Pot Luck and a Winning Team

~That that pure sanguine complexion of yours may never be famisht with pot lucke.
Thomas Nashe, 1592

The term pot luck has many different interpretations, including the native American potlatch, the old English portmanteau, and the common United States suburban potluck dinner in which all invited guests bring a covered dish to share with the gathering. Common wisdom guides me to believe that the origin of the term comes from the idea of making food to feed your guests from whatever happens to be laying around. And this is what happened last Tuesday evening when John joined us to watch the our Lakers beat Indiana.

Having just returned from one of many weekends out of town, and looking at a fridge full of little else excepting some cornmeal, slightly puckered cherry tomatoes, turkey bacon and a freezer full of random nonsense including some Trader Joe's sea scallops, I put two and two together and made grub.

I wanted to piggyback on my mom's delicious polenta from two weeks ago and make something a little lighter in calories and fat and marry this with the sea scallops. In the cupboard I found some roasted beets and lentils, both in shrink wrap packaging, and some pine nuts.

First, I cut the bacon into small pieces and threw it in the pan. Here my sous-chef assists me in assessing the freshness of the bacon.



Next, I started the chicken-broth-from-a-box boiling for the polenta, next to the bacon simmering with a little olive oil and red pepper flakes. I added some olive oil to the turkey bacon because it produces so little fat in the pan, and I want to make good use of the leftover bacon essence for the scallops...bacon = meat candy.




After whisking the polenta into the broth, I added most of the bacon and some fresh-ish thyme. Did you know it takes 5 cups of liquid to cook one cup of polenta? I like a nice creamy polenta, but not soupy. So I reduced this polenta within an inch of its life and serve it steaming hot.



When the polenta was nearly done I sliced the slightly insipid tomatoes in half, tossed them with some olive oil and the pine nuts and threw the mess under the broiler for roasting.



After the roasting, I lay the tomatoes and nuts on a bed of lentils tossed lightly with a vinaigrette, and drizzled a little white truffle oil over the top.



Next I thoroughly rinsed the sea scallops which were surprisingly beautiful...I will surely use these again. A handy thing to have in the freezer, no doubt. I tossed them in the bacon-ed pan and seared them well done, just like D likes them. The bacon essence, olive oil and red pepper flakes in the pan cooked to an almost caramelized consistency, leaving the scallops with a lovely brown and slightly crispy finish.



All in all, the meal was really tasty. I would have ideally liked a better mix of textures, both dishes had kind of a mushy, comfort food texture. The only really crunchy participants were the bacon bits and the roasted pine nuts. But it all tasted good and I completely avoided a trip to the grocery store or a phone call out for pizza!

Vegetables Rolled in Beef

I was inspired by one of my favorite bloggers to make this Japanese dish for supper last night. Tokyoastrogirl always makes such beautiful dishes, her presentation is elegant and I love the way she takes pictures of step by step preparation.

http://tokyoastrogirl.blogspot.com/

I am not tokyoastrogirl. I rarely use a recipe, and when I do I read it once and get rid of it. (Unless making something complicated or specific like Mom's oxtails.) So I read tokyo's recipe and got started.


First mistake: not going to an Asian market for the beef. The butcher at the local yuppy market, while stocking an excellent cut of filet, didn't grasp the concept of slicing the meat paper thin. I said I wanted it thin like for shabu shabu and he gave me a good stare. I knew when I took it out of the package the sheets were too thick, but looking at the ingredients in front of me, I knew I could not lose flavor wise.

My mis-en-place:



I plowed ahead. I blanched the carrots, green beans and asparagus separately in baths of water, mirin and soy sauce. I used the same bath for each veggie, so by the time the asparagus was done I had a lovely fragrant veggie broth. I tried to think of something to use it for, but knowing me I would have let it spoil or spill in the fridge before ever using it productively.

Next I rolled veggies in sheets of filet. I had to use lots and lots of visible toothpicks to make the roll stay put. It was unsightly, but I just knew it was going to be good, and what else would I have done with hose sheets of filet? Toss them? Not a chance, they were such beautiful little cutlets. I sauteed the weirdness in soy sauce, mirin, sake and I added a little sesame oil for good measure.




The smell was immense! Savoriness filled the air. The end result looked nowhere near as perfect as tokyostrogirl's, but I had a great time cooking while drinking a glass of William's Selyem 2004 Chardonnay, a thank you gift from our friend Jeff Z. at the Rosso wine store in Montrose.

http://www.rossowineshop.com/



I served the awkward rolls with big globs of wasabi mashed potatoes, seasoned with an eye-watering amount of wasabi. Too spicy, according to D, in just the right way. The flavor of both the beef and the veggies was just wonderful. I look forward to another stab at these sometime during the holidays. Very easy to make, colorful and healthy.

Thanks to tokyoastrogirl. She has inspired me to blog not just about eating out and traveling, but also about eating in!