November 4th. The opening of bay scallop season here on the east end.
And the harvest is big, beautiful, and meaty.
Our good friend (actually our dog Bryn's best friend) donned his wetsuit and returned with a king's ransom. They are so wonderful, and rare, we've been frequenting the fish market for more. (A word of thanks to the big scientific project underway by the Cornell Marine Program to "jump start" the scallop population by introducing 11 million year-olds into the bays.)
Darling Husband has, to my taste, pefected the most delicious way to cook those glistening white animal bodies: Scallops in Braiselles (or breadcrumbs, bruseln as his Austrian grandmother would say). The toasty buttery breadcrumbs added to the pan fried scallops at the end soak in all the concentrated juices. The taste is pure scallop. The best vegetables to accompany, complement, and not overpower -- crispy baked potatoes and fresh brussel sprouts (with braiselles of course.) Everything from the farmstand and the fishmarket. Very locavore.
After you put the potatoes in the oven, this dinner is prepared very quickly. Here's the order:
Baked Potato
The easiest thing in the world and so delicious! Buy Rusetts from your farmer. We like them cooked hot and fast -- 420 degree oven for 1 hour. They are very crispy, and open with a crack! I like to season mine with olive oil, DH slathers butter, of course.
Braiselles
Brown breadcrumbs in a small pan, about 1/2 c., in butter/olive oil. (For color and taste, add some sesame or poppy seeds.)
Brussell Spouts
Those glorious green brussel spout stalks are at every farmstand. We buy a stalk and keep it outdoors in the cool. A la Julia, wash (soak in cold water briefly), trim, and toss into boiling salted water. Remove / drain when still green and a little crunchy. Cover them with the finished braiselles.
Scallops
Add scallops to melted butter and a bay leaf. For a few minutes let them cook and emit their juices. The juice will concentrate as it bubbles and the scallops will reabsorb some. Then toss in the browned bread crumbs at the end, mix around to absorb the remaining juice.
Great with local chardonnay.
Cost
3/4 lb scallops ($15-$20 lb.)
2 bakers $1
brussel spouts ($2 a stalk-several meals worth)
Total: $15-$17
Guten Appetit!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Eggplant Pizza
Well not exactly completely eggplant.
One night a week we have pizza. Because we love it, and because I have convinced Darling Husband that "eating down the food chain" (i.e. less meat) is better for our health, and the health of the planet. Our toppings are local and fresh-- as much as is possible -- always different, and sooo delicious.
We buy the dough from the local "brick oven pizza" guys in Greenport. It's the best. When home DH puts it in a zip lock plastic bag and then in the 'fridge. When kids are over, we have fun asking them to "make the pizza" by spreading it out over an olive oiled pan with holes. (Wash your hands first!) Then they can be artistic with their own toppings.
Tonight, in order: garden herbs - basil, oregano, garlic flowers -- mozzarella and bits of a beautiful Gorgonzola Dulce, nickle and quarter sized thin slices of a skinny eggplant lightly tossed in olive oil, last night's yummy ham cut in strips. 450 oven, 20 minutes or so. The eggplant crisped slightly and was perfect. We plastered it all over the pizza, and it could have used more!
Yes, tasty tomatoes!
Sliced real-tomato-tasting tangy tomatoes, nearly as good as I remember as a kid, from Latham's farm became our appetizer. Odd, though, these were crunchy. We luxuriate in them all August and September, and toss any leftover --tomato, oil, basil -- in a zip lock in the freezer, to be a delightful summer remembrance on a January evening.
Dinner
Eggplant Pizza
Tomato basil salad
Cost
Dough $2
eggplant, tomato $ 2
mozarella, Gorgonzola - $4 (only used half, actually this is a guess, the Gorgonzola was a gift)
garden herbs, leftover ham
Total: $8 (because we reduce, recycle, reuse)
Buon appetito!
One night a week we have pizza. Because we love it, and because I have convinced Darling Husband that "eating down the food chain" (i.e. less meat) is better for our health, and the health of the planet. Our toppings are local and fresh-- as much as is possible -- always different, and sooo delicious.
We buy the dough from the local "brick oven pizza" guys in Greenport. It's the best. When home DH puts it in a zip lock plastic bag and then in the 'fridge. When kids are over, we have fun asking them to "make the pizza" by spreading it out over an olive oiled pan with holes. (Wash your hands first!) Then they can be artistic with their own toppings.
Tonight, in order: garden herbs - basil, oregano, garlic flowers -- mozzarella and bits of a beautiful Gorgonzola Dulce, nickle and quarter sized thin slices of a skinny eggplant lightly tossed in olive oil, last night's yummy ham cut in strips. 450 oven, 20 minutes or so. The eggplant crisped slightly and was perfect. We plastered it all over the pizza, and it could have used more!
Yes, tasty tomatoes!
Sliced real-tomato-tasting tangy tomatoes, nearly as good as I remember as a kid, from Latham's farm became our appetizer. Odd, though, these were crunchy. We luxuriate in them all August and September, and toss any leftover --tomato, oil, basil -- in a zip lock in the freezer, to be a delightful summer remembrance on a January evening.
Dinner
Eggplant Pizza
Tomato basil salad
Cost
Dough $2
eggplant, tomato $ 2
mozarella, Gorgonzola - $4 (only used half, actually this is a guess, the Gorgonzola was a gift)
garden herbs, leftover ham
Total: $8 (because we reduce, recycle, reuse)
Buon appetito!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Watermelon Tomato Salad, Corn & Shrimp Chowder
Dinner in the Vines
Sunday night we had "dinner in the vines" with chef Tom Schaudel and 40 others from Connecticut, Rockville Centre, Greenport.....
Candlelight in a vineyard. It was elegant, lovely, convivial, delicious. Loved the surprising tomato appetizer. Amazingly rich, almost sweet. Checking the menu this was "tomato watermelon salad". I had to ask Chef Schaudel what was his dressing? His own verjus and olive oil, 50/50. I'm not surprised. No sourness of vinegar. Verjus (green juice) is made from unripe green grapes, pressed when the acid level is high, and then either pasteurized to be stable, or refrigerated. It is picked at a high acid level but not allowed to become vinegar. It will ferment if allowed to, but it's kept cold.
To me this is pure Julia. Learn the classic, love the classic, and be innovative. Add a slice of watermelon to tomatoes, stay with the softer melon, and make a verjus dressing.
Another Riff on Tomatoes
Can't get enough of those sun-red-ripe August sliced tomatoes with basil, again tonight with a ham we cooked because my brother was coming for dinner (we usually only cook ham with guests, otherwise there is so much leftover). Leftover ham glaze from a previous ham we glazed with rum, sugar, peaches, orange peel, was pulled from the freezer, thawed and poured over the baking ham. Dinner was boiled farmstand potatoes with parsley (I insisted on potatoes), baked corn on the cob, tomatoes with basil and garlic flowers. We sprinkled some local goat cheese "white snow" over the tomatoes -- tangy.
Corn Chowder
Our dinner-in-the-vines companions were telling us about their corn chowder with shrimp: onions saute, add corn, saute, then milk and boil the shrimp separately and add at the last. Darling Husband said he would never make it. He'd rather make a bacon version, and add broth boiled from the corn cobs (something we learned from chef Todd Jacobs.)
Did I mention my brother baked a lovely apple tart a la Julia -- apples and apricot jam?
Our Dinner (for 3)
ham - $13- lots leftover
corn -$3
potatoes $2 part of our csa share
tomatoes $2
cheese $2
Cost
$21
Leftover ham for days. And sliced several meals for my brother.
Bon appetit!
Sunday night we had "dinner in the vines" with chef Tom Schaudel and 40 others from Connecticut, Rockville Centre, Greenport.....
Candlelight in a vineyard. It was elegant, lovely, convivial, delicious. Loved the surprising tomato appetizer. Amazingly rich, almost sweet. Checking the menu this was "tomato watermelon salad". I had to ask Chef Schaudel what was his dressing? His own verjus and olive oil, 50/50. I'm not surprised. No sourness of vinegar. Verjus (green juice) is made from unripe green grapes, pressed when the acid level is high, and then either pasteurized to be stable, or refrigerated. It is picked at a high acid level but not allowed to become vinegar. It will ferment if allowed to, but it's kept cold.
To me this is pure Julia. Learn the classic, love the classic, and be innovative. Add a slice of watermelon to tomatoes, stay with the softer melon, and make a verjus dressing.
Another Riff on Tomatoes
Can't get enough of those sun-red-ripe August sliced tomatoes with basil, again tonight with a ham we cooked because my brother was coming for dinner (we usually only cook ham with guests, otherwise there is so much leftover). Leftover ham glaze from a previous ham we glazed with rum, sugar, peaches, orange peel, was pulled from the freezer, thawed and poured over the baking ham. Dinner was boiled farmstand potatoes with parsley (I insisted on potatoes), baked corn on the cob, tomatoes with basil and garlic flowers. We sprinkled some local goat cheese "white snow" over the tomatoes -- tangy.
Corn Chowder
Our dinner-in-the-vines companions were telling us about their corn chowder with shrimp: onions saute, add corn, saute, then milk and boil the shrimp separately and add at the last. Darling Husband said he would never make it. He'd rather make a bacon version, and add broth boiled from the corn cobs (something we learned from chef Todd Jacobs.)
Did I mention my brother baked a lovely apple tart a la Julia -- apples and apricot jam?
Our Dinner (for 3)
ham - $13- lots leftover
corn -$3
potatoes $2 part of our csa share
tomatoes $2
cheese $2
Cost
$21
Leftover ham for days. And sliced several meals for my brother.
Bon appetit!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Potage Parmentier now Magenta Pink
Well, I turned the potage Parmentier shocking magenta. Checking leftovers, we had some deliciously sweet beets from our CSA and a quart of duck stock (bones from an earlier duck dinner cooked down.) Rich in taste and color, served hot.
We took a container to the celebration dinner on Shelter Island for our neice's first day as a freshman at Wellesley tomorrow.
Recipe
Potato and fresh onion soup
cooked beets, grated
duck stock -- add to taste
Cost
extra beets $2
leftover soup and stock
As they say in Poland
We took a container to the celebration dinner on Shelter Island for our neice's first day as a freshman at Wellesley tomorrow.
Recipe
Potato and fresh onion soup
cooked beets, grated
duck stock -- add to taste
Cost
extra beets $2
leftover soup and stock
As they say in Poland
Na zdrowie!
Bon appetit!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Vichyssoise
With scallions and an onion languishing in the 'refrig, and a half filled basket of potatoes, remainders of our Sang Lee csa weekly veggie boxes, I thought to make Vichyssoise. With darling Husband refusing to barbecue the onions -- and he can't digest raw onions -- with the August temperature dipping to 65, possibly due to Hurricane Danny -- it just seemed right. Julia will tell you the famous one is chilled -- leek and potato simmered in lightly salted water. That's it. You can add cream at the end, or other additions such as watercress, spinach "and so forth" And of course you may substitute onions, but you will miss that "wonderful pervading and special flavor that is a trademark of the leek."
The classic French potato and leek soup, which the chef credited with creating the cold Vichyssoise version remembers from his childhood, was an invention of a scientist/nutritionist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier who championed the potato as a human food source and was also responsible for mandatory smallpox vaccinations under Napoleon, starting in 1805. As a farm boy in France, the inventive chef of the Ritz-Carlton in NY remembers he and his brother cooling the potage Parmentier with milk--delicious.
The history of food always interests me -- in 1805 what were my great grandparents eating from their East Hampton farm? Lt. Abraham Sherrill and his wife Anna Huntting had just added a kitchen wing with a "modern" fireplace in the most up-to-date style of open hearth cooking -- or so my mother researched. And the first of their three sons was born. So maybe they had a potato milk soup. Potatoes were not to become the big Long Island economy crop until 80 years later, with the loss of Brooklyn farms and rail trucking into NYC making single crop farming lucrative. Did Americans like Washington and Jefferson eat potatoes in 180o? I wonder.
According to a trivia website Thomas Jefferson served "french fries" in the White House. So says thegardenersrake.com.
I have the Thomas Jefferson Cook Book which I picked up with my mother when we visited Wintethur to see the Dominy Workshop and Collection. It lists a Potato Soup that includes butter, rice or tapioca, sorrel (or tomatoes!) and 3 egg yolks -- sieve and serve hot.
Tonight
Vichyssoise
Gardeners Bay Bluefish on the grill
Garden tomatoes with basil and garlic flowers
Corn on the cob
Darling Husband was saying our signature accent in cooking is the amazing white garlic flowers, and garlic greens, which we start adding to salads, soups, meats, fish, vegetables in the early spring when the greens pop up and now in August with those tangy flowers. We added them chopped to float on the Vichysoise, adding an aroma of garlic, and a zest.
Cost:
$5 fish (only half of it so $2.50)
$2 corn and tomato
$4.50
Bon Appetit!
The classic French potato and leek soup, which the chef credited with creating the cold Vichyssoise version remembers from his childhood, was an invention of a scientist/nutritionist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier who championed the potato as a human food source and was also responsible for mandatory smallpox vaccinations under Napoleon, starting in 1805. As a farm boy in France, the inventive chef of the Ritz-Carlton in NY remembers he and his brother cooling the potage Parmentier with milk--delicious.
The history of food always interests me -- in 1805 what were my great grandparents eating from their East Hampton farm? Lt. Abraham Sherrill and his wife Anna Huntting had just added a kitchen wing with a "modern" fireplace in the most up-to-date style of open hearth cooking -- or so my mother researched. And the first of their three sons was born. So maybe they had a potato milk soup. Potatoes were not to become the big Long Island economy crop until 80 years later, with the loss of Brooklyn farms and rail trucking into NYC making single crop farming lucrative. Did Americans like Washington and Jefferson eat potatoes in 180o? I wonder.
According to a trivia website Thomas Jefferson served "french fries" in the White House. So says thegardenersrake.com.
I have the Thomas Jefferson Cook Book which I picked up with my mother when we visited Wintethur to see the Dominy Workshop and Collection. It lists a Potato Soup that includes butter, rice or tapioca, sorrel (or tomatoes!) and 3 egg yolks -- sieve and serve hot.
Tonight
Vichyssoise
Gardeners Bay Bluefish on the grill
Garden tomatoes with basil and garlic flowers
Corn on the cob
Darling Husband was saying our signature accent in cooking is the amazing white garlic flowers, and garlic greens, which we start adding to salads, soups, meats, fish, vegetables in the early spring when the greens pop up and now in August with those tangy flowers. We added them chopped to float on the Vichysoise, adding an aroma of garlic, and a zest.
Cost:
$5 fish (only half of it so $2.50)
$2 corn and tomato
$4.50
Bon Appetit!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Julia's Simple Green Salad
A word about Julia's "simple green salad" that she loves, as I do, to accompany so many dinners. Freshly picked lettuce, like the red leaf we get from our CSA at Sang Lee Farms, is so flavor-intense with Julia's classic oil and vinegar (3:1) dressing. No extra tomatoes, or onions, or herbs, just very good oil (Julia talks about green extra virgin olive oil for salads "taste and smell your oil with great care to make sure its fresh and fine") and a good vinegar. Her favorite is imported French red wine vinegar. I make my own -- simple cider vinegar, infused with something like dried blood orange peel, or garden tarragon, or rose petals. All this softens the vinegar, and gives it zest. I like to add yellow and orange nasturtium flowers to top the salad.
Tonight's dinner
BBQ spare ribs
eggplant on the grill
corn on the cob
simple green salad
Bon appetit!
Tonight's dinner
BBQ spare ribs
eggplant on the grill
corn on the cob
simple green salad
Bon appetit!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Plein Air Dinners
For months now we've been enjoying plein air dinners on the our deck. In fact, we breakfast on the deck when we can. One of the reasons I love Julia's final book The Way to Cook is that she offers techniques to be applied to a variety of things. She gives people like me who love to cook, but often scurry for "next steps" from the cookbook, a confidence in our own style. For me that's a "light touch", very fresh, and quick/easy--at least in the summer! (In the fall and winter I adore soups and stews.) Perhaps what I find easy others may not -- but Julia does! This from her introduction: Dinner in half an hour? ...You can make a fresh, informal, home-cooked meal in a minuscule kitchen--and you will know what you are eating. Pour out a glass of wine and while you're gossiping about the day....skin the tomatoes....blanche the green beans...
Tonight while Darling Husband prepared the grill for his BBQ ribs, I picked the garden basil, white umbrella garlic flowers just blooming, and yellow nasturtiums, sliced the tomatoes, and popped the corn in the oven. We decided to have our first- of- the- season eggplant tomorrow. Then up to the deck with a tablecloth and the tomatoes, and enjoyed a "Southampton" with DH (Pellligrino and bitters).
It's hard for me to tell if Julia was the kind of cook who cleaned up as she went along, but I do. And then there's almost nothing to do after dinner. DH is the same way.
Dinner
BBQ ribs on the grill
Local corn on the cob
Vine ripened tomatoes in basil
Local merlot
Cost: 1/2 the ribs, have to ask DH, $2 corn, $1 tomatoes.
Bon appetit!
Tonight while Darling Husband prepared the grill for his BBQ ribs, I picked the garden basil, white umbrella garlic flowers just blooming, and yellow nasturtiums, sliced the tomatoes, and popped the corn in the oven. We decided to have our first- of- the- season eggplant tomorrow. Then up to the deck with a tablecloth and the tomatoes, and enjoyed a "Southampton" with DH (Pellligrino and bitters).
It's hard for me to tell if Julia was the kind of cook who cleaned up as she went along, but I do. And then there's almost nothing to do after dinner. DH is the same way.
Dinner
BBQ ribs on the grill
Local corn on the cob
Vine ripened tomatoes in basil
Local merlot
Cost: 1/2 the ribs, have to ask DH, $2 corn, $1 tomatoes.
Bon appetit!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Bluefish Redux, Peach Clafouti
Dear Julia,
Bluefish, Tomatoes, Corn on the Cob
On the grill tonight - locally caught bluefish (scales on, that side down, garden marjoram on top), local tomatoes resting over olive oil, garden basil and garlic flowers, south fork corn (cooked in the oven.) Lovely North Fork chardonnay to pair. As we grilled on the deck in the pinky sunset we added your butter/pastis on the fish 5 minutes before serving (always turn the fish!). Tomatoes from a South Fork farm - good, very tasty with the oil, but what about that corn? Looked old -- the outer leaves were pulled off -- was it a day or two old? Besides being all yellow, not my favorite, it might have been a bit overcooked. It was not luscious, but dry. I threw mine into the compost.
Julia's Peach Clafouti
A wonderful peach season has resulted in our refrigerating peaches (which I can't stand) for either breakfast juicing or baking. Clafouti! A farm dish of fresh fruit baked in a pancake batter. On a foodie blog I found an adaptation of Julia's clafouti with peaches. It was very Julia--marinate the sliced peaches in cognac, strain the peaches into a blender and add milk/cream to a specific volume. Why does she specify cognac and not just brandy?
Darling Husband reminds me that as per French law, Cognac is made from specific grapes, but more importantly aged at least two years in French oak barrels, like Limosin. I can see where the oak would be lovely with peaches. And he notes the origins of "brandy" is brandywine derived from the Dutch "brandewijn" -- burnt wine. Wine is distilled -- boiled and the steam goes through a coil to condense, i.e. making high alcohol brandy from wine. (The opposite of reducing a stock -- they want to collect the "spirits" in the steam, not reduce the wine.) Finally put that distill into a Limosin oak barrel-- for that special character. Oh those taste-loving French.
So I used the rum stored above the 'fridge. -- that's all we had. We shall see. Tomorrow's breakfast.
Cost: bluefish $2.50, corn and tomatoes $4, peaches - leftover from a previous Wickham's fruit farm purchase $3. Total 9.50.
Slow Julia
Bluefish, Tomatoes, Corn on the Cob
On the grill tonight - locally caught bluefish (scales on, that side down, garden marjoram on top), local tomatoes resting over olive oil, garden basil and garlic flowers, south fork corn (cooked in the oven.) Lovely North Fork chardonnay to pair. As we grilled on the deck in the pinky sunset we added your butter/pastis on the fish 5 minutes before serving (always turn the fish!). Tomatoes from a South Fork farm - good, very tasty with the oil, but what about that corn? Looked old -- the outer leaves were pulled off -- was it a day or two old? Besides being all yellow, not my favorite, it might have been a bit overcooked. It was not luscious, but dry. I threw mine into the compost.
Julia's Peach Clafouti
A wonderful peach season has resulted in our refrigerating peaches (which I can't stand) for either breakfast juicing or baking. Clafouti! A farm dish of fresh fruit baked in a pancake batter. On a foodie blog I found an adaptation of Julia's clafouti with peaches. It was very Julia--marinate the sliced peaches in cognac, strain the peaches into a blender and add milk/cream to a specific volume. Why does she specify cognac and not just brandy?
Darling Husband reminds me that as per French law, Cognac is made from specific grapes, but more importantly aged at least two years in French oak barrels, like Limosin. I can see where the oak would be lovely with peaches. And he notes the origins of "brandy" is brandywine derived from the Dutch "brandewijn" -- burnt wine. Wine is distilled -- boiled and the steam goes through a coil to condense, i.e. making high alcohol brandy from wine. (The opposite of reducing a stock -- they want to collect the "spirits" in the steam, not reduce the wine.) Finally put that distill into a Limosin oak barrel-- for that special character. Oh those taste-loving French.
So I used the rum stored above the 'fridge. -- that's all we had. We shall see. Tomorrow's breakfast.
Cost: bluefish $2.50, corn and tomatoes $4, peaches - leftover from a previous Wickham's fruit farm purchase $3. Total 9.50.
Slow Julia
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Gardiners Bay Bluefish on the Grill
Dear Julia,
I love your book! You know a fish is deliciously fresh by the smell, says Julia. Smell it right there at the market. Breath in the salt air. When cooking, smell again, look, touch. Fish is perfectly done when you smell its juices cooking, see its flesh turn milky to clear. Does it bounce back to the touch? Do Not "cook until flaky...that's woefully overcooked."
In The Way to Cook, our teacher with gusto extraordinare Julia revisits all her beloved classic techniques, distilling her 30 years of experience and experimentation, weaving in healthier, faster, simpler. She wants us to know that there are ways to cook right-off-the-boat thick bluefish fillets, like we had in our hands (we don't buy fish, we put a contract out on them rejoices Darling Husband) and those same techniques are used for swordfish steaks, salmon fillets, mahi-mahi or shark, that is, bake, broil, grill. But not the same for lean fish like cod, which you would poach or bake in liquid. In this book, "all fish that are cooked the same way are grouped together...that is the way one learns to cook."
Dinner
Bluefish fillets on the grill (salted, as Julia always does, and we used caper salt, grilled, flipped "you must turn your fish and cook it on both sides" and 5 min. before it's done, drizzle butter, herbs (chervil) and pastis (Julia says Vermouth, but we like the licorice compliment) . By the way, the chervil, which we missed in an earlier version, brings a garden freshness to the pastis. Also, Julia notes, keep the skin and scales on, and lay that side down on the grill first. The fish stays intact, moist, easier to turn.
August ripe tomatoes in olive oil and basil -- one of the reasons I am a big fan of Julia Child is that she adores and understands the delicate and delicious quality of vegetables. Tomatoes are "permanently traumatized" if refrigerated. I agree.
Latham's bi color corn, baked to perfection at 400, 25 minutes.
What I love about August and tomato season is you can eat ripe, sweet, tangy tomatoes every night, simply drizzled with olive oil and basil, and they are all wonderfully different -- cherries, heritage, plum, old fashioned reds....
Why am I writing this blog?
1-as a diary to record our locovore, deliciously-ripe-in-season meals (and DH's genius)
2-to document and analyze the cost
3-to master the art of classic techniques, as Julia herself distilled them into healthier, lighter, faster fare.
Cost
$5 Bluefish, 1/2 $2.30, Corn $2, Tomatoes $2. $6.50 total.
...Not including the lovely Pimm's Cup (my mother's favorite) with a slice of honeydew melon Darling Husband made for us as we grilled on the deck, after he had 4 stitches in his left leg from a fall between beach rocks today.
Dinner grilled on our east deck, the coolest place on this sultry August night.
Bon Appetit.
Slow Julia
I love your book! You know a fish is deliciously fresh by the smell, says Julia. Smell it right there at the market. Breath in the salt air. When cooking, smell again, look, touch. Fish is perfectly done when you smell its juices cooking, see its flesh turn milky to clear. Does it bounce back to the touch? Do Not "cook until flaky...that's woefully overcooked."
In The Way to Cook, our teacher with gusto extraordinare Julia revisits all her beloved classic techniques, distilling her 30 years of experience and experimentation, weaving in healthier, faster, simpler. She wants us to know that there are ways to cook right-off-the-boat thick bluefish fillets, like we had in our hands (we don't buy fish, we put a contract out on them rejoices Darling Husband) and those same techniques are used for swordfish steaks, salmon fillets, mahi-mahi or shark, that is, bake, broil, grill. But not the same for lean fish like cod, which you would poach or bake in liquid. In this book, "all fish that are cooked the same way are grouped together...that is the way one learns to cook."
Dinner
Bluefish fillets on the grill (salted, as Julia always does, and we used caper salt, grilled, flipped "you must turn your fish and cook it on both sides" and 5 min. before it's done, drizzle butter, herbs (chervil) and pastis (Julia says Vermouth, but we like the licorice compliment) . By the way, the chervil, which we missed in an earlier version, brings a garden freshness to the pastis. Also, Julia notes, keep the skin and scales on, and lay that side down on the grill first. The fish stays intact, moist, easier to turn.
August ripe tomatoes in olive oil and basil -- one of the reasons I am a big fan of Julia Child is that she adores and understands the delicate and delicious quality of vegetables. Tomatoes are "permanently traumatized" if refrigerated. I agree.
Latham's bi color corn, baked to perfection at 400, 25 minutes.
What I love about August and tomato season is you can eat ripe, sweet, tangy tomatoes every night, simply drizzled with olive oil and basil, and they are all wonderfully different -- cherries, heritage, plum, old fashioned reds....
Why am I writing this blog?
1-as a diary to record our locovore, deliciously-ripe-in-season meals (and DH's genius)
2-to document and analyze the cost
3-to master the art of classic techniques, as Julia herself distilled them into healthier, lighter, faster fare.
Cost
$5 Bluefish, 1/2 $2.30, Corn $2, Tomatoes $2. $6.50 total.
...Not including the lovely Pimm's Cup (my mother's favorite) with a slice of honeydew melon Darling Husband made for us as we grilled on the deck, after he had 4 stitches in his left leg from a fall between beach rocks today.
Dinner grilled on our east deck, the coolest place on this sultry August night.
Bon Appetit.
Slow Julia
Friday, August 21, 2009
Reddings Market Grilled Sausage and Pasta
Dear Julia,
Darling Husband was reading though Edible East End on the north ferry heading toward Shelter Island, and noticed the article on the new meat market. Right on the harbor on Bridge Street, the market has cheese, meat, prepared foods, and lots of other stuff. He bought the pork sausage, asking for sweet Italian, but getting cheese, which we noticed when we started the BBQ to grill it for dinner. DH remembered -- I'm trying to keep my cheese intake low.
Dinner
Grilled Shelter Island Pork Sausage
Garden garlic flowers and parsley pasta
August tomatoes and basil salad
Sang Lee sliced turnip appetizer
Julia's mustard vinagrette on Sang Lee Boston lettuce
The first time I remember hearing the word "translucent" was on a warm August night, at dinner in the screened in porch with my parents and older brother and sister. We had planted a little vegetable garden behind the garage. My mother had picked a golf ball size turnip, and she had cut it thinly, as an appetizer, which we kids did not touch. (They were going to eat this RAW?) But my dad and mom loved the "sweet" "peppery" and "fresh" flavor of the white disks, and held them up to the waning light marveling in their glowing transcluency.
Tonight ours were translucent, fresh, and sweet, a little low on the peppery. The sausage was superb, pork with sage, and puts supermarket sausage to shame. Very tasty.
Costs:
$10.00 for the Redding sausage, but we ate only half.
Cheese, tomato from Wickham's Farmstand about $2
Pasta, garden herbs, 50cents
Turnip from Sang Lee's csa 50cents
Total: $8
At the end of the month I will total up our monthly receipts, as I want to track what we spend on local food.
Julia, you would have loved those translucent turnips!
Bon Appetit,
Slow Juila
Darling Husband was reading though Edible East End on the north ferry heading toward Shelter Island, and noticed the article on the new meat market. Right on the harbor on Bridge Street, the market has cheese, meat, prepared foods, and lots of other stuff. He bought the pork sausage, asking for sweet Italian, but getting cheese, which we noticed when we started the BBQ to grill it for dinner. DH remembered -- I'm trying to keep my cheese intake low.
Dinner
Grilled Shelter Island Pork Sausage
Garden garlic flowers and parsley pasta
August tomatoes and basil salad
Sang Lee sliced turnip appetizer
Julia's mustard vinagrette on Sang Lee Boston lettuce
The first time I remember hearing the word "translucent" was on a warm August night, at dinner in the screened in porch with my parents and older brother and sister. We had planted a little vegetable garden behind the garage. My mother had picked a golf ball size turnip, and she had cut it thinly, as an appetizer, which we kids did not touch. (They were going to eat this RAW?) But my dad and mom loved the "sweet" "peppery" and "fresh" flavor of the white disks, and held them up to the waning light marveling in their glowing transcluency.
Tonight ours were translucent, fresh, and sweet, a little low on the peppery. The sausage was superb, pork with sage, and puts supermarket sausage to shame. Very tasty.
Costs:
$10.00 for the Redding sausage, but we ate only half.
Cheese, tomato from Wickham's Farmstand about $2
Pasta, garden herbs, 50cents
Turnip from Sang Lee's csa 50cents
Total: $8
At the end of the month I will total up our monthly receipts, as I want to track what we spend on local food.
Julia, you would have loved those translucent turnips!
Bon Appetit,
Slow Juila
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Venison Burgers on the Grill
Local wine grape fed wild venison burgers dotted with home garden mint and garlic flowers, farmstand corn on the cob oven-baked, Sang Lee boston lettuce with Julia's mustard vinigrette, and merlot. Local venison --we have a friend who has a nuisance license to hunt venison on a vineyard.
Darling Husband's Greek grandfather, who left Crete as a boy, and came to NYC as a teen, ultimately getting involved in the restaurant business, created the "mint burger" for his grandchildren. Whether he had something similar at a Greek restaurant, or just thought it might be a good combination, DH doesn't know, but it became a family favorite. The mint mixed with hamburger or venison adds a zest to the burger. I highly recommend it.
As a garden fresh lover, I like to just pile the salad on my dinner plate. Darling Husband likes to have his as a second course. The mustard salad dressing mixed with the venison burger and made it zing. For me the second course was the corn.
Just a note, last night we had an old favorite, fast standby -- cappellini with basil and garlic flowers, super ripe farm tomatoes, basil, mozarella. Yum.
Cost: Farmstand corn $2.50. Sang Lee lettuce from our CSA - $2? Venison - from a friend.
Darling Husband's Greek grandfather, who left Crete as a boy, and came to NYC as a teen, ultimately getting involved in the restaurant business, created the "mint burger" for his grandchildren. Whether he had something similar at a Greek restaurant, or just thought it might be a good combination, DH doesn't know, but it became a family favorite. The mint mixed with hamburger or venison adds a zest to the burger. I highly recommend it.
As a garden fresh lover, I like to just pile the salad on my dinner plate. Darling Husband likes to have his as a second course. The mustard salad dressing mixed with the venison burger and made it zing. For me the second course was the corn.
Just a note, last night we had an old favorite, fast standby -- cappellini with basil and garlic flowers, super ripe farm tomatoes, basil, mozarella. Yum.
Cost: Farmstand corn $2.50. Sang Lee lettuce from our CSA - $2? Venison - from a friend.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Zucchini ras al hanout Bread
Dear Julia,
Recyle, Reduce, Reuse. Ditto Dinner from last night, although Darling Husband did want me to note "on the internet" his new way to butter ears of corn -- butter your bread and use it to butter the corn. Works marvelously!
We reheated last night's juicy grilled baby ribs in the oven, cooked with the fresh corn, and the ribs blackened and dried--more what you're used to at a BBQ quiped DH.
Today was hot, but now there is a lovely cool breeze. We put on shirts to eat outside on the outdoor deck.
That zucchini bread came out well -- with ras al hanout, the Morrocoan/North African "top of the shelf" spice, ginger, brown sugar, walnuts/pecans. We were analyzing the disappearing zucchini. Can't taste the 3 cups! in the bread. So what's its purpose? Very subtle vegetable quality -- we think the zucchini adds moisture and dissolves.
My favorite things to cook are fish, vegetables, making salads and baking. I also like making interesting desserts, especially with nuts, or molded, but I don't eat them much. DH says I am a "baxter" a baker, which is very sweet. I love to make a soup, but DH is so good at it! And all sorts of things -- beef, duck, venison, chicken, soups, and what a bread baker. It's all that growing up with mother and grandmorther Austro-Hungarian cooking with a bit of grandfather Greek. How delicious to live with a creative food artist.
Slow Julia
Recyle, Reduce, Reuse. Ditto Dinner from last night, although Darling Husband did want me to note "on the internet" his new way to butter ears of corn -- butter your bread and use it to butter the corn. Works marvelously!
We reheated last night's juicy grilled baby ribs in the oven, cooked with the fresh corn, and the ribs blackened and dried--more what you're used to at a BBQ quiped DH.
Today was hot, but now there is a lovely cool breeze. We put on shirts to eat outside on the outdoor deck.
That zucchini bread came out well -- with ras al hanout, the Morrocoan/North African "top of the shelf" spice, ginger, brown sugar, walnuts/pecans. We were analyzing the disappearing zucchini. Can't taste the 3 cups! in the bread. So what's its purpose? Very subtle vegetable quality -- we think the zucchini adds moisture and dissolves.
My favorite things to cook are fish, vegetables, making salads and baking. I also like making interesting desserts, especially with nuts, or molded, but I don't eat them much. DH says I am a "baxter" a baker, which is very sweet. I love to make a soup, but DH is so good at it! And all sorts of things -- beef, duck, venison, chicken, soups, and what a bread baker. It's all that growing up with mother and grandmorther Austro-Hungarian cooking with a bit of grandfather Greek. How delicious to live with a creative food artist.
Slow Julia
Monday, August 17, 2009
BBQ Ribs, Corn and Salad
Dear Julia,
As I'm making the little green salad that will go with the baby pork ribs Darling Husband is charcoal grillling (with Stubbs BBQ sauce), and the farm fresh corn on the cob which is cooking in the oven -- now my favorite way to have corn (you can keep it intact and serve it hot in its husk, letting guests peel themselves)-- and the appetizer of fresh crisp kirbys, I know I am working with a several-day-old red leaf lettuce, not the most tasty. I am thinking of the statement of yours I recently read in The Way to Cook that over the years you have adapted your French technique of 1:3 (vinegar to oil) to 1:5 as you like wine with dinner and the former proportion was always too acid. I was careful to follow your instructions last night, and it was the perfect complement to the lovely mild greens. Tonight I erred in adding a tiny bit too much mustard, and just more than a drop or too of balsamic, making the dressing too strong. Actually good as an appetizer, and we sopped it up with an Italian bread I didn't like much but DH did. I was looking at potato bread made with yeast, and other bread recipes, and I want to try them.
Tomorrow I have to make a zucchini bread for a work meeting. With ras hal hanout. Let's see if its good.
Cost: $5 farmstand cukes and corn, $7 (1/2 of $14) for the ribs. Half of the ribs leftover for another dinner, or lunches.
Lovely simple dinner on the deck.
Slow Julia
As I'm making the little green salad that will go with the baby pork ribs Darling Husband is charcoal grillling (with Stubbs BBQ sauce), and the farm fresh corn on the cob which is cooking in the oven -- now my favorite way to have corn (you can keep it intact and serve it hot in its husk, letting guests peel themselves)-- and the appetizer of fresh crisp kirbys, I know I am working with a several-day-old red leaf lettuce, not the most tasty. I am thinking of the statement of yours I recently read in The Way to Cook that over the years you have adapted your French technique of 1:3 (vinegar to oil) to 1:5 as you like wine with dinner and the former proportion was always too acid. I was careful to follow your instructions last night, and it was the perfect complement to the lovely mild greens. Tonight I erred in adding a tiny bit too much mustard, and just more than a drop or too of balsamic, making the dressing too strong. Actually good as an appetizer, and we sopped it up with an Italian bread I didn't like much but DH did. I was looking at potato bread made with yeast, and other bread recipes, and I want to try them.
Tomorrow I have to make a zucchini bread for a work meeting. With ras hal hanout. Let's see if its good.
Cost: $5 farmstand cukes and corn, $7 (1/2 of $14) for the ribs. Half of the ribs leftover for another dinner, or lunches.
Lovely simple dinner on the deck.
Slow Julia
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Grilled Duck Breast, Corn, Simple Green Salad
Dear Julia,
Sunday night in August, a lovely day at the beach with our dog Bryn and our dog's best friend Nero. We planned on an easy dinner.
-duck breast on the grill - local LI duck
-ears of corn on the grill - farmstand fresh
-salad, a red curly lettuce - Sang Lee Farms
-appetizer - farmstand curbys with salt
-lovely with a delicous 2005 NF cabernet.
For 10 years I've adhered with fabulous results to your salad dressing technique of 1:3, vinegar to oil. In The Way to Cook you say you're refined that, more 1:5. I agree, and my way of refining over the years has been to use more subtle vinegars. I make my own. Cider vinegar infused with rose petal, or blood orange peel, or tarragon. And we've just decided to make one with garden chervil -- a bit more delicate than tarragon.
Tonight's dressing I proportioned 1:3, using a very good virgin (green) olive oil from Crete, with my orange peel vinegar, a touch of balsamic and a teaspoon of smooth french mustard. It was perfect with the simple red green salad, allowing the fresh flavors of the lettuce to shine through.
Duck - pefectly grilled pink, just with salt and pepper
Corn - grilled, turned so all sides cooked, sweet and delicious with no butter.
Julia, I know The Way to Cook was your opus magnum. You say it is your favorite book, about classic techniques and creativity. To me that means applying classic tecnhiques to local, deliciously ripe in season, and sustainable foods.
Attitudes about food have changed since the 1960s when my first book came out. More and more of us have less time to shop and cook, and we are becoming more health conscious and aware of what is in our food. ....I am aiming this, in my seventh book, at the new generation of cooks who have not grown up in the old traditions, but who need a basic knowledge of good food so that they may enjoy fresh, healthy home cooking.
And I know you would add, and have fun. We did.
Cost: farmstand $3, leftover duck breast $2?
Bon appetit.
Slow Julia
Sunday night in August, a lovely day at the beach with our dog Bryn and our dog's best friend Nero. We planned on an easy dinner.
-duck breast on the grill - local LI duck
-ears of corn on the grill - farmstand fresh
-salad, a red curly lettuce - Sang Lee Farms
-appetizer - farmstand curbys with salt
-lovely with a delicous 2005 NF cabernet.
For 10 years I've adhered with fabulous results to your salad dressing technique of 1:3, vinegar to oil. In The Way to Cook you say you're refined that, more 1:5. I agree, and my way of refining over the years has been to use more subtle vinegars. I make my own. Cider vinegar infused with rose petal, or blood orange peel, or tarragon. And we've just decided to make one with garden chervil -- a bit more delicate than tarragon.
Tonight's dressing I proportioned 1:3, using a very good virgin (green) olive oil from Crete, with my orange peel vinegar, a touch of balsamic and a teaspoon of smooth french mustard. It was perfect with the simple red green salad, allowing the fresh flavors of the lettuce to shine through.
Duck - pefectly grilled pink, just with salt and pepper
Corn - grilled, turned so all sides cooked, sweet and delicious with no butter.
Julia, I know The Way to Cook was your opus magnum. You say it is your favorite book, about classic techniques and creativity. To me that means applying classic tecnhiques to local, deliciously ripe in season, and sustainable foods.
Attitudes about food have changed since the 1960s when my first book came out. More and more of us have less time to shop and cook, and we are becoming more health conscious and aware of what is in our food. ....I am aiming this, in my seventh book, at the new generation of cooks who have not grown up in the old traditions, but who need a basic knowledge of good food so that they may enjoy fresh, healthy home cooking.
And I know you would add, and have fun. We did.
Cost: farmstand $3, leftover duck breast $2?
Bon appetit.
Slow Julia
Fast Fresh Garden Pesto Cappellini
Dear Julia,
It's a hot, summer August Saturday night, and we are preparing a quick fresh dinner to enjoy on the deck before running to a classical music concert presented by a neighborhood friend. Vive la North Fork!
Cappellini water- get it going with salt
Out to the garden for basil, a bit of parsley, and garlic flowers
Pignoli nuts - brown a small handful
Melt butter and olive oil, equal amounts -- turn off, throw in chopped garden greens to get the aromatics in the oil
Side dish of ripe, red farmstand tomato at a ripeness that begged to be eaten now! Add some chopped basil, olive oil and a touch of vinegar. No real appetizer - just selzer water with lime.
This was meant as a quick dinner, low cost, easy clean up, light and refreshing, filling, heart-healthy, eating down the food chain. Good with local stainless steel chardonnay.
Cost: pignoli nuts saved in the 'fridge, farm stand tomato, 1/3 lb of pasta - $4 all told? Did I mention we have leftover pasta for Monday's work lunch?
Enjoy!
Slow Julia
It's a hot, summer August Saturday night, and we are preparing a quick fresh dinner to enjoy on the deck before running to a classical music concert presented by a neighborhood friend. Vive la North Fork!
Cappellini water- get it going with salt
Out to the garden for basil, a bit of parsley, and garlic flowers
Pignoli nuts - brown a small handful
Melt butter and olive oil, equal amounts -- turn off, throw in chopped garden greens to get the aromatics in the oil
Side dish of ripe, red farmstand tomato at a ripeness that begged to be eaten now! Add some chopped basil, olive oil and a touch of vinegar. No real appetizer - just selzer water with lime.
This was meant as a quick dinner, low cost, easy clean up, light and refreshing, filling, heart-healthy, eating down the food chain. Good with local stainless steel chardonnay.
Cost: pignoli nuts saved in the 'fridge, farm stand tomato, 1/3 lb of pasta - $4 all told? Did I mention we have leftover pasta for Monday's work lunch?
Enjoy!
Slow Julia
Friday, August 14, 2009
Thrifty Grilled Bluefish
Dear Julia,
A perfect August day. Cool morning, sunny, hot and clear (no humidity) during the day and cool at night. I worked in the am, and sailed with some South African friends in the afternoon -- although the wind came up at 5 when we were coming in.
The other half of that bluefish, grilled (dressed with herbs and a touch of olive oil) was sublime. Darling Husband charcoal grills it with the skin/scales on, and flips (rolls) it on the grill.
Other ingredients to dinner
--round zucchini (grill size) slightly marrinated with olive oil, garden herbs and a touch of balsamic -- grilled to near black, and they had that grilled meaty flavor of eggplant
--cherry tomato salad with garden basil
--farmstand corn, oven cooked
The cherries cut and saturated with garden basil and olive oil were a perfect compliment to the grilled bluefish. We decided next blufish -- grill and serve with a "Sicilian style" fresh farmshand tomato relish.
Darling Husband brought home a box of peaches, apricots, blackberries and cherry tomatoes ($21). We luxuriated in a white peach after dinner. A delicate, northen fruit -- there's no taste like it. Peaches, and white peaches especially, do not ripen if picked early, they just rot. So you really have to buy them picked deliciously ripe, from your fruit farmer, like Wickham's Fruit Farm.
Cost
--Orient off the boat bluefish $2.50
--Latham's farmstand corn, zucchini, tomato $4
--Cherry tomatoes -- part of our Sang Lee CSA share -- 1/2 of 1/2 - I'll have to calculate what that comes out to be each week.
--Wickham Fruit Farm fruit box - $21 - used 1/7 so $3
Total: $9.50
For my weekly tally, I've got to keep track of the $18 balance from the fruit box. What's fun is lots of leftovers for lunch tomorrow - bluefish, grilled zucchini, and the box of fruit. Perhaps we will make a peach or apricot tart?
Because we're being thrifty, I'll say bon appetit the Welsh way:
Mwynhewch eich bwyd!
Slow Julia
=
A perfect August day. Cool morning, sunny, hot and clear (no humidity) during the day and cool at night. I worked in the am, and sailed with some South African friends in the afternoon -- although the wind came up at 5 when we were coming in.
The other half of that bluefish, grilled (dressed with herbs and a touch of olive oil) was sublime. Darling Husband charcoal grills it with the skin/scales on, and flips (rolls) it on the grill.
Other ingredients to dinner
--round zucchini (grill size) slightly marrinated with olive oil, garden herbs and a touch of balsamic -- grilled to near black, and they had that grilled meaty flavor of eggplant
--cherry tomato salad with garden basil
--farmstand corn, oven cooked
The cherries cut and saturated with garden basil and olive oil were a perfect compliment to the grilled bluefish. We decided next blufish -- grill and serve with a "Sicilian style" fresh farmshand tomato relish.
Darling Husband brought home a box of peaches, apricots, blackberries and cherry tomatoes ($21). We luxuriated in a white peach after dinner. A delicate, northen fruit -- there's no taste like it. Peaches, and white peaches especially, do not ripen if picked early, they just rot. So you really have to buy them picked deliciously ripe, from your fruit farmer, like Wickham's Fruit Farm.
Cost
--Orient off the boat bluefish $2.50
--Latham's farmstand corn, zucchini, tomato $4
--Cherry tomatoes -- part of our Sang Lee CSA share -- 1/2 of 1/2 - I'll have to calculate what that comes out to be each week.
--Wickham Fruit Farm fruit box - $21 - used 1/7 so $3
Total: $9.50
For my weekly tally, I've got to keep track of the $18 balance from the fruit box. What's fun is lots of leftovers for lunch tomorrow - bluefish, grilled zucchini, and the box of fruit. Perhaps we will make a peach or apricot tart?
Because we're being thrifty, I'll say bon appetit the Welsh way:
Mwynhewch eich bwyd!
Slow Julia
=
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Gilled Fresh-off-the-boat Bluefish
Dear Julia,
I know you would love this, as you always adored a deliciously cooked fresh fish, as I do. Nothing like a day in August, buying fresh fish off that boat at the Orient Point dock, and charcoal grilling it with herbs (chervil, parsley, marjoram, parsley and garlic flowers).
Other ingredient to the dinner, served on the deck, basking in the beauty of the pink and purple sunset:
-farmstand local corn, cooked in its husk, in the over 30+ minutes, 350 degrees
-farmstand cukes - kirbys - sliced in sections and salted, the appetizer
-lentil salad decorated with nasturtium blossoms (leftover, but basically Julia's recipe for cooked lentils tossed with her mustard dressing and garden herbs)
Lovely with local stainless steel chardonnay.
Cost: $5 fish, $2 at the farmstand.
The sunset has now filled the sky with a pink haze permeating to grey blue, and lazy low purple clouds over CT that look like "purple mountains majesty."
I know you would love this, as you always adored a deliciously cooked fresh fish, as I do. Nothing like a day in August, buying fresh fish off that boat at the Orient Point dock, and charcoal grilling it with herbs (chervil, parsley, marjoram, parsley and garlic flowers).
Other ingredient to the dinner, served on the deck, basking in the beauty of the pink and purple sunset:
-farmstand local corn, cooked in its husk, in the over 30+ minutes, 350 degrees
-farmstand cukes - kirbys - sliced in sections and salted, the appetizer
-lentil salad decorated with nasturtium blossoms (leftover, but basically Julia's recipe for cooked lentils tossed with her mustard dressing and garden herbs)
Lovely with local stainless steel chardonnay.
Cost: $5 fish, $2 at the farmstand.
The sunset has now filled the sky with a pink haze permeating to grey blue, and lazy low purple clouds over CT that look like "purple mountains majesty."
Happy Eating!
Slow Julia
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Fresh Tomato Pizza
Dear Julia,
Would you consider this "feasting on the remains" or an authentic dinner -- "pizza night" as we call it at home. Tonight we bought a wonderful pizza dough from Brick Oven Pizza in Greenport ($4) and tomatoes from Latham's farmstand ($2) and had 1/2 lb mozarella in the 'fridge ($2?) We added some basil and other herbs from the garden (garlic flowers, oregeno, parsley, marjoram, thyme) from the garden, and a tube of sun dried tomatoes and a tube of anchovy paste. Should we say another $3 as we used very little of the tubes.
So all told $10.
The tomatoes were delicous and fresh, topped with mozarella and a dab of anchovy and sun dried tomato. An excellent pizza. No need for a salad, or second course. Nice with a glass of merlot.
Buon appetito!
Would you consider this "feasting on the remains" or an authentic dinner -- "pizza night" as we call it at home. Tonight we bought a wonderful pizza dough from Brick Oven Pizza in Greenport ($4) and tomatoes from Latham's farmstand ($2) and had 1/2 lb mozarella in the 'fridge ($2?) We added some basil and other herbs from the garden (garlic flowers, oregeno, parsley, marjoram, thyme) from the garden, and a tube of sun dried tomatoes and a tube of anchovy paste. Should we say another $3 as we used very little of the tubes.
So all told $10.
The tomatoes were delicous and fresh, topped with mozarella and a dab of anchovy and sun dried tomato. An excellent pizza. No need for a salad, or second course. Nice with a glass of merlot.
Buon appetito!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Cold Duck
Dear Julia,
Sometimes it's nice not to cook. A beautiful, hot sunny August day. Finally. Tonight we had cold duck leftovers, leftover cucumber salad (gurcken salat), leftover lentil salad, and a new cherry tomato with basil salad. We reheated the duck to "crisp it up" and heated the fantastic duck peach jus/gravy. All with a lovely merlot.
Julia, I know you loved leftovers, as I do. In The Way to Cook, your index includes a section entitled "Feasting on Remains." And your favorite feastings are after Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, that is wonderful.
Cost: $2 for tomatoes.
Bon appetit!
Sometimes it's nice not to cook. A beautiful, hot sunny August day. Finally. Tonight we had cold duck leftovers, leftover cucumber salad (gurcken salat), leftover lentil salad, and a new cherry tomato with basil salad. We reheated the duck to "crisp it up" and heated the fantastic duck peach jus/gravy. All with a lovely merlot.
Julia, I know you loved leftovers, as I do. In The Way to Cook, your index includes a section entitled "Feasting on Remains." And your favorite feastings are after Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, that is wonderful.
Cost: $2 for tomatoes.
Bon appetit!
Quick Garden Lentil Salad and Omelette
I stopped by a roadside stand to pick up some cherry tomatoes. I'm craving a good tasting tomato as its nearly mid-August and I haven't had any yet. I was thinking of the leftover duck legs we are going to have tomorrow night, and just wanted something easy and simple (and cheap) for dinner tonight. Stuff from the 'fridge. Why not a lentil salad and Julia's beloved "tossed omelette?"
1/2 hour and dinner is served
Some meetings kept me late at work, and I arrived home about 5 minutes to 6. Quick, get a pot of water boiling for the lentils -- I scrounged for the little bag of dry lentils I saw in the 'fridge the other day. Then run to the herb garden for parsley, chervil, and chive if I can find it. Nasturtium blossoms will add a peppery flavor and lots of color. I spot two leftover ears of corn in the fridge. According to Julia, when the water boils add the lentils (preferably soaked for 1 hr but I didn't have time) and simmer, not quite bubbling but the water moving for 15 minutes or so. Then taste check. About 20 minutes later they were done, drained, cooled in water, and ready to be dressed. Julia recommends a mustard vinaigrette -- so I mix together her always perfect ratio of 1:3 (vinegar to oil) that has been the base for many wonderful salads over the last 10 years since I discovered it. Toss it over the lentils, then add all the chopped herbs and quartered cherries.
Then I study Julia's instructions for The Tossed Omelette -- 2 eggs (from Ty Llywd Farm in Jamesport) tiny bit of water, butter for the omelette and 20 seconds later it's on the plate.
Vegetarian 'till 6!
I was a vegetarian all day today, not just until 6!
Cost: 2 eggs $1, tomatoes $3 for the quart and I used 1/3 so $1 = $2 total if you don't count the tad of butter, herbs, flowers, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Oh, and I also bought a little watermelon for $4. Tomorrow's breakfast juice?
Bon appetit!
I stopped by a roadside stand to pick up some cherry tomatoes. I'm craving a good tasting tomato as its nearly mid-August and I haven't had any yet. I was thinking of the leftover duck legs we are going to have tomorrow night, and just wanted something easy and simple (and cheap) for dinner tonight. Stuff from the 'fridge. Why not a lentil salad and Julia's beloved "tossed omelette?"
1/2 hour and dinner is served
Some meetings kept me late at work, and I arrived home about 5 minutes to 6. Quick, get a pot of water boiling for the lentils -- I scrounged for the little bag of dry lentils I saw in the 'fridge the other day. Then run to the herb garden for parsley, chervil, and chive if I can find it. Nasturtium blossoms will add a peppery flavor and lots of color. I spot two leftover ears of corn in the fridge. According to Julia, when the water boils add the lentils (preferably soaked for 1 hr but I didn't have time) and simmer, not quite bubbling but the water moving for 15 minutes or so. Then taste check. About 20 minutes later they were done, drained, cooled in water, and ready to be dressed. Julia recommends a mustard vinaigrette -- so I mix together her always perfect ratio of 1:3 (vinegar to oil) that has been the base for many wonderful salads over the last 10 years since I discovered it. Toss it over the lentils, then add all the chopped herbs and quartered cherries.
Then I study Julia's instructions for The Tossed Omelette -- 2 eggs (from Ty Llywd Farm in Jamesport) tiny bit of water, butter for the omelette and 20 seconds later it's on the plate.
Vegetarian 'till 6!
I was a vegetarian all day today, not just until 6!
Cost: 2 eggs $1, tomatoes $3 for the quart and I used 1/3 so $1 = $2 total if you don't count the tad of butter, herbs, flowers, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Oh, and I also bought a little watermelon for $4. Tomorrow's breakfast juice?
Bon appetit!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Duck and Peaches
Saturday night friends came over for duck and peaches. We are lucky to live 25 miles from a duck farm, and 20 miles from a wonderful fruit farm, and our friends had never had our roast duck. Cooked crisp in a hot oven (425) for 2 hours, stuffed with peaches and a few plums, marjoram on the duck, foil on top, onion on the pan with water, the duck was sumptious.
Menu
cucumber appetizer, with nasturtium blossoms
almonds
chardonnay
Duck with peaches
gravy/sauce - adding more peaches, ckn/duck stock, madiera, flour/merlot thickener
Julia's potatoes Gallettes - fried in duck fat, cook till nearly done, cool, grate, s+p, garlic greens
corn on the cob - baked in the oven
merlot
Our friends brought a delicious cob salad and beautiful local blueberry pie, and chardonnay.
Darling husband picked up the 2 ducks from Corwin for $33, and Wickham peaches for $8 and at Latham's farmstand 6 ears of corn, yukon golds (we had to use chefs), cukes cost $9
$50 plus wine. /4= 13pp.
We have duck and gravy leftover, to have with rice or gnocchi. No leftover corn to add to an omelette or quiche. Making duck stock for soup, of course.
Menu
cucumber appetizer, with nasturtium blossoms
almonds
chardonnay
Duck with peaches
gravy/sauce - adding more peaches, ckn/duck stock, madiera, flour/merlot thickener
Julia's potatoes Gallettes - fried in duck fat, cook till nearly done, cool, grate, s+p, garlic greens
corn on the cob - baked in the oven
merlot
Our friends brought a delicious cob salad and beautiful local blueberry pie, and chardonnay.
Darling husband picked up the 2 ducks from Corwin for $33, and Wickham peaches for $8 and at Latham's farmstand 6 ears of corn, yukon golds (we had to use chefs), cukes cost $9
$50 plus wine. /4= 13pp.
We have duck and gravy leftover, to have with rice or gnocchi. No leftover corn to add to an omelette or quiche. Making duck stock for soup, of course.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Slow Juila Begins
Dear Julia,
I am a locovore.
It started in my childhood, when my parents would gleefully drive the extra mile for the "most ripe tomato" or the "best corn" from neighbors farm/roadside stands. I was amazed watching my grandfather enjoy his favorite dish, peaches and vanilla ice cream, telling me "there was just one day when this peach was perfectly ripe, and today it that day."
I am a slow foodie. I eat locally, seasonally, sustainably, as much as possible. I am a vegetarian 'till 6 - when my darling husband and I love to cook dinner together, after sourcing locally, of couse!
My favorite of all of Julia's cookbooks is her stated favorite "The Way to Cook". Easier, fresher, faster, less butter.
And I can't help but be thrifty. I want to see just how much it cost for me and Tom to source locally, from local farmstands and fishmarkets, local eggs, local cheese, local fruit and more. Yes, we are lucky enough to live on eastern Long Island where farms and farmstands still dot the landscape.
I am a locovore.
It started in my childhood, when my parents would gleefully drive the extra mile for the "most ripe tomato" or the "best corn" from neighbors farm/roadside stands. I was amazed watching my grandfather enjoy his favorite dish, peaches and vanilla ice cream, telling me "there was just one day when this peach was perfectly ripe, and today it that day."
I am a slow foodie. I eat locally, seasonally, sustainably, as much as possible. I am a vegetarian 'till 6 - when my darling husband and I love to cook dinner together, after sourcing locally, of couse!
My favorite of all of Julia's cookbooks is her stated favorite "The Way to Cook". Easier, fresher, faster, less butter.
And I can't help but be thrifty. I want to see just how much it cost for me and Tom to source locally, from local farmstands and fishmarkets, local eggs, local cheese, local fruit and more. Yes, we are lucky enough to live on eastern Long Island where farms and farmstands still dot the landscape.
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