Ratatouille; Chicken Thigh Confit and Rosemary Crackling with Tarragon-Mustard Sauce

I recommend doing this over two days, since it would take forever to do all at once, and everything (especially the ratatouille) will taste better after a day or two in the fridge. Plus you get to call it "leftovers."

First step is to roast a chicken. I usually get one about 4-4.5 pounds, but if you're feeding an army you can get bigger (and cook it longer). Cut out the backbone with a sturdy set of scissors, then flatten the bird out, breast side up, in a roasting dish. Salt and pepper the outside (be especially heavy with the salt for crispier skin), and then add some chopped fresh rosemary under the skin. Roast it at about 400 for an hour or so, until the internal temperature is about 170 degrees. Cover it with foil and let it rest for 10 minutes or so before carving. Eat whatever you like now, but be sure to leave a thigh and some skin for the next day.

For the ratatouille, thinly slice an eggplant and a few zucchini or squash (bell peppers are also traditional but I don't really like them so I left them out). Sautee the eggplant in olive oil over medium-high heat with a bit of salt and pepper, until al dente, then spread it on the bottom of a baking dish. Sautee the squash next, also with salt and pepper, again not quite cooked through, then put it in a layer on top of the eggplant. The final layer is a chunky tomato sauce with onion, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf. Start by sauteeing some sliced onion and minced garlic, then adding four or five sliced tomatoes and a big pinch of thyme and a bay leaf. Add a splash of water, and let it all cook down until it's saucy but still chunky. Take out the bay leaf and pour it over the squash and eggplant. Bake at 375 (400 is fine if you're roasting the chicken at the same time) for about half an hour, until the onions in the top layer are just starting to brown.

After you're done eating, put everything in the refrigerator, and be sure to save the drippings from the chicken.

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Get everything out of the regrigerator. First step is to re-warm the ratatouille, which you can either do in the microwave or in a low oven. I actually ate mine cold and that was also tasty. Next, prepare the confit: shred the meat off of one of the thighs and put it in some of the leftover fat and juice from the roast, in a small pan over low heat. You don't want the chicken swimming in the stuff, but you want to be sure it's pretty moist, as well. Cook that for as long as you feel like until it's very rich and very tender (no less than 20 minutes and probably no more than an hour). Then pile it in a little ring mold (or just in a pile if you prefer) and press down in hot oil in a pan, just to brown the bottom. Let it cook for five to ten minutes while you crisp a piece of skin. Take a nice flat piece of leftover skin with a lot of rosemary, and press it flat in the pan you're frying the confit in. It should bubble and hiss as the water comes out. Once the bubbling slows down, flip it over and again wait for the bubbling to stop. Once it's stopped hissing, it's dried out and should be nice and crispy. Finally, for the sauce, drain the oil from the pan, add a pat of butter and a dash of flour, stir to make a roux, then add a splash of white wine, some dijon mustard, and a pinch of tarragon.

Seared Mahi-Mahi over Green Pea Puree with Lemon-Garlic Orzo

I have been trying to get a nice crust on a piece of fish for years. Every restaurant in the universe seems to manage it no problem, but for some reason I could never pull it off. Finally I discovered the tricks: Teflon, plenty of oil, a very hot pan (#1 and #3 may combine to cause cancer or kill your household pets with lethal fumes - enjoy tasty seared fish at your own risk). In any case, once you get the hang of it, it turns out to be very easy. Salt and pepper the prettier side of the fish. Get your pan really hot, with a few tablespoons of olive oil to coat the surface, then set the fish down on the nice side. If it doesn't sizzle and pop and burn you a little you didn't do it right. Don't touch it for at least a couple of minutes. Once it's cooked a little more than halfway through (you can kind of gauge this by looking at the exposed edge of the piece), turn it over. Nobody wants accidentally raw fish, but it's much better to serve it on the slightly rare side than the overdone and dry side. Take it off the heat and plate. The fish actually takes very little time so you should probably do it last.

First, start the puree. This is easy. Sweat some onions and green onions in a little butter with salt and pepper until softened up a bit. Throw in some green peas. Fresh would be great, but if like me you only had half a bag of freezerburned old frozen ones, that's fine. Add enough water to cover the peas, and give the whole thing a stir. We want to cook the peas, but barely - color is the real key here, and overdone peas turn into army green mush. Once they're done, take them off the heat, cool them down a little, and blend until smooth. Adjust the seasoning and texture as needed by adding a little liquid. Water would be fine, lemon juice or a few drops of vinegar if you want some brightness, salt if it needs more flavor, etc. I actually added some buttermilk because I had some in the fridge and I love the stuff. It added some sourness and some creaminess and a certain little "Hm, what is that?" character to the mix.

Cook the orzo in salted boiling water. Sautee garlic and shallot in a little butter, with salt and pepper to taste. I always burn the garlic but I bet yours will taste better if you don't, so keep an eye on it. Throw in some chopped fresh parsley* if you have it (don't buy a whole bunch just for this though), then add a splash of white wine and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cook that for a minute, then add in the pasta and toss to combine. Put some more parsley if you like it and still have it (especially if you went out and bought parsley just for this).

[*Curly parsley tastes nasty and as far as I can tell only exists as an ugly garnish for boring food at diners and steak houses. I would love to engineer a boycott to destroy the annoying curly parsley industry. In any case: buy flat-leaf parsley!]

Pour the puree out into a shallow bowl or deep plate (or pretentious bowl/plate hybrid you bought because you are the type of weirdo who posts pictures of his dinner on the internet). Spoon a serving of the pasta across the puree, then rest a piece of fish on top of that. I garnished the fish with a little slice of lemon peel, a parsley leaf, and some pink Australian sea salt.

Slow-Roasted Pork Belly; Parsnip Gnocchi with Leek-Rosemary Butter; Wilted Baby Spinach Salad

First, a word about pork belly. Some people hear "belly" and think they're going to get organs, but, not to worry, pork belly is just bacon that hasn't been smoked or cured yet (that being said if you're not eating offal you should be). It's got a ton of fat, so you have to cook it for a long time to render out a lot of the grease. The end result is a rich, tender little piece of pork with some awesome crispy skin on top. You can't find pork belly in most American supermarkets, but it's in most Chinese groceries.

Preheat the oven. My thermometer is broken, or maybe my oven is broken, so I'm not actually sure exactly what temperatures I used. Therefore there's going to be a lot of "til it's done" in this recipe and not a lot of "X degrees for Y minutes." In any case, if your oven is working, you want it at about 325 or 375, depending how much time you have (lower and slower is better but it will be edible if you cook it quicker). I cut about a 3"x2" chunk from the end of the slab of belly, scored the skin side to expose the fat, and rubbed with plenty of salt and a little black pepper and cinnamon. Put it skin side up on something that will allow the fat to drain - a roasting rack is great, but some carrot sticks stacked into a little rack works just as well. It needs to cook for at least an hour at 375, preferably two or more at 325.

Once the pork is cooking, you can start the gnocchi. Boil, steam, or roast a couple parsnips until they're done through but not yet mush. Grate them on the smaller holes of a grater (microplane would work too if you have one) until you have a pile of parsnip mush. Add an egg yolk per about a cup of parsnip, and a pinch of salt and nutmeg. Obviously if you salted the parsnips when you cooked them the first time, you don't need a lot of salt now; if you didn't salt them before, be generous. Mix around the egg and parsnip until it's well-combined, then fold in a little bit of flour at a time until you get something resembling a dough. Don't overwork it or you will get chewy gnocchi. Flour a work surface and roll the dough out into a long log about a half inch thick and cut into squarish pillows. If you want ridged gnocchi you can roll them on the back of a fork. Set those aside until the pork's about done, then drop into boiling salted water until they float, which should be just a few minutes. In a separate pan, melt some butter and saute some chopped leek and rosemary until soft but not browned. Drop in the gnocchi, turn up the heat, and don't touch it for a minute - we want to brown the dumplings a little. Once you get some color on the gnocchi, turn the heat way down and put aside for a minute while you get everything else ready to go.

For the vinaigrette, combine a bit of real maple syrup (I try to find an excuse to put this in basically everything), cider vinegar, orange juice, and coarse dijon mustard. Whisk with a little salt and pepper. Take a little of the melted pork fat from your roasting pan and whisk in. (If you're feeling more cardiologically responsible than I was, feel free to use olive oil instead.) Toss with a handful of baby spinach and let the acid and warm bacon grease wilt it down a bit.

Let the pork rest for a few minutes before you cut into it, then slice in half - the crispy skin can be a little tough, so you might have to put your back into the slice. Rest the belly on top of the gnocchi, and set salad on top of that. Dust a little ground clove and a little orange zest off to the side of the plate (those didn't make the picture, but they look cool and taste good to dip the other stuff into).

Skillet-Roasted Lamb Chops with Rosemary-Leek Hush Puppies, Quick-Pickled Fennel and Shallots, and Green Pea Puree

For the fennel (which you can make ahead of time): combine equal parts vinegar (cider or sherry would be best) and water, and bring to a boil along with salt (lots), a few black peppercorns, a bay leaf, and a little sugar. While that's getting hot, thinly slice your fennel bulb and a shallot, either on a mandoline or with a sharp knife. Once the pickling liquid is boiling, pour it over your vegetables in a bowl to cover, give it a quick stir, and set aside for about an hour. Once the vegetables have lost most of their crunch, drain off the liquid, rinse once or twice with cold water, and set aside.

For the lamb and hush puppies, preheat an oven to about 375. In a mixing bowl, combine buttermilk, an egg, and some chopped leek and rosemary (I wish I'd used more rosemary in mine, so be generous) along with salt and pepper to taste. Add cornmeal until the batter is thick but not yet doughy. Set aside.

Cook some green peas until done, but don't overcook them as this will ruin the color. You're shooting for a bright green, not olive. In a blender, combine peas, salt, olive oil, and lemon juice and blend until smooth.

For the lamb, get a cast iron skillet or other heavy pan as hot as you can manage, then add a bit of oil to the bottom. While the pan is heating, salt and pepper your rack of lamb to taste - I like it heavy on the pepper. This is also a good time to get your fryer oil going. I don't have an oil thermometer, but it's ready to go once a little dollop of hush puppy batter starts bubbling and hissing as soon as you drop it in. Sear the lamb for a few minutes on each side, then put the skillet in the oven (lamb fat side down) for about 15-20 minutes. We're going for medium rare.

Get out the bowl of hush puppy batter and add a dash each of baking soda and baking powder. Stir to combine, then drop spoonful-sized globs in the got oil. If you are a food geek like me you will make quenelles, but don't bother if you don't feel like it. They're done when they're medium brown on the outside. Set them on a paper towel and throw a little salt on to season the crust.

Put fennel on the plate along with some of the pea puree, and set a couple of hush puppies in the peas (dipping the former in the latter is highly recommended). Slice out your chops and rest on top of the fennel.

Pumpkin-Chipotle Soup with Maple Crème Fraîche, Bacon, and Sage

Preheat the oven to 375. Peel the pumpkin (I used kubocha, a Japanese pumpkin, because I couldn't find a regular one) and cut into 1" chunks. Put on a cookie sheet with a bit of oil, salt, and pepper, and roast until fork tender.

Once the pumpkin is almost done, saute some onion and garlic in butter until soft. Add black pepper and chipotle powder to taste, mix around, then add the squash pieces. Stir everything together and add enough water to make it easy to puree. Put the whole thing in a blender (let it cool a bit first!) and puree smooth. Rinse out the old pot, then put the puree back in. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer. At this point you need to add more liquid to get it to the right consistency - use anything from skim milk up through whipping cream, depending how rich you like it. I used some half and half and some skim milk. Mix well to combine, and salt to taste.

Fry some bacon - you want it crispy, not chewy, but also not burned. Crumble it up and mix with chiffonaded sage. Stir together creme fraiche and maple syrup (the real kind), to taste.

Sprinkle bacon and sage on top, and drizzle creme fraiche.

Honey Cardamom Cheesecake with Ginger Snap and Pecan Crust and Blackberry-Bourbon Syrup

For the crust, crush up a few ginger snap cookies and a handful of pecans, then mix with melted butter into a crumbly paste. Spread out evenly on the bottom of a springform pan and put in the freezer while you mix the rest.

To make the cheesecake, mix together a block and a half of cream cheese and some honey until it's a smooth mix. Combine with eggs and a pinch of ground cardamom until smooth. Don't over-beat the batter, and try not to get a lot of air into it.

Butter the walls of the pan with the crust in it, then pour in the batter. If you're like me you probably forgot to pre-heat the oven, so set it to 350 and do something else while it heats up. Some of the butter from the crust may leak out of the pan, so you should put it on a tray or wrap the bottom in foil. Leave it in at 350 for 15-20 minutes, then put it down to 250 for about another hour. It's done when it jiggles in response to shaking and still looks a bit wet in the middle. Cool at room temperature, then in the fridge: at least an hour, preferably as long as you can stand to wait.

The sauce is very easy. Throw a handful of blackberries in a pan along with some sugar. Put the heat on until they start to cook. Take the pan off the heat, add a splash of bourbon, and then back on, tilting it to the side to ignite the booze. If you have an electric stove you might have to use a match. Let it burn itself out, then spoon or pour over a slice of cheesecake.

Grilled Lobster with Cherry Tomatoes, Conecuh Sausage, and Garlic Cheese Grits

grits. garlic. butter. tillamook cheddar.

Conecuh sausage.

shallots. sage. tomatoes.

lobster tail.