This post is WAAAY late. I thought I had posted it already, but....I didn't. I've been too occupied with our other project. 

Some background. My Wife's friend from Montana flew in for our 'wedding' (aka very very small dinner >25 people), as a gift, she gave us a basket of some stuff from the farm she works on. best. gift. ever.

She gave us some:
Garlic
Mint tea
Lemon Balm tea
Raspberry Jam
Redcurrant Jam
really good Honey
Oregano

So, we decided to invite her over for dinner, and use the ingredients in a dinner for her.

Well, dinner was had on Friday to MUCH success...perhaps it was that false sense of "because I made it" but our guest loved it, and we chalked it up to one of the best dinners we've ever made!

Here was the 'fancy' tongue-in-cheek menu...


Garlic Honey lollipops, were really, good. Stole the idea from Pegu Club







Apologize for the not so great pictures, didn't wanna be that 'guy' snapping photos while the guest is thinking, 'i just want to fsking eat'

then we did the salad...the vinegairette was fantastic...really really surprisingly good. We used the red currant jam, some really good red wine vinegar we brought back from Italy (from Volpaia) and some really good Olive oil we have from Nice. No pictures though....sorry. Wife did the recipe, she just mixed like 4:1 oil with vinegar and red currant jam to taste, and a fresh cracked pepper.

Then we did the lemon balm and honey granita.....again, surprisingly simple and good.



For the main, I did the Mint 'tea' risotto with Lamb




chocolate mousse.



The mint risotto with the lamb was just awesome. Mint goes awesome with lamb, and well, I like risotto. It's no big deal to I'm sure most of you guys, but this is the first dinner I didn't go off any recipes....I patted myself on the back all night!

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I never finished putting up my Italy trip report. I probably never will. Just too busy to do it justice. If you wanna hear about it, email me, this is an open invite for dinner at my house.

I've been suffering from a crazy migraine post running the NYC Marathon (oh yeah, I ran the NYC marathon), and still have it...but needed some comfort food if I wasn't hitting the cocktail bar tonight. So, in Top Chef style, we raided the fridge-freezer-cabinets for some ingredients to throw something together. I'm the self proclaimed risotto king, and we had some sweet italian sausage in the freezer...some San Marzano cherry tomatoes we bought by accident collecting dust in the cabinet...and enough vermouth left for a martini, and for some risotto. The basil plant will likely die in the frost tonight too. Here's my recipe. It came out awesome. I don't know why more restaurants don't serve food like this.

Timko's Tomato Sausage Risotto

1 cup of arborio rice
1 quart or so of chicken stock (I used beef, its all I had, better than bouillon to be exact)
2 big links of sausage (whatever that equates to weightwise)
14oz can of peeled tomatoes, with the juices
1 cup of vermouth (or white, or red wine)
1 onion - minced
3 cloves of garlic - minced
1tblspn tomato paste
Some fresh Basil
1 cup or so of fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
some olive oil
Some oregano


1. Heat up the stock to a simmer. Put some oil in a pan on mid-high, and crumple the sausage in and brown it good. Take sausage out.

2. Throw onion in, and cook it down but down let it turn brown, when it's about to, toss in the garlic.

3. Throw in the rice and 'toast' the rice for a few minutes, it should smell, nutty.

4. Toss in the tablespoon of tomato paste and mix it all in, for about a minute or two then deglaze with the vermouth/wine being sure to scrap up any crispy bits from the sausage browning.

5. Toss can of tomatoes in with the juices, and if you want, the sausage (I did, or you can throw it in at the end too) and a ladel full of the hot stock in, stir and wait until the rice drinks it all up...then keep repeating adding ladelfuls until rice is how you like it, keep heat at a low simmer. I tossed in about half a teaspoon of oregano too and some S&P to taste.

6. Take off heat and Toss in the cheese and stir.

7. Serve with some fresh basil on top.

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Risotto is usually pretty heavy...but I craved it last week and whipped up a modified recipe I found on the web (I'll find it again, and post a link, I promise) made with summer squash, some fava beans, and fresh ricotta topped with some basil from the garden (by garden, I mean the pot of basil I try to prevent the neighborhood cat from pissing on!) It wasn't much less "heavier" but....it was my justification from gorging on it in the summer!

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Had one of those nights....went for a run, came home and dinner was spot on and super simple. Preheated the grill to incinerate, which on my propane grill isn't that high (about 700) unfortunately, I'm way too lazy to charcoal it for a Tuesday night. Aside from sourcing the morel mushrooms...(which I got at Whole Foods in Princeton for 39.99/lb....5 bucks worth was more than enough for a cup of risotto/4 servings)

Morel mushroom risotto




Marinated some lamb T-bones in red wine (shiraz)




served the rest with dinner

Grilled up some asparagus and topped with an egg.






perfect.

Such a simple quick dinner, and so damn good. Only prep in this dinner is dicing a shallot and rinsing some mushrooms for risotto really.

sneak preview for tomorrow...

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Tried my hand at faux-smoking some pork belly I had in the freezer....came out awesome. Basically rubbed the pork belly with brown sugar, fivespice, salt and pepper, got my contraption smoking, put it on the grill (the whole contraption).

Made some simple risotto with some leftover carrots (and of course homemade chicken stock)The pork belly was so tender, rather than slice it up, I just pulled it apart (it basically fell apart) and threw it in the risotto.

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got a great new chef's knife....I love it. BIG different from my 8" Wusthoff Classic.




While at whole foods, I got what I think are going to be the last good batch of Jersey Heirloom tomatoes.....so I had to pick some up with some Buffala Mozzarella.


Then made some Saffron Risotto, and butter, vanilla poached lobster.


used my chicken stock that I made!






paired it with


so Laurie....how was it?

Mmmmmmmmmm good!

The combination of homemade stock, and saffron, made for a great creamy risotto, with just some great flavor. I'm getting good at making risotto. The lobster she said was cooked perfectly, but didn't taste that fresh, which I can understand as they were bought frozen from the local fish monger. Next time, I'll try the butter poaching with shrimp.

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Mushroom Rissoto (a Jamie Oliver recipe)




The Jamie Oliver recipe
- arborio rice (1 handful per person)
- 1 onion finely diced
- 1 celery stick finely diced
- 4-5 dried porcini mushrooms
- hot chicken stock as needed
- dry vermouth (1 shot per person)
- grated parmesan (lots)
- butter
- salt/pepper

1. In a pot bring the stock up to a simmer.
2. Rehydrate the dried porcinis in a cup of the hot broth for 20 minutes. To this you could also add some saffron if you like.
3. in your crueset (make sure your cooking vessel has a wide surface area) sweat the onion and celery until soft and transluscent in 3 tbsp of good olive oil.
4. Add the arborio rice and sautee until rice has absorbed all the oil.
5. add the vermouth and sautee until absorbed.
6. Add one cup of stock at a time until it is absorbed. Do NOT stir continually but do not leave unattended. It needs constant stirring so that it will not stick but don't over do it. I leave it for a minute and then stir again.
7. Add the porcini stock except for the last little bit that has dirt in it. Chop up the rehydrated porcinis and add those too.
8. keep adding stock until the rice has softened. this usually takes me at least 20 minutes of adding stock, and stirring. Season with salt/pepper.
9. While it's still al dente remove from the heat, add 1/3 stick of butter, 2 handfuls of parmesan, and one cup of stock. Stir, cover, and let it sit until you are ready to eat (15 minutes).

In the meantime you can grill or sautee a few mushrooms or asparagus, toss them with oil, thyme, salt, pepper, fresh parsley, and a splash of lemon juice. Serve on top of the risotto.

What I did different was saute up some left over sugar snap peas and I added a clove of garlic right before (5 minutes) I added the rice. Also, try to find the LOWEST sodium chicken stock if using a boxed stock. (unfortunately, Rachel Ray's was the lowest believe it or not, next was Wolfgang Puck's)

my setup:


and my final product (I know I know....wish I had some of those fancy wide rim white bowls)



I missed my Sous Chef tonight. :(

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