I followed this Food52 recipe pretty much exactly and we were both extremely happy with the results.
The earl-grey, cardamom, orange zest, lemon juice combination is definitely worth remembering.
Maybe if I just stick to particularly memorable stuff and keep it short I will start doing this again.
This one was an invention, inspired by the presence of gochujang in the fridge.
Dissolve a few heaping Tbs of gochujang and a heaping Tbs of miso paste in water in a slow cooker. Add thinly sliced leek, diced carrot, skinned chicken leg quarters, and sufficient water to cover. Turn on the slow cooker, put on the lid, and go do something else for a few hours (like go climbing). Taste the broth and add a bit of sugar or more gochujang if required. Add some diced (2cm) tofu and let cook for another 30-45 minutes (if you can stand it). Serve over rice.
It's hard to do a nanoreview of an experience like this.
I'll try it this way: we were in the restaurant for a bit over 5 hours, had 12 different rounds of food brought to us (described as 6 courses, but there were just as many amuse bouches and other extras) and each of those had a variety of different components and flavors. It was an intense evening; in a very good way.
Zambra (Ashville): two smiley faces. Good, creative tapas and cocktails, nice wine list, good service (particularly considering the size of our group), nice atmosphere.
What happens if you go back after 15 years?
hmm, I've definitely fallen out of the habit of doing this... but that's no reason not to do some nano-restaurant reviews.
From our visit to Toronto... in no particular order:
I'm not sure how the anise-chocolate pairing came to mind, but there it was...
Roasted chicken using Ruhlmann's technique.
Belgian endive caramelized with butter, brown sugar, and lime juice (recipe from Hesser).
Multi-grain "risotto" drizzled with the chicken pan drippings and topped with green onions that were roasted with the chicken.
Big spitzkohl salad.
Very, very good eating.
I'm not quite sure how it ended up being a salad day...
Salad one: grated carrots, reduced orange juice (reduced by about a factor of three), olive oil, cumin, piment d'espellette, salt, white pepper.
Salad two: small green lentils cooked with bay leaf and clove, diced and browned bacon, diced carrot, minced red onion, garlic, caramelized leek, chives, chopped parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, white pepper.
Salad three: lettuce with a creamy dressing
We ate this with a nice baguette.
Something like steak and potatoes. :-)
I did my standard roesti approach (floury potatoes this time since that's what we had) and paired that with "charbonnade" cuts of beef that I seasoned and seared.
Together with a big salad we were happy eaters.
After reading this incredibly minimal chocolate mousse recipe there was no question about not trying it.
I used a good dark (70%) chocolate and the result is really amazing. It's almost a better way to taste chocolate than straight-up.
Been a while since we did the Bittman chicken, chickpea, and vanilla tajine... that's too bad because it's good stuff.
To accompany the expected: cous cous
This was a random one after getting back from a long weekend of snowshoeing.
Half some belgian endive then put them cut-side down in a very hot pan with a bit of oil. Let sear for a couple minutes then add the braising liquid (veal stock, grainy french mustard, tomato paste, honey, black pepper), cover and let simmer until the endive is tender, about 45 minutes.
We ate this as a main course, toppped with grana padano and accompanied by brown rice.
Hooray for making it up as you go along!
