What's Cooking (Take Four)

Lovely Lamb chops, well seasoned with freshly ground black pepper, garlic salt, will be browned in an All-Clad pan in olive oil, then finished off with a mixture of beef stock, lemon juice, butter, and chopped rosemary leaves. The sauce will form a nice glaze on the chops as they finish cooking. A side of skin-on potatoes, cut into fingerling size, then tossed with extra-virgin olive oil, dry white wine, fresh thyme leaves, and baked. They will be dressed with extra-virgin olive oil, sour cream, red wine vinegar, creamed horseradish, salt, and pepper, while still warm. I will serve them on a bed of arugula. The recipe calls for using freshly grated horseradish, but I do not have any. Nor have I ever seen any...but then I've never looked for it. I am also going to roast cauliflower florets and cherry tomatoes in roasted peanut oil, red onion. and tarragon.

[Jenise]

Fresh horseradish is not super-common, but it's not exactly super-rare either. Regular supermarkets sometimes have it bulk or in the little baskets of unusual items they'll have off to one side, perhaps in packets marketed by the Frida brand. I love it, absolutely love it, in mashed potatoes, and also grated into the butter I'll saute some cooked beets in.

Sounds like a nice dinner! I'm not cooking at home tonight.

My father grew horseradish in the back yard. It's really hardy. Perhaps you could grow it in a pot or in your garden.

I adore the Tule Lake Creamed Horseradish and have used it for decades. The eldest son prefers the Old Fashioned type, and he adds the sour cream he loves to it. Runs in the family, except for the daughter, who doesn't like spicy food. I've tried two other brands, and they were terrible

Fresh horseradish is not super-common, but it's not exactly super-rare either. Regular supermarkets sometimes have it bulk or in the little baskets of unusual items they'll have off to one side...

Fresh horseradish is all over Nyc before Passover. (Perhaps other relevant parts of the country as well) I believe early spring is the peak season, along with another harvest in late fall.

[Jenise]

Rahsaan, interesting to know. I had not realized that it's seasonal--only that I have a hard time finding it when I really want it!

Our new neighborhood grocery store deli has an Asian section with a group of talented Sushi makers. I have a favorite called Spicy Shrimp Inari. The lines can get very long for special orders, and since I have zero tolerance for waiting in line, I decided to make my own. I bought 2 containers of the bean curd boats, which I will stuff with sushi rice (arriving this morning), top with a shrimp, and the spicy topping, which I will start with Sriracha Mayo. I have never made sushi rice, but I have all the ingredients for it, so this should be fun. By the way, the sushi makers are all of Asian descent. I do not know where they are from, but they all have heavy accents, are super sweet, and good with the public. When I order the inari, it takes them about 10 minutes to make up the tub, and when I return, they always remember who I am and hand me my order.

I made an Instacart order yesterday, and my shopper texted me that there were 20 + folks in line for sushi, and since she was doing multiple orders, she could not wait. That is when I decided to order the Sushi rice from Amazon and get to work learning how to make my own.

I have a favorite called Spicy Shrimp Inari....That is when I decided to order the Sushi rice from Amazon and get to work learning how to make my own.

Always a fun idea to try making new dishes!

[Jenise]

If there were white people wanting the job of sushi maker, someone would be screaming discrimination because--name the market, they ALL do it--all the sushi makers are Asian. Not neccessarily Japanese, but yeah, Asian. And regardless of market the sushi rolls are pretty much all the same, from conception to squirt-bottle saucing methodology, leading me to suspect that they're all sent to the same School of Sushi. Sushi in Washington looks like sushi in British Columbia looks like Sushi in California just as sushi at Whole Foods looks just like sushi at the Kroger outlet, Fred Meyer. All that said (ranted?), though I've seen them making a day's worth of sushi in stores I've never seen supermarket sushi made to order like you're experiencing, Karen, so Redding has that over some of the rest of us.

[Jenise]

Today I'm making a test batch of paella, which dish I'm taking to Bill's lunch on Thursday. I decided to not do the typical chicken and seafood combo--great as that is everyone's had it. We're already heading into fall up here and so I'm going with what strikes my little pea brain as a more fall-like combination: duck, sausage and olive with some sherry in the broth--duck/olives/sherry as a stew being a classic dish of Seville.

Jenise, I mentioned Asian, but I do not know where they are from. Redding has a good-sized population of Hmong, some Chinese, etc. The new store has a large deli that is very popular with our locals, and the line at lunchtime is crazy. I love the vibe of the sushi makers; they have a section where they all work. The store is employee-owned, and the service is great; everyone is very customer-conscious, especially if one is looking for something. They don't seem to discriminate against any ethnic or other differences. There is a gay male who works in the deli area. He is a very popular employee, always has a smile on his face, and just being around him is fun. The store is owned by a local person who has at least 16 other stores in the mountain and valley communities around here. When Gene and I remodeled this house, our interior designer took me to the owner's home to see a type of granite she thought I might like. I was very impressed with his home, staff—just a down-to-earth nice guy.
Just another comment: the sushi folks have a lot of it already prepared in the glass counter, which is how I was introduced to the one I love. However, it is not always there. So I usually ordered it and finished my shopping, and went back to pick it up. They will make anything you want. The other part makes up hundreds of sandwiches for folks who come in and wait in line for their special sandwich at lunchtime. They also prepare some great casseroles that taste homemade.

Tonight I'm making Thai green curry with beef.

-Paul W.

Paul, will you share your recipe, please? I have green curry, but have not used it.

[Jenise]

Karen, I wasn't suspecting your store in particular of discrimination. It's just that the supermarket sushi industry as a whole seems to follow the same formula for in-store sushi which is afterall Japanese food. A Chinese person is no more qualified than a Mexican to make it, but only Asians are hired for these jobs because they look more authentic to non-Asians.

[Jenise]

Last night's test batch of Duck and Olive Paella was outstanding. I won't need to make many changes to what I'm making tomorrow--I just need to find some good manzanilla type sherry because I don't want to put half a bottle of 30 yr old Palo Cortado in the dish!

Tonight I'm having cold Dungeness Crab, caught Sunday.

Karen, I wasn't suspecting your store in particular of discrimination... A Chinese person is no more qualified than a Mexican to make it, but only Asians are hired for these jobs because they look more authentic to non-Asians.

Well, that is discrimination. And frankly it's not even clear that any given Japanese person would necessarily be more qualified. Especially these days with the global spread of sushi culture.

There was a time in Nyc when you would see the preference for Asians as sushi rollers, but these days it can be anyone in the supermarkets. Certainly lots of Latinos, but white, black, anyone. And especially in the supermarkets, where it seems like sushi has become very Americanized anyway, given all the bizarre spicy flavor offerings.

Good Grief...frankly, I thought having the Japanese, Chinese, or whatever ethnicity they are gave the sushi section a great vibe. I loved it, and given the popularity of the offerings, many others like it as well. I'm so happy to live in a community that has a diverse mix of races, and no one seems to mind. At least in my little corner of the world, Redding, CA, people seem to be more concerned about keeping our police and sheriff departments fully funded and finding solutions to the homeless issues.
I will rethink my comments from now on before I post.

Paul, will you share your recipe, please? I have green curry, but have not used it.

Thai curries are dishes that I make without using a recipe. I'll try to put one together. I suggest that you google "Thai green curry recipe" and look at several of the recipes. You'll discover that Thai curry is one of those things where everyone has their own recipe, but there are some common threads regarding ingredients and technique.

The common ingredients for green curry are Thai green curry paste, coconut milk (maybe with stock/broth added), boneless meat (chicken, pork, and beef are most common), fish sauce, and one or more vegetables.

The technique is the same for all Thai curries:

briefly cook the curry paste in oil (coconut oil preferred) until the aroma comes up

add the sliced meat and cook until the raw color disappears

add the coconut milk (and stock/broth if using) and the veggies. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer

simmer until the meat and veggies are cooked through

I'll put together a coherent recipe with ingredient proportions and I'll post that separately. I'll also see about posting a posting on Thai ingredients, which as I found out can be a confusing wilderness for the beginner.

-Paul W.

I I'll also see about posting a posting on Thai ingredients, which as I found out can be a confusing wilderness for the beginner.
.

I'd be interested in that. We used to have a Thai grocery nearby, after they closed I can get most common Thai ingredients, except fresh galangal and fresh kaffir lime leaves (frozen or dried yes, but not the same)

Dale,

Try Importfood.com. They are an online Thai grocery with a vast array of Thai food products, including fresh galangal, fresh kaffir lime leaves, and even fresh whole kaffir limes (!) in season. Their fresh produce is ultra-fresh and delivered promptly.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Good Grief...frankly, I thought having the Japanese, Chinese, or whatever ethnicity they are gave the sushi section a great vibe. I loved it, and given the popularity of the offerings, many others like it as well. I'm so happy to live in a community that has a diverse mix of races, and no one seems to mind. At least in my little corner of the world, Redding, CA, people seem to be more concerned about keeping our police and sheriff departments fully funded and finding solutions to the homeless issues. I will rethink my comments from now on before I post.

Karen, no reason to take offense. I love diversity and am not campaigning against it. I simply noted what I've seen in BC, Washington and California--multiple stores, multiple times, and from what you say it's true in Redding, too: if you're not Asian or Asian-adjacent, you won't get hired to make sushi in a grocery store.

... if you're not Asian or Asian-adjacent, you won't get hired to make sushi in a grocery store.

And there are multiple ways of reading this, not all of them very welcoming of diversity. Part of it can be about respecting the cultural heritage of a dish, which is good. But when someone is hiring Chinese or Koreans to cosplay as Japanese, it's not actually very respectful of anything and veers towards a circus act that can feel demeaning.

No easy answers, other than making top-notch food, and then (usually) much is forgiven!

[Jenise]

Rahsaan, exactly.

[Jenise]

This afternoon I'm hosting the introduction of a spectacular 8 yr old Aussie Shepherd whose owner died suddenly to a prospective new family consisting of a gay couple, an Aussie-Rottweiler mix, and a hilarious chihuahua-corgi mix (picture an extra long white chihuahua with huge tan ears that stick straight out and enough personality for any two other dogs). And it dawned on me just before bedtime last night that I could end up with a lot of dinner guests tonight. So I set out two packages of organic boneless/skinless chicken thighs to thaw which I just unpacked and nestled into a marinade of equal parts white wine and apple juice which I seasoned with a ton of dill, dried french basil, pepper and garlic. They'll get grilled and if I end up alone it's the kind of food I love to eat cold later. I have no idea what else I'll add to that, but it's a start.