What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

So last night I actually felt like cooking. I had the leftover pork leg roast from last Sunday reaching the use-or-toss stage. Not a fan of reheated meats so was more inclined to toss until I remembered a Portugese stew a friend once made, redolent with cilantro and red bell peppers.

So I cut the fat away, diced the meat and tossed it in a pan with most of an onion that I sliced and sweated. Then I added the leftover gravy, two heaping spoonfuls of smoked Spanish paprika, a few cumin seeds, a cup or so of water, a chipotle chile and the finely chopped stems from a bundle of cilantro.

That simmered for about two hours, smelling heavenly. About a half hour before dinner, I sliced and browned a double-smoked sausage from a local purveyor that I happened to have on hand, added a sliced red bell pepper, and stirred that into the stew with more cilantro and a dollop of red wine vinegar. Scooped into bowls with a mound of steamed jasmine rice on top? One of the best things I've made in awhile. I woke up all aglow this morning just remembering it--the house still smells of smoked paprika.

Tonight friends are coming over for a last meal before they take off on a three week vacation. I'm making Joel Robuchon's (I don't think I spelled that right but you know who I mean) bacon and potato gratin, which I'll plate with a pile of fresh lettuce in a garlicky vinaigrette and fresh home made sourdough bread. We'll gnosh on some marinated shrimp to start.

The other day I made Burmese Khao Suey--chicken slices and various veggies with noodles in a spicy coconut milk soup. This recipe called for rice noodles instead of wheat noodles and said one could use either fresh or dried noodles. I used dried noodles, and it became clear that the amounts of ingredients in the recipe assumed fresh rice noodles. The dried noodles absorbed most of the liquid as they cooked. The result was delicious but it was more like Laksa and had a thick curry sauce instead of being a soup. When I had the leftovers I added another cup of chicken broth to restore the soup nature of the dish. Next time I'll cook the rice noodles separately.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

The other day I made Burmese Khao Suey--chicken slices and various veggies with noodles in a spicy coconut milk soup. This recipe called for rice noodles instead of wheat noodles and said one could use either fresh or dried noodles. I used dried noodles, and it became clear that the amounts of ingredients in the recipe assumed fresh rice noodles. The dried noodles absorbed most of the liquid as they cooked. The result was delicious but it was more like Laksa and had a thick curry sauce instead of being a soup. When I had the leftovers I added another cup of chicken broth to restore the soup nature of the dish. Next time I'll cook the rice noodles separately.

-Paul W.

I think cooking the noodles separately to the equivalent of a fresh state was what the recipe had in mind, even if they didn't put it that way. Sound divine. Speaking of Burmese, long time ago there was once a restaurant in Seattle that Bob and I would go to immediately on arrival in Seattle from Anchorage when we flew down here for medical services not available at home. Our #1 favorite dish was dungeness crab stir-fried in a Burmese curry. Not sure what made it precisely Burmese, but it was long on lemon grass and one of the favorite foods of my life. Messy to eat, but nirvana. Is there a method or ingredient that makes an Asian dish specifically Burmese? (I should try to recreate that dish sometime now that I have my own supply of Dungeness crab.)

Tonight friends are coming over for a last meal before they take off on a three week vacation. I'm making Joel Robuchon's (I don't think I spelled that right but you know who I mean) bacon and potato gratin, which I'll plate with a pile of fresh lettuce in a garlicky vinaigrette and fresh home made sourdough bread. We'll gnosh on some marinated shrimp to start.

Robuchon correct, nosh wrong.


Jeff

I don't know what characterizes Burmese cuisine, either. The Khao Suey struck me as being midway between Indian and Thai curries. No fish sauce or shrimp paste such as you find in Thai curries, but coconut milk rather than the dairy products you'd find in an Indian curry. It's definitely in the Southeast Asian end of the curry spectrum.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Having friends over tonight to binge-watch My Brilliant Friend. Since the film takes place in Naples, I'm serving three pizzas: tomato, garlic and four cheeses with a fresh arugula in garlic vinaigrette topping, chicken sausage/fennel/onion/tomato/mozz, and proscuitto/potato/rosemary/pesto/mozz.

I like the sound of that last one!

Have you ever had a good white clam pizza? I am on the same coast as Pepe's Pizza so occasionally have it. It's quite delightful, though I can see that long experience is needed to balance the ingredients: clam, garlic, oil, herbs.

[Jenise]

Jeff, I haven't. Long to, but will have to experience it alone as the Bobster is deathly allergic to clams. There is a famed pizzeria in Oregon who does a great version of the white clam pizza, I'm told.

I made Paul Prudhomme's poor man's jambalaya last night using local andouille and tasso from North Country Smokehouse here in NH.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

That sounds great, Paul. I've still never made a Jamabalaya except once, by the seat of my pants, when friends in the Netherlands requested it.

Today I'm making a lobster pasta salad to take to a friend's going away party.

Family visiting for the night.

Caprese salad with tomatoes from my neighbours.
Smoked salmon with pickled Fennell.

Roast duck with duck fat potatoes and green beans (also from neighbour)

White chocolate Panna cotta with passion fruit syrup, (passion fruit from another friend locally.)

It was well received,

Funny day, a local friend rocked up with a mate and a splitter around noon, and proceeded to very kindly split two trees worth of logs, such a kind act. So three hours of my potential prep time went instead on stacking firewood. Insh,allah.
And of course the element in the oven went BANG! Fortunately the duck was done and the spuds could be finished on the cooktop.

Another entry in Jeff's list of "It's not supposed to do that" stories: So, a chicken is all prepped on its vertical roaster and a pan of stuffing is ready to go with it... and the oven won't light. Strong smell of gas so at least we know the valve is working. Turn it off, use the towel to blow the air around a bit, try again. This time it lights but it's making putt-putt noises. Take a hint this time. Off. I'll call the service people in the morning.

Meanwhile, um, er.

First, quick look up a Chicken in a Pot recipe. Chop up a stalk of celery, a carrot, a few cloves of garlic, a few sprigs of rosemary, a bay leaf, and a splash of white wine. Sizzle briefly, chicken in, lid on, turn the stovetop flame low and hope for the best.

Next, pull out the Staub cocotte. Set it on another burner and start warming it up. This takes a while, but, when it's ready, rub with a little olive oil, shovel the uncooked stuffing in, lid on, medium heat, and let's see what we get. Well, about a half-hour later I've got a Stuffing Cake with a decent crisp/char on the bottom. I use two dinner plates to flip it over and give it 10 more minutes.

Add a quick saute of a green veg and chicken dinner happened anyway.

Jeff, good work with the quick rethink.
Anybody else had oven trouble? Seems to be the season for it.

Left over roast duck we ate Pekin duck style, made some proper pancakes, some modified hoi sin, batons of spring onions and cucumber. And some crisped duck skin. Very nice Sunday supper.

[Jenise]

Good save, Jeff. Sorry about your stove, I'm a recent victim (third $500+ expenditure on it in eight years) too. Painful!

Thanks, Barb and Jenise.

Ouch on the expenditures. I think I recall that you had a world of problems with a new Viking... is this that one?

My stove, on the other hand, is 18 years old so it's entitled to a cranky day now and then. Let's see what Dial Appliances has to say about it.

I got three pounds of real, honest-to-God tangerines, after looking all over for them. All the markets around here are carrying tangelos, mandarins, or other sorts of tangerine/orange hybrids. I'm after the tangerines for their peels. There's a Chinese cooking technique called lu where meats are slow-braised in soy sauce flavored with various spices, including dried tangerine peel. You can use mandarins or other thin-skinned oranges, but tangerines have the thinnest and most aromatic peels. And the fruit's tasty, too.

Tonight's dinner will be du Puy lentils cooked in red wine.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, I love using orange and tangerine peels and remember seeing dried tangerine peels in several beef stir fry dishes. Fresh is best but I even keep dried orange peel (from Penzey's) on hand for convenience. And we eat boatloads of fresh citrus fruit when in season. Although I lump all the small clementine/mandarine/tangerine fruits into one category we call 'tangerine', we'll sit down with a bowl of six or seven, I peel them and we share halves. Then we rate each tangerine like bottle of wine. When we're done we vote for the winner. It's actually surprising how each one is different in sweetness, acidity and intensity.

Dinner for us tonight is a pot roast. Couldn't believe my eyes when shopping near Seattle on Saturday and found a classic 7-bone chuck roast. They're nonexistent in my neighborhood. So I bought it and this morning drug the crock pot out of the pantry--haven't used that in about 10 years. It's bubbling away with some leftover palo cortado, mushrooms, bay leaves and cream. I'll be in and out all day so it's the perfect way to cook dinner, and all the great smells are such a bonus.

Yesterday I got out the meat grinder and made about 8 pounds of hot Italian sausage. I hadn't done this in quite a while and need to develop my technique. I prepped 2, approx 6 ft casings, but it was only enough for about half the batch, so the remainder was formed into patties. I followed a recipe I've had for a long time. I substituted red wine for the white wine, but it seemed to be a bit too much, as the mixture was very wet, sticky and hard to handle. I also halved the amount of crushed red pepper. I cooked up 2 patties when I was done for my son and me. Although it was quite tasty, I realized that my fennel seeds are very old and the flavor of it was lacking and the dominant spice flavor was the rosemary. I'll be doing this again. I'll be cooking the links in spaghetti sauce for large dinner in the near future.

[Jenise]

We've been dining out while my husband had surgery in the next county and we were hotelling it. Last night was the first night home and I really really wanted to try a Spanish red wine. Under that influence, I rubbed a thick pork chop with pimenton, salt, sugar and olive oil then grilled it off to serve on a bed of brown basmati rice pressure-cooked with cherry tomatoes and garlic. I topped each plate with finely diced pickled asparagus. Delish, and perfect for the wine.

Sounds good. Did you add sugar in order to make a dark char or is that traditional seasoning?

[Jenise]

Exactly that, Jeff. Ditto the olive oil. Got it black around the edges and then put it in the oven for about 7 minutes to bake to a nice pink medium doneness. The sugar mostly cooks off so the chop isn't sweet per se, just caramelized. However I will admit to liking sweet meat, especially pork. My other two favorite preps include sweetness too--a marinade of brown sugar, hot Chinese chili oil, vinegar, soy sauce and fresh rosemary, and then plain with onion salt and doused with vinegar and maple syrup.

I have read to do the same thing to scallops, for the same reason.

[Jenise]

Yup!!!

Didn't have a dinner plan yet for tonight but I think you just made me one. Scallops!!!

I love it when a plan comes together.

Especially when that plan takes 2.5 minutes in a pan to cook.