I spent most of the day preparing for Thursday. In no particular order, I trimmed a deboned lamb neck, seasoned it with ras-el-hanout, sprinkled it with activa, rolled it up, gave the outside a good rub with a sage-rosemary-garlic paste, and vacuum-sealed it to set it in a nice torchon. I made a chanterelle-apricot sauce with cream for the lamb. I made chicken broth from last night's carcass. I made the custard for the barely-sweetened dark chocolate-espresso ice cream. I made savory walnut marshmallows, adapted from the El Bulli cookbook. I brined a hunk of pork belly, and cooked the pork terrine with pistachios and calvados-cider soaked figs in the water bath for four hours at 66˚ C.
There was probably some other stuff too. It's particularly funny because I'm still not sure what I'm making. I'm tired. I made osso buco for dinner, on brown rice, with steamed yellow cauliflower, the mustard-heavy green mash left from yesterday, and a wonderful jus made from the braising liquid reduced with some beef demi-glace. We had a 1999 Ciacci Brunello. Milo, ecstatic, ate all of our marrow. It was good. I'm going to bed.
6 comments:
Isn't activa that yogurt that wimminfolk eat to stay regular?
'Mishly' is my word of the day.
Tomorrow is A Game, day 1.
zero cooking for me this year
boarding a plane
mom phones in it
i'm not all that traditional about THE DAY.
i just wanna be with family and be thankful
but still as always - your food sounds stellar. and i wish your food was my food.
I'm listening to "The Phantom Tollbooth" - unabridge, on tape - and it's just as good as the first time I read it! Happy Thanksgiving to you, your lovely wife and, of course, Milo.
Did you name Milo after that Milo? That was my favorite book growing up. C wrote Norton Juster after reading it, he loved it so much.
I'm in the same boat as you - know what I'm going to cook, though. I think. We're going to be a small crowd so it will all be fine. I've got a tangle of beef stew on the stove currently and have a blessed half hour with no one in the house.
Yay.
I have a house full of peeps, (crazy little marshmallow chicks), so I've got a big 'ol T-day planned. No marrow, my sister's a veggie.
Blanche: Yes. Yes, it is.
Claudia: Nice picture. Have a great trip.
Zoomie: Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. It's a great book.
Jen: After he was born, none of the names on our list fit him at all. After a couple of days, we came up with Milo separately, due in part to our love of that book when we were young.
Kristie: I hope you spend the entire meal riding and deriding her until there's a long, awkward silence, followed by lots of tears.
Extra credit for broken plates and glasses.
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