What's Cooking (Take Two!)

Turkey tamale terrine:

Terrific. Truly.

[Jenise]

Thanks. It wasn't perfect--I didn't put enough fat in the forcemeat--but the ancho chile-polenta crust was perfect, and overall it was a delicious lunch with the corn-avocado salad.

'Twas a grilly day here yesterday. I fired up the coals and cooked 5# of lamb, 3# of fingerlings, a pound of swordfish, and a pound of mixed vegetables (in my handy-dandy perforated pan). Summer goodies!

Now if the farmer's market would start generating heirloom tomates....

[Jenise]

Is that like a week's worth of food, or are you just preparing for this weekend in advance?

[Jenise]

I'm having eight or ten people over tonight for a planning session for the big "La Grande Asado del Birch Bahia" I'm coordinating for the neighborhood wine tasting on July 17th, and I'm doing a taco bar. The fillings will be roast chipotle-brined pork, ancho turkey-rice, and a kind of meatless posole-flavored hominy-jalapeno combo drenched in tangy Cholula sauce. Condiments will be slivered cabbage (tossed with vinegar), cilantro, Havarti cheese slices cut in half to make triangular pieces that fit nicely into a taco vs. grated on top, and a tomato-pasilla chile salsa. I'll also serve Idaho guacamole (potato chips instead of tortilla, because I have a lot of leftover potato chips from last month's event), and of course some South American wine.

Is that like a week's worth of food, or are you just preparing for this weekend in advance?

Correctamundo! It is a week's worth of eating. We had the swordfish immediately, along with the vegetable and some of the potatoes. Last night we had lamb, sauteed up in 'lamb with cumin' style, tonight I was at a wine dinner so heaven only knows what Pumpkin did with lamb, tomorrow is salmon, and there's still four portions of lamb left....

[Jenise]

Tonight: carne asada tacos. Last night's taco bar didn't quite kill the jones.

I've been out traveling and such for the last week and a half and I haven't cooked much of anything for a while now. I really felt the need to make something decent tonight although I was getting home a bit late from work. I ended up picking up some very nice scallops, which were seared and served with a tarragon beurre blanc. Couscous with broccolini was on the side. Had a bottle of white Costieres de Nimes to go with. Quick, easy, delicious, and it felt good.

Some weeknights we just don't have a lot of time. But we still look for lil' shortcuts that allow us put together a nice meal pretty quickly.

We stumbled upon these frozen 3 cheese square raviolis. But they were pretty bland in marinara. So the next time we tried them? We threw them in the salted boiling water for a couple of minutes, then drained them and tossed em' into a saute pan with EVOO, plenty of garlic, red pepper flakes and lots of fresh herbs. (garden is full of the stuff right now)...parsley, basil, oregano. Tossed the ravioli in that mixture for a few minutes. Just enough to coat the pasta and wilt the herbs without destroying them.

Then split the batch onto 2 plates. Top with lots of fresh chopped tomatoes, sea salt n cracked pepper, torn fresh basil and a couple of coarse grinds of a good Parm reg.

We eat this a couple of times a month now. One of my favorite summer dinners.

Been pairing it with this wine. Villa Puccina Toscana...a sangiovese / merlot blend at about $12 that has become kind of the house wine this year.

https://www.heb.com/product-detail/vill ... GOO-E9-DSA

[Jenise]

Sounds delightful, Richard. Perfect hot weather food--wish we had a good frozen ravioli available to us. I bought something out of the fresh (vs. frozen) case at the market a few weeks ago to make on a night that I knew we were getting home late, and they were just awful. I could have cooked them for two hours, I think, and the so-called cheese filling would never have softened. They were both hard and tasteless. Can't imagine how something like that got approved to go to market.

Jenise,

We got those at Kroger.

https://www.kroger.com/

Their website lists Quality Foods in your area? I think that may be a subsidiary of Kroger, but I'm not sure. They are the store brand though.

https://www.kroger.com/product/images/4 ... 1111083218

These are the rounds, but they have the squares also.

[Jenise]

There are QFC's in Washington but none in my county. However, we do have Fred Meyer, which is Kroger. I'll look for them there, thanks!

Made a batch of both pulled pork and pulled chicken for the 4th.

Hands down, no contest, not even close, the pulled chicken wins this battle. It tasted more like pulled pork than pulled pork. I was stunned how vast the gulf was between the two.

To be fair, I used the last of my authentic, imported-direct-from-the-Holy-Land, Kansas City BBQ sauce (Jack Stack) on the chicken and had to resort to a mass-market brand for the pork. But even taking that into account, it was a no-brainer. The chicken took it on texture, moistness, everything. I don't know that I'll ever go back to pork pulled pork again. And I make good pulled pork out of pork.

On the other hand, copious beer is a great equalizer. So both pig and fowl will be demolished with gusto, I'm sure.

Happy Fourth!

[Jenise]

I'm asking myself if I've ever had pulled chicken. It's possible I haven't! Sounds great.

I'm smoking ducks for the Fourth. Rubbed the insides of two birds two days ago with a good amount of salt and even more sugar, then tons of five spice powder, and threw in a few star anise. I've flipped them every few hours since, and they've now been removed from their bags and rinsed, and are now drying on the counter. I'll smoke them about six hours at 250 till they're deep mahogany and shiny.

It'll be grilled flank steak for me today. It's marinating now in soy-white wine-garlic-onion-chipotle.

I'm asking myself if I've ever had pulled chicken. It's possible I haven't! Sounds great.

I'm smoking ducks for the Fourth. Rubbed the insides of two birds two days ago with a good amount of salt and even more sugar, then tons of five spice powder, and threw in a few star anise. I've flipped them every few hours since, and they've now been removed from their bags and rinsed, and are now drying on the counter. I'll smoke them about six hours at 250 till they're deep mahogany and shiny.

Wow. Throw a cuisse into a ziploc and express-mail it here, please.

I'm smoking ducks for the Fourth. Rubbed the insides of two birds two days ago with a good amount of salt and even more sugar, then tons of five spice powder, and threw in a few star anise. I've flipped them every few hours since, and they've now been removed from their bags and rinsed, and are now drying on the counter. I'll smoke them about six hours at 250 till they're deep mahogany and shiny.

OMG, I love smoked duck!! I don't have a smoker (yet), but I do make traditional tea smoked duck in my wok at least once a year. (And I love a variation I saw on a Chinese website a few years ago that uses rose leaves, of all things, mixed in. I have some middle eastern rose tea that works well for this.)

Not my cooking... my window!

My grill is outside ('natch!) on my teeny-weeny balcony and I go in and out through the big window in my sitting room. I've got big (11' tall), old fashioned (wooden, with counter-weights in the walls) windows and, yesterday morning, the chain snapped on the left side. Jeez, those wood sashes are heavy!

Fortunately, I now own a Lodge to fall back on. Not quite as good as grilled over charcoal but at least I could get things blackened / seared somewhat. Also, the only guest was a sympa cousin.

And, now, instead of just dumping the ashes, I get to call the window contractor tomorrow to see when he can come make a mess of my house.

[Jenise]

Those ducks were the BEST we've ever done. Absolutely, by far, no hesitation. Used cherry wood, I don't think I mentioned, which is better--complex, sweeter--than the alder used in the past. We did two; divided one in half and sent those over each side of the fence to the neighbors, and Bob and I shared the other one with asparagus lightly dressed in a sesame oil-soy vinaigrette and a peach galette for dessert. I saved the necks and gizzards from each bird and yesterday morning made a lovely stock out of them and the leftover bones, garlic, onion, carrot, white wine and star anise. That will become a sauce for a ravioli made out of the leftover meat, shredded and combined with some ricotta and chives.

Today it is surprisingly cool out. Compared to the 20 degrees above normal heat we've been having, and dreary, nuclear-apocalypse yellow outside from all the fires, the weather makes a case for comfort food so I'm making a scalloped potato dish wherein wafer-thin pork chops are laid on top of some very saucy potatoes and onions seasoned with Hatch green chiles and baked until the chops just about fall apart. It's one of my favorite foods in the world, birthday-dinner special in terms of how much I love it but how rarely I allow us to have it. But tonight we will. A romaine salad with avocado will precede it.

Those ducks were the BEST we've ever done. Absolutely, by far, no hesitation. Used cherry wood, I don't think I mentioned which is better than the alder used in the past. We did two; divided one in half and sent those over each side of the fence to the neighbors...

Do let me know if either property adjacent to you ever goes up for sale, would you? I can handle yellow skies if it means having smoked duck now and again.

Thanks.

[Jenise]

Those ducks were the BEST we've ever done. Absolutely, by far, no hesitation. Used cherry wood, I don't think I mentioned which is better than the alder used in the past. We did two; divided one in half and sent those over each side of the fence to the neighbors...

Do let me know if either property adjacent to you ever goes up for sale, would you? I can handle yellow skies if it means having smoked duck now and again.

Thanks.

Hey, you got it. You'd make a GREAT neighbor!

Hey, you got it. You'd make a GREAT neighbor!

You say that now. Wait til you experience the first of my weekly all night outdoor dubstep marathons.

[Jenise]

Wait til you experience the first of my weekly all night outdoor dubstep marathons.

Living here would cure you of that.

[Jenise]

DSCF0717.JPG

Utterly fantastic.