Dinner Without James

I'm still up in Vancouver without a kitchen and James is at home eating from my latest "fridgeventory" of pre-cooked frozen dinners I left for him.

Much like LA, Vancouver is filled with all types of great Asian food (maybe not quite the wonderland of regional Chinese we have in Monterey Park) with much less traffic. I popped into the food court at the local H Mart Asian supermarket for a quick Korean seafood pancake -- the only white face in a sea of hungry shoppers. Not bad at all and a short walk from the hotel.

In The Footsteps of Anthony Bourdain

I don't generally try to walk where Bourdain has walked. I don't see a meal of seal in my future or even cobra heart. But here in Vancouver I found myself literally across the street from one of the milder weird food outlets he has profiled, the local phenom known as Japadog. That's right, hot dogs (and brats, sausages, veggie and turkey dogs) done Japanese style with wasabi mayo, teriyaki sauce, bonito flakes, grated radish, edamame -- all the usual suspects layered on a toasty bun. The photo above shows our Tonkatsu -- fried pork cutlet (instead of a dog), below is one of today's specials -- a rice cake instead of a roll and really delicious stewed beef (Japanese chili?) on a waiting frank. On the side? Shaken fries treated to your choice of topping. We went for chopped crisp seaweed -- now that's a snack worth going back for.

That little yellow bag? Just one store down waits a great Japanese import. The custom filled, painfully delicious, cream puff's from Beard Papa on a great lunch block in Vancouver, BC.

Baked in Butter

I constantly hear people say that in Italy diners never have cheese with fish or seafood. Spaghetti with clam sauce in authentic restaurants is more likely to be topped with toasted breadcrumbs. To some extent it's true. In some traditionally poorer regions (Sicily and Puglia for example) cheese was just too expensive and less available than fish. But on the small island of Sardinia where sheep are nearly as plentiful as treats from the ocean (and preferred among the locals), traditional dishes -- like the one that inspired James' dinner tonight -- combine the fruits of the sea with the rustic products of the rugged terrain, wild herbs, butter, and tangy, strong, almost funky pecorino cheese.

In a buttered baking dish I lay filets of sole, each one folded over a nice big pink shrimp. I scattered a few extra shrimp around the dish and covered everything with slices of butter (about 3 TB all together), leaves of thyme (about 2 tsp), 1 TB chopped parsley, S&P, and drizzled it all with about 2 TB of olive oil. I baked the dish for 10 minutes at 350º until the fish was just cooked through, scattered the top with about 1/3 cup of shredded pecorino cheese (I had pecorino Romano instead of pecorino Sardo as this dish would authentically used have but the end result is just as delicious) and placed it under the broiler for 2 minutes until the cheese was just toasted. The success of a dish this simple relies solely on quality of ingredients used, use good oil, good cheese, nice sweet butter.

"This is really good, just perfect," James muttered between bites. It's the first time I've ever heard that for a fish dinner -- it must be the cheese.

Soup?

I admit it. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I watch cooking show while James and the dogs sleep happily next to me. Today I happened to catch Tyler Florence whipping up a soup and sandwich combo -- but it was the soup that caught my attention. A rich, thick, sausage minestrone. Head still on the pillow, I made a quick mental inventory of our fridge and realized we had just about everything near at hand (I had to pop down to the store for the sausage). I just couldn't stop thinking about that soup until I started the pot on the stove.

First I simmered a rosemary sprig, a stalk of thyme and 8 sage leaves in 1/4 cup of olive oil. Next I tossed in a pound of sweet Italian sausage (out of the casings) and continued to cook over medium heat until the sausage was broken up and browned. I chopped two carrots, two stalks of celery and one red onion in the food processor and added them to the pot. The vegetables cooked for about 4 minutes before I added in some tomatoes (about 4 cups) I puréed in the food processor (Tyler called for canned tomatoes but I still have garden fresh so I didn't see any reason not to use them), 1 quart of homemade chicken broth I had in the freezer, about 2 tsp chopped garlic. 1 bay leaf, half a head of chopped cabbage (my addition but it did help clean up the vegetable drawer) and 3 drained cans of cannelini beans and let the soup simmer for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile I cooked some cut bucatini and when they were still very al dente. I added the drained pasta to the soup to simmer for the last couple minutes of cooking. Now Tyler only used 1/2 lb of pasta but I went ahead and used the whole bag -- so our soup is really more of a wet stew, James didn't really seem to mind, especially when I, as Tyler did, toasted up a few parmesan croutons for the top.

House Specialty With Shelly and Drew

Now that we've discovered our "specialty", it's pretty much clams for every guest. Of all the recipes James' favorite is still the tried and true spaghetti with clam sauce. So I whipped up a pot last night when our friends Shelly and Drew came over to discuss Thanksgiving plans. Because we were having guests, and because I know Shelly loves it I added a loaf of buttery garlic bread/ I split the loaf down the middle and covered with a mixture of butter, garlic, parsley, S&P, olive oil and oregano. I wrapped the closed loaf up in tin foil and baked it for about 25 minutes at 400º.
Same old recipe with a little bacon added in the beginning for extra flavor. I sautéed pancetta in olive oil over a low flame until crisp. I added in 5 large cloves of garlic (sliced thin) and a good sized pinch of chili flakes and stirred them around in the hot oil for about 2 minutes. Next came 1 1/2 cups of a mixture of wine and clam juice, a handful of chopped parsley, and the juice of two lemons (I was making a big pot so this was probably double the amounts - except for the garlic -- I generally use). I brought the liquid up to a boil. Then came close to 4 lbs of clams and a big knob of butter. I covered the pot and let the little Manilla clams steam over high heat for about 7 minutes.

When the pasta was drained I added it to the pot with the clams, along with another handful of chopped parsley and about 6 TB of butter. I gave everything a good stir, poured the pasta into a serving bowl and topped with a thin drizzle of olive oil.
I like a little bitter salad to go with the rich pasta. I usually do some kind of arugula combination but this time I decided to try a simple recipe from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook -- shredded radicchio combined with toasted bread crumbs and sieved hard boiled eggs, in a piquant anchovy dressing. Delicious. This salad was a big winner with me and James didn't even taste it. "Honey," he explained " You can't expect me to eat salad when there are clams and spaghetti and bread on the table." Words of a lifelong thin man.
For dessert I tried something simple and vaguely Italian. Pears baked in red wine with toasted almond gelato and pignoli cookies. The pears had been sitting in our fridge so I quickly peeled them, and popped them in a covered baking dish with 1 bottle of fruity red wine, 2 cinnamon sticks, zest of one orange, 4 cloves, and about 1/2 cup brown sugar. That baked for 45 minutes in a 350º oven. I removed the cover and baked for another 45º until the pears were soft and the wine had reduced to a slightly syrupy consistency. Left over from a past recipe I found a tub of almond paste on the shelves in the kitchen. I combined 8 ounces of that with 3/4 cup of powdered sugar in the food processor until it was broken up into tiny, sandy bits. I then mixed in 1 egg white and a TB of honey. I piped that dough out onto parchment covered baking trays, pressed pine nuts into the dough and baked for about 12 minutes (watching very closely) at 350º.

Dinner with friends to plan a dinner with friends.

Ham Steaks and Sweet Potatoes

A while back, sauntering through the grocery store I plopped a thick Niman Ranch ham steak in my cart, thinking one night that will make a good quick dinner. Tonight was the night. I wasn't actually late getting home or in a particular hurry but it just sounded good. Something unusual for us, a little more "midwestern covered dish" or "meat and three" than I usually go in for but it just sounded good.

First things first. I peeled and, on my mandolin, cut a combination of sweet potatoes, yellow potatoes, and purple Japanese sweet potatoes in 1/4 slices. I layered those in a baking dish adding salt, pepper, (chili flakes on one layer) and little pats of butter between the layers. I poured milk over the potatoes (use cream if you have it -- the milk will separate in the oven and taste fine but not look so pretty). I covered the dish with tin foil and set it to bake for 45 minutes at 350º. I uncovered the potatoes and let them bake or another half hour.

For the ham I mixed up a glaze based on a recipe by that ketchup loving French chef Jacques Pepin -- 2 TB of ketchup, 1 1/2 TB of brown sugar (I went a little heavier than Jacques), a drop of hot sauce to taste and a 1/4 tsp dry mustard. I brushed the glaze on the room temperature steak and put it under the broiler for about five minutes, to caramelize the glaze. Steamed buttered cauliflower sat on the side.

Cozy Americana suggested by the French.

Crock Pot Corned Beef

The crock pot is the perfect way to cook corned beef -- a dinner James loves. All I have to do is pile in little red potatoes, the meat coated in a spread of mustard and brown sugar, thick wedges of cabbage, a couple carrots, a stalk of celery, a handful of peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, all covered in a bottle of beer. That cooks for 10 hours on low in the slow moist heat of my trusty crock pot. Once the meat is cooked, we remove the meat, pour on a glaze made of 1 cup of orange marmalade, 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of dijon mustard and pop it in a 350º over for 30 minutes.

Simple glazed corned beef,