Day 23 – More lamb and rabbit, along with some fab dinners at home

Okay, okay, we didn’t make this at school. I made it for dinner tonight and Carnet loved it. I made 2 whole branzinis (gutted and heads cut off) stuffed with thinly sliced lemons, fresh dill, and sauteed leeks, topped with really good olive oil and a bit of ghee, and steamed in an incredible semillon/sauvignon blanc. The topping is made of gorgeous tomatoes from our CSA basket, sauteed for a few minutes with lemon and a minced serrano chile. I forgot the chopped pistachios in the picture, but added them later.  They were a good textural contrast. The wine really made it, though. And, who said you can’t steam in only wine and have it come out incredibly? If you have great wine, it makes all the difference. The apricot notes and sweetness of the semillon gave the fish some really bright notes.

As an appetizer, Carnet tried both the lamb shank and the braised rabbit that Tomas and I made today at school:

I love working with Tomas. He has a very fluid, comfortable style in the kitchen and is super competent. He was born to be chef. He is a great multi-tasker and cool under pressure.  All you amazing chefs out there, take notice of Tomas – you’ll probably want to hire him.

Thanks, Chef Peter, for giving me a hard time today for being lame on keeping up with my blog posts. Sheesh. I miss two days and my fans are up in arms 😉  So, Chef, you’re the reason I’m doing this post at 10:30 p.m.

After re-reading my blog post yesterday, I realized that I forgot to mention that Chef Peter’s teaching style is one that really works for me. He gives super practical advice, especially how to “save” something if it’s not turning out quite right. This is exactly why I went to culinary school. I have read tons of cookbooks, but the reality is reading will only get you so far. You need someone with 20-30 years of experience in multiple kitchens to watch you and let you know what you can do at any given point if something is not going exactly as planned with your dish. He also has a hilarious sense of humor, which I think is crucial in stressful situations. Yes, I’m enamored of school.

I’m also enamored of my loving husband.  Last night we were talking about some of our “idols” in the nose-to-tail culinary world and we decided Carnet is a stems to leaf expert.  He made collards two ways last night, with the intent of making the stems as delectible as the leaves. It was fabulous and complimented his red wine braised beef ribs and grilled eggplant, pictured here:

You gotta love a man who cooks exceptional dinners for his wife on a regular basis. On another note, congratulations to you, love, for signing on the dotted line today – on your 6th anniversary of starting Sprout (sproutinc.com)! I’m super proud of you.