Last Night's Dinner

Last night was the 4th (and possibly final!) Annual New Year's Eve Dinner.
We brought it back to New Year's this year, as some people had problems with the mid-week/work-week dinner last year.
Four dinners and, by my count, four successful dinners! A relief as I didn't feel like we had as many new dishes this year; we've been a bit less creative, I think, in our normal dinner choices. But we've also eaten a lot of new things that just don't work as well in the large dinner party setting (pizzas, mostly, but other stuff as well, like the panisses I made a few weeks ago that were good, but require a lot of last-minute attention). With 18 people showing up, that wasn't an option. Lamb shoulder really is hard to beat for these parties.

Anyway: last night's menu:

Vin chaud (aka 'mulled wine')
--=---
Carrot-leek Soup
--=---
Arroz con pollo with olives and preserved lemons
Lamb tagine with dates and raisins
Roasted butternut squash
Chick peas 'maison'
No-knead bread
Soft Pretzels
Green salad with apples and pine nuts
--=---
Chocolate-pecan pie
Pear almond tart
Brownies
Ice creams: vanilla, cinnamon, chestnut

I did want to highlight seasonal stuff this time, more than usual. In the past, I've approached this as a time of excess, of doing things that aren't everyday – so, buying strawberries in December, spending more for fancier products, and lots and lots of meat were all part of the fun. Because of that approach, I paid less attention to local/seasonal stuff than I do in our normal meals. But this time, it just seemed to all have nice fall/winter colors: browns, oranges, instead of pinks and bright reds. Large piles of meat, still, but along with squash (a first, I think) and lots of bread.

The carrot-leek soup is basic, but very good.
Basic here doesn't mean 'easy' because making it involves cleaning leeks, which is a huge hassle.

And Helen pointed out that even though the soup was good, it probably wasn't worth the complications. I think she's right. As the dinner has evolved, it's moved from more structured to less (witness the disappearance of the palate cleanser course). Probably be best to just have the soup out for people who want it...

Arroz con Pollo

The only real weakness was the arroz con pollo. I'd made it before, and liked it – it's a Mark Bittman recipe that I'd jazzed up by adding turmeric, lemons, and olives, giving it a Moroccan flair. I forgot the turmeric this time, though. I'd also tripled the broth and rice in the recipe (with 18 guests, hard not to!). I figured that once the broth reached a boil rice cooking time would be the same, but that turned out not to be the case. Either that, or problems caused by having my ginormous dutch oven off-center on one tiny little burner. So, tasty, but with some crunchy rice and not much color.

The rest went great. People liked the squash, despite it being squash, which is, well, squash. The chick peas got eaten up, too. It's a standard dish here, probably close to weekly – chick peas sauteed with cumin seeds, chipotles, tomatoes, raisins, and almonds, then simmered in beer for a bit. We don't actually call it chick peas maison, but we don't have a name for it, so there it is.
The lamb is always a big hit. I even served it in a real tagine this time.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Chick Peas

Lamb Tagine

The biggest hit, though, was probably the pretzels. People really like home made pretzels. I think we made around 30, and they were gone by morning.
They're a great dinner party food, it turns out – even better if you've got kids coming who want to help make them.

Pecan Chocolate Pie

Brownies

Pear Almond Tart

Water Ice, Water Ice, Oh How I Love Thee

As a native Philadelphian, I grew up eating Water Ice.
And yes, as a native Philadelphian, I do call it "wudderice."

For those not familiar with water ice, in consistency, it's a bit like a more solidified and frozen version of a slurpee. As such, it's a member of the all-important "sweet and cold" food group, which is not yet considered one of the major food groups by everybody, but it is by me.

Readers of this blog know that I love ice cream, and I love sorbet as well. But a water ice isn't really much like sorbet, or granita for that matter. In sorbets and granitas, you're really trying to get at the essence of the fruit.

Water ice is always fruit flavors (or almost always, anyways). But it's not the all-natural, essence of the fruit treat that sorbets and granitas are. With water ice, you have to be willing to embrace the artificiality. Those colors sure aren't natural. And not all flavors work. The sour cherry that I ordered once didn't. But then, water ice isn't really about having a wide variety of flavors, for me. It's about having a few flavors and doing them right. And by 'a few,' I really mean two: lemon and cherry. Although if you want to only have lemon, that's fine, too.


Most people who pay attention to this stuff consider John's Water Ice, in Bella Vista, the best in the city, and it only has four flavors: Lemon, Cherry, Pineapple (which I tasted, it's pretty good) and, for some reason, chocolate. That said, I'm not sure that I think that John's is All That. Two factors here: first, John's doesn't have the ice chunks that plague many water ice places. But the flip side of that is that it's a little liquidy. I don't like the ice chunks, but I'm willing to accept them as the cost of a water ice that's more solid, less liquidy. Second: most of the water ices I've had are pretty similar in quality. So I don't see it as worth it to go all the way across town to go to a particular water ice place. I'm happy with the ones that are nearby.

When should you eat water ice? Any time is good, but – this won't come as a shocker to anyone – it is best when you're hot. It's especially good when you've been exercising. Towards the end of a long bike ride, perhaps, stopping and having a water ice and then feeling nice and cool on the last few miles home... isn't that what summer's all about?

photo from slashfood.com

Feast

Noah and I had a lot of fun shopping at the Great Barrington farmers market and the Guido's and figuring out how to make new things in an unfamiliar kitchen.

Noah made this beets and tomatoes salad. He roasted the beets in the oven himself. This created a red mess in the kitchen, but the dish was well worth the trouble.

I was not terribly creative with desserts, but couldn't pass up the peaches at the farmers market. The only thing new to me is that for all the cobblers and crumbles I've made, I've never made a crisp before. So, I wound up making a peaches and berries crisp.  It was tasty and perhaps a little too sweet for me.  It also broke the household record for eating desserts - it took us 3 days to finish it!

I made this "grilled shrimp tapas" on the cast iron skillet with just a little bit of oil, salt, and garlic. Yum!

Noah made these stuffed squash blossoms and pappardelle pasta. These squash blossoms are now my favorite thing. They are stuffed with mushrooms, onions, bread crumbs and gruyere cheese and baked.

Isn't this what *everyone* does on vacation?

Arrive late Friday night.

Saturday: long run in Beartown State Forest; dinner in town; movie

Sunday: 30-mile bike down to Connecticut, up through the valley; short run in the 'hood; home-cooked dinner of pasta, stuffed squash blossoms, gambas a la plancha, beet and tomato salad with fresh mint, peach and berry crisp

Monday: long bike ride (Noah) and a run in the 'hood (Helen); dinner at the Route 7 Grill.

Tuesday: one last run in Beartown State Forest; burrito lunch; schlepp it on back to Philly.

now THAT'S a topsy-turvy cake!

Followers of this blog might remember the topsy-turvy cake that I made for Helen's birthday last February.
This time, though, we brought in the professionals.
Or, more accurately, my sister did, in getting us this cake for our wedding.




So, thanks to Melissa, for the cake; thanks to the Swiss Bakery, on 19th street, for baking it. Thanks to all the guests who came and helped us eat it.

Things I Learned about Lamb Stew

I'd been wanting to make something winter-y lately; nothing specific, just a meat dish that cooks for a long time.
Feeling uninspired by the recipes I've got around, I went with a make-it-up-as-you-go lamb stew.

Some things I learned in the process:
-Lamb stew is pretty forgiving. There's better and worse, but if you include good ingredients and let it cook a while, it's probably going to be pretty good.
-Lamb stew is a great way of using up some of the veggies in the fridge that are on the verge of going.
-Using beer for much of the stew liquid is very tasty. I imagine that Guinness would be best, but it's not what we had in the house so it's not what we used.
-Lamb stew goes very well with egg noodles.

As for fine-tuning, and what I'd do differently:
-Lamb shoulder takes a long long time to cook, even in small pieces.
-Potatoes and carrots take a long time, too, but not *as* long. So, next time, I'm letting the lamb braise an hour before adding the potatoes and the carrots.

Last night's dinner

Opening: sage flatbread; pistachio-chorizo cake
Main 1: 2-hour chicken, ratatouille, rice
Salad course: gnocchi and smoked trout salad, morrocan carrot salad
Main 2: Lamb tagine with dates, chick pea soup, spaghetti squash, couscous
No knead bread
Ice creams: Double chocolate, aztec chocolate, banana, vanilla, strawberry sorbet. Also, salted caramel sauce.

There were around 20 people over for dinner last night. In the last few years I've had the dinner party on my birthday; this year, though, Helen's taking me out to celebrate the big 4-0, so we moved the celebration to the 29th.

I organized the menu a little differently this year. I didn't have a palate cleanser, and went with the main course/salad course/main course approach.

The dinner went well. My reaction is a lot like last year – it was fun to do, but I'm glad we don't do it too often. It's a lot of work. I tried to pick recipes that can be made the day ahead of time, or that don't take a lot of attention during the meal. Still, with two days of cooking, it's a lot of time spent.

Hard to tell what the crowd favorites were. People did eat all of the sage pizza. They ate a lot more of the first courses (chicken, ratatouille) than the second main course, but I suspect that's from lack of pacing.

I will say that, as much as I liked the chicken and the lamb, it was nice to get back into vegetarian cooking. I might have liked the lamb the best, but I liked the ratatouille a lot, too. I want to keep working on that. It's not the easiest thing to make, and I don't yet have it down, but it's a great dish.

But for the next few days, I won't be doing much cooking. Helen's taking me out to dinner tomorrow; but for now, we're eating leftovers!

Instead of a dog, we got an oven

No, there will not be a race report on the Philadelphia Distance Run. We ran, we finished, we got best times by a few minutes. Moving on. Noah's training for a marathon, and I seem to be stuck rehabbing a minor injury that refuses to heal completely. At least I still get to run.

Other than running and working, we have been indulging in our other love: eating. You see, we got our kitchen redone over the summer, and now we have two ovens. Our new toy is a 24 inch electric oven with convection function made by the Spanish company Fagor (known for pressure cookers), and it's a gift from my mom's brother and sister. They are very cool!

Here it is, posing with some strawberry peach crumble:

More examples of the oven's good deeds:

Nutella-swirl Vanilla cupcakes (before icing)


Peach Upside Down Cake


Pizza

Cassis (aka Blackcurrant) Sorbet (now with pics!)

If you asked me what my favorite ice cream is, I'd have a hard time answering. There are a lot that I really, really like.
But for sorbet, it's a different matter. I do have a favorite - cassis sorbet, especially the one they make at Bertillon, in Paris.

A lot of people like sorbets to be refreshing. Not me. I want one that hits hard, that's so full of flavor that you're even a little tired after eating it. No sorbet can do that like cassis.

Cassis - aka blackcurrant - isn't too popular a flavor in the states. So I haven't had much luck making the sorbet. You can buy cassis nectar in some places, and I've made sorbet with that; it's ok, but it's not the same. So when Heidi brought down a whole bunch of blackcurrants last week from Massachusetts, I knew what I wanted to do with them.

I wasn't sure how, though. I'd never worked with them. I was planning on just boiling them down, the way I used to make strawberry sorbet. But then I read something that said not to cook them too much, or they'd lose their flavor. Meanwhile, they've got these little things on the ends that don't look like they'd be very good in the final product.



In the end, I decided to put the blackcurrants in the blender, then strain them (kind of a hassle), then add simple syrup until it was sweet enough. I also added some creme de cassis, and some lemon juice. Later on, when it didn't taste sweet enough or quite right, I squeezed some orange juice in. When it tasted right, I chilled it, then took it for a spin in my ice cream maker.



The result?
I can't say it's as good as Bertillon.
I can say, though, that it's really, really good. It's got so much flavor, more than any sorbet I've ever made.

Noah solo in Hong Kong part II: Eating

Don't worry, I didn't forget to post about what I ate while abroad. If nothing else, it's one more chance to make Helen jealous!

Five nights in Hong Kong. Really, though, only three particularly memorable dinners. One really kick-ass lunch, though.
When I got in to HKUST I was really exhausted. I managed to get a decent dinner at the university cafeteria, but nothing special. I know it was nothing special because, to be honest, I can't quite remember what it was. I do know that my breakfast the next morning included that sticky rice with chicken, wrapped in a lotus leaf. That was surprisingly good.
The dinner Friday night was with the Humanities faculty, and I was a lot more focused on the discussion, and trying not to eat with my mouth full, than on the food. Really, though, it was when I left HKUST and headed back to Kowloon that things picked up.

In our rankings last November, I put the shanghai dumpling place 3rd. And I stick by that. But they were probably what I missed the most. So I was very excited when we went there for lunch on Saturday. Along with Helen's dad, her Uncle Dennis and Aunt Sylvia came and joined us. I was glad to see them, but at this point, I was pretty focused on the dumplings. And they were every bit as good as I remembered.
(Here's the trick, though – you have to order them as you go. They're best when they're really hot, so if you get a bunch at once they cool down a bit before you can eat them all).
Dinner that night was out in Sai Kung.
I was a bit surprised that we went out there. Having woken up in Sai Kung that morning, I was pretty sure that there was someplace in Kowloon or on Hong Kong Island that would have done the trick. But they were pretty excited about going out there. Same crowd, plus Helen's cousin Byron.
Unlike the last time, we didn't eat right on the waterfront. The neat thing was that we actually ate at a non-seafood restaurant, except that Helen's dad and uncle walked over to the seafood market with one of the guys from the restaurant, bought a fish and a bunch of seafood, and then they cooked it all up for us. Apparently the charge for this is 60 hong kong dollars, or less than 10 bucks. (Says Uncle Dennis: "It's very reasonable.") Some really tasty stuff, especially a shrimp dish with pork floss. (The US needs more pork floss). The best stuff there, though, was the roast duck.
Sunday night – Mother's day – was the big event. Back to the Pacific Club. And it didn't dissapoint. The overall standard there is just so high – from the pickled shallots to the duck to the steamed fish, everything is fresh, well-prepared, and delicious. Even the deep-fried fish heads. I didn't think I'd like that, but I did. I guess that means something, but I'm not sure what.
The final dinner was the most surprising. A thai restaurant that Helen's dad likes. It's at his golf club – a driving range in Kowloon. Not the sort of place I'd have expected. But it was the best Thai food I've ever had.
I don't know if it's more authentic or not. But it was a lot fresher. Most of the Thai food I've had is really heavily cooked. And I like that- stews that spend all day on the stove, lots of spices, etc. And the one curry we had was like that. But most of the dishes – shrimp, and then eel, from the grill; a shrimp and grapefruit salad – had a really light hand with the cooking. It still tasted Thai, but in a much more subtle way.
So those were my main Chinese meals, and my one Thai meal. Not sure what Helen would have thought of the rest of my eating – lots and lots of breads from the bakeries, a few too many candy bars, perhaps; a few meals from the street vendors, which took quite a bit of guts on my part, I thought – not to eat them, just to order them. I was pleased with my level of independce in Hong Kong. But it still doesn't match the guided tour that Helen gave me last November.

Birthday Baking

On my birthday this year, while I was out looking at houses with/for Farrah and Brad, Noah made a birthday cake (decorated by my sisters) and a berry dumplings. I'm so lucky.

Good use of preserved lemons

This dish tastes Morrocan even if it doesn't look it (disclosure: Noah made both the preserved lemons and the paella):

I made popovers...

... and consumed these with warm bourbon sauce/gu.

Last Night's Dinner

First course:
Tomatoes Provençal
Rabbit Provençal

Palate cleanser:
Sage Sorbet

Main Course:
Orchiette with Pesto
Lamb Tagine with Dates
Chicken with Garlic and Shallots
Tomato stew with Sausage and home-made pasta
Mushrooms with olive oil, garlic, and thyme

No-knead Bread
Rice

Dessert:
Hazelnut Biscotti
Ice Creams:
-Pear-Caramel
-Salted Butter Caramel
-Chocolate-Hazelnut
-Double Chocolate
-Strawberry Sorbet

(Technically the first two dishes are "niçois" and not provençal, but since that tends to mean 'with tuna' here, as opposed to just 'from Nice', I'll go with provençal.)

Twenty people total, including us. Definitely the most people we've fed, and the second most people we've had in the house. Eight empty wine bottles (but only ten empty beer bottles). Although it was quite a stretch for our little kitchen, I feel confident in saying that everyone ate well. We sure did!

There were a few slight misses. Well, not 'misses' – that's too strong – but a few things I'd redo differently. Right before serving the rabbit, I was supposed to add the olives and a squeeze of lemon juice, which I forgot to do. I didn't get to eat a tomato, but Helen said that they weren't as good as some others I made, probably because I had to make them in an oversized toaster-oven. I also didn't think that the stew really fit well. We've had it a bunch of times, it's a great dish, but at that point in the meal you've already done the tomato/salty thing and then cleansed your palate, so to go back to tomato/salty was a mistake. Hannah brought a salad, which was great and people definitely enjoyed it, but in retrospect I should have made sure people only ate it after the main dish, so that it doesn't dampen the palate-cleansing aspects of the palate cleanser.


Everything else was really successful. Even though I forgot the olives and lemon, people really liked the rabbit. People differed on what was their favorite dish, but I suspect that it was the lamb, followed closely by the rabbit and the chicken. The lamb was really tasty, and super tender.

Among ice creams, it was easier to rank people's preferences, since I'd made roughly the same amount of each. By far people ate the salted caramel the most.

I was thinking that the lamb was my favorite dish, but now I'm thinking it was the sage sorbet. Palate cleansers, especially palate-cleansing sorbets, might be my new favorite course. They're so tasty and so refreshing. I don't think the sage one is quite as good as the basil granita we served last year, but it was close. It's oddly addictive. And the temperature balance is so nice, too. I wish they were more popular.

Anyway, I don't see doing a dinner this big for a while. It required a lot of planning, and cooking for it was the main activity of the last two days. With only four burners and one oven I had to make up a whole spreadsheet to make sure that I'd be able to pull this off! But all those challenges just made it that much more satisfying when we pulled it off. Thanks to Helen's family for providing a table, spare plates, etc. Thanks to Melissa for the spare chairs and the ice. But most of all, thanks to all who came!

I say Coffee, you say Cake

Courtesy of Helen, this is what I came back to today, at the end of a way-harder-than-it-should-be 35 mile bike ride today.



We do a lot of cooking in our little house. I can honestly say that this is the best the house has ever smelled.





(Coffee… CAKE! Coffee… CAKE!)

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Eating in Hong Kong - Ranking the Dinners

So, nine nights in Hong Kong. Nine dinners, six ranked – we excluded the one home-cooked meal, and the meal we got in on the first night we arrived. We also decided to not include the one night where we didn't go out for Chinese food – a yummy Sushi dinner that we just don't know where to rank. (Oh, and 'night' is a relative term, of course, because for many of these meals our stomachs still thought it was mid-day the next day, or maybe the day before).
And one thing to make clear right off the bat: all of these were good meals. Helen's family was scoping these places out actively for weeks before we got there, making use of years of eating out in Hong Kong. This is not an easy list to get onto!

So, here we go:

The Pacific Club. Kowloon/Tsim Sha Tsui.
Rankings: Helen:1, Noah:1


What to say? Everything here was really, really good. IIRC, this was our third night. A banquet-style meal, with a steamed fish and duck. Overall, a really high level. In some ways it's a shame to rank this at the top, as it was the most western-influenced place we went (the food was Chinese, but the place had an old English men's club feel to it). But this is a food ranking, and everything here was good. They even had good desserts! And although Helen found the presence of pickled shallots on the table as pretty typical, I thought they were great. Pickled shallots – who'd have thought?

Seafood Place. New Territories/Sai Kung.
Rankings: H:2, N:2.



This place was a lot of fun. A TON of seafood. A more festive atmosphere, perhaps, than the full-on-family dinner of the Pacific Club. Two steamed fish, along with a ton of other kinds of seafood. (And a tofu dish, for some reason – perhaps there was a vegetarian there?). In the states, we debate about how to tell if fish is fresh. Looks grey? Smells fishy? In Hong Kong, deciding if something is fresh or not is much more straightforward: fresh=living.


Rice Pot place. New Territories/Tai Po
Rankings: H:3, N:4

Here, we're getting into the more obscure HK places. While Sai Kung is a touristy region with a big ex-pat community, this was just a local restaurant. No Way I would have found this place had I come on my own. It looked pretty obscure, just a corner place in the New Territories. We ordered a variety of things, but the best were the rice pots, super hot clay pots with rice and a choice of meats. You pour in this non-salty soy sauce and it chars the rice, kind of like the soccarat in a paella. Huge lines. Oh, and I'd have been so SOL without Helen and her family. No pretense of having an English menu.


"Canteen A" Hot Pot: Kowloon/Lok Fu
Rankings: H:4,N:5

This was our last HK meal, at the same restaurant as our first full meal. (My understanding is "Canteen A" is Helen's family's nickname for the place, not its real name). Basically, there's a bunch of boiling broth in the middle of the table, and a bunch of meats, seafood, veggies. You take the meat/veggies in your chopsticks (!) and hold it in the broth until it's cooked. This was a good last meal, as Helen got to see more of her family. I liked it, although I'd really like to do it at a smaller table!

Din Tai Fung (Shanghai food): Kowloon/Tsim Shai Tsui.
Rankings: H:5, N:3



I ranked this higher than Helen. I really, really, really liked the dumplings. I liked the other stuff, too, but mostly I liked the dumplings. This was also the restaurant where Helen's dad suggested I eat the fish bones. This set back the 'trust Helen's family' cause quite a bit. But they did choose the place. It's not a place I would have chosen – a chain restaurant in a mall. But the rules are different there.



"Canteen A" first meal: Kowloon/Lok Fu
Rankings: H:6, N:6

Mostly, I was trying to stay awake this meal. Not doing so well. Most of the food was good –really tasty shrimp, steamed fish. There was a roast baby pig, or something like that, that was kind of fatty. But don't let the last-place finish fool you. This was still an excellent meal.


I've been craving a lot of this stuff since getting back. Not like Helen has, I'm sure, but still…
Yes, Chinese food in China is different. Hard to explain how, exactly – it's fresher, less sauce. A lot of sections on menus here – 'lo mein,' 'fried rice' – tend to get their own restaurants there. But really, it's worth a trip for the food. Preferably a trip where you can go with someone who can read the menu!

Nutrition: The Carbohydrates Edition

It's about time we blog about our runners' diet.

First, there's Noah's creation: Tomatoes with Pasta Sauce.

We're also big rice fans. Here's his paella:

And his no-knead bread

For dessert tonight: Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Hyponatraemia

Some sad news:
Another marathoner dies from drinking too much water

I picture this guy, running at an 8 minute mile pace like me, stopping every other mile to drink water because the weather was so hot in the London Marathon on Sunday. I'm sure everyone told him to drink, and it made perfect sense to. Unfortunately, drinking too much water, without of corresponding levels of salts and minerals intake, is a common cause of collapse during the marathon. It's more than just hitting the wall or cramping, people die. And it seems to me that sometimes people don't know it's coming. If they're a little lightheaded, they figure they're dehydrated and drink more water. It makes me sad each time I hear of a case of like this.

+++++++++++++++++

I ran 7.5 easy miles with Noah this morning, just out to Valley Green, up Forbidden Drive, and back via the covered bridge. What a beautiful morning -- sunny, cool, and light. We've been waking up earlier just naturally, and it's nice to use that extra time to share a run together before going in to work.

No running tonight. We're going to a Phillies game.