groove food

dinner with dot, four

come over.

your presence is mandatory. shoes are optional. the radishes are buttered. the olive oil is absinthe-colored. figs just came around the market. we need you.

help us tear this bread apart. what are your thoughts on violet-flavored balsamic? an alert that the banter will be lively: the cooks are fueled on rico's vegetarian burritos and probably a half cup or more of hot sauce.

we need you because food looks best when it is eaten. the loveliest dish is an empty one.

we'll feed you things like bay scallops in bourride with a sliver of roasted pepper. bourride? a homemade aioli expertly combined with a warm pour of leftover shrimp and lobster stock. (thanks, dot, for enlightening me).

my table wishes for people. it's true. it told me.

we've got all this summer produce. it can be distracting. intoxicating, even. we have a salad to share with you: baby romaine, raw white corn, shaved zucchini and summer squash, cherry tomatoes, and a few slivers of very nice pecorino, dressed with nothing more than lemon zest, juice, and the best olive oil in the house.

and we've got pasta dough! made with seven egg yolks! from the brilliant thomas keller, transposed by dot from his french laundry cookbook.

we wish we had enough of it to make a life-sized nest for you. or a wig for dashing about town.

nevertheless, we might ask you to help.

your reward will be handsome: those homemade noodles tossed with morel mushrooms, butter, fresh parsley, and a few spoonfuls of the pasta cooking water. pepper, please.

just to cleanse your palate (or maybe to give us an excuse to serve you two desserts), we'll serve you homemade olive oil gelato with blackberries doused in the smoothest white balsamic east of italy.

there are still butterscotch budinos with sweet sea salt and cold pressed bolivian coffee with cinnamon and cream. feel the love yet?

stay late. sing a song. smoke a clove. spin in circles. just come over.

notes

* find thomas keller's seven yolk pasta dough here.

* a recipe for olive oil gelato that beats all the rest here.

* i urge you to make butterscotch budinos. molly of orangette's recipe here.

* magical coffee is easy and way good. recipe here.

the warm up, avec dot

fact: anyone other than your mom is always going to be better at brushing your hair. another fact: that talented mane-tamer is also probably going to have some sort of snack up her sleeve that your mom has never been exposed to, like a peanut butter and honey "roll up." tasty on its own, but even more desirable because it mandates being eaten outside, lest honey droplets spatter the kitchen floor in some sort of edible homage to jackson pollack.

these are the type of lessons picked up in my house when dot visited thing 1, 2, and me a few weeks ago. we also learned that your house will inevitably be rewarded in the floral department if your best friend owns a flower shop. we have peony petals everywhere to prove it. also learned: the most delicious salad you will EVER have in your life are local beets roasted and tossed with a pinch of cumin and coriander, juicy orange supremes and plenty of cilantro, fresh mint, plump golden raisins and pine nuts. this is the fact of all facts, and i owe it to dot for teaching me.

the afternoon had begun with an hour or two of stock-making. over the course of several months, i had collected a trashbag full of shrimp and lobster shells in my freezer. the accumulation was tossed in a massive pot with white wine, plenty of water, onion, celery, carrots, fennel, parsley, a couple bay leaves, and a spoonful of tomato paste. within moments, the kitchen began to smell like the ocean.

the stock served the purpose of becoming broth for bowls full of manila clams, mussels, shrimp, and local sea bass, plus escarole, kale, fennel, tomatoes, garlic and a final swirl of brown butter. it's kind of like a feast for discerning pirates and mermaids--those that would call for a mouth-tingling sancerre in their stein to wash it all down.

the only utensil requirement is a crusty loaf of bread. stray mussel shells are perfect for plucking the contents inside others. candlelight completes the effect, but is not necessary. if you can, though, this meal is best shared with a best friend, one who does not raise his or her eyebrows when you down leftover broth by tipping back the enormous bowl.

the finale was partially consumed in a dark kitchen, standing over the counter in admiration of dot's little lemon tarts, adorned with a scoop of my homemade olive oil gelato. this is the kind of dish that is only possible when two heads and sets of hands set out in the kitchen together, which tells me cooking is meant to be a group effort. dot & i considered this night our team warm-up. round 2 to follow.

notes

* inspiration for the seafood stew with escarole, kale & cherry tomatoes came from michelle bernstein's recipe here.

* desiring that dessert? dot started with melissa clark's lemon tart recipe, and shrunk them down to mini-size. you can find the recipe in her book in the kitchen with a good appetite. i swear by the olive oil gelato on food52. utter decadence. recipe here.

songs & scenes, fruit on freedom day

honey, honey - feist (listen)

how long will it take - jeff buckley & gary lucas (listen)

all is love - karen o & the kids (listen)

god yu tekkem laef blong mi (listen)

badly drawn boy - magic in the air (listen)

moby - my weakness (listen)

notes

* happy fourth of july. i hope your day was filled with bbqs, or even the smell of a well-lit weber in the distance. mine finds me enjoying a quiet evening solo, longing for one thing: gumbo. the best i ever had was at a kitchen table, so simple, served over rice and with love. i won't make it myself, because i want to remember it just like that. plus, my kitchen currently lacks any andouille sausage and is filled with bowls and bowls of fruit and these songs.