Saturday Six

P

pat-nocal

Well-known member
Made Michael Chiarello's Chicken Cacciatore Pronto (mentioned a few days ago in a thread above) and enjoyed the leftovers for lunch even more than dinner the first night. The simple flavors had melded nicely overnight and the penne pasta I tossed in with the sauce at the end had also picked up the nice subtle flavors.

Woke up to the lingering aroma of garlic in the house after making linguini with clams and garlic for hubby's birthday last night -- one of his favorite meals. The fresh manila clams were meaty and delicious.

Excited about many of the recipes inside a book I just found at a used book store -- Melissa Clark's In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite. It will be fun making my way through the book. Melissa's prose makes for enjoyable reading too -- fun stories preceeding each recipe. Makes me want to explore more of her recipes and cookbooks. Also picked up Tom's Big Dinners, by Tom Douglas; and Family Meals, by Maria Helm Sinsky. It's not like I *needed* any more cookbooks, LOL, but so many recipes within the books were calling out to me that I simply couldn't resist. Plus, it helped me use up some nice bookstore credits I've had for a while (from selling back other cookbooks I was done with), so the books were essentially free. smileys/smile.gif

Will be dusting off my Romertopf clay pot soon to give SallyBR's Clay Pot Pork Roast (at link) a try. I'm often attracted to those little 1-1/2 to 2 lb. boneless pork loin roasts at the market. They're just the right size for dinner with nice leftovers the next day. I know this ancho/garlic/cumin/clove treatment will be good because it's similar to a chicken leg recipe steamed in parchment that I'm in love with. Must ask Sally what sides she likes to serve with the roast.

Couldn't resist a beautiful slab of pork baby back ribs on sale at the meat counter last night. Will be on a hunt shortly for a new treatment/recipe to prepare it. Possibly going with the Sticky Balsamic Ribs at Epi.

Days here are still in the high 70s and low 80s but the nights are getting chilly and Fall is in the air making me want to whip up more soups and stews. Made a tasty roasted butternut squash soup earlier this week and still have some roasted squash on hand so I think I'll use it in another soup recipe or maybe make some butternut squash ravioli. Just love Fall for making the turn toward homey-comfort-type foods.

http://bewitchingkitchen.com/2011/10/29/clay-pot-pork-roast/

 
Following your lead.....

First, thanks again for the shout to the BK...
I usually serve that pork roast with rice, someone asked me in the comments, and I offered a few other suggestions, like mashed potatoes or mashed root veggie mix - it's such a delicious roast, I normally don't cook it very often because it tends to get dry, but the clay pot prevents that.

as to my Saturday Six...

1. I made a very nice loaf of bread using for the first time a pullman loaf pan (King Arthur). It arrived in the mail yesterday, and I HAD to make a loaf. It's wonderful, Oatmeal HOney Pain the Mie, from King Arthur's site.

2. Making a 1 hour chicken stock using chicken wings only. It's my default recipe for a quickie but tasty chicken stock. Will be using it on a soup maybe tomorrow - spinach and egg drop pasta soup.

3. Will be making a Brazil nut toffee concoction to use in a blondie recipe from Dan Lepard's new book, Short and Sweet. I'll make the toffee today, and the cake tomorrow, to take to our lab on Monday. A student of ours passed an important first test, and we want to celebrate...

4. Grilled ribbons of zucchini and prosciutto with mint sauce. Recipe from Food and Wine (I think...) on my "to do list" for a long, long time

5. Carrot soup in the pressure cooker. Also from Food and Wine.

6. Cleaned the screens from the hood above the stove, which means I can now sin for 5 years, it's all forgiven. I've been a good girl.

 
did you get your books at Pendragon? I love that place. Also how

do you make the pasta with white clam sauce? There are a million recipes out there but I have bad luck with it. I think I am spoiled from living in Providence for 10 years and eating on Federal Hill. Mine never measures up. I bought some frozen at Trader Joes and it was, IMHO, horrid. I was out in your neighborhood in Sept. Beautiful weather then too. My favorite ribs are posted here somewhere. It's the cooking method of stacking them on the grill that's the secret I think. Anyway, they are good!

 
*Love* number 6. And thks for the side dish ideas. Offering to be a taste tester for the

oatmeal honey pain de mie. smileys/wink.gif

 
Call me next time you're here, would love to meet up with you...maybe at Market Hall?! Must go

on a search for your rib recipe.

Let me find my linguini and clam recipe and post it. I don't follow a recipe anymore, just do it from my head and lots of practice. smileys/wink.gif

And no, not Pendragon, it was a local used bookstore called Bay Books, in Danville. You might want to check it out next time you're here, it's about a 35 minute drive from the Market Hall area.

 
Rec: Linguine with Fresh Clams

As I said, I just wing it anymore and don't measure. The recipe has evolved from one published in the newspaper by a local Italian restaurant which no longer exists. Have been making this dish for well over 25 years.


Linguine with Fresh Clams

2 dozen fresh manila, cockle or other small clams (not littlenecks -- they’re too big) (or more clams, as desired -- I often buy 2 to 3 lbs. of them for the 2 of us and wing it with the rest of the ingredients.)
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1 or 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped (sometimes I use cilantro instead of parsley)
pinch of black pepper
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 lb. linguine, cooked al dente

Wash and scrub clams very well with a vegetable brush to remove all sand. In a 10-inch skillet add butter, oil and garlic and saute lightly, but don’t let it burn. Add fresh clams, parsley, peppers and wine. Saute on high heat until clams are open. Serve over hot linguine that has been sprinkled with a little freshly grated Parmesan cheese, if desired (Pat’s note: I don’t usually use the Parmesan).

Serves 2
Suggested accompaniments: steamed or sauteed zucchini or other squash, or tossed green salad, and french bread

Variations: sometimes I also add prawns, toward the end, and/or a few chopped sun-dried tomatoes

 
Thanks Pat. That's essentially what I do too but I'll give it another

try. I can see it now served at the Blue Grotto on Federal Hill (after a delicious caesar salad that they make a production of preparing on a cart next to your table). They served the linguine on an oval platter with a ring of teeny little necks all around and more chopped in the center. Bliss! I promise to let you know the next time I'm in Oakland. Not anytime soon though because I have several other travel plans on the calender. One is a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam with a week long trip down the Mekong on a very small boat (17 in the group total plus crew). I am really looking forward to that, especially the food. I go in January and hope the floods have receded by then.

 
Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Mekong... I'm so green with envy Janet!

Yes, please take good notes and post some good recipes that you've experienced!

 
Sat. Six that started on Fri. and is now being posted on Sun. New name Weekend six....

To remind- Fri. is my Sat. I had guests from the States for dinner. It was lovely. I realized that I love making up menus almost as much as cooking.
First course - salad caprese which I do on small toothpicks around a huge platter. In the middle of the platter is a basket with garlic bread.
Also zucchini carpacio and I had olives that I had marinated.
Soup - chickpea, spinach, mushroom soup. Yummy.
Main -Pasta with cheeses zuccini and mushrooms,
tomato tart.
Desert - the only thing I didn't make - a sugarless carrot cake from a good bakery here and grapes.
How many is that? Anyway - Sat. cleaned up!! ate leftovers and went to a demonstration for social justice and then to a play.
Quite a lovely weekend.
Now on to planning Thanksgiving dinner!!!

 
Weekend Six

Saturday a dear friend had a party at his home in Marin. We sat around, a circle of long time friends, sipping wine and sharing stories and silly jokes. Gail made a wonderful roasted vegetable lasagna with eggplant and zucchini grilled on the Weber, caramelized onions and roasted peppers, and tomato sauce from her neighbors tomatoes, all glued together in cheesy love with mozzarella and smoked fontina. It was a wonderful dish and it felt good eating something made with such love.

Today I'm going to lug my empty milk and cream containers to WF and find something to cook along with my rabbit sausages I'm going to make for dinner. I thought a braise might be nice with some white wine?

I received two huge bunches of radishes in my produce box this week. I'm not such a fan of them, even slathered with butter and Maldon salt. A friend stared her recipe for radish chips so I tried them and they were delicious! I am going to roast the other bunch along with carrots to go with the sausage.

I'm on the hunt for eggless boxed pasta as most of mine have egg and I'm allergic to them I'm afraid. This allergy business is getting me down. But I found some terrific ice cream made with rice milk of all things and no egg and it was wonderful.

I'm also going to look for puff pastry tomorrow. I have about three cups of cooked greens that I would like to make into a sort of big spanikopita. There are beet, kale and radish greens and I think they will make a nice pie.

I also need to caulk my dishwasher, it has a little inset window that leaks dreadfully and I caulked it Friday but it's not sticking. I think I need to pull it all off, douse it with alcohol and try again. There's no way I'm going to wash silverware by hand!!!

 
Heather! Even my local little grocer sells eggless pasta - also try World Market.

Trader Joes sells ice cream made with rice milk if I'm not mistaken...not sure about the egg part.

I thought spanikopita was made with phyllo dough? Puff pastry is available at just about any grocers.

Caulking....I hear ya! I re-caulk my tub every year. After swabbing good with alcohol, I hit it with my hairdryer until I'm dead sure it's dry. Good luck!

 
Pat, re: Tom's Big Dinners. Try the clams recipe from the Chinese New Year? dinner. So good!

I've made it several times. It's great for casual entertaining. I usually make the sauce several hours in advance and then when company comes, dump the clams & sauce in a pan and cook until they open. Big on flavor.

That book is currently in storage but my cookbook group covered it. If I remember right, there's a rosemary snack cake that's also very good.

 
Great! Will do. I eyed that recipe in the bookstore and it was one of the reasons I knew I couldn't

live without the book (how little justification we need these days to buy a cookbook, right? LOL).

 
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