I Love You More Than Food

Category: Winter

A fine weeknight dinner for two – endive salad & filet mignon with marsala mushroom sauce

Sometimes you just feel like a good meal, and if you can cook, you know you can either make a much nicer one for less money at home, or something better than what you could eat out. So, when my gentleman asked me what I’d like to do that evening, I said, “cook.”

For the Steak
2 filet mignons of a size appropriate to you
1/2 lb crimini or other meaty mushrooms, diced
1/2 leek, sliced finely and sauteed in butter, set aside
dry sherry
leftover bechamel sauce or some cream if you’re desperate (or make a roux and add some milk and salt)
butter

Heat the oven to 375. Using a metal skillet (not non stick) big enough for both steaks, heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan and add 1-2 T butter, melting at high heat. Salt & pepper the raw steaks. Add to the pan, cooking on one side until browned (about 2 minutes). Flip the steaks, cook 2 more minutes and then without moving the steaks, put the whole pan in the oven. For medium/medium rare, it should take about as long as it takes to make the sauce (5-8 minutes).

In a sautee pan of your choosing, heat 1-2 T butter until melted. Add the chopped mushrooms, cooking at medium heat until slightly shriveled and browned. Raise heat slightly and add 1/2 C sherry, cooking until mostly reduced. Add the bechamel sauce, warming and combining. Add salt & pepper to taste, keep warm.

I served this with wilted spinach (zest of 1 small lemon, juice of same lemon, into a big, hot pan), and couscous (cooked in vegetable stock).

For the salad
2 endives, cleaned and trimmed into seperate leaves
1/3 C candied walnuts (or plain ones, but why bother with going halfway?)
1 bosc pear (or apple, etc), sliced thinly
Blue cheese
Juice of 1 lemon
1-2 tsp walnut oil

Whisk lemon juice and blue cheese together. Use a bit of heat if necessary, the dressing should be fairly thick. Add oil and salt & pepper. Taste and adjust. Dress the endive leaves and assemble on plates, alternating with pear slices. Add more blue cheese crumbles on top and place the walnuts into the salad.

January 4, 2011
White Lasagna with Kale, Sausage, & Sweet Potatoes

For the lasagna assembly:
1 pack no-boil lasagna sheets (GASP, a shortcut!)
2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
2 lbs kale (mixed is OK), blanched, drained, and chopped finely
1 lb sweet italian sausage, no casing, pan fried and set aside
2 large leeks sliced thinly and cooked at medium low heat in fat from sausage

Bechamel sauce for white lasagna

8T butter
1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove fresh garlic
3 3/4 C milk
1 C chicken or vegetable stock
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 C marsala
1 C mixed grated cheese such as parmesan, pecorino, fontina, gruyere
salt & pepper

Melt the butter. Once it reduces spitting/bubbling, add flour and whisk, cooking for 3 minutes at medium heat. Slowly add the milk and the stock, raising heat to high. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until sauce coats the back of a spoon. Set aside to cool until warm to touch.

Once warm to touch, add the beaten eggs, 1/2 C marsala, 1/2 C of cheese and salt & pepper to taste.

Assemble the lasagna

Preheat oven to 375. Pour a thin layer of bechamel sauce on the bottom of your lasagna pan (preferably 8×10 or something similar/bigger), add two layers of lasagne sheets. Spread the sausage evenly, add salt & pepper, and cover with more sauce.

Add another 2 layers of lasagna sheets, next adding the kale. Top with salt & pepper, sauce, and more lasagna sheets.

Add a thin layer of leeks, and then as if making a gratin spread the sweet potato slices in a single overlapping layer.

Add more salt & pepper, sauce, and the final layer of lasagna sheets. Top with sauce and remaining cheese.Â Bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour.

January 4, 2011
Birthday Dinner: Crab Bisque & Filet Mignon w/ Bernaise + Sweet Potato/Chard Gratin

I hosted 8 (including myself) for dinner on Friday to celebrate my gentleman’s birthday; it was lively all night, everybody got full and we washed about 25 wine glasses. We drank champagne, prosecco, sparkling wine from california; we drank mouvedre from Chateau Margene, cuvee from Beckmen, a roussane blend from Tablas Creek–we had delicious wine, and the food came out great.

Recipes to follow in the next day or two. I wish I’d taken a photo of the refuse after making the crab stock, it was a pretty mess in my backyard compost container.

December 13, 2010
Gorgonzola and Pear Gnocchi (Gnocchi alla Gorgonzola e Pera)

Gnocchi alla gorgonzola e pera is actually a pretty common dish in the northern half of Italy; the kind of thing any restaurant that might be serving tourists would throw on (without regard to seasonality, local cuisine, etc), and while that might turn you off, it’s actually quite good. That said, I ate it several places in Florence, and am fairly certain I spotted it on other menus around the way.

I couldn’t find much on the history of this dish, so I think it’s more of a modern classic–prior to not-too-many-years-ago, most classic products of regions didn’t get transported or heavily used much in other regions. There was a time when gorgonzola is what you ate when you were in piedmonte; risotto is what you ate in Milan and in the far north, you ate potatoes in Alto Adige and maybe in Emilia-Romagna. Less so now, with the best of the best being desired by Italians everywhere loving food.

Gnocchi is, however, typical of Alto Adige (where potatoes are most common), and gorgonzola–if it is officially DOP gorgonzola–is from Piedmonte. For this dish, you’ll want to use the opposite of what you’d likely want to snack on in a cheese plate. You’ll use Gorgonzola Dolce, which is the young, “sweet” gorgonzola. As the cheese ages it becomes more “piquante” or spicy, hot. It’ll tickle your throat if it’s the wrong type for this job. If you don’t have a quality cheese chop that carries both and can point them out, look for gorgonzola (imported, not pre-crumbled) that has a more soft, creamy texture with less blue bits–that’s usually it.

For 3-4
3 oz gorgonzola dolce cheeese
1 ripe pear, diced
1 T butter
2 T flour
1 cup light vegetable stock
1/2 cup milk
fresh gnocchi*
salt, fresh ground pepper

Boil your water and have it ready. If you are using fresh gnocchi (which you could be!), they require VERY little cooking time, take what you think they take and cut it by half. Seconds! Otherwise, they’ll fall apart, and you’ll regret it.

Dice your pear, have your ingredients ready. You may or may not need slightly more or less veg stock & milk. Create a roux by heating the butter in a small sauce pan, until clear and stopped bubbling, medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until color darkens slightly, about 2 minutes. Continue whisking and slowly add the vegetable stock, then the milk, until you get a mac-n-cheese type consistency, or slightly thinner. Add the gorgonzola and continue whisking until smooth.

Add the gnocchi to the water and cook; remove the gnocchi as soon as they float to the top of the pan using a slatted spoon or gnocchi paddle. Add the pear to the sauce and let it warm up, adding the gnocchi to the sauce and stirring gently to coat, with a large wooden spoon (don’t use metal, you’ll chop up the dumplings).

Add some salt and black pepper to taste, serve!

Fresh gnocchi makes a huge difference over the vaccu-packed kind you’ll find on the pasta isle. It’s much less dense and has the texture of a down pillow, collapsing in your mouth. I buy mine in bulk from Rainbow market or from Faletti Foods; both carry gnocchi by the bay area’s “Pasta Shop,” which lots of local stores retail products from.

November 20, 2010
Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Chili

Delicious chili made from Rancho Gordo heirloom organic beans, adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

olive oil
2 large yellow or sweet onions, diced
1 T minced garlic
2 large carrots, cubed
1 cup dry pinquito beans
1 cup dry yellow-eye steuben heirloom beans (also rancho gordo but they aren’t selling them online! if you’re in SF try Rainbow’s bulk section)
3 lbs ground beef, turkey, chicken, or pork (I used mostly beef/pork, but a little ground chicken too)
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
4 T chili powder
1 T cumin (ground)
2 T paprika
1 T dry oregano
1 T chili flakes
16 oz tomatoes chopped or stewed/pureed (I use POMI)
2 C beef broth or veal stock
1/4 C cider vinegar

Garnish:
Cheddar cheese, grated
Red onion, diced

Serve with macaroniÂ OR bread

Beans: Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water. Do not soak more than 9 hours or they will probably burst. They may be mixed for soaking. Try to pre-cook ahead, but if not, start cooking the drained, rinsed, soaked beans in fresh water in a seperate pan as you begin making the chili. Cover and be sure they are cooking at at least a simmer, but not a boil. You want them tender before you add them to the chili at the end. They like to be cooked about an inch of water over the beans; just drain off the extra water if they’re cooked through.

Chili: In a soup pot or dutch oven, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil or butter. When hot, add diced onions. Cook until almost translucent, at medium heat. Add the garlic & carrots, cooking another 2-3 minutes. Add the meat, and let it cook through.

While meat is cooking, dice your peppers and gather your other ingredients.

When meat is cooked, add all of the spices. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, beef stock, and vinegar. You may wish to reserve additional beef stock in case you prefer looser chili. Prepare your garnishes. Add the drained, cooked beans to the chili and you may serve in 10 minutes (simmering) or any amount of time after. The longer it sits, the better; I like to put the lid back on the pan and let it cool down very slowly, so that the flavors meld.

Serve with cheddar and red onion on top.

November 3, 2010
French Onion Soup

6 large onions of mixed variety (mostly sweet yellow, but mix in some shallots, white onions, vidalia, etc)
2 qts beef stock or veal stock
2 beef bouillon cubes
2 tsp dried thyme or lots of fresh thyme
1 T butter
2 large beef short ribs (optional)
1/4 C white wine (optional)
lots of salt
nice bread
gruyere cheese

Slice your onions thinly;Â if you have a mandolin use it to save time. Try to keep some longer strands along with some smaller ones.

Begin by melting the butter in a large soup pot or dutch oven at medium high heat, then (if using them) add the salted short ribs, browning on each side. When finished browning, remove ribs and set aside, add 1/4 C white wine to deglaze, (if you are not using ribs, continue here) then add the onions with 1-2 T kosher salt (a lot less if you are using iodized for some inexcusable reason) & the thyme, then reduce heat to medium low. Cook the onions at least 1 hour until limp and golden, and sweet to taste.

Add the ribs, stock, and bouillon cubes to the pot. Cover and cook at medium low or low for 1-2 hours. Remove ribs and seperate the meat, adding back to the pot in small pieces. Chop if necessary, removing large pieces of fat or other matter. Test for seasoning and add salt if needed.

If you do not have ramekins or other fire-safe serving ware, you’ll want to prepare the bread separately. Heat the oven to 400, slice the bread and top with gruyere. Cook about 10 minutes, until bubbly and golden. Place on top of the soup when serving.

If you do have ramekins, add the soup to them, a piece of bread to fit the top, and top generously with grated gruyere cheese, placing under the flame of your broiler until bubbly and golden.

October 24, 2010
Tonno Carpaccio con Yuzu (Tuna Carpaccio with Yuzu)

Last night I took my time and made myself an appertifo of sorts: Yellow Fin Tuna Carpaccio with Yuzu and Tarragon sauce. I let the sauce sit on the tuna for about 20 minutes before I ate it so it would all come to roomÂ temperatureÂ and the tuna would cook a little like ceviche.

November 30, 2006