tarte tatin aux poires

A tarte tatin made with pears and cardamom. Baked at 400º for 15 minutes or so, then lowered to 350º until done. That temperature to start seems to get the best crust - this crust is a basic all-butter pie crust, the butter just barely incorporated, allowing for a perfectly flaky crust.

lamb shanks

This was very simple but really quite great. The lamb shank is actually a Jamie Oliver method of stuffing lamb shanks with butter and herbs and then baking them in foil with leeks, carrots, white wine and olive oil. I liked the simplicity of the method and the flavor was really incredible. It took just under 2½ hours. I served them with potatoes and Julia Child haricots verts, where they are blanched, pan-dried, then tossed in butter and parsley. It really is the best way - they stay crisp and bright.

endive and cress

My new favorite salad: julienned endive, watercress, lemon juice, olive oil.

all sorts of delicious.

A smörgåsbord of Korean and Japanese banchan and tsukeomono, rice, and doenjang jjigae. (and that's not water, but delicious sweet potato soju, similar to Japanese shōchū).

pappardelle with rabbit

This is a recipe from Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie (London: Michael Joseph, 2006); I tend to be very skeptical of all celebrity chefs, but I've received two of his books as gifts and everything he does is great. Leeks baked with bacon? Amazing. Pasta with stewed rabbit? Also amazing.

I used ½ AP flour, ½ semolina, rolled the dough out slightly thicker than I usually do and cut it by hand for pappardelle.


A full rabbit, jointed is marinated overnight in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, lemon zest, thyme, and rosemary. It gets seared and is them simmered in white wine, in the over, with more garlic, rosemary and thyme. Shredded, with the cooking liquid strained, it is finished with green olives (I forget the name of the ones I bought, but they were great), marjoram, thyme and parmesan. As with many delicious things, I forgot to take a picture before digging in. Served with Julia Child's recipe for haricots verts: boiled, then dry-sautéed until the moisture is gone and topped with butter and parsley. My new favorite way to eat haricots verts.

sam gye tang

A kit for Sam Gye Tang, Korean chicken soup with ginseng, comes in a little package like this. It contains rice, three dates, two ginseng roots and four or five chestnuts. You start by soaking the rice for at least three hours.

Then take a poussin (or game hen). I blanched it to reduce scum in the final soup. Stuff with rice and other ingredients. Space was limited, so a couple of dates and chestnuts and one of the ginseng roots stayed out, loose in the pot. Put the poussin in a pot, cover with water. Add some cloves of garlic (whole). Cook until done. This was just under two hours. I've seen a range of suggested times from forty-five minutes to three-and-a-half hours

Finish the soup by adding salt to taste at the very end. Serve with green onions and pepper. (And other side dishes such as kimchi, if you have them).

The poussin held together but comes apart easily with chopsticks. Very delicious. The ginseng is a little bitter, but the rice and dates balance it out perfectly. I know this dish is designed for the summer, but it feels perfect for frigid February days and an urge to fight the flu.

soup

Chicken broth with shoyu, tofu, buckwheat soba, thai chili peppers, leeks and scallions. Perfect to fight off the flu everyone has.

miso soup

Simple miso soup with chicken stock in lieu of dashi makes for a very satisfying dinner on a cold day.

on nutmeg, and parsimony

“You have to be very parsimonious with your nutmeg.” (Jacques Pépin, More Fast Food My Way [208])

simplicity.

Finally secured some miso and bonito flakes. Then, of course, dashi with kelp and bonito. I poached some julienned carrots in the dashi, removed them to a bowl and poached two eggs in the dashi. I removed the eggs, placed them atop the carrots and topped them with some greens whose name I forgot (some mild cruciferous green from the Korean market). I brought the dashi to a quick boil, added garlic-chili paste and turned off the heat; into that miso was whisked and then poured over the eggs and vegetables. Finish with sesame oil. So satisfying on a snowy day. Ate with cold rice wrapped in nori.

fried risotto

Risotto from the other night, tossed in flour (mixed with mace, cayenne, crushed fennel seeds), then in egg, and then in some coarse breadcrumbs (from toasted sourdough). Fry in olive oil mixed with grapeseed oil (maybe just under 1/4" of oil). Garnish with fennel fronds. So good.

orange-fennel risotto

This was a mostly-by-chance and with-food-laying-around success: risotto with sautéed fennel added halfway through cooking, some lemon zest and juice (cooked with the fennel), a pinch of mace, and orange zest. Finish with parmesan (in the risotto and on the risotto, of course). Used chicken stock.