Day 354 - Grilled Side of Salmon and Sushi Rice

Ted and Noah are back tonight, for salmon again. It was poached the last time they were here. Now it's getting grilled, although I'm not sure that's an entirely accurate description....

Grilled Side of Salmon (p. 175)

The reason I'm speculating on the accuracy of the term "grilled" here is that while this fish is cooked on a grill, it's cooked sitting on a bed of citrus slices and herbs which completely protect the fish from the grates, and what's more, the grill is covered. Hence, it seems more like steamed or smoked, something. All I'm saying is, there are no grill marks to be found on this fish.

The salmon gets no pre-treatment here. It's just a big slab of fish, placed skin side down on slices of lemon and orange and piles of fresh basil and oregano. Martha asks for 2 oranges and 4 lemons worth of slices, and I sliced them all up beforehand, but I had lots of leftovers, so maybe it's wiser to slice as you go.

I was surprised how not-smelly this was, as it was cooking. Salmon can be such an apartment killer, but the only smell that came through was burning citrus.

After 20 minutes, the fish was a little too rare, so I left it on for another five or so. Somewhere in between would have been ideal, as it was ultimately cooked through, and I like it a little translucent in the middle.

Martha says to lift the entire bed of citrus and herbs from the grill and put it all on the serving plate/board. I tried, oh how I tried, but those citrus slices were burned right onto the grill. There was no moving it as a piece. I had heeded the instruction to oil the grill before creating "the bed," but either it wasn't enough oil or it just wasn't ever going to happen that way.

I completely spaced and didn't get a picture of the beautiful finished side of fish, but I did get a picture of the salmon mid-service and, of course, a picture of Noah (l) and Ted (r) with their plates.

Jeff: A
Martha: A- (I'm not sure I believe the concept of moving the whole bed to the serving platter is feasible...)


Sushi Rice (p. 412)

I don't usually get excited about rice, but I really loved this rice! I think it's probably because I juzhed it with this Sesame-Lime Rice recipe, which I highly recommend. But even before I added all the magical ingredients, I tasted it plain, and it was nice and sticky and white and rice-y. Not sure if that's because it's short-grained or that it was rinsed and dried prior to cooking. Whatever the reason, this is going to be my go-to white rice from now on. Yum!

Jeff: A
Martha: A

I should mention that Ted brought a delicious, home-made Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chip bread for dessert. Ted, you'd be a great blogger! (hint hint)

Until we eat again....

Day 352 - How to French a Rack of Lamb, Tortellini, Tortellini en Brodo, and Blackberry Sorbet

Tonight's special guest is my little sister, Anna Lise. OK, she's not my actual little sister. But in 1993, when I was performing in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (starring Donny Osmond) in Minneapolis, the kids in the children's choir "adopted" members of the cast as their older brothers and sisters, and I got Anne Lise and Katie as my little sisters. Years later, I'm still in touch with both of them (!), and recently Anna Lise moved to NYC to pursue a performing career. (She's really talented!) Tonight was a much needed catch-up date for us to share about what's been going on. And for her to watch me cook for two hours.

How to French a Rack of Lamb (p. 116)

How to French a rack of lamb? That's easy. You take it out for a nice dinner, sweet talk it, then lean in and slip it the tongue.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

If you didn't already know, Frenching a rack of lamb is the process of taking it from a big, fatty slab of meat to a nicely butchered rack with exposed bone handles. The last time I made Rack of Lamb, I bought it pre-Frenched, hence I couldn't take this lesson.


I actually had to go to a special butcher to find an UN-Frenched rack. And when I asked for an UN-Frenched rack, the butcher still went to trim it. (See picture.) I screamed, "No, stop, I have to do that myself!!" "Why?" "I'm taking a lesson from a book. Don't ask."

We got into a long conversation about the chine bone, which is a bone that, left on, would have prevented me from slicing each chop apart. So he offered to "release" the chine bone (he had to do this with a saw) without removing it, and that sounded like a good compromise.

Doing the actual trimming, similar to the tenderloin from a few days ago, is pretty self-evident. You are peeling off thick layers of fat (and meat) to get to the chops below. There was a point when I was peeling when I thought, I could remove all the fat from the top here, but then I looked at the picture in the book, and it seemed as if there was a thin layer of fat left intact on top, so I trimmed it down but left a little. I think this bit of fat probably makes a big difference in the cooking department, and it ended up being just the right amount.

Getting the bones clean is definitely the most time-consuming part of this process. If you have even the slightest tendency toward OCD, you will probably spend at least a half hour on the bones. I gave it my best shot, but I couldn't take the time to clean them perfectly.

In terms of the economy of doing one's own butchering, I don't think there is necessarily a great payoff here. The rack would have cost the same butchered or unbutchered. And the only thing I got out of doing it myself, other than the satisfaction of having carved "The David" from a slab of lamb, was a lamb-burger's-worth of ground meat from the trimmings. (Since I was grinding meat for the tortellini, it was easy to grind the lamb meat at the same time.)

The rack cooked up brilliantly, following this recipe. Like the beef tenderloin, this is a cut of meat that seems failsafe, as long as you have a handy dandy thermometer. 130° is the magic number. It yielded gorgeous, rare meat, with a perfect herb crust. Genius.

Jeff: A- (could have gone a little farther with trimming the bones)
Martha: A


Tortellini (p. 370)

I've been a little challenged with my pasta.... The last time I made it, Barbara showed me a few tips, so when I made up this batch of dough, I didn't try to incorporate as much of the flour in the original pile as I usually do, which resulted in a much wetter dough ball. It meant dusting with flour a lot during the rolling process, but I think the pasta was a lot better!

As for the shaping of the tortellini, it was quite painstaking and time-consuming. I kept poor Anna Lise sitting there for more than an hour, watching me fill these little mothers. Martha suggests using a round cookie cutter to cut out circles for this shape, but my cookie cutter wasn't cooperating, cutting incomplete circles, which got old fast.

I ended up switching gears and using the same shaping technique used for tortelloni, which involves a square-cut shape, filled and folded over into a triangle (vs. a half moon) and then bringing the edges together. It leaves a little "hat" on the top of the piece, but it was going so much faster that I opted for it instead. Of course, my tortellini were cut from squares much smaller than the ones used for the tortelloni squares, so they were ultimately sized appropriately.

And even though it took me forever to make all of these, they were pretty cute.

Jeff: A- (I took two points off for switching from circles to squares, but I gave myself one point back for being resourceful and getting the job done)
Martha: A


Tortellini en Brodo (p. 374)

This tortellini is filled with a really nice meat mixture, all home-ground. First, there's pork shoulder and chicken breast, ground and browned, and then there's prosciutto and mortadella, also ground and added to the other meats. I wonder if I over-cooked the meats, as my meat mixture was very dry and crumbly. And there's no egg in this recipe to hold the filling together.

Once the meat was cooled, I added some ground parmigiano-reggiano, nutmeg, salt and pepper, and I have to say, the flavor was pretty fab.

So after all that work, making pasta dough, rolling it out, grinding four meats, cooking the filling, and cutting and filling the shapes, can you believe that I blew this dish in the last few stages??

I over-reduced the broth, so it was outrageously salty and too flavory, and I didn't cook the tortellini long enough, so the pasta was too al dente and the filling was dry. We added some hot water to our broth, which successfully brought it back to the land of edible, but the tortellini was a lost cause. It tasted fine, but it should have been amazing after all that work, and it was definitely my fault that it wasn't.

Luckily, I have a bagful of frozen leftover tortellini, so I'm going to try this again and get it right.

Jeff: C (undercooked pasta and overcooked broth)
Martha: A


Blackberry Sorbet (p. 485)

Can you believe I'm still making sorbets? And this isn't even the last one!!

I made the mistake of serving this sorbet with leftover raspberry sorbet, which is so amazing that it dwarfs any other flavor with its greatness.

That said, the blackberry sorbet is totally fine. Nice texture, just a little on the sweet side. It requires more syrup than the other flavors, and the sugar definitely overpowers the sorbet. But it's a pretty color, and next time I'm going to serve it alone.

Jeff: A
Martha: A

Day 350 - How to Trim a Beef Tenderloin, How to Tie a Roast, Clams in Herbed Broth and Dill-Lemon Butter

Well, the snow has mostly melted, the roads are clear again, and Harriet and I are back in business with the beef tenderloin. Since we're doing this on a Sunday now, and since Harriet's brought a Costco-sized piece of meat, it doesn't seem right to make it for just us two, so I've invited Ryan and Adinah over to share in the spoils of our meat-trimming and tying lessons. And why not throw in a few more dishes while I'm at it? I've got a deadline to make!

How to Trim a Beef Tenderloin (p. 118)

I have to be honest with you. I'm not sure what the hell I did to trim this meat. I read Martha's instructions, and they seemed coherent. Until I opened the package.

The piece of meat that came out of the package bore little resemblance to the description in this lesson. Perhaps Costco sells beef tenderloin with another piece of meat attached. There was a gigantic slab of meat on one end of this tenderloin that neither Harriet nor I could identify.

No matter. I just kept trimming and cutting and cutting and trimming until it looked like a beef tenderloin. It's pretty self-evident what there is to do here. The meat almost guides you, itself. In a couple of cases, there were flaps that looked like they wanted to be trimmed off, but if you followed the fissure, it was clear that the tenderloin would be split in two had we taken that trim there.

The big mystery was that bonus brisket-sized piece of meat, probably almost two pounds, which I trimmed away and is now in my freezer. I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant to be part of the tenderloin, but I can't help wondering if I hacked off the best part.

Home-butchering can be a very economical endeavor. This was a roughly six pound piece of meat to start, costing about $45 at $7.50/lb, which is quite inexpensive when compared to most meat sellers. I think I trimmed away about one pound of waste, froze a beautiful, lean, 1.5 pound piece of mystery meat, and cooked a 3.5 pound tenderloin. I'm guessing that if I bought that 3.5 pound tenderloin already trimmed, it would probably cost at least $40, if not more.

All told, I think I did a nice job with the trimming. And even though I didn't really feel like I was following Martha's directions, per se, Harriet wants me to give myself an A for a job well done, so I will.

Jeff: A
Martha: A (?)


How to Tie a Roast (p. 119)

This was fun. It reminded me of that game you play as kids where you wrap string around your fingers and pass string shapes back and forth. Only in this lesson, you play it with a big piece of raw meat instead of your friend.

It's kind of amazing how easy it is to do this tying technique, which looks so professional and is so effective. It takes about a minute or two to figure it out, and then it's smooth sailing. Look at my beautiful roast!!

FYI, I tucked the ends under on both sides, since I somehow ended up with a piece of meat that tapered on both ends....

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Clams in Herbed Broth (p. 219)

People are funny about clams, aren't they? It's taken me a little while to assemble a group of people who were all happy to eat clams.

I've never bought clams before, and since I was picking them up a day early, I had to do a little research on how to store them overnight. (They're still alive, and if you leave them in the plastic bag from the market, they'll probably suffocate and die, which doesn't make for good eats.)

Turns out the best thing to do is to clean them and put them in a bowl with damp paper towels on top, which is what I did with very good results. Out of three dozen clams, one two of mine didn't open.

This dish is pretty easy. You make an herb-loaded oil using mounds of parsley, basil, dill and chives, food-processed with olive oil. Then you boil up some fish fumet (smelly!) and throw the clams in to steam. Since I wanted to serve mine with pasta, I boiled up some linguini on the side. Then I plated the linguini and clams, while I finished the broth.

To do that, you strain the liquid (to remove sand), then bring it to a boil again, and add butter and that herb oil. Then ladle it over the clams and pasta and serve!

As my guests remarked, there are a lot of flavor levels going on here. I attribute this to a few things. First of all, fresh herbs are always loaded with flavor. Second, home-made broths pack a great flavor punch. And lastly, clams. Nuff said.

This was fun, easy, and delicious, and while I'm not a clam lover, I'd do this again. The only thing I might want to add is some garlic....

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Dill-Lemon Butter (p. 167)

My last compound butter! Since I had dill in the house, I thought I'd crank this out. What a great idea! It tasted fab on the beautiful Italian bread that Ryan brought. A slather of flavored butter, then a dip in the herb broth? Perfect!

I don't know if I'd use this butter outside of a seafood-based meal, but in the right setting, it's super nice!

Jeff: A
Martha: A

I used this recipe to cook the beef tenderloin, and I have to say, it worked like gangbusters. Having made a pair of tenderloins before, I already knew that this is a magical cut of meat to cook. Easy and failsafe. Really, the only thing you need is a thermometer, and as long as you take the meat out when it hits 135°, you're golden. It's rare and unbelievably tender. Flawless.

Until we eat again....

Day 347 - Thyme, Shallot, and Lemon Marinade, French Fries, and Cauliflower Puree

I'm on a deadline, and I can't catch a break!! First the flu, and now: snow!

This was going to be a much more coherent meal as originally planned. My cousin Harriet was supposed to come in from NJ bearing an untrimmed beef tenderloin, with which we were going to give ourselves Martha's lessons on trimming and tying. Alas, the snow has postponed this tutorial, and I'm left with these rather meat-inspired side dishes.

Meanwhile, Marcy was available for dinner, so I pulled out my last marinade and took a seafood detour.

Thyme, Shallot, and Lemon Marinade (p. 173)

This marinade makes sense on the page and in my mind, but when I made it, I was a little confused. It's full of chunks of things, lemons, shallots, thyme leaves, but there's not a whole lot of liquid involved.

Since Martha said this pairs well with shellfish and fish fillets, I picked up some cod fillets and scallops to try both. The cod went into ziploc bags, so the fillets were pressed up against all the chunks. And the scallops sat in the bowl with the rest of the marinade. I guess the chunk thing didn't deter any marinating from happening, but it's just so chunky, it threw me.

I pan-seared the scallops and served them with the Cauliflower Puree, a complete rip-off of a previous recipe. And I pan-fried the cod plain, so we could really taste the marinade.

The scallops tasted great, but I couldn't get much of a bead on the marinade flavor. The puree was actually the star of that dish.

The cod, on the other hand, was obviously beautifully seasoned. It is a really balanced, delicate, French-y flavor that allows the fish to shine without overwhelming it. I offered Marcy an extra squirt of lemon, and she said no thanks, because the flavoring was so right on.

Jeff: A
Martha: A


French Fries (p. 333)

Can I just say how happy I am that this recipe marks the end of my deep-frying career??

As much as I've complained about having to deep fry so much, I will say that it has definitely given me an appreciation for well-fried foods. Frying is not an easy thing to do. At least without a Fry Daddy. (I'm told Fry Daddies will regulate the temperature of the oil automatically. No fair!!)

I was actually excited about making fries because I do like my fries a certain way (extra crispy), and I figured I'd be able to control how they came out. Alas....

Warning: this recipe requires a 4-24 hour soak!!

Accordingly, the day before, I cut all the fries and put them in cold water in the fridge. The starch run-off wasn't as extreme as when I grated potatoes for the rosti, but there was some sludge at the bottom of the bowl the next day.

The frying happens in two stages. The first is blanching, at 300°, to soften them, and the second is the browning, at 350°, to get them crisp.

As usual, my oil temps were all over the place. I think what I should have done was to get the temperature to the right place to start, then just before I put in the fries, crank the flame really high. Because what kept happening was that the temperature would drop horribly once the fries went in, and it would barely rise throughout the cooking process. I tried to play around with the flame, but I was scared of overheating the oil because I had no extra oil on hand to bring the temperature down if I overshot it.

(If I loved fried foods, I would definitely invest in a Fry Daddy.)

As for the fries, they were just OK. A little soggy, definitely not crispy enough. Again, I think it's a temperature issue. If the oil in Part 2 had been hotter, I think I could have achieved that crisp on the outside, soft on the inside thing. As it was, they were only slightly crispy, which was fine, but not my dream.

I tried adding the optional rosemary and lemon zest, but I don't think it made much of a flavor impact.

For the last batch, I left the fries in the oil until they were a lot darker, which still didn't get me the results I wanted. These were overcooked, with no white inside, and they still weren't super-crispy. I think for that kind of result, I probably should have heated the oil even higher, maybe 375° or more. (?)

It's funny - whenever I order fries in a restaurant, I always say "extra crispy - have them cook the crap out of them," because I've always imagined that crispiness is a function of cooking time, so why can't they just cook mine longer? But it's really not as simple as that. They'd probably have to have multiple fryers going at different temperatures to accommodate requests like mine. I'm going to be much more forgiving now.

The next time I make fries, I'm definitely going to try...

Kidding! I feel pretty confident saying that I'm never, ever going to deep-fry again.

But I will definitely give props to well-fried food from now on.

Jeff: B- (not even close to having worked out the oil temperature thing...)
Martha: A


Cauliflower Puree (p. 310)

This recipe is a variation of the Fennel Puree recipe, hence the scallop-pairing idea. Using cauliflower is even easier, in that once the cauliflower is softened and pureed, there are basically no solids to filter out. Every bit went right through the sieve.

There's a crazy taste thing that happened here. Marcy and I both caught it. The cauliflower is cooked in milk and pureed with just a small amount of that milk, then it's seasoned with salt, white pepper, and a touch of nutmeg. Pretty basic, right?

Well, for some strange reason, we both tasted smoked meat, i.e. bacon. There's no logical connection that I can think of, but we both went there.

The only possible explanation is that the flavor came from the browned part of the scallop, but we were both pretty sure we were tasting it in the cauliflower puree. Go figure.

In any case, this is a beautiful vegetable side, simple and flavorful. And while it may be time-consuming, it's not difficult.

Jeff: A
Martha: A


I also served this Celery Root and Apple Slaw, which we liked, but I'm not sure if it's going to make it into my regular repertoire. I actually love celery root, but I'm a little put off by all the muddy crevices.

And since I had hot oil going on my stove, I fried up the remaining corn tortillas from last week's Mexican fiesta. Freshly fried tortilla chips are a nice snack to serve. In fact, that might be one of the few things that could get me back to the fryer.

Until we eat again....

Day 344 - Kamut

I picked a lousy time to get the flu. Three weeks left to do 26 more things, and I'm down for the count. Just to keep myself in the game, I thought I'd knock off a grain.

Kamut (p. 413)

As a one-time vegetarian and somewhat health-conscious person, I've been aware of grains like kamut for a long time. Chewy, earthy, starchy nuggets of grainy goodness are an occasionally welcome addition to a dish/meal/life.

That said, I can't say I have any idea what distinguishes kamut from, say, spelt or farro or wheat berries.

OK, I just looked up the differences, and they do exist. But from a purely aesthetic eating standpoint, these seem pretty much of an overlap.

Martha's kamut recipe is very successful. The grains are perfectly cooked. And I enjoyed a biteful or two. But if these are going to play a part in my life, I'm guessing they will have to take a supporting role in a salad or pilaf. Alone, I'm just not that interested.

(Incidentally, in the picture, the kamut is cooked. It's in a strainer because it gets boiled and then needs to be drained.)

Jeff: A- (for whining about grains)
Martha: A

Until we eat again....

Day 340 - Fried Fish, Fish Tacos, Tortilla Soup and Fried Tortilla Strips

It's not Cinco de Mayo, but it might as well be at my house tonight! I thought I'd knock out all the remaining Mexican dishes for a group of people I know will appreciate them: my friends from the TMLP. TMLP stands for Team Management Leadership Program, a course we all took together at Landmark Education in 2003. One of the things I learned in this course is how to create a project that inspires me and see it through to completion. It would be crazy to mention the TMLP (and Landmark) on this blog without acknowledging that I would never have had the vision, will, and follow-through to do a project like Jeff and Martha without that education.

Tonight, I've got Steve and Rory (yes, they're a couple and they've been together for about 100 years - amazing), and Vicki and Courtney (no, they're not a couple, but they act like they've been together for about 100 years). And they do like their Mexican food. And drink. Margaritas were the choice of the evening.

Fried Fish (p. 274)

I'm sure you're all tired of hearing me say how much I hate deep frying. I hate it so much that even though it's crazy to serve two big main courses to five people, I really wanted to kill two fried dishes with one fry stone. And since I was going to be frying tortilla strips, I thought, "Just do the fish too."

The batter is quite easy to put together. Cake flour, salt, beer, and eggs. Meanwhile, I was stalling to make the batter until the oil was ready, but then I reread the recipe and saw the part about refrigerating the batter for at least 20 minutes before using. Crap.

I can't believe how long I kept my friends waiting for this dish! Don't be afraid to make this batter in advance like I was! It can sit in the fridge for up to 2 hours!

One of the most maddening things about frying is keeping oil at a consistent temperature, something I definitely haven't mastered. In this recipe, Martha wants the oil to be 375° when the fish goes in, and between 350° and 375° for the duration of the cooking. My oil temp dropped way too low with the first batch. Accordingly, they were a little soggy. The second batch was a little better, but still the temperature was all over the place. The last batch was the best because I cranked the oil. Lesson: hotter is better.

Cod was the chosen fish tonight, and I was happy with the taste and texture of the cooked fish, but the batter seemed a little lackluster. I think it's probably a great batter for onion rings. It has that heavy/fluffy batter appeal. (This is a wet batter, i.e. dry and wet ingredients are pre-mixed, unlike a dip in flour, dip in eggs, dip in bread crumbs kind of frying.) I wonder if a little more salt would have resulted in a tastier breading....

PS Leftover update: reheating this fish in the toaster oven is very successful. They get crispy and brown with perfect texture. And a little salt solves the lackluster batter flavor issue.

Jeff: B- (bad temperature control, and points off for keeping friends waiting for food)
Martha: A


Fish Tacos (p. 276)

I've never eaten fish tacos before, so this uncharted territory for me. The garnishes are easy enough to put together. I already had the cilantro, lime, and cabbage on hand for the tortilla soup. The only extra things I needed to get were radishes and the cream. Martha doesn't specify amounts for the ingredients in the cream - she just says to add lime juice and chipotle adobo sauce to it. My ratios were roughly 1 C of sour cream, 1/4 C of lime, and 2 T of chipotle sauce, and Courtney, our resident fish taco expert, said that it was right on. For me, it was a little spicy, but I'm a wimp.

I don't know what a great fish taco is, but I don't think I served it tonight. My tortilla was a little tough. (Martha suggests serving double tortillas, but no one wanted that, and I don't blame them. Too much tortilla!) The fish wasn't crispy enough. And as much flavor as there was in the garnishes, it just didn't add up for me. Salting helped, but I couldn't find the "there" there. I can't help thinking that I'd prefer a fish taco with unfried fish.

That's Courtney, right, with a taco and some salad.

Jeff: B (tough tortillas and no "there" there)
Martha: B (we could have used more info about the sauce ingredient proportions)


Tortilla Soup (p. 47)

Here's another Mexican dish I've never experienced before. I took Martha's make-the-day-before option for this soup, and I'm so glad I did. This was a really interesting process to go through, with amazing results.

First of all, this soup starts with chicken stock and builds on top of that, so there's tons of flavor. First thing that happens is a cut-up chicken gets cooked in chicken stock. Then while that's happening, you make a puree out of sautéed onions and garlic, char-broiled tomatoes, and dried pasilla chiles that have been charred and then softened in water. Then you add this amazing-tasting puree to the super-enriched chicken stock. The resulting soup base is like nothing I've ever tasted before: smoky, complex, and delicious.

The cooked chicken gets shredded and refrigerated separately from the stock. Then on serving day, you reheat the stock and once it's hot, you add the shredded chicken and cook long enough just to heat through. I forgot to add the lime juice before serving (a common Jeff error), so I had to go around spooning lime juice into everyone's bowls. (Now THAT'S service.)

Survey says? Amazing. I was really proud of this dish. Even if there were no garnishes on hand, I would still stand behind this soup. I took a little poll of my guests how this compared to tortilla soups they'd had elsewhere, and the unanimous response was that this was definitely steps up from your average tortilla soup. (Go Martha!)

And everyone liked being able to choose their own garnishes - I served all the recommended ones in the book: onions, avocado, shredded cabbage, cilantro, lime wedges, tortilla strips, and cheese. I've never had cotija cheese, which I liked. That's Vicki with her soup, surrounded by garnishes.

Would I make this again? I just might. It's nice to be able to get the heavy lifting out of the way the day before. And as I said above, the flavor is stellar. I was worried about serving this a main course, but it's quite hearty, and I'd encourage others not to be self-conscious about that.

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Fried Tortilla Strips (p. 75)

Homemade fried tortillas! Nothing to it! As long as you're willing to heat up a huge pot of oil. I had some of the same temperature control issues here that I had with the fish, although tortilla strips don't bring the temperature of oil down as drastically as chunks of battered fish. FYI, I fried these before the fish - I thought I'd rather have tortilla-tasting fish than fish-tasting tortillas.

Not much to say here other than it was easy and delicious, particularly on top of my tortilla soup. That's Rory on the left and Steve on the right.

There's definitely something special about freshly fried corn tortillas. And it occurs to me that if I wanted to serve a really tasty snack, this would be a good one. I wonder how little oil I could get away with using?

Jeff: A
Martha: A

I made this Pumpkin Flan for dessert, which was delicious, but not what I expected. You can see my comments on the linked page.

Until we eat again....

Day 337 - Winter Squash Puree

Oh boy, I'm eating well today! Lunch started with a Poached Chicken and Lemon + Olive Relish appetizer (yum) and then a Macaroni and Cheese main course. Is it possible that it's even better the next day? OMG...

Now, for dinner, I'm cooking up some things that are about to expire in my fridge: a package of butternut squash chunks and that last duck confit leg.

Winter Squash Puree (p. 311)

This recipe is the height of fast, easy, and delicious. Boil water, add salt and chunks of squash, simmer 10-15 minutes, drain and dry in hot pan for a couple of minutes. Then puree with butter. (Martha says to use a blender, but that never works for me so I did it in a food processor.) Add salt and pepper. Serve.

Whole journey? Not even a half hour. Which makes this a perfect side dish for a thrown-together meal. But there's nothing thrown together about the end result.

Creamy, sweet, salty, smooth, rich, comforting, satisfying, colorful. And elegant, to boot. I'll bet this would even taste great without the butter....

Jeff: A
Martha: A

As for that duck confit leg, it was the first one I ate on its own. (The other five served as ingredients in a pasta filling and cassoulet.) The flavor is absolutely amazing. And the meat is nice and tender. But I have not had success with reheating these. It's not a big deal when you're removing the skin and putting it into another dish, but this one was out in the open, and it wasn't cute.

Martha says that 10 minutes in a low heat heavy pan, covered, with another five minutes on the flip side, will crisp the skin, but I haven't gotten anywhere near crispy skin. I've tried cooking them uncovered, I've tried draining the accumulated oil, I've tried leaving the accumulated oil, I've tried turning up the temperature a little, I've tried cooking them for three times that long, all with no success. I don't want to fry the hell out of it, but I would like to know how to prepare a perfect, crispy duck confit leg with skin intact. Any ideas?

Until we eat again....