Last Night’s Dinner

I had really hoped to give more updates, or frankly even a complete post wrapping up our Christmas nibbles, but wouldn’t you know it, I’m sick. Really sick. All the running around we did over the weekend and our 2 day cooking marathon caught up with me. I’ve apparently got the flu now in addition to a bad flare - bad timing as today is my birthday and Mike made dinner reservations for tonight at Blue Hill. He had planned to take me there for my birthday last year, but since we were still catching up with veterinary expenses from Dub’s hospitalization, we ended up canceling, so I’m bound and determined to drag myself into the city and enjoy my birthday dinner this year.

I did manage to take photos of our kitchen shenanigans, which you can see here. Posting will probably be light as I try to recover from all this.

Hoping you had a wonderful holiday season, and wishing you all the best in 2008.

The shelves of our fridge and bar cabinet are positively groaning under the weight of all of the goodies we have to eat and drink over the next two days (if you click on the photo you can see the annotated version in my Flickr stream). Work is already underway on tonight’s meal, and I’ll try to post periodic updates as we go along.

To those of you who celebrate, have a safe and happy Christmas.

This is all Amy’s fault.

From the moment I laid eyes on this, I knew I had to try this recipe. How could I not? See, my favorite food in the world next to cheese has got to be potatoes in any form, and when I saw those crisp, delicious looking beauties, I developed a craving for fries that just would not go away. My first thought was to make steak frites, but since we’ve been going so heavy on the meat lately, I decided on moules frites as a lighter option.

I followed the recipe for the fries pretty closely, substituting olive oil for canola because we didn’t have any on hand, and dividing the potatoes over two half-sheet pans. One pan (the one with more wear on it) turned out perfectly crisp, beautiful fries and the other… well, not so much. Those fries stuck to the bottom of the pan, to the sides of the pan, to each other, to anything they could stick to. They were pretty mangled and fugly after I finally turned them all, but I pressed on.

I ended up leaving the fries in the oven for an extra 10 minutes (for a total cooking time of one hour), and when I pulled them out, I had one tray of perfect specimens, and a second tray of perfectly cooked fries that were not going to win any beauty contests, but were just as tasty as their more attractive brethren.

The garlicky topping, I must say, is genius. If you make these fries, do not skip that step. And if you like fries, do try this recipe, because even though my go at them wasn’t all smooth sailing, they were worth the frustration, and I definitely plan to make them again and again.

I wish I could say that I was responsible for the contents of this beautiful plate, but the only thing I did was take pictures and dig in.

Not only did my awesome husband bring home a delightful surprise for me last night, but he didn’t let me lift a finger in the kitchen. He cooked up these gorgeous Flying Pigs chops with pan gravy, smashed sour cream-spiked potatoes, and garlicky Red Russian kale while I relaxed on the sofa with a cocktail and we chatted about our day. It was heavenly.

Have I mentioned lately what a lucky girl I am?

You regulars may have noticed the lack of a “Weekend Eats (and Drinks)” post yesterday. This weekend was filled with some truly wonderful food and drink, but it turned out to be my undoing.

After spending the better part of our Saturday trekking around the city on food safari, and then heading out again on Sunday to check out Wintermarket (you can see my photos here) – well, let’s just say that my body was not entirely happy with me. Two days in a row of schlepping around in the cold and damp while carrying heavy bags sent me right into a flare, and I spent much of my Monday in bed trying to recover.

But I don’t always do a good job of listening when my body tells me to slow down, so I didn’t rest as much as I probably should have – who can rest this time of year, anyway – and I went forward with the dinner I had planned for Monday night.

I used to make a version of this white bean and roasted garlic soup all of the time using canned beans, but on our last visit to Marlow and Sons I noticed they are now stocking the Rancho Gordo beans all of you Bay area peeps rave about, so of course I grabbed a bag.

Using dried beans instead of canned required an extra step and a bit more time on the stove, but I think the soup benefited from both. The hardest part was the chopping, really, and once everything was in the pot I could sit back with my feet up and relax with the cats while it simmered away.

White Bean & Roasted Garlic Soup

8 oz. dried cannellini beans
Olive oil
2 leeks, halved and sliced into half-moons
3 sprigs winter savory (rosemary, thyme or sage would also work well)
4 cups rich vegetable or chicken stock
1 parmesan rind
1 head garlic
2 cups diced potatoes
1 cup diced carrot
Salt
1/2 cup ditalini or other small tube-shaped pasta

Rinse and pick through the beans, place them into a pot and cover them with enough cold water so that there is about an inch of water above the top of the beans. Place a lid on the pot and bring it to a boil, then turn off the heat and let the beans soak for an hour.

In a large, heavy bottomed pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and cook for a few minutes until tender. Add the beans with their cooking liquid (you should have about 2 cups worth), the savory, the parmesan rind and the stock, cover the pot and simmer for about an hour, until the beans are tender but still a bit firm.

While the soup simmers, preheat the oven to 375. Cut the top off of the garlic bulb, place it in the center of a square of aluminum foil, drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top and seal the garlic up in the foil. Place the garlic into the oven and roast until the garlic is very soft, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside until it is cool enough to handle. Remove the roasted garlic cloves from their skins, place them into a small bowl and mash into a paste.

Remove any savory stems from the soup and discard (the leaves should have fallen off into the broth). Stir in the garlic paste until well-incorporated, then add the potatoes and carrots. Season with salt, re-cover the pan and let it simmer another 30 minutes or so, until the potatoes and carrots are tender. Add the pasta and cook for another 10-15 minutes. Remove the parmesan rind and spoon the soup into bowls, topping with grated parmesan if desired.

I’ve made my donation - have you?

I had every intention of coming home last night and making enchiladas with some chicken we had left over from the weekend, but as you can see, that’s not exactly what I ended up doing. There was the ice storm. And the train delays. And by the time I finally got home it was VERY late and the last thing I was up for was frying individual tortillas and dipping them in sauce. So I punted, yet again, and ended up with something that had the flavor of enchiladas but was so ridiculously simple to put together I felt like I was cheating in a major way.

But it was so good we had two helpings each.

It’s amazing how any not-completely-from-scratch guilt just melts away when you’ve got a belly full of something good at the end of a long day.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

4 tablespoons butter, divided
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
8 oz. grated Monterey Jack cheese
Kosher salt
Hot pepper sauce
12 corn tortillas
1 12.5-ounce jar best quality tomatillo salsa, or equivalent amount of homemade
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons dried oregano

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Using 2 tablespoons of butter, generously grease the bottom and sides of a baking dish or cast iron skillet. In another skillet, melt the remaining two tablespoons of butter. Whisk in the flour and allow it to cook for a few minutes, then add the milk and whisk until smooth and thickened. Add a small handful of the grated cheese and stir through. Season with salt and hot pepper sauce.

Spoon about 1/4 cup of the cheese sauce into the bottom of the pan or baking dish, spreading it around. Add the shredded chicken to the remaining cheese sauce and stir through. Layer 4 tortillas on the bottom of the baking dish or cast iron skillet over the sauce. Spoon 1/3 of the salsa over the tortillas, then add half of the chicken/sauce mixture, half of the beans, a tablespoon of the oregano and 1/3 of the remaining cheese, distributing them fairly evenly. Cover with four more tortillas and repeat the layering. Top the next layer with the remaining tortillas, salsa and cheese. Bake for 35-40 minutes and allow to rest briefly before slicing. Serve with sour cream or crema and chopped fresh cilantro.

Wine Pairing: We dipped into the mixed case we recently bought, selecting this 2006 Cuilleron Syrah. Mike and I both liked how it worked with our meal - lots of dark fruit and a bit of pepperiness which worked well with the richness and mild spiciness of the dish.

As has been mentioned many times on this site, our favorite restaurant in the city is Marlow and Sons. We’ve had countless special meals there, and we have often been inspired to try our own spin on dishes from their menu. They’ve made it easier for us to try to duplicate their recipes by publishing them in the excellent Diner Journal (a quarterly publication put together by the folks behind the food at Marlow, Diner and the two Bonita locations), and dinner last night was pulled from the pages of the current issue.

We jokingly refer to Chef Caroline Fidanza as “the pork whisperer” because she has such a way with pork dishes, and her recipe for pork rillons did not disappoint. We originally had this at Marlow a few months back, and while Mike feels that his version needs a bit of tweaking, this is definitely a dish we’ll make again soon. The slab of belly we had weighed in at 1.7 pounds, so Mike used four cloves garlic and probably 10-15 sprigs of thyme; you’ll want to adjust the proportions in the recipe below to the size of the piece of belly you’re using. And don’t discard the fat that’s left after frying the rillons - slice up some potatoes, season with salt and pepper and fry them in the fat until they’re golden and crisp.

Pork Rillons with Salsa Verde
Recipe by Caroline Fidanza, Marlow and Sons/Diner
Published in the Winter 2007 issue of Diner Journal

3 lb. pork belly, cut into 2 inch cubes
1 small bunch thyme
8 cloves garlic
Red wine

Season the belly well with salt and pepper. In a large sauté pan brown the cubed belly on all sides. You will probably need to do this in batches. Remove browned pork from the pan and place in a roasting pan. Add 1/3 wine, 2/3 water, enough to cover the rillons 2/3 of the way. Nestle the sprigs of thyme and halved cloves of garlic around the browned pork. Roast uncovered in a 350 degree oven, rotating the rillons as they cook. Essentially the water and wine will cook off and the rillons will confit in the fat that they render, turning brown and tender. This won’t take too long, about 45 minutes. Remove the rillons from the oven and drain off the liquid. Reserve this for cooking if you like.

To make the salsa verde:

1 bunch parsley, picked
1 bunch mint, picked
1 bunch cilantro, picked
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced on the bias
1 fresh red chile or chile arbol to taste
1/2 cup cornichons, sliced
3 tablespoons capers
Extra virgin oil
Red wine vinegar

Mix the herbs with the chile, cornichons and capers. Season with olive oil, vinegar and salt.

Serve rillons on a platter with plenty of salsa verde on top.

Living as I do in an “up and coming” neighborhood, I am reminded every day that there are a lot of hungry people in the world. There are a lot of people who can’t rely on a fully stocked pantry to put a good meal together when Plan A fails, and who don’t have the luxury of paying more money for pastured this or sustainable that. I realize every day just how lucky I am to be able to cook and eat as I do, and every day I wish that people didn’t have to go to bed hungry, didn’t have to choose between putting food on their table or buying their medicine, between feeding their family or keeping a roof over their heads.

Hunger is a pervasive problem, and at this time of year, as those of us who are able to do so gather around the table with loved ones to dine and celebrate, we should also remember those who must go without, and strive to help them in any way possible.

Food is about sharing, about a sense of community, and one great way you can get a helping of both of those things is by participating in Menu for Hope. The campaign kicks off on December 10th, and will benefit the UN World Food Programme. I encourage you all to take a moment and read more about Menu for Hope over at Chez Pim, and to give whatever support you can to this great cause.