onemonkeyshow

This was a fun little experiment with some ground chicken.  Chicken meatballs – topped with a little tomato paste mixture.  

And what pasta meal would be complete without a generous heaping of parmesan cheese?

Okay, so I’ve spent a couple of weeks working on my Thanksgiving menu.  And I believe it is final, and ready for print:

• Cheese platter (assorted, four cheeses with crackers) update: Angel is bringing a fun mix of cheeses from a new place they just found in Brooklyn
• Pickled grapes with cinnamon and black pepper (set out with cheeses)
• Amuse bouche:  Duet of Egg (boiled quail egg, salmon roe, shaved mushroom, pepper & chives)
• Amuse bouche:  BSP (roasted brussel sprouts, cooked pancetta, butter, lemon, parsley, celery salt, pepper)
• Roast Duck with apple & prune stuffing, and a Pomegranate-chile sauce
• Cauliflower with almonds, raisins & capers
• Yams with crispy skins and brown-butter vinaigrette
• Roasted beet salad with oranges, mint, macadamia nuts & pecorino cheese
• Italian bread with black truffle butter
• update:  Paul is making his famous Pumpkin Pie!

There you have it.  Dessert is going to be handled by someone else.  That’s enough for one man to cook, don’t you think?

I was browsing around at Euro Grocer looking for some black truffle paste (I’m going to make black truffle butter on Thanksgiving) and I saw that they also sold rabbits.  Not the fluffy, cutesy, eating and pooping kind – but the kind that have all their skin yanked off and are ready to be devoured.  And I thought “hmm…I’ve never cooked rabbit before,” although I can remember having that at least once (and squirrel) as a kid.  So I ordered one.  It arrived yesterday, and I found a recipe that sounded good (by Tyler Florence).

I opened up the package, and there was little Thumper in all his glory.  Although I still had to reach inside and yank out a few stray organs.  [After it was all said and done I couldn't believe my mistake - I threw away the organs instead of boiling or roasting them for the poor, mistreated, ever-hungry dog...although he did get scraps from dinner, so I'm sure he wasn't too heart-broken]

The recipe said to cut up the rabbit into thigh-sized pieces.  I assumed it didn’t mean MY thigh, because the rabbit was barely that big as it was.  So I grabbed a knife and went to town.  It was actually pretty easy to figure out what ‘pieces’ to create – the legs were easy (and the back legs are MEATY), and then I cracked the backbone in half, discarded the top portion and cut off the delicious meat on either side of the lower back.  I guess that could be considered the rabbit loin?

Next, I coated the rabbit in a mixture of flour, thyme, oregano, salt & pepper.

Now here’s where the pictures just stop.  I thought Keith took some of the final product, but alas I do not have them.  Still, I continue…in my dutch oven, I heated some oil then threw in a big bunch of rosemary, 4 whole garlic cloves, and 2 red chili peppers (whole).  I let them infuse the oil for a few minutes, then removed them.  In went the rabbit pieces – about 7 or 8 minutes on each side.  Then I tossed back in the rosemary, garlic and peppers, and added 1/2 bottle white wine (I used a sauvignon blanc), a couple cups of chicken stock, and some salt & pepper.  The recipe called for black olives as well, which I didn’t have.  And which seemed odd to me – although I’m guessing they added an interesting texture when they melted (and flavor).

With everything added, it was into the pre-heated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Now, if I were to do this rabbit recipe again, I think I would have left it in a little longer – maybe 40 or 45 minutes.  That being said, I pulled it out of the oven and removed the rabbit (covered it so it stayed hot).  Put the sauce over high heat until it starts boiling, and reduce it until it’s thick enough to cover the back of a spoon.  It wasn’t thickening enough for me, so I added a few tablespoons of flour, and some additional salt & pepper.  And I whisked it a bit to help mash up the garlic bits that hadn’t melted.  Then I spooned some of the sauce over the rabbit and served.

And like I said, no photo of the finished product – sorry.  But I do have the salad I made to go along with the meal.  I recreated one of my favorites from ‘inoteca – roasted beets, mint, pecorino cheese & hazlenuts (although for the life of me I couldn’t find hazlenuts, so I opted for macadamia nuts).

I explained to Keith last night that one of my staple bachelor meals was chicken breasts and rice.  Nothing too exciting, really.  So last night I took that simple meal and amped it up a bit.  I smothered the chicken breasts in jerk seasoning and cooked them through on the stove in a little olive oil.  For the rice, I used white long grain and cooked it according to the package instructions (bring to a boil, 20 minutes at a low simmer, 10 minutes off the heat but still covered).  But during the last 5 minutes I threw in chopped scallions, chopped walnuts, raisins, capers, salt, pepper & butter.  Damn fine rice, if I can say so myself!

Okay, can I just tell you how excited I am for Thanksgiving this year?  It’s our tradition that Keith gets to pick the Christmas dinner (honey baked ham, mac’n'cheese…same ‘ol, same ‘ol…haha), and I get to be as creative as I want for the Thanksgiving dinner.  And this year, Keith’s Mom & Dad are coming out to spend a long weekend with us.  AND our friends Angel & Paul are joining us for dinner.  So I’m cooking for 6!!!

So tonight is a test run of a couple of recipes.  Roast duck with a fantastic stuffing…and a great-looking cauliflower side dish.  Fingers crossed.  I’ll keep you up.

Last week on Top Chef, the Chefs had to prepare a meal at an event called Pigs & Pinot – pairing pork and different Pinot Noirs together.  I thought this sounded like a good idea – so I did my own challenge.  I used a Louis Jadot Pinot Noir, and I reduced it down with some blackberries, salt & pepper.  And I liberally spooned this delicious sauce over a roasted pork loin.  I would say my challenge was a success!

I found these fantastic multi-colored peppers at the farmers market here in Inwood.  I couldn’t resist them.  And in order to keep the great color, I just roasted them, removed the skin and cut them up as a side dish.

Over the weekend I made one of my favorite breakfast creations using duck eggs.  Layers go like this, starting from the bottom:

Slice of toasted Italian bread
spooned & spread layer of Ricotta cheese
slice of ham
fried duck egg
thin slice of swiss cheese

Pop it in the broiler so the cheese melts, and enjoy!

Totally didn’t take a picture of it last night (even though Keith suggested I do so) – but I made some apple chutney to top off the thick pork chops we had for dinner.  The chutney was awesome!  It’s a great combination of sweet & spicy:

1 honeycrisp apple (honeycrisp is exceptionally sweet and juicy) chopped
1/2 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed is always best)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
healthy pinch of red pepper flakes (crush them up a bit in your hand before throwing them in)

Throw it all in a little sauce pan, and bring the juice up to a boil.  Reduce the heat and let it simmer until the apples start to just lose their shape, and the mixture becomes thick instead of liquidy.  I also crushed up that apples just a bit more before spooning over the pork chops.

Good times!