Weekend Meal

I finally had a chance to cook on Sunday, after a week of late night meals in the office (disgusting, all of them).

For lunch, I mixed lots of ras al hanout with greek yogurt and slathered it all over chicken thighs, and then let loose my broiler on them. Voila. Pseudo-tandoori - a bright yellow, spicy, delicious kebab.

Dinner was a little more ambitious. I braised beef short ribs in a covered dish for six hours with wine (an oddly fruity American merlot, more on which later), mushrooms, celeriac*, and pearl onions. The meat, as it should, eventually melted into the sauce. Delicious.

My fiancee bought me Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques DVD's this weekend (which I'd been collecting by tivo'ing the shows on PBS). To celebrate, I made a creme caramel, finally getting the caramel right (I usually burn it) by following Jacques's advice. A note to self - creme caramel really needs vanilla, otherwise it ends up tasty like sugary egg. Aside from that mild setback, all was delicious.