T's version of a bender

Six days ago sparked what can only be described as a cooking bender. 6 out of the last 6 nights have involved some form of over-the-top cooking.

Friday's Four Course Meal welcomed Marianne to DC
Saturday's California Roll Salad
Sunday's Broccoli and Chicken Casserole
Monday's Ribeyes and Fries
Tuesday's Mozzarella Sticks (ok, in fairness, this wasn't really over-the-top. But I needed SOME kind of break...)
Wednesday's....well, let's just call Wednesday one big experiment.

Usually I find some time in the evenings to throw a quick blog together, but as you can see I haven't exactly had a whole lot of time. But I am not cooking tonight. Nor tomorrow. In fact, there's a decent chance I won't cook anything until Alyse and I put on Southern food night on the 4th of July. So instead of cramming all of this into one big post, you'll get one a day for a little while, as I try to catch up.

First up, Friday's Four Courses:

We started with baked brie (inspiration courtesy of Erika) . This time, I tried adding some cinnamon and nutmeg-just a sprinkling...I didn't want it to taste like dessert-and I again wrapped the mixture of brie, slivered almonds, and peach preserves in fillo dough. I'm still trying to figure out another way to use that stuff. It'll come to me. It was again a winner, and I'm wondering if it's just a drizzle of honey away from being a dessert. Maybe a little lighter on the brie and heavier on the fillo (or other) dough. Hm.


Second up was my first attempt at a summer roll.

[Detour: What, you ask, is the difference between a summer roll, and spring roll, and an egg roll? An egg roll is more meat based, and is fried with some sort of batter. I've never tried making one. A spring roll is wrapped in rice paper and deep fried. A summer roll is simply wrapped in rice paper.]

Surprisingly, I found both rice paper and cellophane noodles at Harris Teeter. I rolled the rice paper with napa cabbage, noodles, some shrimp I poached in vinegar, hot sauce, cayenne, salt, white wine, and water, some sweet orange bell peppers, and a bit of lettuce. I accompanied it with a sweet chili sauce. Since I was lazy, I started with a base of regular store brought chili sauce and added peach preserves, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger powder, and a 1/4 of a habanero. It was fiery and sweet--the perfect accompaniment to the fresh, crunchy flavor of the summer rolls. I'll do these again. Soon. And exactly as I made them this time.



Third course was a frenched rack of lamb that I pan seared in olive oil with a dry rub of rosemary, coriander, lots of black pepper and salt, and a couple of dashes of cayenne. Then tossed in the oven for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees for medium rare. While that was going, I tossed some white wine back in the pan that I used to sear the lamb (and because I love fire, a wee bit of flambe) and added honey, liquid smoke, garlic powder, a dash of cream, lemon juice, and some Iranian saffron (not the stuff at Trader Joe's) that Marianne brought back from Europe. High-five, Marianne.






Finally, a flourless chocolate cake with a caramel sauce that's good enough to make you wanna slap your momma. (Not MY momma, before I get any phone calls) Amazing how a simple combination of chocolate, sugar, butter, and eggs can turn out so light! I was worried I'd end up with a cake so decadent and dense that I'd have one slice and not be able to look at chocolate the rest of the month. But this cake was like a complex brownie--simultaneously light in texture and rich in flavor. Balanced with some good quality vanilla ice cream, both of us were ready to go into food comas.