What's Cooking (Take Three!)

I am with Rahsaan. My go to roast and puree is red peppers which can make a very good soup.

My go to roast and puree is red peppers which can make a very good soup.

Another winning idea. I usually take it in the sauce direction, but such great flavor either way.

Agree, sauce works great too..

Over the weekend I made gai kor rae, a Southern Thai-style grilled chicken dish. It's similar to Thai satay--boneless chicken marinated in red curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, and tamarind--but it also has cumin and cinnamon, which gives it a Malaysian twist.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Sounds really good, Paul, I don't think I've ever had anything quite like that--at least, called Thai.

Have been away on a camping trip. Cooking at home tonight for the first time in days, and all I want is vegetables. Boiled corn with a tomato salad. With produce at the height of the season, it's impossible to resist.

Lamb roast tonight.
A lamb noisette is perfect for two,or one plus leftovers for sandwiches.
Plus the usual suspects, roast kumara, roast spud, steamed broccoli and gravy.
Brand’s LaIra. cab sav.

DescriptionBrillat-Savarin is a soft, white-crusted cow's milk cheese triple cream brie with at least 72% fat in dry matter. It was created c. 1890 as "Excelsior" or "Délice des gourmets" by the Dubuc family, near Forges-les-Eaux. Wikipedia
I’ve been in love with this cheese for ages and can now get it at my local store (if I’m quick, I’m obviously not alone)
I’ve already mentioned how good it is inn omelette with or without truffle and tonight I’m snacking on toasted sourdough bread, THE cheese and sliced fresh strawberries. Yummy

I love Brillat-Savarin (and it's cousin Delice de Bourgogne), but take issue with using the word Brie for a cheese from Burgundy! But do love it (usually just eat it straight with bread, but love idea of an omelette, will save end next time).

The N. Altlantic lobster glut isn't as extreme as a few years ago (we haven't had $4/lb lobster in a while) but every 2nd or 3rd week we can get for $6.99. So have fun doing different preps. But now that local tomatoes are ripe and corn in in, we do my favorite prep- parsteam lobsters, sautee corn with thyme, cook lobster in butter, serve with marinated tomato:

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0qFndhC0pgUtnKA2xKT0ZE1eQ

[Jenise]

Dale, I'm drooling over that description. The idea of 6.99 lobster also has me in fits.

We're expecting company for lunch. Haven't seen this couple in almost 20 years. Best I recall their tastes are fairly midwestern so I'm keeping it lunch-y, though with embellishments. So, an asparagus salad with tarragon vinaigrette and grilled shrimp followed by a tomato bisque and little points of grilled cheese sandwich with, probably, some chopped black truffle (from a jar).

[Jenise]

Wow my lunch company today. We didn't know a thing about this until they got here, but Barb has like 20 tiny brain tumors. She's had a lot of radiation--they didn't say but of course the outlook can't be good--and is taking all kinds of nuclear medicine. They have to travel with a small refrigerator to keep it in. So facing it head on, I asked if any of this was creating a problem with certain foods, thinking I had time to make changes if needed. No no, nothing's "off", but she hates asparagus period and just doesn't have much appetite. She gets sick if she doesn't eat, but mostly doesn't feel like eating and has to make herself. Each meal's a mystery about what will appeal, and they warned me not to be offended if she didn't eat much at all.

So I took the asparagus off her plate and gave her sliced cucumbers, which it turns out is a favorite thing, with the shrimp and she ate that. Then came the soup. And it turns out that tomato bisque and grilled cheese sandwiches are one of her top ten favorite things in the world, and it sounded good to her today. She'd never eaten a truffle before (Don didn't even know what they are), but loved that and didn't just eat her bowl of soup, she asked for a second bowl. Don was beyond thrilled, and we were too.

Whew.

wow, a lot to deal with -especially since you haven't seen in decades. But it sounds like you did magnificently - the food of course, but the caring -what really defines hospitality- most of all. Glad it was great lunch for Barb.

But now that local tomatoes are ripe and corn in in, we do my favorite prep- parsteam lobsters, sautee corn with thyme, cook lobster in butter, serve with marinated tomato

Nice photo. And it answers a bunch of my detail questions... lobster out of the shell, corn off the cob.

So I took the asparagus off her plate and gave her sliced cucumbers, which it turns out is a favorite thing, with the shrimp and she ate that. Then came the soup. And it turns out that tomato bisque and grilled cheese sandwiches are one of her top ten favorite things in the world, and it sounded good to her today. She'd never eaten a truffle before (Don didn't even know what they are), but loved that and didn't just eat her bowl of soup, she asked for a second bowl. Don was beyond thrilled, and we were too.

Whew.

Nicely done, Jenise. A little luck and a little caring make a good recipe.

Jenise that was a meal well recovered. Your friend enjoyed a meal, so important, and got good nourishment for body and soul. I can well imagine the delight it gave her partner as well.

[Jenise]

Jenise that was a meal well recovered. Your friend enjoyed a meal, so important, and got good nourishment for body and soul. I can well imagine the delight it gave her partner as well.

Yes! As you well know, the role of care-giver is tough. So many variables, so many opportunities to feel helpless.

They had actually planned to be here for dinner Thursday night but missed a ferry (coming from Vancouver Island), and so came for lunch instead the next day. I had planned a meal around pork chops that probably wouldn't have succeeded half as well as that soup.

So last night for dinner I made a throwback meal of stuffed pork chops utilizing the crusts cut off the grilled cheese sandwiches (not so much a fancy touch as a necessity as the bread slices were HUGE), with sauteed carrots and chopped leftover asparagus from lunch standing in for the green that otherwise would have been peas. Bob doesn't think I've ever made stuffed pork chops for him, and he could be right though I know I made them often in my prior marriage. Definitely something I kind of forgot ever existed! But glad to have back, they were delicious.

[Jenise]

Dinner tonight: Bob has requested stuffed pork chops again!

Pleased to report cooked a ‘proper ‘ meal tonight. This sounds a bit naff, but I struggle with the evening/main meal just for myself.
I’ve been up to the very big smoke (Melbourne) earlier in the week and seized the chance to visit one of our favourite and formerly local markets. Came home with some venison steaks one of which I panfried to rare and served with a pan sauce with garlic, anchovy, vermouth. Sauté potatoes, steamed broccoli and sliced fresh tomato.

[Jenise]

Sounds good, Barb. I can really relate to the whole idea of a "proper" meal for one. Where I cook balanced and complex meals for Bob and I together, left to my own devices I'd graze: eat a bowl of peas, then maybe a nectarine and if still hungry an apple or a slice of cheese. I'd make huge pots of clam chowder and eat it every meal for four days. I'd panfry a steak big enough to be tonight's dinner and tomorrow's breakfast (I love leftovers for breakfast). There would be nothing organized or resembling a 'proper' meal about the way I'd live on my own.

with a pan sauce with garlic, anchovy, vermouth.

Whew, that's a heckuva sauce!

Hey Jeff, it was just a tablespoonful over the steak
Tonight I’m prepping a simple lunch for some wonderful friends who do a 3 hour round trip every few weeks to keep in touch and do,stuff.. last time it was Otto on, the roof cleaning the gutters and tomorrow he will be up fixing/feplacing Cracked tiles.
The very least I can do is provide a decent lunch, so riffing on Jenise, a tomato bisque came to mind and that’s ready to go. I’ll serve it with a savoury scone scroll. And I’ve made an upside down blood orange cake.

Tonight's dinner is Moroccan braised chicken with olives and preserved lemon.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Last night we had hamburgers on Portugese buns with corn on the cob from a local farm. The buns were a mystery--found them in Canada, decided we must try. They were okay but not exactly exceptional.

Tonight we were planning fresh crab. The season opened today and we had planned to put out traps first thing this morning but it's too windy for our little boat so we're going to pass until Saturday.

[Jenise]

Today: FRESH DUNGENESS CRAB!!!!!

And last night was my monthly wine tasting. I made a lox/pea/arugula/caper/pasta salad, and also a whole big skinless, boneless filet of king salmon the length of the turkey platter I served it on. I seasoned it slightly sweet with a salt/sugar and black pepper sprinkle before smearing it top and bottom with olive oil, then oven-roasted it for 40 minutes at 225-250 (on my oven you can't quite tell where it is) to barely 140F. The low, cool roast keeps the fat in the fish and it's perfect for room temperature service with a last-minute drizzle of, in this case, a sriracha oil/honey/lime juice/dry basil sauce. The texture's like cake, impeccably tender and soft. It was the talk of the night. Well, that and the Giacosa Arneis (one of ten wines served, theme Anything But Chardonnay).

Tonight: boiled whole lobsters, fresh-shucked corn on the cob, and a cool green salad with feta, kalamata, Green Zebra and Black Prince tomatoes. Everything was just seasonally perfect tonight, especially the texture of the corn.