Author Archives: j

slow cooker indian chicken curry

m has been giving me a hard time about how she sends me *all* these recipes and they *never* get made. so here ya go: i’m preparing to undertake a series of slow cooker (crock pot) recipes and here’s one m sent me. i just happen to have all of these ingredients in the house and i love me some methi leaves. check out my (almost professional) dramatic side lighting in the photos.

food processed tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, salt, turmeric, garam masala, oil, yogurt, red chili powder, and methi

scarpetta

: baby heirloom tomatoes, sugar cube melons, chili oil, and cucumber

: spinach, mascarpone, and truffle

: roasted padrón peppers, conﬁt tomatoes, and Pecorino Romano

: polenta, peaches, and broccoli rabe

: ricotta gnocchi, tomatoes, pole beans, and rock shrimp

: ﬁg preserve, lemon curd, and honeycomb

mp (sans ellie), m and i went to scarpetta for their BBE prix fixe and i was nicely surprised. the dark horse winner of the evening was the spiced pork chop. i ordered it against my instincts – i love pork but the chop…not so much. even bone-in doesn’t do it for me. o.m.g. this was juicy and tender – words i don’t usually associate with pork chops, even professionally cooked pork chops. i was extremely pleased. and although m wasn’t partial to the cheesy polenta, i scooped it up in all of its smooth, creamy, cheesy goodness. also, don’t forget the grilled peach.

i was also pleased with my mushroom farfalle. it wasn’t as truffle laden as i expected and the mascarpone didn’t make the dish too rich. the farfalle had a nice chew to it – it was almost undercooked but not anywhere close to inedible. i thought i was going to prefer the agnolotti, but i thought the lamb was too ragù-y. the slightly spicy sauce and shishito peppers were money but overall, i preferred the farfalle. it had maitake mushrooms – ’nuff said

lastly, the torte was ok. it was better than ok, but i was in the mood for chocolate and there wasn’t a smidgen of chocolate on the plate. what really did it for me was the lemon curd which was awfully reminiscent of yuzu. i. love. yuzu.

primi piatti (choose one)
Bigeye tuna tartare—baby heirloom tomatoes, sugar cube melons, chili oil, and cucumber
Salad of Summer vegetables—farmers’ market vegetables with Parmigiano and herb vinaigrette (obviously, not chosen)

paste (choose one)
Lamb Agnolotti—roasted padrón peppers, conﬁt tomatoes, and Pecorino Romano
Mushroom farfalle—spinach, mascarpone, and truffle

piatti (choose one)
Pink snapper—ricotta gnocchi, tomatoes, pole beans, and rock shrimp
Spiced pork chop—polenta, peaches, and broccoli rabe

dolce
Torta della Nonna—ﬁg preserve, lemon curd, and honeycomb

neighborly kindness 2

neighbor on the other side just gave us *huge* shrimp. i marinated them in a bobby flay food network thyme/chili/garlic sauce recipe and grilled them. i undersalted them but it wasn’t the end of the world. the thyme was lovely.

update: it’s saturday and we are having the leftover shrimp as shrimp tacos complete with a purple cherokee tomato from our garden.

blast from the past

le chaland ashtray

we don’t typically collect ashtrays or have them in the house or use them on a regular basis in any capacity, but as i was unpacking (yup, still not unpacked), i happened upon this ashtray and decided that it would work perfectly as a coffee spoon spoon rest. and it does. those little grooves come in so very handy for the tiny spoons that i love so very much.

i don’t remember who brought this ashtray home from france or whether we were allowed to do so by the restaurant; nevertheless, it was acquired at a thanksgiving dinner on a boat in besançon, france, in november 1996. i was the only patron on the boat that evening that was not studying abroad in france and the only patron visiting her girlfriend on a spur of the moment trip – my first trip to europe. the details have faded with time, but i do remember foie gras for a starter and really salty pumpkin pie for dessert. apparently, the french don’t make pumpkin pie very often and don’t know it’s not supposed to be *that* savory.

tacos punta cabras

how did i not know about this place before?!? we ordered ceviche mixto, special uni tostada, tostada mixto, scallop taco, fish taco, chips and salsa. to accompany, we chose pineapple habanero (hot) and lemon habanero (hotter) salsas. they could’ve been hotter but they were oh so good. m dumped a whole lemon scoop in the ceviche and i slurped it all down to the last drop.

the uni tostada was money: that brininess of the uni with those pickles and the pineapple salsa. the green tomatillo sauce had nice heat but the puya (not guajillo) red sauce had a fruity/floral complexity to it that made it a standout. the chips came with a pico de gallo type salsa that wasn’t so much hot as full of flavor. let’s just say i wanted more of all the salsas. it’s true what they say: these are eastside tacos on the westside.

i couldn’t differentiate between the scallop and fish tacos. darn! i guess i’ll have to go back.

fat mosaic

now that’s what i call *phat*

i tried something new this time: instead of boiling a whole fryer, i used some leftover raw spines (4), necks (4-5), and bone-in breasts (3) and a leg and a thigh. who knew the broth would turn out like this? certainly not i – i’ve never seen this before. (hence, the photo documentation.)

breakfast by j

i made it all, b****es

i roasted the burundi, i flipped the buttermilk pancakes into varying degrees of darkness, i fried the eggs to the strictest standards, and i repeated my perfect bacon. the only thing i didn’t do was tap the tree for maple syrup or throw the porcelain on a potters wheel.

weekend of clouds

: 31 august 2013 @ 11.17 am

: 1 september 2013 @ 6.40 pm

: 2 september 2013 @ 7.08 pm

s+j

halibut bones are the size of small daggers – definitely bigger than toothpicks. ellie and sayla got the boiled fish goodies that fell off the bones.

s+j came to visit so i prepared an iceberg wedge salad with homemade blue cheese dressing (bon appetit) and cioppino with homemade fish stock. i called gustavo at santa monica seafood to get some halibut bones but all he could offer me was 2.5 lbs of mixed halibut and salmon bones. no matter, stock turned out great. see?

doesn’t even need the bottle of clam juice i still have in my cupboard – would be a travesty to mix the two

perfectly crunchy bacon topping for iceberg wedge salad

i also learned how to crisp *absolutely perfect* bacon. and now i’ve done it 4 times in a row. forget air bacon and skillet bacon. these pieces are *awesome*.

neighborly kindness

my neighbor gave me some cherry tomatoes from his garden. apparently, he puts a fish head in the bottom of the pot for added nitrogen. they were awesome, especially with a touch of onion and some peppery french olive oil.

for my part, i gave our neighbor some freshly roasted ethiopia organic suke quto which he apparently used to pull espresso.