Summer Rolls

When the temperatures soar, we always go looking for cooler foods at home, especially ones that we can eat outside on our shaded front porch. Summer rolls fit that bill nicely. With almost no effort and with about anything in the refrigerator/garden, you can have a cool delicious dinner. Thank you Vietnam!

Ready for Summer Rolls

Step 1: Soak the Rice Paper

Step 2: Build the Roll

Step 3: Dip Away

I usually make nước chấm, a fish sauce based dipping sauce, for our summer rolls, but alas, out here in farm country fish sauce is hard to come by and I was almost out. Instead, we made do with a sauce of peanut butter, lime juice, fish sauce, sriracha, and garlic.

It was a blast for us, eating our first outdoor meal of the year out on the porch, rolling the little packages like burritos and stuffing our faces. There is something that we really enjoy about eating with our hands: it seems so much more intimate in a way.

But I found out in the restaurant business that Ann and I are in the minority. While Americans will make exceptions for hot dogs and corn on the cob, many, the majority I would wager, have an issue with eating food with their hands. I remember seeing customers in the dining room of the restaurant struggling to eat mussels, summer rolls, pork belly tacos, and flat breads with a knife and fork.

At least for our tasting menus, I would have the servers discreetly let customers know that it was OK and even preferable to eat a particular course with their fingers. Still, a significant percentage of customers couldn't forgo the knife and fork. We Americans have a built-in bias: eating without utensils is somehow improper and low class.

I wonder what they would make of our late night dinners at Shiv's restaurant where there were no utensils on the table, only a basket of naan, straight out of the tandoor. Or a foray to an Ethiopian restaurant where injera stands in for the naan.

If sight, smell, taste, and sound (think of the hiss of sizzling beef on a black iron skillet) are all part and parcel of the dining experience, why make an exception for touch?

Annie Makes Soufflé

This past weekend, my wife cooked for me a delightful Gruyère soufflé and one of the best salads that I have ever eaten! Those of you who don't cook for a living have no basis for comprehending how wonderful this is, so just let me assure you that it is always fantastic when someone else cooks for you, especially someone who cooks as fabulously as my wife.

Gruyère Soufflé

This tale started last Thursday when I asked Ann in a casual text if we had any plans for Sunday, my day off and last day to rest before the circus which is Valentine's Day. She replied that we did not but that she was making yummy food for me. Score! I generally cook on Sundays because I want to. There are no other days of the week that I can really cook for her unless she were to come to the restaurant and then I wouldn't be really cooking just for her and she would be reminded painfully that I spend all my nights with my restaurant mistress instead of her. Suffice it to say that it is a huge deal for Ann to cook for me on a Sunday and that I was greatly anticipating it.

Greens with Pickled Red Onions and Warm Balsamic Dressing

This is one of the best salads I have ever eaten. But what a giant pain in the rear! Ann asked me to bring some ingredients home from the restaurant, but our communications were a bit garbled and the long and short of it is that we had to go back to the restaurant on Sunday to get micro-basil for the salad. And then I had to go back to get the prosciutto. I thought Ann was going to cry when we got back to the house to find that we had forgotten the prosciutto. And so I went back to the restaurant and made sure I grabbed a bottle of wine too, because all that running back and forth was not what I planned for my day off and I was a bit frazzled.

Back to the salad which comprised greens, basil, mint leaves, parsley leaves, red onions pickled in red wine vinegar, shaved Parmigiano Reggiano, prosciutto, toasted pine nuts, and a garlicky warm balsamic dressing. Absolutely fantastic. I had two helpings and ate the bulk of the leftovers in a wrap the next day.

Separating Eggs

Shaving Parmigiano

Just Coming out of the Oven

Dinner was fantastic! Nobody, not even a professional chef, could have made it any better.

Pork Larb Lettuce Wraps

I didn't have a clue what to make for dinner last evening. I wasn't hungry and I wasn't really craving anything. So when Ann sent me an email in the morning asking if we could have pork lettuce wraps for dinner, I was totally jazzed at not having to think about dinner. The figuring out dinner part is the hard part; the execution is always the easy part.

Pork Larb Lettuce Wraps

Last week, I made shrimp larb for dinner and I thought I would reprise that with pork this week. While Ann was off at a meeting, I went out to the garden and picked Thai basil and mint, whose leaves I mixed with cilantro leaves and very thinly sliced red onion in a bowl. And then I sliced some shallots, some Thai chiles, and minced some garlic. The final step in getting set was to mix some lime juice, brown sugar, fish sauce, and Thai chiles to make a sauce to drizzle over the wraps.

When Ann texted me to say she was coming home, I browned the shallots hard in a pan, then threw in a bunch of minced garlic and sliced chiles. Next went in the pork, a touch of brown sugar, and a splash each of fish sauce and water. When the pork was cooked through, I removed it carefully to the bowl containing the herbs and red onion, and returned the liquid to the stove where I reduced it to a syrup and then poured it back over the pork.

I omitted the toasted rice powder: we're watching our carbs. We hate watching our carbs but it is working. I could kill for a bowl of pasta now after three months of low-carbing it!

A Lazy Summer Sunday

Money being tight these days, we are spending a lot more time at home cooking and playing on Sundays that we would normally do during the summer. I really, really wanted to go to Glen Manor Vineyard this weekend, but that costs money we don't have, so I shut my mouth and we put together a great menu for the day.

Wine Line Up: Argyle Pinot Noir and Elk Cove Pinot Gris

It ended up being an Oregon wine day. We had Elk Cove Pinot Gris with our shrimp croquettes for lunch and Argyle Pinot Noir with our mussels for dinner. We had a local Catoctin Creek Petit Verdot on hand as well, but it never got opened.

Annie Frying Her Shrimp Croquettes

Shrimp Croquettes: Roux and Shrimp, Chilled and Breaded

Sometime this past week, Ann had made shrimp croquettes by folding cooked shrimp into a thick roux, chilling it, molding into croquettes, and rolling them in panko. She fried them up for lunch on Sunday. They were delicious with the Pinot Gris.

Watermelon Salad with Mint, Feta, and Red Onions

Mussels with Chorizo, Red Onions, Fennel, Garlic, and Orange Zest

For dinner, I made a watermelon salad by dicing seedless watermelon and feta and mixing that with thinly sliced red onion and chiffonaded fresh mint from the garden. A pinch each of salt and pepper and a splash each of extra virgin olive oil and Sherry vinegar finished the salad.

A big bowl of mussels accompanied the watermelon salad. I started by cooking the onion, garlic, and chorizo, then adding a bit of fennel confit (grilled, slow poached in oil, and covered in a tangy vinaigrette) and white wine. The mussels went in and finished steaming in a couple of minutes. I pulled them out and then reduced the sauce just slightly and poured it over the mussels. A good loaf of crusty bread hot out of the oven finished our lazy summer Sunday supper. A great day at home with my wife!

Easter 2013

In between snowstorms and rain falling from sullen grey skies, the sky became clear enough on Wednesday evening for me to see the full moon, meaning that Easter was just around the corner. I had thought about it a little bit about a month ago when Ann first brought up doing lamb again for Easter. I thought about it for about five minutes, long enough to scratch out a menu on my clipboard—yes, in this digital world, this particular dinosaur's personal assistant is a clipboard—and then promptly forgot about it until I saw the full moon.

I don't know why, but it somehow seemed fitting to do a little Greek food for Easter this year. I just had a hankering for some honest, home-cooked Greek food with no shortcuts. So I set about this menu on Good Friday by getting my pita dough started and then prepped most of the dinner on Saturday during the day, and what little was left over à la minute on Sunday.

Tom and Ann Matthes joined us for dinner. We had expected Ann's parents but her dad, Bob, was not feeling well. We missed them.

Mezés

Olives

Pita

Taramosalata

Marinated Cucumbers

Dolmades

Dinner

Arni Lemonato (Slow-Roasted Lamb)

Roasted Potatoes

Horta: Spinach Braised with Onions and Dill

Dessert

Orange Salad with Pistachios, Candied Pine Nuts, Feta, Mint, and Olive Oil
Cheeses

Dolmades and Marinated Cucumbers

Top to Bottom: Tzatziki, Olives, Taramosalata

I made tzatziki from really awesome goat milk yogurt and traditional taramosalata from bread, tarama, olive oil, grated onion, and lemon juice. I wish that my tarama (mullet roe, bottarga) had a more pronounced fishy flavor, but it was still good.

Ed-Made Pita

As I mentioned earlier, I started pita dough on Friday to let it ferment through several rises to develop flavor. Then I baked several sheet trays of it on Saturday and rewarmed it in the oven on Sunday. I make pita from the exact same dough that I make focaccia and pizza dough. And I make naan from the same dough, substituting yogurt for the olive oil.

Arni Lemonato me Patates, Horta

For the lamb this year, I decided to go with shanks because they are my favorite cut, but I decided to do something different: slow roast them. For whatever reason, I have always braised them in the past. I cut 5-6 slits in each shank and inserted a sliver of garlic, rubbed them with olive oil, and gave them a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper, then roasted them in a very hot oven for about 20 minutes, turning once, until they were browned all the way around. I squeezed a couple lemons over the shanks and sprinkled them with oregano, then added about four ounces of water to the bottom of the roasting pan and double-wrapped it in foil. The shanks cooked in a slow oven for an additional two and a half hours.

I scored some pretty Kennebec potatoes at the farmers market and they got roasted in a very hot convection oven until crispy done. The star of the plate was the horta, the greens, which I only wilted instead of braising. I only used spinach this time because Ann is a bit iffy on other greens and I wanted her to enjoy them. I sweated a finely diced onion in olive oil with several slivered cloves of garlic, then added the spinach and just wilted it. Into the pan next went a little feta cheese, fresh dill, and the first tiny mint leaves of the year from the garden. A quick season with salt and pepper and we had a fabulous side dish.

Tom's Cheeses: Gouda, Detroit Street Brick, Gorgonzola, Cabot Cheddar

Tom and Ann brought cheese for dessert. The orange gouda and the goat brick, I've already discussed in a prior post. The cheese in the front right is Cabot's (yes, the same people who make so-so block grocery store cheese) Clothbound Cheddar, that has been aged by affineurs in Vermont for a minimum of 13 months. Really, really delicious Cheddar that even the Brits would be forced, albeit most grudgingly, to admit is worthy. The hit of the day for me though was the Gorgonzola Naturale, just above the Cheddar in the photo. The texture is just so damned creamy and perfect on this particular wheel of cheese. Splendid!

Blood Orange Salad

No doubt we all know by now that I just don't care for sweets for dessert, though I do have a fondness for fruit. So I made a salad of sliced blood oranges and then tossed chunks of blood oranges with olives and feta and put that over the sliced oranges. I drizzled this with honey and extra virgin olive oil then sprinkled it with salt, pistachios, candied pine nuts, and the cutest, tiniest baby mint leaves from the garden.

Buona Pasqua!

Easter Sunday started off on a beautiful note with a full bright moon hanging in the sky illuminating the landscape at midnight after a long hard slog of a Saturday night dinner service at the restaurant, a slog that left me both sore and exhausted and sadly unable to sleep. Ma que bella luna!

What precious little sleep I got came well after midnight and was disrupted way too soon at 6am by a lot of racket from out back of the house. Despite 35-degree temperatures and frost on the grass, there was some kind of caterwauling happening out back, not unlike what I imagine a cat sounds like while being strangled.

Tossing and turning and fighting to go back to sleep, it dawned (pun intended) on me that it was Easter morning and the noise was an outside Easter sunrise service at one of the two churches in our little community. Both are within 400 yards of the back of our house.

I'm sure the choir sounded good up close, but it sounded anything but decent coming over the big field behind the house, especially to my sleep-deprived mind. But in the spirit of neighborliness, I was trying to forgive and forget when the preacher kicked in over the PA system, which got both dogs riled and barking.

And so I threw in the metaphorical towel and rather grumpily set about my day, taking the dogs outside at just about the time that the Baptist preacher from the closer of the two churches pushed his "big pitch"—as my former neighbor and Lutheran minister friend used to call his most important sermon of the year—as he pushed his big pitch to a nasally Southern Baptist crescendo.

Their business complete, the dogs and I headed back inside, they to eat breakfast like it was their last meal ever and I to start prepping for Easter dinner and wishing for some strozzapreti to cook and take next door as a neighborly gesture. You might have to be Italian to get that joke.

Easter is a time for flowers, no doubt. Our daffodils have been done for weeks, but here are some beautiful specimens that I brought to Ann from the farmers market and the phenomenal clematis we have growing out front. My aunt Susan also brought us a bunch of double daffodils and yellow tulips from her garden. How come everyone has daffodils but us?



At 7am, after getting the animals settled down, Ann was still asleep when I started prepping my part of the menu that Ann had worried over for weeks: grilled butterflied leg of lamb, grilled roulade of shiitake-stuffed pork tenderloin, roasted asparagus, and a green salad with tomato vinaigrette.

Ann's part was a shiitake and fingerling potato tart that she learned from Jen and a gorgeous layer cake, more about which later. And naturally Ann took care of the table, which was beautiful with its crown of hyacinths. It was a good division of labor, even if I drove her nuts not being able to nail down exactly what vegetables we were serving weeks in advance! She's a planner, Ann is, and it is taking some getting used to that I am a wing-it kind of cook. How do I know weeks in advance if we are going have asparagus for Easter? She's thinking, "How can he not know?"

Ann is crazy for cocktail napkins!


Our guests were Ann's parents Bob and Mary, my uncle and aunt Marshall and Susan, their daughter and my youngest first cousin Melissa, and our good friends Jen and Dewi. Isn't this the greatest photo of lovebirds Bob and Mary? And again you see them at the table with my uncle Marshall.


Here are Dewi, Marshall, and Susan and then my cousin Melissa.


Jen, Ann, and a shot of the two of us—I never realized how tiny Ann is beside me. I have no recollection of who shot this picture. Too much wine?


After everyone arrived, we poured around a couple bottles of our house sparkling wine, Bailly-Lapierre Crémant de Bourgogne, and then we attacked the hors d'oeuvres, a tray of things we had rustled from the fridge and a shiitake and fingerling potato tart that Ann made. Yes, there is always cheese and salame in our fridge, and yes, we did rip off this tart: it is the very same one that Jen has made for us a couple of times; thanks to her for the recipe! [That dough is crazy sticky!] Everyone wanted to know what was up with the artichoke hearts. Really, I found some leftover canned chokes in the fridge and just poured some olive oil and balsamic vinegar on them, with a sprinkle of salt, peppers, and dried herbs.


For the main course of our Easter dinner, we had long planned to have local lamb. I had a nice saddle that I was going to bone out and stuff when we had four guests. Then I switched to a leg at six guests. And a ten, I said the heck with it and stuffed a couple of pork tenderloins. The leg I butterflied and rubbed with a mint-rosemary pesto made from our garden. The pork tenders I butterflied and stuffed with a shiitake mushroom duxelles flavored with balsamic vinegar, then rolled and tied into a roulade. Both grilled at medium heat outside. The lamb, especially the charred pesto, was really good; the pork tenderloins fell apart (at the restaurant I would have wrapped them in caul fat to hold them together). Good, but unsightly and bad form for a professional chef.


To go with the meats, Ann made a delicious orzo salad and I scored some outstanding baby greens at the market.


And score! First asparagus of the year, roasted with olive oil, salt, and pepper!

With dinner, we had a lot of wine. Ann requested Syrah with the lamb, so we opened a Castello di Poppiano Syrah di Toscana. And I like Petit Verdot with lamb, so we opened some 2006 Linden PV. Ann also cracked one of her beloved Barrel 27 Right Hand Man Syrahs from Paso Robles, but I never saw or tasted it! And Dewi brought a Chinon, a 2009 Clos de la Niverdière, which has a bit of a barnyardy but otherwise typical Cab Franc nose and is especially pleasant for having seen no oak. I really love wines from Chinon and from just across the river in Bourgeuil.


We ended our delicious feast with one of the very best cakes that I have ever eaten. Ann baked a phenomenal lemon layer cake with lemon buttercream frosting! She keeps saying that she doesn't know how to bake, but I think she is sandbagging us! She presented the cake with a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday for Melissa's birthday coming up early next week. Dewi and I rousted a 1989 Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey Sauternes out of the cellar to go with the cake. It has a slightly oxidized nose with hints of cream sherry and toasted hazelnuts, and a pure lemony crème brûlée flavor with waves of acid and candied papaya. Delicious, but not as delicious as that cake! Ann, as I told you earlier, I have never had a professionally made cake as good as yours! Amazing, just amazing!


I cannot imagine a better Easter celebration with friends and family, memorable not only for the company, but for starting off with a full moon and noisy neighbors, and punctuated by fierce winds that ripped the siding off the south side of the house—a day we will never forget!