Category Archives: American

American, Fish, Shrimp, Vegetables

Bouillabaisse

1 Comment

We were at the Saratoga Farmer’s Market the other day and stopped by at the Mission Fish vendor. They specialize in fish caught fresh in the Monterey Bay and always have a good selection. They’ll even clean and fillet the fish for you for free. The fish heads and bones they package up for sale, and that’s what we came home with.

We took those fish head and bones and put them in a large stock pot, tossed in some shrimp shells, and added the mirepoix – onions, celery, and carrots – a cup of dry white wine, a quarter of a lemon, some whole peppercorns, a bay leaf, and some herbs de Provence, then covered with water. Brought it to a boil, then simmered for 1 hour before straining out the liquid.

Continue reading Bouillabaisse →

American, Yeast

Dinner Rolls

1 Comment

What are the best dinner rolls you ever ate? I remember once eating some great bread in a steak restaurant near Provo, Utah. Forget what they were called, but they were good.

When Annie and I were dating, every so often we’d go have the buffet at the Plumeria Beach Cafe in the Kahala Hilton on Oahu. Besides the awesome spread there (oh, for the days when we could eat lots more and not worry about the weight), they had a basket of rolls with different selections from regular to whole wheat to sourdough to taro. The taro bread was especially good.

Annie made these two types of dinner rolls for us the other night. The first was “Butter-Dipped Dinner Rolls” from “The Bread Bible” and the second was “Dark & Soft Restaurant Dinner Rolls” from “Whole Grain Baking” by King Arthur Flour. Here are both doughs rising before shaping.

After baking. They were both great, but I think the edge went to the butter-dipped ones. Those were so light, airy, and buttery

These were the best rolls I’ve had in a very long time.

Aloha, Nate

American, Egg, Vegetables

Chopped Salad

Leave a comment

�

Annie made this great chopped salad with blanched broccoli, canned black beans, hard boiled eggs, roasted red bell peppers and corn, chopped cilantro, and green onion. The dressing was Annie’s Naturals brand cilantro-lime dressing.

(Too bad they don’t sell the cilantro-lime dressing anymore – it’s good. At least we can still get the shiitake mushroom-sesame vinaigrette from Trader Joe’s.)

It was a great salad for a warm (85*F) day.

Aloha, Nate

American, Lamb

Roast Leg of Lamb

Leave a comment

Beef has gone up in price so much these days that sometimes you can find lamb being sold cheaper per pound than beef. That’s good because if you get the craving for red meat but aren’t willing to pay so much for a beef roast, there’s always lamb.

We had this roasted boneless leg of lamb at a potluck dinner one night and asked the cook where she got the recipe. Surprisingly, it came from the “Cooking in Style the Costco Way” recipe book. Annie liked it so much, she decided to make it herself.

Made a rub from orange zest, ground toasted fennel seed, salt, pepper, Dijon mustard, minced fresh rosemary, minced garlic, and olive oil. Rubbed it inside and outside the boneless leg of lamb and let it marinate in the fridge overnight.

Roasted the lamb for 15 mins at 450*F, then turn temp down to 325*F and cooked until it hit 135*F internal. Rested for 15 mins and cut against grain in thin slices .

Here it is plated up with some garlic mashed potatoes and swiss chard gratin.

Paired with an excellent, well balanced 2001 Spanish Rioja, this was a dinner to remember.

Aloha, Nate