The Last Word, cocktail style

If you run across a drink recipe called the Last Word, I'm pretty sure you have to try it on New Year's Eve.  It's made with Chartreuse, a ridiculously expensive substance made by Carthusian monks that involves 130 kinds of herbs and flowers. As Tarantino said in "Death Proof ": "Chartreuse, the only liquor so good they named a color after it." And at that price, it should be. There's a yellow label and a green, and the green is even more dear and more alcohol-laden.

So as we usher out this dumpster fire of a year, here's

The Last Word
From Saveur

Ingredients

¾ ounce Chartreuse

¾ ounce maraschino liqueur (I used Luxardo)

¾ ounce gin

¾ ounce fresh lime juice

Method

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and serve. (Obviously this is easily scaled up for a pitcher for guests, since it's just equal parts.)

Rating: Dave's take: This could be dangerous. My initial take, this is pleasant. And then somewhere along the way you're cranking really, really, really super old ZZ. You know, before the stupid car.

And as we recap the year, I'm humored by the different takes on the best dishes of the year among these two publications.

Rick Nelson, Star Tribune

 http://www.startribune.com/the-top-10-twin-cities-restaurant-dishes-of-2016/408658755/

City Pages

http://www.citypages.com/restaurants/the-6-top-dishes-of-2016/408662035

And as we close out the year, here are 5 random food-related things I enjoyed:

 

Fwuffy! As fun to say as it is to eat. It's my favorite bread from the Brake Bread people. I got mine at the Midtown Farmers Market, but they also have a bicycle-based subscription delivery service.

The Italian Eatery (ie). Nice to have another dining option within walking distance, and especially one that's cozy comfortable.

 

The advent of city composting. I've got my own backyard compost bin where I zealously stow my peels and cores so they turn into gorgeous soil supplement for my garden. But it's great to have someplace to take the scraps I don't want to put back there, and best of all, they take food-soiled paper, like the parchment sheet above. Since I start nearly every recipe with the phrase, line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment, this makes me very happy and feel slightly less guilty.

 

The cranberry liqueur from Tattersall Distilling. I recommend it in a cosmo.

The fact that I work for a metro daily that still lists lutefisk dinners. That doesn’t mean I want to go to one, but it’s nice to see food traditions continue.

Looking ahead to next year, random things I might have to try:

Smoked gin. Saveur has the story, with the quote: “Just think what bacon does to a cheeseburger.”

http://www.saveur.com/esp-smoked-gin?src=SOC&dom=tw

Making my own bloody mary dip. Deena's Gourmet in St. Paul makes an addictive concoction I need to try to replicate.

Cinnamon roll pie crust. Do I need a reason?

Sum Dem Korean barbecue. This just opened nearby. Gotta love people who give it a try in the little hole in the wall places down the hill.

Happy New Year. May better things be ahead for us all.

 

Delicata squash pasta with sage and brown butter

 

As I was cooking this, Dave commented that it was cheating because it had nearly every yummy ingredient imaginable. I said, just wait until we add the cream. He said, there's really cream? Yep. Is there tasty cured pork meat product? No, but every tasty thing short of that goes into this dish.

Delicata squash pasta with sage and brown butter

Adapted from Rachael Ray EveryDay,Oct. 2016

Ingredients

1 delicata squash

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder

1 pound bucatini

½ cup butter

20 fresh sage leaves, plus 1 tablespoon chopped leaves

2 tablespoons chopped rosemary leaves, divided

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, divided

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup grated Parmesan, plus shaved Parmesan for garnish

Method

Cook pasta in boiling salted water until al dente.

Cut ends off of squash. Slice in half lengthwise. Scour out the seeds. Slice each half crosswise into ¼-inch slices. Toss squash with olive oil and five-spice powder.

Preheat oven to 425. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Put squash on sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes until very tender. (There’s no need to peel delicata squash as the skin will get tender.) 

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add sage leaves, half of rosemary and half of the thyme. Cook until sage leaves are crispy and butter is browned, about 5 minutes. Remove crispy sage leaves (bigger leaves will make this easier, otherwise, good luck) and set aside for garnish. Add cream and put on a low simmer until pasta is ready.

Drain pasta, reserving some liquid, and add to skillet along with remaining rosemary and thyme. Toss well and add  roasted squash and grated Parmesan, adding reserved pasta water as needed to make desired sauce consistency. Serve topped with reserved crispy sage leaves and Parmesan shavings.

Rating: Wow. Superb. Not what I usually say of a Rachael Ray recipe, many of which seem too shortcutty. But this was phenomenal. The original recipe called for three squash. I can't imagine why. And it used pumpkin spice, and I give five-spice powder the edge. But if that's what you've got on hand, I'm sure it would be fine. Very filling; serves 4.

Bonus points: It used up most of the sage from the window box planter we brought in for the winter. Sage does not like my basement hospitality. Can't say as I blame it.

Linguine with carrot ribbons, peppers and lemon ginger butter

 

Linguine with carrot ribbons and lemon-ginger butter

Adapted from Bon Appetit, August 2007

Ingredients

8 ounces linguine, fettucine or other long ribbon pasta

4 long thin carrots, peeled

¼ cup butter

Zest of 1 large lemon

1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger, or 1½ teaspoons powdered ginger

2 yellow, orange and/or red bell peppers, sliced into ¼-inch strips

2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Juice of half a lemon

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Method

Cook pasta until al dente according to package directions. Reserve some cooking liquid after draining.

Meanwhile, use a long peeler to shave carrots into ribbons. Heat butter in a large skillet. Add lemon zest and ginger; heat until fragrant. Add carrots and peppers, cooking until just tender.

Add most of the Parmesan cheese, lemon juice. Add drained pasta and toss, adding enough reserved pasta to make a sauce.  Serve garnished with remaining Parmesan and the parsley.

Rating: Fine, but fairly subtle flavorwise. Pretty, though. An excuse to use the Zyliss peeler I got to make zoodles before I broke down an bought a spiralizer. Having two tones of carrot colors helped with the looks.

Roasted squash boats with cherry tomatoes and eggs

I saw this recipe just too late to use any of the adorable small butternut squash it called for, since I'd used those up first. But using the bottom half of a larger squash worked just as well, although I suppose it loses the "wee" factor.

Roasted squash, cherry tomatoes and eggs

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, October 2016

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash or acorn squash, or use the wide, bottom portion of a larger butternut squash, making sure to cut high enough that you preserve a well in which to bake the eggs

Olive oil for drizzling

½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, plus 4 sprigs

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1 teaspoon chili paste (which I was out of, so I used Sriracha sauce) (optional)

2 eggs

Method

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut squash in half vertically, removing the seeds. Do not peel. Drizzle squash with olive oil and rub over the surface. Sprinkle with thyme leaves and some salt. Tuck in a few springs in each squash cavity. Place cut side down on the pan and roast squash for 10 minutes. 

Toss cherry tomatoes with about ½ tablespoon of olive oil and coarse salt. Add to the other end of the pan and continue roasting for 20 more minutes. Remove tomatoes at this point and reserve. Flip over squash and roast another 5 minutes.

Remove pan from oven. Put a couple of tomatoes into each squash cavity and a ½ teaspoon of chili paste. Crack an egg into a custard cup and then slide the egg into the squash cavity. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat with remaining squash. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until egg is softly cooked.

Remove from oven and place squash on serving plates. Top with remaining tomatoes and pass with chili paste or sauce if desired. Serves 2.

Rating: This made a very nice lunch, and caused Dave to say that the day was looking up. (Of course that might not be hard, since he spent the morning working.) The fresh thyme really comes through; I doubt it would be quite so tasty if one substituted dried thyme. We agreed that the chili sauce was a perfectly fine ingredient, but optional. It would be easy to have it overwhelm the otherwise subtle flavors of the roasted squash and tomatoes. Definitely repeatable, although it does take a certain amount of roasting time from start to finish, so it's not a last-minute lunch plan. 

But it was a nice choice when hibernating on a dreary day after dodging freezing rain on a holiday road trip the day before. Unloading boatloads of presents in a downpour when it's 33 degrees with 40 mph winds is bracing, to say the least. And really, thunder storms on Christmas Day in Minnesota?