Passover and a winner

The winner of the See's Candies gift certificate is Suzy!

I wanted to share some pictures from Passover with you. I hosted, and decided to go with a relatively simple menu - somehow most of the dishes ended up being adapted from Barefoot Contessa recipes. I didn't get pictures of everything, but here are some of the highlights.

This is a pretty traditional matzo ball soup. I took the idea of the fresh dill and parsley from Barefoot Contessa Parties.

I decided to splurge and go for rack of lamb as the main course. I used the recipe in Barefoot Contessa Parties which involves a crust of dijon mustard, fresh rosemary, balsamic vinegar, garlic and salt.

I boiled these baby yukon gold potatoes until tender, them flattened them under my palm and baked them with some olive oil, salt and pepper until crispy.

More of those delicious green green spring vegetables from Barefoot Contessa at Home.

This dessert was inspired by a meal I had at the restaurant Perbacco. I made meringue shells, which I filled with passion fruit curd. I put the meringues on a pool of raspberry sauce and garnished with fresh raspberries. The meringue and raspberry sauce recipes came from Barefoot in Paris. For the curd, I just substituted passion fruit puree for lemon juice in a lemon curd recipe.

I was really happy with this meal, everything came out about as well as could be expected.

Sauteed wild mushrooms

I love mushrooms of all varieties. I tend to throw them into a lot of dishes – pasta, pizza, sauces, but I rarely eat them on their own. I decided to change that by making this sauteed wild mushrooms recipe from the Barefoot in Paris cookbook. I used a combination of oyster mushrooms, portobellos and chanterelles.
I used way less fat than the recipe called for – maybe 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. I heated the oil and butter in a large pan and added a generous amount of minced shallots. Once the shallots had cooked through, I added the mushrooms, some salt and about 2 cloves of minced garlic. Mushrooms release a lot of liquid and can get a little soupy, which I tend to not like. To remedy this, I cooked the mushrooms at medium heat until all the liquid had been released and then turned up the heat to high, stirring occasionally. After a few minutes the liquid evaporated away and the mushrooms started to take on a nice golden color.

After the mushrooms were caramelized, I stirred in a handful of chopped parsley, which added a much-needed burst of color. This was a delicious and simple way to showcase mushrooms.

Barefoot in Paris - Vegetable tian

This recipe layers thin slices of tomato, zucchini and potato on a bed of sauteed onions and garlic. The vegetables are flavored with thyme, olive oil, salt, pepper and gruyere cheese. Ina mentions that this dish looks the best when you can find tomatoes, zucchini and potatoes that are a similar size. I used small white potatoes, roma tomatoes, and medium sized zucchini. This was a really flavorful way to serve vegetables.

Barefoot in Paris - brussels sprouts lardons

I happen to love brussels sprouts. Especially with bacon. This recipe combines brussels sprouts with pancetta and golden raisins. The golden raisins plump up when they're cooked in the chicken broth. I added a little bit of chopped chervil as a garnish. I will definitely make this again, it was quick and delicious.

brussels sprouts lardons