What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Cajun tonight--chicken and tasso jambalaya.

-Paul W.

Lazy pizza
A wrap/flour tortilla, firmed up in the oven, spread with roasted garlic and topped with chopped fresh tomato from the garden, sliced Gouda (it was all the cheese I had for the purpose), sliced mushrooms, anchovies. In the oven until melts.
High flavour:effort coefficient.

High flavour:effort coefficient.

Love it!

[Jenise]

In the oven right now, two chicken leg-thighs on a bed of baby potato halves, onions, chopped orange and red carrots, and thyme.

Tonight: probably corned beef. Not committed to it yet, though....

Grilled skirt steak with gochujang sauce and honey mixed with some sesame seeds, fat asparagus (I prefer thick stalks), and tossed salad. And this time, we both ate the same thing.

[Jenise]

Larry--in total agreement about the fat stalks. Bigger isn't always better but in asparagus world, it is.

Tonight we're getting together with our tasting group, for which someone inexplicably picked South American wines. How many do I own? Out of almost 1900 bottles, exactly two. They're drinkable, sometimes eminently so, but do I cellar them? No, and no one else in the group so far as I know does. No idea how this got picked.

But anyway, we take food. And I've been thinking Southern Food lately. That trip to Nashville, and this week a trip to Seattle to dine at the James Beard award winner for Best New Restaurant 2018: JuneBaby, classically-trained chef Edourdo Jordan's hommage to his southern roots. One of my new passions is pimiento cheese, so I'm going to doll up my own version with some Latin flavors. Smoked cheddar, cumin, cilantro, jalapenos--and I'll bake flour tortillas dusted with New Mexico red chile and garlic salt for the thin flatbread.

Simple breakfast: bacon, waffles, soft-boiled eggs (using ATK method). Quick and easy.

Now wondering what I'll make for dinner.

Here I am again. In mid-prep, I changed direction for dinner. I grilled a little more skirt steak sliced with chimichurri sauce for me; in a fajita for my favorite wife; asparagus and tossed salad for both of us.

[Jenise]

Broiled 'Italian chicken', as I call it, thanks to an excess in lemons and limes. Chicken parts are marinated all day in LOTS of juice, LOTS of garlic and LOTS of oregano, then broiled. After the chicken colors, about 30 minutes, the remaining marinade is added to the pan and reduced. It's absolutely fantastic and it's been far too long since the last time I made it. It will be nested on a bit of pasta and broccolini, and we'll have a fresh salad to start.

I was going to have something else tonight for me, but I ran across an inch-and-a-half thick grass-fed bison sirloin that I couldn't resist. Cooked to a perfect med-rare edge-to-edge by searing in cast iron skillet, finishing in oven. Homemade pinto beans and tossed salad. Washed down with pinot noir.

Edie's entree was a bean/cheese burrito.

Broiled 'Italian chicken', as I call it, thanks to an excess in lemons and limes. Chicken parts are marinated all day in LOTS of juice, LOTS of garlic and LOTS of oregano, then broiled. After the chicken colors, about 30 minutes, the remaining marinade is added to the pan and reduced. It's absolutely fantastic and it's been far too long since the last time I made it. It will be nested on a bit of pasta and broccolini, and we'll have a fresh salad to start.

This sounds really good. Sounds rather more Greek than Italian. Lemon potatoes, anyone?

But it raises a question... do you have easy access to broccolini? I live in New York City, a viable candidate for Center of the Universe, and I can only think of one or two stores that carry it.

For Jeff: Here's a recipe I've used for 50 years.

Fried cornmeal mush

Bring to boil 2-3/4 cups water. Combine 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup cold water, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar; gradually add to boiling water, stirring constantly. Cook till thick, stirring frequently. Cover, cook over LOW heat 10-15 min. Pour into 7x3x2 loaf pan. (I spray it w/oil first (opt.)) Cool several hrs or overnight in fridge.
Turn out; cut into 1/2" slices. Fry slowly in hot fat, turning once. When browned, serve w/ butter, syrup.

Simple, but yummy.

OK, a loaf pan of mush is cooling on the counter now. First slab gets made tomorrow or Wednesday.

I recommend cooling it in the refrigerator. Might be easier to cut. Hope you enjoy it.

Mush: Cooled in the fridge overnight, cut nicely today, fried up nicely. HWMBO is pleased. I kept trying to get it darker but, after a while, it just wouldn't go. Not sure why. There was plenty of oil/butter. Perhaps I'll add another spoon of sugar next time.

House now smells of sofrito... we're having friends over on Saturday for paella.

(And, yes, another batch of choc-orange ice cream is in the freezer; making pistachio gelato tomorrow, and probably a gingerbread cake, too.)

Try cooking it longer next time w/o adding sugar. There's a lot of water inside. I also flip more than once if need be. I can cook the surface until a rich, golden brown without any problem. I think the water is the problem.

FWIW, sometimes I do 50/50 cornmeal/whole grain cornmeal. Bit more flavor.

Include me in the fat asparagus camp!
Last night planning steak frites and looked at the green tomato I’d accidentally picked. there was an egg white hanging around and. I was already frying so I made a little batter with the egg white a touch of milk, flour and some breadcrumbs. Voila. Fried green tomatoes. Never done it before, pretty good.
Nice tart contrast with the steak and chips.
Tonight it’s pissaladiere, again a bit inspiration from what is around. I jad caramelised a lot of onion which was left over from our sausage sizzle, I have lots of tomatoes and always olives and anchovies in the fridge. .... and off I go.

Thanks, Larry.

Pad prik gai bai krapow (Thai stir-fried minced chicken with holy basil) tonight.

-Paul W.

Picked up some nice mushrooms today. I'm going to use some on some NY-style pizza tonight. Probably mushrooms, pepperoni, green chile, et al.on the pizza.

For yucks, I walked down a couple of aisles that used to hold toilet paper, bottled water, things like hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, hand sanitizer, etc. All empty. People at Costco are buying whole pallets of bottled water (do they think water faucets are going to dry up?). Don't drink Corona beer or eat at Chinese restaurants are also being practiced by some low-info people. So much for science.

Arrgh! Once I'm settled in, I don't like going out to the grocery store for an ingredient.

For my pizza tonight I couldn't find any mozzarella cheese (I did find some moldy over-the-hill cheese, though), so I trudged over to Albertson's and bought some. Back home, while rummaging through my freezers to look for my green chile, the mozzarella cheese I had stashed on a freezer shelf practically jumped into my hands. Probably gremlins hiding it at first. At least I found my green chile, too.

Ever happen to you?

*Snort*. I still can't find that spoon rest, nor the wayward stocking stuffer from Christmas. If only they'd jump out at me.

(Though I would wonder how they got into the freezer....)

(Though I would wonder how they got into the freezer....)

Ans.: Alzheimer's. Or my wife was over at your house. Hmmmm.

The Thai holy basil stir-fry I made last night calls for five cloves of garlic. I forgot to buy a head of garlic while shopping, and I had only three cloves left. I made the dish anyway. If there isn't an expression "a few cloves short of a garlic head" maybe we should coin one.

-Paul W.

I feel your pain, Perhaps if you'd freeze some cloves for such emergencies, which would help in future.