Anniversary Dinner!

It was our anniversary yesterday and I wanted to make a dinner for Dr Food. We were suppose to go to Clink for dinner but I just didn't have it in me to drive into the city. The restaurant looks cool. It is in the old prison in Boston and they have done amazing things to it to make it into a swank hotel. The restaurant is suppose to be cool.

So instead, I made Dr Foods favorites. I started off with "Inside Out Carrot Cake"



Inside Out Carrot Cake

1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
1 scant cup walnuts (3 ounces), chopped
1/2 cup raisins (2 1/2 ounces)
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup honey

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 2 baking sheets.

Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in carrots, nuts, and raisins at low speed, then add flour mixture and beat until just combined.

Drop 1 1/2 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are lightly browned and springy to the touch, 12 to 16 minutes total. Cool cookies on sheets on racks 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

While cookies are baking, blend cream cheese and honey in a food processor until smooth.

Sandwich flat sides of cookies together with a generous tablespoon of cream cheese filling in between.

I then tried to think of what he loves that we never eat on a regular basis. Oxtails! I made oxtails. I found the recipe in the "Blue Ginger" cookbook. I have to say that this dish was awesome.



This dish was not hard to make at all. Takes some time but it was well worth it.



I wanted something simple to go with it so I found a recipe for lemon scented rice to go with it. It also came out of the same cookbook. The Oxtails were suppose to be served with Preserved Lemon Polenta but I don't like polenta so I made the rice instead.





The dinner was a huge success.



Savory Braised Oxtail

Ingredients
12 oxtails
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ancho chile powder
1/4 cup salt
1/8 cup black pepper
2 chopped onions
2 chopped fennel
1/2 stalk chopped celery
1 large chopped carrot
10 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon minced ginger
4 stalks lemon grass, white part only, pounded and minced
2 cups red wine
8-ounce can of Roma tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 bunch fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Water to cover oxtails
Directions
Mix flour, chile, salt and pepper and coat oxtails well. In a hot stock pot, coat bottom with oil and sear oxtails until all sides are browned. Pull out oxtails and wipe out stock pot. Saute onions, fennel, celery, carrots, garlic, ginger and lemon grass. Deglaze with wine and reduce. Add tomatoes, soy, thyme and bay. Add water to completely cover meat. Check for seasoning: the broth should taste well seasoned. Bring to boil then simmer on low heat for 3 hours. The meat should fall off of the bone. Remove oxtails and reduce sauce by 20 percent. Using a hand blender, puree sauce. Check for seasoning.

Lemon Basmati Rice

4 Scallion stalks; white part
Save green parts for another
1 tb Canola oil
2 c Basmati rice; washed until
Water is clear
2 lg Ginger slices
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
1 ts Salt
1 pn White peppercorn
2 1/2 c Chicken stock

In a saucepan, saute scallions and zest in oil. Add rice and ginger and saute for 3 minutes. Add zest, juice, salt, pepper and chicken stock, cover and bring to boil. Turn down and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Pull off of heat and let stand for another 25 minutes with cover still on.