Archive for January 25th, 2009

Tonight I tried something novel based on three variations I spied in Lynne Rosetto Kasper’s book, How to Eat Supper. She has a recipe for a summer tart with grapes that uses puff pastry dough as the base. This version became a little “mini-pizza.”

Taragon and a little mint (fresh) join sweet mini-tomatoes, salt, pepper, shallot, garlic, and mozzarella cheese. I would recommend using a less moist cheese next time, alongside dried tomatoes (not sun-dried, but 3-4 hours in a low oven would produce something less watery). Cooking the shallots and garlic in butter ahead of time, too, might be a good call.

The lunar year begins Monday in the U.S., Sunday in China. This is the year of the ox. To celebrate, we made some Asian dishes.

For dessert, we made the Ina Garten apple tart. Not Asian, I know, but it was requested and it was tasty. This time around we used puff pastry dough.

The rice cooker was used for course #4: fried rice.

This rice, with green peas, chinese sausage, and aromatics, was pretty good. Alongside was course #3, 5-spice baby-back ribs.

A glaze with sesame oil and honey added depth to the aromatic flavors in 5-spice powder.

The first two courses were tasty too, from the David Chang brussels sprouts with fish sauce/mint dressing to the Lantern-inspired pork dumplings with applewood smoked bacon.

We all had different “favorites,” so I think the meal was a success.

Happy New Year!