Recent Cooking and Dining During the Pandemic

Lunches often use ingredients from previous dinners, generally sandwiches with left over chicken, pork, or lamb.  For a change, we pull out the panini press and grate some sharp cheddar cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches.

Grilled cheese

We make chicken/duck stock every few weeks with the leftover parts from meals we have served.  This inspires us to prepare soup often, this time one of our favorites, Italian wedding soup, with meatballs baked with ground white and dark turkey (mixed with bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, pecorino romano cheese, parmesan cheese, milk, and an egg), onion, carrots, celery, dill, ditalini (small tubular pasta), and spinach.  What a great combination!

Italian wedding soup

We dine out for the first time in months, eating at an outside patio at Trabacco Kitchen & Cocktails, sharing beet risotto and ravioli con coda (house-made pasta stuffed with braised oxtail, au jus, and pecorino pepato).

Beet risotto, ravioli con coda

Back home, we prepare another old favorite, saffron risotto with butternut squash.  The butternut squash is peeled, cubed, and roasted until tender.  The risotto is made with saffron, onion, and sautéed pancetta.  The dish is completed by adding the roasted squash cubes and Parmesan cheese.

Saffron risotto with butternut squash

On a clear, cool evening, we grill skirt steak.  While the skirt steak is marinating in a mixture of basil, scallions, thyme, garlic, peperoncini, and lemon zest and juice, we prepare appetizers of pizzettes with anchovies, tomato/mozarella, and mushrooms.  And, to accompany the skirt steak, we grill asparagus.

Pizzettes

Ready to go, on the grill

Served with a Pomerol, this is another favorite meal (or even without the Pomerol)!

Grilled skirt steak

Heading back to JP Seafood, we pick up some halibut for basil-rubbed halibut with puttanesca relish.  We grill tomatoes, a jalapeno pepper, and an onion until charred and, when cool, dice them and add them to a vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, anchovy paste, oregano, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  We brush the halibut fillets with basil oil (blend canola oil, basil, salt, and pepper until smooth), grill them until slightly charred, and serve them with the puttanseca (tomato/jalapeno/onion/vinaigrette) relish and rice.

Making the relish, plated and served

For our last meal of this series, we try a new recipe [to us]:  spatchcocked chicken with herbes de Provence butter.  We have the butcher spatchcock (butterfly) a whole chicken and we then rub it (over and under the skin) with herbes de Provence butter made by mashing together 1/2 stick of butter, garlic, parsley, assorted herbs (thyme and rosemary from our garden and other spices that we have left over from recent meals), herbes de Provence, lemon zest, salt, and pepper.  We roast the chicken in the oven and serve it with a dab of the herbes de Provence butter on top, accompanied by potato salad and avocado salad.

Chicken, potato salad, avacodo salad

We're continuing to enjoy our pandemic cooking and pause, in the next few blogs, for another journey to a far-away place.  As you might imagine, with travel seriously restricted for the past 6 months, it's becoming more challenging to come up with new places to highlight!  We have few more to share, then we may go back and look at some of our favorites over the past years.

Recent Cooking and Dining During the Pandemic

We're cleaning out our cupboard (there is a lot of that going on with "working from home" and travel and assembly restrictions due to Covid-19) and what do we find:  a box of cedar wraps that we purchased for something years ago.  We look to see what we can wrap, and find a fun-sounding recipe for cedar-wrapped halibut.  We soak the cedar wraps in water as we cut the halibut filets into chunks and make kebabs with alternating chunks of halibut and slices of lemon.  We brush each kebab with a mixture of olive oil, clarified butter, garlic, thyme, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, wrap each with a cedar wrap, and grill.  We accompany this with spinach sauteed in garlic.

Preparing spinach, halibut

Wrapped, grilling

Served with a pasta salad, the halibut and spinach are a real treat!

Grilled, served

Next, grilled salmon is the highlight, but the accompanying dishes are also incredible, starting with an appetizer of camembert and prosciutto tartines and avacodo and coleslaw salads.

Camembert and prosciutto tartines, pandemic cocktail motto

Salmon and salads

The next day, leftover salmon goes into salmon tacos, along with the guacamole and coleslaw.

Salmon tacos

Our next meal is a treat that we don't have very often:  lamb, which we prepare as Moroccan-style grilled lamb chops.  We slice two racks of lamb into chops and spread a mixture of garlic, mint, turmeric, coriander, cumin, lemon zest, and olive oil over the chops.  We then cover the herbed chops with a whisked-together mixture of Greek yogurt, Sriracha sauce, and lemon juice and marinate it all overnight the the refrigerator.

Lamb chops marinating

To start, appetizers of anchovies and cheese, accompanied by Domain Chandon sparkling wine.  While enjoying the appetizers, we prepare an avocado and tomato salad and couscous with pine nuts and mint.

Appetizers

Salad, couscous

Lamb grilling, done

The lamb is served on a bed of couscous with the salad on the side.

Dinner is served

And, for desert, shared It's-It ice cream sandwiches:  chocolate and vanilla.

Desert

Wow, what wonderful lamb.  But, all the dishes were terrific:  great tastes and great taste memories.

Recent Cooking and Dining at Home During the Pandemic

As a summer treat, we dine on sheet-pan chicken with jammy tomatoes and pancetta, accompanied by a watermelon and heirloom tomato salad (with feta cheese).  We toss chicken thighs in a mixture of garlic, lemon juice, paprika, oregano, brown sugar, and cumin before roasting them with cherry tomatoes and pancetta. 

Chicken, tomato/watermelon salad

Returning to a favorite fish for grilling, we make swordfish brochettes with basil and harissa, grilling the swordfish cubes (each stuffed with a basil leaf) on a skewer, seasoned with a mixture of toasted fennel seeds, olive oil, harissa, lemon zest, lime zest, garlic, salt, and pepper.  We serve with roasted broccoli and leftover tomato-watermelon salad from the previous day.

Grilled swordfish

Next, we grill a bourbon-marinated flank steak (marinated overnight in bourbon and Dijon mustard), accompanied by roasted brussels sprouts and pancetta, finished off with lemon zest and juice, pomegranate seeds, and balsamic vinegar.

Brussels sprouts, with flank steak

Then, it's back to JP Seafood for scallops, preparing them Provencal-style, with a sauce of  shallots, garlic, and parsley, cooked in white wine and butter, accompanied by a kale salad with pancetta and shaved pecorino romano cheese.

Kale salad, scallops Provencal

But, soon, its time for more pasta and we make a favorite:  orecchiette with broccoli rabe, cooked with hot Italian sausage and garlic and served with a kale salad.

Orecchiette with broccoli rabe

We're working through our old favorite recipes, discovering new ones, and enjoying lots of great meals!

Recent Cooking and Dining at Home During the Pandemic

We try to prepare seafood twice a week, generally one day of salmon and one day of whatever looks interesting at JP Seafood (sea bass, halibut, swordfish, sole, scallops, shrimp, ahi tuna).  This time, we prepare salmon on the grill and roast small Yukon gold potatoes and assorted rainbow carrots and herbs to accompany the fish.  But first, we start with fresh burata from Foodshed Take Away in Napa, with sliced prosciutto and bread sticks.

Appetizer, roasting the carrots and potatoes

The plate

The next day, we barbecue a port tenderloin (with a sauce made of roasted red pepper, pecorino romano cheese, pumpkin seeds, red wine vinegar, paprika, and cayenne pepper), accompanied by roasted cauliflower with sliced garlic, and a small bean salad.

Pork tenderloin

Returning East End, a favorite local restaurant, for take out, we dine on garlic knots, pizza with corn, roasted tomatoes, jalapenos, and house-blend cheese, and a summer risotto (carnaroli rice with corn, fava beans, cherry tomatoes, crème fraîche, feta, and fresh herbs), similar to what we would order if were able to dine inside.

Pizza and risotto

Returning to JP Seafood, we make shrimp burgers with homemade tartar sauce, accompanied by a blueberry arugula salad (with goat cheese and almonds).  The shrimp is pulsed in a food processor along with mayonnaise, pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper, then formed into patties, breaded with panko bread crumbs, and cooked in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Blueberry salad, shrimp burgers ready to cook

   

Shrimp burgers