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Has anyone in the history of cooking ever used up an entire bunch of celery before it spoils? Even considering how long it lasts (weeks!), we almost always end up with a sad, wilted collection of stalks that we throw away and replace with a fresh bunch every month or so. Celery is an under-used vegetable, is what I’m saying. Yet it’s one that we pretty much always have in the fridge — to flavor a soup or a stew, to make stock, or to chop up for a garden salad. Aside from this recipe that we love so much we always serve it at our Thanksgiving dinner (as well as other times throughout the year), we rarely come across a dish where celery gets to shine as the main ingredient. It’s a shame, since celery has many health benefits, including antioxidants and nutrients with anti-inflammatory effects. So we were pleased to see Lidia Bastianich’s take on caprese salad — with a celery twist — in her latest book, “Lidia’s Commonsense Italian Cooking.” We never would have thought of replacing the tomatoes in traditional caprese salad with celery, but it works and it’s genius; especially during the winter, when high-quality tomatoes can be hard to find, but good ole celery is as plentiful as always.
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Monday Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:
We had a fun little trip to Minneapolis last weekend to meet up with my parents and see my brother J in a play put on by the university where he works. We all enjoyed the show, “Crocodile Seeking Refuge,” about 5 individuals from different (and difficult) parts of the world seeking asylum in the U.K. and the lawyer dedicated to helping them, at the ultimate expense of her marriage (with the role of her husband played (expertly!) by my brother.) It was thought-provoking and well-produced, and all the actors did a great job. Plus, my brother nailed his British accent. Well done, Old Chap!
One of Dan’s friends from law school was in town this week and invited him to dinner at the exclusive, 3 Michelin Star restaurant, Alinea. Since I wasn’t there, any attempt at second-hand descriptions of their meal wouldn’t do it the justice I’m sure it probably deserves. (I didn’t go because they only sell tickets (pre-paid “tickets” instead of reservations) in groups of 2, 4 and 6, which was reason enough for me to not want to go anyway, on principle. So there.) But considering how much it cost, I certainly hope it was the most amazing dining experience of Dan’s life to date. More importantly, I know that the time spent catching up with a dear old friend was priceless.
When was the last time you had a tuna melt? Until today, it had been far too long since I had one — with delicious tuna salad (this recipe is one of our favorites), sliced tomato and melted American cheese on toasted rye bread.
Since moving to Chicagoland we’ve become a bit obsessed with weather, and one of my favorite ways to check the temp is via the free “Weather Whiskers” app on my phone. It gives me the current temperature (with a cute picture of a cat!) and forecasts (“furrcasts – ha!), and allows me to program in other cities so I can stalk the weather where friends and family live. Today, finally, the cat is not wearing a sweater or a coat!
We seem to be having a lamb “moment” these days, cooking it much more often than we ever have in the past. So far, our favorite ways of preparing lamb are Guinness-glazed and Mediterranean-style. Who could blame us, really, when perfectly grilled lamb is so tender with just the right amount of richness. We also enjoy kebabs of many kinds (including beef, shrimp, pork, and more pork), so when we found Ina Garten’s recipe for lamb kebabs, we knew we had a winner. The lamb marinates in a simple mixture of garlic, thyme, rosemary (or oregano if you don’t prefer rosemary), red wine, red wine vinegar and salt for 8 hours or up to 2 days. Grill the lamb on skewers with onion and tomatoes, then serve over a bed of couscous with a lemony sauce on the side. The result is a surprisingly sophisticated meal, considering how easy it is to make. The marinade imparts complex flavor with minimal effort, and grilling the lamb kebab-style allows for uniform cooking to just the right doneness (the rare side of medium-rare is how we like our lamb.) The sauce requires all the skill of boiling a pot of water, and grilling skewers of onion and tomatoes with the meat incorporates vegetables without having to come up with a separate side dish. Couscous (or some other, similar granule-sized pasta or grain) provides nice texture, and the most basic version of it is as easy to make as the sauce (a/k/a bringing liquid to a boil.) You can fancy up the couscous with sauteed shallots, toasted pine nuts and chopped fresh parsley if you want (as Ina does), but the kebabs and sauce provide enough flavor that plain couscous works just as well. Looks like we’ve got ourselves another “keeper” lamb recipe. Too bad I won’t let us eat red meat more often!
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Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:
We found a great local place for Korean food (other kinds of Asian food too – their menu is huge), with kimchi that meets with Dan’s approval.
Next time you’re having steak, whip up a batch of Bobby Flay’s sauce: 1/4 cup Dijon; 1/4 cup whole grain mustard; 1/2 cup molasses; 3 tablespoons prepared horseradish; 2 tablespoons honey; 2 tablespoons ketchup; and salt & pepper. It would probably go well as a dipping sauce for roasted chicken as well.
We have a new dish for the breakfast rotation: eggs in purgatory. Heat a little olive oil in a small skillet, add a clove of minced garlic and a dash of red pepper flakes and cook for less than a minute. Add a can of chopped tomatoes (we cooked ours in 2 separate batches and used half the can per batch) and cook for 1-2 minutes. Make a well in the center of the skillet and add an egg to it, then season the egg with a little salt & pepper. Cook until the egg is done to your liking (we like ours with the yolk still a bit runny.) Serve with toast. (We served ours with a little spinach too.)
Planters’ “Sustaining Energy Mix” packages of nuts and chocolate make a great snack, with 10 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber. Apparently they also make a pretty good cat toy. (No, we didn’t let her eat any.)
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Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:
We thoroughly enjoyed the dinner we had several weeks ago at La Macchina, one of our favorite local Italian restaurants, and it turns out that they serve a pretty amazing brunch as well. We had our first ever taste of croque madame (basically the best grilled ham & cheese sandwich you’ve ever had, with mornay sauce [bechamel + cheese = heaven] and a fried egg on top) and wondered where this delicacy has been all our lives. We were also pleasantly surprised when our server brought out a plate of their signature house “bread” to start our meal. We don’t know what their official name is, but calling these light-as-air dough miracles “bread” seems almost criminal. As perfect as they are with salami and cheese as a dinner appetizer, a light dusting of powdered sugar transforms them into the greatest bite of the day’s first meal.
We caught a recent episode of Nigella Lawson’s cooking show where she made “lamb cutlets with mint, chili and golden potatoes” and promptly added the dish to our dinner line-up for the following week. We loved everything about it, including how easy it is to make. The lamb is marinated in olive oil, red pepper flakes, dried mint and celery salt, then pan-seared in a skillet until medium-rare. Using the same skillet (with rendered fat from the lamb) to brown the par-boiled baby red potatoes is genius. Serving the lamb and potatoes family-style on a bed of arugula (or “rocket,” as Nigella calls it) made us feel like we were having a fancy dinner party, just the two of us.
According to the weather reporter on the local nightly news, normal temperatures for our area at this time of year should be in the 40s. That’s just mean, considering how we are currently (STILL) experiencing temps in the teens and 20s, with a few days in the single digits here and there and sub-zero windchills. If I can’t have Spring outside any time soon, I’ll have to make do with blooming branches inside. I picked up some forsythia at Trader Joe’s last week and the blooms brighten up our foyer nicely.
If you’ve never tried them, cheese curds do not sound very appetizing. But done right, they are a light/cheesy/melty treat. Done wrong, their name suits them perfectly. Lucky for us, this place and this one do them very, very right.
I got to have lunch with Dan at his office this week, a/k/a “Kraftown.” It’s an impressive facility with a young, hip, creative and inspiring vibe (yet somehow, they still let Dan work there **rimshot**). I enjoyed seeing the place where Dan spends his weekdays, and we had a great lunch with his colleague who also happens to be an old friend. The food at the cafeteria there is surprisingly good (and un-cafeteria-like.) Dan has raved about (and sent me pictures of) the Thursday buffalo chicken salad since the week he started working there. I’m happy to report that the salad lived up to every bit of the hype.