I love Zaytinya, thanks for reminding me that it’s been too long since I’ve been there. Fresh pasta in my house tonight. The first course was a homemade alfredo sauce with mushrooms over fusilli. I hadn’t made the fresh alfredo since about 15 years ago when I used to cook in an Italian restaurant. Was quite pleased with how it came out. Second course was a vodka sauce (store bought...) with spinach and sweet sausage over bucatini. Now my wife is making red velvet cup cakes. Happy Valentine’s Day OF!
Homemade bucatini? Shoot, if you are here in the DC area I am going to have to crash one of your dinners Staying in the same family as Zaytinya we are holding a birthday dinner for my son at Jaleo tomorrow night. Crystal City location -- much less busy on weekend nights than the DC location, and the head chef there is great.
Couldn’t get a table at our favorite Italian neighborhood joint so i threw down a favorite of mine. Braised beef cheeks. Hardest part is trimming the cheeks. Kids gave it two thumbs up
It starts this way with white beans cooked in chicken stock and Toulouse sausage.... Then there's duck confit to brown...... Then you assemble everything..... ...and out from the oven comes a Cassoulet!
The local fancy kitchen store puts on a number of food classes in the winter. Some are the type where you get your hands dirty and make things, and others are demonstrations. We went to the Ramen night last night...demo type so we didn't make anything, but were shown how to make it and given full recipes. Our Chef for the night: Started with a cold Ramen salad, with sesame dressing, and topped with cucumber, tomato, scallions, and sliced egg: Chashu pork and soy sauce eggs for the next course: Here it is - Miso Ramen with pork, egg, corn, scallions, along with some scallion oil on top, and a few sesame seeds: Next up was spicy Shoyu Ramen with mushrooms: And by this time I was very full, and it was late, so we took the Spicy stir-fried garlic Ramen with veggies home - that will be lunch today: Learned a lot, so will have to hit the Asian grocery store soon!
Ok this was amazing and super easy. Only modification I made to the recipe was I chopped up a bunch of mushrooms and onions, mixed in some olive oil/salt and pepper and added them to the pan when it came off the stove. I cook tri-tip frequently but the wife said this was the best one I have ever made. https://bakingmischief.com/tri-tip-in-the-oven/
I sort of burned the lamb last night: It came out a little crusty: But was actually nice on the inside, lol. I wish we could post .mov files here--you can hear Mrs. Muddlerminnow screaming at me in the background, lol.
Made Korean bbq at home tonight, and it really hit the spot. I’d say it was pretty much as good as the places where we usually dine out. Almost forgot we were quarantining for a minute, but reality set in when I saw the sink full of dishes afterwards.
This is a favorite, and usually just a hors d'oeuvre, but with a salad you can make a dinner out of it: foie gras on homemade bread with a topping of shallots and shitake mushrooms fried in butter. I know, I know--it's making me as round in the middle as the Michelan Man--but boy, does it taste good with a nice Bordeaux.
So we have been making a few different things while in lockdown. A while back we made some very nice Gnocchi, and it was very easy to make. First cooked the potatoes and let them cool and dry out: Rice the potato: Make the dough: Roll it out and form the Gnocchi - going rustic here: Boil them until they float, then cook for another minute or so: Back on the tray to cool for 15 minutes: Fresh sage, chives, little bit of butter, some olive oil, and some lemon juice to add at the end: Sauté for a few minutes, add some water, cook it down to make a sauce: Light, fluffy texture, fresh tasting: Made home fries with the leftover spuds the next morning...and we froze some of the cooked Gnocchi, so we'll see how that turns out when we cook it again. might not hold up as well, but we'll see. Cheers, Al
Speaking of pork...made some pork chops last week... Searing them in the Dutch oven... To add in, we have a Bosc pear, red onion, couple of garlic cloves, and a mixture of red wine vinegar and some honey: After some cooking on the stove top, they go into the oven for about 25 minutes, and come out like this: Drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction: Tasty...really needed some thicker chops for this recipe, and next time would use bone in chops as well to keep the moisture level a bit more reasonable...