smokey peanut mole soup with grilled pork , orzo and greens

sliced onions, carrots and celery
chicken broth
bring to boil
separately cook orzo in another pot
to the broth, add smoked peanut mole sauce from the other night to your taste
add the pork and simmer a bit
add the orzo
add the greens from FnC, spinach and bok choy or other like kale

salt and pepper

served with limes, but liked it better without.

butter lettuce with simple ojai dressing

chopped shallots from rainbow
1 meyer lemons from kari and dan's trees
pause
choice of mustard to your taste
maple syrup to your taste
chopped parley from Steve's farm
salt and pepper

quickly stir as you slowly add Alice's olive oil

toss with butter lettuce
add pitted olive cured olives

Brown Cow Creme Yougurt with Olivia's Apricot Jam

in a bowl, stir the creme top yogurt until smooth.
add olivia's apricot jam and stir to blend
add some ground cardamon

Leeks Simmered In Olive Oil

So Alana helped me arrive at the final menu for last night, and while we were discussing it, she mentioned a leek dish she had had in Turkey. Leeks cooked in olive oil with sugar and rice. When I opened up Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen for inspiration, there was the recipe. I am warming up to Paula. When I first started to read her recipes, it seemed that the food was slow just because the instructions were difficult and hard to follow.

I got all the ingredients at Farmer and the Cook.

1. Trim 10 or so leeks to white and light green part. Soak them in warm water for 30 minutes. Drain and cut into equal lengths (between 1 and 2 inches). Rinse to ensure no dirt is left and drain.

2. While leeks are soaking, chop 1/2 yellow onion, and peel and slice 2 to 3 medium carrots.

3. Heat 1/4 cup olive oil on low and add onions and carrots. Stir in leeks and 2 tsp. sugar. Cover with a sheet of crumbled parchment paper or foil and a tight-fitting lid, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 20 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, soak 1 tbl. of white medium grain rice in hot water for 10 minutes. At the 20 minute mark, add the rice to the leeks. Season with salt and peeper and cook, tightly covered, over low heat for 20 minutes longer.

5. Remove from heat, add juice from a 1/2 lemon. Let leeks cool and then transfer to a serving dish, spooning vegetables over leeks. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve at room temperature.

These were so good, and I never would have made this recipe if Alana had not inspired me.

Mixed Rosemary Nuts

Some article about Nigella Lawson in the fancy magazine Food Illustrated was the inspiration behind these. She is a beautiful woman and when she allows herself to be her natural size, she is especially stunning.

1. In your oven at about 350/400 degrees, toast a mixture of raw cashews, almonds and pecans until nicely browned. These are the nuts I like, but I am sure walnuts, peanuts and whatever else you wanted to throw in would also be great.

2. Meanwhile, melt too much butter and add a balance of brown sugar, chopped fresh rosemary, cayenne pepper and high quality over priced salt to suit your tastes. (Salt is the favorite flavor in my house).

3. Toss the toasted nuts with the butter and serve.

I have found that serving these in a number of smaller bowls, as oppose to one big bowl, looks better and works better at a party.

Onion and Potato Fritata

The key to making this is to have too many onions and potatoes. I use an All Clad Stainless Steal Saute Pan that can easily go from the stove top to under the broiler. This was the first pan Eric got for me when we started kicking it together.

1. In olive oil, saute up a big sliced white onion. (I have a preference for the quarter round slice). Remove onions from pan and put in a big bowl.

2. I add too much olive oil to the pan and then saute up thinly sliced potatoes. Adding chopped rosemary tastes really good. Do not crowd as they will not fry up nicely. I like them almost crispy. As cooked, remove with slotted spoon and add to onions. Last night I had 3 batches (4 small yellow potatoes) of these to get enough.

3. In a small separate bowl, whip together 6 eggs. Pour eggs over mixture and combine. Judge the ratio and add another egg if you need to, keeping in mind that the less eggs to potatoes and onions, the better. Add salt and pepper.

4. Heat up the reaming olive oil in the same pan over high heat and pour egg mixture in. Give a chance to set, then turn heat down to low. This next part seems to always take about 12 minutes. (At some point here, preheat your broiler). I like to use my favorite Cutco knife spatula to go around the edge. If the fritata pulls away easily from the edge, then it's close to done.

5. Grate some Parmesan over the top of the egg dish and stick it under the broiler until the top is a nice golden toasted brown.

6. You can serve it right out of the pan, or loosen the firtata with a knife and then flip it onto a plate and then onto another plate so the pretty golden brown side is up.

Last night I served this with a Salsa Verde (garlic, capers, anchovies, mustard, red wine vinegar, parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper) sauce, herb jam, and tomato jam. A sour creme chive sauce can also be good. Sometimes Eric and I will have something like this with a simple green salad for dinner.

Herb Jam

This recipe is from Paula Wolfert's, "The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen"

1. Put 4 cloves of halved garlic in a large steamer basket over simmering water and pile on top 1lb fresh spinach, 1 large bunch flat leave parsley (tough lower stems cut off), 1/2 cup cilantro, 1/2 cup celery leaves. (These are her proportions, I have varied them and added different greens and it always comes out great). Steam for about 15 minutes or till greens are tender. Smash the garlic cloves with a fork and when greens are cool enough to handle, squeeze out the moisture and finely chop.

2. In a heavy pan, heat about 1 tbl of olive oil over super low heat. Add mashed garlic, 12 oil cured olives pitted and chopped, a generous tsp. Spanish sweet smoked paprika, pinch of cayenne and a pinch of ground cumin. Stir till fragrant (about 30 seconds or so) and then add the greens. Stir until soft and dry and smooth, about 15 minutes.

3. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Mash in some good olive oil. Paula is big into the slow food thing and recommends letting the jam refrigerate for at least a day before serving. I made it that afternoon and it's still good.

4. When you are ready to serve, brighten the flavors with lemon and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with something to spread it on.

Dinner Last Night

We had about 12 friends over for dinner last night. The menu was:

Starters
Roasted Mixed Nuts with Rosemary
Cheeses
Olive Oil Crackers from Surfas
Herb Jam
Tomato Jam

Potato Onion Fritata with Salsa Verde

Two Salads
Poblanos Rajas Salad with Smoked White Fish
Farmer and The Cook Greens Special brought by Steve

Main Event
Smokey Peanut Mole with Grilled Pork Tenderloin
Oven Baked Polenta
Sauteed Mixed Greens with Raisins and Almonds
Leeks Simmered in Olive Oil
And Liz brought some yummy vegetable Soup

Desert
Flan

If only Jake and Kim had been here, then there would have been the perfect cocktail to go with it. The biggest hit of the evening was the Herb Jam. So recipe follows.

xo
k