Dinner in Austin: Rabbit with orange glaze, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and pots de creme

We've spent the last week in Austin, TX. I gave a talk, we went to the LBJ Presidential Library, and we've tried to get work done. S has given us her house for the week, as she spends most of her time at her partner's place. They're great cooks, so we've happily eaten with them most nights, but last night we got to have them over and show off our own cooking.

Go to the Farmers' Market in Austin, and check out all the meat stands (there are many, especially in winter). Hopefully, you'll find Countryside Farm, where you can pick up a whole rabbit. Defrost it in a bowl of water in the fridge overnight. Also look for broccoli and sweet potato, which are available in February even after a week of frigid temperatures (this week has been in the 70s, but last week saw highs in the 30s).

Main: rabbit baked with orange-honey glaze

A few hours before you're ready to eat, butcher the now-thawed rabbit. We prefer smaller cuts, so ended up with eight pieces: forelegs, ribs, sides and belly, and hind legs. Be careful to find and remove and save the kidneys, liver, and (if you're lucky) heart. Lightly salt and pepper the pieces, and set them in a single layer in an oven-safe pan.

Meanwhile, reduce three cups orange juice to one cup, and then whisk in juice from half a lemon, ¼ cup honey, salt and pepper, and add thyme and four cloves fresh garlic. Pour the hot liquid over the rabbit, and let the meat marinate an hour. Top the meat with sliced oranges and more fresh thyme. The rabbit needs to bake 25 minutes in a pre-heated 400-degree oven.

Sides: mashed sweet potato with ginger and sage; baked broccoli

Cube sweet potato, and boil in salted water until tender, 20-30 minutes. Mince some fresh ginger and lots of fresh sage. Drain the potato, and mash it with the ginger and sage, a little salt and pepper, and some butter. Transfer to an oven-proof casserole with a lid, so that you can warm the potato back up near the end of food-prep.

Cut up some broccoli, pack it into a casserole with a lid (we used a terrine), and add plenty of minced garlic, juice from half a lemon, and some grated or shaved parmesan cheese. Bake 20-25 minutes, covered.

Dessert: pots de creme de chocolat

You should make the dessert first. Preheat the oven to 300°F, and also bring a teakettle of water to a boil.

In a heat-proof bowl or large measuring cup, place 2-3 oz chopped (or chip) milk chocolate. Then scald between 1 ½ and 2 cups cream, and pour over the chocolate to melt. Meanwhile, whisk together 3 egg yolks with ¼ cup sugar and a pinch of cinnamon. Temper the yolks by whisking in a little of the hot cream, and then combine the cream and yolks. Whisking, heat the mixture over medium until it thickens enough to coat a wooden spoon.

Prepare a water bath by pouring the boiled water into a small lasagna tray or two loaf pans, just enough so that with four ramekins set in the water, the level is about 2/3 up the sides of the ramekins. Ladle the thickened egg mixture into four small ramekins, wipe down any spills on the outside, and place in the water bath. Bake 35 minutes at 300°, until centers are still a little jiggly. Cool a little on a wire rack, and then chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour — the centers will firm up the rest of the way.

For serving, whip some more of the cream and dollop on top of the pots de creme. Decorate with mint leaves if you have them.

Serving

Set the table lovely with dinner knife and fork on the sides of each plate, salad fork and dessert spoon above the plates, and white and dessert wine glasses. Also set out pads for hot foods. Time the baking so that you can remove everything from the oven a little after the guests arrive, or anyway to bring everything still warm out. (The casserole pans will hold their heat, and you really don't want to overcook the rabbit — it's ok if the meat cools a bit before serving.)

Begin with the meat and veggie sides, accompanied with a nice chardonnay. We discovered that Fall Creek Vineyards, a Texas winery, is quite good, and bottles are under $10.

Once everyone has eaten their full, remove the dinner plates and silverware and the food, and bring out smaller salad plates (we love salad between the main course and dessert; it's refreshing and light). Salad should consist of washed and dried red-leaf lettuce, dressed in something with plenty of minced shallots and just a little salt and acid (white wine vinegar or a while balsamic), with maybe a little honey mixed into the dressing. Salad's a great chance to continue talking, start digesting, and finish a second bottle of chardonnay.

Finally, remove the salad plates and forks to the kitchen. Whip the cream and decorate the pots de creme, and bring them to the table. Open a bottle of Fall Creek sweet moscatel, and enjoy the dessert slowly accompanied by good conversation.

Macaroni and cheese and mushrooms and broccoli in a cast iron skillet

Grilled lamb burgers sweet potato chips and all the fixings

Having moved from vegetarian to marketarian, we have discovered a new favorite dish: lamb burgers. Mince an onion and saute it in a little fat, and then mix it with ground meat, maybe some minced herbs, and an egg yolk. Actually, don't use an egg yolk: for an extra treat, swap the egg for a dollop of homemade mayonnaise. Then form in to patties, dredge with flour if you like, and fry in the same pan you cooked the onions in, or grill.

Don't have homemade mayonnaise? You should. Our very easy recipe is from the great Julia Child: in the food processor, mix one egg plus two yolks, a heaping teaspoon of prepared mustard, a little salt, and a tablespoon of acid, for about thirty seconds. Then, with the machine running, slowly drizzle in between one and two cups oil (use a good oil, but it's fine to mix: I usually combine olive and peanut oils).

Our always side with burgers are sweet potatoes, in some sort of fry/chip form. Slice some sweet potatoes, one large or two small per person, and toss with olive oil, salt, paprika, and cumin. Then bake or grill them. Grilled sweet potatoes are lovely, and give you a chance to warm up the grill before cooking the meat.

For fixings, open some jars of homemade pickles and ketchup. For a quick dill pickle, clean some jars, and add a clove or two of garlic, cleaned sliced cucumber (be sure to remove the area right next to the flower, as it contains enzymes that make the pickle lose its crispness), and a tablespoon or so of dill seed, mustard seed, black pepper, and maybe a bay leaf or some fennel seed. Combine equal parts water and distilled vinegar, and maybe a third as much non-iodized salt (the iodine can throw off the pickling), over the stove until bubbling and the salt has dissolved. Pour the hot brine over the cucumbers, and either seal the jars in the canner or keep in the refrigerator. If you prefer sweet pickles, add plenty of sugar to the brine, and instead of garlic and dill use sliced onion and some whole cloves (keep the mustard). Ketchup is a bit more involved: cook tomatoes, onions, and a bell pepper with a bag of whole spices (allspice, celery seed, etc.); drain; puree; add vinegar, sugar, salt, paprika; cook until the correct consistency.

Slice up some cheese, a garden tomato, and some red onion. We usually make our own burger buns (your favorite whole wheat dough works well), but this time we had an "herb slab" from Acme Bread. Serve burgers with a hearty red wine on the sweeter side.

Leek pie with seared ahi

We found some pie dough that we had stuck away at the back of the freezer, and defrosted it overnight in the fridge. For a leek pie, clean and slice a few leeks and saute them in some butter, salt, and thyme. Heap the leeks onto a pie or pastry crust, fold up the sides, and bake until the crust is golden. Leek pie goes well with almost anything; we paired it with seared ahi tuna and a pinot gris.

Pork chops, roasted carrots with fennel, and caramelized radishes

Radishes are a bit of a pain, because they are very tasty individually, but you never really want more than one. B sliced a bunch of radishes thin and sauteed them with onions, red wine, and brown sugar to caramelize them.

The roasted carrot recipe came from Cook's Illustrated (November & December 2010). A close paraphrase: "Adjust oven ract to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. In large bowl, combine 1 pound carrots (peeled, halved crosswise, and cut lengthwise if necessary to create even pieces), 1 small fennel bulb (cored and sliced ½ inch thick), 2 tablspoons unsalted butter (melted), ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper; toss to coat. Transfer carrots to foil- or parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and spread in a single layer. Cover baking sheet tightly with foil and cook for 15 minutes. Remove foil and continue to cook, stirring twice, until carrots are well browned and tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a serving platted, and toss vegetables with ¼ cup toasted sliced almonds, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and, optionally, 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley."

While the carrots were in the oven, B roasted the pork chops under the broiler. Before serving, he coated them with more chopped almonds.

Moussaka

We love moussaka, that wonderful Greek casserole of eggplant, tomatoes, and ground lamb. But I do not recommend the recipe from Joy of Cooking. It does not taste particularly Greek — it just tastes like Joy. Gruyere as the only cheese? Currants?

Stuffed delicata

Wash, remove the tips from, halve, and scoop out the seeds from two delicata squash. Rub some salt inside the squash, place the squash halves face-down in an oiled glass pan, and bake ten to minutes. Meanwhile, in a food processor combine onion, apples, walnuts, mushrooms, and a little salt and oil, until coarsely chopped. (If the onion is particularly piquant or the mushrooms a little touch, saute them first.) Remove the squash from the oven, turn upright, and stuff with the onion-and-walnut mixture. Sprinkle grated cheese on top, and return to the oven for half an hour.

Roast goat

Long-time readers of this blog know that a few years ago we were fairly committed vegetarians — I used to be the kitchen manager at a vegetarian/vegan co-op! But we have in the last few months started eating fish at every meal, and "lapsing" further: pork from our CSA, rabbit in Spain. I think we're currently not so much "vegetarians" as "Farmers' Marketarians".

To this end, for our second and final dinner with my dad in Eugene, we brought home two and a half pounds of leg-of-goat from the Eugene Saturday Market. We also bought potatoes, for mashing with garlic from my parents CSA; beets, onions, and carrots, for roasting with the goal; and green figs, for pickling. Yes, pickled figs: a week ago or so, B's uncle took us out to eat at Revival Bar and Kitchen (the new restaurant started by the owner of Venus), where I ordered the goat, and it was served with pickled figs. So, while I was out getting my hair cut, B began by bringing to a boil equal parts water and vinegar, with salt and whole cumin, and pouring the mixture over quartered figs packed into a jar.

Then he prepared the roast. (Did I mention that B did all the cooking, and made it all fantastic?) He chopped the root vegetables and layered them in a glass baking pan. We had some shallot-and-sage butter from the previous night, and he used it to stuff and tenderize the meat. The roast and a bouquet garni followed, and then red wine. He baked the roast for about an hour, basting it regularly. He added about half the figs near the end of cooking, and the acidity provided a nice counterpoint to the sugars in the root roasted root veggies.

Finally, B mashed some potatoes with the roasted garlic from the previous dinner. My dad broke out a particularly nice bottle of wine for the occasion, and we had a wonderful dinner.

Quince Cake

I occasionally come across recipes I wrote up in a private journal before starting this blog. Here's one from October 2007.

Makes enough for a review session with 15 students; in fact, I doubled this recipe, and had a little more than necessary, but not too much more.

Preheat oven 350°F. Wash and core

• 1 large or 2 small quinces

and chop into small slices. Place in saucepan, and add enough water to not quite cover. If quinces are not extremely ripe, add a handful of sugar. Set over high heat, bring to boil, and reduce to medium. Cook ten minutes or so, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Prepare a couple loaf pans or one 9x13-inch pan: grease, then line with parchment, then grease again. Or a bunch of muffin tins, spray-greased. In standing mixer with paddle, combine (all numbers rough)

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg and/or clove

Mix thoroughly, then pour in

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

and let combine fully. In a liquid measuring cup lightly beat

• 3 eggs

and pour into flour with mixer running; beat 30 seconds, scrape down sides, and beat again (or skip that part).

When quinces are easily mushed, scoop quinces into batter, one third at a time. Batter will be very liquidy. Pour into prepared pans, filling about 2/3 to the top. Bake 20-40 minutes (muffins are done in 20; glass lasagna pan takes about 25-30; large metal pan will take longer). Cake is done when tester comes out clean. Let cool before cutting for a stable, moist crumb, or enjoy a sticky gooey treat.

Remove from pans with parchment still on the bottom. Slice and load into tupperware, using parchment (or wax paper) to separate layers. Bring to review session, in an effort to bribe your students.

Niçoise salad with homemade bread

Ratatouille lasagna

We love the flavor combination of ratatouille: tomatoes, eggplant, summer squash, supplemented with onions, garlic, peppers, and herbs. But the vegetable mix is never satisfying as a dinner: you eat and eat and eat and never fill up. Much better is a lasagna, layering the vegetables between cheese and pasta. So we decided the have the best of both worlds.

We began by slicing and lightly salting the vegetables (eggplant, onions, bell peppers, zucchini) and spread them in single layers in pans to roast uncovered in the oven. Meanwhile, we made a pasta dough with one part white flour to two parts semolina, a little salt, a couple eggs, and enough water to hold it together but not so much as to make the dough tacky. We rolled the dough through the hand-cranked pasta maker and let it dry on a rack. Then we put together our cheese mixture: minced garlic, grated mozzarella, grated romano, fresh thyme, grated black pepper, and ricotta. Finally, we diced some tomatoes, saving the juive, and mixed in some diced onion and chopped basil and a little salt.

Ingredients prepared, we started layering the lasagna. Begin by putting a splash of oil and just a little of the tomato juice at the bottom of the pan, and then a layer of noodles. Then some of the tomato mixture, a layer of zucchini, and a layer of cheese, with some of the roasted onions and peppers dotted through. On top of all this, another layer of pasta, then tomatoes, eggplants, cheese, and continuing in this way until the casserole is assembled. End with noodles and a thick layer of cheese, decorated with some roasted onions and peppers.

Cover the casserole with a tent of foil, and bake about half an hour. Then remove the foil and cut it into strips to wrap just around the edges of the pan, so that any noodles showing don't crisp too much in the oven, and bake another half hour. Let the casserole cool about ten minutes before slicing and serving.

Last night in Indian Lake: homemade bread, hummus, baba ghanoush, and salad

Pie time

With the last of the berries (and supplementing the olallieberries with blackberries from behind our house) we made pies. The two olallie/blackberry pies we shared with friends — they were delicious. The strawberry rhubarb is still in the freezer, waiting for a yummy winter evening. In the background in the picture you can also see a bowl of fava beans from our garden.

Lemon bars

S's sister is a terrific baker. We were recently treated to some of her desserts, and I was particularly impressed with her lemon bars, a dish I always fail at hopelessly. She gave me her recipe, which I have reproduced below — I have not yet had a chance to try it, but I look forward to doing so.

For the crust:

• confectioners sugar ½ cup (sifted)
• flour (sifted) 1½ cup
• unsalted room temp water ¾ cup

350°F. Butter 9 by 13 inch baking pan.

MIX: Sifted confect. sugar, sifted flour, unsalted butter. It will take a while but beat on low speed until smooth sticky dough forms.

Put dough into pan and press down evenly into the bottom. ∼½ inch up sides. Bake ∼25–30 minutes until deep golden brown. Rotate so evenly golden.

Filling:

• sifted flour ½ cup
• sugar 2¼ cup
• lemon juice 1 cup + 2 tbsp
• lemon zest grated (from any size lemon but I use medium to small)
• 6 large eggs, 1 large egg yolk
• 1 pinch salt

Sift flour, whist sugar, add lemon juice, zest, stir to dissolve sugar. In separate bowl whist eggs, egg yolk, and salt (helps relax protein). Add eggs to lemon misture, whisk.

When crust ready, pull out oven rack, pour lemon mixture directly into pan, REDUCE to 300°F, cook 30–35 min until custard not wobbly.

Cooking in Spain: Grilled tortillas with hummus and babaganoush

It's a shame that we forgot to take photos of more of our dinners in Almuñécar, all of which B and I cooked for the family. Our third night we grilled tuna and corn, and on our fourth night we made a pasta primavera. On our fifth night in Almuñécar, we wanted something different. So, while B did most of the cooking in the downstairs kitchen (hummus, babaganoush, and a large greek salad), my sister and I grilled tortillas on the roof. We made a simple dough from flour, salt, olive oil, and water, and rolled the tortillas with a wine bottle. Then we fired up the grill and cooked the rounds until about the consistency of crackers.

Salmon baked in parchment with tomatoes, onions, and capers

Prepare a salsa with one large jar canned whole peeled plum tomatoes (one of our best batches!), one red onion, greens of one spring onion, a large spoonful of capers, and some olive oil and black pepper. Check that your salmon steaks are completely descaled, and place one steak in the center of a large piece of parchment. Top with plenty of salsa. Fold up the parchment and staple it closed. Then fold the parchment packet up again in a large piece of foil. Bake in a preheated oven 15-20 minutes. Open up the packets on the plate, and enjoy!

Strawberry rhubarb tartlets

Pies for us:



Pies for B's meeting with his professors:

Double chocolate chunk cookies

B does most of the baking around here. When I asked him about these cookies, he said: "Take a normal chocolate chip cookie recipe, using larger chocolate chunks instead of the small chips, and add about a quarter cup of cocoa powder."

Pizza with spinach, mozzarella, and canned whole tomatoes

Spinach and onion frittata