make a few individual crisps from the Mark Miller recipe that I've relied on for decades. 

Then it was on to the pork tenderloin.  I know, I make that often - it's an easy cut of meat to cook, doesn't take too long, and we both enjoy it.  I made a saffron carrot puree and cooked a bit of asparagus to go along with the pork. 

Tasty!  I was pleased with it all.

Conrad sipped a martini, I enjoyed a white wine from Paso Robles,

we watched the first episode of the new season of Top Chef, and then we strolled around the neighbourhood before I tackled dishes.  I think that I gave him a nice evening to unwind.  It was, at least, a delicious enough time!

another vegetarian dinner

Second week in a row that Conrad and I found ourselves on a Friday night in our kitchen, entertaining a friend, sipping much wine, and dining on a vegetarian meal. It happens.

We had Brad over some time back - over time we've come to realize that not only do we have our swim team in common, but all three of us quite like wine. We'd been meaning to share some BC wine with him since he'd never tried it, so we planned a casual Friday together. It actually timed out nicely - I had taken a half day sick leave for a dental appointment, and that left me home early in the afternoon and able to start cooking.

I made dessert first. Whole Foods had some very good looking rhubarb in its produce section this week. Ah, the signs of spring at Whole Foods: ramps (I didn't buy any), the masses of mangoes as their season crests. Now if only they'd have fiddleheads. Anyway, I picked up the rhubarb and, recollecting a previous attempt at an upside down cake that turned out decently,

opting for that instead of a more typical crisp or pie. Besides which, it may be the Swede in Conrad or the Briton in my background, but rhubarb is something we both rather like.

The cake turned out nicely, and with that done, I did prep for the entree and set up things for us in the kitchen. By the time Brad got here, we had a bottle of Champagne chilled and an assortment of nuts, caper berries, olives, and asparagus spears (blanched and cooled) to nibble at.

Dinner was risotto. It's funny - like last week, I went a route that I seldom go thanks to our not-entirely successful efforts to reduce Conrad's carbs intake. I haven't made risotto in some time, and to be honest, it was a little thicker and stodgier than it should have been. But it tasted good, and while the two of them sat and sipped and chatted, I was nearby stirring my pot. One funny moment was near plating when I asked Conrad to grate some romano cheese for me without specifying how much. When I turned to his counter, there was a massive pile and a rind ready to discard. Whoops. A reminder on the rare occasion that I let him in my kitchen to be very precise in what I tell him to do.

The risotto was tasty, though. I had flavoured vegetable broth with dried porcini mushrooms that I subsequently chopped and stirred into the risotto. The risotto had a generous amount of leek in it (and frizzled leek atop each serving), and at the end I stirred in fava beans I'd blanched and peeled earlier.

Perhaps it didn't spread on the plate the way it should according to Top Chef, but it was nourishing.

We had a small bit of leafy greens, then on to dessert. By that point we'd finished not only the Champagne but also a BC Pinot Noir (not as good as we'd wanted - not at all bad, but perhaps not the best representation of the wines we love from back home) and were on to a Cab that Brad had brought. Being in the kitchen meant that I had a bit less than the others, I think - I felt fine this morning on my 12-mile run, though it helped that I drank as much water as wine last night. Conversation, meanwhile, flowed through team gossip, books, wines and food, travel, and elsewhere. Brad was once again fine company.

Dessert was nice. It's not a showstopper, but then, I don't make showstoppers. I make desserts I can dish up easily and not fuss with. I can feel at least one pair of eyes rolling at me as I write that, but it's true. A big dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream along side a piece of cake,

and we were sated. I sent Brad home with a bunch of risotto, a few pieces of cake, and even four servings of a quick rhubarb crisp I'd thrown together with the extra stalks. May he enjoy them through this weekend!

Dinner with Chris

Or as I like to think of it, HAM



and CHEESE!

Chris came over for dinner last night. Sometimes I marvel at how long I've known some people, and this case is no different. He and I swam together in Montreal starting back in '98 or '99, and while I've only been in Chicago since then, he's bounced to TO, Ottawa, and now to Vancouver. We're glad, frankly. He's terrific company, and we had a great time over dinner last night.

We set out some cheese, olives, nuts, and crackers when he got here and began on a bottle of Red Rooster Pinot Gris. By the time dinner rolled around, we were sipping the Blasted Church Hatfield's Fuse he had brought with him. But with dinner it was red wine, all the way. The Golden Mile Cellars Black Arts 2006 Pinot Noir accompanied the meal itself. And readers of this blog will have seen this plate, or a similar one, before. Braised lamb shank, asparagus, and a parsnip and leek puree. I was pleased with it. Nice!

I avoided chocolate for dessert, sort of. We each had a rhubarb crisp topped with vanilla ice cream (no, I did not make the ice cream, sorry). It was after the crisp that I rolled out some chocolate to nibble on, and the Summerhill 2005 Enchanted Vines Solus Foch capped the evening.

It may not surprise you to hear that we've tried to eat a little more moderately today.

muffins

Gosh, when was the last time I made muffins? Surely since the days of living in Halifax, making these leaden little round blueberry things that I ate but shared with no one. The word "leaden" should tell you why I don't make them often: more often than not (overmixing?), they turn out to be dense little balls of cooked batter with stuff in them.

Given rhubarb in the fridge, though, and also given that I'm alone until Thursday, necessitating making something easily stored or taken into work, muffins it was. A quick search online and Bob's your uncle: rhubarb buttermilk muffins.

Long time readers (all two of you) of the blog will be amused that buttermilk continues to be a key ingredient in my baking. Ah well. I also had bananas to use, but the banana bread I made (also using buttermilk) was rather less photogenic. Ah well.

The muffins have a sweet topping, but overall are less sweet than I expected from the quantity of brown sugar in the batter. The rhubarb adds a good sour note, and walnuts add a bit of wholesomeness to the mix. Not too bad a first time effort. A recipe to keep a hold of and play with in the future.

bouillabaisse and rhubarb cake

I'm kind of knackered here, so this will hardly be the most graceful prose I've committed to blog.

We haven't seen Frank much lately, so we grabbed an opportunity to dine with him tonight and ran with it. No sooner was I home from breakfast/groceries at Whole Foods than it was into the kitchen with me, baking up a rhubarb and anise upside down cake.
First attempt at the recipe, but I think it's a keeper. Not at all difficult to make, and ultimately fragrant and tasty.


All in all, it was an easy dinner to prepare for. I didn't have a lot to do in the kitchen, and that gave me plenty of time to tidy up around the place and get the table set for the three of us.


Frank came by at around 7, bearing gifts of cheeses from Pastoral. This was a little wicked of him, especially the Spanish blue, and we could have really spoiled our appetites badly just by munching all the cheese before dinner. As it was, we tucked in without too much difficulty. Bouillabaise tonight, or, at least, a simplified version. None of this buying $150 of fish and shellfish just to boil the carcasses and shells down into a stock. Clam juice was the base, and it turned out quite fine. We had had some Seresin Sauvignon Blanc with the cheeses, and we opted for the Seresin Tatou Pinot Noir with the meal. Both were lovely, especially the Pinot Noir (ah, to have the Marama Sauvignon Blanc again...).

Frank digs in.


I was pleased with the dinner. The seafood was not overcooked. The mussels were especially plump and good.I followed it up with a simple salad, and we polished off most of the rest of the cheese before dessert.

Ah, dessert. Upside down cakes rock. I'm not fond of the dry cake/syrupy pineapple things in a square pan that are a rare recollection from childhood. Oh, I'll eat them, but they aren't that remarkable. The plum cardamom upside down cake recipe I have is much better, if a bit sloppy. This is a good alternative for spring. I think I may make it again when Bradley and Dan come for dinner on Tuesday. Ooo, and we can take some to Rachel's tomorrow!

Served warm with a generous dollop of whipped cream - mmmmm.

Rhubarb meringue custard pie

Because what else would I do on a gorgeously sunny weekend in Chicago but stay inside the house and bake!

No, really, there is good reason: Kenn and Cliff have invited us to dinner tonight, and we were asked to bring dessert. Conrad can, I admit, work wonders with boneless chicken breasts and cream of mushroom soup, but I am not sure I want him to tackle dessert without his Mom co-baking. Over to me, then.

Helen used to make this on occasion at the restaurant, but I've never tried the recipe. The rhubarb meringue custard pie comes from a cookbook by Karen Barnaby of the Fish House in Stanley Park. Nice restaurant, and I do like her books. Not-so-secretly, I utterly love this one for its cover alone, but there are some good recipes in it.

I did the whole thing her way, pretty much. I used her pastry recipe even, which was fine though not the same as my own.




Conrad was a little fascinated by the whole process of working with pastry. I have to admit, I'm still a bit haphazard about the whole process. Mine is usually good enough, and it took me a lot more practice than I care to admit to get to "good enough"!




The pie smelled lovely once it was out of the oven. I hope it turns out fine. Rhubarb just struck me as such a perfect spring thing to use for dessert. Yes, those are jam tartlets in the background - what better use to put leftover dough to? You surely know I'd munch on all the raw dough otherwise!


The pie juest came out of its second bake a short time ago. I should say that the second bake - kind of obviously - is to toast the meringue and nothing more. I think it looks decent enough for dinner (though the crust is a little speckly brown - from the butter?). I kind of hope that everyone assumes it's a lemon pie and enjoys the surprise of the rhubarb custard filling!