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Young & HungryIf you can't take the heat, get outta the kitchen! |
| 3 February |
Just when I had come to terms with the fact that I was not getting a callback, there it came! A call from an unknown number in LA mid-wine tasting. On a side note, I would like to give kudos to the Tasting Room in Sandy Springs for hosting one of the best and most informative wine tastings I’ve ever attended. Back to the phone call. Not having yet realized the importance of the mysterious number in my call log, I thoughtlessly dialed voice mail while perusing the isles of the wine shop next door with my girl friends. Stop. Drop. Squeal! They called and are wondering if I’m still interested! Duh, of course I am. Roll camera!
It all started with leftover nuts. Hazelnuts, to be exact. I have quite an assortment of nuts lingering in my pantry from Christmas just begging to live up to their full potential. Who am I to deny a lonely hazelnut their proper fate? And so I thought, hazelnuts and…..orange….and….fish! Yes it sounds like a bizarre combination, but upon my required due diligence I found that many a chef has gone there before. And so I had my main course, orange scented hazelnut encrusted halibut or err…salmon. With sides still TBD, I kept thinking until I came up with a more complimentary rendition on a braised fennel I learned in a cooking class in Italy and, last but not least, the curious potato risotto from this month’s Bon Appétit!
| 2 November |
I imagine it’s not too common for someone to be inspired to plan an entire meal around something like radicchio, but thanks to Michael Chiarello that’s exactly what I did. This episode of his show on grilling was nothing out of the ordinary, but the idea of taking a boring leaf vegetable and putting it through marinade, direct heat, and a good stuffing is just plain inspirational. For those that don’t know, radicchio is that bitter red “green” aka chicory that you usually pick out of your salad! This recipe, however, transforms it into a charred veggie quesadilla-esque masterpiece. The cheese melts gluing the leaves of the lettuce together into a sandwich of sorts while the marinade helps hide the bitterness that is also reduced through a nice long ice bath. The juicy radicchio serves as the perfect counterpart to the oh too usual dry and overcooked pork, unless you too like risking salmonella in avoidance.
As far as your starch for the meal is concerned, couscous went well and put to good use the leftover marinade from the radicchio. Michael seems to take a heavy hand to the marinade; I found that half was more than sufficient. If couscous isn’t your thing, I might do something simple like mashed or baked potatoes especially now that summer has come and gone and the colorful heirloom tomatoes have disappeared from the stores and markets.
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