Za’atar Crusted Tuna with Buckwheat & Barley Risotto

I expected Howard to fight me on this one — so I only gave him a small scoop to start and topped it with a little extra tuna. (He’s a sucker for seared tuna.)

But he’s not fond of buckwheat, see…I’ve tried a few variations, but never received a lot of enthusiasm in return.

So I was a little surprised when he came back to the kitchen looking for more before I had even finished taking the photos of my plate (food blogging can be a drag at dinner time).

And then I sat down and had mine — and went back for more, almost right away.  It’s full of simple flavours, and the juxtaposition between the seared, almost cold, tuna and the creamy comfort of the barley/buckwheat is a surprisingly perfect pairing of opposites.

In other words, it’s really, really good.

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Winter Salad with Marrow Croutons for Sunday Lunch

This new year is all about restraint for me.  For example, I wanted to lead this post with a picture that I eventually decided to bury after a bit of text and a warning:  it’s a beef bone with the marrow popping out.  A picture that may ’cause some of my more sensitive readers to break out in a cold sweat.

And then there’s the fact that my first post of 2012 is a recipe for salad — more evidence of restraint.  After years of cold-oil french fires, Italian meatballs, mocha hot fudge, Danish meatballs, etc, I’ve finally come through with a post that keeps the best-intentioned resolutions in mind!

What’s that you say?  The croutons? Well…yes…by marrow I do mean beef marrow.  From a bone.  Breaded and deep fried.

And, you should know, it took everything I  had not to just serve my Popcorn Marrow Balls with a big bowl of blue cheese dressing on the side.  If it wasn’t for restraint, there wouldn’t be a green in sight. (Except the sage — deep fried.)

Oh dear.  This is not looking good.

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Meatball Subs for Sunday Lunch

This is a crazy thing for someone who cooks for a living to admit but, up until last week, I had never made meatballs.

Actually, that’s not technically true — thanks to my Viking roots, I am an old hand at Frikadeller, which are essentially Danish meatballs.

But what I’m really talking about here are Italian meatballs.  You know, the ones drenched in tomato sauce and perched atop a twist of spaghetti or piled onto Italian rolls with tons of cheese and broiled until bubbly.

Yeah…those meatballs.

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Moussaka Pizza for Sunday Lunch

Yesterday, I ended up pretty deep in the back of the fridge while on reconnaissance for dinner.  And somewhere between clearing out the meat drawer and finding the lost mayonnaise in the crisper, I had a mathematical epiphany.  OK, it was actually more related to food than numbers, but still, it showed up in my head as this unalterable, absolute equation:

Ground Lamb + Eggplant + Bechamel Sauce + Mozzarella = Moussaka

There’s only 1 problem.  No one around here likes Moussaka.  But we do love pizza –  I found 2 pre-made balls of dough when I took my search to the freezer — and when you start saying Moooooooooossaka Pizza over to yourself over and over (while rocking out to Synchronicity I on internet radio) caution gets thrown to the wind and you realize that somethings are just meant to be.

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Rock Crab & Chorizo Lasagne for Sunday Lunch

You know you’re living the good life when the first thing out of your husband’s mouth as he’s walking through the door home from work is “Do you want some fresh crab?”

Dinner was already made and I was just pondering taking a break with the last of that bottle of white in the fridge, but it’s hard to say no to a bag full of rock crab pulled from the water not an hour before, cleanly killed and beautifully cleaned by our friend, and Howard’s colleague, Sam.

So instead of pouring the wine into a glass, I brought it to the boil in my stock pot, along with a couple of bay leaves, some peppercorns and a few fennel seeds.   Five minutes later, my delightfully unexpected crab bounty was steamed, shocked, strained and set aside in the fridge for the next night’s dinner.

And then I pulled out the corkscrew.  Nothing like a glass of vino to make an already great life near perfect. … Continue Reading