Wednesday 27 February
Holt thought about pizza and beer, but decided instead on a burger, topped with 1/4 lb. of bacon. That's right, you heard me! I'm a wild man.
Once again, Barbara was out on the town in Nashville. The Midtown Cafe was crowded and hectic, and service was obtrusive rather than easy and practised, as at Tayst. Her lemon artichoke soup - a rich bisque with tart overtones - was good, but other people complained that their salads were too vinegary, and the mushroom tart on puff pastry that the table shared was nothing special.
Her main course of dayboat scallops had only four scallops, but they tasted excellent, served with a creamy lobster sauce over lobster and brie mac n' cheese, with a small sheaf of asparagus on top.
She ended the meal with Sambuca (with three coffee beans, but not on fire) for dessert.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Napas, Cinti; Tayst, Nashville
Tayst, Nashville
Tuesday 26 February
Barbara packed her banjo and hit the road to Nashville to become a yodeling star, but was asked to lecture on the semiotics of urban spaces in Ephesus instead. So, Holt had to batch it, with a simple meal of napa sausages, peppers, onions, and too much wine.
In the meantime, Barbara was being taken out to dinner at Tayst restaurant, in Nashville. Despite the facetious name, this is a place where both food and service are treated seriously. The party was welcomed, catered to, advised, and cosseted throughout the evening. Barbara enjoyed the Pork Belly appetizer, a thick, succulent slice served with nut-encrusted goat cheese and caramelized pineapple; and then the Pumpkin Pie Duck, several tender rare slices of breast served with greens and pumpkin (or was it butternut squash?) fries, and topped with foam.
In honor of her return from New Zealand, we had a Tohu Marlborough Pinot Noir; and a glass of Essencia (in honor of nothing in particular) for dessert.
Tuesday 26 February
Barbara packed her banjo and hit the road to Nashville to become a yodeling star, but was asked to lecture on the semiotics of urban spaces in Ephesus instead. So, Holt had to batch it, with a simple meal of napa sausages, peppers, onions, and too much wine.
In the meantime, Barbara was being taken out to dinner at Tayst restaurant, in Nashville. Despite the facetious name, this is a place where both food and service are treated seriously. The party was welcomed, catered to, advised, and cosseted throughout the evening. Barbara enjoyed the Pork Belly appetizer, a thick, succulent slice served with nut-encrusted goat cheese and caramelized pineapple; and then the Pumpkin Pie Duck, several tender rare slices of breast served with greens and pumpkin (or was it butternut squash?) fries, and topped with foam.
In honor of her return from New Zealand, we had a Tohu Marlborough Pinot Noir; and a glass of Essencia (in honor of nothing in particular) for dessert.
Spaghetti with Asparagus
Monday 25 February
I was stunned to discover that we've never done this dish since starting the blog, since it's simplicity itself. It's taken from Beard on Pasta, an old standby.
Cut 1/2 lb. • asparagus into 1" pieces on the bias.
Boil in the pasta pot till just tender but still a tad crisp.
Fish asparagus out of the pasta pot and put pasta in the pasta pot (1/2 a package of spaghetti or spaghettini, for us)
In a frying pan add
• 2 TBSPs butter
and fry
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
when they start to color, dump in
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1TBSP Worcestershire sauce (i.e. about half the amount of Wooster to lemon
• lots of fresh pepper.
• Add the asparagus, then
• add the pasta when done.
The combo of the lemon and Wooster gives the asparagooses a perfect zippiness and just enough salty goodness.
As a variation, tonight we oven-roasted the asparagus, rather than boiled 'em, and we're not sure we don’t prefer the darker notes with the Wooster sauce.
I was stunned to discover that we've never done this dish since starting the blog, since it's simplicity itself. It's taken from Beard on Pasta, an old standby.
Cut 1/2 lb. • asparagus into 1" pieces on the bias.
Boil in the pasta pot till just tender but still a tad crisp.
Fish asparagus out of the pasta pot and put pasta in the pasta pot (1/2 a package of spaghetti or spaghettini, for us)
In a frying pan add
• 2 TBSPs butter
and fry
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
when they start to color, dump in
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1TBSP Worcestershire sauce (i.e. about half the amount of Wooster to lemon
• lots of fresh pepper.
• Add the asparagus, then
• add the pasta when done.
The combo of the lemon and Wooster gives the asparagooses a perfect zippiness and just enough salty goodness.
As a variation, tonight we oven-roasted the asparagus, rather than boiled 'em, and we're not sure we don’t prefer the darker notes with the Wooster sauce.
Pride of Baltimore Crab Cakes with Fennel and Blood Orange Salad
Sunday 24 FebruaryWe made a new type of crab cake as a departure from our usual, following this recipe - though we were not impressed, we have to admit.
The fault may have been in using butter crackers (sort of like Ritz), the only ones we had around, instead of plain Saltine-style soda crackers. But we tend to put the blame on the egg, which made the crabcakes too heavy and soggy. Barbara even felt the need to run up some emergency tartar sauce. So, we're going back to the traditions of our ancestors (all right, half of our ancestors considered crab an abomination, and the other half couldn't afford it).
On the side was a lovely salad of fennel run through the benriner. We put them in water in the fridge to crisp up, which really seemed to perk them up even more, then topped with thin slices of blood oranges, and dressed with just a little oil and rice wine vinegar.
Crab Ravioli
Saturday 23 February
Saturday is our usual day for longer preps, so we made basic pasta dough early in afternoon. The filling was a take on a crab filling for fish, etc. from the old Joy, and mighty tasty too. So
• 1/3 lb. crab meat
• 1/2 small onion, finely minced
• 1/2 red pepper, ditto
• 1/2 stalk of celery
sauté them in
• a lot of butter (1/3 stick)
stir in
• enough bread crumbs to bind
then add
• a zotz of cream, cuz it wasn't quite moist enough.
The sauce over them was just
• a knob of good butter (to the size of a walnut),
•cream
reduced in the saucier, then thickened with
• lots of grated romano.
This was so good it had Barbara bouncing out of her chair.
Saturday is our usual day for longer preps, so we made basic pasta dough early in afternoon. The filling was a take on a crab filling for fish, etc. from the old Joy, and mighty tasty too. So
• 1/3 lb. crab meat
• 1/2 small onion, finely minced
• 1/2 red pepper, ditto
• 1/2 stalk of celery
sauté them in
• a lot of butter (1/3 stick)
stir in
• enough bread crumbs to bind
then add
• a zotz of cream, cuz it wasn't quite moist enough.
The sauce over them was just
• a knob of good butter (to the size of a walnut),
•cream
reduced in the saucier, then thickened with
• lots of grated romano.
This was so good it had Barbara bouncing out of her chair.
Steak with Fingerling Potatoes
Friday 22 February
A simple grilled steak is sometimes (well, often, if you read this blog) just the thing. With a heaping mound of gorgonzola butter . . . enough to swirl some boiled fingerlings in as well.
A simple grilled steak is sometimes (well, often, if you read this blog) just the thing. With a heaping mound of gorgonzola butter . . . enough to swirl some boiled fingerlings in as well.
Tilapia with Zhough and Ginger-braised Carrots
Thursday 21 February
We still had some of the lovely zhough paste we had frozen and put aside. It made a fine filling for what were in essence tilapia sandwiches. The Trader Joe's fish always seems to comes in packages of 3, so we spread each fillet with a heaping TBSP of bright green zough, folded it over lengthwise to make a little package, then dipped them in bread crumbs to seal the edges. Fried up in oil they were a treat, and we split one of the fish sammiches so there were no ugly fights.
A nice vedge was the carrots with stem ginger - this time just parboiled, not puréed as usual.
We still had some of the lovely zhough paste we had frozen and put aside. It made a fine filling for what were in essence tilapia sandwiches. The Trader Joe's fish always seems to comes in packages of 3, so we spread each fillet with a heaping TBSP of bright green zough, folded it over lengthwise to make a little package, then dipped them in bread crumbs to seal the edges. Fried up in oil they were a treat, and we split one of the fish sammiches so there were no ugly fights.
A nice vedge was the carrots with stem ginger - this time just parboiled, not puréed as usual.
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