whole wheat pasta with walnut sauce & radicchio salad with apples

 

  

  

 

 

Those are Alex's hands, in case there was any doubt.

basque cake

 

  

  

This cake has an almond crust on top and bottom and custard in the middle. You make the custard ahead of time and let it set up before assembling the cake. The crust also gets made ahead and chills. I believe there is booze in the crust, Pernod or Pastis? And come to think of it, there is some other type of booze in the custard, maybe Armagnac. The custard and crust fuse together to form the most amazing confection. Alex fiddled with this recipe until it tasted like the cakes he had in Spain. In San Sebastian you get little, individual Basque cakes with cherry preserve of some sort on top—so I hear. All I remember eating in San Sebastian is fried eggs with fried peppers and french fries, all swimming in olive oil. Shameful, but I was only nineteen and didn't know any better . . . and, anyway, those breakfasts were so good.

breakfast

duck prosciutto (thanks, garcia), sheep's milk cheese, and pea shoots on a jogger roll from fressen bakery

seared duck breast with shiitake pan sauce, roasted carrots, and rösti

 

 

pork steak

 

there is a word for this

spanish tortilla

chicken stock

Caldo gallego

Otherwise known as Galician white bean soup. I ate this in Santiago de Compostela when I did my junior year abroad a million years ago. This recipe came from 'The New Spanish Table' cookbook, and it made an amazing stew.

wine

The Marigny-Neuf is the gamay I mentioned in that last post. These three wines have been in heavy rotation lately. Mom, the Anjou on the right is the one you loved so much...

seared bavette, gremolata with orange zest, polenta, fennel salad with french feta and heirloom naval orange

It close to midnight, I am recently home from work. I almost did my dishes but thought better of it (why punish yourself with dishes after work?) and instead only cleaned the cast iron skillet that had been sitting since we made lunch on saturday, which reminded me to post these photos. This was the part of the bavette that we couldn't fit in the pan when we made dinner on wednesday! Not pictured is the delicious and inexpensive Loire gamay that we got from Navarre and drank with this food. Opening a bottle of wine at lunch is good for morale.

sea island red pea gravy & buttered white rice

 

This recipe (and the field peas and the Carolina Gold rice) came from Anson Mills. 

breakfast

pan seared, roasted chicken with turnip & parsley pan sauce, butter lettuce salad with apples, parsley & green onion, roasted squash with garlic & sage

broiled lamb steak with olive oil/buttermilk mashed potatoes & fennel salad

steak au poivre, roasted japanese sweet potatoes, and kale