Back in the swing of things

Well, J was sick for a little while, so I was mainly cooking various things in low-sodium chicken broth and then we were catching up on the items we had purchased and frozen. Then he went out of town. I always end up eating random things he doesn't like when he's gone like fish in a can or chicken feet. So after wading through that, we seem to be back on track now.

Last night, I made a fantastic duck breast with a fig + wine sauce. The duck preparation was super easy: They scored the skin for me at Star provisions. A quick s+p and then a nice crisping (and fat rendering) on the skin side, flipped and followed by 5 min.

The fig + wine sauce I found in Joy of Cooking. Sometimes I forget just how great that cookbook is. Basically it was dried black mission figs (though they say other types of figs are better, I thought it was wonderful) simmered in red wine + chicken stock with some herbs and spices. Then you puree a couple of the figs for texture. It was awesome. It would be even better if we had served it with some sweet potatoes, but I had forgotten we were out.

When we were at Star Provisions, they had two boned quail so I picked those up for a nice appetizer. I prepared them based on a Michael Chiarello recipe, s+p with a honey/balsalmic vinegar glaze. You were supposed to wrap it in bacon but, not having any, I seared and cooked them in bacon fat instead.

For the main course, we had picked up some tasty porcini ravioli at Via Elisa. With a basic tomato sauce (canned tomatoes, garlic, shallots, spices), it was perfect.

We have some lemon buttermilk panna cotta from Star Provisions too, but we were both too full to enjoy them.

Slated for the rest of the week:
- ~2 lb bone-in rib eye
- Fresh tagliatelle from Via Elisa in a j-made cream sauce.

I also put in an order with Amazon and picked up:
- Murray's Cheese Handbook by Rob Kaufelt which is a slim little book like Zagat's that talks all about different cheeses, where they are from, which areas produce the best of each, etc.
- Washoku by Elizabeth Andoh which is simply one of the most appealing and good looking modern Japanese cookbooks I've seen.
- Terra by Hiro Sone and Lisa Douman. Highly recommended by the guys at Star Provision and much drooled over by j when he stands in the farmers market book area.

Woot, it's nice to be eating again.