use real butter

Whoa. It’s spring. Even here in the Land of Ephemeral Summer, it’s bleeping spring. Talk about a mind fuck what with daylight savings, another round of chemo, and the warm spell this weekend - I have awoken to a world that is now a lot… hotter. Not that I mind spring. Despite my love for winter, I actually embrace the arrival of all seasons because it’s a refreshing change. To be honest, spring here is really a warmer version of winter with nice big snow dumps paired with longer sunny days. Makes for great mountaineering conditions and who doesn’t love to ski some of that corn snow in the backcountry? Tap tap tap - waiting for the snowpack to get just right. Oh, my tele days are not over yet - not by a long shot.

And let’s not forget the bounty of spring produce. I get all excited in anticipation, although I’ll have to figure out which foods I can and cannot partake of because of my treatment. Still, a creative cook can make her way around some of those obstacles. Even though we’re still days off from the official start of spring (and in my neck of the woods it doesn’t feel like spring until May) I got started on my spring cleaning of sorts: closets, cupboards, paperwork, projects… While I was at it, I remembered that I had several recipes squirreled away for posting and some of them are “wintry” dishes. Best to get on those soon, eh?

Oh but first, more goodies in the post - a surprise from dearest, sweetest Anita of Dessert First! I have to say that food bloggers are some of the nicest people in the world. Add to that the fact that they also have teh best taste in food stuffs and you will never be more pampered and showered with love by a better person or persons.

i nearly peed my pants when i saw where the yummies were from!

Isn’t she a dear? What a complete delight to have these to look forward to after my treatment. Anita, you are the best! xxoo

Right. On to the recipe for crock pot roast beef, which I got while attending a funeral. People bring comfort food when someone dies, when someone is ill - a basic and kind gesture from the heart. I’ve made this recipe several times to take to others. I like that it was brought to me in a time of need and that I can pass it along to others in their time of need. That said, you don’t have to be dead or dying to enjoy it - it’s perfectly suited for squeezing in on the last chilly evenings of winter too.

a hunk o’ beef chuck

This recipe is so easy that if you can’t make it, you really shouldn’t be allowed out in public unsupervised. It calls for a slab of chuck roast, celery, onion, water, red wine, and soy sauce. The crock pot makes it ludicrously easier still.

celery and onion

As I’ve stated before, I am a huge fan of taking tough cuts of meat and slow cooking them into tender oblivion. It’s like that lead into gold thing, except this is much tastier and you will have more friends.

dump it all in the crock pot and set the timer to: delicious

Most people can’t help digging into the roast as soon as it is done, but I take it a few steps further. I strain the broth and refrigerate it for defatting (yes, this requires planning ahead). While the meat is still hot, I remove any fat and gristle. Shred or leave in chunks - fantastic either way.

tender

The broth can be left as broth or turned into a fabulous gravy. For gravy: mix up a quick roux of butter and flour and then temper it a little at a time with the broth until you have the consistency desired. This gravy is amazing on mashed yukon gold potatoes. But, we ate the potatoes up before I got around to shooting the beef this time.

pleasantly heady pot roast

I should mention that the leftovers make some kick ass sandwiches if you are so inclined. Personally, I like to pair it with some melted Swiss. Jeremy loves dipping the sandwich into some of the broth on the side. It’s all good.

love the sandwich

Crock Pot Roast Beef

3-5 lb chuck roast
1 cup water
1 cup red wine
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup onion, diced

Dump it all in the crock pot. Set to high for 8 hours. Dig in.

Remember the surf we had for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday?

it stirs the memories and some salivation

Tonight we continued the debauchery with a little bit o’ turf. I wanted to serve it with potatoes and sweet potatoes. I think it was a very good idea to postpone the beef until tonight otherwise I may have wound up in food coma or worse.

nice and standard tenderloin

The other motive for postponing turf until tonight was so I could enjoy the appropriate wine with the dish. I don’t like compromising a wine between foods as disparate as lobster and beef. I’m not a wine expert, I just really enjoy good wine with good food. What we decided to open was a gift from our dear friend, Fumito. He gave it to us about five years ago - a bottle of 1997 Château Angélus Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé. When we moved from Southern California to Colorado, we drove in the 108F temperatures of the Utah summer wondering if our most beloved bottles of wine would make the trip packed in the backseat under a stack of dog towels.

special to us

It made it. It was fantastic. Given some time to breathe, it opened up nicely taking the edge off the oak. Earthy, dark fruit, and big. After dinner we had a little more along with some lovely Belgian dark chocolate. They seemed to compete in my mouth and then the flavors of the chocolate were drawn out, the taste of hazelnut, the taste of vanilla… Very nice.

So to revisit our friend, the lobster. Steaming the lobster would have been fine, but because we were steaming crab, I wanted a little variety. My dad gave me an excellent recipe over the phone and it was simple enough that I didn’t need to write anything down. I purchased two of the smallest lobster tails I could find and in total they weighed 1.25 lbs which I felt was still on the large side. It is generally acknowledged in my family that large lobsters are not as sweet and not as tender as their smaller counterparts. When my parents order lobster in a Chinese restaurant, it is customary for the server to present my parents with the live lobster in a bucket for approval. My dad will often send it back if he feels it is too large… then he’ll turn to me and say, “Do you know why Daddy sent that lobster back? It’s too big. It tastes like yechhhh. You want to order a small lobster, no more than a pound and half at most - pound is preferable. Are you listening to me, kid?” Oh the wisdom that falls to the feet of disinterested youth.

split the lobster, slap on the ingredients, and grill

My dad didn’t mention to use scissors to cut the shell open down the backs. I used a cleaver and well… I’ll use scissors next time. After cutting the shell, I cut the flesh down the middle to about halfway. Removing the digestive tract was a new experience (I’d never done this before and it’s waaay bigger than the one in those cute little shrimp). Dad said to sprinkle salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic, and parsley over the tails and then rub the seasonings evenly over the lobster flesh. I set the tails on aluminum foil and poured some good white wine over the lobster a small pat of butter on top of each tail. I wrapped the foil around the tails into a large loose pouch, sealed shut, and grilled on high for 6-8 minutes (8 minutes for larger tails). Great meal.

very little effort for the bang

Grilled Lobster
from my dad

2 lobster tails about 1/2 lb each
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
salt
pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine
1/2 tbsp butter, in two pieces

Use scissors to cut the shells of the lobster tails down the back. With a knife, cut the lobster meat about halfway down, but not all the way through. Sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic, parsley, and olive oil over the tails. Rub the seasonings into the meat. Set the tails on a large sheet of aluminum foil. Pour wine over the tails and set a pat of butter on top of each tail in the trench of the meat. Wrap the foil around the tails into a tent-like pouch, sealing the openings shut. Grill on high heat for 6-8 minutes depending on the size. Serve immediately.

It’s the right time for pears. I enjoy pears, but the fruit carries some baggage for me. In Chinese, the word for pear is a homophone of the word to split or to leave. My grandmother and mom never allowed splitting a pear between two people (for fear that you would be separated). However, splitting among three or more is okay. I never quite understood all of it, but they scared me so much with their superstitions that I follow it (and many others) to this day. I even consulted with my grandmother to find out if it was okay for us to share a pear with the dog. She gave it some consideration and concluded that yes, it was okay, since the dog is part of our family and that makes three.

About nine years ago, I was in Argentina for field work and the whole team was in camp together for one night. We usually paired off and only met up in town for supplies, downloading data, and meeting with local geologists. Ben and I dropped by a grocery store en route to camp and I picked up some ingredients for dessert to follow the asado. I made poached pears in red wine sauce and served it with vanilla ice cream (which I kept cool by tying the carton in a plastic bag and chucking it into a freezing cold stream on a leash). It was suprisingly good, but I think everything tastes better in the backcountry. Seeing pears on sale at the store stirred up those old memories.

First I made some ice cream - pear ice cream. Now with my copy of The Perfect Scoop in hand, I dabbled with DL’s pear and pecorino ice cream. Fruits like pear and lychee have such subtle and almost flowery flavors that they beg to be made as ice cream.

probably too much pear, now that i think of it

we definitely want a custard base (because i love it)

I omitted the pecorino because I didn’t have any. I upped the amount of pear and custard, but I think less pear might have lent to a creamier texture. It turned out more like a hybrid ice cream and sorbet - which is good, but not what I was shooting for. So that was made with bartlett pears. Today, I picked up some bosc pears for poaching.

a more elegant shape for poaching

naked!

I couldn’t decide on a recipe, so I wung it and tossed in what sounded good for the wine sauce. This is where two buck chuck comes in handy. I know Julia says to never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink, but my tastes aren’t that discerning and I’m not made of money (what a concept).

sugar, cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, and vino

simmer for 45 minutes

The pear ice cream with the poached pears tasted nice and fruity - light. I think a rich vanilla is still my preference to eat with the poached pear. I have to wonder how the pear and pecorino would have been with a wine sauce. It just sounds like a perfect combination despite the fact that I don’t dig on cheese too much. Always fun to experiment.

a pear pair

Pear Ice Cream
adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

4 ripe bartlett pears, peeled and cored
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup half-and-half
3/4 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1/4 tsp lemon juice

Cut pears into 1/2 inch pieces. Cook with water in a medium saucepan, covered, over medium heat stirring occasionally until cooked, about ten minutes. Remove pears from liquid. Purée in food processor until smooth. Warm half-and-half and sugar in a medium saucepan. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Slowly pour warm half-and-half mixture into egg yolks while whisking constantly, then pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Stir over medium heat scraping the bottom until mixture thickens and reaches nappe consistency. Strain the custard into a bowl over an ice bath and mix in the lemon juice and the pear. Stir until cooled. Chill thoroughly in refrigerator and then freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions.

Wine-Poached Pears

5 bosc pears, peeled with stem on
2 cups red wine
1 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
5 cloves
1 tsp orange peel

Combine all ingredients except the pears in a medium to large saucepan. Dissolve sugar over medium heat. Add pears on their sides to the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cover. Simmer for 45 minutes, flipping pears at 22 minutes. Remove pears from sauce. Boil the sauce until it bubbles up and remove from heat. Let sauce cool. Drizzle sauce over pears and serve with something creamy (whipped cream, ice cream…)