another small plates dinner for one
summa squash in beef broth w/ garlic + heirloom tomato
cucumber dressed with persimmon vinegar w/ ricotta and olive oil (ngl came out looking dumber than intended lmao)
cold beef shank slices from making broth w/ blistered shishito and soy vinegar (w/ maesil n gochugaru)
I am proud to share, finally, some evidence of my girlfriend’s father’s wonderful cooking, in a series I’ll tentatively title “Dinners at Chez Van Nuys”!
Chef C. is not only a very wonderful excellent great guy, whose talents include helping me build some speaker stands ( if you own a pair of Yamaha NS1000Ms, DM me to get the plans he made!) and being an excellent human being, he is also an impressive baker and pizzaiolo, as well as a great general cook!
In retrospect, these pictures were taken a bit in haste, but they do communicate what Chef C. can do:
I’m always the tournant and am happy to clean up after dinner at the Chez. Very lucky!
Thanks for the tip! No pun…
Whats the sale price?
Spaghetti with Bean Sauce and Coffee from a recipe in essen & trinken - great recipe which really shows why we like essen & trinken so much. The ingredients might not sound like they would work together but in the end everything flows together - Saltiness from the pancetta, earthy from lima beans, coffee for some bitterness, some spiciness from black pepper, pears for some sweetness and pecorino to bring it all together with its umami.
You saute some pancetta, onion, garlic and lima beans, cook it a few minutes with vegetable broth and puree it. In parallel, you caramelized a little bit of sugar, dissolve it in pear juice and cook diced pears and some butter until you can mash it into pear sauce. You grind coffee beans and black pepper corns to a medium grind. Once you have cooked the spaghetti you use some pasta water, pecorino and the coffee-pepper grind to build an emulsion, add the spaghetti, bean puree and some pear sauce. Serve topped with a little bit more pear sauce and additional pecorino
lol I see what you did there 5.99 a lb
hash browns look fantastic. what’s your method?
I boiled the potato whole the night before at a low simmer so it was fully cooked but the skin wasn’t split. The potato firms up over night in the fridge then in the morning I just peel and grate on the cheese grater, season it up I packed it in a ring mold that I normally use for making English muffins. Pan fry and eat, super easy. Plus I have an extra cooked russet in the fridge for another meal
Pear??? Fascinating…
Lentil-Feta Frikadellen with Creamed Mushrooms - frikadellen are made with cooked and drained red lentils, onions, garlic, thyme, feta, egg and breadcrumbs and afterwards pan seared. Button mushrooms are sautéed and cooked with onions, white wine and heavy cream. Finished with some parsley
So easy but takes a little bit longer than a typical Chinese stir fry. Got to cook the eggplant first. Than the tofu. Than aromatics and bell peppers. Than combine everything.
Sauce. Easy peasy. Something umami. Something sweet. A little spice. A little vinegar. Balance it the way you like.
This will sit a bit for work lunch. Probably should taste better with the eggplant and tofu getting more of the sauce and flavors in
Daily Smoothie.
Raw beet, raw garlic, banana, carrot, blueberries, beet and carrot greens, apple, lemon, celery, fresh turmeric, fresh ginger, black peppercorns, Ceylon cinnamon, flax seeds, chia seeds, nutritional yeast, whey protein, creatine, bacopa, lions mane, rhodiola.
Broccoli Soup with Shrimps and Rice - broccoli gets cooked with ginger, garlic, scallions, jalapeño and soy sauce in vegetable broth. Quickly seared shrimps get added in the last minute. Served with rice
best complete meal I’ve made myself to date
lightly steamed summer squash and cucumber (for pliancy n uniform color) w/ a tumble of mayo (saw st.john do this w/ raw veggies and aioli. i did korean hot mustard, grapeseed oil, dash of perilla oil, rice vinegar, garlic), mint (i believe?), fried mint flowers (inspired by jeong kwan / baroo w/ bangha + was at the farmers market). perilla, mustard, garlic combo was already a familiar profile n i trusted the above folk. was really awesome. best “original” thing i’ve made yet.
cold blistered shishito nimono (used up some beef broth instead of dashi), w/ a hunk of heirloom tomato that was dying and getting all soft in my fridge. pretty good.
stone & thistle farms pork rib chop on fried hen of the woods w/ sauce espagnole run through with lazily chopped parsley. mmm. pretty damn good.
Wait, was this a single meal???
yessir
Ratatouille Shakshuka - made with yellow bell peppers, celery, onions, garlic, eggplant, fresno chili, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, tomato paste, passata, aceto balsamico, thyme and rosemary. Finished with an egg and parmesan
today i do ugly food
pork cutlet (chop) between two slices of she wolf sourdough polenta pullman with beef gravy and corn. bread crumbs made from the pullman.
sourdough brought it over the top. delicious.
