favorites : restaurants

favorite restaurant of all time
cyclops in the belltown neighborhood of seattle. $15-20. a neighborhood restaurant that changes its menu frequently, which i like to view as a desire to experiment with new kinds of food. in the summer of 2002 i had the most exquisite chocolate pot de creme: intensely chocolate, just sweet enough with no sour aftertaste, dense, flavored with grand marnier, with a curl of candied orange peel on top. oh, and did i mention that it was baked in a teacup? one small teacup - about a third of a cup in volume - was enough for two people. nothing i've had since has even compared.

favorite restaurant in boston/cambridge
pigalle. $36 (3-course prix fixe). i went there with two friends during restaurant week, and fell in love. a smallish restaurant with a great waitstaff. impeccable pacing of the meal, and the food was simple, but absolutely wonderful.

french
craigie street bistrot, harvard square area. $60 (appetizer, main course, and dessert). on the more traditional side, with very simple preparations and exquisite ingredients. the result is absolute food heaven. on the downside, it's also exquisitely expensive.
pigalle, theater district. see above. more modern than craigie street bistrot.
aquitaine, south end. $20-30 (appetizer + main course; desserts $8). more affordable, but very good. always busy, especially for sunday brunch, which is excellent.

the hamburger
joe sent me, between alewife and porter square. $6-10 (burger + drink). unfortunately more accessible by car than by anything else, but it has burgers as good as bartley's (if not better). it's also cheaper, although you may spend the saved cash on transportation. joe sent me is dominated by the bar - think massive plasma screens all over the place, showing football, basketball, baseball - and law and order. really good chicken wings. go here to escape the collegiate types.
bartley's burger cottage, harvard square. $10-14 (burger + milkshake). closer than joe sent me, with a longer menu (joe sent me has about 10 burgers). really good milkshakes.
pour house, boylston street near the pru. $5-8 (burger + milkshake, or appetizers + milkshake). go here more for the "collegiate atmosphere," milkshakes, and appetizers, not the cheap, prefab, cardboard burgers (half-price on saturdays).
aquitaine, south end. $10 (burger). sunday brunch burger is absolutely fabulous. the yuppie burger, too: on a toasted brioche bun with gruyere cheese. worth it, though.

indian
a taste of india on huntington ave near symphony hall. $20 (naan, appetizer, main dish). i think it's changed names, but it's still owned by the same people. best indian food i've had in boston, plus great decor. tiny, too, so it has a great, intimate feel (yes, i went there on a date).
bindhi bazaar, mass ave. good, serviceable indian food. some people say it's authentic, some people say it's not. at any rate, it tastes good.

fast food
wendy's, boylston street across from copley square. $3-5. i always get the same thing: a junior bacon cheeseburger, chicken nuggets with honey mustard sauce, and a frosty. cheaper, better fast food can't be found anywhere else. the added plus of the boylston street location is the second floor window area, where you can watch people go by on the street.

chinese
peach farm, chinatown. $7-13. for real chinese food. really cheap if you go with lots of friends and eat family-style.
mary chung, central square. $7-16. for american chinese food. i always have the peking ravioli (fried) with its exquisite, spicy ginger soy sauce, and the suan la chow show.

best decor and lighting
lumiere, in newton. $20-30. the whole room is white - but it's an off-white, and it glows rather than dazzling and blinding you. somehow it makes you feel happier.

pizza
picco, south end. $7-10 (just pizza). fabulously chewy-but-not-too-chewy, cracklingly-crisp-just-on-the-very-bottom crust. in short, the perfect pizza crust. good toppings, with specials every night, and great decor (including an upscale diner-like bar counter).
emma's pizza, kendall square. $7-10. great pizzas, but sometimes a little too thin crust for my liking. has a traditional, floury pizza crust, rather than the picco crust, which has a closer resemblance to foccacia.

note: all prices include tax and tip.

a foray into the world of grease

no, not the musical. i just had the best onion ring i've ever had in my life. allow me a moment to wax poetic about these onion rings: sweet, juicy white onions, encased in wonderfully crispy, perfectly salted, light-yet-has-a-bite batter. batter light enough to be a perfect foil to the onions - none of that heavy, doughy, breadcrumb-like stuff - but thick enough to coat the onions and not slide off. let that be a lesson to bartley's burger cottage, where i always get onion rings with my burger because i love onion rings - forgetting that their onion rings are worse than the raw awesome blossom my friends and i were once served at chili's. these onion rings were so perfect that no accompaniment was needed. the secret? club soda, chilled in the freezer for 10 minutes.

as it turned out, there were slices of eggplant - which, when you don't do anything to it, is a wonderful snowy color - and whole button mushrooms. the mushrooms were especially good - crispy on the outside, and juicy on the inside. it's not often that fried food tastes this good - that is, good enough to justify the damage to your heart.

no restaurant involved - just home.

grandma's birthday cake

after having swallowed too many bites of those awful carmel ice cream cakes, my sister and i began making our grandmother's birthday cake every year. for the past four years or so, we've made variations on the same cake for her birthday, which falls on december 26th.

this year would be no different from the rest; the desired cake would be chocolate with chocolate frosting, with cherries somehow involved in the whole shebang. i was away from my very infrequently updated recipe file, which contains the chocolate cake recipe from American Classics, one of the America's Test Kitchen cookbooks - which is, notably, different from the one in The Best Recipe. this recipe is my favorite chocolate cake recipe, and i have not yet found one to rival it. however, it was 25 miles away, so i consulted epicurious.com.

197 recipes later, i had chosen a cake - the chocolate layer cake with milk chocolate frosting. however, i wasn't particularly excited about a milk chocolate frosting, so i sifted through more icing recipes until i had a great idea. the chocolate frosting i've liked most during my years of baking experience is a chocolate frosting from Cook's Illustrated, specifically the whipped ganache that went with yellow cupcakes. when i made them last december, i slightly overbaked the cupcakes, and accordingly the combination was forgotten through the mediocrity of the overall result. however, the frosting had been fantastic - it was a regular ganache, but whipped.

what the whipping does is eliminate the problem of waiting for the ganache to set. after you make the ganache in the food processor, you whisk it over an ice bath until it loses its glossiness, and then beat away with an electric mixer. in under 5 minutes, you have a frosting that has the consistency of a buttercream frosting, but the wonderful taste of ganache.

the final cake was a four-layer cake, filled with the whipped ganache and a layer of cherry compote in the middle. the four layers come from two 9" cakes, each split in half and leveled. the nicest thing about the chocolate cake recipe was that it baked up quite flat, which seems to be a rarity these days. the result is a cake that is quite tall.

i was somewhat disappointed by the cake recipe; it was possibly slightly overbaked, but only by one or two minutes, and that it was overbaked in that small amount of time is really a shame. i would have liked to have made the American Classics chocolate cake, and would substitute that the next time i make a chocolate layer cake. however, the ganache was great, and there is a world of difference between the drama of a three-layer cake and that of a four-layer cake. people are always more impressed by the four-layer cake, even if it was easier to make, so if you are trying to impress, go for more layers. the next time i make this particular kind of cake, i would also probably fill it with two different kinds of chocolate mousse or something like that, to give it a little more luxe.

chocolate layer cake #1
cherry compote
2 jars cherries from trader joe's
1/2c sugar
1/4c amaretto

whipped ganache
note: multiply by 2 if you just want to frost the outside of the cake, 3 if you want to frost and fill it)
3/4c heavy cream
2T butter
6 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (your ganache is only as good as the chocolate)
1T cognac (or other liqueur)

2 9" chocolate layer cakes

[1] split the chocolate layer cakes in half: using a long serrated knife - preferably a bread knife - insert the knife into the side of the cake and continue cutting through the cake horizontally until you have the two halves. separate the halves and level them. repeat for the other layer.

[2] make the cherry compote: cut the cherries in half and place in a medium saucepan with about half of the liquid (a quarter if you're short on time). add the liqueur and sugar, and turn the heat to medium high. the idea is to bring the mixture to a simmer, and to simmer it until the liquid has very nearly evaporated. stir it fairly frequently, and more frequently towards the end, otherwise the mixture might burn. towards the end you may also want to turn the heat down to medium-low.

[3] make the ganache: chop the chocolate fairly small, then place in the bowl of a food processor. microwave the cream and butter in a measuring cup on high until bubbling, about 1 1/2 minutes. add the cream and liqueur to the bowl of the food processor and process until thickened, about 3 minutes. transfer to a bowl.

[4] whip the ganache: place the bowl in a large bowl with ice water + ice cubes in it, and whisk the ganache until it loses its glossiness, ~3-5 minutes. beat on low to medium speed with an electric mixture until the ganache holds peaks, about 3-5 minutes. try not to overbeat, as the mixture will curdle.

[5] place the bottom cake layer on the cake plate or platter, and spread with either ganache (if using) or other filling. top with another layer, and spread a thin layer of ganache on it. arrange cherry compote evenly on top. spread a thin layer of ganache on the bottom side of the next layer, then place on top of cherry compote. top the layer with desired filling (ganache or other) and then top with final layer. ice the top and sides of cake.

note: cake can be refrigerated, then brought to room temp before serving. if you are making a different filling than the whipped ganache, keep in mind that you should not reheat the ganache, so it should be ready only when you want to ice the cake. for example, if you were making a mousse filling, you would want to allow time for the mousse to set on the cake layer, in the refrigerator, so you would not want to make the whipped ganache until later.

[serves 12-14]

the elusive, deliciously spicy christmas cookie

it has been three years and still jessica won't divulge the secret of her wonderful christmas cookies. every year i look forward to that little bundle of joy, which smells so happily of spices. in the past few years i've been able to exercise some restraint and bring some of the cookies home to share with my family, but it is true that i am partial to the star-shaped, pink-lemon-icing-adorned hazelnut butter cookies, as well as the gingersnaps. it is a mystery to me how gingersnaps can be so delightfully spicy. eat a jessica-gingersnap, and you are on the road to nose-tingling spiciness; you will exhale spicy CO2 while you eat the cookie.

i suspect that the source of this spice-joy is a liberal amount of ginger. bored at home, i set out to make an equally spicy cookie. while trolling epicurious.com for suitable recipes, i decided that since i was going to make christmas cookies, i might as well make a few different kinds. i settled on three recipes: gingersnaps, oatmeal cookies, and butter cookies.

i ran into trouble when i made the gingersnaps: we only had about a teaspoon of powdered ginger. i sadly replaced it with a combination of ground cloves, allspice, and cinnamon, but wondered how i would provide the mild bite of the jessica-gingersnap. i vaguely remembered something about black pepper in one of the recipes i had discarded during my search, and promptly added a small amount of black pepper.

that small amount of black pepper was enough to assuage my need for bite in my gingersnap, but in hindsight was probably not enough to actually make a difference. the gingersnaps were pretty, certainly, due to my anal tendencies, but were overpowered by the brown sugar. i wish i had added more black pepper, and less sugar. my quest for the jessica-gingersnap will have to be continued at a later time.

on the flip side, the oatmeal cookies (not a jessica-christmas-cookie variety) were quite good. they were supposed to have cardamom in them, which i would have liked to have tried, but we had no cardamom. again, i substituted extra cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and black pepper. i'll have to try the recipe again with cardamom. the cookies were best a couple days after, when the spices had matured a little, and i've always believed that the oatmeal cookie recipe on the back of the oatmeal canister doesn't have enough spices in it.

spicy oatmeal cookies
2 eggs
1 1/2t vanilla
1 to 1 1/2c raisins
1 2/3c flour
1t baking soda
3/4t salt
3/4t ground cardamom (replaced by more cinnamon when i made them)
1 1/2t ground cinnamon
1/2t allspice
1/2t cloves
2 sticks butter
1c dark brown sugar, packed
2 1/4c old-fashioned oats

[1] preheat oven to 350. sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices into a medium bowl.

[2] cream butter, then add sugar and beat until smooth. beat in eggs and vanilla.

[3] stir in flour mixture, then raisins, then oats.

[4] roll dough into small balls (about the size of a half dollar). using moistened fingertips, flatten cookies slightly.

[5] bake until cookies are golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.

[makes about 60 small cookies]

and i thought i was spoiled at school...

friends at other schools always marvel when they hear how well i eat at school. nobody else is having cookie ice cream sandwiches made with cookies made from scratch, or spaghetti and meatballs from scratch. i really thought i couldn't be eating any better, until, of course, i came home for christmas.

either my parents are fattening me up hansel-and-gretel style, or they're happy to see me. i prefer to believe it's the latter. since i've been home, i've been treated to all kinds of wonderful things, including roasted butternut squash, orange zested pork and chicken, peppercorn-encrusted steaks, and this wonderful concoction that involves a soft, chewy cookie-dough base and a citrus-y cream cheese topping. and who would have thought udon noodles, fried until they're partially browned, with soy sauce and ketchup, could be so good? it boggles the mind. what's most surprising, though, is that this is all just dinner. lunch always involves other kinds of delights: dumplings (because as hard as i might try, i can never replicate my mother's dumplings), sandwiches, wraps that look simple but are unmentionably good. you wouldn't think that toasting the tortillas in a skillet before assembling the wrap would make such a difference, but it does. especially on a cold, wintry day when it's sunny and snowy, but cold as hell. a toasted tortilla stuffed with melty cheese, cool lettuce and tomato, ham and pepperoncinis is as good as it gets. you wouldn't think that deep-fried chicken dumplings could be so good, or that fried chunks of salmon could be so crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, either. but it all really is too good to believe, except that i believe it, and i will surely be sad to go back to school.

restaurant review : picco

i went to picco on saturday night with my parents, nora, and charles. picco is a pizza/pasta place on the first floor of the new apartment building at the east berkely side of tremont street - atelier 505, where nomar reportedly looked for an apartment before being traded to the cubs. it shares the first floor with a theater and another (larger) restaurant, sibling rivalry, where we went for nora's birthday back in november.

the restaurant itself is pretty small - it seats probably about 30 to 40. it's nicely designed inside, all warm colors in the dining area with a white-and-stainless steel kitchen area which is visible from the eating area. along one wall there is a counter and bar, and along the other parallel wall there are tables; the wall on that side has rows of small, clear glass votives with lit candles in them, reminiscent of a restaurant i went to in florence. the restaurant in florence had a rough-hewn ecru-colored stone wall on the inside that had candle-filled holes in it here and there, as if the holes were windows into a warm, firelit room on the other side. another detail from picco's kitchen was a white tiled wall scattered with red (as in RED) tiles here and there, just on one small expanse of the wall.

back to the food. the menu features salads, pizzas, sandwiches, and some pastas. we decided on the alsatian pizza (sour cream, bacon, caramelized onions, and gruyere cheese), the roasted vegetable pizza, and the penne with meatballs. i thought penne was an odd choice to go with the meatballs, but it was so good i let it go. the pizzas are larger than those at california pizza kitchen by about 3 to 4 inches in diameter, for the same prices. there isn't the same variety, but there are specials every night. the most spectacular thing about the pizza, which was pretty good, was the crust. that's the elusive bit that every restaurant reviewer likes to write about when reviewing pizza, isn't it? the crust at picco is thin but not too thin, very crisp on the very bottom but chewy. it actually resembles a sourdough bread in texture, but a ciabatta or foccacia in taste. it's nothing short of excellent. most pizza crusts are breadier, but this one was a pleasure to eat. it reminded me of jessica's bread, really.

the pizza toppings were pretty good, but not particularly memorable. i'm not sure how memorable a pizza topping should be, though. i have two favorite pizza toppings at the moment: a roasted butternut squash-caramelized onion-goat cheese pizza i had at veggie planet about three years ago, and the caramelized onion-fresh mozzarella pizza from bertucci's. i also recently had a pretty good pizza from cpk earlier this fall: roasted peppers, caramelized onions, and goat cheese. yes, i like goat cheese.

the alsatian pizza, by far the more exotic of the pizzas we ordered, was good but on the sweet side, which was unexpected; the jury's still out on whether or not the sweetness was good or not. the roasted vegetable pizza was good, but nothing to write home about. i think i would prefer pizzas more exciting than the ones that picco offers, but nothing as strange or purpose-defeating as clam pizza - as in the kind where the clams come in the shells, but on the pizza. perhaps if you have steel teeth and you like crunchy pizza...

the penne with meatballs was possibly the best i've had in a restaurant. the meatballs were on the spicy side, and likened to sausage by my parents, but i thought they were good. also not outstanding - i like meatballs best simmered in pasta sauce for a long time - but the tomato sauce was outstanding. the sauce clung to the pasta in just the right way - it wasn't too thick or too thin - and tasted like tomatoes.

oh, and for carrie especially: on the table before being served, bread was absent - in the place of gougeres! for the non-foodies: cheese puffs. essentially, cream puffs without the cream and with cheese added to the batter. they were absolutely wonderful, cute, fun to eat, and warm when we got to the table (and that, i think, is the most important part - i've always been put out when you go to a nice restaurant and they haven't brought the butter to room temperature before serving it to you).

finally, dessert. scharffenberger chocolate is the centerpiece of the desserts here: the brownies in the sundaes, in the souffle, and in the chocolate tart are all made with scharffenberger chocolate. those who know my chocolate tasting from a few years ago know that i don't like scharffenberger and el rey chocolates because i think they pack a weak chocolate punch, that i don't especially like valrhona (the darling of most pastry chefs), and that i rate callebaut first, then ghirardhelli a distant second. i came fully prepared to give scharffenberger chocolate a second chance - after all, it is the pet chocolate of picco, and scharffenberger has gotten very favorable reviews in the past year or so. i have to say that i was somewhat disappointed, and yet unmoved in my dislike of scharffenberger chocolate. it has always seemed slightly flowery, or fruity, or something that is less chocolaty than i would like. while the brownie sundae didn't suffer too much from this problem, due to the lovely flavor of the maple walnut ice cream, the chocolate souffle did. the souffle also seemed to have been slightly underdone - very liquidy except towards the outer edges.

you are probably wondering whether or not i would actually recommend picco to you. i think i would: the pizza is good and could eventually be excellent, and the pasta is great; all for pretty good prices ($8 for the pasta). i would definitely come back for the ice cream, if not the chocolate. add the general ambience (cozy and warm) and you have a winner. in the south end, where high-end dining dominates, picco is the equivalent of the neighborhood restaurant.

chicken gravy

and also for the recipe junkies, here is how i made the chicken gravy which i liked so much. again, like i did for the chicken stew, i eyeballed the amounts of things in this recipe, since i used what was around to make it. it was more of an experiment than an actual stated desire to have gravy for the chicken. you don't have to add pan drippings but it will make the gravy better. the nice part of the recipe is that you can make the gravy without ever disturbing the chickens as they roast - ie, you don't have to wait for the chickens to be done before making the gravy.

chicken gravy #1
butter
chicken innards from the package (heart, liver, neck, etc - pull the skin + gross vein off the neck and rinse all of the pieces with cold water; pat dry)
red wine
2 medium onions, diced
vegetable or chicken stock (about 3 to 4 cups)
pan drippings
cornstarch
balsamic vinegar

[1] heat a few tablespoons of butter in a large skillet on medium-high heat. when it stops frothing, add the chicken innards, and saute until some fond starts to develop. don't forget to turn the pieces over (tongs are easiest) to make sure they brown on all sides.

[2] when the fond is a rich brown but isn't burning, add a cup or two of red wine to the skillet. scrape the bottom of the skillet with a wooden spoon (NOT anything metal) to deglaze the pan. add some vegetable/chicken stock and let simmer. add some liquid from the chicken roasting pans with the baster.

[3] after about 15 minutes, remove the chicken pieces from the pan and discard (unless you want to eat them). add the onions and let cook until the onions are cooked through. if you want to be really fancy you can sieve the gravy before adding the onions, which will make your gravy smoother.

[4] if the gravy looks thin, put 1 to 2T cornstarch in a small bowl or cup and add an equal amount of water; stir with a fork to dissolve. add that to the gravy (do NOT skip the dissolving step) and stir; it should thicken right away.

[5] whenever you decide that you like the consistency of the gravy, add a bit of balsamic vinegar to taste (i think i added somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 cup) and let some of the alcohol cook off (~5 minutes?). taste and season with salt and pepper.

[makes ~3 cups gravy]

chickeny leftovers

on tuesday i spent much of the cleanup picking semi-raw chicken off the roasted chickens. by the fourth chicken i was tired of picking it off, and probably didn't pick it as cleanly as a hungrier person might have. i packed all of that chicken into a single tupperware the size of a large, flat brick, and stuck it in the fridge labeled "raw chicken."

unsurprisingly, on friday nobody had eaten any of it. i picked it up and it felt like a brick, too, as it was packed so tightly. i had wanted to make something with it for the past few days, but didn't want to buy anything to add to it, instead wanting to make something with ingredients we had around.

as happens with most good things, i started by sauteing some diced onions. i added leftover gravy, and then i added the chicken (which i had to pry out of the tupperware). now, what to do, what to do...we had a can of evaporated milk in the pantry so i added that, as well as some leftover fresh thyme we had from roasting the chickens. i kept adding milk until i realized i didn't really want to be eating milk with a little chicken, so i added rice. the rice needed more liquid and we didn't have any real chicken broth, so i gave in and made a few cups of chicken broth from bouillon. i then kept on adding whole milk as the whole thing cooked in order to keep the rice from sticking to the pot and burning. about an hour later on low heat, i had a chicken stew. pretty chickeny, thought it could have used more chicken broth instead of milk. and perhaps a little lemongrass, although i always like thyme. in fact, it really tasted like the filling for chicken pot pie (without the carrots, potatoes, and peas, and plus rice).

for the recipe junkies, here's the recipe, though it's rather general and also dependent on what you've got in your fridge. i think i used about a half-gallon of whole milk (or maybe a third).

leftover chicken stew #1
olive oil
4 medium onions, diced
2 - 3 cups leftover chicken, in pieces
1/2 pkg of thyme, leaves stripped from the stems (about 1 1/2 to 2T)
leftover gravy/roasted vegetables/whatever's in your fridge
1 can evaporated milk
a few cans chicken broth
whole milk
any other vegetables you want to throw in
2 1/2 cups short-grain rice (i really liked the rice i used...it's a short-grain California white rice, tomiko or tamiko or something like that)

[1] heat some oil in a large pot and saute the onions until translucent. add the gravy, let cook about 1 minute, then add the chicken pieces.

[2] add the can of evaporated milk, and whatever leftovers you want to put in.

[3] add a few cups of milk and some chicken broth. add the rice, and make sure there's enough liquid to cover the whole mixture. turn heat to low and stir the mixture frequently. add more milk or chicken broth when it starts to get too dry (the mixture will start to stick to the bottom).

[serves 8]

finals dinners @ lmf

i organized finals dinners this semester, which went pretty smoothly although i'm not sure if everyone enjoyed their cooking team. i hope they did. here's what we had:

lundi / anna-miriam-v : chicken tarragon (chicken with a tarragon-cream sauce), tofu tarragon, spanikopita, and a pear tart. i really like miriam's chicken tarragon, and also spanikopita. pears i'm not wild about since i'm slightly allergic to them, but the crust was this great almondy, buttery thing which i'm afraid i didn't eat enough of. i have extremely fond memories of eating chicken tarragon and rice for lunch during the next few days.

mardi / luis-marissa-v : gorgonzola risotto with balsamic tomato relish, roasted chicken, potato salad, fruit salad. i fully admit that the potato salad was just a result of the menu needing a vegetable and my yen for potato salad. i may have been the only person to eat it. it really would have gone better with wednesday's menu, but i decided to slightly abuse my power. anyway, we were intending to make a sponge cake a la jessica (who made carrie's birthday cake - a sponge cake filled with tokay-marinated peaches and iced with whipped cream) but we didn't know the recipe and i had been too far behind in errands to get it. instead, since we had leftover fruit from diner de noel (more specifically, we had intended to make a fruit salad but didn't), we made a fruit salad and whipped cream. i'm not a huge fan of fruit salad (various slight allergies), so i had figgy pudding with whipped cream, which is really a fabulous combination. the gorgonzola risotto was actually better in the vegetarian version (veg stock instead of chicken stock), and i was really surprised by the favorable reception that the risotto got, given that it had the gorgonzola (a mild blue cheese) in it. (as an aside: is anybody else bothered by the phrase "bleu cheese"? we are in the US, and we speak english. "blue cheese" is the phrase, not the mangled franglais "bleu cheese.") the chicken, well, roasted chickens always give me problems. i took the temperature and it was still 20 degrees off, but the juices all ran clear. i took it out anyway, but the chicken in a few cases was really underdone. on the bright side, the gravy was quite good and i made a stew out of the leftover chicken a few days later.

mercredi / alice-luis-marissa : baguette sandwiches with egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, or roasted peppers and sauteed mushrooms. all with condiments (onions, tomatoes, lettuce, etc) and chocolate chip cookies and ice cream (or chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches if you wanted to be adventurours) for dessert. with whipped cream. this was probably my favorite menu of the week because of the chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. ice cream had been on sale at peapod and it was good ice cream - breyer's - so i bought three boxes of it. surprisingly, the ice cream lasted three days. this was a nice easy menu for three people, and went pretty far in terms of people it fed - we had high turnouts for all of the finals dinners.

jeudi / cindy-marianne-nina : green salad, garlic bread, spinach lasagna (with and without pesto), chocolate cake with ice cream and whipped cream. marianne's spinach lasagna is great, and who would have thought pesto would be so good in lasagna? ok, maybe many people have, but not enough. another good impromptu combination was the garlic bread (made from some nice chewy bread from trader joe's) topped with lasagna. mmm... i was tempted to have more figgy pudding and whipped cream, but having already had chocolate cake and ice cream, my stomach said no. it did not, however, say no to half a piece of bread topped with lasagna about 15 minutes later.

beef-thyme stew with mushrooms and swiss chard

beef-thyme stew with mushrooms and swiss chard
3T olive oil or vegetable oil
2 lbs beef chuck, cut into large-ish chunks
3 large onions, halved and sliced
1T garlic, minced
2T fresh thyme, leaves stripped off stems and chopped fine
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes
2 10-oz boxes white mushrooms, sliced thickly and sauteed
1 bunch swiss chard
red wine

1 baguette or loaf of rustic-type bread

[1] heat half of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. brown beef and remove to a plate (tent with foil).

[2] add remaining oil and turn heat to medium. when the pan is hot, add onions and garlic. when the fond on the pan is about to burn, add 1/2c red wine. add thyme and bring the mixture to a simmer. add diced tomatoes (including juice) and let simmer until thickened slightly.

[3] add the beef back to the liquid with any accumulated juices. let simmer 2 to 3 hours (yeah, sorry for the long cooking time) on low heat. stir it once in a while. you can transfer the stew to a large saucepan for this part if you like; make sure you cover it.

[4] add the swiss chard and mushrooms. cook 30 minutes.

[5] usually i hate stews that aren't thick enough, but this one is just on the edge of acceptable, consistency-wise. serve this one with french or country bread to soak up the juices.

[serves 4]

diner, 21.11.04 - 03.12.04

i am absolutely in love with jessica's warm pear charlotte. i am in love with jessica.

dimanche / austin : couscous with raisins, roasted chicken, roatsted vegetables, far breton

lundi / alice : salad, breadsticks, four-cheese ravioli with red pepper sauce, fruit salad with cannoli cream

mardi / jessica lee : chickpea soup, sharbat (apple-rosewater drink), moroccan carrots, b'stilla, warm pear charlotte

/ thanksgiving break /

lundi / milly : foccacia, farfalle with sauteed vegetables, blueberry buckle

mardi / waseem : chickpea salad, chicken with ham, tomatoes, and madeira, veg : macaroni and cheese, pumkpin pie

mercredi / cindy : green onion cornbread, chicken rice soup, vegetable fried rice, apple cobbler

jeudi / holly : frijolets con flavor, pollo asado, arroz de coco

vendredi / keith : apple-cheese meatloaf, veg : crisp vegetables + tofu in a spicy peanut sauce, bananas foster

who would have thought that cannoli cream would taste so good with graham crackers? i guess cannoli cream tastes good with everything (within reason; ie beef + cannoli cream = ...), but suddenly graham crackers taste good again, and not like sawdust.

beef stew, egg custards, and the shawshank redemption

first: jessica gives me a meyer lemon. i have always coveted meyer lemons. i hear they are better than regular lemons - the pinnacle of lemon-ness. accordingly, i adore jessica (as i usually do, anyway). and now i am faced with a dilemma: what do i make with this meyer lemon? as it is a fairly busy week (made better by the knowledge that i have passed economics) i settle upon a lemon buttermilk pie, which is a recipe from some sample magazine i got in the mail. for the record, the sample magazine - whose name i forget - is pretty much a clone of Cook's Illustrated, which holds a special place in my nerdy heart (i subscribe to three food magazines: gourmet for general things food; cook's illustrated for the science-y stuff; and saveur for sexy pictures of ethnic foods). this particular magazine pales in the face of cook's illustrated, but that pie on the last page still looks pretty good, so i decide to try it.

of course, i make enough pie dough for two pies, so i need to make another pie. with no advance planning, it's clear that i have two options: a custard pie or a vanilla cream pie. i take a look in the fridge to confirm the availability of eggs, then spot a gallon of apple cider leftover from the cabin trip. i have this fabulous idea that i must make an cider custard pie. 45 minutes later i have half a cup of reduced apple cider, which i add to...of all things, cold milk. since i didn't really want a curdled cider-milk pie, i settle for a regular custard pie, which has an extra egg in it that i had added to account for the extra liquid (the reduced cider).

fortunately, both pies (a) fit in the oven) and (b) come out before allie needs the ovens for cooking. the custard pie turns out wonderfully - in fact it is a very good approximation of a chinese egg custard. that one's a keeper (add an egg to the filling for the custard pie in the joy of cooking). the lemon buttermilk pie tastes pretty much like lemon meringue pie, but it is wonderfully lemony. my not-supertaster taste buds can't really tell the difference between meyer lemons and regular lemons.

second: i want to cook dinner on saturday night and so i go to star to buy ingredients. i decide to make the braised balsamic chicken with swiss chard that i had made the previous week, with a few changes. i exchange chicken for beef (because since coming to school i have developed a real love for red meat. it's inexplicable.) and add mushrooms. lots of mushrooms, because i really love mushrooms, especially sauteed with brown sugar the way my mother does it. the whole shebang is really for next week's lunch because at the dance troupe afternoon performance i tell george that i'll order in with him (which reminds me, i owe him money). as such, i allow myself to let the whole thing simmer on low heat for about 4 hours. we start watching the shawshank redemption during this time, and it's when the movie is over that i turn off the stove, pack away the beef-thyme stew (because it's a stew now) and pack myself off to sleep.

third: the shawshank redemption remains one of my favorite movies.

i can't help procrastinating...

on my take-home exam for 11.201: gateway - planning action. so i'd like to insert a short bit here. i just voted for some of my favorite restaurants in boston, for the zagat survey, with pigalle topping the list. but for those of us on more of a budget, i would say that my favorite restaurant ever is cyclops in seattle. it's just a neighborhood-type place, with an upscale-in-an-artsy-way diner decor. but it has the best restaurant MO. i went there with rob at the beginning of the summer and had this great chicken (since then trumped by the chicken at craigie street bistrot, simply because of the quality of the chicken), and rob had a really good risotto. we also had the first chocolat pot de creme either of us had ever had. man, that was good. that ranks among the best desserts i've ever had both for taste (chocolate and grand marnier doing something quite indecent) and for presentation (a small porcelain teacup with a twist of crystallized orange peel on top). mmm. but when i took my sister there when she visited, the menu had changed completely! i was sad for the chocolate pot de creme, which i have not been able to replicate, but the menu was still extravagantly stellar. it went from a french/mod cuisine to spanish/mexican/latin cuisine. i had this great chicken with olives, peppers, and rice. nora and i also had ceviche, me for the first time, which was excellent. she had the fish tacos, which were also pretty good. the berry cobbler that we decided to get even though we were stuffed, was absolutely enormous. that thing would be a four-person dessert at any other restaurant in boston. it was, as rob would say, "as big as my head."

anyway, i'm sure that the menu has changed a million times since i left seattle. but instead of perpetually opening new stores, i wish modern restaurateurs would take a page out of cyclops' book and open a neighborhood restaurant that has a flexible menu. if you're going somewhere for dinner, it's a special event (at least if you're an mit student) and you should eat accordingly by not choosing the same thing every time. cyclops' MO just helps diners along with a good idea. that way, both diner and chef get to experiment at will. if you are in seattle, cyclops is in belltown.

diner a la maison francaise, 14.11.04 - 19.11.04

dimanche / jessica : eggplant-tomato casserole, penne rosa, caramel-pear pudding cake

lundi / anna : chicken curry, vegetable curry, palak paneer, naan, rice pudding

mardi / marissa : onion pan bread, chicken mirabella, eggplant and onions in tomato cream sauce, fettuccine, green beans, tiramisu

mercredi / yi : mushroom ginger soup, pad thai, apples

jeudi / luis : pollo con mole, mole enchiladas, arroz, pastel de la libra de caitlin

vendredi / allie : grilled cheese sandwiches, vegetable stew, supersexy brownies

diner a la maison francaise, 07.11.04 - 12.11.04

just thought i'd start a record of lmf menus here. this is both for my own memory and to make those of you who don't live with me jealous. ;p this week:

dimanche / george : salad, lebanese rice pilaf, grilled lebanese chicken, hummus, lebanese pastries (shatila)

lundi / diana : pork chops, potato casserole, apple bundles

mardi / kay : penne alla vodka, french onion soup, pumpkin muffins

mercredi / lisa : indian bean soup, potato pizza, dessert tba

vendredi / carrie : pork tenderloin with roasted apples and onions, sweet potato - leek pancakes, spaghetti squash with mushrooms, rice pilaf, black and whites

cobbling leftovers into real food

first, before i forget, the recipe for pasta i made a while back:

pasta with bacon, onions, + tomatoes
1 pkg bacon
1 lb pasta (preferably shells)
1 1/2 lbs plum tomatoes, chopped (i suppose you could use 2 cans of diced tomatoes, drained, if you were really desperate)
4 large onions, diced
parmesan cheese
white wine, muscat, or water

[1] Fry bacon in batches over medium heat, until crispy. Pour off fat into a bowl between batches. Drain bacon on paper towels, then rip into small pieces. Put in a bowl, cover, and set aside.

[2] Use white wine, muscat, or water to deglaze the pan. Set aside fond liquid - it's fine if it has bits of stuff in it. Pour a few tablespoons of bacon fat into the skillet and fry onions until almost browned. Set aside in a bowl.

[3] Pour fond liquid into skillet and add tomatoes. Cook until reduced to a thick sauce.

[4] Pour sauce over pasta. Add onions and bacon, and toss. Add parmesan to taste and toss. Serve immediately.

[serves 6]

today was really spent cooking. i intended to wake up at my usual time, sometime around 7, but apparently my body thought it needed more sleep. i think it may have actually needed more sleep, as i didn't feel tired immediately after i woke up (at 10am). i then proceeded to make pancakes, the recipe of which i am still fiddling with. the past couple of times that i have used 2T of baking powder, there was definitely a baking powder taste, although they are still as fluffy and absorbent as they always are. i think i'll drop it down to 1T and see how it goes. i also tried splitting the milk between buttermilk and whole milk because buttermilk has no fat, but there was no noticeable difference. oddly enough, the egg whites were slightly runny (translate: old) but they whipped up faster than usual. was it the fork? or the metal bowl? who knows. maybe harold mcgee does!

i also cooked the niman ranch sausages i bought at whole foods. namely, the "pure maple pork sausage" variety, which are actually a partnership between niman ranch and "sausages by amy" - niman ranch raises the happy pigs and sausages by amy provides the sausage recipe. the sausages have a comforting ingredient list: niman ranch pork, pure maple syrup, water, kosher salt, spices, turbinado sugar, natural flavor, lamb casing. actual review of the sausages: i think they are probably better than any other sausages of the same type that i've had. i still have a special place in my heart for the ultra-unhealthy chinese sausages, but these were really good taste-wise - not overspiced, and juicy with pork juices rather than fat.

come the evening, i went to the kitchen to cook a package of mushrooms leftover from friday's menu. upon remembering that there was a package of basil also leftover from a menu and that we still had pine nuts, i decided to make pesto as well. good thing we had leftover parsley too, because there wasn't quite enough basil to make the pesto taste like pesto. then, as i was finishing the pesto i realized i had sundried tomatoes, so i added some of those. the result: parsley-basil pesto with sundried tomatoes. i added mushrooms and sauteed slices of chicken sausage to mine (i mixed the pasta with the pesto but left the mushrooms and chicken sausage in bowls for other people to add to theirs). it was quite a good combination. oh, as for the mushrooms, i just sauteed them on medium-high heat with some oil and then i added brown sugar when the liquid was almost all gone, and a bit of salt. mmm, caramelized mushrooms are wonderful. the recipe below is an approximation of the pesto i made; really it was a combination of what i had on hand. the chicken sausage was ok, but not really particularly special after having had the niman ranch sausages earlier - it was fairly bland.

and a short bit about thursday, which was a holiday, as well as both nina's and oliver's birthday. we made dinner - nina made pesto and i made this chicken dish from cook's illustrated - braised chicken in a balsamic reduction, with swiss chard. i had never had swiss chard, so that was a fun experience; it looks and tastes like kale, but is milder. highlights of the cooking process: i foolishly grasped the handle of my skillet after it had come out of the oven, for the umpteenth time (i MUST stop doing that); browning the chicken thighs in the oven, in the skillet, didn't really work so well - I ended up taking them out of the oven after upping the temperature from 350 to 400 (did i just not let the oil heat up enough?) and browning them on the stovetop. the dish itself as great, though the preparation was somewhat lengthy and complicated. it was very much a complete dish (and now i'm getting hungry again) with the meat plus vegetables, so it bears some connection to healthy. it also went extremely well with the pesto. we had a red wine - a malbec from argentina - with dinner and it was serviceable and nicely fruity, but a little harsh.

parsley-basil pesto with sundried tomatoes
1c basil leaves, picked off the stems
1/2c parsley leaves, picked off the stems
1/2c parmesan cheese, grated
2/3c to 1c extra-virgin olive oil
1 large clove garlic
1/4c pine nuts, toasted
scant 1/4c sundried tomatoes
salt to taste

1 lb fettuccine
extra parmesan cheese, grated, if desired

[1] Boil some water and blanch the basil (put the leaves in the water and wait for them to wilt, ~10 seconds or so). Take them out with a slotted spoon. If you want to be fancy, you can transfer them to a bowl of ice water to stop them from cooking further. Otherwise, transfer them to a food processor or blender.

[2] Add the pine nuts, parsley, clove of garlic, sundried tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. Pulse until it forms a paste.

[3] Add enough olive oil for the pesto to look, well, like pesto. Don't add it all at once; you can pour it through the feed tube if you want. Taste before adding more.

[4] Add some salt and pulse to blend, then taste and adjust if necessary.

[5] Boil water and add some salt and olive oil. Add pasta and cook. When draining the pasta, reserve a bit of the cooking water (a few tablespoons) .

[6] Add the reserved pasta water to the drained pasta and add the desired amount of pesto (you may not need to use all of it). Toss to mix and sprinkle with extra parmesan cheese if desired.

[serves 4]

it's been a long time...

since i last posted. in fact, a few months. i thus have a long list of things to say, hopefully interesting things. unfortunately, i haven't been able to keep up with my tech column, though this blog is more interesting anyway.

food kudos for best menus/dishes:
- jessica's desserts - rote gruze (red berry pudding with vanilla pudding sauce) and iles flottantes (drizzled with caramel and served with creme anglaise)
- lauren: white chili and fresh apple cake
- alice: the american food menu - hamburgers and apple pie; lemon-tarragon dip for the alumni thing
- austin: beef manhattans
- waseem: chicken and chickpeas with toasted pita bits
- betsy: "australian chicken" and mushroom curry
- sadie: pasta with peas and ham
- carrie: chicken + barley, cider spice cake with bits of candied ginger and whipped cream

food non-kudos: i like ice cream too, just not three times a week!

my menus thus far this year:

september / donald farfrae's home cooking
tattie and leek soup + cheddar-chive scones
forfrar bridies (potato-leek and steak-potato-leek)
ecclefechan tart

october / an early thanksgiving
chicken pot pie + sausage-sage stuffing
veg: fasoldha (greek bean soup) + creamed corn gratin
cranberry sauce
pumpkin pie + miriam's chocolate-walnut pie

tentative menu for november /
chicken mirabella (with capers and olives)
sauteed eggplant with tomatoes and onions
fettuccine + pesto

i have to say that the second menu went much better than the first, which was not particularly well-done in regards to scheduling. the second was a much better example of my planning skills; in fact we had little to clean afterwards, which was nice, and the pace of cooking was much less frantic than the first time. of course, this was largely due to the fact that i made the six pies the night before, and did a lot of the prep work (chopping vegetables) for the soup and chicken pot pie. the menu went over quite well, though, and i think i have found a final recipe for chicken pot pie. i made it a few weeks before my menu as well, with a bell and evans bird, which i think lived up to its expectations in regards to tenderness, though i couldn't taste much of a difference in regards to taste. yes, i roasted a chicken, only to tear it apart for chicken pot pie. the chicken pot pie was marvelous, if a little heavy on the thyme (i roasted the chicken with thyme butter underneath the skin and then put more thyme in the gravy for the chicken pot pie). when not roasting a chicken for pot pie, poaching the chicken breasts in chicken broth and fresh thyme is the way to go. for that menu, i also tried a new pumpkin pie recipe, which uses cream instead of condensed milk. i had always used the typical condensed milk recipe, but i can see why you would turn to cream after having tasted this pie, which was nothing short of wonderful. the crust didn't turn out as well as i would have liked, as it was rather tough. it probably had too much water in it.

recent restaurant exploits: i have been spending more money on shopping lately, rather than food, since the term has been so busy. consequently, i have only been out to the same old restaurants: bartley's, mary chung, pour house, california pizza kitchen. i learned this past week that oliver, one of my mcp classmates, is as passionate about mary chung as keith. i have high hopes that my palate will develop into something more extraordinary as time goes on. i had fond memories of the pumpkin cheesecake from cpk, which i last had about 5 years ago while having lunch at the natick mall with jenn and her mom. we had it last night, and while good, it was definitely not as good as i remembered it - the gingersnap crust was rather sweet, though the cheesecake itself was quite good.

for our alumni event, i made one of the best desserts i have ever tasted (and also one of the most complicated to make). (incidentally, a note about the ecclefechan tart, which is like pecan pie and can be found on epicurious.com: the pastry dough for this tart is wonderful, all flaky and tender. it's easy to make, and uses powdered sugar and cream instead of regular sugar and an egg to bind it. ) i have now made a grand total of three things (that i can remember at this moment) from my stash of cook's illustrateds: the brownies (pretty good, but not as good as lisa yockelson's brownies), the eggplant parmesan, and the chocolate-caramel walnut tart. it's rather a production: you make the crust, then the caramel bit, then the chocolate bit, then it gets baked, then chilled, but it's well worth it. the crust is absolutely wonderful, and the entire thing blends together like nothing else. it's the sort of special thing that i'll be making for my sister's birthday - a slot previously reserved for my chocolate mousse cake.

the challenge for my next menu: choosing a dessert. i am tempted to make the tiramisu again, which i generally make once a term, but i would like to choose something new. that said, nothing else really comes to mind. maybe linzer cookies? or possibly chocolate mousse. i would theoretically like to make the chocolate mousse cake, but i assume i will be too busy to make it. perhaps a chocolate custard pie. hmm, or maybe crepes. well, another week to decide.

chocolate-caramel walnut tart (from cook's illustrated, nov/dec 04)
the nuts used in the crust, in the caramel filling, and as a garnish must all be toasted; the entire amount can be toasted together on a baking sheet in a 375-degree oven until fragrant and golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. for cutting clean slices, dip the blade of the knife in warm water and wipe with a kitchen towel before making each cut.

walnut crust
1 large egg, separated
1/4t vanilla
1/2c toasted walnuts (2 1/2 oz)
1/2c (2 oz) confectioners' sugar
1c (5 oz) flour
1/8t salt
5T cold butter, cut into 1/2" cubes

caramel-walnut filling and garnish
1/4c water
1c (7 oz) sugar
2/3c heavy cream
3T butter, cut into 3 pieces
1/2t vanilla
1/2t lemon juice
1/8t salt
16-18 toasted walnut halves, plus 1c (5 oz) toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped (* only the 1c walnuts are chopped)

chocolate filling
2 egg yolks
1T plus 1/3c heavy cream
1/3c whole milk
5 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
2T butter, cut into 4 pieces

[1] for the crust: beat egg white in bowl with fork until frothy; remove 1T egg white to second bowl and whisk in yolk and vanilla. process nuts and sugar in food processor until finely ground, 8 to 10 seconds. add flour and salt and pulse to combine. scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse to cut buter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal, about fifteen 1-second pulses. with machine running, add egg yolk mixture and process until dough forms ball, about 20 seconds. transfer dough to large sheet plastic wrap and press into 6-inch disk; wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm but malleable, about 30 minutes.

[2] roll out dough between 2 large sheets lightly floured plastic wrap to 13-inch round, about 1/8" thick (if at any point the dough becomes too soft and sticky to work with, slip dough onto a baking sheet and freeze or refrigerate until workable). place dough round on baking sheet and freeze until stiff and cold, about 15 minutes (or refrigerate about 30 minutes). meanwhile, evenly spray 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom with non-stick cooking spray.

[3] remove dough from freezer; discard top sheet plastic wrap but keep dough on baking sheet. following illustrations above, line tart pan with dough (invert tart pan on frozen dough. press down so tart pan cuts through dough. flip the entire affair over and let tart pan stand 5 minutes, until the dough has thawed and slipped down the side of the pan. roll excess dough into 3/4" ropes and press into pan along fluted side. sides should be 1/4" thick). freeze dough-lined tart until firm, about 30 minutes. (can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen up to 1 month.)

[4] meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 degrees. set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet. spray 12-inch square foil with nonstick cooking spray and press foil inside chilled tart shell; fill with pie weights. bake until light golden brown, about 30 minutes, rotating halfway through baking time. carefully remove foil and weights and continue to bake until golden brown, about 5 minutes longer. cool on baking sheet on wire rack about 5 minutes, then brush hot crust with reserved egg white. reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.

[5] for caramel-walnut filling and garnish: while crust is cooling, pour water into medium heavy-bottomed saucepan; add sugar to center of pot to keep granules from adhering to sides of pot. bring to boil over medium-high heat, covered, swirling pan once or twice to dissolve sugar. uncover pot and continue to boil, without stirring, until sugar is deep amber, begins to smoke, and registers about 375 degrees on an instatn-read or candy thermometer, about 5 to 10 minutes. remove pan from heat. carefully add about half of cream; mixture will sputter and steam. add remaining cream and let bubbling subside. return pan to low heat and stir with heatproof rubber spatula until caramel is smooth. add butter and stir until melted. remove pan from heat; stir in vanilla, lemon juice, and salt.

[6] add walnut halves to caramel and stir to coat; let stand until caramel is slightly thickened, about 8 minutes. using slotted spoon and allowing excess caramel to drain back into saucepan, transfer walnuts to wire rack set over baking sheet; set aside. stir chopped walnuts into caramel, then pour mixture evenly into tart shell. refrigerate, uncovered, on baking sheet until caramel is firm and does not slip when pan is tilted, about 20 minutes.

[7] for chocolate filling: whisk yolks and 1T ream in a small bowl. bring milk and remaining 1/3c cream to simmer in small saucepan; off heat, add chocolate and butter. cover pan and let stand until chocolate is mostly melted, about 2 minutes. using spatula, stir mixture until smooth; stir in yolk mixture. (chocolate should be thin and pourable; if too thick to pour evenly, set saucepan over low heat to warm mixture.) pour filling into caramel-filled tart shell, tilting tart pan as necessary to evenly distribute chocolate to edges of tart. bake on baking sheet in 300-degree oven until tiny bubbles are visible on surface and chocolate layer is just set (if pan is gently shaken, filling will appear very wobbly because caramel layer is warm), about 25 minutes. set baking sheet with tart on wire rak; arrange caramel-coated walnut halves on surface of tart, around perimeter. cool tart until just warm, about 30 minutes, then refrigerate, uncovered, until chocolate is firm, at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours.

[makes one 9-inch tart, serving 12 to 16]

quick, fake italian pasta

fettuccine with eggplant in a tomato-onion cream sauce

1 28-oz can whole tomatoes
3 onions, halved and sliced
1 medium eggplant, cut into 2"-3" long strips
2T olive oil
1/4c cream
1/2c parmesan cheese, grated
salt to taste

1 lb fettuccine

[1] heat oil in a large skillet. add onions and cook until translucent. add eggplant and cook about 6 minutes, until mostly translucent.

[2] add juice from whole tomatoes, then cut up tomatoes in larg-ish pieces and add to pan. let simmer 10-15 minutes, until eggplant is completely translucent and tender. meanwhile, make fettuccine.

[3] when eggplant mixture has thickened to the consistency of a thick soup, add cream and salt to taste.

[4] toss with pasta and parmesan cheese. add more parmesan cheese if desired.

[serves 4]

craigie street bistrot

back when bastille day was coming up, craigie street bistrot announced that they would have a "french speakers only" table at the restaurant to celebrate. shortly thereafter, they announced that they would be extending that special, which came with a $30 prix fixe menu.

we made a reservation for seven (miriam, allie, keith, v, josh, carrie, and me) for the "french connection." i'm afraid that i ignored my common sense again and didn't look at a map before we left for the restaurant. 45 minutes later (or was it an hour?) we made it to the restaurant, having made phone pleas to various friends to look at a map on our behalf.

the restaurant is unassuming, with a sign near the sidewalk in an otherwise residential neighborhood. the restaurant is on the bottom floor, so you descend into it. it seats maybe 40 or 50 people, with soft lighting (the best lighting i've experienced in the recent past has been lumiere, which managed to make an entirely white-walled room warm and inviting, which a sort of glowy light that you don't often see in restaurants - it's a type of light that is bright without the glare).

the "french connection" special didn't really seem to exist, but after we explained that we were here for that experience, we got a waiter who spoke french to us. he started out by speaking to us as if we were the typical americans who know a little bit of french, but ended up asking us if we knew the word for blackberry, later on during the evening.

however, the really high point of the evening was (and always is) the food. one of the strengths of the food is that it relies upon traditional foods and quality of flavor, rather than a fancy, overcreative confection. our appetizers: salad, corn soup, and pork rillettes. i ordered the rillettes, not knowing what it was, and was really pleasantly surprised. the dish came in three parts: a large ramekin of the pork rillettes (which are apparently a sort of pate) with a layer of lard on the top, a small plate of toasted bread, and a plate of "traditional accompaniments:" cornichons, pickled onions, tiny piles of salt and pepper, a tiny salad, and an unidentifiable thick maroon sauce that was piquant, spicy, and nothing short of fabulous.

the other highlight of the evening was dessert, after an excellent but slightly less exciting main course (which included the best chicken i have ever had, due to the fact that it was happy, farm-raised chicken from vermont). we had a couple of berry crisps with canela ice cream, the chocolate mousse with chocolate mint ice cream, and the sorbet trio. the sorbet trio was comprised of blackberry, raspberry, and wild rose petal sorbets, all made in-house, and all exquisite. i think i may finally understand why people like the flavor of blackberries (which the seeds take away when you eat the berry itself). the raspberry sorbet tasted like summer raspberries - much like the difference between the mathilde raspberry liqueur (summer raspberries) and chambord.

restaurantweek@pigalle

so if you go to pigalle.com, it's a porn site. pigalle is also a restaurant in boston, and according to a summer issue of Food & Wine magazine, Marc Orfaly, its chef, is the best new chef in the country (or something like that). this is what happened when i went looking for the address of pigalle, where holly, v + i had a dinner reservation this past evening. i thought it was 75 charles street, and just ignored the "south" on the end of the address. silly me - 75 charles street is not in the south theater district, nor is it pigalle. it's apartments. anyway, we found this out, and took a taxi for a quick ride to the actual restaurant, which is a 10-15 minute walk from the park street T station.

this week was restaurant week; i wonder how many restaurants were in pigalle's situation: that is, where they actually extended their restaurant week special due to high demand. our reservation is for saturday at 7:30, an excellent time for dinner, and the restaurant fills during the evening.

the awning of the restaurant is green, and has a small en plein air, or outdoor area. i might be biased, but it looks like it belongs somewhere that's not the usa. walking into the front room yields some potted mums that look like they're in transit to somewhere else. upon entering the actual dining room, we see a conventional layout: bar at the door for waiting guests, tables arranged along the windowed wall, and scattered throughout the rest of the (small) room. i would say that the restaurant seats about 40-50 people. the walls and ceilings are done in dark, muted colors, which feel comfortable. the lighting is perfect, as is the temperature - cool, but not with an air-conditioned feel.

after waiting for about five minutes, we're presented with menus and a query: bottled water or tap water? we choose tap water; later i notice that the bottled water is still voss water. i wonder if anyone is gauche enough to ask for the bottle. the resturant week menu is posted on one side, and i've put it in my webspace. the appetizers were really what attracted me; the main courses were really the staple main courses. v chose the eggplant terrine, the mushroom risotto, and the peach tarte tatin; holly chose the tomato soup, mushroom risotto, and peach tarte tatin; and i chose the duck livers, steak frites, and milk chocolate panna cotta. i also got a glass of wine to go with my meal - a cotes du rhone at the recommendation of our waiter.

the meal was really marked by really good service, and really good pacing. our waiter was great - not pretentious, and very sincere. it was the type of service where you know it's coming, but it's done in such a way that you don't really notice. dunno how they accomplish that; it was quite a feat in my book. rarely do you get both good food and good service at the same time.

the appetizers were quite good. i think the eggplant terrine was pretty good, but the red pepper layer dominated too much. holly's soup was absolutely adorable, with the miniature grilled cheese in the bottom of the plate with the soup poured over it, like they do in really fancy restaurants (ie, bring out the tureen and ladle it into the empty bowl). the duck liver and risotto was fantastic, though - the livers weren't tough, the risotto was possibly the best thing i could have started dinner with. restaurant risotto always seems to be more liquidy than i like it, but it wasn't a problem this evening because it tasted so good.

a pause between the appetizers and the main course was filled by another roll. shortly after we were finished, our main courses came out of the kitchen. the mushroom risotto was green with brown mushrooms around the edges of the bowl, and the steak frites was sliced, peppercorned, and presented with a huge mound of parmesan-dusted frites and a small copper pot of creamed spinach (by small, i mean ~1 cup). The risotto was fabulous, like the one i'd had with my appetizer...i have no idea why it was green. the steak - which i ordered "somewhere between medium rare and rare" - was fabulous, though it was a bit too peppercorn-y. the wine went surprisingly well with the steak; i think i thought that all of those people who tout the red meat and red wine pairing were just hyping it up. the creamed spinach had a good balance of cream and spinach, with another unidentifiable flavor that i thought was nutmeg, and that v thought was some sort of nuts.

the main course was followed by another pause, then dessert. the pause - i don't know how they know these things - was just right; not too long, not too short. the peach tarte tatin was great, though a bit sweet. after some thought, i've decided that i liked the basil in the tart. it definitely gave it a more vegetal flavor; a bit too much, possibly, but it had the same effect as mint would have - it contrasted the peach taste - which is warm - with the cooler flavor. the panna cotta was fabulous; i think the fruit and the fruit sorbet were unnecessary, but since they were there i ate some of them. i've never seen such gorgeous blackberries; i don't even like them but i ate them because they looked so good. the panna cotta, in texture, resembled what i read about blancmange in "little women" - it slipped down my throat. in taste, it was quite good - very chocolaty, and perfectly milk chocolaty.

anyway, another high point of the evening was that i never felt that we were rushed; we could have stayed there all night. i also felt that we were surrounded by lots of waitstaff, at the appropriate times, even though there probably weren't that many waitstaff throughout the entire restaurant. i would say that this is probably the best restaurant i've ever been to in boston.

happenstance cooking

so on monday, natalia suggested an excellent idea for a potluck. the concept was this: each person would bring an ingredient and we would cook things with what we ended up with, for better or for worse. josh and carrie gave v + me a ride to natalia's apartment on western ave, stopping by whole foods, where as usual we wanted to buy everything in the store but didn't have the funds necessary. the things we amassed: sage, savory, heirloom tomatoes, corn, shallots, bell peppers, coconut milk, white peaches, boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and cod.

i think the key to this kind of party is to have people go shopping on their own - so what people bring is really a surprise. for us, it was more that we cooked dinner together, which was certainly lots of fun anyway. we ended up with caramelised corn and shallots, peach-tomato relish/salsa, cod with cajun seasoning, chicken with savory, mushrooms, and onions, and lots of natalia's excellent bread. when mary arrived, she asked the same question we asked: "where did you get the bread?"

i really have to admit that savory isn't a great herb to cook with. it's reminiscent of green stuff, but it's a rather weak taste and if you were to smell it, you wouldn't really be able to place its smell. kind of like grass, kind of like wet leaves in the springtime, kind of like sage (but that's probably because sage is the other herb i'd bought). i suppose the right word to describe its smell would be "verdant," if that makes any sense. on the other hand, i used the sage a few days later with pork chops - pan fried, with a sauce made with the fond, a whole lot of port wine, onions, and mushrooms - and it was fabulous. one of the great herb-meat pairings is definitely pork and sage. it's entirely possible that i might be able to cook pork chops now, too, to the right amount of tenderness.

going back to our potluck...it was capped by an excellent birthday cake that natalia's parents bought her, at concord teacakes. i had no idea that concord teacakes made cakes, though i suppose it's kind of obvious from the name of the store. i've had lunch there, but never paid that much attention to the fancy stuff there. the cake was a chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse, with a ganache frosting and all sorts of lovely truffles on top. served with the cake was mango sorbet and fresh raspberries from the market in central square - the raspberries were probably the best i've seen this summer.

pork chops with a sage-port wine reduction
2-3 thick-cut, boneless pork chops
olive oil or butter
1-2 cups diced onions
1 cup mushrooms, sliced thin (that small package, 6 oz, is it?)
3 cups port wine (this makes for a sweeter sauce; use 1-2 cups wine for a less sweet sauce)
2-3T minced sage (1/3 to 1/2 a package)

[1] Heat a 3T oil or butter in a pan (I recommend butter) over medium-high heat. Place the pork chops in the pan (which should be NOT nonstick) and cook 5-6 minutes each side. Remove with tongs to a plate or bowl and tent with foil.

[2] Add the onions to the skillet and saute until cooked through and translucent. Add the port wine (add the wine sooner if the pan starts to get too brown). Use a rubber spatula to scrape up the fond as the wine comes to a boil. Simmer until the sauce is reduced and thickened slightly (to the consistency of a cream soup). After the wine has simmered for about 10 minutes, add the sage. Somewhere in there add the mushrooms, and just let them cook through (it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes or so).

[3] Return the pork chops to the skillet and let the sauce absorb in the each side briefly. Plate the chops, add sauce, and serve.

high tea @ columbia

our tea party was actually about 13 days ago, but i suddenly got so busy at work that i didn't need to kill time by writing in my blog (imagine that). it was unfortunately quite hot the day of our tea party, though it has nothing on today's humidity. however, it was cooler in the morning when i woke up to make muffins and two cakes: mini muffins to fulfill our "oscar wilde/english country" theme, the cardamom cake that miriam's boss made, and that she really liked, and a cake made with muscat wine.

skipping to the end of cooking, which was fairly uneventful save for a few muffins that were kind of....hard and brown... the beaumes-de-venise cake was pretty good - redolent with the wine. it also had grapes in it. it was moister than pound cake, and a bit heavy, but i liked the flavor. i think those who like wine better would like it more than we did at the tea party. the cardamom cake, though, was a hit. it's a pretty regular cake, made with buttermilk for moisture, and cardamom for flavor. the cake is brown, and looks kind of unappetizing when it comes out of the oven. however, before pouring the batter in the pans you scatter sugar and chopped pecans on the bottoms of them, so when the cakes come out of the pan they have this great candied pecan crust on them. the cake gets filled with whipped cream mixed with fresh raspberries, and then more whipped cream and berries go on top. it looked really good, and tasted darn good as well - the combination of flavors is definitely what made it so good. muffins were...well, muffins. they were plain, to be more british, and were intended to be spread with butter or jam. or, spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar, which is my strange preference for bread type things like rolls. i suppose people are so used to american-style muffins - flavored muffins - that they didn't realize that they should eat them with jam.

in addition to the baked goods, we had v's deviled eggs and mary's cucumber sandwiches, some sliced apples and honey, and calissons which carrie had brought us from france. mmm...

august flies by...

goodness, another week just flies by...it's hard to believe that I'll be back in school again; it's that dilemma where you're really excited about everything but the immense amounts of work looming ahead. I have to admit that I haven't cooked anything particularly interesting this week, due mostly to the weather (excessively humid). I did make some apple crisp on wednesday, when mika cooked dinner for us at lmf.

that's a mini-food story on its own, though. trips to harvest are always an adventure. it's probably good that it feels like it's farther away than the 2 blocks it really is. I went there intending to buy apples and butter for the apple crisp, and emerged with some nice, big organic apples (granny smith, which were an abnormally darkish green, and gala), butter, some erivan yogurt with a granola packet, fresh mozzarella, and some heirloom tomatoes. I must say that I wasn't particularly impressed with the tomatoes, although the mozzarella was quite good. though my father (who does the food shopping at home) always bought the beefsteak tomatoes from market basket, rather than the on-the-vine hothouse tomatoes that are so trendy these days, my mother supplemented our tomato supply in the summer with her tomato plants. my idea of what a tomato tastes like is slightly better than the average hard-pink-tomato eater's idea, I think. anyway, buy your heirloom tomatoes from a farmer's market.

the erivan yogurt purports to be from "cows with names," pasteurized only once. I think I would need to do a side-by-side tasting to determine the difference between ultra-pasteurized dairy products and pasteurized dairy products. I occasionally buy the garelick pasteurized heavy cream in the hopes that it will taste radically different from the ultrapasteurized stuff, but it really doesn't. I suppose my palate is just underdeveloped. back to the erivan yogurt. well, that must have been the sourest yogurt I've ever had. it wasn't as smooth-looking as regular yogurt - it was more a suspension of tiny white solid particles and whey-colored slightly viscous liquid. at any rate, it was SOUR. the granola helped, but only so much. I wonder who eats it; since it's still selling, somebody must be buying it. hopefully, the popularity-gaining yogurt won't be a victim of food trendiness in the near future; that is to say, it won't become an overly manipulated foodstuff. too many bad things happen to good food. greek yogurt has been gaining favor rapidly, as are more european-style yogurts (they're thicker, and have far fewer flavors). I look for the greek yogurt every time I got to harvest, trader joe's, and whole foods, but the articles that say they sell greek yogurt are lying. my favorite yogurt ever was the mango yogurt I had in lisbon, from the supermarket, but that was probably because it was packaged in small round jars (which I took home with me...one I gave to sonia and one I gave to my mother.

it would be interesting to know how one's perception of something affects how you taste it (I'm sure there are studies on this; I am currently too lazy to look for them. I am also supposed to be working). for example, I bought these organic apples instead of conventional ones; large, loose ones instead of small, bagged economy ones. so theoretically the organic apples are better, but do they actually taste better? on the matter of organic v. conventional, I am willing to go for organic due to perceived future health benefits, but I would like to know if these loose apples are better than the smaller ones. they had an edge over smaller apples as tasted from the apple crisp, but whether that's because I expected it, I will never know.

taste combination of the week: vanilla ice cream with freshly crumbled bits of digestive biscuit mixed in. heck, plain digestive biscuits too, while we're at it.

restaurant trendiness

it's been a long time since I last wrote, pretty much because it's been so darn hot that turning on the stove and/or oven just isn't an option. however, the past couple of days have been quite favorable towards cooking, so I got back into swing pretty fast. wednesday, v and i made carrie's smothered chicken, stir-fried cauliflower, and lemon granita; last night nora and i made a bolognese sauce to go with our pipette pasta, roasted carrots, and indian pudding. not the most adventurous of outings, but pretty solid on new experiences.

carrie's smothered chicken is well-traveled territory, ever since I got the recipe from her. it was intended for my sister, firsthand, but then i had the recipe myself, naturally. since then, i've made it twice. sorry to those who want the recipe; I don't think it's up to me to give it out, but here is a basic description, since "smothered" can mean so many different things, food-wise. chicken thighs (I still haven't figured out if it would be better to skin them; do NOT use boneless anything) get browned, then baked in a mixture of barley, peppers, onions, spices, chicken stock, and, with my variation, sliced mushrooms. there is always leftover barley mixture that gets cooked on the stove (probably because of the added volume of mushrooms), and it always surprises me that the leftover barley tastes so different from the chicken barley. who would have thought that some chicken bones would make such a difference?

the stir-fried cauliflower is, well, stir-fried cauliflower.

the lemon granita, which I rushed home to make (it takes 3 hours to freeze), turned out fairly well. it was one of those things where you didn't get the flavor quite right, but you'd like to try the method again. granitas are quite easy: make a sugar syrup, add the flavoring, and freeze, breaking up lumps every now and then. the recipe I used was apparently an authentic sicilian recipe (from epicurious.com), and involved zesting lemons by peeling off the yellow part with a vegetable peeler. I suppose that vegetable peeler should be a sharp one, because the granita, while the lemon taste was great, and the texture was wonderful, had a bitter aftertaste from the lemon pith, presumably. I would also recommend trying a bouquet garni of lemon zest, zested the old-fashioned way. incidentally, the best way to juice a lemon without a juicer is to cut them in half, and just dig your fingers into a half to squeeze out all of the juice. messier, but juicers in general are messy. regular sugar, instead of confectioners sugar, is also a must - the taste from regular sugar is more intense and purer, because it has no cornstarch as an additive (it prevents clumping).

thursday dinner was quite late, as we started cooking on the later side; we sat down to eat at about 9:30. i don't know why this bolognese sauce was called "weeknight" bolognese, because it sure takes a while to prepare. after you've made it once, you can cut the time down to about 40 minutes, but that seems like a while for spaghetti sauce.

both gourmet and cook's illustrated are always complaining about the authenticity of bolognese sauces (apparently the stuff at bertucci's isn't authentic. who woulda thought?). as far as I can tell, the ingredient that authentic sauces are always missing is carrots. after having made the sauce, i have absolutely no idea what the carrots do for the sauce, but at least there's the nutritional benefit. the basic method for this sauce is as follows: saute some diced bacon, then add the onions, carrots, and mushrooms (reconstituted dried ones); then add the ground meatloaf mix, following it shortly with milk, which tenderizes the meat. simmer that off (it's quite brown at this point) and add the tomatoes and tomato paste (finally it turns red). some fancy aspects of this recipe include the reconstituted mushrooms; we couldn't find porcini mushrooms, so we used polish cepes. pungent is an understatement. the other fancy, and as far as i can tell, useless, addition was a sweet white wine, reduced. it added some depth of taste that i am unable to detect. however, the sauce was great, once we made some adjustments: we added a little more tomato paste and some sugar, which made it taste more tomato-y.

the thing I liked most about the bolognese is the combination of milk and meat. for reasons unknown to me, the milk actually does a great job of rendering the meat tender, instead of the scary, tough tendrils of grayish-brown matter that cooked ground beef so often resembles. i would nix the mushrooms next time, because i think they somewhat overpowered the sauce (this is also partly due to the type of mushrooms we used) - and the carrots. however, in support of the sauce, it goes really well with pipette pasta, eaten out of a bowl with a spoon.

you might think that the selection of indian pudding as dessert was random, and I suppose it was - I saw a photo in a Globe article, and my curiosity was piqued. first of all, the ingredient list is short and simple: milk, cornmeal, molasses, and ground ginger. surprisingly, it tastes like its ingredients; whether this is a good thing or not is an issue for discussion. after two hours in the oven, it had developed a crust that, unsurprisingly, was mika's favorite part. :) because of the molasses and ground ginger, it was very reminiscent of pumpkin pie, and was accordingly quite good with vanilla ice cream and maple syrup. indian pudding seems to be very much a comfort food, rather than the overdone, prettified stuff that restaurants turn out en masse. i would say that it's vulnerable to restaurant syndrome, though - that process where restaurants take something that's good, and simple, and "reinvent" into all sorts of disgusting things. it becomes chic and trendy, and suddenly it's everywhere. it's as if you had always worn blue sunglasses, but then they became trendy and everyone had them: your staple fashion statement has been stolen from you, and now you're not chic any more, just a poser trying to be chic, because you don't have the date you started wearing the sunglasses tattooed on your forehead. sometimes good things can come of this reinvention business, but more frequently it turns out like madonna (or rather, esther).

lemon granita
2-3 lemons
1 cup filtered or bottled water
1/2c sugar

[1] zest the lemons and tie into a bouquet garni, or peel off the yellow part with a sharp vegetable peeler. squeeze the juice out of the lemons (you'll want 1/2c of juice).

[2] heat the water and sugar together and stir occasionally, until all of the sugar has dissolved.

[3] remove from heat and stir in zest.

[4] cool the syrup, leaving zest in, then stir in lemon juice.

[5] freeze in a 9x13 metal pan, stirring and breaking up lumps every 30 minutes, until the mixture is slushy but not too liquidy, about 3 hours.

[serves 4]

bolognese sauce
2 carrots, grated
1/2 small onion, diced
3 oz bacon or pancetta, diced
1 can (28 oz) whole tomatoes with juice, chopped
1 can (14.5) oz diced tomatoes with juice
1 1/2T unsalted butter
1 small clove garlic, minced
1t sugar
1 1/4 lbs meatloaf mix
1 1/2c whole milk
3T tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste

[1] heat the butter in a 12" skillet until foaming, over medium-high heat. add the bacon/pancetta and saute until browned. add the onion, garlic, and carrots and saute until soft, about 4 minutes.

[2] add the meatloaf mix and break up into 1" pieces. cook the meat for 1 minute, then add the milk and break up the meat further. when the milk has almost all cooked off, add all the tomatoes with their juice, and the tomato paste. simmer 20-30 minutes, until thickened.

[3] add sugar, and season with salt and pepper.

[makes about 6 cups]

indian pudding
1 quart whole milk
1/2c yellow cornmeal
1/2c molasses
1t ground ginger

[1] scald the milk: heat until little bubbles appear at the edges (don't stir).

[2] mix the cornmeal into the milk and heat in a double boiler for 20 minutes, until thickened to the consistency of...oatmeal? porridge? just stick to the 20 minutes.

[3] stir in molasses and ground ginger.

[4] pour into a buttered 2-quart baking dish and bake for 2 hours at 300F. Serve with vanilla ice cream, drizzled with maple syrup.

[serves 4]