order in

quick lunch at elysian, using up what's around: frisee, fregola sarda with kubocha, carrots, green garlic, shallot, chile, harisa chickpeas, plus some little guanciale lardons super crisped, that's it

oozy sunday

sunday late breakfast, it's what was for dinner, last night, a few nights ago, odds and ends from the reaches of the reach-in: sweat some shallot, chile de arbol, add roasted kubocha and roasted carrots, get them hot, season, add dandelion greens and slivers of pink lady apple at the end as the omelet also finishes up, gets rolled out of the pan, lubed with butter, sprinkled with fleur de sel, and draped with the hot salad, a little tight-foamed capuccino appeared along the way and the omelet is oozy, "baveuse," because that's the way
we like it

post-valentine breakfast

if we were open in the early morning, you might be sitting here, on a sofa,
on a pillow, or at a table

with a bowl of something like this (harisa chick peas, slow-cooked onions, roasted kubocha squash, soft eggs, parsley, mint), and hot pitas if I knew how to make them (substitute toasted baguette, with lebneh, olive oil, zatar),

and a little plate of olives, and a pot of arabic coffee

thinking about what is going on in the old city of Damascus, or better or worse yet the old city of Homs though that is fast becoming unthinkable and I don't mean to put thoughts in your head anyway when all you want is a little breakfast

citrus with everything

when all sorts of combinations of fish and citrus are in vogue and season and on menus I am enough of a follower to jump on the bandwagon with big shrimps poached in fish stock that had a dollop of harisa added to it and once the shrimps were poached it got reduced to be part of a vinaigrette with minced shallots, meyer lemon juice, toasted ground cumin, sherry vinegar, and olive oil that coated a little watercress, some blood orange supremes, little slivers of meyer lemon, and watermelon radishes, and douche did you put salt in that yes the fleur kind and plenty of it

fish dish try-out

At yesterday's farmer's market in Pasadena I picked up a small piece of barramundi to do a little test for a dish that will go on the menu at the next “night in” supper on January 16. So far, here is how it goes:

Preheat your oven to 375°. I made a small amount of fish stock from the flap of the barramundi and the shells from 3 huge shrimp I also picked up (for another dish). Combine the fish and shells (or whatever fish parts you have; you could make a simple, spicey vegetable stock if you prefer) in a saucepan with a halved tangerine, some celery, an onion, thyme, parsley, a red jalapeno, a knob of ginger, some fennel seed, a little white wine, and water. Cook for 45 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve and set aside. Cube and parboil some yukon potatoes; set aside. Slice on the bias: green garlic, red spring onion. I had kohlrabi and made some little matchsticks. Slice some peeled ginger into thin strips. Set these slicey items aside. For garnish, cut a few thin rounds of watermelon radish and julienne. Julienne some pickled ginger. Combine in a small bowl with some pickled ginger juice and a touch of salt. Reserve. Start a saute pan on the heat, get it ripping hot, season your fish, sear the skin side, flip it, and finish it in the oven. While you are cooking the fish, get some of the stock boiling in a saute pan. Add the green garlic, sliced ginger, and kohlrabi and cook a minute or so. Add the cooked potatoes and green onion. Season. Add a knob of butter and a generous handful of pea shoots. Taste it. Adjust it. Plate it, including broth. Plate the fish skin-side up. Place some of the radish/ginger mix on the fish and scatter some around the dish. Eat. Think about how to tweak this whole shebang in large and small ways (use black cod?, find shell peas, use peas in dish, make stock from pods?, drop the kohlrabi?, more chile heat in the broth?, sweeten broth with tangerine juice?, etc.), and about the big shrimps that are going to poach in the remaining stock and get mixed up with some blood oranges, greens, and some sort of harisa vinaigrette for a late afternoon snack.