I want mussels

I need to get that song on my iTunes. I am gay, remember?

So, let's see. Nothing really in the fridge. A Whole Foods situated near the end of my bus ride home. Hmmmm. Maybe I'll buy something and cook it up for dinner. How, I don't know, French!

Mussels tonight. I haven't had them in some time, and I haven't cooked them in even longer. I made a broth of coconut milk flavoured with minced ginger, shallots, and garlic. Some brown sugar, salt, and green curry paste all added their magic to it as well. The kitchen smelled wonderfully good.

Asparagus, snow peas, sliced white onion, and red pepper pieces went into the broth for a minute or so, then the mussels followed. I tossed in some chopped fresh basil and squeezed in half a lime at the end. All of this I dished into warmed bowls at the bottom of which were some halved cherry tomatoes and more basil. Simple, really, and very tasty.
Most of the mussels were fine - there's always a dud or two - and we had a lovely dinner of them with some French rosé.

And now Conrad is doing dishes. Once in a while, I really really appreciate it. Quite a nice life I'm leading tonight!

Allan and Paul cook dinner

I'm gratified that we have good friends who don't feel some needless sense of intimidation cooking for/entertaining me and Conrad.We happily accept invitations to dine and we greatly appreciate the effort made. Of course, it helps greatly when friends have a beautiful home and make such delicious food!

Allanand Paul (on the left, Bryan on the right in both photos) hosted a dinner party on Saturday evening - we didn't even get to bring Lauraback to our place first. We headed on over to the guys' place after picking her up at the airport and spent a terrific evening there. Johnand Bryanwere also in attendance. Paul regaled us with his Ethel-Merman-does-Madonna routine (it cracks me up something fierce - Conrad, Laura, and I were still laughing about it the next day, and wishing we had Paul singing it as a ringtone on our phones!). Allan made some dynamic shrimp skewers
and sent me home with a generous bunch of fresh sage (that went into dinner in two ways the next night).

All in all, a fine evening. And photos, of course - Conrad took most of them, so he appears in none, alas.

A blurry shot of Laura, I know, but I like it because she sort of looks like Jessica Biel in it somehow.

Laura visits (Sola brunch)

I'll blog the dinner Allan and Paul prepared separately - the two gentlemen deserve their own entry. Instead, a short entry to comment on the visit from a friend from home.

Laura used to live in my hometown, but the economy there, well, stinks. She and her BF have recently relocated to northern Alberta and are in the process of settling in there for at least a few years. It was good to see her - it's been a few years since last she was through town. And she looks wonderful, of course.

Saturday was a grey, dreary, slightly wet day for her arrival.

Conrad and I did our best to brighten the day, he in a shirt I like to steal from his closet, I in a bold Hawaiian print.
Dressed to whisk her off for dinner at Allan and Paul's. We had only the drive back in to town to catch up on things before dinner, and when we got home that night, I didn't last too long, I'm afraid. The drawback to an early morning run and a long day after that.

I was up early the next morning. Coffee from Starbucks. A batch of golden raisin scones in the oven. When they were done, the three of us got caught up and looked at photos. And I have to admit, it really hammered home how bittersweet an experience it was, having Laura stay. I've lost touch with so many people from my hometown, and they, in turn, have lost touch with me. A two-way street, though I often feel guilty about it.

We made our way over to Sola for brunch at noon before returning Laura to O'Hare. Conrad and I had been there once before for dinner, and we'd enjoyed it. Brunch proved quite good as well. His smoked salmon was fine,
and my Black Forest omelet was good, too.I rather liked Laura's huevos benedictos - I kind of coveted them.Best of all? The malasadas - little sweet fried bread (like doughnuts), Portuguese style, served with a mango coulis and a raspberry coulis. Yum!

baking frustration

Ever had one of those days when a recipe just isn't going right and you have to scramble to salvage what you've done in order to turn it into something passable? Maybe pretty, but the texture is off or the taste is only okay? Welcome to my last Saturday.

Friends, I give you the edible but unexceptional apricot and bing cherry frangipane tart. Take it, please. And we'll not speak of it again.

beer pairing dinner

Thursday night we switched things up a little and broke free from having wine with dinner. No, not water for us (well, not only water - we do drink plenty of that). Beer for a change, and when I say "beer", I am most adamantly not speaking of a can or two of Bud. Then again, I know so little about beer that you could pour me a glass of Bud, tell me it's a fine Belgian or microbrew, and listen to me get all beer-bouquet florid talking about it. Happily, I don't believe the restaurant tried any tricks like that.

We went with FXK to Cafe Matou.Poor Kim, having to go to a lengthy dinner at the Morales Room at Frontera instead. Actually, although I love Frontera immensely, I think we may have had a more interesting time of it. Cafe Matou is a restaurant we'd been curious to try but never gotten around to, after all. The people assembled there seemed mostly to be regulars, but we weren't bothered not to receive quite so much attention.

FXK was there when we arrived, and all the diners for this first beer-pairing dinner were given a glass of Pyramid Apricot Weizen from Portland, OR, to start with.Nice start - lovely fruity nose (see, here's the florid language) but not candy-sweet on the tongue. Light, in fact, and quite good.

First course: casse-croute à la meli-mélo (grilled bread with three relishes – roasted peppers, black olive tapenade, cremini mushroom with celery and dill).This was paired with Stiegl Pils from Salzburg, Austria. Fine enough. Nothing outstanding. Nice tapenade. The mushrooms were, well, mushrooms, and as such, I barely ate them. None of us finished the beer. It was light in colour, and FXK judged it bland and inoffensive. I found it had a deep note of something caramelized with an edge of bitterness. Not bad, but I wasn't willing to feel tipsy from drinking too much of it.

Second round: salade de tomates au fromage bleu d’Auvergne et aux amandes (heirloom tomato salad with Auvergne blue cheese and toasted almonds).This was simple and lovely. Beautiful tomatoes with each of us having different colour combinations. The cheese was great as well, and the whole of it paired well with the St. Bernardus Bier Blanche Witbier from Watou, Belgium.

Third course: crevettes et moules au cidre (shrimp and mussels steamed in hard cider).Very very tasty, wonderfully fragrant. The shellfish was not at all overcooked - a worry I have when large groups are involved. The resulting sauce based on the cider was excellent, definitely calling for the spoon provided. And while neither FXK nor Conrad were taken with the glass of Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouché Brut de Normandie from Victot-Pontfol, France, I liked the floral yeastiness of its scent and the sweetness in the mouth. I glad had a little more when they brought it around.

Fourth course: porc grillé au jus et au confit d’oignon rouge au vinaigre rouge (grilled pork loin with pork jus and red onion-red wine vinegar compote).This was handsomely plated and tasted quite good - I liked the mix of juices from the compote with the pork jus - but I couldn't help but think that the pork might have been a little more tender. The beer was a deep golden brown Gouden Carolus Ambrio from Mechelen, Belgium. It had real body and some sweetness, and though I liked it, I didn't feel manly enough to drink the full glass. Or something like that.

Dessert: fraises, framboises, et figues à la gasconne (fresh strawberries, raspberries, and figs with spice lace cookie and rhubarb ice cream).This may have bene th ebest pairing in a way, though FXK made a good counterpoint. The Floris Framboise, a raspberry beer (though not a true lambic) from Melle, Belgium, was almost like candy by itself, but its flavour blended marvelously with the rhubarb ice cream. FXK suggested that contrast might have been better so that the flavours would complement each other in their dissimilarity, and I think it's a good point. However, not one of us left behind a lick of ice cream.

All in all, a successful evening. Cafe Matou also has wine tasting dinners on a regular basis, and if Thursday night is any indication, then the restaurant deserves more of our business just as we owe it to ourselves to explore some of the intriguing pairings they're likely to devise.

not rabbit

Our apartment smells so good right now. So darn good!

I made some pork this evening for dinner. I had sort of turned over in my head throughout the day an assortment of ideas on how to prepare it, but when I got home, I decided to consult a couple of Penelope Casas cookbooks. And as I opened one of them, I thought, "Hey wait, what about that rabbit recipe?"

Ah yes, the Conejo Aurora. Rabbit in a sauce of almonds, garlic, olives, and white wine. Sooooo good. We've enjoyed it with friends before.

So why not pork? A light meat, like rabbit. Stovetop cooking, so it wouldn't heat the place up too much in this summer weather. I set to it happily.

It worked out delightfully, as you can see. AND we have leftovers for tomorrow lunch! A warm night on the balcony, some salad and some cherries and some wine. Quite nice.

Conrad, meanwhile, is being a real tease, wearing his Hawaiian shirts lately. Poor soul has to fly - business class at that! - to Honolulu on Monday for a few days of work. I feel for him mightily.


But back to the rabbit, and I will do something I don't normally do: provide the recipe. It's a copyright thing, but really, if it convinces someone to buy Ms Casas' books, then maybe it's for the better.


Conejo Aurora
from Delicioso: the regional cooking of Spain (page 378)

• 3 oz pitted green olives, cut in half crosswise
• 1.5 oz (about 1/4 cup) blanched almonds
• a 2.5-3 lb rabbit cut into serving pieces (I used four boneless country-style pork ribs tonight)
• salt
• flour for dusting
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, lightly crushed and peeled
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• freshly ground pepper

Put the olives in a small saucepan, cover with water, and boil for five minutes. Drain the olives and reserve.

Put the almonds on a cookie tray and brown in an oven set at 350. Cool and transfer to a food processor.

Sprinkle the rabbit with some of the salt and dust with the flour. Heat the oil in a casserole, and brown the rabbit pieces on all sides. Remove from the casserole and set aside on a warm plate.

Lightly brown the garlic in the same oil. Transfer it to the food processor and reduce it and the almonds to a paste.

Add the onion to the casserole and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add the rabbit back to the casserole along with the olives, almond-garlic paste, broth, wine, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer. Let stew gently for up to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.