Sketch 1, Delivery:
Lots of takeout and delivery lately. We're lucky to have some good choices in our neighborhood: Szechuan, better-than-utility Thai, Pho, Macrobiotic, Square pie, Israeli Italian cooked by Mexicans, and even Nepalese. Occasionally, the timing works out and BoW can stop by Fioretto on the way home and pick up some pie as well. Chef David does not have a wood oven, but he manages to get a pretty spectacular crust out of the electric one he has.
There's just enough protein in that dough to make it rise nicely at the crust, but fine enough grains of flour that it gets beautifully crisp and flaky.
The ingredients are of the quality we have come to expect from him. That cheese is so wonderful, and the salt from the ham and olives is nicely balanced by the acidity of the sauce and the artichoke. I like pie.
Sketch 2, The Marinade of Yesterday for Tomorrow:
I'm looking forward to a visit from Sky Walker next week. No, not this one, or this one, but the percussionist from the band I played in in college. That and the scourge, er, blessing of social networking have gotten me thinking about old friends. Specifically, I've been thinking of DB, an old roommate that had done some cooking in professional kitchens in Louisville and San Francisco before returning to school. While he lived with us, we had a dinner program. He cooked dinner 4 nights a week for all of us that lived in the house plus a couple of our friends that lived in the neighborhood. We bought the groceries, and he got a break on his rent. It was fun, and we all ate better that year than probably any other year we were in school.
DB was the guy you'd see standing in front of the open fridge doing a hit of wasabi straight out of the tube while he was cooking. Most of the food was New American, but at the time, I just knew it was good. He introduced me to anchovy paste and got us growing herbs (for cooking!) in the back yard. The thing that has stayed with me this entire time, though, was his use of Cardini's dressing. Every week, he would buy a bottle and use half of it on our Monday salad. Then, every other day that week, he would add vinegar, oil, lemon, whatever, to what was left in the bottle and dress the salad with that. By Thursday, there was more DB than Cardini's in that bottle, and it was delicious.
Since then, it has been in my pantry constantly. These days, I dress salads with a lighter vinaigrette like my mom always made (vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, maybe a green herb), but I use Cardini's for marinade all the time. Here, you see it as a base for my grilled tofu marinade.
Cardini's, soy, worcestershire sauce, sriracha. I'll finish with a squeeze of citrus right before grilling. That's tomorrow's dinner, so I'll follow up with you.
Sketch 3, Beaver Bounce:
After a lot of meat over the last couple of meals, BoW and decided to get some of the Baja California shrimp we saw at the market, some fresh garlic, and some of the sweet pea tendrils that the Asian veggie vendors have been carrying the last year or so to make a little linguini for dinner. The pea tendrils are just that: the vegetative portion of pea plants, harvested before they bud. They're kinda like young spinach, but a lot sweeter. They are great stir-fried as well.
Anyway, whenever I get shrimp, I always boil down the shells with some white wine and garlic to use in the sauce. Cheesecloth is a must.
I quickly seared the shrimp in olive oil and garlic, then pulled them out, deglazed with a little of the shrimp broth, and quickly braised the tendrils. The pasta went back in to combine with the sauce, and I served with the shrimp on top and parmesan to garnish, of course.
It's a pretty quick meal. Shelling the shrimp and making the broth takes a little longer than boiling water for pasta. I'd say the whole thing takes less than 40 minutes. Serve with the same Pinot Grigio as is in the sauce. Easy white wine and shrimp.
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