Open Thread #116

Steamed butternut squash, mashed, and slathered with a center and top layer of pesto, then baked. Makes one squash hater I know love it.

I'm going to make gnocchi tonight with a sauce of pureed pumpkin, turkey sausage, and sage. And at some point this weekend I'm going to make pumpkin pie ice cream.

I've got a kitchen full of root vegetables. I will be roasting all weekend, and stocking the freezer. I plan to make a couple of Moroccan-style sides--spicy carrots and cumin-mint beets--to munch on and feed my toddler all week with hummus. A Middle-Eastern platter is about her favorite food on the planet right now. Easy meals around all the roasting: pasta with squash and parmesan. I will be popular.

I see a big pot of borscht in my future...gotta deal with the growing supply of beets and cabbage my CSA keeps giving me. Any tasty cabbage recipes anyone wants to share?

If anyone has good dinner party menu ideas, toss 'em here for me! We're having our favorite couple over, who just had a baby two months ago. They haven't been able to cook much good food at home, so we wanna make something nice, but not too outrageously labor-intensive or expensive. We're in MN and the farmer's market is still going strong.

It's all about the hearty vegetarian lentil stew (over brown rice) for me! I also made salmon croquets on Tuesday. Yum!

Bx - I would recommend the herb-roasted pork loin with haricorts verts, spring onions and mustard breadcrumbs from Suzanne Goin's cookbook. It is so delicious and easy to prepare, so you can spend your evening catching up with your friends :-)

Poulet de Bresse made with white wine, cèpes and cream... Also made lots of chicken stock with the neck and back, with leeks and pink onions (the Rosé de Roscoff )...

(There are many amazing aspects to this chicken, one being that when I made the stock, there was no scum to skim, not even a hint!)

Here, the markets are full of earthy wild mushrooms, chestnuts and local walnuts (out of this world! I have never tasted such amazing nuts -- if only I could bring some home, but our daughter is allergic), and the almost last-of-the-season figs, dark and red and dripping their honeyed syrup.

Monika 1,

Where did you get a Bresse chicken?

A Favorite Tuna - Healthy and Fast from Loulies

Serves 6

6 6-8oz portions of fresh, highest-grade 1 1/2 –inch-thick tuna
¼ c. olive oil
Coarsely ground black pepper
2 lg. bunches spinach
Sea salt
1 ½ c. julienned scallions
3 c. julienned shiitake mushrooms (stems removed)
Japanese vinaigrette (recipe to follow)

Twenty to thirty minutes before cooking, rub the tuna on all sides with some of the olive oil and season generously with black pepper. In a large skillet, heat 3 Tbls. olive oil. When hot, add spinach and sauté until lightly cooked.

Divide spinach among 6 serving plates. Heat a cast iron skillet until very hot, about 2 minutes. Season the marinated tuna with salt and sear for 2 minutes on each side. Remove and place on top of spinach.
In the cast ion pan, sauté scallions and shiitakes together in 3 Tbls. olive oil, until lightly cooked. Place on top of tuna. Pour a bit of Japanese vinaigrette over tuna and vegetables. Serve at once.

Japanese Vinaigrette

Makes 1 cup

A terrific marinade for shrimp, chicken, and seafood; great as a salad dressing; or use as a dipping sauce for tuna, halibut, or yellowtail sashimi).

½ c. peanut oil
2 Tbls. soy sauce
1 Tbls. toasted sesame oil
2 Tbls. rice wine vinegar
½ Tbls. lemon juice
½ Tbls. lime juice
2 Tbls. sugar or honey
2 Tbls. fresh ginger, minced
1 sm. clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. onion, minced
1 tsp. shallot, minced
½ tsp. horseradish, drained prepared or freshly grated
¼ tsp. wasabi powder (found at Whole Foods and specialty markets)

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend well. Store refrigerated.

Art -- in our local market, just across the border in France (we live in Geneva).

i made a moroccan-accented ratatouille that i'm loving: tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, eggplant, onions, garlic, chickpeas, and raisins stewed in chicken broth and seasoned with cumin, coriander, oregano, and a bit of curry powder. mmm.

does anyone have a good gingerbread recipe? not cookies, but bread.

Thanks Monika 1,

I'm going to stay in my office and cry for 5 min. now.

poor art.
In North Carolina, there's organic bird farmers who are growing poulet rouge, and guinea fowl, and other uncommon birds. We get them at our Food Coop in Brooklyn . . . there is some hope for you on this side of the Atlantic.

For those interested in food writing, there's rather a neat event this week in NYC:

Wednesday, October 24, 6 – 8 pm
Bottlerocket's Eclectic Salon: Judith Jones

"What do M. F. K. Fisher, Madhur Jaffrey, Julia Child and Lidia Bastianich have in common? A prodigious and beloved book editor named Judith Jones. One of the food world's most admired figures, Ms. Jones has written an evocative memoir, The Tenth Muse. Join us in welcoming Judith Jones at Bottlerocket for this reading, book signing and wine tasting.
Free. Reservations not required. "
(hot out of my email box)