Saturday, April 12, 2008

Art of Simple Food - meal 2

Another hit parade for Sunday dinner.  This week was all about shallow-frying.  We shallow fried pork shops and cauliflower.  Both were divine.  The recipe for the cauliflower called for making a sauce.  And that sauce was fantastic - a combination of garlic, onions, scallions, & tomato paste.

We also made a lemon tart by combining two recipes - lemon curd and pate sucree.  The lemon curd was made with 3 parts Meyer Lemon and 1 part Blood Orange.  I have to admit to never making a lemon tart before and thus was pretty anxious about it.  Will the curd set? Will the tart shell fully bake?  I realized that anxiety is the opposite of simple.  If you own the process, not the outcome, then you'll probably enjoy more journeys in life.

art of simple food - meal 1

So week one was three aces!  Braised chicken legs, pan-fried potatoes, blanched asparagus, and tangerine ice.  
The braised chicken legs needed four ingredients.  The potatoes only 2!  Each were fantastic.  The potatoes were so tasty that my 4 year old asked, "Daddy, can I have this for my birthday dinner?"

But the highlight was the tangerine ice.  I used tangelos and organic sugar.  Then each hour, we took the mixture out of the freezer and scrapped from the edges in.  After four hours, we let it freeze for four hours.  REMARKABLE.