Tonight I pulled from two Meera Sodha recipes for chickpea pancakes and filled them with crispy frying cheese and broccolini stir-fried with mustard seed, garlic, ginger, and hot chili. Served with green chutney. Really tasty, although I realized later that they should have been thinner and more crepe-like (I just followed her measurements but didn’t check the picture). I liked these and would make again. Thanks @Saregama for the chutney tip.
The brie-rich mashed potatoes I made last night were really good, so I wanted something really good for the leftovers. So, coq au vin with brown mushrooms and the season’s first chanterelles. An hour at 275F covered, 15 minutes uncovered at 350, still not quite browned on top, so low flame broiler for five more minutes. Really good!
Those mashed taters sound decadent! ![]()
Do you remove the rind before incorporating the brie into the mashed? Double cream? Triple?
Also super-jealous of your access to chanterelles!
The most decadent spuds I’ve made, I think. Ripe Fromager d’Affinois, rind on, more than you’d think should add, a little milk and butter, the potatoes warm on a very low flame as you stir the cheese in. Keep mashing until the rind dissolves.
Yes, chanterelles! At a good price, $16/lb, or maybe $2.00 for what I used. I added them soon before it was all ready so they wouldn’t lose their flavor in the mix.
I went to an interesting artist talk yesterday afternoon. The tiles the artists incorporated in their exhibition are in fact made out ceramic not glass as I had thought. They even brought one of the molds they used in the making of the tiles. Fascinating for the art nerd that I am
It was really warm out yesterday afternoon (24 ° C / 78° F) so I really had my mind set on sitting in the park across the street for abit after my gallery visit. However when I was at home on Saturday I realized I am running out of a lot of cleaning products and toiletries so I headed of to the dollar store then the drugstore after. I got home loaded down with enough supplies to last months but much later than anticipated so I had some stirfried green beans and red pepper served over spaghetti. I added a little thyme (oregano would have been a better choice) and garlic which I added too soon since it burned ![]()
SPQR is a well established restaurant in San Francisco for close to 20 years. More recently owner/chef Accarrino also open just around the corner Mattina https://www.mattinasf.com/ - a full day restaurant with lunch, cafe and dinner options. It is more of a neighborhood restaurant than SPQR but still has the focus on high quality dishes, e.g. pasta made in-house, spiedini etc. Our first visit was very good and it is a bit surprising that the restaurant seems to fly a bit under the radar compared to some other Italian places in the city
Prosciutto & “Gnocco Fritto”, summer melon
Radicchio & Red Beet, fried pork belly, orange & mulled red wine
Spiedino of beef, maple soy
Malfedine, spinach pasta, “bolognese deluxe”, parmesan
Pappardelle, lamb cheek sugo, bell pepper, pecorino
Stone Food Crisp & Gelato
That looks like just the kind of meal I would order. Very nice.
After the protest on Saturday in San Francisco, I made my sister and I a roast chicken that was salted and had sat in the fridge most of the day. Roasted at high heat with nothing more for seasoning, turned out super crispy skinned, juicy, almost buttery. Also made morels in a sherry cream sauce, and tried my hand at Din Tai Fung green beans (pics of the latter two were crappier than usual). Medium success on the green beans, but i loved the morels.
Sunday dinner was more chimken - from a yahoo video of Thai-inspired chicken rice bowls that turned out pretty good - needed a little more soy sauce I think. Tons o’garlic and red Thai chilies in the lemony/fish sauce sauce.
lovely looking and sounding!
Where did you find morels this time of year?
As I commented in our group, that chicken is absolute purr-feck-shin. Wow! Could even give our bok bok qween a run for her money!!! Fabulous.
they were dried - from a stash a friend shared with me last year.
thanks! i think it could have gone a little darker myself, but my sister is averse to caramelization. ![]()
A simple roast chicken is one of the most sublime meals you can have.
I finally made aloo gobi which kept getting bumped from my meal plan. I reheated half an acorn squash and used it as a serving vessel and although it was really good I decided I much prefer aloo gobi with rice or naan.
Black bean and calamari stew with chipotle, Anaheim, and serrano chiles, improvised for dinner tonight. Looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!
I really gotta make that miso spinach some time! Love spinach, love cream, love miso ![]()
Woke up way too early bc of shoulder pain, some of which my PT was able to alleviate with her massage gun — which, for some reason, I continue to accidentally call machine gun… maybe too drastic a solution at this point in time ![]()
File under best laid plans n ‘at, but I didn’t feel like going to my friend’s story-telling event tonight after all. Sundays & Mondays tend to be our home nights anyway — made even more tempting by our sweet new housemates — plus it looks like the gals and I might get together Thursday instead ![]()
I had a serious craving for chicken piccata, which I made with BLSL halal chicken thighs that were the usual PITA to clean. I absolutely loathe performing lipo on those suckerz, but I ended up with nice chonks of meat that seared wonderfully.
No breading, just a very light dusting of cornstarch & lemon pepper seasoning. The sauce had both lemon juice & lemon zest. Served with tender & delish FM green beanz I’d frozen in early September, just tossed in shallot-garlic butter.
A crisp, cheap-ass vinho verde to drank with.
Not too shabby for a Monday night.

















