April 12, 2004

• Easter Dinner

  Molded Spinach Salad

  The first thing I did when I got up this morning was to toss some walnuts into the non-stick frying pan with a small amount of maple syrup and some butter and set it on low heat. It cooked for over an hour, I suppose, while I did lots of other things, getting an occassional stir. One of my two salad mistakes was to use too much syrup. The walnuts candied, becoming crispy instead of gummy. The taste was fine, but the texture was not what I had planned.

  My preparations had my wife confused: cooking walnuts, slicing figs and strawberries, pressing plastic film into a soup bowl ... . In the soup bowl, I pressed spinach leaves, the walnuts, figs and strawberries, getting them all tight and compact. My second mistake is that they wouldn't stay that way when removed from the makeshift mold. They would fluff up immediately. Maybe I have to zap them in the microwave or heat them a moment somehow to make them stay compressed.

  I would spread a small amount of balsamic vinegar on a plate, invert my molded spinach over it, remove the bowl, remove the plastic and sprinkle a bit more balsamic vinegar on top, decorating with a few pine nuts. I used two pounds of fresh, dry spinach to produce five salads, each with three strawberries and about the same quantity of fig and nut. If I can figure out how to reduce the fluff factor, the presentation will improve. They weren't bad but I expected better.

  Surprisingly, they weren't all that filling.
  

  Lamb

  I had a boned leg of lamb that weighed just over five pounds. Removing the bone left a lot of space for stuffing. I chopped together three sprigs of fresh rosemary, about ten sprigs of fresh mint, about a head and a half of garlic (big chunks) and a large onion (medium chunks). I forced this mixture into the bone holes at either end until nothing was left, causing the chunk of meat to swell slightly.

  I sliced another half head of garlic into spears. I made slits in the outside of the meat, trying to go with the grain, and inserted the garlic as uniformly as I could all over the top (fat) side. I spread a small amount of EV olive oil in my cooking pan, placed the meat, fat side up, ground some fresh sea salt and pepper on top and placed it in a 350 degree oven until the alarm went off (it was set for medium rare).

  Unfortunately, I was downstairs getting dressed when the meat reached its prime temperature. Delia turned the oven off but didn't remove the roast, so it was more medium than medium rare.

  The meat was sliced and served au jus with the pan juices.
  

  Garlic Red Potatoes

  Last night, Delia cooked up a number of small red potatoes. When they cooled, she placed them in a plastic freezer bag with her magic mixture of finely ground garlic and whatever else it is she uses to marinate them, leaving them all night in the refrigerator. They were simple to heat just before serving.
  

  Green Beans

  No magic here. I spent a couple of hours yesterday, slaving in front of the television set, nipping the ends off of a large bag of very fresh green beans which, today, we simply boiled, drained and served with a dab of butter. They were quite satisfying.
  

  Platanos

  Some were fried, as patacones, and some were stewed. If you've never tried this relative of the banana, you should. They go very well with many foods. The ones we had today were green. You cook ripe platanos differently, to take advantage of the higher sugar levels.
  

  Colored Eggs

  Cathy insisted. She tried a new kind of coloring kit. It didn't work. All of the colors ran together, and the stuff formed a greasy film on the eggs (and on the glass bowl). So, late Friday night, she got me to accompany her on an expedition to find something else to color with. She found a kit that looked promising, using sponges and dyes, but she was suspicious and decided to also get a conventional coloring kit.

  The sponge thing almost worked. But the dyes wouldn't dry and started to spread, rather then remaining where she had dabbed them.

  Cathy has decided that from now on she will use only the conventional egg dye kits. They seem to be the only things that work.

  Well, they work if you don't try to get too creative. You can make designs on an egg if you block parts of the surface before placing it in the dye bath. Have you ever tried to get exact placement of a rubber band on an egg?

  The eggs turned out very pretty. They made nice decorations. Nobody ate any.
  

  Wine

  Cathy decided to show off some of her wine collection. She went through at least five bottles of some very tasty whites and rosés. She doesn't mind. Her wine collection is growing and she doesn't have much storage space. Her contribution was appreciated.
  

  Before and After

  Delia laid out the usual spread of cheeses and crackers, to which I added a container of fresh mozarella balls with olives and herbs in light olive oil. One of Delia's cheeses, a Brie, had hardened and wasn't soft and creamy, the way it is supposed to be; Delia will return it to the market where she got it. We did a lot of our wine sampling with the appetizers.

  Dessert was a hot blackberry pie with ice cream, with cups of hot Panamanian coffee. For those of you who have never tried the coffee sold in Panama, imagine something richer than Starbucks' best with just a hint of bitter chocolate taste. It went very well with the pie and vanilla ice cream.

  • 01:42
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