time-intensive

We kicked the weekend off with dinner out at our favorite little place, and as always, we had an excellent meal and came home inspired. I plan to try my spin at some of the dishes we tasted there very soon.

Now that Mike’s not working Saturdays, I’ve got him back for “food safari.” We headed into the city fairly early on Saturday morning, stopping for dumplings and pork buns before making the rounds. After we got home and put away our haul, we sat and relaxed with a snack: a chunk of Mossend Blue from Saxelby Cheesemongers, slices of Mutsu apple from the Greenmarket and some walnut halves.

Then I got to put my feet up while Mike took apart the bigger of two stewing chickens we picked up from Flying Pigs Farm and got to work on Saturday dinner: Coq au Vin a la Julia Child. Delicious.

I spent Marathon Sunday doing a bit of a marathon of my own in the kitchen. Our second stewing chicken, along with the neck, wings and backbone from the first, spent the better part of the day in a pot with water, herbs and vegetable trimmings, yielding more than a gallon of rich, deep golden stock.

In a second pot, I braised a 4 lb. piece of pork shoulder for about 6 hours. I carved off a few big chunks and served them with potato croquettes (made with leftover mashed potatoes, chopped parsley and grated Gruyere cheese), sautéed chard, and the strained and reduced braising liquid (a bit of a hodgepodge of rye whiskey, flat ginger beer, dry mustard, cumin, wine vinegar, bay leaf and mirepoix).

We’ve got quite a bit of pork left over, which was part of my plan: with a short vacation coming up, we’re trying to be a bit thrifty, so I intend to use the remaining braised pork as the base for a couple of future dinners. Stay tuned for more fun with leftovers…

I decided to surprise him this year. His office wasn’t closed for the Columbus Day holiday, and mine was, so I had the apartment to myself and it would be easy. The plan was to make gnocchi – I haven’t done it in over a year, and a friend recently asked for some tips, so I’ve had gnocchi on the brain lately.

I’ve made dozens of batches of these little dumplings over the years, with varying degrees of success. The ones I made last night were my lightest yet, though I think they were almost too delicate. Still, I was pleased overall with the result and more importantly, Mike loved them.

I’m not going to print a recipe here, because I think gnocchi are something you just need to try and try and try again until you get a feel for them. I’ve always used Lidia’s recipe as a base, and I referred to Heidi and Elise this time around as well. I would estimate that I ended up using about 2 cups of potato, one egg seasoned with about 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt, and about a cup of flour – far less flour than I have ever used before.

As I said above, this made for extremely light gnocchi, but a few of them just barely held together in the sauce. It’s possible that gnocchi like this would do better in a lighter sauce – sage brown butter, perhaps – as opposed to the wild mushroom cream sauce I served them with last night.

The birthday boy had no complaints, though, and he happily downed two helpings between phone calls from our families passing along their well-wishes. We opened a bottle of Bindella Vino Nobile di Montepulciano with our meal, and drank a toast to the year ahead.

Mike asked to cook Friday’s dinner. He had taken apart a duck to make one last batch of confit before it gets too warm out, and we had a bit of confit to use up from his last batch, so he looked for a preparation using that and the fresh duck breasts he had reserved. What he found was this, and it was amazing. He also made spatzle (hi Ann!) to accompany the dish, and I’m pretty certain I’m going to ask him to make it all the time.

Wine Pairing: My contribution to the meal was the wine - a bottle of 2005 Yann Chave Crozes Hermitage with delicious spice and pepper notes.

It’s still frigid outside, and we had nowhere to be yesterday, so after brunch, Mike read comics and cocktail books, and I thawed some lamb neck slices and curled up with the cats to watch Tony Bourdain eat warthog anus in Namibia. Much to my surprise, this did not kill my appetite permanently.

My plan for dinner was to make a lamb stew, but my usual preparation (red wine, root vegetables, herbes de provence) wasn’t really sending me. We still had Meyer lemons on hand, so I decided to use those, along with some olives, tomato, and warm spices like coriander, cumin and cinnamon.

I seasoned the lamb slices with salt and pepper, then dredged them in a bit of flour before adding them two at a time to the Le Creuset to brown in olive oil. I set the lamb slices aside, and added half a red onion, chopped, to the pan, sprinkled on a pinch of kosher salt, and allowed it to soften. I added three smashed peeled garlic cloves next, along with a tablespoon or so of tomato paste. I let the tomato paste begin to caramelize before mixing it into the onion and garlic. Next came the spices - a tablespoon of coriander seeds, half a tablespoon of ground cinnamon, and two tablespoons of ground cumin, which were stirred into the onion mixture.

I poured in a cup of red wine and a cup of crushed tomatoes, then added two Meyer lemons, seeded and chopped, plus one bay leaf. The lamb went back into the pot, and I added about 1/4 cup of water - just enough to bring the level of the liquid up to the tops of the lamb pieces. I placed the lid on the pan and let it come to a boil, then reduced the heat and let it simmer away for two hours, stirring it from time to time.

I added half a cup of pitted mixed olives about half an hour before the stew was done so they would add their flavor but not break down. I figured the olives would add some saltiness to the stew, so I waited to adjust the seasoning until the olives had cooked for a bit (and as it turned out, it didn’t need to be re-salted at all). I served the stew over couscous, and finished it with a bit of chopped flat-leaf parsley and a grating of lemon zest.

I was really pleased with the combination of flavors here - the sweet-tart taste of the lemon and the tang of the tomatoes and olives were a nice bright counterpoint to the rich lamb, and the spices were warm and heady. I’m definitely going to make this again soon.

Wine Note: We drank 2004 Ey Vigne Las Collas Grenache, an old vines Grenache with delicious smoke, pepper, and spice notes.

Cold winter days just cry out for meals that fill up your entire home with savory aromas and that fill up your belly with something warm and nourishing. One of the most satisfying things to make when I know I’m going to be housebound on days like that is a big pot of Ragu Bolognese.

The recipe I generally follow is Marcella Hazan’s ragu from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and I think it’s just about foolproof. What always strikes me about the recipe is that it is actually quite simple in terms of what goes into the ragu - the quality of your ingredients and the length of time you let the sauce simmer make all the difference.

Marcella’s recipe calls for softening onion, carrot and celery in a mixture of butter and oil, but since we always have lard on hand (the good stuff, leaf lard rendered down at home from pasture-raised pigs), I often use that. Add the onion to the pan with a good pinch of kosher salt and let that cook for a couple of minutes, then add the carrot and celery, a little more salt, and let those go for a few minutes more. One thing I do that is NOT in Marcella’s recipe, but which I think adds more depth of flavor, is that I add about a tablespoon-or-so sized dollop of tomato paste (from a tube - one of the best inventions ever) to the pan and let it caramelize for a few moments before stirring it through with the softened veggies.

Add the meat (I use two parts ground beef to one part ground pork) and season with salt and a few grindings of pepper. Once the meat browns, add whole milk and a grating of nutmeg and simmer until the milk evaporates away, and then add a cup of white wine and allow that to evaporate as well. Keeping an eye on the sauce while you are waiting for the milk and then the wine to cook off is probably the hardest part of the process - it takes some time, and you do have to watch the pot closely and stir often so you don’t scorch the bottom - but I think it really builds good layers of flavor into the sauce.

Canned tomatoes (preferably San Marzano) with their juices go in next - you can smoosh them with your fingers to break them up or stick a knife in the can to chop them before adding. Give everything a good stir and leave the pot to cook away uncovered over the lowest heat possible for at least 3 hours, checking on it and stirring from time to time, and adding a little bit of water if the sauce gets too dry.

I don’t recall the proportions for Marcella’s original recipe off hand, but I do remember it yields about 2 cups of sauce. When I make this I generally do a big batch so I can portion it out and freeze what I don’t use right away – it freezes beautifully.

These are the proportions I generally use:

2 lbs. ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
1 cup each red onion, carrot and celery, diced
About 1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 cup whole milk
1 cup dry white wine
Freshly grated nutmeg
1 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, broken up or roughly chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Water as needed

This makes a BIG pot of sauce – enough to properly sauce a classic lasagna Bolognese, share with your friends, and still have a few cups left over to freeze for later. It’s totally worth the time and effort.