What's Cooking (Take Two!)

[Robin Garr]

When I hear "stewed" okra, I assume something berled in a pot with lots of water until it's gummy and soft. Is this wrong? (serious question)

You're asking a damn Yankee an okra question?

Oops, sorry, d'oh!

Funny, though, when we lived in NYC, we thought Jersey WAS the South!

The only ways I myself make okra are 1. in gumbo, and 2. dusted with cornmeal and pan fried, a dish my redneck trailer trash spouse demands at least one a month

I generally like it either Cajun/Creole (gumbo and its cousins) or South Asian (bhindi). I remain a "stewed okra" virgin and intend to remain so.

With the high today at 95°, I can't say we have fall weather. Still, quinces have started showing up at the market and putting a couple of them into a lamb stew sounded awfully good to me. I found a recipe for a Persian lamb and quince stew that was pretty straightforward and included a Persian method of cooking rice that's supposed to produce a nice crispy browned bottom. I ended up going with a different recipe for the rice which used an egg mixed with the yogurt to aid in getting the crispy base layer. (That seems a bit of a cheat, but I figured I'd take it anyway.) It all came out very nicely, with a good rich stew and fluffy rice with a crisp, tasty bottom layer.

[Robin Garr]

Tonight Mary and I made a quick take on elotes, Mexican street food by slathering fresh corn on the cob with a mix of mayo, New Mexico chile powder, S&P and a shot of lime, with grated Grana Padano in place of the traditionl cojita cheese. It was a great way to kick corn up a notch, in my opinion, quick and easy and just about as tasty as the real thing from one of the local taquerias.

Dinner tonight will be sambar and iddli.

-Paul W.

I had commented to Betsy based on Frank D's comments that Ottolenghi books looked great, she recently gave me "Plenty." What a gorgeous book. As we had (chicken and pernil) leftovers Monday, we made up for missing meatless Monday with dinner tonight. From "Plenty" I did saffron cauliflower with raisins, onions, and olives (used black instead of green because I used the greens with rice and bean). Really delicious, cookbook is not just gorgeous. Also did a fresh (red and yellow) tomato sauce over pasta and some sauteed chard and arugula.

a fresh (red and yellow) tomato sauce over pasta..

Anything unique/special about the tomato sauce recipe?

Still hoping to get a couple more weeks of fresh tomato sauces around here.

Nothing special, though I did add a dab of estratto (Sicilian tomato paste).Blanched tomatoes to deskin, chopped and sauteed with garlic. I screwed up slightly- sauce was ready but I was behind with pasta, but threw the herbs (basil and oregano) on top of sauce too early and it wilted. Tasted fine, but should have done herbs at serving

[Jenise]

Tonight: the most expensive prime rib I'll ever eat. Dinosaur kale will stand in for spinach in a creamed spinach kind of preparation, and we'll start with a fresh tomato salad with red onion vinaigrette, chives and blue cheese.

Tonight: the most expensive prime rib I'll ever eat. Dinosaur kale will stand in for spinach in a creamed spinach kind of preparation, and we'll start with a fresh tomato salad with red onion vinaigrette, chives and blue cheese.

And the Latour! Let's not forget the Latour!

While the board was away I made a white lasagna (a little one) and the first pot roast of the season (an enormous one).

[Jenise]

Tonight: the most expensive prime rib I'll ever eat. Dinosaur kale will stand in for spinach in a creamed spinach kind of preparation, and we'll start with a fresh tomato salad with red onion vinaigrette, chives and blue cheese.

And the Latour! Let's not forget the Latour!

Know what? I burned my tongue later that morning, so scratched the Latour plan--I want to be firing on all cylinders when I open that bad boy.

While spending time at the Iowa farm, I decided to make some pulled pork in the electric pressure cooker we had recently purchased and had lugged 650 miles in our packed to the gills SUV (time for a truck). Popped the lid after 65 minutes when the pork should have been done, only to find it less than 1/2 cooked. Couldn't get the cooker to pressurize again and came to find out the heating element had crapped the bed on its maiden voyage. I completed cooking the pork in the oven and it was a decent roast but not the pulled pork I was craving.
FWIW, Amazon handled the return efficiently and I had a new cooker in two days.

[Jenise]

Winger, why did you choose electric?

Jenise,

The cooking times are a bit longer with the electric, but I can live with a few extra minutes. Mainly, you don't have to "babysit" the electric versions. Set it and forget it until the timer goes off. The stove top models do require some initial monitoring and adjustment of the heat/flame to get and hold the pressure. That was the biggest plus for me as I have a tendency to become easily distracted (ADD). One additional drawback to the electric is that the cool down takes a few minutes longer but the quick release pressure valve can overcome that.

This particular electric is a 3-in 1 appliance. Pressure cooker, rice cooker, and 6 qt. crock pot rolled into one. I've tried the crock pot and it works great. Haven't tried the rice cooker yet.

[Jenise]

Ah, so you did get the three-in-one. Will be interested what you think in the end when you've used all the abilities. Personally, I've never found any multi-tasking device that did each task as well as a built-for-single-purpose device would have, but technological advances might mean my skepticism belongs in the past.

Tonight's the neighborhood wine club, so I just 40 French dip sandwiches to take. Speaking of that, I bought the meat at a Cashy & Carry--one of those big vacuum packed things with 10-12 pounds in it. Thought I was buying one cut but when I plopped the contents out of the bag last night it turned out that I'd mistakenly purchased "Special Trimmings". I remembered seeing those and thinking 'god knows what that would be'. Well, now I know too: it's a collection of briskets points and small flank steaks--good connective tissue and very little fat/trimming required. Oddly better for what I was doing than what I meant to buy! Don't get lucky that like very often.

The pressure cooker journey is underway!

Tonight it was chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, basil and pesto. Accompanied by an assortment of 3 varieties of brown rice and some butternut squash, which I've recently developed a taste for.

Last night's dinner was Chinese ginger beef. I stir-fried it on the outdoor 100,000 BTU wok ring. It's starting to get cold in New England, so I want to make the most of using it while I still can.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

That's some wok ring you've got, Paul, wow. 100K BTU's? You must get fabulous wok char flavor. I'm deeply envious of that.

Tonight we're having a German bread pudding. What's that? Made it up. Basically, I had a $5 loaf of "sourdough rye" from a bakery in Keremeos, BC, that was neither very sour nor very rye in flavor so we didn't eat it for its intended purpose and I'm trying to salvage the sunk cost by turning it into a bread pudding. So I crumbled up and sautéed five fresh chicken Italian sausages from Trader Joe's with onion, celery and slivered green cabbage and blended that with the bread, caraway seed, sage, parsley, three eggs, a dollop of cream and a can of chicken broth. It's soaking. Later I'll bake it for service with fresh cabbage sautéed with sauerkraut and fresh grated horseradish.

I've been out of town for the last five days and just got back around 3:00 this afternoon. My wife left for Massachusetts this morning, so it was my daughter and me tonight. I wasn't up for anything elaborate so I thought I'd just make some pasta. Ended up frying up some lardons of guanciale and then adding a bunch of thawed frozen peas to them. Scooped out some of the fat and added cooked cavatappi. Dumped in some cream and added a good amount of grated parmigiano and simmered until it thickened. To finish, I threw in chopped, fresh Roma tomatoes and left it on low heat until they were heated through. Ate too much of it.

Mike F: I like how you innovate.

Tonight was seafood paella. I'm still learning but it's getting better each time.

That's some wok ring you've got, Paul, wow. 100K BTU's? You must get fabulous wok char flavor.

It is wonderful--the first burner I've used where stir-frying really and truly behaves as described in the Chinese cookbooks. The downside is that if you don't have your mise-en-place fully organized, it's very easy to burn the food.

importfood.com (Thai groceries and accessories) sells it. You can find it towards the bottom of this page:
http://importfood.com/thaicookware.html .

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, that's really interesting looking--not at all what I imagined in that it's so portable.

Cool site. I'm so tempted to buy a sticky rice kit. I *love* sticky rice.


Dinner tonight: a meatless Monday couscous with big zucchini stir-fried with tomatoes and garlic. Might add paprika and pair that with a 2001 Lopez Heredia to see if my own bottles are acting oxidated now or not.

Tonight: sesame-crusted skin-on salmon.

[Robin Garr]

Tonight: sesame-crusted skin-on salmon.

Skin side up or down?