Dinner for three

Finally back to work here after a week in NYC, which one would think was full of great food adventures, sadly I was laying carpet all week and food took a back seat. But the night before I left we had a dinner guest, one of JM's friends from college and JM wanted to make her a fine "nice to see ya" meal.

So I mostly stayed out of the kitchen, going in every once in a while to check on progress or snap a few photos. The one thing I did do was to make an appetizer plate. I love a little nosh in the afternoon and I had those Oysters, (remember those Oysters?) from the Farmers market. What better way to build a plate than around some fresh Oysters and Shrimp? Well add some farmers liverwurst, Black olives and cheeses, you have a snack fit for a Queen. I cheated and used cooked shrimp purchased from Zekes Creek and doctored up some cocktail sauce we had in the fridge from the dawn of time,, does that stuff ever go bad? A little horseradish, lemon and Tabasco and it tasted brand new. Smoked Cheddar and Sheep's milk Blue cheese and crackers rounded out the plate, while I topped the Oysters with Sambal.

JM meanwhile was Roasting a 3 Lbs "spoon" roast, which your butcher these days refers to as a "Sirloin" roast. Rubbed with S&P, smoked Paprika and African Bird pepper, ( a spicy red pepper), the roast was footed and oven ready. Footed, you say? JM had these cool old little spiked feet that you stick into the bottom of the roast to keep it off the roasting pan and give it full air circulation. I had never seen these before and thought they were the coolest thing going, not sure if you can pick them up at a Kitchen store or if they are one of those great ideas that fell by the wayside with the advent of the microwave oven and the "Chop's it All", (see late night infomercials). If you do come across them, I recommend purchasing. She started the roast at 450 degrees for ten minutes, to seal it, then lowered the heat to 325 degrees for an hour. The old standard of 20 minutes per pound works pretty well if you like your meat rare, as we do and you can increase the time by 5 and 10 minutes accordingly for medium and well. Remember to always let your meat rest after cooking, I go with 5 minutes per pound, covered in tin foil to keep some of the heat in.

To go along with the fine offering of cow JM was making Garlic scape's sauteed with Arugula,, all from the farmers market and I was chipping in with Lionaisse potato's. The scapes were cut into "bean" size pieces and tossed in butter, with the Arugula, lemon and S&P, they only take a few minutes, long enough to wilt the Arugula and actually taste a bit like green beans with a hint of garlic. A very short season on those means you will most likely be waiting until next year to try them, but worth the wait.

I attacked the potato's, using Red Bliss, medium sized, about 8 to 10. Sliced and blanched for 10 minutes they were drained and put in a buttered casserole dish. While they cooked I took 1 small white onion, sliced and sweated it in 2 Tbl Butter. Once the onions became translucent I added 2 Tbl flour and cooked that for five minutes, stirring constantly, (well almost constantly), to make a roux. One cup of 1/2/& 1/2 was added with fresh nutmeg, fresh Thyme, white pepper and a pinch of salt.

Brought to a boil and cooked for 5 minutes it was removed from the heat and 1/2 a cup of Pecorino Romano cheese was stirred in, then poured over the potato's. Some Panko bread crumbs topped the dish and covered it went into the oven for 45 minutes along with the roast at 350 degrees. When the roast came out, the tin foil was removed from the Potato's as to let them brown for 10 more minutes. Since everything was cooked, rested and ready JM did the carving and I went back to the Red Sox game, (which we won !) and awaited my feast. Some Store bought Brownies from our local Grocer, (Dave's), who by the way make a mean brownie, (so good in fact I have forsaken making brownies), and some Ginger Ice cream finished a fine meal with good friends, or in this case, friend. So, keep on cooking and have fun, afterall that is really what it is all about.