Peach-Blackberry Pie

Back last summer, we did a peach-freezing experiment.  According to Cook's Illustrated, the best way to keep peaches is to slice them, and mix with a little sugar and some "fruit fresh" (ascorbic acid), then bag and freeze.  Blackberries, which were amazing last year, are best frozen individually spread out on a tray and then bagged once frozen.  We finally decided to use them and those techniques worked out great.  The peaches smelled like late summer.  Emily then worked her pie-making magic on what has got to be the best fruit pie combination ever conceived.  Even better than strawberry-rhubarb or blueberry-cranberry.

Spring Lamb

A strange winter has given way to a strange spring, one that has left me unsure of how to react.  One way is to make a spring lamb.  This leg of lamb comes by way of friends at a Virgina farm, and such a nice gift of top quality lamb needed to be passed on and shared - so we had some invited guests.

I chose a Jaime Oliver recipe to make - a weeping boneless roast leg of lamb done in a yogurt-mint marinade.  I started with the whole hind quarter and spent a good half hour or so breaking it down and cleaning it up, trying not to waste the slightest bit.  Then it went in with the marinade and sat in the fridge for a full day before it was ready to roast.  With some ad hoc meat-tying technique the whole thing stayed together and was cooked medium rare on top of a mix of roast winter vegetables.  You absolutely don't want to over cook lamb, especially when you will have leftovers to reheat.  I stabbed the roast in about ten places to make sure we were somewhere close to 135 degrees all around before declaring it done.

It was absolutely delicious.  You can find the recipe here.

Pierogi

In my world, dumplings are king.  Martha Stewart even confesses to having these as one of her favorite foods.  I made these from her recipe, which she recently published since they are meatless and therefore good for lent.  But really, any sort of dumpling recipe is going to attract my attention.

I made two kinds of pierogi: potato and cabbage, and I stuck with the brown butter sauce, using as little as possible, but just enough for flavor.  As with any dumpling, they take a lot of time to roll, stuff, fill, and cook, but in my mind it is quite worth it.  The cabbage ones won out for flavor in the end.  Martha has you use a grinder to process the cabbage, but since I don't have one of those, I had to grate and chop, which left some of the leafy consistency intact.  I have heard that others eat these with our cream and sauerkraut.  As for me, I was trying to replicate some of the great pierogi I had at my friend Chris's wedding in New Jersey.  If I will ever get there I think I might need to do some additional field research.
 

Ramen Study No. 1

Here are the results of stage one of building a good ramen broth - something that advances well beyond the chicken broth stage.  Guided by David Chang's Momofuku cookbook, I tried a few key elements.  I started with the cooking liquid created when rehydrating dried shitake mushrooms.  Second, I added some chunks of onion, and finally briefly infused the broth with katsuo-bushi, or dried bonito flakes.  The bonito really gives it more of a smoky quality than any kind of fishy taste.  At this stage, I had a very flavorful broth, but not a very colorful soup.  But I was hungry so I added noodles and ate it all.  Other elements, like konbu and pork, will have to wait for Study No. 2.

Brunch Season Continues

Indeed brunch season continues year round.  We seem to be entering a difficult time of year - the asparagus is starting to sprout, but the rest of the produce section continues to lack inspiration.  Winter vegetables are done with, but the spring is not quite here yet.  This brunch's four elements:

• Tomatillo-Poblano-Cheddar Scrambled eggs on Home Made English Muffins
• Tomato, Hearts of Palm, and Mixed Green Salad with Orange Vinagrette
• Fresh Pineapple
• Banana Chocolate Upside Down Cake

 And sparkling limeade from Trader Joe's to drink.  You must come try Emily's english muffins.

Ginger-Scallion Noodles

Here's something simple to try the next time you have a craving for noodles or just don't want to cook.  It's a really simple recipe, and it comes from the Momofuku cookbook, and it makes enough to store in the fridge for later.  Basically, it's ginger and scallions.   Here is a link to the recipe.

It's a lot of ginger. It looks like it's going to be overwhelming, but it's not, don't worry.

David Chang recommends serving with a quick salted pickle.  This is basically a sliced cucumber mixed with salt and sugar and let to sit for a few minutes.  I added water chestnuts from a can because we had them in the pantry, or you could try roasted cauliflower.  His suggestion that a dash of hoisin sauce over the top is the perfect finish sounds spot on, but I will have to save it for next time.

Egg Salad

It's warm out and egg salad makes a perfect light picnic.  It's simple, and a blank slate to be creative with the flavors.  This one is fresh dill and sun-dried tomatoes.  When I make it I do everything by feel.  Hard boil the eggs (I like 2 per sandwich) and chop them roughly.  Chop the dill and tomatoes and put everything in a bowl.  Add 2 parts dijon mustard, 3 parts mayonnaise, salt, and pepper.  Mix well.  Taste.  Add a little more wet stuff to get the right consistency or a little more salt and pepper.