Day 46 – Grilled Salad Nicoise

Thursday, March 29th 2007: Grilled Salad Nicoise

A favourite of K’s, this is a nice way to make a composed salad as all of the ingredients cook on the gas grill minimizing clean-up. I do believe the first time I spotted this recipe was at epicurious…

The Prep

Green and yellow beans get a rinse, are snapped and then get packed in an aluminum foil pouch with some salt and olive oil.

New potatoes get cut in half and go into an aluminum foil pouch with plenty of fresh thyme, some salt and olive oil.

If it were just K and I, I’d sear a nice piece of tuna, but as the four of us are dining tonight I picked up a 10 to 12 ounce Pacific salmon fillet.

The potatoes go on the grill first and get about a 15 minute head start. The Salmon and beans go on at the same time and cook for about 10 minutes each.

While the beans and potatoes are cooking, K and I have a Kir Royale (in the living room the kids are trying to build a fort out of a hockey stick, furniture and a couple of blankets. They are not having much success). She washes salad greens while I whip up a vinaigrette from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume I:

2 tablespoons wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons olive oil

Mix the first three ingredients together and then slowly whisk in the olive oil. Then add fresh herbs (we went with thyme) taste and adjust seasoning.

Plating

The kids get deconstructed salads – fish, beans, cherry tomatoes and potatoes.

The greens get tossed with dressing and go on the plate. They are topped by a piece of salmon, the green beans, potatoes, some nicoise olives and a sprinkling of cherry tomatoes.

We switch from Kirs to prosecco and head to the table where everyone cleans their plate.

Clean up means loading the dishwasher and throwing out some aluminum foil.

Day 45 – More Chicken

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 – Chicken with Soy

Was absolutely clueless as to what to make for dinner. I had six Italian sausages, a chicken and about an hour to whip up a meal.

Went with a Bittman recipe where you boil and then roast the chicken…

Into a large pot, place:
3 cups of water
1 cup of soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons dry sherry
5 nickel sized slices of ginger
4 smashed cloves of garlic
1 Star Anise

Bring this to a boil and then add the chicken – boil, covered, for 15 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave the bird in the hot liquid for 20 minutes (and pre-heat your oven to 500F). Place the chicken on a roasting tray and slip it into the oven for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

The Verdict

The chicken was a gorgeous brown coming out of the oven and it all smelled really wonderful (anise, soy, ginger, garlic – what’s not to love?). The bird also carved really easily, but the proof is in the palate and this chicken was just meh. Tender, moist and totally bland. The skin was fantastic, but the flesh was boring…very boring.

If I were to make this again, and that’s a big if, I’d whip up some sort of spicy dipping sauce to give it some oomph.

Should have done something with the sausages instead.

Day 44 – Grilled Lamb

March 27, 2007: Grilled Lamb Chops

Last Wednesday may have been the first day of Spring, but today’s sunshine and warmth seemed to make it official.

I was actually thinking we might be able to get in our first meal on the back deck this year, but the thought of washing patio furniture before sitting down to dinner seemed like a bit too much…but with the sun and the warmth, the gas grill was definitely going to happen.

A fistfull of fresh rosemary, some of the sage and thyme from last night’s dinner, a plump clove of garlic and a sprinkling of kosher salt went into the mortar to be pestled (is that a real verb?) with a bit of olive oil.  This green mash then went on to the lamb chops while the grill came up to temp.

I also sliced up a fennel bulb into half-inch slices and let it marinade in a quarter cup orange juice and a few tablespoons of olive oil.

While the lamb and fennel were marinating and the grill was heating up, we enjoyed a very ripe Brillat-Savarin and some Beemster with a baguette in the late day Sun.

The Verdict

The kids devoured the lamb (my daughter kept picking it up with her hands, which drove K. to distraction and filled our dinner conversation with plenty of seemingly non-sequitur “fork!” comments). My daughter wasn’t so sure about the fennel – she was convinced it was celery. She’d eat some, push it away, come back to it and repeat. The boy was fine with all of it…

Dessert for the kids was some mint chocolate chip ice cream. K. took a pass, I had some Forme D’Ambert with the remaining baguette… 

Day 43 – Gnocchi

March 26, 2007: Fridge Door Pasta

K. is a little under the weather and I had a meeting at 8 PM so a quick and simple dinner was on order.

We decided to make what we call “fridge door pasta” ostensibly, take all the antipasta/pizza toppings you find in the front door of a fridge: marinated artichoke hearts, capers, sun dried tomatoes, black olives, roasted red peppers, roasted strips of eggplant etc. and make a simple pasta sauce out of them.

Warm some olive oil in a pan and put a big pot of salted water on to boil.

Dice an onion and stir it into the warm olive oil in the saute pan. Once it silvers, add some crushed garlic. Before the garlic browns, add whatever you like from all those jars…a tablespoon of artichokes, a teaspoon of capers, a few tablespoons of sun dried tomatoes, one roasted red pepper, etc.

Just let it warm through and then top it off with a bit of tomato sauce and it can all simmer together while the pasta cooks.

The pasta doesn’t really matter here, tonight we went with a vacuum pack of potato gnocchi but it could just as easily be dried pasta like penne, linguini or occhio di lupo.

Once the pasta is al dente, drain and toss into the sauce. Give the plan a flip with the wrist and spoon the sauced pasta into some bowls. You can top it with fresh grated parm if you like, it’s up to you. 

Round it out with some garlic bread from under the broiler and an arugula salad and you’ve got dinner done in under 30 minutes…

The Verdict
Both kids are pasta fiends and it was no surprise that both had seconds. My daughter was very excited to find out that capers are like pickles. The boy managed to eat around the black olives, she managed to eat around all of the onions…

Day 42 – Stuffed Pork Roast

Sunday, March 25th: Crusted, herb-stuffed Pork Roast

I don’t know what it is about Sundays, but I always think we should finish out the week with a bigger or nicer meal. Yesterday, K. asked me to do a roast for Sunday dinner. 

When everyone in the house went down for a Sunday afternoon nap, I set out to see what was on offer that would make for a nice Sunday supper.

The Butcher had 2 really nice centre cut Pork roasts. I grabbed the smaller of the two. At the green grocers, I picked up some fresh sage and thyme, arugula, and a bunch of beets.

The Prep

This is based on a recipe for crusted, herb-stuffed pork roast from a recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated, with a little inspiration from the stuffed breast of veal recipe in Gordon Hammersley’s Bistro Cooking at Home.

I cut the greens off the beats, gave them a quick rinse under the tap and then wrapped each wet beet in aluminum foil. They go into a 400F oven (although this time they went into a cold oven, set for 400F…)

The Topping

The Cook’s recipe calls for you to make your own breadcrumbs. I skipped that step and used pre-packaged crumbs from our local bakery that we keep on hand to make meatloaf. The recipe also called for one cup of crumbs, but eyeing the roast, I knew that was way too much…here’s what I used:

2/3 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup dried herbes de provence
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp fresh thyme
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir until well mixed.

The Stuffing

I used the ratios from the Cooks Illustrated recipe, but changed the herbs (is there anyone who actually likes cooking with Parsley? Who wants 1/3 cup parsley in their food…not me). I also threw in the grainy mustard as it’s a great match with the pork and I love it in Hammersley’s stuffed veal recipe. So here’s what I used…

1/3 Cup (well packed) fresh herbs (sage and thyme)
6 Tablespoons grated Parm
1 Clove garlic
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon grainy dijon mustard

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and give it a whirl until it’s smooth (about 10 seconds)

The Roast

1. With a sharp knife, cut a cross hatch pattern in the fat cap.
2. Cut a small pocket in the side of the pork roast
3. Take 1/4 cup of the stuffing mixture (the mustard, herb mix) and spoon it into the pocket in the side of your roast
4. Using butcher twine, tie your roast back up (three quick loops should do it)
5. In a hot skillet, warm some olive oil and brown the roast on all sides (3-4 min/side)
6. Remove the roast from the skillet and carefully press the remaining mustard/herb mix into the top of the roast. Press the bread crumbs into the herb-mustard mix until the roast is well coated.

Turn your oven down to 350 and roast the pork for about an hour or until it’s done to your liking. I cooked mine until it’s 140 to 145F and then I let it stand for ten minutes before carving (most food regs require 160F for pork, but I find at that temp the pork is ruined…)

The beets go under a stream of cold water from the tap. This protects your fingers as the foil comes off and helps the skins slide right off the beets. The beets are then cut in quarters and sprinkled with a touch of kosher salt.

We also had an arugula salad (I bought the roquette as I knew it would be perfect on my roast pork sandwich Monday afternoon – and it was). 

The Verdict

Both kids loved the roast and the boy ate lots of beets. Our daughter wasn’t sure about the beets and I clearly over played my hand when I told her the beets would make her pee pink (she’s such a girly-girl who loves everything and anything that’s pink, I thought this was a sure fire way to get her to eat her vegetables). That was the final straw and the beets were emphatically pushed to the side of the plate.

We enjoyed the roast with a 1999 Santa Duc Cotes-du-Rhone that was starting to show it’s age, but was a very pleasant match.

Dessert

We each had a bowl of ice cream as we sat together and watched Toy Story before bed. It was a lovely Sunday night (and I went 4 for 4 in my NCAA bracket too).

Day 41 – Supper Club

March 24th, 2007: Dinner Party

Before we had kids, there was a group of us that met every six weeks to do a blind wine tasting.

It was a pretty simple arrangement: whoever hosted set the rules and provided the wine. Sometimes we’d have a formal dinner after the tasting, sometimes it would be a pot luck, and on occasion we’d do it in the afternoon in someone’s back garden, sitting out in the sunshine snacking on cheese and canapes and sipping on whatever was on offer.

It was great fun, we all learned a great deal about wine, and we had some amzing meals.

Then folks in the wine group started having kids and instead of meeting every six weeks, we were lucky if we could meet up every six months. Soon we weren’t meeting up at all.

So, a few of the parents from the wine club decided to start a supper club.

There are five couples and seven children (soon to be eight). We somehow manage to meet every six weeks, the host sets the rules and everyone brings their kids. The idea is the kids play together, everyone gets a great meal and hopefully the grown-ups can snatch a minute or two of actual adult conversation.

This Saturday, a couple in our neighbourhood hosted. They offered to cook the main course (an organic roast with mashed potatoes) and asked each couple to bring a side.

Looking for more food I could eat one-handed, my daughter and I made mini greek salads. I peeled and cut cucumbers into 1 inch slices. We used a melon baller to scoop out a bowl in each slice. Cherry tomatoes, pitted black olives, and the scooped out bits from the cucumber went into the bowl of a food processor. After a spin or three, the puree went into a bowl with some feta, oregano and a touch of salt. A teaspoon of the mix was carefully tucked into the bowl in each slice of cucumber.  They were pretty decent and easy enough to make…my daughter couldn’t figure out the melon baller, but was happy scooping up the salad and tucking it into the cucumber slices…

Inspired by this great post at the Wednesday chef, my wife decided to make Regan Daley’s Sweet Potato cake (although she didn’t soak the raisins in rum, instead she plumped them up in a mixture of water and vanilla).

All of the food was good (one of the dad’s brought a selection of Ontario micro brews as his contribution) and K’s cake was amazing. Our daughter was the only person at the party that didn’t have seconds. (I’m hoping K. makes Daley’s parsnip cake soon….)

Next Supper Club is May 26th. Hopefully it will be nice and warm by then and we can eat out in the sun…

Day 40 – Pizza

March 23, 2007: Pizza

Both our kids are enamoured with basketball. I think the boy likes it because of all the scoring. At every basket, and it doesn’t matter which team scores, he likes to throw his arms over his head and shout “Yay!”

Not sure what my daughter sees in it, but it’s pretty much the only grown-up TV she’ll watch (other than a strange fascination with the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Channel. Whether it’s a commercial or the actual show, our daughter will excitedly scream “INA!” at any glimpse of Ms. Garten. One night she refused to come to the dinner table until she saw how Ina’s chocolate brownies turned out…they came out ok, but I think she put nuts in her brownies, which I just don’t get.)

I was offered Raptor tickets for Friday night’s game. They were first row of the upper bowl. Seeing as we have a budding basketball fan on our hands,  K. and I thought it would be fun if I took our daughter down to the ACC to see her first game.

The plan was to make home made pizza together and have it ready to eat as soon as K. got home, so that I could jump on the subway and get down to the game.

The Prep

I picked up a bag of whole wheat pizza dough from the local Italian grocer. I used to make my own dough from scratch, but this is such a cheaper, easier and cleaner option.

I floured the counter, cut the dough into two balls and then realized – there’s no way I can roll out pizza dough one-handed. What seemed like a great plan on Friday morning was a little lacking in the execution.

I pulled a chair into the kitchen and my daughter eagerly climbed up, grabbed the rolling pin and gave the dough a go.  Surprisngly, she did ok. I would turn and flour the dough and she’d do her best to roll it out.

The final dough was a little mangled and a little uneven, but it was far better than I would have done one-handed.

The dough went on to a cookie sheet that had been dusted with cornmeal, and each pie was topped with some tomato sauce, olives, sun dried tomatoes, mozzarella, Parmesan, and some cured chorizo sausages.

They baked for 12 minutes at 500F and then got a rest on a cutting board so none of us would burn our mouths (I always torch the roof of my mouth on pizza as I have no patience when it comes time to eat).

The Game

My daughter was so excited to be at the game. She loved the Raptor (she kept desperately waving to him no matter how far away we were), the Dance Pack withtheir glow-in-the-dark pom-poms (yikes) and the fire works that start off the pre-game show. She also fell asleep at the 7 minute mark of the first quarter. We stayed til the end of the third, when she finally woke up and suggested we go home.

On the subway ride home she had a huge smile on her face and she kept asking when we could go to another game. Maybe a matinee would be better pick for the next one…

Day 39 – Leftovers

Thursday, March 22, 2007: Leftovers

I had a business dinner (gotta keep pitching folks for new work…) so K. and the kids had left overs from the fajitas. K. also made black beans and rice for the little ones.

Meanwhile across town…I did my best to eat one-handed and not look like a one-armed monkey in front of my potential client.

Day 38 – Split Chicken

Wednesday, March 21, 2007: Split BBQ Chicken

I picked up this great technique from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. It’s a quick and easy way to grill a whole chicken (well, almost whole) without a rotisserie.

It also lends itself to many flavour variations – standard bbq, lemon and fresh herbs, spicy finished with a piri-piri sauce or just plain old s&p – whatever you like.

The Prep

Put your whole chicken down on a cutting board and grab a pair of poultry shears. If you don’t have poultry shears, I imagine you could use a pair of heavier scissors, although I’m not sure they should ever go back to being used for crafts after slicing through the cavity of a raw chicken.

Make sure the bird is breast side down and the legs are facing towards you. You want to cut the backbone out of the bird, so start cutting just to the side of the bird’s spine (the back bone is just a little wider than your thumb, so cut maybe half an inch or a centimeter off-centre). Once you’ve gone up one side of the bird, repeat on the other side and voila, you should have something that looks like it came from the set of Aliens. (You can save all of your chicken backs in a ziploc bag and use them to make stock when you’ve collected a few…)

Turn the bird back over so that it’s breast side up, make sure the legs are not folded under the bird, place your palm over the breast and give the bird a good firm push to help flatten it.

And that’s it…

Prep Part II

Now you can flavour the bird with whatever you like. We did a dry rub of:

2 tbsp chili
2 tbsp cumin
1tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt

I let my daughter sprinkle the dry rub on (with the threat of no Treehouse for days if she touched the raw bird) and then I rubbed it into the chicken to make sure everything was well coated.

Pre-heat your gas grill and get it up to 400 to 500F, you don’t want it screaming hot but the neighbourhood of 45oF will do.

Let the bird sit in the dry rub until the grill is up to temp. Before you put the bird on the grill, turn down the burner on one side to medium/medium low. This is the side that the chicken will cook on. You don’t want massive heat underneath the bird as it will char and burn, but you do want to keep the temp of the grill at or over 400F.

The bird goes skin side up for 15 minutes, then skin side down for 15 minutes, and a final skin side up for the last 15 (I brusheda commercial bbq sauce on the skin side when the bird got it’s final turn).

As always, cooking time will vary but 45 to 55 minutes should do for most birds – 165F in the breast and 180F in the thigh seems to be the recommended minimum…this is where a good meat thermometer is indispensable.

Veg was microwaved broccoli (I’m getting sick of broccoli) and sweet potatoes baked on the gas grill…

The Verdict

We, once again, ate the whole bird. The boy gets the thighs while my daughter loves the drumsticks (although she wasn’t crazy about the skin…). At the rate our skinny little kids are eating, I’m fearful of what are grocery bill will look like in a few years. We’ll be cooking two chickens at a time… 

Day 37 – Beef Fajitas

March 20, 2007: Beef Fajitas

K. told the butcher she wanted to make beef fajitas. He sold her a piece of meat about the size and shape of a nerf football.  As she left the store, he reminded her to cut it across the grain.

Looking at it on the butcher paper, I’m rather speechless. It’s beef, and has a very pronounced grain to it, but that’s about all I can tell about this slab of meat.

I’m glad we haven’t watched Delicatessen in a long long time.

To help tenderize it, the mystery cut gets about an hour in a mix of lime juice, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and a touch of salt.

While it’s marinating, I throw some salsa in a bowl, get out some ripe avacodos, a lime, salt, and hot sauce for the guacamole, and line up some onions and red peppers so that K. can do some quick and final prep when she gets home.

The gas grill gets fired up and the meat goes on for about 20 minutes – that’s about 5 minutes a side x 4. This I can do one-handed.

The julienned peppers and onions go in a big cast iron fry pan over medium heat to cook down and carmelize.

I do my best to bite my tongue while K. makes the guacamole. She creams the avacodo first, going at it with a fork until it looks like pablum. Then she adds all the other ingredients and gives it another big mix. When she’s done, it’s lost it’s nice green colour and has the consistency of mashed potatoes. I think she may have caught me making faces. It’s probably a good thing that we don’t cook together often. 

The Verdict

Our daughter makes a solid effort to make her own fajita, but then slowly takes it apart to eat the contents. Not sure why she goes through the construction phase before getting to the good stuff…we just fed the boy the component parts.