O Curry, My Curry

Stir-fried Noodles with Singapore Lamb CurryI arrived home yesterday to find Marc at work in the kitchen on supper. It was a book-club-meeting weekend and technically, I should still have been full from the exceeding large amount of brunch consumed just hours earlier. However, I was prepared to rally my courage for a new and delicious meal. (In my family, if you feel full, you're not done yet. I learned early to eat every meal as though I would never see food again. ) At any rate, it turns out that the dinner preparations were not for me, but for his Mom who was due to arrive shortly and who officially warranted the dinner-making. Luckily, it makes no difference to me in whose honour a meal was planned or prepared so long as I get to partake. Plus, I had some champagne from the weekend that miraculously made it through the bookclub unscathed (if only for the fact that the "ladies" were already too hungover to consider Mimosas in the morning) and that was set to compliment the curry quite well. Both Marc and I rapaciously devoured both our first and second helpings in the time it took Shirley to eat one little bowl, due to the chopstick factor. She was determined, though, and in the end (thanks to the stab-a-noodle technique), she won. It is marvelous what curry does to lamb. What is it that makes them so remarkably compatible? Same grandparents? A shared fondness for India? Perhaps it has to do with the lamb we buy; it comes boneless from the butcher (Second To None Meats on 4th St & 21Ave SW) and is locally raised. In fact, it costs less than chicken though it does involve some removal of silverskin - America's Test Kitchen taught us how to do that properly. Sliced up thin and cooked semi-rare, it slides right up to the noodles without hesitation and brazenly demands their cooperation. And the noodles, Lord love 'em, are suckers for a saucy lamb dressed in spices.

How Low the Mighty Have Fallen

This is Marc ordering a pizza: We ordered from the sad little chain-store-pizza-joint down the street because we were actually too lazy to go to the one that makes a much better pizza but which is a few blocks away. The night before, we had cheeseburgers and onion rings from the Burger Inn (marvelous, as always). Right now, Sam is eating healthier than we are and his dog food contains mechanically-separated meat byproducts. Before we both pale from exposure to junk food, we must get off the couch and COOK, already.

Shrimp-tastic

Warm Jasmine Rice Salad with Shrimp and Thai Herbs Finally, FINALLY, we have been able to find dried shrimp to put in this dish. Long, long ago, Marc made this salad as an accompaniment to a tuna thing with shiitake cream sauce. (This was back when we were first dating and had somehow, unintentionally, launched a competition of cooking and trying to impress the pants off each other with our culinary skills. We are simple folk: the way to our hearts is through our stomachs. The battle rages on.) At the time, dried shrimp were nowhere to be found, but the salad was delicious nonetheless and did indeed charm me to pieces. Since then, we've made this several times but still had found nary a dried shrimp; that is, until we "discovered" the Asian market. Love that place- it really seems to have launched a new era in our menus in the last few weeks have been distinctly Asian-themed. Anyway, not only did we finally find the dried version, we also found some good frozen ones as well and Marc was practically skipping with anticipation as we left the store. Strangely enough, the dish was not elevated to new level of delectableness by the addition of this one ingredient but we now have a whole bag of shriveled shrimps in the freezer so we have to make this many, many more times. Twist my rubber arm. This is definitely a salad but is big enough to be a meal unto itself. Marc had to use rubber gloves to chop the Thai chilis and that ingredient was worth the danger pay. Spicy, shrimpy, crunchy -with the fresh cucumber- I have no doubt that this will be a permanent fixture in our repertoire. Incidentally, it would probably make a brilliant potluck item and would charm the pants off any friends and co-workers, assuming that is the goal, of course.

Marc's Favourite Dessert

Teriyaki-Glazed Sea Bass This dish was very pretty: lovely colours, nice fish, bright greens. But it is hard for me to issue a verdict on its good-ness because we over-cooked the fish which made it taste less than great. The enoki mushrooms, however, were quite tasty, which is key because that one ingredient is why we tried this recipe. We saw them at the market two weeks ago and added them to a new list of Ingredients With Which We Should Try To Cook. I would be tempted to try this recipe again to see if we could get the fish right and to be able to say "enoki" some more. e-NOH-kee. (Wasn't that a character from the 1980s Jennifer Connelly movie, Labyrinth?) Pea Shoot and Spinach Salad with Bacon and Shiitakes The salad, on the other hand, was scrumptious if only for the fact that it involved bacon. We halved the recipe, but added the full amount of bacon as indirectly instructed by bacontarian.com. Actually, the pea shoots added an interesting, but subtle, pea-flavour next to the spinach and the simple vinaigrette highlighted the flavours but was light enough not to instantly wilt all the leaves and drown the shiitakes. Next time, I would serve this as a starter rather than a side so as to appreciate the flavours unadulterated by a bossy entrée. Lemon Cakes with Basil Lemon Syrup This. Is. Brilliant. This is the third time we've made this dessert in as many weeks and is part of the motivation for creating this whole, silly blog. Truth be told, this cake is the last one leftover from the wee wine-tasting party we had on Labour Day. We invited a couple of wine-loving friends over to open the "special bottles" that Marc has been saving since 1998. By the time dessert was ready, there were six of us sitting around enjoying the wine so we portioned out smaller sections of the cakes, each with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprig of fresh basil. The verdict was unanimous: fab u lous. "It tastes so fresh and clean and light. I would definitely choose this over any chocolate dessert on a menu." "My pastry chef could learn from this recipe." "I'm sad because I only have two bites left." It almost stole all the wine's thunder. Of course, the wine: for this meal, it was Sagramoso Valpolicella Ripasso, 2002 and, because we are lushes, some Folonari Valpolicella Ripasso, 2003. For the party, we had Marc's favourite white, Evolution, from Oregon and his "specials" from Chile: Casa Laspostolle, Cuvée Alexandre, Merlot, 1996 and 1997. It was interesting (and deliciously luxurious) to be able to compare the different years; the '96 was more oaky with a distinct taste of vanilla and the '97 had just the faintest touch of mint. I don't know if that is officially what those wines are supposed to taste like, but that's what I tasted and it's my party so I'll wax oenologic if I want to. Janet