The Family Meal: Meal 3 - Vichyssoise, Lamb with Mustard & Mint, Chocolate Truffles

Did you know that lamb neck is the new pork belly? Yeah, me neither. And apparently none of the butchers in the city of Dallas have heard this revelation either. I think I searched for at least two weeks for lamb necks. Everywhere I went, I got that look people give you that makes you feel like you're crazy. The “you're-looking-for-WHAT?” look. What's sad is I'm almost used to it at this point. Dallas, we need better grocery stores! And a decent butcher that has WHOLE CARCASSES would be awesome. When did we get so disconnected from our food? I better not start cooking from Fergus Henderson's nose to tail eating book at any point because I'd probably be limited to something like two recipes. Sigh.

I finally managed to locate lamb necks at an ethnic grocery store. A halal butcher, to be specific. When I asked for the lamb necks, the nice butcher picked up this huge cleaver and went back in his freezer. Next thing I know, I can hear him hacking away at something. The things I go through for dinner. Also, two lamb necks came to a whopping $24, which does not fall into the category of "budget eating" to me. Everything else was pretty standard and came from Central Market, but I will say that the cocoa for the truffles was from my hoard of Valrhona cocoa. Which is only used for ultra super special occasions. Since it's $13 a box.

I kinda goofed with the vichyssoise. First, Chef Adria isn't really specific about potatoes for the soup, so I got the only organic potatoes Central Market had - Yukon gold. It turned out kinda gummy, which I was afraid of, so the next time I try this I am definitely using russet. If I can find them. The soup did taste good though, so I was pretty happy. Until I went to boil the 3 minute egg that goes in the middle. Big mistake. Three minutes is not long enough to have a egg that holds together enough to remove the shell. It's just not. Especially when you put the egg in already boiling water and set your timer. The things just came apart in my hands. I was honestly quite shocked since Chef Adria hasn't let me down yet. Very unfortunate. So no egg in the soup.

The lamb necks were a lot better than I was expecting. The necks had the usual mustard and mint which always seems to be paired with lamb, so the flavors worked. The meat was tender and mild and flavorful, and I really liked it. I think cooking it with the neck bones intact probably helped in that department. However, I'm not sure I liked it enough for it to be worth the 2 week search for ingredients. If they had it at Central Market, I would probably make it again. Otherwise, probably not.

Oh, truffles. You sinful, shameless little flirts! How you toy with me! Your rich, chocolatey centers with your bitter dusting of cocoa! And brandy! Playing along with such wanton seduction! But really, what could be more perfect?

The Family Meal: Meal 13 - Farfalle with Pesto, Japanese-style Bream, Mandarin Oranges with Cointreau

I remember the first time I cooked a whole fish for my family. I took my mom with me to the Chinese grocery store, and I had them pull a live tilapia out of the tank. The guy behind the counter then proceeded to beat it over the head several times before he started ripping its guts out. I thought my mom was going to lose it. Hey, at least it was fresh, right? My mom insisted that the head not make an appearance at the dinner table, or she wasn't going to be able to eat. I'm not quite that squeamish, so when I saw this menu, it didn't really faze me. The only thing I hate about whole fish is pulling all those teeny tiny little bones out of your mouth while you're chewing. So not ladylike.

I kinda skimped with the pesto. When I looked at how much basil, pine nuts, and cheese was required, and then I looked at how much of the final product I actually needed for this ONE recipe that actually uses pesto, I just couldn't do it. Maybe I'll come back and try again when I'm feeling flush, but for this trip, I just used a nice small jar of Alessi pesto sauce. Hey, it had the same ingredients! I checked the label. And yes, I know I cheated. As for the fish, it appears that Chef Adria likes to pick fish that only appear in the Mediterranean, off the coast of, well, Spain. Needless to say, there is no gilthead bream (read: brim) in the stores in Dallas. After a long conference with the fish guy at Central Market, I decided on a stripped sea bass that was big enough for two people. When I got home, I realized this was one of the suggested substitutions listed in the book, so I felt vindicated. The mandarin oranges came straight out of my bi-weekly produce share from the co-op. It was almost like I was meant to make this menu. I didn't have any Cointreau, although I will probably acquire some soon, so I used Grand Marnier. The ice cream was this fabulous vanilla bean ice cream that Haagen-Dazs makes with only five ingredients. No gums or artificial flavors for me and my organic oranges.

The farfalle pasta with the pesto sauce was pretty darn good, especially considering it took maybe 8 minutes to make. And yes, I know that's because I cheated with the sauce. But I followed the rest of the directions, even the bit about mixing some pasta water into the sauce to thin it out a little bit. I also smothered it with cheese, so you know it couldn't be bad at that point. In a slightly larger portion, and with a nice piece of garlic bread, this could be an awesome dinner on its own.

Ah, the fish. The fish that was supposedly de-scaled. But really wasn't completely de-scaled. I think I did a better job of de-scaling my sardines. But that's okay. I skimped on the pesto, so the dinner got me back with the fish. The darn fish was too big to fit in my little steamer, so I ended up having to rig my stovetop smoker with a foil tent to get the thing to cook right. The ginger oil was incredible, but it made the fish just over-the-top rich. I always thought of fish as a light meal, but this one proved me wrong. I could only eat about half of my portion before it was getting to be too much. Oh, and I had to keep pulling scales out of my mouth, which gets really irritating after, say, one.

After all of the richness of the previous two dishes, the oranges were very much welcome. Hey, maybe Chef Adria knows what he's doing after all. As if I need convincing. The liquor took it from afternoon snack to fancy dessert, the sugar added some crunch, and the ice cream made it all creamy and soothing. Definitely a good use of the oranges. And I needed all that citric acid to cut through that darn fish. Blech.

The Family Meal: Meal 7 - Saffron Risotto with Mushrooms, Catalan Style Turkey, Yogurt Foam with Strawberries

I've never had turkey outside of a Thanksgiving meal (I know, I'm so sheltered), so this menu was an eye-opener. I'd prolonged making it as long as possible before the turkey legs were going to spoil since I'm not a big fan of raisins, and especially not a fan of prunes. Yeah, yeah, they're called dried plums now, but only because they had such a bad reputation as prunes that they had to do something drastic. They're still the things old ladies eat.

The turkey legs were easy enough to find at Central Market, but they come prepackaged in sets of three. So I had to make 1.5 times the recipe. But that also meant 1.5 times the yummy goodness. Plus, I don't think 2 legs is enough for 2 people, especially if one of those people is a large male. The risotto rice came from the bulk bins at Central Market, and the saffron was in a little plastic box on the spice aisle. I got shiitake mushrooms for the top of the risotto since the locust hordes apparently bought all the cremini mushrooms before I got to the grocery store, and the produce crew was still recovering from the onslaught. Never seen vino rancio anywhere, so I took the suggestion of substituting sherry. Plus, I don't use anything that probably shares the same Latin root with the word rancid.

The risotto made me suspicious at first since the instructions said to basically dump all of the broth in at once, but I did as I was told. And it turned out magnificently. I can honestly say that this is the first time I've eaten a risotto where I could taste all of the individual ingredients. I could taste the Parmesan cheese, the lemon juice, the saffron... Of course, this may just be a byproduct of my culinary genius in balancing flavors, but I have to give Chef Adria some credit.

The turkey was probably one of the best things I've made out of this cookbook so far. I let the raisins and prunes have a boozy soak in some sherry while I was at work, and then they made their way into a fabulous braise, all fat and happy. The flavors in this dish just click. It's savory and sweet at the same time. And even though I hate raisins and distrust prunes, they cook up into this silky sauce that is just fabulous. I seriously considered licking my plate and stealing the whole extra turkey leg.

For the strawberry dessert, I didn't have a fancy-pants whipped cream siphon with nitrogen canisters, so I had to make do with my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer. And with begging my parents to buy me a fancy-pants whipped cream siphon with nitrogen canisters. I'm such a food nerd. But back to the strawberries. The only strawberries I could find in the middle of winter were imported from Mexico, and not organic. These means that I probably just ingested a pound of synthetic pesticides and who knows what else. Strawberries are on the red list you know! That means only buy organic. Unless you're desperate, and it's January. I whipped up the cream and tossed in the yogurt with some powdered sugar, and it made a pretty refreshing dessert after the richness of the turkey legs. I still want a siphon, though.

The Family Meal: Meal 6 - Potato Chip Omelet, Pork Loin with Peppers, Coconut Macaroons

After the search for those willy sardines, I wanted something with easy to find ingredients. Like eggs. And pork chops. That's about as easy as it gets in American supermarkets. But what you actually do with those ingredients is what makes them interesting.

Nothing especially hard to find here in the ingredients. The pork chops are those thin, boneless chops I've sometimes seen advertised as breakfast chops. Not that I've ever eaten them for breakfast, but apparently somebody has. Amazingly, they didn't have them at Central Market, and I'm not enough of a sadist to ask the butcher to make me some when they close in ten minutes. I got mine prepackaged from Tom Thumb. The unsweetened grated coconut came from the bulk bins at Whole Foods. This isn't something I've ever seen at a regular grocery store. Other than that, everything is pretty standard.

The omelet was definitely...interesting. I ended up making two small omelets since I didn't have a frying pan with sloped sides that was big enough to handle one massive omelet. I kinda goofed on the first omelet, assuming I know better than an award winning chef, and I tried flipping the thing with a spatula. Bad move. Omelet everywhere. Lesson? Follow the directions. It still tasted good though. Second omelet, I slid onto a plate, then flipped over into the pan. It was awfully pretty on the plate. The taste? Weird, but somehow good. I'd never had an omelet with potato chips in it. And even though the instructions say that the potato chips will stay crispy, they don't really. Unless my overpriced organic Central Market chips are somehow substandard compared to El Bulli potato chips. It's a mystery. And the omelet still needed salt. So there.

I liked the pork chops a lot more than the omelet, even though the flavor was very light and subtle. The roasted pepper, which spent the entire time it was in the oven spewing pepper spray all over everything, was actually pretty darn good. I'm excited for the recipe in Meal 29 where you do the same thing with eggplant, too. The parsley oil that you pour over the chops definitely completes the flavor, but it also got olive oil up into the small cracks in my mini chopper, and it's still leaking out. Yes, okay, I don't have an immersion blender. I'm working on it. The whole trick with the pork chops is that each bite needs to have all three components. Pork chop, parsley oil, roasted pepper. Only then do you reach pork chop nirvana.

The macaroons were awesome. Yep, that good. Easy to make, easy to bake, easy to take. And put in my mouth. They ended up light and gooey in the middle, with a little crunch on the top where they browned. They didn't want to come off my Silpat mat until they were completely cooled, however, which made pre-dinner swiping difficult.

The Family Meal: Meal 5 - Polenta & Parmesan Gratin, Sesame Sardines with Carrot Salad, Mango with White Chocolate Yogurt

Okay, I admit it. I picked what I thought was probably the easiest menu in the darn book. Why? Because I have a job. And it is routinely giving me a migraine. And riding home on mass transit with the psych ward patients from the county hospital doesn't alleviate said headache. So I picked a recipe with some polenta, some fried fish, and a little sliced mango. Quick and easy. Or so I thought.

Sardines are basically non-existent in Dallas. I know they eat them like they're going out of style in Europe, and I know they have all these supposed health benefits, but darn it, Americans don't like sardines. They're fishy and weird and stinky, right? Yeah, I thought so, too. The only sardines I had ever seen were in small cans. And I never saw anyone buying them. So it was obviously time for me to try some sardines. But where to buy them? I dropped by Whole Foods, but the kid working at the seafood counter shook his head. They only carry them around the holidays, but he could definitely order some. But I would have to purchase a certain base amount to do the order. Um, no. I need 10, read it, 10 sardines. I do not need 10 pounds. Thank you, next store.

I called Central Market, not actually expecting them to have any sardines. I asked the seafood guy if he had fresh sardines, being very specific about the fresh thing since I wanted to make sure he didn't direct me to the canned variety. I could hear the regret in his voice as he told me, "Sorry, I only have previously frozen ones". Uh, this is Texas. EVERYTHING remotely fishy is previously frozen. I was a very happy woman.

The rest of the ingredients were pretty basic until I got down my list to caramelized hazelnuts. Blanched hazelnuts? Sure. Raw hazelnuts? Sure. Caramelized hazelnuts? Sounds good, but I've never seen any. After much internet searching, it turns out that they're some kind of confection, but few places carry them. Luckily my internet searching also turned up some recipes for making them myself. An extra step, but hey, the recipe says caramelized hazelnuts, and I'm not going to question Chef Adria, but so much for "easy to find".

About the polenta... This was so incredibly quick and easy I almost feel bad. And yet it was so silky smooth and palette pleasing that I had to go back and check the ingredient list again. Yep, nothing abnormal. Polenta, water, cream, butter, Parmesan. Simple. And yet the broiler gave the top this amazing crunch, almost like those Parmesan crisps you see as decorations on fancy plates. The polenta underneath was creamy and warm and basically the definition of comfort food. I've got to say, this polenta blew the polenta in Plenty out of the water. Sorry, Yotam.

The sardines were a chore. Since I got fresh fish, they had scales and heads and backbones and guts. Lots of squishy guts. And I needed to remove the scales and heads and backbones and guts before they would be fit to eat. Since I'd never dealt with guts, I had to look up the technique on the internet (I should buy stock in Google). Unfortunately Chef Adria left most of that bit out of his little instructional sardine collage. Plus I was freaking out because the fish had about a million little bones, and I knew if I had to pick every single one out, it was going to be a very long night. Luckily, the little bones are edible. Thank you, internet bloggers. The sardines only take about 2 minutes to fry, but I was ripping away at their insides for a good hour first. The taste of the cooked sardines was indeed fishy, but a pleasant kind of seawater and omega fats. The lemon juice sprinkled on top definitely helped to cut some the richness and provide balance. I actually kinda liked the darn little fishies. They do get a little overwhelming when you have a whole plate of them, though.  The carrots for the salad were just so pretty and ribbon-like when cut with the mandoline. They fall off the blade in curly strips that can be piled in artistic bunches. And the vinaigrette isn't half bad. I never really considered putting mint in a Dijon mustard vinaigrette, but it works.

Ah, the mango. It's not mango season. I know that, and yet I managed to find a beautiful organic mango at Whole Foods. Probably from somewhere exotic like Chile or Peru. Somewhere where it's not 40 degrees out. And since I got it at Whole Foods, that makes up for my not buying local produce, right? Right? Thought so. The white chocolate yogurt sauce... Transcendent. Mango never tasted this good. And you know what? Chef Adria was right about the hazelnuts. They add the perfect sugary crunch that completes the dish.

Fat Free Vegan: Creole Blackeyed Peas

I'm not sure where the tradition came from to eat blackeyed peas for New Year's, but it's pretty ubiquitous here in the South.  I'm not a big fan of plain old blackeyed peas, so I tried to find something a little more interesting to make with them.  I came across a website of vegan dishes called Fat Free Vegan Kitchen that had a very interesting blackeyed pea recipe.  These peas are done creole style, which for me means Flavor.  Yes, capital F, Flavor.

The holy trinity of onions, celery, and bell pepper make a showing, with some tomatoes and garlic.  I used a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, so I got an extra punch there, and a jalapeño pepper helped make it a little bit spicier.  The blackeyed peas were fresh, not frozen or canned, so they didn't end up mushy.  You also use some liquid smoke to give the dish that barbecue flavor, and it certainly does something magical here.  I served the peas over some brown rice, and it was a perfect start to a new year.

Creole Blackeyed Peas
Adapted from Fat Free Vegan blog

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded, deveined, and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
11 ounces fresh blackeyed peas
1 (14.5-ounce) can Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes
4 cups vegetable broth, water, or a combination of both
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon Cajun seasoning mix (such as McCormick)
½ teaspoon liquid smoke
¼ cup cilantro, chopped

Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven until it shimmers.  Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, and jalapeño pepper, and sauté until the vegetables are tender and the onion is translucent.  Add the blackeyed peas, tomatoes, vegetable broth, and all seasonings except for the liquid smoke.  Simmer the mixture for about 45 minutes, or until the blackeyed peas have softened.  Add the liquid smoke, and stir to combine.  Top with chopped cilantro, and serve on brown rice or cornbread.

Makes 6 servings