What's Cooking (Take Two!)

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.

I checked out that site as well. What struck me was the knife selection. They're pretty much all stainless steel and stamped, but they are incredibly cheap - almost disposable. If they're sharp out of the box, they might be good for picnics, vacation trips, or other situations where you need a sharp knife but don't want to bring anything expensive.

Big 'ol batch of apple butter simmering away. The kitchen smells damn fine this morn'.

Dinner last night: Chinese stir-fried beef and snow pea pods with oyster sauce.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Tonight: persimmon and escarole salad followed by quinoa and black bean tortilla-crusted mahi mahi on green chile rice with a peach-red bell pepper salad.

In the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" department: Tonight's dinner was... ready?... Pumpkin Swordfish.

How did the fishmonger know?

Apparently, this is a species of swordfish that likes to feed on shrimp hence the flesh acquires a slightly pinkish-orange color. It also tends to be a bit fattier/oilier than regular swordfish. The pound of it that I got really had no discernible color difference but it did, indeed, leave more oil in the fry-pan and it was less dense to chew than the regular.

I checked out that site as well. What struck me was the knife selection. They're pretty much all stainless steel and stamped, but they are incredibly cheap - almost disposable. If they're sharp out of the box, they might be good for picnics, vacation trips, or other situations where you need a sharp knife but don't want to bring anything expensive.

Mike I have one of those Kiwi brand Chinese cleavers which cost me $5 and it is great, if I had to give up my Trident knives I could live with it as my go to blade. The one I got had a a very rough edge which my partner smoothed off with a file! checking at my local Asian store most had a good edge on them so mine may have been an aberration but is fine after the surgery. They seem to be very common here in these stores.

[Jenise]

In the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" department: Tonight's dinner was... ready?... Pumpkin Swordfish.

How did the fishmonger know?

Now that's FUNNY. I've never heard of this, but it does put some thought into one's mind about how, as the oceans warm up and certain fish move into new habitats with a new prey base, the nature of fish as we know it might change. Would you buy it again?

Our mahi mahi last night was terrific. You've all heard me complain about that fact that there's nothing here except salmon, halibut (by this time of year, all frozen) and occasionally cod or tilapia. Well, don't know what happened but yesterday at my local supermarket they had fresh mahi mahi. I've never seen it here before, and in fact the fishmonger lady told me she got one five pound filet--they're so convinced the locals won't go for anything but the same two fish they get all the time that they shared one fish between four stores!--but she didn't have to bend my arm to take some. DIVINE. And the recipe, which I made up, is a keeper. I'm working on a cookbook and that will be in it!

In the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" department: Tonight's dinner was... ready?... Pumpkin Swordfish.

How did the fishmonger know?

Now that's FUNNY. I've never heard of this, but it does put some thought into one's mind about how, as the oceans warm up and certain fish move into new habitats with a new prey base, the nature of fish as we know it might change. Would you buy it again?

Sure. It wasn't that much different.

[Jenise]

Jeff, I was relating because of the different colors of salmon we get out here. White is rare, but it's my favorite. Actually, it tastes a lot like swordfish.

In keeping with my new found fondness for squash, we enjoyed roasted butternut agnolotti accompanied by grilled thick-cut Iowa pork chops and sauteed apples fresh from the orchard at the family farm.
Norma gave thuimbs up to the 2001 Cuvee Vatican Reserve Sixtine CdP..

Squashes! I am making an extended version of Robin's fennel gratin but adding butternut squash and some portobello mushroom slices.

[Jenise]

We enjoyed butternut squash and pork last night ourselves, 'Winger. Cubed and tossed with olive oil and minced garlic then oven roasted at 450 until the edges start to singe. When that happens, it's done. Then I topped it with slices of a porterhouse-cut pork chop big enough to share and splashed it with a maple-rosemary vinaigrette following a salad of escarole, persimmon and Oregon pumpkin seed.

Tonight: pizza. Matsutake mushroom, potato and rosemary with pesto sauce and muenster cheese.

Thanks, Barb!

Last night was our neighborhood Oktoberfest . (Four different beers made by four different brewers on our block!). I made a dish that involved baking sauerkraut, onion, apples, beef broth, and spices with bratwurst on top. Very German and quite tasty.

[Robin Garr]

Learn to cook Asian, and you can enjoy Thai dinner without going out! Green curry with broccoli and tofu ...

[Jenise]

Tonight: escarole, arugula and persimmon salad followed by pot roast with separately-roasted celery, carrots and parsnips and then a simple dessert of individual baked apples in crust.

Harvested a bushel of Quince. 3 Russian varieties. Working thru Anya von Bremzen and Dara Goldstein's recipes for quince. Mostly savory with lamb. One dessert. Should have enough to make quince paste.
Also harvested quite a few apples and discovered that they have a distinctly strawberry flavor and aroma when mixed with aronia berries both in pie and in sauce. Delightful !

[Jenise]

Christina, will have to google aronia berries--new one to me.

Tonight we're having pasta with a tomato-garlic-lobster sauce. The dish has not existed before, but I picked up two cartons of Campari tomatoes for 99 cents each, slightly overripe so marked down and a perfect candidate for a tom sauce, and when I went to get those out of the refrigerator, and then something else out of the freezer, a large lobster tail jumped out and attacked my foot. A sign! I actually do not normally combine tomato sauce and seafood, but if I consider this a one-note boulliabaise the idea grows in appeal, especially with pasta underneath.

[Robin Garr]

Mary was feeling a little puny last night and wanted comfort food, so I took one of her old childhood favorites, spaghetti with butter. and yupped it up a bit by gently sauteeing a bunch of garlic in the butter, then folding in light scrambled eggs and topping it all with thin slices of Parmigiano-Reggiano. It seemed to hit the spot, and she was fine this morning.

[Jenise]

Mary was feeling a little puny last night and wanted comfort food, so I took one of her old childhood favorites, spaghetti with butter. and yupped it up a bit by gently sauteeing a bunch of garlic in the butter, then folding in light scrambled eggs and topping it all with thin slices of Parmigiano-Reggiano. It seemed to hit the spot, and she was fine this morning.

Interesting that she could handle garlic while feeling puny. What a girl!

Our friends Pat and Karen invited us over for supper tonight. Pat mentioned that he was going to make a mushroom lasagna from the book Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi. I figured another Ottolenghi recipe would be appropriate to go with it, so I made the mixed bean salad from Jerusalem. This involved parboiled green beans with very lightly roasted red and yellow bell peppers mixed with tarragon, green onion, and a dressing made with sliced garlic fried with capers, coriander seed, and cumin seed. The beans were delicious and I would also highly recommend the mushroom lasagna.

[Jenise]

Mike, that sounds like a killer combination.

It really was. The bean salad was crispy and very flavorful, which complemented the richness and depth of the mushroom lasagna.

We had the beef stew out of James Peterson's "Glorious French Food" tonight. I had to plan this one out a bit as we had guests who were on their way from Yosemite to the San Francisco airport and who'd be stopping by our place on the way. I therefore browned the onions, carrots, and beef and then braised them in a bottle and a half of red wine yesterday afternoon. Once they were done, I strained out the liquid and put it in the fridge. I got rid of the vegetables and put the beef in the fridge. I also sauteed some small criminis (either whole or cut in half) and put the in the fridge. (This was a Tupperware-intensive process.) When I got home from work today, I skimmed the fat off of the cooking liquid and boiled it a bit to reduce it. Then the beef, the mushrooms, a package of frozen pearl onions, and a bunch of lardons of bacon (fried, drained, and blotted on paper towels) went into the broth. After a half hour or so of simmering, it was ready to go. Served it with mashed potatoes and roasted cauliflower. It made for a really nice autumn meal that was ready less than two hours after I got home from work.

Sunday night, I made creamed leeks to take over to a friend's house for supper. First time I've made them and they were delicious.

[Jenise]

Friends are coming tonight to watch election coverage, and I'm planning a casual bistro dinner of endive, radish and romaine salad (Dijon vinaigrette) followed by individual Roquefort souffles (with 2 thick rashers of bacon speared into the tops) and broccolini with 'toast' (bread crumbs crisped in butter with lemon peel).