Fettuccine with Truffle Sauce

Yum! This is an Ina recipe that my mother-in-law loves. It's decadent and delicious and if you love truffles, it's so great. It is on the heavy side, so great for a cold winter night and a special dinner. We had our friends Kara and Jon over for dinner and served it - big hit. 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream

6oz truffle butter

1lb fresh fettuccine 

6 oz pecorino, shaved thin with a vegetable peeler

Directions:

Heat the cream in a sauté pan over medium heat until it simmers. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil to cook the pasta.

Candied Bacon (or crack)

If you need a new make-ahead salty cocktail snack, this is it. It's salty and sweet and crunchy and bursting with flavor. It's completely addictive and totally delicious.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup nuts (I like spicy smokehouse almonds)

1/4 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chipotle powder

1/2 tsp oregano

1 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 lb bacon

Directions:

Blend first six ingredients in a food processor. Add maple syrup until it's almost in a sandy paste. Season to taste with more sugar or chipotle as you like.

Dinner Party Hors d'Oeuvres - Chicken Liver Pate and Caramelized Onions, St. Andre Cheese and Fig Butter

We had friends over for dinner last night and I made a nice little appetizer spread. My sister in law, Katie, gave Jamie this slate cheese board which is so fun if you have chalk because you can write out what everything is. I made this delicious chicken liver pate (but with half the butter - still amazing) and wanted to serve it with caramelized and slightly pickled onions, a la Vinegar Hill House. Yum! It was so delicious. Onion recipe below. I also picked up some fig butter from Trader Joe's and paired that with a wedge of St. Andre cheese and served it all with thin crostini. 

Marinated Lamb with Cilantro and Honey

Wow. This marinade is incredible. I wanted to just drink it. It involved almost everything you have in your kitchen and ends up costing a fare amount in herbs, but the end result warrants the effort. It's meant for rack of lamb, but my butcher was out so I used lamb chops. Still delicious! I wish I'd saved the extra marinade to marinate everything else.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 lb rack of lamb, French trimmed (or several lamb chops)

2/3 oz flat-leaf parsley, leaves and stalks

1 oz cilantro, leaves and stalks

4 cloves garlic, peeled

1/2 oz fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

3 chilis, seeded

1/2 tsp salt

3 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

4 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 cup canola oil or sunflower oil

3 tbsp honey

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

4 tbsp water

Mustard-Crusted Pork Tenderloin

I got three wonderful cookbooks from my brother-in-law, Austen, this year (it's a tradition now) one being Pickles, Pigs, & Whiskey. Even though I was on vacation in Florida last week, I couldn't resist trying one of the recipes immediately - the Mustard-Crusted Pork Loin. Yum! It was so flavorful, and the mustard mixture that you rub on the pork is my new favorite condiment. I want to put it on hot dogs and sausages, and it would be fabulous for pigs in a blanket at a party. This makes a lot and we were eating it for days, so it would be a good dinner party main course. I served it with more couscous-style cauliflower (just switching up the seasonings a bit).

Serves 6 (recipe says 4, but I think it's more like 6)
Ingredients:
2 pork tenderloins, about 1 pound each
salt and pepper
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/3 cup grainy mustard
2 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tbsp plus 2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 cup grated shallots
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
3 cups panko breadcrumbs
5 tbsp clarified unsalted butter
3 tbsp chicken stock
1/4 cup apple cider
1 1/2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cubed

Make-Ahead Individual Chocolate Souffles

Everyone is afraid of making souffle, but it's really not that difficult. I had some time to kill the other day when I was making dinner and I already had all of the ingredients, so I whipped up a few individual souffles. Cook's Illustrated (thanks for the book, Kara!) has a good recipe for make-ahead souffles where you assemble them and then just put them in the freezer until you want them. They were really chocolatey and rich and perfect with a scoop of ice cream. There's still one in the freezer - maybe I'll eat it tonight. This would be great to do the night before you have people over, then just throw them in the oven 15-20 minutes before you want dessert.

Serves four

Ingredients:

2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces plus 1/2 tbsp softened

2 2/3 tbsp sugar, plus 1/2 tbsp

4 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (I used my favorite, Belgian chocolate, Cote d'Or - it's the best. It's hard to find in the US, but I just found that the Garden of Eden on my street sells it, so I'm thrilled. Another point for Brooklyn Heights.)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

3 large eggs, separated, plus 1 large egg white

2 tbsp powdered sugar

pinch cream of tarter

Papardelle with Veal and Sausage Ragu

If you need to impress friends for dinner, this is a great way to do it. We had our friends Funk and Bettina over last weekend and I wanted to make fresh pasta. I was perusing epicurious for a recipe, and came across this ragu recipe that had veal, sausage, and porcini mushrooms. It was relatively easy to make, and as long as you make it the night before, all you have to do is warm it up when guests come over. The sausage adds a great, intricate flavor, the veal stew meat is tender, and the porcini mushrooms add a nice earthiness (I only used 1/2 oz because I bought one bag and that's all that was in it). I added 1/4 cup of balsamic to the recipe just because I find it adds a great tang and a little sweetness to ragus (learned it from this recipe). Make this for your next dinner and you won't regret it - especially if it's cold outside. Just toss the ragu with fresh papardelle (make it or buy it) and serve with a little grated pecorino on top.

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 small carrot, peeled, finely chopped

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

8 ounces sweet Italian sausages, casings removed (2 links)

8 ounces veal stew meat, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup dry red wine

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 14-ounce cans low-salt chicken broth

1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes in juice

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage

1 teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed

1 pound fresh pappardelle (homemade or store bought)

Freshly grated Pecorino cheese

Pomegranate-Garlic Lamb

This is delicious and pretty easy and impressive for a dinner party. We had our very good friends, Stephen and Kara, over last night to test out the new china. It was all very grown up. Thank you to all of our great friends for getting us all of those amazing candlesticks, plates, platters, vases etc - they will all be well used!

I've been making lamb a lot lately, using pomegranate molasses. It's a great ingredient. It's tart and sweet. I got two racks or lamb from Trader Joe's (they actually have really nice, Frenched racks of lamb) and marinated them in a mixture of pomegranate molasses, lots of garlic, some fresh ginger, and some dried herbs. The lamb was juicy and so flavorful.

I served it with some sauteed asparagus and Israeli couscous.

Bortolomiol Prosecco Doc Treviso

Need a good prosecco for Thanksgiving and the upcoming holiday season? I can't wait to try this one! I love my proseccos dry, and according to Bon Appetit, this one is extra-dry, drinkable, and versatile. What's not to like? Check out some more party tips in Bon App's "For Those Who Like to Throw Parties."

La Croix Belle 2005 Coteaux du Languedoc

 

I was at dinner Monday night at one of my very favorite restaurants (La Sirène) and stopped at the wine store on my block to pick up a bottle for the occasion. Winesby is a teeny little spot on Jones Street and they have a great, but small, selection of reasonably priced wine. I asked for a red and said I liked Côtes du Rhônes, Barbaresco, Negroamaro... He gave me a couple of options but I settles on La Croix Belle (above). He described it as having a strong flavor with lots of notes of berry and a musky undertone - a very strong flavor, not to be had with anything light. Luckily, we were heading for saucey French food. It was a big hit and I made sure to snap a picture of the bottle for future reference. It had a great, robust flavor and went very well with the tournedos and lamb we ate. It was $17 at Winesby (you can also order here) - perfect to pick up for a dinner party. And Jamie's mom may order a case!

cheese fondue

I made meat fondue for Valentine's Day, but this weekend I made cheese fondue. It was pretty easy and delicious! You can't go wrong with a pot of melted cheese. I had sour dough bread, red bell pepper, and apples to dip. The cheese sauce smelled amazing and tasted even better, and it's always fun to have an interactive dinner. I used a blend of Gruyere and Appenzeller - it had a great, sharp flavor, accented really well by the wine.

Ingredients:
Half a pound of Gruyere, grated
Half a pound of Appenzeller, grated
1 garlic clove, but in half
1 1/2 cups white wine + 1 tsp
1 tbsp cornstarch

For dipping
Sour dough bread, Granny Smith apple, red bell pepper, all cut into bite-sized pieces.

Directions:
Rub the garlic all over the inside of a sauce pan. Add the wine and simmer. Slowly add the cheese and stir in a zig zag motion while it melts. In a small bowl, mix corn starch, 1 tsp wine, and 1 tsp water and add to cheese. Continue to stir and simmer until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Add to fondue pot and light the sterno and start dipping!

A little prize for finish the pot - the cheese forms a yummy crust at the bottom.

Gourmet Fries

Other than steak frites or truffle fries, french fries can seem out of place on a dinner party plate. I was watching Martha Stewart the other day and Ben Ford--son of Harrison Ford--made polenta fries. Polenta is so versatile because if you flatten it out and chill it, it becomes a blank canvas. You can cut it into shapes, grill it, braise it, fry it, sear it... They turned them into fries. I was making a simple dinner for Jamie and needed another element to make it enough food, and I happened to have some polenta in my pantry, so I tried them.

It couldn't have been easier. I mixed 1 cup of milk with 1 cup of chicken stock (from bouillon cubes I had in my kitchen) and brought it to a boil. Then I whisked in 3/4 cup of polenta with a pinch of salt and stirred it until the polenta pulled away from the sides--about 3 minutes. Then I grated in some Pecorino Romano cheese (which I prefer to Parmesan, but use whatever you like.)

I put some parchment paper over a cutting board and spread the polenta on top. Then I wet my hands and pushed the polenta into a rough rectangle about half an inch thick and threw it into the fridge.
Once it chilled--about an hour and a half--I cut it into 1/2 inch wide and about 4 inch tall strips. I heated some ghee (clarified butter) and olive oil in a skillet--you can use regular butter. While it was heating up, I rolled the polenta strips in flour seasoned with salt, pepper, chilli powder and cumin. I put them in the skillet and cooked them for about 20 seconds on each side, or until they got a little brown on each side. Then I took them out, drained them on a towel, and doused them with salt.

They were crispy and delicious, and I have a little flat polenta left over so they might be on the menu again tonight.

This was more than enough for 2, but if you're making it for 4-6, I'd say double the recipe.