what I ended up cooking

My last post was about what to cook for the family Sunday night. Had a lot of trouble deciding and so we went with three of the four starters that I had under consideration. We had rillettes and cornichons (see my earlier post about that), not your average spinach dip with crudite, and mushroom spread on baguette toasts (see earlier post about New Year's Eve snacks for those two). We served a South African sparkling wine with all that called Krone Borealis. If the cork hadn't popped itself out of the bottle, it would have been pretty bubbly but as it was, it ended up being kind of frizzante instead, but dry and clean. I think we picked this up at the sparkling wine tasting at Cleveland Park in December for about $25.

For the main course we had grilled lamb kebobs; zucchini, yellow squash, vidalia onions, and campari tomatoes; basmati rice mixed with grilled corn and fresh mint; and a yogurt sauce (my version of tsakziki). We got a leg of lamb cut into kabob sized pieces from the Lebanese Butcher. I marinated the meat in a little extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary, and minced garlic, then skewered them and grilled them outside on a charcoal grill. For the veggies, I cut the zuchs, squash, and onions all into think rounds, tossed with a little extra virgin, salt & pepper, and rosemary, and skewered them. Since I didn't have enough room on the grill with all that meat, I put them under the broiler until they were just fork tender. I didn't skewer the tomatoes, but gave them the same treatment. For the rice dish, I grilled 4 cobs of corn the night before so that some of the kernels were charred slightly with grill marks, then let them cool and cut the kernels off the cob. After the basmati rice was done cooking and still hot, I tossed the corn and rice together (used about 3 cups uncooked rice -- whatever that turns out to be when cooked) with a good pinch of salt, half a stick of softened unsalted butter. At the very end, stir in a big handful of chopped fresh mint leaves and serve room temperature. (This is a very summery dish and great to take to a picnic or cookout. It's easy and since it doesn't have mayo, can sit out and there's no fuss about what temperature you serve it. It's lighter than other starchy dishes you could take and it will be a big hit. Everyone loves this dish.) Finally, the yogurt sauce: about 1 cup of good quality low fat yogurt, the juice of one whole lemon, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, salt, a whole medium sized juicy cucumber sliced paper thin (maybe best to use a mandoline for those not very skilled with a knife), a generous 2-3 cloves worth of minced garlic. This is good with the rice, the veggies, and the meat!

For wine with the meal we offered 2006 Bellevue Sauvignon Blanc from Touraine for the white wine drinkers and Yarraman Estates Hell Raiser Cab-Merlot blend for the red wine drinkers. The white is grapefruit all the way. The red was pretty light and fruity and paired well with lamb. The lamb itself probably could have stood up to something stronger but with the summery vegetables and rice, the light red was just the right match in my opinion.

For dessert we had chocolate panna cotta (see an earlier post for the recipe) topped with fresh whipped cream and coffee. The panna cotta was just about a disaster. I made it the same way I had done it a few weeks before and set it in the fridge to congeal. When I checked it after about 2 hours, it looked like chocolate soup not pudding! So I dumped all the contents of the ramekins back into another saucepan and warmed it up, stirred in some extra gelatin and poured that back into clean ramekins, set it in the fridge and crossed my fingers. Well... the result was a very thick, overcooked custard instead of a pudding. Oh well, everyone still enjoyed it, I think mainly because it was good and chocolately but not too sweet. Anything would be good with freshly made whipped cream anyhow.

Well, that was Sunday night. We ate out on Monday night and Tuesday night as well so I will have entries on those shortly.

NV Domaine Saint Vincent Brut

I didn't talk about the sparkling wine in yesterday's blog yet -- let me take a moment now. In my opinion, and I'm not a wine expert, a sparkling wine goes with nearly any savory food. Well, not all sparkling wines go with all things because as with any wine you have a great variety between sweet and dry, but you know, generally speaking...

Anyhow, just before the holidays we went to a tasting of sparkling wines at Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits and found a few very nice traditional Champagnes and some methode champenoise sparklings, some Astis, and a few non-traditional sparkling things too.

One of the sparklings we found was the NV Domaine Saint Vincent Brut made in New Mexico, and this is methode champenoise. This is crisp without being overly dry and it offers continuous small bubbles without being frothy. It's not so complex that it requires food but it's nice with appetizers. The best thing about it is that it's about $9 to $10 a bottle. This is the kind of sparkling wine you could drink just about every day!

Zaytinya

http://www.zaytinya.com/

We ate here last night. Not the first time we've been there but it is rare that we go. A Mediterranean/mid-east version of tapas, the concept is small plates. The more people you have in your party, the more variety you can try. As a rule of thumb, about three meze per person is about the right quantity. Note that some of the plates come with exactly four pieces - something to remember when you are ordering for six people!

This is a list of all the things we had last night, mainly as a record for myself. For descriptions of the items, visit the restaurant's website listed above, or better yet, just go there and eat!

To drink, we tried a Greek sparkling wine: Domaine Tselepos, Villa Amalia, Brut. It pairs terrifically with briney olives and capers. It was the perfect complement to the food we ate. The bread is a light, puffy bread with a very similar toothsome chew of fresh pita, but lighter. Try some dipped in the olive oil/pomegranite syrup concoction on your table - a middle east version of olive oil with balsamic vinegar.


From the veggie meze:
Hommus
Kolokithokeftedes
Asparagus
Ímam Bayildi
Elies Tis Elladas

From the seafood meze:
Kalamari Me Spanaki
Filet of Bronzini
Garides Saganaki

From the meat meze:
Homemade “Mahanek”
Kibbeh
Hünkãr Begendi
Spice Rubbed Sirloin of Beef w/pistachio sauce
Shish Taouk (maybe the weakest dish we had)

From the salads:
Portakal Salatasi (one of the most popular dishes at our table, currently ISO the recipe in English online if anyone cares to share)
Tabouleh

From the Pide selection (this is a boat-shaped, Turkish, oven baked, flat bread with toppings):
Karidesli Pide
Peynirli Pide

From the dessert menu:
Turkish Coffee Chocolate
Turkish Delight
Chocolate Visne