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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Golly, mix up some milk, sugar, and cornstarch and you have the basis for just about any pudding without buying anything in a little box. The recipe called for canned pumpkin, but I didn’t learn that until I saw the video a day after we pigged out. It just said “pumpkin puree,” and I couldn’t find a damned pumpkin anywhere now that Halloween is history. So, I selected a butternut squash that convinced me that it really was a pumpkin in a squash’s body, roasted it an hour until soft (after splitting and seeding), scraped out the meat and pureed it in the food processor – a little olive oil added to make it creamy. Stir that into the thickened pudding base, along with pumpkin pie spices, and spoon it all into the ramekins. Top with whipped cream, add a side of ginger snaps (not the title of a psychotic Gilligan’s Island forgotten episode!), and you have a dessert you’ll finish even after your eyelids be hangin’ low from the umami excess of the main plate.   Recipes here.     9:24:12 PM    comment []

The salad was spectacular. I got much use of the Benriner Liz got me last Christmas, spiral-cutting Granny Smith apples, fennel, and red onion – the latter was bathed a few hours in rice vinegar to turn it pink and give it a little tang. Add the endive that really tried to be frissee, which was not to be found locally, cap it off with some shaved parmesan, all dressed to kill in a red wine vinaigrette, and you have something you never had before.     9:07:54 PM    comment []

Minus the meat, this is some of the stuff we began the preparation with: a butternut squash that was close enough to being a pumpkin, endive that was close enough to frissee, fennel, Brussels sprouts, red onion, and ginger snaps that were exactly what they were supposed to be. Some thyme, red wine vinegar, beef broth, and rice vinegar joined in for the fun.   8:59:14 PM    comment []

This was the soporific main plate: Short ribs braised in broth enhanced by mirepoix, Brussels sprouts blanched then stir-fried, and riced Yukon Gold potatoes. I cooked the quartered potatoes in a vacuum bag, immersed in the simmering stock pot a couple of hours (hey, it’s kinda hot, hot enough to cook). I strained out the mirepoix after the ribs cooked and threw it in the stock pot, drained the liquid and decanted it into one of those fat separator cups, eliminated the fat, reduced, and thickened it for the savory gravy.   8:52:22 PM    comment []