Linguine with clams

I had craving for linguine with clams after reading about it in Heat. I added way too much red pepper, but, otherwise, it was good. I'll probably try it again soon so I can get the seasoning right.

Pollo al Vasquo

Basque chicken is a really great, simple meal. We had just about all of the ingredients kicking around the fridge, so it was a good use of left overs. Unfortunately, the picture isn't that great, but it does taste good (as does all Basque food, for that matter).

Here are the directions:
Julien a couple of bell peppers, slice one spanish onion, and cut a few (3 or 4) tomatoes into wedges (or dice them). It is preferable to peel the tomotoes first. The easiest way to do this is to score an X on the bottom of the tomato and drop it in some near boiling water for about 10 seconds. The peels should come right off after than. Start by cooking the onions and 2 or 3 cloves of minced garlic over medium heat in a big pan or dutch oven. After about 10 minutes, add the peppers and tomatoes, throw in a cup of white wine, some salt, sugar, and, if you have it, saffron (this is not essential). Let this cook away for a while at a medium heat. At the same time, sear the chicken (w/ olive oil) over really high heat. I think that chicken thighs and drumsticks work best for this dish. Let them cook until the skin is a nice golden brown color (probably about 4 min per side). Add the chicken to the pepper mixture and let it simmer, covered, on med-low heat for about 45 min. If the heat is too high, the chicken will dry out. When it is done cooking, mix in some vinegar or lemon juice. Serve with rice or roasted potatoes.

Mint gnocchi with lamb meatballs

About a week ago, Andre (my roommate) and Katherine (my neighbor) helped me put this dinner together.

This dish was sort of inspired by an episode of Top Chef that aired a few weeks back. To kick off the new season, a teams from season 1 and season 2 faced off in a challenge. One of the season 1 contestants made mint gnocchi with duck meatballs. I had never heard of mint gnocchi before, but I thought it sounded interesting and wanted to try pairing it with lamb instead. I guess you could say it was an attempt at Italian/Middle Eastern fusion food.

Making the dish was pretty straight forward. To make the gnocchi, boil and peel some potatoes and pass them through a ricer, a foodmill, or, if you don't have any of these, just mash them. Make a mound with the potatoes, add some flour, an egg, and a whole bunch of chopped mint. mix together, adding flour until you get the right consistency. I just add flour until the dough stops being sticky. Knead the dough for a little, let it rest, roll it out into cylinders and cut the gnocchi, like Andre is doing below.
While you are making the gnocchi, you should be bringing a very large pot of salty, salty water to a rapid boil. Then flick the gnocchi off a gnocchi board or fork. You can also just pinch them to make a little groove. The point is to help the sauce stick to the gnocchi a little better.

The gnocchi will sink down and float to the top when it is done.

The meatballs are also not that different from the standard italian recipe. Instead of the veal/pork/beef mix and parsley, I used lamb and mint. Other ingredients include bread crumbs, egg, salt, pepper, and finely chopped shallots. Cook the meatballs in batches in a really really hot pan. Don't add to many at once, otherwise the pan will cool down and you won't get a good sear. Patience, or a really high powered burner, is key to good cooking.

After the two main components were done, I tossed them together in a pan with a few splashes of demiglace and a little bit of tomato sauce (San Marzano tomatoes, finely chopped onion, finely diced carrots, and a couple minced garlic cloves simmered together for a while).

Bon appetite.

Rillettes

I've been wanting to make these for a long time. It's one of the dishes that I always linger over when I flip through the Les Halles cookbook. A couple weeks ago, I was at the Garden with Elana and saw that it was special, so I had to try it. It did not disappoint. For those who aren't familiar, rillettes are a sort of pork condiment that you spread over toast and eat with mustard and cornichons.

As an aside, I'm just noticing that a lot of these posts feature pork dishes. This reminds me of a conversation I've had a couple of times. It's one of those "desert island" sort of questions. Assuming you are a full fledged omnivore (this question is pointless for veg and/or pescatarians), and you could only eat one type of animal for the rest of your life, what would it be? I go with pigs. No other animal can so efficiently produce the same range of different foods.

Anyway, back to the rillettes. You start with a few really cheap cuts. Pork shoulder (I substituted pork butt, since that's what was available), pork belly, and pork fat.
Cut up the shoulder and belly and throw it in a pot with a few cups of water and a bouquet garni. Cook the hell out of it. In the mean time, cut the fat into little cubes and stick it in a warm oven (~200-250) to render the fat.
Six hours later, take the pork out and use a couple of forks to shred it up.
The next step is to pack the pork into small jars and seal it with the rendered fat. The final step is to wait for at least three days to let all the flavors mix.

Sharlene's first cooking lesson

Sharlene is getting cooking lessons this summer. Thursday was our first session, and we made roast chicken, potato salad, and green beans. Here's Sharlene working on her knife skills.
Here's the potato salad that we made. We dressed it with homemade mayo, vinegar, saffron, honey, and a healthy dose of truffle oil. Next time I'll cut the saffron and honey and just use the truffle oil. One decadent ingredient is really enough. After all, its just potato salad.
I forgot to take pictures of the chicken. By that time the chicken was done, the table was littered with empty beer bottles, we were on the second bottle of wine, and everyone was hungry. Taking pictures was the last thing on my mind.

Wink

Last Monday, Sharlene invited me to one of those hush-hush private bistros called 'The Wink.' Here friend, Brandon does this every week (Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the food). This time around, he started with a cold dish of swiss chard stuffed with mushrooms, pecans, tempe, and a few other things on top of a white bean puree with, I think, a parsley oil. People who know me know that I absolutely hate mushrooms, but, not wanting to be rude, I took a few bits of the dish. It was delicious. The dish had everything going for it: the taste was vibrant, the textures were good, and the presentation was great. I didn't think it tasted much like mushrooms though. I thought I had survived the meal, and then the next dish came out. It was....mushrooms. I took a small bite, again, to be polite. It wasn't bad. In fact, it was kind of good. I ended up eating the whole dish.

I don't think I'm a full scale mushroom fan now. Getting over an ages long food phobia takes time, but, if I do end up liking mushrooms, I'll have Brendon to thank.