Supper Club: Jewish Brunch for Dinner

Strawberries + orange peels + vanilla bean pods = a delicious syrup topping for the Challah french toast

With warm weather brings pretty skirts!

Rye bread + bagel chips + guacamole = snacking before the breakfast meal

Customary kitchen pose!

Cutting the onions far far away from Leah

Smoked salmon?  Yes please!

Glasses of Villa Maria to start off

Ta da!  Challah french toast and scrambled eggs mixup with lox, scallions, tomatoes and capers with a side of creme fraiche dotted with lemon zest and scallions.  Sweet and savory reigns supreme at breakfast club.

JBF Dinner: Keith Luce of Jedediah Hawkins Inn

Nights at the JBF House are always wonderful, even more so dining under a Russian alias.  No photos of the appetizers, but I rather enjoyed the nofo duck wings in which the meat practically melted off the bone, leaving one left to stand in a crowded room clutching a meatless bone, and the tuna nofoise toasts served in little china spoons, which I watched one of the sous chefs painstakingly use a pair of tweezers to lay the micro-greens over the tiny heap of tuna.  Tweezers are mini tongs.  To drink with the appetizers was a sparkling syrah from Jamesport Vineyards starting the night out right with a little bubbly.

Ta da!  Finally we are seated in the main dining room!  In a small alcove tucked into a corner of the room was a cozy table for six.

Alas – I scooped up the first course of bay scallops in a grapefruit consomme before I had a chance to take photos.  Clean flavors, I love raw scallops.  Especially ones that were just harvested the day prior.

Below is the second course featuring squares of fluke from the east end of Long Island over a pork rillette draped with lardo, and a little wasabi spiced salad on the side.

Pierogis!  Perfectly cooked, the pierogis were filled with braised duck leg, with a little sauerkraut and clabbered cream on the side.  (still not sure what this clabbered business is about)  This course was accompanied by one of Keith’s wines – the Keith Luce NoFo Red 2009.

The wonderful roasted duck breast over a winter root vegetable panna cotta and a small piece of pumpkin seed dried fruit brittle – tasty!

And finally, dessert – featuring a surprising pairing in the black garlic ice cream.  The garlic ice cream is subtle for garlic, and delightful on the tongue.  The pumpkin donut and spiced chocolate ganache was pretty swell too!

And there was a gift bag with the below items:

We left grinning from ear to ear.  Thanks JBF, Keith Luce and K.

Dutch Babies

The Dutch Baby, or German pancake as it is sometimes known, falls somewhere between a pancake and a popover.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk (I used soy milk)

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 tsp granulated sugar

pinch of salt

dash of vanilla extract

2 tbsp butter

confectioner’s sugar

mixed berries

 

Put the cask iron skillet into the over and preheat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.  Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, then pour in the milk, and whisk to combine.  Add the flour, sugar, salt and vanilla extract and whisk again, eliminating lumps of flour, while taking care to not overwhisk.  I added a little water to loosen up the batter.  Take the cast iron skillet out of the oven, and butter the skillet all around the inside.  Pour the batter in, place the skillet back into the oven and lower temperature to 425 degrees.  Take the dutch baby out in about 15 when its turned a golden color with a browned crust.

Dusted with confectioner’s sugar and topped with ripe blackberries – mmm!  Breakfast/dessert for dinner!   Certainly isn’t the healthiest dinner I’ve had, but on a brutally cold winter’s night in Brooklyn, it warms the kitchen and the body.

After this first baby, I added a little more batter to the skillet for a thinner version, which had more of the lightness of a crepe.  Before I knew what was happening, I topped it with more sugar and berries, wrapped it like a crepe, and gobbled the whole thing up.   Next time, I’ll be sure to try a version with lemon sugar, and another version with Nutella.

All Recipes: Dutch Babies II

Supper Club: January 13, 2012

The first Supper Club of 2012 starts the year with spice.  Priyanka hosted and made Bhel Puri, a dish composed of puffed rice, potatoes, onions, cilantro, and further flavored with mint and tamarind chutneys.  It looks a bit like a savory cereal, and like cereal, best consumed soon after making, for fear of soggy rice.

Shake, shake.  Toast, toast.

Spicy indeed.  Kicked my butt.

Vino from Ksenia’s trip to Italy.

Plating and expediting.

Bhel Puri

TJ’s vegan Masala burgers

Soy chai

Skillshare’s Manifesto

Here’s to a new year, and new manifestos.

Oh Joy’s Adorable Pregnancy Vid

Truffleganza!

K brought some truffles back from her trip to the Piedmont region of Italy, and they became the star of a cozy, winter Sunday meal.

A creamy risotto dotted with petit pois and strips of wilted collard greens, with a little truffle cream added for good measure, and finished off with shavings of white truffle and grated Parmesan.

Sliced sourdough from Dean & Deluca drizzled with olive oil and slivers of white truffle.  A side of mouthwatering duck salami from the Hudson Valley Duck Farm at the Sunday Park Slope farmers market.  This platter was polished off by the end of the night.

The feast of queens.

A well deserved, happy meal!

Baby brussels sprouts sauteed with panko

Slices of acorn squash roasted in the oven with olive oil and zaatar, and drizzled with wildflower honey and red chilli pepper flakes.

Nearly hidden among the winter vegetable delight, were wilted collard greens seasoned with an apple cider vinegar from Canada with a slightly sweeter taste due to the quince-like fruit.

After watching Sunday’s lineup of cooking shows on PBS, and admiring Jacques Pepin’s technique and coveting his many souffles within a crepe, we finished off Trufflextravaganza with a pear and blackberry oat and Speculoos crisp topped with a scoop of blood orange sorbet.

So satisfying!