When I experimented with the Crab-Crusted Ling Cod last week, I had extra roasted red pepper sauce left over (bottom of that post). And really, extra roasted red pepper sauce literally screams, “pasta! Use me with pasta!” Really, it does — I heard it.

So, I answered the call. I used the leftover sauce to make yet another sauce with some canned plum tomatoes, an eggplant, a zucchini and some mushrooms.

Penne with Red Pepper, Eggplant & Zucchini
1/2 cup leftover roasted red pepper sauce (or 2 red peppers, roasted, peeled and pureed)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cubed
1 medium zucchini, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt & pepper to taste
8-10 button mushrooms, sliced
1 28-oz can whole plum tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine
Garnishes:
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, sliced into thin strips (chiffonadded, if you will)
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup goat cheese

Liberally salt eggplant cubes in a colander and let sit for 30 minutes. Rinse well and set aside.

Heat a pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and sauté the mushrooms, zucchini and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add eggplant and let everything cook down for about 30 minutes over medium-low heat. Let the eggplant really break down and get all golden. If you are not using leftover sauce with onion in it, you may want to sauté some onion with everything else too.

Next, add the canned tomatoes and their sauce, squishing each tomato in your hand before you add it. The red peppers are next. If you don’t have leftover sauce just used pureed roasted red peppers. Whichever route you take, add the wine and then let the sauce simmer for about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings (salt & pepper) as you see fit. This is also where I add a few red pepper flakes just for fun.

Toss the sauce with cooked wheat penne or any other pasta you have on hand. I typically add the pasta into the sauce, rather than the other way around.

Garnish each bowl with the basil, pine nuts and goat cheese. I have a very small ice cream scoop (about the size of a melon baller) and I used that to make little goat cheese scoops for the top of each serving. So cute! I knew that gadget would come in handy one day, because really, who eats little, tiny balls of ice cream? Oh, not I (nor jwa).

Now get a glass of red wine, some Daily Show on the TV and dig in!

The recipe I chose for this fabulous incarnation of IMBB is from the Rhone-Alps region of France (near Grenoble) and comes from the French Farmhouse Cookbook by Susan Hermann Loomis, which is a cookbook that I enthusiastically recommend. It was also very useful for this event as she says exactly where she got each recipe, so I knew the region of Poulet aux Noix without much sleuthing. Perhaps this is why I ended up making so much food.

Idle hands and all that, I guess…

Anyway, this area of France is walnut growing country, which is reflected in this meal. This leads me to the chicken. Oh my, the chicken. It was so amazingly good but really very simple to prepare. The walnuts soak up chicken juices and garlic and wine and lemon and almost caramelize with flavor. I suggest a baguette for sopping up all the garlicky-chickeny-lemony juices. I also suggest using more than 12 cloves of garlic — hell, use a whole bulb. You will not be sorry!

And, before I forget, thank you to Cucina Testa Rossa for hosting IMBB23 and for picking such a wonderful theme. I think that this is one of the best (and most fun to plan) meals I have made for any cooking event since I’ve had my blog.

Poulet aux Noix (Chicken with Walnuts)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 chicken (3-1/2 to 4 pounds), cut into 8 pieces (2 breast pieces, 2 wings with portion of breast attached, 2 legs, 2 thighs), giblets reserved
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp dry white wine (I used Vouvray, which is what it suggested in the cookbook. I was just walking around Cost Plus and happened upon a bottle. I took it as a sign)
12 cloves garlic, (the recipe says unpeeled, but I peeled mine by accident but was very pleased with the results)
1-1/4 cups walnut halves or large pieces

Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, brown the chicken pieces, seasoning them liberally with salt and pepper, until they are golden, about 5 minutes per side. I just used two breast pieces (with skin and bones) and two whole leg pieces, I didn’t bother with buying wings. As I bought my chicken already in parts, I had no giblets. I’m kind of sad about that as I can only imagine how tasty those would have been in the pan. I think it may even be worth just throwing caution to the wind and hacking up your own bird.

Add the lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of the wine, and the garlic cloves to the skillet. Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and cook until the chicken is nearly cooked through, about 15 minutes. Then stir the walnuts into the skillet, along with the giblets, cover, and continue cooking for about 8 minutes.

Remove the cover from the skillet and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until all the pan juices have evaporated and the chicken, walnuts, and garlic are golden, 5 to 8 minutes. My juices didn’t really evaporate — the chicken was done in about 8 more minutes so I just removed it and went from there. Be sure to watch the walnuts, for they tend to brown easily. If they are getting too brown at any point in the cooking, remove and reserve them, returning them to the pan just before serving. Mine actually started to get a bit dark so I scooped them all out and set them aside.

Transfer the chicken, garlic and walnuts to a warmed serving platter and deglaze the skillet with the remaining 1/2 cup white wine, scraping the bottom to loosen any browned bits.

Cook until reduced by half, about 4 minutes. It says to pour the sauce over the chicken to serve, but I actually added the chicken and walnuts back into the pan and served it from that right on the table, where we greedily dished a breast each onto our plates.

One of the steps for this event was to pair the dish with a regional wine. After some online investigation, I decided to go with a Côtes du Rhônes but I ended up finding this Côtes du Ventoux Rogue, from Orange, France instead. Orange (the OF?) is about a two hour drive away from the Grenoble area, so I figured this was close enough to be regional. Mainly, I really liked the poultry drawing on the bottle — after that won me over, there was no going back to the Côtes du Rhônes idea. I really am a pick-a-bottle-by-the-label kind of girl.

So, you might have noticed more items on the plate than just the poulet aux noix — well, I kind of went crazy. I was just so inspired by this theme that I also made two other regional dishes — warm green beans in walnut oil and Alps-favorite, Gratin Dauphinoise (potatoes). For it is cold there I suppose and the people need their butterfat to keep them warm!

Haricots verts a l’huile de noix (Warm green beans in walnut oil)
(also from the French Farmhouse Cookbook)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tbsp good quality walnut oil (tore in refrigerator after opening)
1 lb green beans, trimmed and washed
1/2 cup walnut pieces

Whisk together vinegar, garlic, salt & pepper. Add the oil in a thin stream, whisking constantly and set aside.

Add the beans to a large pot of boiling, salted water. Cook until crisp tender — about 5 minutes.

Whisk the dressing again and add the hot beans, along with walnut pieces. Toss and serve immediately.

Gratin Dauphinoise
2 cups half and half
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic
5-6 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled or unpeeled (depending on your preference) and sliced thinly
Optional: 1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
1 tsp unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Split one of the garlic cloves and rub it along the inside of the baking dish you’ll be using for the potatoes. Then, mince both cloves of garlic. Heat the half and half, salt, pepper and minced garlic until simmering is achieved. Remove from heat and keep warm.

Layer about half of the potato slices in the baking dish, overlapping slightly in concentric circles. Pour half of your warm half and half mixture on top of the potatoes. Then layer the remaining slices, topping with the rest of the half and half to finish. If you are going the non-traditional route like I did, finish with a sprinkle of Gruyere and dot the top with about 1 tsp of butter, broken up into small pieces.

Bake in bottom third of the oven for about 20 minutes or until he half and half mixture starts to bubble up sides. Move baking dish to the top part of the oven and continue baking for about 25 minutes longer or until potatoes are tender and top is golden brown. Let stand for 15 minutes before devouring.

After our journey to the French Alps with this dinner and wine, jwa had to do some work, which was really too bad as I sat on the couch and then went to Caprica — watching the best episode of Battlestar Galactica ever. Ever! But, being sweet, I saved it for him and we watched it together Saturday afternoon. Awwwwww…

Tagged with: IMBB23 + French

Art Bar
SW Broadway and Main
Portland, OR 97205
503-432-2905

Last weekend we went downtown to Portland Center Stage to see Drunk Puppet Night at the Winningstad Theatre. It was very entertaining and a nice evening out. There were big puppets, little puppets, a whole alien/ufo/puppet/mini-series and an odd yet very humorous performance art piece involving rubber chickens, a hula skirt, a George W. Bush mask, sex toys and a big inflatable globe (I bet you can guess kind of how that went…) Anyway, before all that wackiness ensued — there were the salad rolls.

First off, I love the image with the woman and the martini and the little animated bubbles here. So much fun. While at the Art Bar, I had a couple of cosmopolitans and although I had no little animated bubbles in mine, I enjoyed it.

The menu is small with just a few appetizers: Thai Salad Roll, Garlic Hummus with warm pita and Bruschetta. We split the salad rolls.

The image above is after we had eaten about two of them — is was quite a full plate, not bad for $7. And they were tasty. There are also some salads on the menu and just a few entrees:

Antipasto Platter
Proscuitto, Cappocollo, Salami, assorted cheeses, greek olives, roasted vegetables, sun dried tomato pesto.

Smoked Salmon Fettuccini
With vodka cream sauce, fresh herbs, shaved Asiago.

Fettuccini Ilissio
Smoked tomatoes, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, peppers and pine nuts tossed with basil infused oil and fresh herbs.

Grilled Prawn & Andouille Sausage Brochettes
Mesclun greens, sweet chili sauce, red pepper coulis.

ArtBar Burger
1/2 pound ground sirloin on ciabatta roll, blue cheese aioli, white balsamic glazed red onions, butter lettuce, tomatoes and crisp fries.

They also have a Happy Hour Menu from 4-6 that has a lot of assorted snacks on it.

At $14, the smoked salmon pasta is the most expensive thing on the menu — that’s what I got and I really liked it. It reminded me of this smoked salmon and wasabi cream pasta I used to make when we lived in Sunnyvale. Hmmm, I should look for the recipe, I think it was from Sunset Magazine. Oh, okay, I’m digressing here. jwa got the Fettuccini Ilissio and he seemed to enjoy his meal quite a bit.

The atmosphere is a little dark and candlelit. White tablecloths, mirrors. There’s also bar seating out under the rotunda.

Granted the convenience of eating there before the show might be the main reason we gave Art Bar a try, but I really enjoyed it! I’ll definitely want to go again the next time we see a play. Maybe even if we’re just walking around downtown and I suddenly feel the need for a cosmo — which could certainly happen.

Art Bar get three weird little puppets out of four.

So, this is the last birthday post I will be making (well, this year). Relief all around, I know. It’s a birthday post because it’s a recipe from a book that I received for my birthday, from jwa’s parents (thanks, Jim & Edie!). It’s Ocean Friendly Cuisine by James O. Fraioli and it’s a beautiful book. I almost hate to cook with it, as I inevitably will plaster crustacean pieces, fish juice and who knows what the hell else all over it. Oh well, I will just have to take that chance I guess.

The first recipe I tried out of it was for Crab Crusted White Sea Bass with Green Onion Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus and Sweet Red Pepper Sauce. There’s quite a nice picture in the book that won me over — well that and the cream cheese. It’s really like tasty crab dip slathered on top of a nice piece of fish. How can I person not be tempted to try that?

Oh, as you’ll notice in the title, I did have to substitute Ling Cod for Sea Bass. According to my handy Seafood Watch card enclosed in the book, I was able to ascertain that Ling Cod was indeed an Ocean Friendly Substitution, since New Seasons had no Sea Bass when I was there.

Crab-Crusted Ling Cod:
for the 2 of us, I made two fillets, and used a bit less than half the crab topping ingredients, saving extra crab mixture for snacking

6 ling cod fillets
1 pound lump crab meat, picked and cleaned
8 oz cream cheese
1 tbsp seafood seasoning (such as Old Bay)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp onion juice (I used grated onion and juice)
1/2 cup sherry
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, powdered sugar, onion and seafood seasoning. Now, the actual directions say to mix the ingredients in a double boiler until smooth and slightly warm, but honestly, I just whisked them on the counter top, as you had to let it cool before adding the crab anyway. Lazy, I am! Add the sherry and then salt & pepper to taste. Blend well and then fold in crab. Set aside.

Season fish with salt and pepper and spread a liberal layer of your tasty crab mixture on top of each fillet. Bake for about 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish. There’s no shame in using a knife to take a peek inside to see if it’s done. Just spread the cream cheese back on top. Now, if you’re using the sea bass, check after 15 minutes as it may cook a bit quicker than my ling cod did (they were huge fillets).

The original directions didn’t say to do this, but when my fish was about done, I turned on the broiler and let the top get a bit golden — this took about 1 minute or so. Serve your fish with the suggested green onion mashed potatoes or perhaps some rice pilaf, as well as sauteed asparagus spears, with or without the following red pepper sauce.

Red Pepper Sauce:
1 cup roasted red peppers (about 2-3 big peppers)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1 tbsp parsley
1/4 cup sautéed onions

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth. That’s it. Serve atop asparagus.

We both really liked this dish and I am looking forward to trying it with sea bass, as well as any other fish I can think to cover with the crab crust. And really, what in life isn’t better with a little tasty crab crust?

In addition to the tasty dinner jwa made me last Friday, he also bought me a very nice present — an ice cream maker. It’s only been on my wish list for about three years, so I was quite ecstatic to finally get one. It’s a Cuisinart and it’s red and it’s oh so pretty!

In addition, I also received an ice cream recipe book from my witty wordsmith of a life partner. It was aptly titled, The Ultimate Ice Cream Book. I perused it over the weekend deciding what to try first — pine nut ice cream, lavender ice cream, coffee ice cream, corn ice cream… Okay, no, not the corn ice cream. That just seems kind of weird but the recipe is in the book, so I could make it if I wanted to. Finally I decided on mango ice cream. Why? Well, I had two sitting on the counter that were getting riper by the minute — mango it is then!

I played with the recipe a bit, adding a little vanilla, fresh orange juice and a dash of nutmeg.

Mango Ice Cream:
2 large, ripe mangoes
1 tbsp fresh orange juice (about 1/2 an orange)
1 tbsp fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
dash of nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream

Peel the mangoes and cut the flesh from the cheeks. Dice and combine mango chunks, orange & lime juice, vanilla, nutmeg, corn syrup and salt in a food processor. Process until smooth, scraping down bowl as needed. Pour the puree through a strainer. There should be about 1 3/4 cups of mango puree. I didn’t measure it — I just assumed this was the case and put my faith in the kitchen witch hanging from the ceiling. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat the sugar into the egg yolks. The directions say this will become thickened and pale. But, as I did this, the yolk/sugar ratio was such that I just got crumbly, pale sugar. shrugs. Seemed to work, though. Anyway, then add the cornstarch and mix in to the crumbles. Set alongside the mango.

Next (for this is a multi-step process), bring the milk to a simmer in a sauce pan. I used 2% milk instead of full-on, all fat milk. This seemed to work fine, but do as you’d like. Slowly beat the hot milk into the yolk/sugar mixture, whisking constantly. When it is all incorporated, pour the entire mess back into the pot and whisk over low heat. You want the custard to thicken slightly but not boil so that you scramble the eggs.

When thickened a bit, remove from the heat and pour into a clean bowl. Let cool slightly and then add the mango and heavy cream. Blend. Refrigerate until chilled (overnight or a few hours).

Hopefully, you have the ice cream making canister thingie frozen in your freezer like I did. Excellent. The next day when everything is cold and/or frozen, pour the chilled custard into the ice cream maker. Mine was pretty easy to put together as it all just sort of balances on the base and then slightly locks into place.

After about 20-30 minutes you will have soft serve consistency ice cream.

After some Asian Chicken Salad, jwa and I each enjoyed a bowl of my mango concoction. He was tentative at first but it really grew on him. As I had actually licked the spoon and eaten all the ice cream left stuck to the sides of the maker (after dishing it out to be further frozen in the freezer) well, I knew I already liked it a lot.

Hello. Allow myself to introduce.. myself. I am jwa, the willing target of mlb’s delectable meals. Remain calm! I have temporarily commandeered this blog whatchamacallit to, erm, blog about mlb’s birthday dinner.

mlb and I have a fine tradition of birthday meals. True, it is often she or an anonymous set of chefs at fine restaurants who create the birthday dinner, but it is both of us that consume it, and remark upon its relative merits of toothsomeness, snackability, or gastrodelicentatiousness. It is this tradition that I choose to break in twain — like the snap of a crisp breadstick, or hot thin peppered bacon — and instead cook for her. It is true that I lack her finely honed skills-o-the-skillet, her technique-with-the-tongs, her proficiency-with-the-prosciutto, but while I may lack talent, I also lack the sense to know when to stop. Let’s go!

For this birthday, I agonized over my choices. I am most comfortable with the pasta meals, having perfected the elusive al dente technique and my own personal garlic-olive-oil-tomato-sauce-parmesan-cheese extravaganza. Alack, this, while tasty, is a well-worn rut on the winding rattlesnake trail that is our relationship. So, I knew it was time to branch out. Live large! Go for the gold! The gusto! Gustave! Guava! Guacamole! Grenadine! Gravity! Vitality!

Some days later, when I finally returned to my original thought (my stack, while finite, is often corrupted, returning me to places I’ve never been) I realized I had better make a decision and soon; the day — the birthday — was nearly here. I feverishly consulted with Rachael Ray, she of the thirty-minute-meal, and together we came up with:

• some sort of pasta with bruschetta
• sausage calzones and a fine salad
• rosemary grilled chicken & mushroom sauce with bread soup

Bread soup? I thought, the idea rolling over in my skull, how intriguing. And though I hadn’t cooked meat since ‘93, I figured I’d give it a shot.

The meat:

• 1 & 1/2 lbs. chicken thighs. No bones, no skin, just the meat, ma’am.
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt-n-peppa
• 3 stems rosemary

The sauce:

• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
• 2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/8 lb. pancetta
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed (I chopped mine though, out of habit.)
• 1 large shallot, chopped
• 2 portobello mushroom caps, halved & thinly sliced
• salt & pepper
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1 cup red wine .. we had ravenswood zinfandel

Off to New Seasons Market I went! Gathering ingredients and weighing produce almost like I knew what I was doing. Fortunately, we had most of the ingredients at home, but I did pick up mushrooms, chicken, and onion. New Seasons didn’t have the pancetta that the recipe called for, so I figured I’d stop off at Wild Oats on Division. When the automatic doors opened for me, I at once knew something was wrong. Instead of the lively bustle and shout, there was only a hushed funereal silence. Where before there were dreadlock’d hippies and slumming yuppies, there was instead a forlorn cashier and a few old people. A sign read “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. LAST DAY FEBRUARY 18th.” The shelves, once lavishly stocked, were bare except for disheveled patches of books, greeting cards, and the occasional packaged spice. The few patrons that were there were looked as stunned as I, seeing a neighborhood fixture committing itself to the big sleep. Over the loudspeaker, Natalie Merchant sang her dirge:

I decided to skip the pancetta. I then went to Pix, with its fancy desert treats and tightly-spaced checkout counter. Some things are still reassuringly constant.

Arriving home, I shared the news of the demise of Wild Oats with Michelle, who was just as shocked as I. I then got down to the task unpacking, sorting, collating, spindling, and so forth. Michelle offered unsolicited advice about preparation; I promptly ignored her and did everything my way. You see, I choose to optimize for time, as in give me enough time to figure out exactly what I’m supposed to do. An hour or so later found me chopping the mushrooms, onions, &tc and putting them in their proper place. There’s a fancy “French” word for this, but I don’t cotton to that sort of talk. ‘taint American, if you catch my drift. All you fancy-foreign-talkers out there: you’re on notice.

Once everything was laid out, the cookin’ started. We (ok, I didn’t do this all on my own; she helped a little bit) first prepared the bread soup (she beat me to posting about the soup, that sneaky girl). Then we started on the mushroom sauce: get yourself a bowl and heat the 1 cup of chicken stock in the microwave for about 2 minutes. When it’s done, add the porcini mushrooms. Caution: bowl will be hot. Let this steep for a bit. (5-10 minutes, saith Mme. Ray.)

While the porcini mushrooms bloom to fruition in the hot chickeny broth, git yerself a medium skillet and throw down some olive oil, followed by the pancetta (if you can find it), garlic, and shallot. Let them get used to the searing heat (180 seconds worth) and then add the portobello mushrooms that you have so tenderly sliced, plus a bit of salt & pepper “to taste” (you might want to do this when you can actually taste the sauce, though.) Saute until they’re all dark, or ten minutes elapse. Then add the flour. Cook for 1 minute. Add the wine and let it reduce down (60 seconds?) Add the porcini-mushroom-chicken-broth and simmer it down, granny.

Then came the chicken thighs. I gleefully thwunked off excess fat and seasoned ‘em up — olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary from the front yard (Oregon: what doesn’t grow here? Oh, that’s right, jobs). Heat up a grill pan and once it’s good and hot, drop in the chicken thighs. Tongs are better than fingers here. Oww.

Once in the pan, they began to sizzle delightfully. I could almost hear them singing. Five minutes on each side, plus a little bit more as we futzed with the temperature sensor.

Michelle wanted something else to soak up the mushroomy goodness so she made a quick batch of brown rice. She’s fast that way. Powers that no man can comprehend.

Finally, served up: a bed of rice, on top of which went the chicken thighs, and then on top of that generous ladles of mushroom sauce. Served with a simple zinfandel, though I’m sure any red wine will do (unless you’re picky and/or more wine-savvy than me.)

For dessert, Pix. Continuing with the rosemary theme, I brought home a pear-rosemary tart for Michelle:

So, with this birthday dinner tucked comfortably under our belts (had to let them out a bit), what does the future hold? What new concoction will I foist upon the unsuspecting mlb? Will I return to my roots, and whip up a special batch of my Top-Ramen and hard-boiled-egg dinner? Will I get Thai takeout and try to pass it off as my own? Tune in next year! (or maybe sooner.)

A New Birthday Tradition
For the last two years, we’ve started the tradition where jwa cooks me dinner for my birthday. Previously, we’d spend a long weekend in Gearhart and eat my birthday dinner at the Pacific Way Cafe but it seems lately work and other things have interfered with that version of my birthday celebration.

But, I am really starting to look forward to having dinner made for me! And he always decides he wants to cook dinner more after making the meal — then he kind of forgets. Hopefully, this year he’ll start making dinner once a month or something because he did a really good job with the soup and the chicken!

Last year, he made stuffed shells and this year, he once again looked towards Rachael Ray for inspiration and picked Ribollita and Rosemary Grilled Chicken and Wild Mushroom Sauce (that one is coming tomorrow). Both recipes are from Thirty Minute Meals II. The soup was warm and hearty and perfect for the cold and freezing weather we’ve been having here in Portland.

It was easy to make the soup while also preparing the chicken. He just followed the recipe through adding the beans and tomato sauce, then let it site while he prepared the chicken dish. When everything else was ready, jwa brought the soup back up to temperature, added the bread and we were good to go!

Ribollita (Bread Soup):
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (plus more for drizzling)
4 large loves of garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 fresh or dried bay leaf
Salt & pepper to taste
2 cans small white beans (cannelloni can be substituted)
6 cups chicken stock
2 cups tomato sauce
3 cups stale, chewy Italian bead, crusts removed, bread torn into pieces
Garnishes:
1 small white onion, thinly sliced
1 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Heat a deep, heavy-bottomed pot over moderate heat. Add oil, garlic, onion, carrots, celery and bay leaf to pot. Season with salt and pepper and sauté until veggies begin to soften, 5-7 minutes.

Add beans, stock and tomato sauce. Cover pot and bring soup to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove lid and stir in bread. Continue stirring to incorporate bread as it breaks down.

When soup becomes thick and bread is distributed evenly, adjust seasonings and serve soup in shallow bowls.

Top soup with onion and cheese to garnish. Tomorrow, jwa will be guest-blogging about the chicken he made and cooking the meal in general!

Well, now that I can actually think about falafel (the tasty Middle Eastern chick pea snack) without shuddering or laughing, it sounded like a good pick for dinner. I really like falafel. I used to get it on the Stanford campus for lunch sometimes (at a place by the coffeehouse) and it brings back memories of when I worked there and would walk around campus.

At home, I usually prepare falafel-in-a-box. My new favorite kind is al fez. They’re based in England but you can find the falafel mix at Cost Plus stores. Instead of deep frying, I put my little falafel balls on a cookie sheet that I brush generously with olive oil and then bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, flipping them over after five minutes.

My presentation is more Greek than Mideastern but, you know, that’s just the way I like it. If you’re a purist, omit the feta and yogurt and use tahini sauce.

Falafel:
1 box falafel mix, prepared and set aside
4 pieces flat bread or pita bread, warmed in a dry, hot skillet
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup lettuce leaves, spinach or any mixed greens work well
1 small cucumber, diced
1/3 cup crumbled feta
1/4 small sweet onion, diced finely
1/2 cup yogurt
2 garlic cloves, minced

Mix yogurt and garlic Set aside.

Lay greens on top of bread and follow with 2-3 small falafel patties. In a small bowl, toss tomato, cucumber and onion to combine. Spoon tomato mixture over falafel and top with feta crumbles. Drizzle with yogurt and enjoy.

***

I also need to add that I just read about IMBB23 and I am so excited! I already have my dish picked out and everything…

Wild Abandon
2411 SE Belmont
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 232-4458

Traditionally, we walk to Bread and Ink for Valentine’s Dinner, have a bottle of wine, food and walk home. That’s what we did last year and for the last three years. This year, I was in the mood for a change.

I’ve been wanting to try Wild Abandon quite some time and Valentine’s Day seemed like a good night to do so. Yeah, I know — is a holiday when everyone else is trying to go out to dinner really the best opportunity to try someplace new?

The atmosphere was funky and dark. I’m not sure if they made it extra dark for the holiday or of it’s usually that way. I’m not complaining — I’m just saying it was dark but cozy and romantic. Our timing was right on (of course we had a reservation), as we got one of the velvety booths along the wall. Fun!

They had a special menu for Valentine’s Day which included a few appetizers (including a goat cheese tart), salads, and some pasta dishes, salmon with red beans and rice, chicken marsala and prime rib.

I really, really wanted the goat cheese appetizer but we were good, both starting with a simple, mixed green salad. I got a lemon basil vinaigrette and jwa got the blue cheese. Now, let me say right now that, overall, I was a bit disappointed with the food. But, I loved-loved-loved the lemon basil vinaigrette. That right there is enough of a reason to give Wild Abandon another shot. We also got some bread and hummus with our salads, which was quite nice.

Our dinners consisted of the chicken marsala for jwa and the salmon with red beans and rice for me. Overall, I’m just not sure the salmon went well with the red beans and rice — it was an intriguing idea but I don’t think it quite worked. Perhaps if the salmon had been seasoned more or spiced up a bit it would have come together, but as it was, I couldn’t help but think I was eating red beans and rice with some salmon someone stuck on top as an afterthought. Alas, I think perhaps one of the pasta dishes would have been the way to go.

(See, it’s very dark)

jwa enjoyed his chicken but thought it was maybe a bit greasy. It came with some mashed potatoes, which he loved, but a butter sauce on the side he thought was way too rich.

The evening ended with creme brulee and sorbet, along with a glass of port that we split.

The service was good. I was a bit worried that they might try to push us through as quickly as possible but that wasn’t the case. We had 6:00 reservations, we were seated promptly and didn’t leave until about 7:40. So, that, as well as the vinaigrette, makes me want to give Wild Abandon another chance on a different night.

The Recap:
True, I was a bit let down by the food (I had very high expectations) but had a nice meal all the same, as I was eating and talking with someone I love. But, you know, at $98 (with a bottle of wine), the food should have been as enjoyable as the dining companion.

On a slightly related note, Fusion (on Division) seems to be gone. Wah! Does anyone know if they are gone for good? This makes me so very sad. I loved that place. I bring that up because Fusion had all the funkiness and candlelit ambiance of Wild Abandon but with much better food, imho.

For now, Wild Abandon gets 2.5 wine bottles out of 4.

Leftover cookies from the dinner — they are gone now!

So, last Wednesday was the day I made 34 cookies. I followed the basic cookie recipe here, but used 3/4 bittersweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli 70% bittersweet) and 1/4 white chocolate chips (just for fun).

After baking them I let them cool for a few hours then wrapped them all in plastic wrap and made cookie flowers. These I tied ribbon around and put each person’s name on a piece of 2 inch by 3 inch card stock and we used them as place cards. Quite festive!

Cookie Flowers
1 roll of red cellophane
floral tape
fake leaves
floral stakes
cookies

Ahh, this I learned while working at Cookie Creations, in Glen Ellyn, IL. To start, attach leaves to each stick using floral tape. Wind the tape around over the wire to attach each leaf. You don’t have to wrap the tape all the way to the top.

Next, cut circles about triple the size of your cookies from the cellophane. Place a cookie on a circle and gather up the cellophane, wrapping and gathering it up an around a stick. Use a 4-5 inch piece of floral tape to secure the cellophane around the stick and attach the cookie to the stem. Repeat for all the cookies.

They look really nice but I’ve found that hands hurt after a couple dozen or so…

I’ve decided that my new favorite thing at Trader Joe’s is the pre-made pie crust. This stuff is actually very good — I was impressed! I used it to make dark chocolate tarts for the dinner and they were delicious and very nice looking (if I don’t say so myself). Of course, I have no photograph to collaborate this — you all will just have to take my word for it.

Easy Dark Chocolate & Orange Tart:
1 cup chilled whipping cream (reserve any remaining whipping cream to whip for a garnish)
12 ounces dark, bittersweet chocolate, chips or finely chopped (I also used Ghirardelli 70% bittersweet chocolate chips for this)
1 tbsp grated orange zest
1 prepared tart crust

Bring 1 cup cream to a simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth. Mix in 1 tbsp orange peel. Pour chocolate into cooled crust.

Refrigerate tart until filling is set, about 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated.) When set, remove pan rim from bottom. A trick for this is to get a can of food, set the tart on the can and gently loosen the rim. Slide it down and the tart stays up on the can of food. Slice into wedges.

To serve, I dolloped each piece of tart with whipped cream and a mint spring. I made two of these (16 pieces) and everything except one slice got eaten. I also bought an Old Fashioned Cheesecake from TJ’s — this didn’t go as fast at the dinner, which made me feel pretty good about the chocolate tarts.

Okay, no more donor diner recaps. Back to regular posts Thursday!