What's Cooking (Take Four)

[Jenise]

That sounds lovely, Mike...Pumpkin seed oil is not one I have tried. I have many oils...will look into that one..

It's a finishing oil, not for cooking. I'm a huge fan. So much flavor and no ingredients, just pumpkin seed oil! It's a traditional Austrian product. I always bring some back from Germany because I don't see it very often in the US, but I'm sure CA has something, perhaps even their own.

Also called Styrian, I think. I owned some in the long ago past. My favorite treatment was over grilled baby eggplants that were whole/sliced/but still-connected at the stem end.

I received my Pumpkin Seed Oil from La Tourangelle yesterday. It says product of Austria, and has only one ingredient. Smells nice, will try it today .

My wife and I were recently in Sicily and we were both taken by the granita there. It's very smooth and creamy, and we found the pistachio and almond versions particularly delicious. We wanted to try making it at home, but most recipes here call for making the base, putting it in the freezer, and then breaking it up as it freezes over the course of several hours. We've both tried making it that way and the result is nothing like the Sicilian version, with much coarser ice crystal and without the creamy texture. So yesterday, I tried using the ice cream maker to make almond granita. The recipe came from a dessert cookbook called Sicily, My Sweet adn apparently is more appropriately termed a "cremolata" than a granita, but it certainly looked like what we wanted. We took fresh almonds, blanched and peeled them, and then blitzed them in the blender with some water and strained to make almond milk. Half of that was combined with sugar, boiled for five minutes, and then the rest of the almond milk was added back in. (I couldn't resist the temptation to add a pinch of cinnamon here, which was a little bit of a mistake). The sugar-almond milk mix was chilled and then frozen in the ice cream maker. The result was exactly what we were looking for, with extremely fine ice crystals and a luscious creamy texture. Unfortunately, the pinch of cinnamon somewhat dominated the delicate almond flavor, so although it was delicious, I won't do that again. We're really happy to have figured this out and will be making the pistachio version next.

Sounds really nice, Mike. I have only ever made granita with a large grain so I'm curious to try making your version. (Just almond milk and sugar, no dairy at all?)

[Jenise]

Mike, you might want to try cashews, too. They are the sweetest and creamiest of nuts and would, I think, bring a lot texturally to this kind of preparation. Not as exotic as pistachios but easier to work with au naturel because they're very procurable raw and don't have skins to deal with.

Tonight I'll be making Sichuan stir-fried ground pork and hot minced chiles. The supermarket has started carrying pencil hot peppers so I'm going to give them a try.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, pencil hot peppers? New to me.

Yesterday I decided to make myself a real dinner. I thawed out a chicken breast I bought last week where I had to settle for boneless/skinless where I really wanted to roast a whole breast still on the bone (Rosie brand, and Paul you're right no supreme), made two cuts to bookfold it out x3 and pounded it flat. I had planned to schnitzel it but at the last minute I decided to just pan sear and make a light mustard-tarragon pan sauce. I served it with green beans, thin haricot verts from frozen.

About those green beans. On Monday I drove 319 miles home from the Willamette Valley. In perfect traffic a 5 hour trip, but traffic is never perfect and I was going to have to leapfrog up the I-5, bouncing from Costco to Costco in search of new glass frames to replace the glasses that had been eaten the day before by one of the four standard poodles I lived with over the weekend (a 3 month old black pup was the culprit, too cute to be mad at). Also, I had stopped at a country market at the start of my journey and bought smoked salmon and some locally-made smoked sausages which would require some frozen vegetables for refrigeration during the journey. I shopped for same at the first Costco where all they had were ginormous four or five pound bags. I went with green beans (thin haricot verts) and put them in my outside fridge (not freezer) on arrival home.

Yesterday it occurred to me that I better do something with those since they've thawed. Confession: though I despise over-cooked vegetables (gray peas or brussels sprouts? No thank you) I am actually quite fond of long-cooked green beans and decided to make a big, big pot of beans with nothing more than chicken broth, olive oil, onions and garlic for seasoning and decide afterward if a meat addition was needed.

It's not. The beans are wonderful, and that pot will feed me for days.

I received my Pumpkin Seed Oil from La Tourangelle yesterday. It says product of Austria, and has only one ingredient. Smells nice, will try it today .

Nice.

Mike, you might want to try cashews, too. They are the sweetest and creamiest of nuts and would, I think, bring a lot texturally to this kind of preparation. Not as exotic as pistachios but easier to work with au naturel because they're very procurable raw and don't have skins to deal with.

Good idea - another one for the project list.

Today, I'll be making chili for our neighborhood brewfest/chili cookoff. I'm going the purist route with just meat, chilies, broth, beer, spices. No tomatoes or beans. (Rule #7, was it?)

Pencil hot peppers are new to me, too. They worked out OK in the minced pork and hot chiles stir-fry but I don't think they are as strong as the long hot green peppers I usually use. I don't think I'll be buying the pencil chiles again except perhaps for color contrast.

Lull Farm in Hollis NH had some fresh cayenne peppers the last time I was there. Those would be to hot for this dish, I think. I've never seen them before in New England.

-Paul W.

Yesterday, I cleaned up the fatty stuff on the legs, thighs, and wings from an organic chicken. Tossed them into a zip-lock bag to sit in a bath of low-fat buttermilk and Tabasco. Later today, I will dip those pieces in Oven Fry, which I have added fresh rosemary from the garden. These will go onto a wire rack sitting on a sheet pan. I am going to make a pot of beans, not sure what kind yet, and will add my last package of Hatch chiles and halved cherry tomatoes. I have a lot of veggies this week, so I plan to roast a panful

Yesterday it occurred to me that I better do something with those since they've thawed. Confession: though I despise over-cooked vegetables (gray peas or brussels sprouts? No thank you) I am actually quite fond of long-cooked green beans and decided to make a big, big pot of beans with nothing more than chicken broth, olive oil, onions and garlic for seasoning and decide afterward if a meat addition was needed. .

For green beans and asparagus, try a pinch of baking soda in cooking water to prevent grayness.

Poorman's jambalaya tonight.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Yesterday it occurred to me that I better do something with those since they've thawed. Confession: though I despise over-cooked vegetables (gray peas or brussels sprouts? No thank you) I am actually quite fond of long-cooked green beans and decided to make a big, big pot of beans with nothing more than chicken broth, olive oil, onions and garlic for seasoning and decide afterward if a meat addition was needed. .

For green beans and asparagus, try a pinch of baking soda in cooking water to prevent grayness.

Oh, I realize that helps, but a 2-hour green bean is going to be dull, can't help it. I do use baking soda to brighten the colors of vegetables just cooked al dente though.

[Jenise]

Inspired by the idea of socca, a chick pea based French flatbread, today I'm creating a Southern Rhone version of a bread salad using crusty torn pieces of sourdough, lightly crushed canned garbanzo beans, kale and marinated artichokes to take to a Southern Rhone tasting (two of our group are vegetarians, so this kind of thing is always welcome and of course I'll love it too).

I was planning on meatloaf and mashed potatoes for my slightly ailing (cold and cough) wife. But at noon, a neighbor who just closed his restaurant and has wine he wants to get rid of dropped by with a couple of bottles (including a lovely premier cru Pouilly-Fuisse), so we opened those up on the front porch. And then another neighbor came by. And then a couple more. And then a couple more, who brought with them the leftover beer keg from last night's Brewfest. By the time all was said and done, it was 7:00, over a dozen neighbors had been by, there were seven empty wine bottles on the front porch, the beer was gone, and there was no meatloaf. So it was leftover pasta for supper.

Oh, good, well, at least you ate something!
--

Kept things simple here: I swabbed a chicken, inside and out, with compound butter, sat it on a bed of thyme sprigs and gave it a good roast. A couple russets in the oven, too. For the side, I sauteed some crinkle-cut butternut squash with sage, and pressed some King Oyster mushrooms in a cast iron pan.

The buttermilk bathed chicken I was planning for Saturday night was not cooked until Sunday. OMG, it was one of the better chickens I have ever cooked. It was coated in Oven Fry, which had fresh chopped rosemary from my garden. I let that mix sit for several hours before coating the chicken. Chicken was on a wire rack and placed on a sheet pan, cooked at 400° for almost an hour. Skin and coating were very crisp, and the chicken meat was juicy and very tender. The wing meat literally fell off the bones as I broke it up.
Not sure why this one turned out so well, unless it was the extra day in the buttermilk. The house smelled so great while this was in the oven.

[Jenise]

I was planning on meatloaf and mashed potatoes for my slightly ailing (cold and cough) wife. But at noon, a neighbor who just closed his restaurant and has wine he wants to get rid of dropped by with a couple of bottles (including a lovely premier cru Pouilly-Fuisse), so we opened those up on the front porch. And then another neighbor came by. And then a couple more. And then a couple more, who brought with them the leftover beer keg from last night's Brewfest. By the time all was said and done, it was 7:00, over a dozen neighbors had been by, there were seven empty wine bottles on the front porch, the beer was gone, and there was no meatloaf. So it was leftover pasta for supper.

I love this story!

Today I'm making the huge pot of chile verde for Thursday night's holiday planning dinner for 30+ volunteers.

[Jenise]

I just took two heritage Duroc pork chops out of the freezer to make for tonight's dinner (and a leftover portion which is a good idea, but since they were frozen together I have to). Trying to decide whether to grill or braise. I think wine will be involved, so maybe braising is the best idea.

I think wine will be involved, so maybe braising is the best idea.

Oh you mean for the pork chops!

I made a corn salad to take over to a friend's house last night. Corn, green onions, diced red pepper, diced (seeded) jalapeno, cilantro, cotija, lime juice, veg oil. Went well with the swordfish that he grilled, and which he nailed. These were two inch thick steaks and they were done perfectly.

I'll be making Sichuan yuxiang rousi (fish-fragrant pork, aka pork with fish flavor) tonight.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Last night's dinner meeting for 32 was a huge success. The chili verde I made was divine, and I found just the right size paper containers at the Chef's Store to be able to put a scoop of rice on the bottom, spoon the chili over, then top with grated cheddar and a little tangle of roasted and marinated pablano chiles. Because the rice absorbed the gravy, people could eat every drop with a fork while sitting or standing. 9 lbs of pork loin, three big onions, several bulbs of garlic, 5 quarts of stock, one bunch of chopped cilantro and a lot of cumin, Mexican oregano and dark soy sauce for seasoning and color made about 12 quarts of chili, and I have just enough left over to revisit it several times over the weekend.

Sounds yummy Jenise, did you have help with this dinner?