Grilled Steak with Goat-Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Friday 17 May

This was one of the inch-and-a-half-thick steaks Barbara winkled out of that nice butcher at Kroger's back in winter, and froze for this rainy day.  

It went on the grill, with nothing but salt and pepper, and was frequently flipped until it reached 120º, when it came off to rest for an interminable five minutes.

For the mash, we boiled some chopped yukon golds (with skin), along with a clove of garlic.  And here's a trick: when the potatoes are done, drain the hot water into the (metal) bowl you'll be mashing them in, and shake the potatoes in the hot pan to dry them.  Then empty and dry the bowl, pour the dry potatoes in, and mash away as usual.  This keeps the resultant mash hot, and helps melt and mix delicious things like goat cheese, salt, and cream into it.

Napas with Batter-Fried Zucchini

Thursday 16 May

While rootling around in the freezer, we found a packet of Napa sausages we'd bought from Kroger Brothers some time ago.  These used to be our favorite, but then they started getting overly fatty and salty, so we switched to Linguiça.  We forget why we stored these up, but once defrosted and cooked, they turned out to be back to the high quality we knew and loved.  Only one thing - when you fry up defrosted sausages, do prick the skins, as it seems the liquid migrates to one place as it freezes, and makes the sausage skin burst. 

We had a couple of zucchini, and wanted to do something with them that was not the usual.  So by consulting both New Joy and Marcella Hazan (who do pretty much the same thing), we decided to batter-dip and shallow-fry them. 

The batter was 1/2 cup flour, 6/8 cup club soda (a driblet more if it seems too thick), 1/4 tsp. salt, and 2 Tbsp. fresh minced parsley, oregano, thyme, and whatever else looked good in the garden.  The zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds, slid into this, then out, then into hot oil in the pan.  Once it was brown, we put it on paper towels to drain, and salted it.  It was just what we wanted - hot, hearty, and a little different.

Zucchini would also be good sliced longways, dipped in egg and then seasoned breadcrumbs, and fried as if for eggplant parmesan.  But maybe next time.

Shrimp Risotto with Spring Herbs

Wednesday 15 May

We did almost exactly this, but without peas, and with only a half pound of shrimp, because we'd used the other half for something else.

To get the herbaceous flavors of spring, we started the risotto with sautéed chopped scallion whites.  We used some frozen shrimp stock and saffron vegetable stock as well as making the shrimp stock with the shells.  And when the rice was almost tender, we threw in handfuls of chopped tarragon and parsley from the garden, plus the scallion greens.

The shrimp went in at the end to pink up, along with some butter, and some fresh herbs went on top.  No grated cheese, please - this is Italian; don't you know you never put cheese on fish?  (Except for those rare occasions when you do.)

Chicken with Chermoula and Garden Salad

Tuesday 14 May

Once we had reheated the drumsticks, thighs, and wings of Sunday's chicken in the "champagne" sauce we had left it sitting in, it was almost too savory to drench in the leftover chermoula.  So we ate the outer bits with sauce, and the inner bits with chermoula.

On the side was a vivid salad made up of a bag of sprouts from a Findlay farmer, Roma tomatoes from Madison's, a sliced English cucumber, and little leaves of red romaine, lollo, and summercrisp lettuces from our own garden - the first of the season.

Hail, Spring!

Fettucine with Sausage Alfredo

Monday 13 May

What to do with the rest of the Charles Bare sausage, left over from yesterday?  Anita Bernstein's Sausage Alfredo is our traditional answer.

This also gave us the opportunity to use up a little fresh lemon-zest pasta from Saturday, which we re-rolled out and cut with the fettucine-izer, and plunged into the boiling pot of 7 oz. of packaged Barilla fettucine for the last 3 of its 13 minutes' boil.

It gave a lemony zip to the rich, creamy pasta.

Poulet à la Champagnoise

Sunday 12 May

The basic recipe is here. 

  

The chicken was a little fryer from Charles Bare, cut up and all cooked together, so that the legs and wings could be eaten another night.  

Charles Bare also supplied the bulk sausage, but it had been stored in our freezer, so we nuked it on defrost for about 10 minutes until we could scrape about a half pound off the outside.

Though we were drinking a frothy verdejo, no sparkling wine actually went into the pan; we used our house white, three-buck Chuck, instead.