THE SOUTHERN INFLUENCE

Our guest chef is back, HOORAY! Cooked us a wonderful meal of very slow roasted pork shoulder, served with spicy sweet potatoes with onion and red peppers, fabulous collard greens and a dish of black beans with slow roasted corn.  Could have been ordinary but believe me it was not.   Recipes might follow if I can get them out of him!  As usual this meant a very pleasant afternoon in the kitchen, being sous chef and observer.  Whilst shopping  he noticed plantains were on special, what better way to finish his southern/Haiwian meal?  Throws it out to me, plantain fritters?  Found perfect sounding recipe on Epicurious, of course, sweet plantian fritters.   Have to say it was a challenge after the filling meal, even though we waited an hour or so to serve them, but they were irresistible and delicious!

MY FAVOURITE SATURDAY - COOKING, DINNER WITH FRIENDS

Just 6 of us for dinner tonight but was planning on spending some time at Joseph's regatta on Saturday, so had to plan something that was not too time consuming on the day.  Decided on SLOW-COOKED DUCK LEGS, have done these before but not for a  while. I had cut the recipe out of the NY Times many years ago, but cannot find it on the site so here it is:

• Combine 1 tsp each of ground allspice, dried thyme, ground cumin with
• 1/4 tsp each of ground ginger, ground cloved and grated nutmeg with
• 1 tsp crushed juniper berries

mix well and sprinkle over both sides of

• 8 duck legs

rub well into the flesh, place in dish large enough to hold them in one layer then sprinkle with

• 4 TSPS kosher salt

cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge for 24 hours.
Heat oven to 300 degrees F.
Remove legs from dish and carefully wipe with Bounty to remove all salt.
Place skin side up in a 3 inch deep baking dish, in single layer.  Add:

• 1 Bayleaf
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled but whole

Cover tightly with foil and cook for 2.5 - 3 hours.
Remove from pan, can be made ahead to this point.
Pre heat broiler, place legs on rack in roasting pan and broil about 10 inches away from element for about 5 minutes, til skin crisps and they are heated through.  Couple of notes: I had fresh thyme so used that, sprinkled on the leaves just before baking; I did not have juniper berries so simply left them out, interested to see how it could be even better with them! I always use the full 3 hours but you have to be careful as you take them out of the pan as the meat is literally falling off the bone. I use a spatula and put them straight onto the rack that they will go under the broiler on.



I served this with a green pepper Risotto, taken from a wonderful book I was given years ago:
Risotto by Judith Barrett and Norma Wasserman

I chose this particular risotto because it is not too rich, has no cream in it. The pairing worked well, and I enjoy having the girls in the kitchen stirring risotto, just before we sit down to eat. Our meal was completed by a delicious salad, provided by Charlotte, of mache, endive, roasted beets and pecans, dressed with a blood orange vinaigrette, perfect accompaniment to rich and fatty duck!

Finished the evening with some delicious cheese and the Lemon Curd Pavlova that I made many times before.  I did the meringue and lemon curd the previous evening, then put it together just before serving.  Alan had done the shopping and picked up raspberries instead of blueberries by mistake, but it turned out to be a happy accident, it was a little different, looked and tasted great!  In fact I just had a leftover slice as I was writing this!

Sunday not roast!

My boys went skiing this weekend, took advantage of the late arrival of spring.  That meant that I could decide on Sunday dinner with no input! Been thinking about the Thai Green Curry with Seafood that I did some time ago and made it again tonight.   I know I have not often done this, repeated myself on this blog but things have to evolve and this one is worth repeating, it was delicious.  I found baby bok choi and so did not finely chop, as per the recipe, but quartered them and it worked out well, and looked good.  Alan did not love it, but I'm sure he had his taste  buds primed for a roast dinner so no matter how good it was he was not going to be happy!  It was also probably a touch too spicey for him, but when you cook with fresh chilies it is so difficult to control the heat exactly.  I would have been ok with a bit less heat but thought it was excellent as it was.  I also cracked the first bottle of rose wine for the season, come on, it was a sunny day!

LEMON CAKE - for Julia, the boys and some time ago, Elizabeth.

 We celebrated a 'big' birthday of Julia's a few weeks ago with a wonderful party at Napa.  During the planning stage we had talked about Iain and I providing a cake each, which would also be dessert.  This did not work out.  I was a little disappointed as I was planning to make this cake which I knew Julia would love. "You can make it for me some other time" she said.
LEMON LAYER CAKE WITH LEMON CURD AND MASCARPONE
The occasion arose yesterday, dinner at Julia's with Iain and Rick, who recently announced they are moving to London, very sad for us.  Anyway, seemed like the right time to make this, although only 5 of us I knew they would be an appreciative audience and it is the kind of cake that might even be better on the day after it is made.
Luckily we had the day off work on Friday and I could start it then as it is a labour of love, making this cake.  I did the cake layers on Friday and the lemon curd, then did the syrup and frosting on Saturday morning and put it all together in time to have it in the fridge by lunchtime as it has to refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
The fun coincidence was that it was Elizabeth's birthday yesterday, so 8 years to the day when I made this cake for her, the only other time I have made it!  At that point we used to do an Oscar party, which doubled as Elizabeth's birthday party.  It grew over the years, various people hosted and it was always a fun filled evening with great food.  It was a girls only affair (most men did not share our opinions on the frocks and we were not interested in hearing theirs!).  This particular year I was hosting and asked Elizabeth what she would like for dessert/birthday cake.  "The cake that is on the cover of the current Bon Appetit" she replied with no hesitation, perhaps she was waiting for me to ask?! To be honest it was probably the most ambitious cake I had attempted at the time, but I enjoyed making it and it was delicious, as it was last night.

JOSEPH'S FAVOURITE BREAKFAST

Since Charlotte gave me the pan and the mix for these filled pancakes they have become a regular breakfast request on one of the weekend mornings.  I finally ran out of mix and had to improvise. I used my regular pancake recipe, only thing I changed was to separate the egg and whip the egg white before adding to the mixture.  They were definitely different, but Joseph declared them to be even better! Thanks again Charlotte.

• Sift 1 cup flour with
• 1 tsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• add one egg yolk
• one cup buttermilk and whisk til smooth
• beat the egg white till fluffy (I do this first so I don't have to wash the beaters)
• carefully add the egg white and 2 TSPS melted butter

I thought the mixture was thicker than it should be and added another dollop of buttermilk.
In the meantime have the pan warming on a medium heat with a dab of butter in each dent. Put 1 TBSP of mixture in each and add filling of your choice, our favourites:

• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Banana
• Peanut butter & jelly (actually Chelsey's fave!)

cover filling with more mixture.  When the bottoms are done carefully turn over with 2 wooden skewers and cook minute or so more.  My one tip is not to have the heat too high or the edges will burn before the middle is cooked.
Serve with melted butter and maple syrup, if you like.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A STEAK SANDWICH!

 

I have 2 sisters and when we were teenagers my mother quite often made us hamburgers on a Saturday night. We were all doing different things at different times, so she made the patties and set out the 'fixings' and the electric griddle thing so we could each cook our own burger at a time to suit our plans for the evening.  With that as inspiration we had steak sandwiches for dinner tonight, each a little different.  Here is Joseph's, which he declared to be delicious.  Steak was sirloin, as it was on special at our wonderful Wilton Village Market  today and the bread has to be from Michaelina's,  one of 2 great bakeries we have right here in Wilton. Only thing I got wrong is that I cooked it for him, really need to work on that!

DAVE'S DELECTABLE MUSHROOM SOUP

Two years ago when Harlan was born we were down in Folly for New Years Eve with the brand new family.  Dave cooked us a wonderful New Year's Eve dinner which he threw together in 2 hours, would have taken me all day! We started with this mushroom soup which I recently recreated when Anne was visiting from Australia.  We had a quiet dinner to catch up on the night she arrived at Julia's, in the excitement of the evening I forgot to take a picture, will add one next time I do this, Alan is asking for it!

MUSHROOM AND TRUFFLE SOUP

• 1 Package Crimini mushrooms
• 1/4 of large yellow onion
• Butter - about 1 stick
• Chicken stock - about a cup
• Truffle oil
• Salt

Put the mushrooms in an oven safe dish. Take  half a stick of butter and cut it up into 1/2 inch pieces.    Place the butter on top of the mushrooms and season well with salt.  Sprinkle with a tsp of of truffle oil and place a 1/2 cup of stock in the bottom of the pan.   Cover and cook at 400 for 30-45 minutes or until cooked thoroughly .  Once mushrooms are cooked through, Place them and the liquid into a blender and begin to puree... If you need more liquid add stock.   Puree until smooth and add Small chunks of butter to make it creamier (while it is pureeing).  Season with salt and truffle oil to taste.
Makes about 2 large or 4 small servings.
Notes: The day I did this could not find crimini's so used baby bella mushrooms and it was still delicious. I used at least one cup of stock and garnished with thinly sliced mushrooms, seared til crispy.

Garnish options 

Seared mushrooms with chopped chives
Creme fraiche
Chives cut on the bias in 1 inch pieces
Truffle oil
Truffle oil mixed with creme fraiche
Dave's  favorite garnish:  Seared scallop, dusted in porcini powder before searing.
You can make porcini powder by grinding up dried porcini's in a coffee blender, some places sell it. (Cut scallop up in five Pieces for looks)