yum!

Left: just pan 2 Right: total mixture

Pan 1:

onions

garlic

mushrooms

eggplant

spices (pepper…. allspice…)

RFTS

milk

Cook these in this order (waiting after the garlic, spices, RFTS for timing).

Pan 2:

chicken

spinach

spices (nutmeg…)

Cook for 15 minutes with only the water of the spinach.

Place contents of pan 2 in pie crust, cover with contents of pan 1, and close crust.

Bake at 425 for 30 minutes.

I recently returned from an adventure race in Abu Dhabi,  which was a blast.  Not only was the scenery and experience out-there and wild, they wined and dined us (well, at least dined) like royalty.  In fact, I believe some royalty may have been present at some of these events!  They did a lot of things right in the cooking department and it’ll take me a few more weeks of thinking to sort out some of the more elaborate dishes they had!

One that really struck me was a grilled lamb cutlet dish that was served with a bizarre mint sauce.  Checking my surroundings (terraformed desert in the middle-east) a few times just to be sure, there was definitely avocado in with the mint!  The little chunks of avocado probably came from a few block away from my house in Santa Barbara.  It was an inspired combination, one that I had to repeat.

So we did!

We started with about a one and a quarter pounds of lamb cutlets ($17.99/lb, really?).  I was certain I had to make this dish, so cost exited the picture rapidly.  Since Erik had such a great time braising meat for his Day-Off Stroganoff, I decided to try my hand at it.  First I rubbed salt and ground pepper onto the meat.  Then, I sauteed a shallot, some garlic, and a few bay leaves in bacon grease, and covered that with enough chicken stock to cover most of the meat (eyeball it, don’t add the meat yet!), we used 4 cups.  Then add a spash of red wine and bring it to a boil.  Remove from heat, and add in the meat.  Put it in an oven at about 250°F for 20-30 minutes.  We’re not trying to cook anything through, here, just trying to infuse some good flavors in the meat.

Braising in RFCS and Red Wine

While the meat is braising in the oven, get started on the avocado/mint sauce.  Erik (the Guaco-man of the house) used 3 large (unfortunately not-quite-ripe) avocados, a big bunch of mint, some green onions, and 2 jalapeños the juice of a lemon and a half.  Kinda like a minty guacamole.  Then I made it gooier with olive oil and extra lemon juice, the texture is pretty important here.  It should be more like a sauce, and less like a guacamole.

Caramelizing Onions

With the leftover braising juices, I made about two cups of quinoa, which I topped with caramelized onions.

More Seasoning!

Then we simply sliced the cutlets into singlets, and brushed on a mixture of olive oil, minced rosemary, salt, and pepper.  We grilled the singlets hard and fast.  We liked them pretty rare, and enjoyed the incredible quality of the meat.

Grilling the Cutlets

Yes, the $17.99/lb was worth every penny.

Yes! We got to eat that!

I think we did the grand cooks at the Park Rotana Hotel one better.

Well, summer is gone, and fall is officially here. You’re either ready to reap this freaky-assed harvest or you’re not. The last of the heirloom tomatoes are gone, but $9/lb chanterelles are back!

Funky Fungi

These funky fungi remind me of home; their earthy (Erik jokingly says manure-y) aromas fill the house and help to warm the frigid confines of our poorly insulated abode.  I bought 3 pounds, not really knowing what I was going to do with most of them (they’re great for breakfast with eggs, but I had to have them that night).  Rummaging around the house, I decided on polenta and bread as a double-hitter starch, because that’s what we had.  Also, because it’s delicious.

Frying Polenta

Polenta’s no problem, just slice and fry.  Chanterelles can be a bit tricksy.  Don’t get them wet; just blot them with a paper towel or brush to get the chunks of forest off of them.  I’ve never bought ones that were so contaminated that they had to be washed and meticulously dried, but you may have to go there.

I like to slice them length-wise, preserving their awesome shapes, but also allowing them to be a bit more bite-sized.

Slice 'em length-wise

Simmer the cleaned, sliced chanterelles slowly with some garlic, and serve with your choice of red wine and some kind of starch.  The polenta was amazing.

This one’s a simple one, but it’s just too good to leave it unwritten!

Chanterelles with Polenta and Fresh Bread

Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday, period.

Who can’t warm-up to a holiday where we stuff food inside of food and celebrate? Even the bird gets fat before you consume it. This year we decided to put pig inside of pig as a light appetizer and drop a 13 pound bird into 4 gallons of peanut oil (for a crispy outside and tender loving goodness inside) as our main course accompanied by the usual suspects, mashers, sour-apple stuffing, cranberry sauce, and lots of friends. Big shout to all those who joined, we love having you at the Mesa (and Al you are always welcome to crash on the couch).

Inspired by some great American BBQ’ers over at BBQ addicts, I had to build my own Bacon Explosion. Besides, how does one top the BFTE? Last year’s pulled pork followed by a Turducken by Dominic and Joao was a two-day event complete with Dr. Furia’s from scratch Sweet Potato (“This must be where pies go when they die”) Pie, Dr. Hofheinz’s supra-dense sour dough bread, and an engagement announcement from our favorite expatriates Markus and Katya (now helping McKinsey take over the world and educating all those Germans on American Real Estate).

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At the farmers market on tuesday I found $5/lbs head-on gigantor-prawns and Erin, a college friend of mine.  I got two pounds from the former, an RSVP from the latter, a few heads of garlic, and headed straight home!

My mom used to make this spectacularly showy and delicious dish as an appetizer for parties and such.  With sufficiently many, it made a great light (ha!) dinner along with some tabbouleh we made for lunches during the week.

This meal has an interesting mathematical property, there have to be more heads of garlic than heads to feed, or else there’s just not enough to go around.  I actually got comments the next day that I smelled like garlic…  We joke about this around the house, but apparently it actually happens.

The recipe couldn’t be simpler, fry some (1.5 heads per head) garlic (don’t burn it, please…) in peanut oil, coat the shrimp in corn starch and fry them.  Toss it all together with some salt, and enjoy the whole damn animal.  Yes, you eat the eyeballs, and the juicy, creamy gutsies.

Make sure you don’t get shot in the eye with the peanut oil!

We loved having Erin’s company, and it was cool to have someone dive into a big crunchy sea-creature with as little hesitation and as much enjoyment as Erik and I.  She also helped out with the final plate-up and photography.  Here’s her rendition:

The tabbouleh & hummus are something special as well, and we’ll get a full writeup of that later.

As far as quantities, we did the following:

• 3 heads garlic, chopped finely
• 1/3 cup peanut oil for frying
• 1 lb head-on shrimp with the pokey nose cut off
• A lot of corn starch
• 1 tablespoon salt

Fry garlic slowly separately, fry prawns coated in corn starch pretty hard in more oil, toss together with salt and garlic, EAT!

Alex first made this meal for me on a rough night in my love life, and it blew my mind.  It’s one of those non-guilty pleasures (I don’t believe in guilt) that I really want to make a few times a month.  I’ve made it myself just twice, and every time it gets better.  The flavor is so complex, intense, and round that I have no choice but to experience it fully in the moment.  It was a great choice on Alex’s part to clear my head. The key is having the mix of meat, still steaming, with chocolatey-spicy-sweet molé, and mellow beans.  Ideally, I’d love to make everything myself from scratch, but hey, I don’t really want to start growing corn and raising cattle!

I’ve made it with a variety of different molé bases, but the most recent one took the cake.  It’s a paste sold (exclusively?) at Santa Cruz market in Santa Barbara, but you can probably find it most anywhere.  What you’re looking for is a consistent, thick, black paste that reeks of chocolate and chili.  If it’s covered in oil, or has a chalky, chunky texture, you’re headed for mixing and flavor disaster.  Eventually, I’ll make my own.  Until then, I’ll stick to it.

The sauce is super simple, start with (1 or 2) caramelized onions (duh), and add the molé paste (1 cup).  Slowly add RFCS and water until it’s a good consistency (probably 2-3 cups or more).  Throw in a few handfuls of sultanas and let the whole thing simmer for a while.  At the very end, slice up some corn tortillas, and throw those in.  I made my own, and they were absolutely wonderful, but that’s another story.  Sprinkle some cilantro on top for garnish and a friendly fresh flavor.

Marinate the meat in 1 part lime/lemon juice, 2 parts hard alcohol (I used bacardi rum), and 4 cloves crushed garlic for every lemon.  Let it sit for at least an hour in the fridge.  Grill it nice and hot, so it’s still rare, but has a smokey, good-natured grill texture to it.

The beans are, well, cooked pintos.  Do ‘em from a can, or do ‘em for real.  I un-canned them, this time!  I like to throw in some caramelized celery for good measure.

This one I can barely stop eating…

3-day Beef Stroganoff (Adapted from ad hoc)

With Dan out Adventure Racing the world in “NorCal”, and me plowing through my Green Chile Stock pile at home I was on a mission for some culinary inspiration… I tried tapping my sister, Sheila, Executive chef at Jax Fish House. Unfortunately, the chef was busy so I ventured into cookbook land. I remembered reading an LA times article reviewing Thomas Keller’s new cookbook, so I cruised on over to Chaucer’s Bookstore (my local stand-in for the Tattered Cover) and threw down. The book is super dope, and in pretty plain language serves up serious doses of humble-pie. It took me 3 days to execute the Braised Beef Stroganoff. A day convincing my butcher to cut me some boneless beef chuck (as recommended by T. Keller) and in the end I bought the bone-in short ribs, another day braising my beef and forgetting to start culturing my Creme Fraiche, and another day cutting parchment paper lids and cheesecloth sachets. A sense of satisfaction flowed over me as we enjoyed this meal, but I still feel like I have a lot to learn.

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