What's Cooking (Take Four)

[Jenise]

Karen, I want to eat at your house tonight.

Well, if you saw my house you would probably run! A week ago, I heard two pops at 4:30 am. I thought some idiot was doing fireworks. Later that morning I discovered a water fall coming in from the vent in the master bathroom. The floor was flooded and so was part of the hallway and bedroom carpet. I got water to the house turned off and called my handyman and next-door neighbor. They got Gene's shop vac and went to work. I called the plumber. Two water pipes in the attic had blown. It was 25 degrees outside, and given the age of the house, I was told that emergency calls were coming in strong. My master bath had to remove walls, but the crew saved my tile floor, cabinets, and counters. It has been a long process, and thankfully the interior designer who helped us remodel our entire home 20 years ago is also a licensed contractor and has her subs that she has worked with for decades. She has taken over the restoration of the damage. In the meantime, due to 8 hugs fans, dehumidifiers, and all the cords, and plastic covering the entryway into the house and down the hall, I had a few mishaps, I sprained a muscle in my left leg, upper thigh area, and am using a walker to get around easier. I've had many ask why water pipes are in the attic. Well, all the houses here in this area are built on thick concrete slabs. The contractor either puts the pipes in the attic or the slab. From what I have seen in some of the older homes like mine, I am glad ours were put into the attic. Having to tear up concrete slab inside one's home makes a bigger and dirtier mess than what I had.

Today is a rainy day, so I pulled a tub of homemade tomato soup from the freezer. I brightened it up with crushed calabrian chili, tomato paste, and a splash of white balsamic. Also pulled a chunk of blueberry and lemon sourdough, it is thawing on cuttung board.

[Jenise]

Karen, what a helluva thing to go through. Major home repairs are not easy to live thru, so many issues and people coming and going. I wish you peace in dealing with the rest of it (and your insurance company).

Last night I made an excellent dinner, something I made up in my head over the course of the day and couldn't wait to put on the table: a warm potato 'salad' (because vinegar was involved) of boiled russets pieces tossed with melted leeks and seasoned with white wine vinegar, salt and pepper, with slices of smoked brisket draped over the salad. I opened a syrah to go with it. Wow oh wow, did sparks fly.

Last night I made Filipino pork adobo sa gata (gata = coconut milk). Delicious!

-Paul W.

Gonna cook a lot of things with eggs. (See my other post.)

[Jenise]

Last night I made Filipino pork adobo sa gata (gata = coconut milk). Delicious!

-Paul W.

That's interesting. I've never had an adobo with coconut milk, and I would LOVE it. Can you post your recipe?

Tonight: grilled Mexican chicken rolled up in soft warm corn tortillas. May go Fajita style.

[Jenise]

Went with chicken Fajitas last night as threatened. They were so good! I gave Bob a choice of this, chicken-something-Italian and chicken-something American grill type, but I'm glad he chose the Fajitas as I coincidentally had red bell peppers, poblano chiles and cilantro on hand plus corn tortillas from the Mexican bakery. It's rare I'd have them all without pre-planning.

Btw, have discovered that I like softening/charring corn tortillas direct on the hob of my gas range. Goes a lot faster than charring in a cast iron pan.

[Jenise]

Tonight, on a whim, I'm doing a Food & Wine recipe for Dirty Martini Baked Potatoes. Rather unusual for me since I'm 1) not actually a martini drinker and 2) not one to do toppings on baked potatoes--I love just butter, S&P (emphasis on P). But hey, should be something different and fun, and god knows I need fun. Think I'll keep it vegetarian and make this the main not just a side dish, though I'm thinking it would be a perfect partner for a 4-5 oz filet mignon (not my favorite cut, but they're small and tidy).

Btw, have discovered that I like softening/charring corn tortillas direct on the hob of my gas range. Goes a lot faster than charring in a cast iron pan.

Oh, yes, I do that for pita and naan, too. (And to blister red peppers!)

My Mexican housekeeper told me to char my tortillas on a comal. I always did it in a small pan with a bit of oil, but I wanted to get away from that after returning to my normal weight. So cool to learn about cooking things even when you have been cooking since you were 11 years old. I tried it directly over the gas stove a few times, but you have to watch carefully, as it goes fast.

[Jenise]

Yes! Like Jeff, I blister peppers that way but I've been doing tortillas in a cast iron pan since I was practically a baby and never saw a need to deviate. However, getting the desired char in less than 50% of the time is very much a reason to deviate!

I use either a cast iron griddle/comal or over the gas flame depending on how I feel.

Btw, have discovered that I like softening/charring corn tortillas direct on the hob of my gas range. Goes a lot faster than charring in a cast iron pan.

This is also one of the two techniques for cooking papadum. The other one is deep-frying.

-Paul W.

I made huloubo shao rou (stewed pork with carrots) from Fuchsia Dunlop's The Food of Sichuan. This is a Sichuanese variant of red-cooked pork that uses doubanjiang (Sichuan chile bean paste) rather than dark soy sauce as the principal flavoring. Various types of stewed meat with some sort of crunchy vegetable are apparently commonplace at the casual so-called "fly" restaurants. That name comes about because of their alleged lack of hygiene. It's the Chinese equivalent of "greasy spoon" restaurant. Huloubo shao rou is one such dish that Dunlop encountered at a "fly" restaurant with an unusual name--Fan Zaiyang--that she translates as Rice Apocalypse. The proprietor chose that name because he thinks his dishes are so good that customers will devour huge amounts of rice while eating them--obviously a catastrophe for the rice.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

This is also one of the two techniques for cooking papadum. The other one is deep-frying.

-Paul W.

Really? Okay, gonna try that. I have some in my pantry, and can't imagine them cooking without a frying medium.

I made a real luxury dinner tonight. It included deviled eggs.

Had a late breakfast for dinner tonight: French toast, bacon, eggs, and oranges. I'm using eggs while I got 'em.

[Jenise]

We went out for lunch yesterday, Chinese food, four dishes for sharing among four of us. Portions at this restaurant are very generous and we ate everything. Dinner for me was a bunch of grapes.

A pork tenderloin is on the menu for today's cooking. It is well seasoned with brn. sugar, salt, cumin, dry mustard, pepper, and cayenne. It is browned in a cast iron pan then finished in the oven. I am roasting ravioli with fresh garlic oil, salt, and pepper until nice and crisp, then combining them with marinara sauce, Rancho Gordo's Stardust seasoning, fresh baby spinach, shaved parmesan, and sweet basil on top. I have Brussels sprouts, zucchini, and yellow squash, seasoned with oregano, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and crushed Calabrian chile peppers, and placed on a sheet pan to roast.

[Jenise]

Last night my brother and BIL came over to watch A Complete Unknown with us. I had various appointments all afternoon and no time to shop or cook, really, but still racked my brain for something that would feel 60's-ish, as Chris and I would inevitably talk about all the nights we spent sitting up playing 45's on his cheap little RCA record player. A quick investigation of my refrigeration revealed a pile of campari tomatoes that had gone a bit soft, a pound of finely ground pork seasoned hot and spicy Italian sausage and a pound of chicken-fennel sausages in the freezer. Those ingredients along with lots of onion, garlic and dried French Basil and a pound of high quality die-cut rigatoni, wherein chicken broth was added to the sauce to accomodate cooking the rigatoni there-in, combined to make what Chris deemed to be one of the best pastas he's ever had. The flavors were my own but the technique is something our mom did with her 'goulash' as she called it, meaning just mish-mash and lacking a proper name, when we were kids. Plus, we could eat this in bowls while watching the movie. Dinner started with a salad of escarole in a garlicky garbanzo bean dressing.

Good recovery, Jenise!

I made a Greek-inflected Shrimp Tetrazzini. Lots of dill, oregano, and (Meyer) lemons. The spaghetti tangle includes mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peas, and lots of feta. Really good.

Yesterday, I made the fourth batch of the wonderful White Lima Bean, Corn, and Andouille soup. I love this soup. First, I cooked the Rancho Gordo large white limas in the crock pot, with Mexican Oregano, Thyme, onion and garlic powder, and low sodium chicken stock, When almost finished, I added the sauteed onion, sausage (I use Aidells, all natural, no bad stuff) garlic, more oregano and garlic salt and fresh corn off the cob. to the beans, poured in more chicken stock and cooked until done. I added baby spinach, lemon zest, and juice at the end. Delicious! Has anyone else made it? What are your tweaks?

Jeff, your shrimp dish sounds amazing. Great flavors going on there.