Diver Scallops with Polenta, Zucchini, Radish, and Chive Blossom

INGREDIENTS (serves two):

1 12 ounce bottle Green Flash Rayon Vert

four large diver scallops
1 tsp ground coriander
four thick slices of cooked polenta (solid leftover polenta from home or the pre-made; we used organic Food Merchants brand)
one medium zucchini, sliced in rounds
1 cup of thinly sliced red radish
4 garlic cloves, sliced very thin
4 ounces of butter, divided
about 1/2 cup of minced roasted bell pepper (we used a nice jarred variety)
a baby fennel frond, pulled into about ten small pieces
2 purple chive blossoms, buds separated
salt and fresh black pepper

8 ounces arugula leaves
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
dash of salt
pinch of sugar

1)  Combine the arugula leaves, olive oil, salt, and sugar in a food processor and puree.  Strain the liquid into a squeeze bottle or other receptacle of choice and discard the solids.  Set arugula oil aside.
2)  Season the scallops on the bottom and top with salt, pepper, and coriander.
3)  Divide the butter in half and heat until foam subsides in two heavy skillets (we used cast irons). 
4)  Saute the zucchini in one skillet and the radish and garlic in the other over medium heat, well seasoned with salt and pepper.  When cooked through, about 5 minutes, transfer the zucchini to your serving plates and sprinkle the radish and garlic over it.
5)  Garnish the vegetables with about five fennel fronds per plate.
6)  Add oil or more butter to your skillets if necessary and bring back to medium high heat.  In one skillet, sear the polenta on both sides until nicely browned.  In the other, cook the sea scallops, turning to sear on both sides as well.  This should take about 4 minutes per side for the shellfish, supposing you have jumbo scallops.
7)  Layer two polenta rounds on each plate over the zucchini, radish, and fresh fennel.
8)  Place sea scallops on tops of polenta rounds.
9)  Garnish scallops with minced red bell pepper and chive blossoms.
10)  Drizzle arugula oil around the perimeter of both plates.
11)  Open Green Flash Rayon Vert.  Enjoy together.

THE BEER:

According to Green Flash, a fabulous brewing company located in the heady beer mecca of San Diego, California, the Rayon Vert would have been their flagship brew had they accidentally conceived the brewery in Belgium instead of the United States.  That's a fine endorsement, and the beer stands up to the praise.  Its pours with a rabidly enthusiastic Belgian-style head, softly foamy and frothy and lingering, with a hazy orange color below.  Due to the use of Belgian yeast, there's a touch of medicinal funk on the nose along with the piney hop aroma.  Sip this beer gently as you fork into your sea scallops and you will not be sorry, we found.  The sweetness of the scallop was brightened by the round, subtle citrus of the Rayon Vert, and its dry earthiness really complemented the buttery veg and polenta.  All in all a splendid pairing, and one hell of a fine lunch.

(A word about Green Flash--they're a small company who make killer beer and partner with local charities who request donations.  In other words, they're good people.  So drink their beer.  It'll make your heart strong.)

THE TOUR:

I went on my first book tour!

(Takes moment to scream HEAVENLYGODHEAVENLYGODHEAVENLYGOD a la Eddie Murphy crossing the freeway in Bowfinger.)

It was awesome.  I learned a great deal, and went to three cities total--the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ; Murder by the Book in Houston, TX; and Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, MN.  Here are a few of the things I learned, in no particular order.

--I already figured I was incredibly lucky to be sent on a small tour by Amy Einhorn/Putnam/Penguin, but if I even contemplate guesstimating the travel expenses, my brain freezes like a laptop with three anti-virus programs and steam emanates from my eyebrows.  I am a duck who fell out of the lucky tree and hit every branch on the way down.
--Everything authors say about book tours is true.
--That is, they largely consist of being alone in airports.  This aspect is ameliorated by the fact that I visited not one, not two, but SIX airport bookstores and signed their copies of The Gods of Gotham as a cure for my own boredom.
--I have a tumblr and can look at pretty dresses and BBC Sherlock screencaps too, which is remarkably...time consuming.
--Also, being alone in a hotel room is exotic on the first night, still rather glamorous the second, and by the third, you are watching all three Matrix films in a row and conducting this conversation with yourself:

ME:  The third Matrix movie can't have been as bad as I remember.  I must have had unreasonable expectations.
ME:  No, I remember it was bad.  But true, I could have been in a foul mood that day and just hated on everything.
ME:  See how much fun the second one still is?
ME:  You're right.
ME:  The third Matrix movie is about to be awesome.
ME:  Sit back and prepare to enjoy it like a kid at a carnival.
ME:  You're so open minded.
ME:  This is going to be deeply satisfying Hollywood entertainment.
ME:  WHAT THE ACTUAL F***, third Matrix movie...?
ME:  OK, that effect was kind of cool.
ME:  Was this movie written by monkeys?
ME:  No.  Monkeys give every indication of experiencing emotions.  This movie was written by a spinning Wheel-of-Fortune type line generating device.
ME:  Keanu Reeves, blink like that one more time and I will--
ME:   How many Agent Smiths do we really need, people?  When we know Neo will kick their asses regardless of exact number?
ME:  No.
ME:  NO.  
ME:  So that's your explanation for everything?  That seemed like a good way to end...
ME:  All expenses are presumably paid by Penguin.  Let's set the TV on fire.

--It is possible to be nervous about giving the same speech you have now given four times successfully.  Trust me.
--"Media escorts" are wonderful people who schlep authors out of airports and to multiple book stores for signings.  They are very charming and dislike that the word "escort" connotes "sex worker."  However, in fairness, upon meeting them, one does not assume them to be in the pornography industry, because they do not have Tom Selleck moustaches.
--Planes come automatically equipped with screaming children.

--The Rat Pack was into some crazy shit when it came to hotels.  Look at this.  There's a bathtub in the middle of the room.  A damn BATHTUB.  Is this in case you're in danger of losing your way to and from the bathtub if there are opaque wall-like barriers separating it from the bed?  (Note: it was most relaxing, and it's fun to channel surf while bathing, for the record.)
--The Valley Ho Hotel is the best hotel EVER.  I'm not telling you the price of their happy hour drinks, you'll all move to Scottsdale.  Also...just look at that bathtub, people.
--Booksellers are very kind, intelligent, generous people and I heart them.  All of them were so kind to me, and they had piles and piles of my novel.  It rocked.
--Houston is way, way cooler than I ever expected or even ruminated upon.
--People in Minneapolis are crazy into arts and books.  I enjoy this about them.
--If you throw a pebble in a big city after having advertized your event on Facebook, you'll probably hit an affable Sherlockian.

It was a great time.  There's no place like home and I ate too much hotel bacon, but so goes the natural course of things.  If anyone ever asks me to go on a tour again, I will be delighted and grateful.  Also, my suitcase will be much lighter--after tweeting that I carry far too many books with me due to reading quickly on planes, a Sherlockian from Canada took it upon himself instantly to mail me his old Kindle.  Because, of course you would do that. And pay foreign postage to do so.  It arrived this afternoon.

I mean, I ask you...are people lovely, or are people lovely?

Garden Herb and Tomato Israeli Couscous

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Israeli couscous
1 tsp butter
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. cumin
a couple dashes of red pepper flake
3-5 dried curry leaves
1 2/3 cups vegetable stock

as many garden tomatoes as you like
dash of extra virgin olive oil
dash of tarragon vinegar
1 can of pink beans or roman/kidney beans or chickpeas
1 cup minced Italian flat leaf parsley
1 sprig fresh oregano, minced
2/3 cup diced chives
salt and fresh pepper to taste

1 bottle Green Flash Hop Head Red

1) Melt the butter over medium heat until foaming subsides.
2) Add couscous with the chopped garlic and stir to toast, about three or four minutes--you want the pasta beginning to be golden and fragrant, and the garlic to be cooked. When the couscous smells nice and browned, add all the dry spices including the curry leaves. Toast these as well, 30 seconds or so.
3) Add the vegetable stock. Bring to a steady boil. Cover lid. Turn heat to low.
4) After about eight minutes, remove lid, stir, and turn off heat. Then replace lid and let it sit for another 5 minutes or so. You don't want mushy couscous, just cooked through couscous.
5) Meanwhile, chop your garden tomatoes, mince your parsley, rinse your beans, la la la. Put it all in a bowl with your fresh herbs. Sprinkle this with olive oil, tarragon vinegar, salt, and black pepper.
6) Fluff your couscous again. Stir it in the mix. Season again, to taste.
7) Open bottle of Green Flash Hop Head Red.
8) Enjoy together.

THE BEER:

I drank Green Flash Hop Head Red for my birthday. (Photo by Melinda Caric. I'm such a turd, only the couscous photo above is actually mine this time round.)

I turned 30, kids. WHEEE! More on the later, MUCH more on that in a sec here, settle yourselves. Ok, so--Green Flash Hop Head Red. I had it at 4th Avenue Pub in Brooklyn, owned by the gentleman scholar Kirk Struble, and it's some pretty divine sh**.

It's a tough business making a good red style. (Maybe that's why Green Flash claims this beer is, alternatively, an American amber/IPA hybrid. But boy, is it ever red. And this is a grand red. It's resinous, it's bright copper, it's sticky, it's red-grapefruit-tastic, it's bright, it's sweet, it's balanced, it's wonderful. You're going to get a vague note of cinnamon within the slightly burnt-sugar sweetness, and the bitterness continues all the way through to a very pleasant landing so far as mouthfeel goes. A delightful brew. And I drank it on my birthday.

THE EXCUSE:

Beer is practically a stranger to food at this point. I'm very sorry for this. It's my fault. I've been writing this new book, see. And a Sherlock Holmes comic series for Moonstone Books. So beer forgot about food and wandered off to be alone for a while, take a little "me" time. Not to mention, Gabe has been working two jobs with one day off. And the day Gabriel turns to me--with one day off per week--and says, "You know what I really feel like doing today, Lynds? Let's blog." That will be the day...nope. That day doesn't seem too close on the horizon line.

THE BIRTHDAY:

It was my thirtieth birthday the other day. We played in the city the night before, and then went up the Hudson to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and the next day reveled at 4th Pub in Brooklyn. It was epic.

Meanwhile, I have carpal tunnel pretty bad. It's getting better with the wrist braces, but I'm writing too much for it not to flare up quite often. It's slightly embarrassing, actually. This...impediment. Also my hair turned white, and I have the gout, and lost all my teeth. I'm gonna fall out of bed and break my hip tomorrow, maybe, for variety. Nothing like nerve injuries to really ring in a new decade.

I had a great time with my friends, though. They're swell people, all of them absolutely top notch, and I had a pretty birthday dress. Pretty birthday dresses are very important to me, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Also I was wearing my nicely-wrapped-package-necklace. Shown above. Les Klinger says it makes me look like a birthday gift. APPROPRIATE.

THE DINNER:

Blue Hill at Stone Barns is AMAZING.

We had, for my birthday, in the company of the ever-wonderful Luis and Allison:

AMUSE BOUCHE COURSES:

fried baby corn "corn dogs"
individual mini roasted tomato and goat cheese burgers
fresh garden produce on little pins dressed in a vinaigrette (tomato version pictured above, from their website, that's not mine)
fried yellow wax beans
sesame crusted squash
3 charcuterie meats with a liver mousse sandwiched in dark salted chocolate

FIRST COURSE:

bluefin crudo with caviar, green tomato, and pig's ear vinaigrette

SECOND COURSE:

18-hour charcoal barbecued heirloom onion with olive tapenade, onion creme fraiche, vegetable puree, and preserved blueberry

THIRD COURSE:

baked curried egg with fresh beans under herbed rice paper

FOURTH COURSE:

gnocchi with chicken mushrooms

BREAD:

fresh baked sourdough with three infused salts: shittake salt, tomato salt, red pepper salt

FIFTH COURSE:

pork chin, snout, jowl, and loin with avocado and heirloom grains

SIXTH COURSE:

ribeye with smoked eggplant and purslane

TWO DESSERT COURSES (NUMBERS SEVEN AND EIGHT) PLUS EXTRAS:

apricot in elderflower tapioca with yogurt sorbet
cornbread with raspberries and peaches
flax brownie with preserved fruit
wild strawberries
chocolate dusted almonds
meringue with raspberries

What a way to turn 30, kids. I am one lucky little skunk. The picture below isn't mine either, but I wanted to show you Blue Hill. It's breathtaking.

Berkshire Pork Chops with Green Beans, Homestyle Potatoes, and Sweet Pan Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE PORK:
2 Nieman Ranch Berkshire Black pork chops (preferably 1 1/2 inches thick, mine were only just over 1)
2 tbsp. goose fat, or other high heat oil
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
6 cups water

FOR THE SAUCE:
2 plum tomatoes
2 small minced shallots
2 cloves garlic
2 tbls. balsalmic
1/4 cup bianco vermouth
dash of agave syrup or sugar
Salt and pepper

FOR THE BEANS:
3/4 pound green beans
1/4 onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper

FOR THE POTATOES:
1 large red potato, julienned
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tbsp. goose fat
Salt and pepper
----------------------------
Green Flash Le Freak

For Potatoes:
1) Heat goose fat.
2) Add julienned potatoes.
3) Cook over medium to med-high heat until potatoes brown, about 10 minutes.
4) Add onions, minced garlic, thyme, salt & pepper.
5) Cook until onions are done to your liking.

For Green Beans:
1) Cut trimmed green beans on the bias into thin slices. (This is great for making large, tough beans more tender.)
2) Heat the oil and cook onions and sliced garlic for 2-3 minutes until translucent.
3) Add beans and cook for a few minutes until crisp-tender and bright green; season to taste.

For Pork Chops:
1) Mix salt and sugar in a gallon zip-lock bag with the water.
2) Add pork chops and brine for about 1 hour. (Maybe slightly more, but not less.)
3) Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with a baking sheet on the bottom rack.
4) Remove pork chops, pat dry, and season.
5) Heat goose fat in pan until smoking; add pork chops, browning 3 minutes each side.
6) Place pork chops on heated baking sheet to finish cooking in the oven, until meat thermometer reaches 125 to 127 degrees.
7) Remove, tent, and let rest for about 5 minutes.

For Pan Sauce:
1) Add minced shallots and garlic to pork pan; cook for about thirty seconds.
2) Add 1/4 inch diced tomatoes and balsalmic, cooking for 1 minute.
3) Add bianco vermouth and scrape bottom of pan to remove all browned bits.
4) Reduce liquid in pan by half.
5) Garnish pork immediately with potatoes, green beans, and pan sauce, and serve.
6) Open Le Freak.
7) Enjoy together.

THE BEER:
A crazy beer. It blends Belgian yeasts with big west coast hops... not an easy task. The flavors will often clash like a Euro-American showdown over a Burberry sale rack. Both give off strong herbal notes, but banana and bubble gum rarely blend well with straw and pine sap. They actually go very well together, but it's like drinking two different beers at the same time. First the hops nose, then you taste and get the malty spice, followed up by the bitter IPA finish. I wouldn't have paired this with pork except that the pan sauce was a sweet balsalmic reduction, which I thought would stand up to this beer. This beer, however, might just be enjoyed most on its own, savoring the subtle undulation between styles.

THE WORK INVOLVED: Lyndsay here, and let me just say that one- or two-pot meals are really my cup of tea, lacking a dishwasher as I do, and being in my soul of souls the kind of (lazy) person who figures it all tastes good in a dogpile together anyway, right? Gabe is a lot more likely to make separate sides, separate sauces, separate fish and meat courses for God's sake, so this was all him. It's a Tuesday night meal for the ambitious, or the second-date hosting, or the rabid brining enthusiast, and to my mind a fine-ass spread for American fare small-scale dinner party. Pork chop and pan sauce recipes were stolen with shameless pride and affection from America's Test Kitchen (linked through our site, or pick up The New Best Recipe).