Scotch Broth

Saturday 19 December

Rootling through the freezer produced a bag of lamb bones from some previous leg o'.  Soothing soups are still good for Holt, so we embarked upon preparing a Saturday-long-simmered Scotch broth.

The procedure was much as usual, but we took Gordon Ramsay's advice and sizzled a little tomato paste in the lamb-fat at the bottom of the pan after browning the bones and vegetables but before adding the water.

Another oddity: we added a couple of big parsnips to the browning vegetables.  They made the resultant broth a little too sweet, but it still was a succulent stewy soup.

Pasta Frittata

Friday 18 December

One of the great culinary discoveries is that you can use otherwise useless leftover pasta (in this case, Tuesday's campanelle) to make an excellent frittata. 

Holt is still eating lightly, so only four eggs, and no cheese beyond the usual pecorino romano.

Stir-Fried Pork with Bok Choy

Thursday 17 December

We had a setup of frozen pork shreds, from the last giant tenderloin we froze, to stir-fry with some Farmers' Market bok choy and oyster sauce, much as here.

Broiled Salmon and Beet Frisée Salad

Wednesday 16 December

Kroger's had some fresh Atlantic salmon fillet on sale, so we got a nice one-pound slab, topped it with David Warda's apricot habanero sauce, and broiled it in the combi-oven until it crisped at the edges (we had folded the thin part under, to make it a more even size). 

On the side, we took the baby red beets we'd roasted (the greens were sautéed on Saturday), combined them with frisée from the (mid-December!) garden, and tossed them with salt, olive oil, and white balsamic.

Campanelle with Mushrooms, Zucchini, and Ham

Tuesday 15 December

The Schad's ham for Holt's sandwiches last week needed to be rescued and used in something else.  A rummage in the crispers told us that there were still mushrooms and zucchini, plus some cream.  So why not slice and sauté the mushrooms, then the zucchini, add the slivered ham, douse with cream, thicken with boiling and with grated pecorino romano, and serve over campanelle?

Why not indeed?

Sole Florentine

Monday 14 December

Saturday's packet of frozen Trader Joe's sole fillets was too big to eat all in one night, so we needed another sole recipe, preferably using the mushrooms and baby spinach Barbara got at Findlay Market on Saturday.  The recipe below uses both, and is one of the few Florentines to use fresh, not frozen spinach, so we went with it.

Sole Florentine

Butter

1 lb. fillets of sole

2/3 lb. fresh baby spinach, destemmed if necessary

1 small onion, sliced thinly into rounds

1/4 lb. mushrooms, sliced thin

1/2 lemon

salt and pepper

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup grated pecorino romano cheese

ca. 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Butter a baking dish large enough to hold the ingredients.  Layer the dish from the bottom with: onions, then mushrooms, then spinach, finally sole (pale side up).  Squeeze the half lemon over the sole, with what's left over the spinach; salt and pepper to taste.

Mix mayonnaise, cheese, and Worcestershire sauce; spread evenly over each fillet, to cover.

Bake at 350º for ca. 25 minutes, until golden brown.

A nice, easy dish, and would probably do for other types of fish as well.

Eighth Night Latkes

Sunday 13 December

For the last day of Chanukah, we had much to celebrate, so we made a halved recipe of Noonie's Latkes. 

Since Holt shouldn't have peels in his low-residue diet, we peeled the potatoes for a change, and found that that might be one of the secrets of tender latkes; the other might be chopping the potato rather small in the food processor, rather than grating.

Tender and delicious, with yogurt and lox.  Any day we're sharing dinner at home is a smoked fish occasion.