Bacon is always awesome, Beefy McBeefy, David Favorite, Dose of Veggies, Emily Favorite, Includes Alcohol, Lengthy recipe but worth all the whisking, sweat and tears, Potato

The Anniversary Dinner

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January 15, 2010 will be on of my favorite days of all time because it’s the day that David walked into my life. Neither of us were looking for any sort of potential partner, in fact I was against the idea before I met David, but then a mutual friend saw the potential and introduced us immediately. For the next few hours, we sat and talked and talked, something we are still very good at by the way. I owe our dear friend a lot for making the introduction and now one year later here we are. Just goes to show that life can you throw you very amazing curve balls – always embrace them lambs.

Beef Short Ribs with Red Wine Gravy and Swiss Chard (Photo by Craig Cutler)

It has been rainy, cold and just icky here in Austin the past week and on our anniversary day it was, wait for it, cold and rainy. Instead of going out to dinner we decided to stay in and make it ourselves. I chose this Braised Beef Short Ribs with Red Wine Gravy and Swiss Chard, Potato Gratin with Bacon and Thyme and Citrus Pudding with Whipped Topping. Over achiever much? I didn’t care, it was so worth it.

Potato Gratin with Bacon and Thyme (Photo by Mark Thomas)

I’ve made the Beef Short Ribs before so I knew this would be a huge win with David. I still don’t have a food mill but ran the sauce through the food processor and reheated as necessary. The potato gratin was creamy, bacony and so full of delicious flavor; a perfect complement to the ribs. After the ribs, chard and potatoes the pudding was a delightful, bright and not-too-sweet ending to a perfect anniversary meal. Paired with a 2002 Silver Oak Cab? Perfection all around and David loved all of it.

Citrus Pudding with Whipped Cream (Photo by Anna Williams)

Even if it’s not a special occasion this meal would be a great Sunday night supper or something to impress guests at a dinner party. One year down and hopefully many, many more to go right David? :)

Menu Plan

This Week’s Menu Plan

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More Cooking Light recipes this week and then I’m moving on to the new Food and Wine and Everyday Food. I’ll let you know how these go and coming up,  a review of our perfect one-year anniversary meal. Awwww.

Sunday: Mexican Chicken Casserole with Charred Tomato Salsa

Monday: Smoky Pan-Grilled Pork Chops with Carmelized Onion Mashed Potatoes and Lemon Brocollini

Tuesday: Poached Halibut with Lemon-Herb Sauce and Sauteed Spinach

Wednesday: Italian Beef Stew

Thurdsay: Snapper in Tomato Broth

David Favorite, Dose of Veggies, Emily Favorite, Soup, Southern, Uber Healthy, Vegetarian

Salute the Captain!

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As I was thumbing through the new Cooking Light, I kept coming back to this Vegetarian Country Captain recipe due to it’s unique combination of ingredients: curry, mango chutney, heavy cream, cauliflower, edamame, and a Granny Smith apple? My brain kept trying to figure out just how these would all taste together and finally intrigue got the best of me. Two cheers for intrigue. We LOVED this. It is an Emily and David favorite hands down.

OK back to what the heck a Country Captain is exactly. According to Cooking Light: Traditionally, Country Captain is a mild chicken stew seasoned with curry powder. Myth has it that a British sea captain working in the spice trade introduced this classic, comforting dish to the southern U.S. in the 19th century. Here, we’ve replaced chicken with edamame and cauliflower for a version loaded with vegetables to help you meet your daily produce goals. For a more in-depth history of this very popular Lowcountry dish (FDR adored it!), read more here. If anyone has favorite Country Captain recipes please share in the comments as I’m dying to make more versions of this.

This was so easy to put together and the layers of flavor were insanely delicious. I loved how all the ingredients played off each other and it is really filling to boot. For the love y’all, make this right now! One note, if you are working off of the magazine do not pay attention to the photo above the recipe.  It’s  the wrong image and I saw on their website that Cooking Light is aware of the error. As I was making this I kept scratching my head and worrying because mine was looking nothing like the beauty shot. Lo and behold I flipped to the page ahead and put two and two together. Whew, that photo DID look like this….

Vegetarian Country Captain (Photo by John Autry)

 

Cheesy Cheese, Eggs, Pasta

Walnut-Breadcrumb Pasta with Soft Egg

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Walnut-Breadcrumb Pasta with Soft Egg (Photo by John Autry)

This was an odd dish when I first saw it. “Where’s the sauce?” I said out loud as I was adding it to my menu plan. “Where’s the sauce?” David asked while I was making it. I’ll tell you where the sauce is. It’s in the super inventive breadcrumbs and soft gooey egg! Nom, nom, nom *buries head into bowl of pasta and barely comes up for air*. This seemed like a pretty simple dish to make but I don’t know if it was because I was tired (NO SUN DUE TO ARTIC CHILL) or that you’ve got three seperate things going on, the boiled egg, the pasta and making the breadcrumbs. Yeah, that’s not that hard, I was tired.

This was delicious and it was my first time making a soft-boiled egg. Hard boiled, sure. Soft boiled? Where the heck as this been my whole life? It’s just like a poached egg but with the exterior of a hard-boiled. News flash to me since David mentioned he’s been making these for quite some time. We loved all of the flavors together and don’t omit the goat cheese, it was a perfect addition to the dish. I would highly, highly recommend finishing this off with your favorite olive oil. We thought without this addition, even with the egg and breadcrumbs, that it could have turned out to be a little dry.  Nice little pasta for a weeknight meal. Just don’t make it when you’re a tired panda and you will be just fine.

French, Includes Alcohol, Potato, Seafood

Duxelles!

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YAY I finally made duxelles! I don’t know why I thought this was so cool but I’ve had duxelles in a variety of ways, especially in soups and on toasts. I love that Cooking Light included them in their 3 Little Secrets of Big Flavors section that also includes chicken glace and shrimp butter. These three are French culinary tricks, or astuces, to add depth of flavor to a dish.   Duxelles are super savory and are an awesome little additon to a variety of dishes due to their herbacious and mushroom (read: earthtastic) flavor.

I chose the Artic Char with Duxelles and Leeks because it sounded amazing and I thought it would be fitting since we have an Artic blast hitting Austin right now. Why not celebrate artic cold temperatures with Artic something or other? I went to Whole Foods Market and alas they do not carry Artic Char. Turns out their purveyor couldn’t meet their Quality Standards requirements. Love it, and thank you Whole Foods for having those standards in the first place. I went with salmon which was a tasty equivalent choice and headed home.

Artic Char with Duxelles and Leeks (Photo by David Prince)

The duxelles were amazingly easy to make and oh so delicious even on their own. I also sauteed some Yukon Gold potatoes in olive oil and dashed with salt and red pepper. I placed the duxelles, potatoes, leeks and salmon in a baking dish at 400 degrees and voila! mes amis, dinner was ready. Oh, I did finish the dish off with a dash of a lemon slice (David sliced it up the fancy way) and some more olive oil.

I vageuly remember eating this because I might have inhaled it. Savory, lucious layers of earthy flavor that all worked beautifully together on the plate.  Amore!

P.S. Did I call Auburn or what? 😉

Emily Favorite, Global Flavor, Lamb Lambs!, Lengthy recipe but worth all the whisking, sweat and tears, Soup

Guinness Lamb Stew

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We’ve got a thing for Irish stews in this house. It couldn’t possibly be that we’re both of Irish descent, heck, David has an Irish passport – Dublin here we come!  With that in mind and the cold weather hitting the gentle ATX, I thought this Guinness Lamb Stew would be very much welcomed into our home. Now you may recall that we tried one of Cooking Light’s Staff Favorites Beef and Guinness Stew back in November and it was quickly a David Favorite or Davorite as I’ll call it. Could this recipe beat that one? The Beef and Guinness Stew had a little bit more fussiness to it with caraway seeds and raisins and the Guinness Lamb Stew had two things we love, lamb and potatoes! Ay, we are Irish aren’t we? 😉

I followed this recipe to the letter and yes it does take a while, 3 1/2 hours, but it’s a stew so we all know those take a while to develop the lucious layers of flavor. I loved this more than the beef version because of the two additions mentioned above. It was savory, comforting and a perfect Irish stew. What I really liked about this was the addition of the whole grain mustard at the end. It provided a nice bite and rounded out the dish beautifully. I think I know what I’ll be making for the crew on March 17th!

On a seperate note, the BCS National Championship is tonight! Who do you think is going to win? No matter your personal opinion of him, I’m not sure if Cam Newton can be stopped. It reminds my of Vince Young back in 2005 against USC…ah, those were the days UT, those were the days.

Guinness Lamb Stew (Photo by John Autry)
Restaurant Review

Haddington’s

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Yesterday, the ladies and I had a super fun girl’s day. First was a trip to Petticoat Fair, which ladies of Austin,  if you haven’t been I highly suggest you get thee to the shop immediately. I don’t think I’ll ever buy foundation garments anywhere else after visiting this store. After hours of looking through knickers and brazziers, we had worked up quite an appetite and I suggested we visit the newly opened Haddington’s. I’m a super fan of Chef Northcutt’s Mulberry restaurant just across from Austin Music Hall. The Foieberry Burger and Bahn Mi are worth the trip and the wine list is awesome (get the Justin Cabernet Sauvignon).

Petticoat Fair

Haddington’s is a British-American gastropub featuring things like Fish and Chips (or Frips as they call them); Foie Gras Sausage; Pork Chops; Whole Branzino; a Turkey Sandwich with cranberry relish and stuffing on cornbread – Thanksgiving on a sandwich; and so much more. We decided to order all four of what’s called Toast Pots.  These are little pots of gooey goodness including: white bean and garlic; egg custard with truffles; rabbit rillet; and duck liver.  You schmear the delicious spreads over crispy toasts and then your eyes roll back in your head. These were all amazing in their own way and at $3 a pop with unlimited toasts it was a cost-effective start to our meal. I think the egg custard combined with the duck liver was my favorite.

They were out of pork shank but decided to replace it with a pork belly option. Well, twist my arm Haddington’s. They rolled the belly with tyhme and other herbs and then served with a mirepoix sauce and roasted carrots. At $24 to serve four people, it was certainly a good deal though. For sides we had mashed swede and Gorgonzola cheese…I’m bowing down to whoever created this side. It was AWESOME. We also got crispy potatoes which are basically long, crispy potato wedges.

We are all wine drinkers so we really didn’t peruse the beer list, but the wine list was confusing and a wee off-putting. I love good wine lists. I even appreciate wine lists that challenge me, but this was sporadic, very French-heavy and waaaaay out of price range for a gastropub. Austin has a lot of great wine lists and I think Haddington’s might want to rethink their wine options for their gentle wine-drinking clientele who are eating, albeit higher-end-than-normal, pub grub. We ordered some cost effective wines including the Cartlidge & Browne and Lucas & Lewellen. Also, the cocktails looked insanely good and I might fit one in next time. There’s one with duck fat in it…wow!

The decor is pubish with a modern but comfortable vibe. It’s also pretty neat as the restaurant is maze-like and filled with room, upon room, upon room; pubish indeed. We sat in The Picture Room and it was very hard to hear our table of four, especially when they moved in a table of 12 right next to us. I liked the ambiance but even for me it was a little dark,  We found ourselves huddled around candlelight snarking at the wine list and oogling at the food.

We plan to go back to Haddington’s a few more times since it was our first impression, but overall it was a great first experience. Until then, as their door says on the way out, Many Happy Returns.

Toast Pots
My One Potato Wedge
Rolled Pork Belly with the Cracktastic Mashed Swede
Menu Plan

This Week’s Menu Plan

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Y’all it’s supposed to be FREEZING here next week. No, not Texas-style 60 degree weather cold, it’s going to be in the twenties and thirties at night. To all of my friends above the Mason Dixon line I’m sure you are pointing your finger and laughing,  but I am not excited about this one bit. Thankfully, Cooking Light has a lot of delicious sounding comfort food options that hopefully won’t hit our waistlines too badly while we hibernate like bears. Grrrr.

Sunday: Guinness Lamb Stew

Monday: Artic Char with Duxelles and Leeks with Wilted Spinach (I’m so excited to make duxelles!)

Tuesday: Walnut-Breadcrumb Pasta with Soft Egg

Wednesday: Vegetarian Country Captain – this sounds so odd but strangely delicious to me

Thursday: Chicken Fried Rice with Leeks and Cranberries and Citrus Pudding with Whipped Cream

We’ll see how it goes!

Asian, Dose of Veggies, Pork-a-licious, Quick and Delicious, Uber Healthy

Miso Happy!

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This month’s At the Market section of the January Bon Appetit focuses on Miso. To be honest, I only know miso from the traditional soup you get at Japanese restaurants, so I was very intrigued to learn more about the mysterious miso. First, what the heck is it exactly? According to Bon Appetit: Miso is fermented paste with a bold, salty flavor. Most of the miso sold in the U.S. is made from soybeans and rice or barley, but it can also be made from brown rice, millet, garbanzo beans, and other beans.  It’s also a source of Umami or Savory, aka the fifth flavor, along with Sweet, Salty, Sour and Bitter.  We tried naming the four last night and it was like listing the seven dwarfs, you always manage to forget one no matter how easy it is! If you want an in-depth look at what Umami is, check out the UMAMI Information Center  (UIC).  Hi yeah, UIC? If you ever need a taste-tester call me, mean it!  Also, miso comes in three colors on a range of taste intensity from mellow white, a little bit stronger yellow and the kapow version, red. Naturally, I gravitated towards the red version.

Roast Pork Tenderloin with Apricot-Miso Glaze (Photo by Kenji Toma)

This Roast Pork Tenderloin with Apricot-Miso Glaze was well, just genius. You can find miso here in Austin at Whole Foods Market and I got mine for $8. A little pricey but considering the fact that it lasts up to a year in the fridge and now I would like to dollop it on my cereal, I consider it a good investment. I loved the flavors of the sauce: apricot preserves, red miso, Champagne vinegar, orange peel and garlic clove. You slather it on the tenderloin, roast, roast, roast, slather, slather, roast, roast and then let the tenderloin set. While the juices redistribute, you finish off the sauce with simple chicken broth to give it a silky texture and pour all over your pork. I took one bite and might have let out an expletive. This was heavenly and so simple to make. I served on the side with some garlic and soy sauce wok-seared baby bok choy. See, see, I’m still being healthy!

I realize purchasing miso might steer you clear of this dish but lambs, have I ever led you down the wrong path? Oy, I hope  not. If you are up for something adventurous give this dish the chance it deserves. I for one know I’m going to experiment more with my red miso. Maybe next time, salmon!

Asian, Dose of Veggies, Global Flavor, Lengthy recipe but worth all the whisking, sweat and tears, This may contain fish sauce or anchovies, Uber Healthy

Saigon Chicken Salad

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Or as I like to call it, the kitchen sink salad. Lambs, this has a SERIOUS ingredient list- 22 to be exact. The only reason why I was even pondering giving it a try is because it comes from the kitchen of one of my chef super poodles, Susan Feniger!This little beaut of a salad graces the January cover of Bon Appetit and is the centerpiece for their healthy eating focus. 

This salad requires a few unique ingredients so spots where you see Sparkled Unicorn Horns OR you can use light brown sugar or Fluffy Clouds from a 78 degree sky OR you can use red radishes, I always went with the latter. I’m being mean I know, but seriously who wants to go find palm sugar and keffir lime leaves? I sometimes don’t mind for a recipe,  but typically  if I’ve got cost-effective but still tasty alternative  that doesn’t make me go all over Austin then I’m down.

Saigon Chicken Salad (Photo by Jose Picayo)

Let’s get to the marinade shall we? AMAZING. Amazing. Amazing. That is all. I will use this for marinating chicken whenever I can. Wow. Granted there is lemongrass in it which can sometimes be hard to find but hey, it’s worth it.

Second, the salad. It was good. The dressing was spicy, sweet and easy to make. And this dish had a flotilla of vegetables. I swear lambs I felt my whole body getting healthier while eating this, just look you’ve got: cabbage, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, green onions, garlic, green beans, cucumbers etc, etc. You know what my inner Emily said when I read this recipe? “I seriously should think about purchasing a Slap Chop before I do this.” To be honest it wasn’t that bad and the chicken didn’t take too long. My goodness, I’m still thinking about how amazing that chicken was.

Overall, I would definitely make the chicken (you are saying “no crap Emily, really?” aren’t you?) and then pile on top of whatever salad vegetable goodies you have floating around the kitchen!