What was the last meal you cooked?

I made hack's cassoulet because I had a confit goose leg taking up space in the freezer. Have decided that cassoulet is essentially dutch pea soup (ie a casserole of beans, salty meat and alliums) with more airs and graces because it is french. After looking at a couple of recipes online went with this simplified technique.

Soak white beans overnight. Discard water and boil with aromatics such as crushed garlic cloves, thyme, celery. In the meantime in a large casserole brown the skin of goose or duck confit (if you happen to have confit, but otherwise brown raw chicken thighs). Put the poultry aside, removing bones if using confit when cool. Brown some sausages and chop cooled sausages in coarse chunks. Put sausages aside and brown some chopped bacon. Toss in a minced onion and several cloves of minced garlic. Most recipes call for a little tomato paste which I didn't have so I squirted in some ketchup for sweetness. If you have any leftover gravy or wine lying around toss that in too. When beans are almost done drain, remove aromatics and stir into the casserole dish with the reserved meat.

Tonight I will add chicken stock to barely reach the top of the bean mix and bake another two hours in the oven with bread crumbs on top. If breadcrumbs are over browning, stir them into the bean mixture and top with a new layer of bread crumbs. Serve with a green salad. Leftovers freeze well.

snowflake954 wrote: »

Today I made fusilli pasta(spirals) with mushrooms and zucchini in a sauce of EVOO and white wine, freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top.

Yummy! Simple, but so good.

Today Sunday special--Funghi porcini ravioli (store bought, not made by hand), sauce of EVOO, chopped cherry tomatoes, green peas, garlic, broth and wine--topped off with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Then a friend gave us fresh buffalo milk mozzarella from Battipaglia (Famous for buffalo mozzarella). This is a town south of Naples on the way to Caserta. We also had a small cream pie topped with wild strawberries for desert. There were 6 of us and 2 babies.

Back in NJ from more than a week visiting family in Ottawa, Canada. Tonight's (Monday) dinner: baked chicken, roasted root veg (carrots, parsnips, beets) and side tom/cuke salad. MFP thinks the plate is about 719cal, 68g protein, 20g fat, 55g carb. Running out of counter space making 6 or 7 loaves of bread of three types for a large family party tomorrow - this boule loaf in the background (shaped by baking in a cast-iron skillet) is savory: rosemary/garlic/sesame flavored. The other two types are honey whole wheat and white (unbleached) cranberry (which will all be typical loaf-shaped). Happy Holidays, all!

For Christmas Eve: spaghetti with teline (a very small, sweeter clam), the sauce is EVOO, a piece of peperoncino, garlic, broth and white wine. Grilled shrimp, smoked cheese ball, and green beans. Mandarine oranges (traditional from my husband's childhood), and panettone.

I'm eating it now. An egg-white omelette made with some crisp bacon, a bit of shredded cheese, a tablespoon of brown rice, and red bell pepper. (Teaspoon of refined coconut oil in a non-stick pan)
With a clementine and coffee with a splash of whole milk.

We do Christmas dinner on Boxing day when we have friends come around because there is no public transit on Christmas in London. I am doing the Serious Eats Dickensian goose.
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/12/roast-goose-and-gravy-recipe.html
Have made a little start with dousing skin with a few kettle fulls of boiling water in the same way you tighten skin for peking duck. Have removed the wishbone and browned that in goose fat removed from cavity along with wing tips, neck, heart and giblets and started the stock for gravy. The bird is drying off in the fridge now. Tomorrow will make stuffing for cooking separately in a casserole dish as I read it can get too greasy baked in the cavity. Another job for tomorrow is pricking the bird all over to help fat render off. Will also make a pate with the liver to serve as a starter. And I need to dry brine the bird tomorrow.

Not a meal, but on the theme of bread from yesterday, Indian roti.

We do traditional Xmas dinner on Boxing Day when friends can make it round. There is no public transportation at all in London on Xmas day. Hacks Peking duck is a meal that can be put together in 20 minutes. Good thing as I needed to do lots of prep for Boxing Day dinner on Xmas day.

In the morning or the night before score skin of duck breasts without cutting into meat. You want fat to escape, not juices. Dry brine skin side by sprinkling with a mixture of 3 parts salt with one part baking powder. Take out ready made frozen Peking pancakes from the freezer. If you are not close to an Asian supermarket you can use soft flour tortilla shells.

When you want to eat air fry duck breasts 15 minutes. Chop up some cucumber and green onion, microwave pancakes for a minute in the meantime.

If you don’t have an air fryer lie duck breast skin side down in a cold frying pan. Flatten with a second pan and add weight with a kettle of water or a tin of beans. Turn up heat to medium high so that fat renders in the slowly warming pan. Breasts are medium rare when internal temperature is 135F to 145F. Ours got to 155F so medium well.

Rest the duck 5 minutes before slicing so that temperature and juice distribution evens out in the meat.

Risotto with cream, shrimp, teline (small clams leftover from Christmas Eve), EVOO, vegetable broth, white wine and arborio rice.

snowflake954 wrote: »

Pasta with chopped smoked salmon, cream, EVOO, zucchini in fairly small pieces (I throw it in the boiling water with the pasta 5 min before the pasta is al dente), freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Are you a chef, because you eat absolutely THE best meals? Your descriptions leave me drooling.

RCPV wrote: »

snowflake954 wrote: »

Pasta with chopped smoked salmon, cream, EVOO, zucchini in fairly small pieces (I throw it in the boiling water with the pasta 5 min before the pasta is al dente), freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Are you a chef, because you eat absolutely THE best meals? Your descriptions leave me drooling.

I'm a Minnesota farm girl who became an interior designer, met my Italian husband on the beach in Mexico, married him 33 yrs ago, had 3 sons who are now grown, but eat at home. I always liked cooking, because my Mom didn't, and I have 5 brothers so I cooked a lot of meals for them. In Italy, I learned to cook from 3 little old Italian widows. I'm tall and blonde--so it was pretty funny. I learned the Italian way, Mediterranean diet and all. I cook everyday during the week lunch and dinner, just dinner Fridays and Saturdays (my husband loves pizza and so we go out Friday and Saturday nights). I usually make pasta or risotto for lunch with salad, fruit, and desert. I make a protein for dinner with vegetables, soup, fruit and desert. Everyone is thin. This is my life. Thanks for the compliment.

Whole wheat pasta (La Molisana--stone ground, 4 generations) with broccoletti (broccoli rape), simpley dressed with EVOO.