Out of Cindy Pawlcyn’s restaurants in the Napa Valley, I have to admit that I like the mellow Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen more than the bustling Mustards Grill, but both have excellent food. So, until maybe a CBK cookbook comes out, I’m exploring her Mustards Grill cookbook.

Mongolian Pork Chops is a signature dish at Mustards, and although I really liked my incarnation, I’m curious about what it would taste like their heritage breed pork, as opposed to my Ralph’s (where I couldn’t find a single non-boneless pork chop).  Anyway, I think that the Mongolian aspect has to do with the bit of spicy bite they have, which is so well rounded out by the cilantro.  Like many recipes for a marinade, the experience can either be as easy as pulling these relatively common components out of your cupboard/fridge and augmenting them with some fresh seasonings, or as difficult as an all out jar and seasoning buying binge at the market — or in my case, binging at the market, assembling the marinade in an empty water bottle and flying it on down to LA, where my boyfriend and his grill reside.  At least many ingredients will keep for next time, and it’s a reliable marinade that can be used for other meats, like ribs or chicken, if you want.  And definitely baste while grilling — why not have as much flavor as possible?

Speaking of that, Mustards serves them with Chinese-Style Mustard Sauce and Braised Red Cabbage.  We just had grilled artichokes. They were steamed for about 30 mins first (until soft), and then grilled until they were a little charred on each side.  Something about grilling them makes them extra meaty and deep in flavor — no sauce necessary.
Here is a link to the Mongolian Pork Chops recipe with an article about it.

I’ve been trying to eat slightly lighter this week after all those restaurant meals I had last weekend. My standard dinner salad is just baby greens, artichoke hearts, feta, and sun-dried tomatoes (with the oil adhered to them as the dressing), but I decided to mix it up with this more indulgent Thomas Keller recipe from The French Laundry Cookbook; the recipe can be found at the end of this linked article (ignore its title).

It’s “Parmigiano-Reggiano Custard with Romaine Lettuce, Anchovy Dressing, and Parmesan Crisps.” More concisely: “fancy Caesar Salad. And of course, I started at about 3pm.

It’s actually not a very hard recipe. It just has a lot of components: the custard, the dressing, the croutons, the cheese crisps, and the lettuce. The custard needs 45 minutes to steep initially, 30 minutes to bake, and then 2 hrs to chill. The instructions for the dressing offhandedly mention that the anchovies should be soaked in milk for 30 mins, and then you blend it all, and chill for 2 hrs. Oh, and there’s a balsamic glaze that takes 2 to 3 hrs to reduce, but I didn’t make it because I don’t like that too much and there’s already balsamic in the dressing. The croutons, cheese crisps, and lettuce are ready in a snap, though.

I’ve found that with a lot of seemingly difficult recipes, there’s rather little work; it’s mostly just waiting for something to heat, soak, mix, set, or chill. I worked on other things between making the custard and the dressing and actually eating. It just helped that I happened to be home at 3pm. But, all of the components can be held for more than one day, so when I make this the next night from leftover components, it’ll take all of 5 minutes.

I made this as a big dinner salad with torn leaves instead of chiffonade leaves, but it’s meant to be more like a cheese course. The picture in The French Laundry Cookbook shows the whole thing as being as wide as a slice of baguette and a couple inches tall with chiffonade of romaine and a dot of reduced balsamic on the side.

So, I guess mine is more like a Semi-Fancy Caesar Salad:

I was a bit torn on how to plate it. I wanted the custard flat, but not as a well in the middle, so it’s just on the side; cuz really, it’s just a dinner at home. I also toasted the croutons right before eating so that they’d be warm.

After I made it, I understood why the title emphasized the parmigiano-reggiano — it is the star of the dish. The custard was the essence of the cheese’s flavor, and mine turned out more towards a goat cheese texture than flan, which I prefer for this. Combined with the parmesan crisp, which of course is the same cheese in different form, it was even more pungent and intricate. The dressing, however, is very, er, subtle; maybe I need to add more salt and pepper to it; or should have subbed red wine vinegar for balsamic, or added worcestershire sauce, or subbed lemon juice for all the vinegar. I might even like it more with the Bouchon House Vinaigrette, described in this post, and so forget about conforming to the Caesar formula.

But I would never mess with the custard.

Spinach is one of my favorite foods, and I can only wish that I’d thought of this recipe at Farmgirl Fare myself because it uses it to such great effect. Back in my college days when I barely cooked, sauteed baby spinach and rice, with salt and pepper, was a rather common meal for me; the flavor combination was enough for me to enjoy such an ascetic meal (oh, how my palate has developed). So, this soup builds on that meal and makes it much, much better — it has a small amount of rice cooked into it and a rich background of onions and stock. It’s so easy, and so satisfying.

Susan doesn’t have a picture posted, apparently from soup pic overload, but its color is one of my favorite aspects… Emerald, it is.

I followed the recipe for the most part, except that I substituted 4 out of the 6 cups of chicken stock with vegetable stock because I was reluctant to let chicken flavors dominate my spinach, and I left some chunks of onion and little bits of rice just for some textural contrast. I’m usually a little reluctant to add good olive oil for cooked foods, but I’m glad that I used my Stonehouse Extra Virgin Sevillano Olive Oil that I bought at the SF Ferry Building. I think that its punch of grass and pepper came through very nicely.

As far as variations go, there are many… and by variations, I mean adding one or two elements to it after you’ve had it as is a few times.

It’s fantastic hot, but I’ve also been eating it cold. For me, the chilled quality adds an element of Spring, and the flavor remains quite sprightly. I think that this would make a great simple amuse-bouche at a restaurant. Served in a shot-sized glass, maybe topped with creme fraiche, to get guests excited for a fresh, flavorful meal to come.

When hot, I once added a dollop of homemade mayonnaise, which added a spiciness from dry mustard and cayenne, as well as a creaminess; I used adding aioli to bouillabaisse as a model.

I added chopped sorrel to it once, but it almost overpowered the soup. A conservative garnish of more subtle herbs, like chives or parsley, or maybe a even little roasted fennel, would work better, though.

I also once had it as a backdrop for some Trader Joe’s Thai Shrimp Gyoza, which worked fine, but I think little ravioli or dumplings, like beet or cheese, would be even better.

It’s also a very good snack in the afternoon.

And then, for a variation on a variation, I’d be happy to eat it plain and hot again…

With Chad’s help, I whipped up an Easter lunch yesterday. I found all of the recipes quickly the day before, and started making things on Sunday at about 11am in LA…

Oddly enough, the Glazed Carrots turned out to be the amazing dish of the day. They just burst with good carrot, herb, and butter flavor, with a hint of sweetness (from only 1 added Tbs of sugar to 8 carrots). We couldn’t stop eating them. The recipe, from Fine Cooking, is at the end of this post.

For the ham, we made this Cola Baked Ham with Cherry-Orange Glaze. I’d never baked a ham before, and to pour 2 liters of Coca-Cola into its pan seemed very odd… But it turned it great, juicy and flavorful — with the tinge of cola flavor (and I think that the allspice is the true secret weapon of this dish). I always think, though, that the glaze is a bit wasted on the outside of the meat since the rind can get a little funky, so luckily, we had some extra glaze to serve with the baked ham. The glaze was flavorful (esp w/ the Grand Marnier), but quite sweet — but we made it using the Bonne Maman brand for the preserves, which are usually very sweet.

Ever on the lookout for gravy, Chad explored the possibility of making the mixture of ham juices and cola left from baking into gravy with the addition of cornstarch. After some time on the stove, it did turn into a rather thick cola-flavored gravy, but it was sweeeeeeet.

I made these Gingered Mashed Sweet Potatoes, too, and they were nicely creamy and ginger-y, and not as sweet as many sweet potato recipes. The recipe called for 1.5 c of cream and 6 Tbs of butter to be added to 4 sweet potatoes, but I just couldn’t do that to people that I know. Instead, I used 1/3 c cream and maybe 2 Tbs butter. We also didn’t have a food processor handy, so I just mashed it with the back of a wooden spoon. It was still quite fluffy, and the garlic stayed whole (or halved, as I cut them), which I liked as a textural contrast in the final dish; they were so soft and mellowed from the cream and the cooking that they were nice to eat with the mashed potatoes.

The Haricots Verts in Red Wine Vinegar Cream tasted great, but the cream was a little overwhipped by the time it was mixed with the haricots verts; it should have been runnier. Since we didn’t have red wine vinegar, we used balsamic, which turned out fine. Last time I made this, I didn’t have tomatoes, and I was impressed by how good they taste with the haricots verts, and cream, and chives. Next time, I’m looking forward to making the recipe as is and correctly. The recipe is below; it’s adapted from a Thomas Keller recipe that I found somewhere on the internet last year.

For dessert, we had this Strawberry Shortcake. After what seems like an eternity of making sponge cakes at school, little did I know that I walked myself into another sponge cake recipe here (as opposed to a biscuit-like shortcake which I avoided for lack of a rolling pin and cutter, but I probably should have worked around that since I like that better). The cake turned out fine — slightly dry yet buttery, as usual — but after my success with drastically decreasing the cream and butter in the sweet potato recipe, I tried to decrease the amount of sugar mixed with the strawberries from 2 c to .5 cups. It turned out that not enough syrup was really made from the strawberries as they macerated as a result, but I made up for that by serving it with lots of whipped cream. The berries probably should have soaked for at least an hour or two instead of my 15 mins to get the flavor more even, but the taste was still nice, and I was satisfied. Later, I’m told that the cake got more soaked with syrup, and so was moister.

In all, it wasn’t all that hard to make the meal. The recipes were pretty simple, and I baked the cake before baking the ham. Once the ham was in the oven, I cut up most of what needed to be cut up and would cook once the ham was taken out to rest. Then, at that point, it was mostly just pouring, stirring, and watching… and then eating and eating.
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Note: This is an entry for ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday on April 18, 2006 at Sweetnicks, http://sweetnicks.blogspot.com/ Check out the round-up!

After reading about the smoked salmon pizza that Sweetnicks made, I got a proper craving for it, and decided to make a version for myself. Of course, I monkeyed around with it a little, so I sauteed (and squeezed dry) some chopped baby spinach instead of slicing cucumber, used white onion instead of red because that’s what I had, used creme fraiche instead of sour cream, replaced the dill with chardonnay and oak smoked sea salt b/c I couldn’t get dill, and baked a Trader Joe’s Herb and Garlic Pizza Crust as a base (and also to make up for the missing dill). I wish I had a piece now — a great mix of cool and creamy and sour and salty and chewy and crisp and veggie. I liked it so much that I had it two consecutive nights for dinner.

On the third night, I was out of smoked salmon, but I had just come home from a day in San Francisco with a leftover half of my L’Autostrada sandwich that I’d taken home from Citizen Cake. After a brief hesitation, I thought “This will sandwich become pizza.” So, I removed the meat from inside, chopped it into squares, and used it to top my creme fraiche, sauteed spinach, capers, and avocado. I also sprinkled some Hawaiian red clay sea salt. It was also delicious, and a good thing for me to remember when I have leftovers in the future.