Pear Poached in Wine Sauce

Pick out some of the best looking pears you can find, favoring ripe pears with still a hint of firmness.  We used Bosc pears, ideal for their slightly spicy, luscious flavor and firm texture.  For each pear, add about

1 cup water

1/3 cup dry white wine

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 fresh lemon juice and zest

to a saucepot, and bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar.  Remove from heat.  Slice off the bottom of each pear-so they stand upright-and scoop out the seeds and pit from the bottom.  Peal the pears, drawing fancy patterns in the pear peals if you so choose, and add them to the sauce.  Each entire pear must be fully submerged, so add more water and wine if necessary.  Fold several paper towels in half, and place over the pears (drawing liquid over the pear) and then weigh the pears down in the sauce with a plate.

Return the sauce to a boil, and then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the pears are soft throughout.  Put the entire pot-pears, sauce, paper towels, and lid-in the refrigerator, and eat dinner.

When everything has sufficiently cooled off, remove the pears from the sauce, and re-heat at a fast boil until thickened into a syrup.  Remove from heat, and add several drops of Angostura Bitters, or failing that, a dash of vanilla  Arrange the pears, and pour the syrup over, and garnish with more lemon zest and some mint sprigs.

Homebrew Spreadsheet

For the past several years I have been doing some homebrewing as a hobby, and to supplement the Boca Noir wine and grappa we make at Casa di Lamberti. The beer making has taken off once I moved to Salt Lake City, UT. The Puritanical Mormons and their alcohol laws and post hoc revelations (Post hoc ergo propter hoc - trans "after this, therefore because of this") do not for tasty beer make. The last several batches have turned out nicely, especially the Christmas Ale, a slightly spiced light-brown ale with hints of chai, banana esters, and cloves.

Thanks to Google Docs I have put a spreadsheet in an iframe (very simple, just publish the Google doc to share it with everyone, and wrap it in an iframe). I'll try and keep this updated as the brewing process continues. Homebrew is much more ephemeral than commercial beer, and undergoes a dramatic transformation in taste over a period of a few months; therefore the beer you make is not the same as you finish your last drop, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Enjoy.

The Burger

Gotta love the burger. I have developed a decent consistency in my burgers, with a little variation of the available ingredients.

Ground hamburger (about 0.5 - 0.75 lb per person)
Garlic, chopped
Salt and Pepper, or better yet, Montreal Steak Seasoning
1 egg per every 2-3 burgers

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and mix until blended with a spoon or your hands. Don't press the meat too much - the idea is to keep everything fluffy. Add whatever additional ingredients you want to flavor the burger with. Some of the things I toss in include chorizo or andouille sausage, good mushrooms (shitake, porchini, or morel), roasted garlic, or in this case, lots of chunked feta.

Form the burgers into nice big patties, and again don't squeeze the meat too much, just enough to hold everything together. Push the center of the buger in with your finger, this will keep the meat from ballooning when cooking. Toss on a hot grill, and (and this is the secret ingredient) douse liberally with Worcestershire sauce. Cook until nicely crisp on one side, then flip, add more Worcestershire sauce, and cook until done. Add some sliced blue cheese towards the end if you like, but with the feta-burger it's not necessary. Top with carmelized onions or sauteed spinach or watercress, and all the other toppings.

Yogurt & Nut Crusted Lamb Chop

Oh man this was good. Hopefully I can remember what I did. Normally when we cook lamb chops we only have one per person, which is not very much meat. This looked so tasty before it went on the grill I made twice as much, which was a Very Good Thing.

For the lamb
4 smallish lamb chops, with the thicker fat trimmed away
1 6oz container yogurt - we only had Yoplait peach, which worked fine
Diced garlic
Ground cumin
Ground coriander seed
Salt and pepper
Probably other similar spices - if you get it confused with cumin, it's good to go

Add the spices, garlic, salt, and pepper to the yogurt, and mix well. Evenly and generously cover all sides of the lamb chops with the spiced yogurt mixture, and set aside at roomish temperature.

For the crust
1/2 C almonds
1/2 C peanuts

As these were the types of nuts available, they got used. Others would have been just as fun. Using whatever your kitchen comes equipped with, roughly chop up the nuts into smallish chunks. Coat the lamb chops evenly with the nuts, pressing them into the yogurt so they stick. Cook by any fashion until lamb is done to taste. I used a grill, which presented several problems. The nut and yogurt crust was very good, but did not necessarily stick to the chops. I did not turn the meat, and only cooked on one side to avoid missing out on the sweet nut on yogurt on lamb action. Perhaps there's a better way? Probably more heat and a smooth surface. I guess I could heat a skillet over my propane burner next time...

Baked Crusty Ratatouille

Recipe Coming Soon. I'll have to ask Ann on this one. It's been something we've had a lot, as it uses tomatoes and zucchini, which we have baskets full of currently.

Five Spice Swordfish

With Sweet Potato - Orzo Mash

For the Fish
1-2 good quality fish steaks, such as swordfish
1 T Chinese Five Spice Powder
Black and white sesame seeds
Salt and pepper

Lightly dust both sides of the fish with salt and pepper, followed by the 5 spice powder, and finally evenly with sesame seeds. Set aside at room temperature, and prepare grill to high heat. When grill is hot, drip sesame oil on grill grate, and cook on high for only 1-3 minutes per side, or cooked until the mercury in the swordfish boils off (674.11 °F if you're paying attention).

The orzo and sweet potato mash was made up on the spot, and contained, among other things certainly, orzo, orange sweet potatoes (yams), garlic, onions, five spice powder, and lemonaide. It worked well with the fish, but not necessarily alone - more of a reminder that I have not yet made sweet potato gnocci yet.

Marinated Zucchini Appetizer

Olive Oil
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
2-3 medium zucchini, sliced
1 lemon
Capers
Italian parsley

Cover the bottom of a skillet with a fair amount of olive oil. Heat, and sauté the garlic until soft and brown. Remove skillet from heat, and scoop out garlic and set aside. After oil cools down slightly, add the slices of zucchini to the pan, laying flat and allowing the zucchini slices to soak up as much oil as each slice can hold. Flip slices to use up oil, then remove zucchini from skillet and reserve. Return skillet to heat, and after bottom becomes hot, place saturated zucchini slices in pan and dry fry on each side until evenly brown. Transfer zucchini to bowl, and add 1/2 cup lemon juice, several spoonfuls of capers, and 1/4 cup Italian parsley. Season with ground pepper. Chill for several hours and serve with crackers and cheese.