What's Cooking (Take Four)

[Jenise]

Larry, did you go traditional with cabbage and potatoes?

Cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and onions. Yum. I used to cook 60lbs of corned beef and cabbage each year for the Albuquerque Press Club. Took me all day.

I can't figure out why my house smells like cabbage today.

This was the first year I did not do a traditional St. Pat's Day dinner. I missed it. Since I've become a family of one human, my way of cooking has changed. We have a meat processing plant in the area that does the best-corned beef, with no chemicals used. Can't recall what the process is but I know they use celery juice. For some reason, I did not want to eat corned beef all week. Maye next year...

[Jenise]

I did a corned beef too. Snake River Farms Wagyu corned round. To the cooking water I added paprika (for color as much as anything, the broth is a lovely shade of orange), mint and fennel seed. Carrot chunks were added toward the end and removed, then cabbage went in. No potatoes. The onion element was addressed with a pile of grilled green onions, and the starch component was a beefy bulgur wheat pilaf. Dijon mustard thinned with a good Sauternes (Carmes des Rieussec) was served as a drizzle for the corned beef. One of my favorite meals; and it dawns on me that I failed to buy a second corned beef to freeze, which I always do because I'll be hungry for this again come fall.

I went to their website to check out recipes and almost fell out of my chair at the price of half a corned round. But the recipes sound great.
https://www.snakeriverfarms.com/catalog ... beef+round

I have an abattoir down the street from me that does their own corned beef. It's pretty good. Not as good as doling it myself but I was limited on time this year. Did up 1/2 of a 4# brisket and froze the rest. I'll have two days of CB&C and maybe do a pastrami with the other half.

[Jenise]

Good on you Dan. I only have enough leftovers for tonight, three slices of meat and I'll make more cabbage (which is possibly my favorite part anyway).

Karen, I paid $40 at Costco for a four pound SRF wagyu round. Their web prices are insane.

This was the first year I did not do a traditional St. Pat's Day dinner. I missed it. Since I've become a family of one human, my way of cooking has changed. We have a meat processing plant in the area that does the best-corned beef, with no chemicals used. Can't recall what the process is but I know they use celery juice. For some reason, I did not want to eat corned beef all week. Maye next year...

Your corned beef was cured with the nitrites in celery instead of "chemical" potassium/sodium nitrate/nitrite, both methods used to protect you from botulism.

Good on you Dan. I only have enough leftovers for tonight, three slices of meat and I'll make more cabbage (which is possibly my favorite part anyway).

Karen, I paid $40 at Costco for a four pound SRF wagyu round. Their web prices are insane.

We finished our corned beef/cabbage tonight (the third night). Luckily we really like it.

Can't recall what the process is but I know they use celery juice.

Your corned beef was cured with the nitrites in celery instead of "chemical" potassium/sodium nitrate/nitrite, both methods used to protect you from botulism.

There are a couple of these "pretty" substitutions: in which a vegetable or fruit juice is used instead of mumbo-jumbium nitrate, even though it's the exact same thing... but it reads better when looking at the ingredients label.

Curious as to folks' opinions on this: savvy or scammy?

I've never been a CB&C fan. Too many memories of having New England Boiled Dinner inflicted on me as a child. The recipe for NEBD is: put corned beef, cabbage, onions, potatoes, and carrots in a pot and boil everything until you can't tell which is which.

-Paul W.

Can't recall what the process is but I know they use celery juice.

Your corned beef was cured with the nitrites in celery instead of "chemical" potassium/sodium nitrate/nitrite, both methods used to protect you from botulism.

There are a couple of these "pretty" substitutions: in which a vegetable or fruit juice is used instead of mumbo-jumbium nitrate, even though it's the exact same thing... but it reads better when looking at the ingredients label.

Curious as to folks' opinions on this: savvy or scammy?

It's not scammy, but somewhat savvy, although not by choice. It's a legal thing. All preserved meats must be cured by U.S. law to prevent botulism. However, the legal definition of cured mentions only the Na/K nitrates/nitrites, so "uncured" meats must still be cured, but they use celery, etc., which contains nitrates/nitrates. But by law, they can't use the word "cured." Wacko, isn't it?

OK, that's nuts. The world, as documented by legislators.

[Jenise]

Had a bum day yesterday for a lot of reasons. Never left the house but never got around to planning dinner and all of a sudden it was 6:00. So I resorted to the one stand-by frozen prepared product I keep on hand for days like yesterday: Costco Panko Shrimp. Pull bag out of freezer, put about 16 of them on a tray, bake for 20 minutes: voila, dinner. With those I served steamed asparagus and cucumber strips--all finger food with a lot of healthy vegetables to offset the processed food.

I finally got around to using a box of hot Japanese Golden Curry that I had picked up a long time ago. I made essentially a beef stew: cubes of brisket, potatoes, carrots, and onions, all first stir-fried. Then water was added and simmered for a while. At the end, I added the block of curry paste, which thickened and flavored the stew liquid. Came out rather tasty. Over rice.

[Jenise]

Sounds good, Larry. I've never had a Japanese curry. In fact I only pretty recently realized that it's a classic dish in Japanese home cooking.

Sounds good, Larry. I've never had a Japanese curry. In fact I only pretty recently realized that it's a classic dish in Japanese home cooking.

Likewise.

"You try. You like."

We've had Japanese Curry shops in NYC for many years. There used to be one just up the street from my old office, called Tokyo Lunch. Tokyo Lunch was a long skinny store, with all kinds of automatic sushi-making equipment in the back that I never, ever saw anybody use.

But, up front, they had a counter and you could ask for curry with chicken or pork or shrimp or as-is. And there was an Iron Lady who ran the place: she was there in the morning, she was there in the evening, she was there at lunch, she was the boss (or the boss' wife?) but, anyway, she ran a tight ship. And a somewhat noisy ship... my opening line was what she said to anybody about anything on the menu!

It's a funny memory but I miss that place. (Ha! I found a picture of it on an old Yelp page: https://s3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto ... xNIA/o.jpg )

There is another Japanese curry joint near my current office, Go! Go! Curry! (aka, Gorilla Curry) https://gogocurryamerica.com/menu/ but they really jacked their prices during the pandemic.

I've never been a CB&C fan. Too many memories of having New England Boiled Dinner inflicted on me as a child. The recipe for NEBD is: put corned beef, cabbage, onions, potatoes, and carrots in a pot and boil everything until you can't tell which is which.

-Paul W.

I'm with you Paul, after years of trying to get it right, I learned how to season the corned beef, roast the potatoes, bake our family's favorite carrot recipe, toss the cabbage in with the corned beef water, and put the corned beef in the oven to finish cooking with the potatoes. Corned beef is served with horseradish and mustard sauce, and cabbage is drizzled with vinegar. I'm not saying the authentic way of cooking everything together is not right it is just not for me.

[Jenise]

I had planned a chicken curry with cashew rice last night but yardwork and the need to congratulate ourselves afterward with a bottle of champagne on the patio while watching a storm heading our way though it was sunny overhead and the water was pond-still pushed that plan off the rails. Instead, I had some smoked pork chops on hand that only needed a quick pan sear, so I threw together a pot of grits with black truffles and a red-eye gravy which I matched with a ten year old Burgundy. A quick work-around that ate like a meal I'd planned on all day.

I had four very meaty baby back ribs to use up today so I took all the lean meat off, cut out the fat and mixed pork cubes with BBQ sauce, Hosa Hot Sauce and Mexican Oregano, then browned in a pan. I cut up the caramelized onions that the ribs sat on and mixed those in. Will put this into a taco for dinner tonight along with shredded red cabbage tossed with garlic infused olive oil and red wine vinegar.

[Jenise]

It's a funny memory but I miss that place. (Ha! I found a picture of it on an old Yelp page: https://s3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto ... xNIA/o.jpg )

I love those kind of places. It's one of the most fascinating things about New York, all those little neighborhood joints tucked here and there. There's virtually nothing like them on the west coast though some nabes in San Francisco would qualify. Essentially we're too spread out here and everybody drives.

Here in Redding, we have those locally owned little places tucked into places. Gene and I used to keep up with all the new openings but I rarely go out anymore unless company comes or a neighbor wants to go to lunch. My friends all cook and often complain about the high cost of food eating out. We have a nice Latino population and also Asian, and Indian. I was recently made aware of all the little places that have popped up. We have a lot of new folks in our area coming here from Sacramento, Roseville, San Francisco, and out of state. Finding a home here or a rental is almost impossible. The builders cannot keep up especially with the commercial element growing at a fast rate. We have a nice food truck area downtown, and each week they make their way out into the community when not at the Food Truck Park. I always have so much food in the house and I hate wasting anything so it is a treat when I can go grab something out. I do love our beautiful valley surrounded by mountains, lakes, rivers, creeks galore, world-class fly fishing, hiking trails, waterfalls and so much more. The long summer heat is a challenge for me. There is a senior group that is open to anyone who wants to come each month and I thought about joining but they seem to only go to waffle houses or franchise-type places that have larger seating. I can do that type of food at home.

On the menu this week is a favorite of mine, Shrimp and Scallop Soup. It has chopped onions, garlic, fennel seeds, Turkish oregano, red pepper flakes, crushed tomatoes, white wine (I use a good Vermouth), shrimp, scallops, and today I added a small salmon fillet, cut into bite-size pieces. Near the end of cooking, I add fresh lemon juice, and freshly chopped basil leaves, and serve with Tabasco Sauce at the table. The salad will be a tomato bread salad, with kalamata olives, sweet basil, and marjoram with a red wine vinaigrette