A Few Choice Dishes

Not too much time to post this week, but that's because fun things were made:

Zuni roast chicken on a bed of cauliflower puree. The greens are steamed string beans and asparagus tossed in a lime vinaigrette. Can you tell I ran out of time and threw everything onto the plate? Still, not too bad presentation-wise.

New potatoes roasted in the fat rendered from the chicken, sprinkled with salt and pepper. These were so delicious because they picked up all the crusty chicken bits left on the skillet.

No-knead bread with garlic butter and balsamic fig spread (SO good! If you have an Olive & Co. store in your mall, go try a sample of it. I think it'd be a great Christmas pressent for a food lover).

Korean style sesame spinach. My version was a little less oil. Boil garlic in salt water for about fifteen minutes, then blanch the spinach for under 15 seconds in the salty garlic water. Drain well and squeeze slightly to remove excess moisture. Toss with a quarter teaspoon of sesame oil and a half teaspoon of white sesame seeds. Taste, and add more salt/sesame oil if needed.

Daikon (radish) cakes, like the ones you get at dim sum. I have to tweak this recipe a bit, but a step-by-step is definitely on the way because this is one of my favorite foods. I have the flavor down--J said it smells better than most restaurant daikon cakes! However, I need to play with the water content to make the texture more tender.