Panini

Quoc got me a fantastic panini grill for Xmas a few years back. This is not for the panini you find in airports and gourmet fast food outlets. Delicious toasted sandwiches is what it makes.

Today there are two on the grill, mainly composed of grilled veggies left over from a BBQ on Friday.

Grilled portobello mushrooms with aged white cheddaer and horseradish mustard.

Grilled fennel and red pepper with blue cheese and fresh basil leaves.

Friday night in

Prawns sauteed in a sweet spice mix and then finished with a splash of rosé and butter

Fresh asparagus from the farmer's market sauteed simply in a hot pan in olive oil and garlic

And some Japanese chocolate Quoc fished out of his stash from his last trip to Chinatown

more outdoor dinners

anchovies in chili and olive oil

grilled fennel, scallion, courgettes, red pepper, aubergine tossed first in a mix of lemon juice, fresh garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme

Turkey Burger

Turkey Burger with Cashew Romesco [ red peppers, garlic, tomato, ancho chilis, honey, lemon juice, cashews ]

Potato Salad

Blackcurrant dijon mustard, dill, sugar, lemon juice, salt, sour cream, capers

Chicken Paprikash

Most of these recipes come more or less from David Bouley's top notch book 'East of Paris - the new cuisines of Austria and the Danube'

Smoked salmon ravioli with avocado mousse and dill mustard cream

Beet salad with caraway and watercress

Roasted carrots and shiitakes

Colcannon - an Irish specialty. Potatoes mashed with kale, onion, mustard and butter

Chicken Paprikash with paprika sauce

Chocolate chip cherry cookies

Indian Vegetarian

Cauliflower with asafetida and cumin

Mushroom and pea curry

Spinach and potato

Apple crumble with caramel ice cream

Sunday dinner

Beet and pink grapefruit salad with parsley, balsamico, olive oil

Arugula and avocado salad [ shallot, sherry vinegar, olive oil ]

Cristina's risotto with red wine and mushrooms [olive oil, butter, shallot, crimini, portobello, shitake, carnaroli rice, red wine, mushroom stock, parmesan ]

Clean Spice Minimalism

A job that needed doing. It was a total explosion of sticky plastic bags and spice powders. Much better now.

Parkin

Parkin is a type of gingerbread from the north of England and Scotland. In addition to all the usual gingerbread ingredients it also has oatmeal, golden syrup, and molasses in it. So mixes up a very sugary, liquid batter, and bakes up sweet and chewy. It's apparently a treat for kids on Guy Fawkes night in England.

Oatmeal raisin cookies

1 tsp of baking soda+1 tsp of boiling water added in at the end makes them crispy

Pasta

Whole wheat linguine + sugo [ onion, turkey fennel sausage, tomato paste, white wine, milk ]

Calabaza Squash Soup

[ onion, garlic, ras el hanout, calabaza squash, chicken stock, thyme, sriracha, lemon juice, salt, black pepper ]

More seasonal ramps

Quoc's Vietnamese style pickled ramps [ ramps, vinegar, sugar, garlic, fish sauce, water ]

A chicken sandwich

Flatbread. Chicken grilled with a Moroccan spice mix I got in a Marrakesh Hypermarket. Salad with tahini sauce [ 2 cloves garlic crushed in salt, 3 TB tahini, juice of a lemon, water to dilute as needed ]

Windy Grilling

Two views. 

North [ eggplant with tahini and lemon. zucchini with thyme and lemon ]

South [ quoc's chicken wings ]

Spicy Vegetables

Spicy vegetable stew [parsnips, carrot, potato, chickpeas, white beans, fregola, lemon, syrian spice mix, garlic, onion, tomato, thyme, bay leaf]
Spicy mashed peas with jalapeño

Food Gardening

Got lots of tomato plants and herbs at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens sale last week. All potted up and getting their full sun on the deck - a warm up for eating. Italian basil and cinnamon basil, chives, garlic chives, jalapeño and cayenne peppers, lemon thyme, french tarragon, silver thyme, oregano and marjoram.

Fiori

Not food but flowers - the current crop. Azalea, Allium, Columbine.

Ramps in season

It's hard to get through the Farmers' Market Here in New York without being knocked out by the smell of ramps (wild onions). Quoc is making Kim Chee from them.

Sailor Knots

Nodi Marini, tomato sauce, fresh herbs, ricotta salata

Zenkichi - Omakase highlights

Raw tasting - Madai Sashimi, Hokki Sunomono,  and Maguro Carpaccio

Tiger shrimp and Renkon tempura [ shrimp, lotus root, shiso leaf]

Demonslayer saki

Saikyo Miso Cod

Japanese chicken meatball on bamboo with poached egg dipping sauce

Menu May 4th 2008