What's cooking?

And a question, Jo Ann where do you buy the skins? Looks like the real deal, not the plastic substitute.

Thanks, Jensie. A little time consuming, but not at all difficult to make. Here is the site for the casings. I have made sausages 3 times in the past month, probably about 15lbs worth, and I haven't used all the casings in one bag yet. Next to winemaking, one of my favorite hobbies!

[Robin Garr]

Asparagus and cilantro walnut pesto over Abruzzese chestnut tagliatelle.

Bolillo/Telra rolls filled with grilled onions, poblano and red peppers, and a Mexican spice rubbed and grilled flank steak, sliced very thin. Pickled jalapeños on the side for those who want to add some heat. At the request of Gene, I also made a shrimp macaroni salad he loves.

[Jenise]

And a question, Jo Ann where do you buy the skins? Looks like the real deal, not the plastic substitute.

Thanks, Jensie. A little time consuming, but not at all difficult to make. Here is the site for the casings. I have made sausages 3 times in the past month, probably about 15lbs worth, and I haven't used all the casings in one bag yet. Next to winemaking, one of my favorite hobbies!

Interesting! I really had no idea where to buy sausage casings so I've never 'cased', if you will. What special device, possibly a Kitchen Aid attachment, do you use for stuffing?

I have a dedicated electric meat grinder with a sausage stuffing attachment. Here's one for the Kitchen Aid meat grinder: http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-SSA-Sa ... B00004SGFQ

[Jenise]

The Bellingham Supper Club is cooking Ethiopian on Saturday night, or to be more exact, "Horn of Africa". I've been working on 'kitfo', the Ethiopian version of steak tartare. 90% of the work was reading every recipe I could find on the internet, and looking at all the pictures. I came into this project with a present idea based on a lamb tartare made by some Ethiopian-Armenian sisters I used to have dinner with sometimes. Theirs was stuffed into Anaheim chiles, so I volunteered to make a stuffed chile version for Saturday. Finally last night I made batch no. 1, and had about ten variations to test once I chopped the meat (preferred by me to grinding) and had the spiced butter component ready to go.

I found that most of the recipes were somewhat underpowered compared to the sisters' version, and I missed the slight crunch of the onions I remember as redolent in theirs. So I added, and I added, and I added some more until the taste and texture not only matched but exceeded what I remember. Then I worked with various ways of stuffing fresh jalapenos and found that I actually preferred cutting three sides off the pepper, creating if you will 'petals', that one could spread the kitfo onto yourself, as whole the pepper-to-kitfo ratio was too great. Also, where virtually none of the recipes I read suggested cheese, or what the Ethiopians call Aaib or something like that, in most of the photos I saw when I finally googled kitfo images (and convinced Google that I didn't want to look at kit foxes instead), at least half of the photos I saw had this cheese mixture that looks rather like a burrata plated with the tartare. To test that flavor, I sprinkled a little chevre I was lucky to have on hand on top of my next bite of the kitfo, and OH MY GOD, no wonder they do that. The mellow richness of the cheese really punches up the seasonings in the tartare, and a fresh goat cheese is all by itself not lacking authenticity here as in Ethiopia goat would often be the meat of choice for a tartare.

So below is what we had for dinner on rye crackers and jalapeno petals, along with a pile of edamame in the pods finished with an artisan smoked onion salt, as long as we were eating with our hands anyway!

My husband, btw, did not previously care for steak tartare: he LOVED this.

IMG_4115.JPG

I'd eat that. Maybe I'd eat ALL of that!!

[Robin Garr]

We checked out a pizza place for lunch, so I wanted something low-calorie, low-carb for dinner tonight. Behold, a little leftover asparagus and cilantro walnut pesto over thin diagonal slices of small zucchini and summer squash sautéed with onions and garlic. It was like pesto over pasta, but the "pasta" was flavor-scented ovals of al dente squash. 

Yesterday I went to the store to find something for supper -- I was thinking chicken thighs or veal scallopini. But they had pre-marinated pork tenderloins, and one was honey mustard, and they were $2 off. So I bought one and also got some turnips. I arranged a big sweet potato, the peeled and quartered turnips, the pork tenderloin, and a couple of Yukon Gold potatoes in a baking pan and roasted everything together. At some point I realized that Louise had said she wasn't coming home for supper, so I ate a couple of thin slices of the pork and a bunch of the other stuff and put it in the fridge. I also deglazed the baking pan with wine and put that in a small bowl.

Tonight I heated some chicken broth, added honey and mustard and the pre-gravy from last night, thickened with a roux, and made a really nice gravy for the pork. Reheated everything in the oven. Louise was impressed, it really did taste pretty good. Last night I could barely taste the honey mustard marinade, but my concocted gravy brought those flavors out nicely. It looks like we will get at least one more supper out of the pork, or supper and lunch...

Tonight we had a green bean, potato, onion curry with vegetables from the CSA. We also received some gorgeous eggplant, loads of bell peppers, and zucchini.

I have a dedicated electric meat grinder with a sausage stuffing attachment. Here's one for the Kitchen Aid meat grinder: http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-SSA-Sa ... B00004SGFQ

Yep! Howie hit the hog over the head. I use my Kitchen Aid grinding tray with the stuffing tube attachment. Inexpensive and works beautifully for small batch stuffing.

[Jenise]

Last night's dinner ended up being a simple one of grilled maple-crusted pork chops with a cucumber salad because I spent the day working on vegetable dishes for Saturday's Ethiopian dinner. My favorite result was a weird one: plum and tomato stew. That came out of an 'Ethiopian' recipe I stumbled over for a tomato-plum 'marmalade' to serve as a dipping sauce for some vegetarian samosas. (Sure, samosas are Indian, but the justification was the fact that the Indian spice route traders brought these kinds of foods into Africa. Made sense to me, since I made my first samosas at the urging of my Armenian-Ethiopian housemate who considered them very African indeed. And the recipe specifically called for a South African plum, though I know not what that would be.)

Anyway, the idea of combining tomatoes and plums was so oddball to me that I couldn't take my eyes off of it, and I decided I had to play with the flavors just to find out why one would do that. But I have no use for a jam of indistinct parts all cooked at once; rather I could picture a side dish: a well developed spicy/savory/sweet tomato sauce in which at the finish somewhat underripe firm plum halves are cooked just lightly enough to shed their skins and retard oxidation of the flesh. And so that's what I made. The tomato sauce was fresh tomatoes, vanilla bean, brown sugar, thyme, garlic and a lot of Lan Chi sauce standing in for harissa, because I don't have any harissa on hand, cooked for a bit over an hour and strained through a food mill. I absolutely LOVED the tomato sauce, could have stood there at the stove and eaten the whole little pot like a soup. With the plums, I thought the flavors magical. If everyone else agrees tomorrow night, I'll post my recipe.

Wild caught salmon steaks, grilled, brushed with asian flavors
Japanese sweet potates
just picked garden spinach, with fresh garlic, sauteed in a little butter
Bruschetta, made with fresh roasted tomatoes, kalamata olives, fresh basil, and chives and drizzled with balsamic prior to serving

It's been a while since I've been here, but...

Tonight, grilled salmon with garlic and rosemary on a green- and red-leaf salad with onions from the garden. Dressed with olive oil and white vinegar. Aquinas (Napa) 2008 pinot noir. Simple and clean.

Last night, cooked up some wild salmon with a maple glaze. Served it with mashed potatoes and a simple salad of watercress, red onion, and lemon vinaigrette. We both liked it, which is saying something as my wife is not a fan of salmon.

Last night, cooked up some wild salmon with a maple glaze. Served it with mashed potatoes and a simple salad of watercress, red onion, and lemon vinaigrette. We both liked it, which is saying something as my wife is not a fan of salmon.

Good job!

[Jenise]

Didn't cook last night: instead, we were invited over to a friend's home. They spent Friday and Saturday shrimping out in the Sound and yesterday they fed us a dinner based on the catch: fresh shrimp cocktails followed by shrimp scampi. Oh my god, were those good. In fact, I've never had spot prawns that good (sweet, firm, crunchy). Probably because I never had them that fresh. Killer!

And tonight is going to be another locavore event, of a sort: friends from Alaska are visiting, and they're cooking a moose prime rib for dinner. Do RV miles count?

[Robin Garr]

Tofu doesn't get any better than when you get it right out of the machine at Louisville's Roots/Heart & Soy. I pressed it, diced it and roasted it at high heat with fresh farmers' market asparagus and Asian flavors: organic red miso, lemon juice and rice wine vinegar, tamari and black and red peppers and a dash of sesame oil. 

Tonight it is Bucatini all' Amatriciana made with Pancetta because I have not purchased Guanciale, (should I?)

A salad of baby heirloom tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, red bell pepper, green onion and a red wine vinegar vinaigrette.

[Jenise]

Tonight it is Bucatini all' Amatriciana made with Pancetta because I have not purchased Guanciale, (should I?)

A salad of baby heirloom tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, red bell pepper, green onion and a red wine vinegar vinaigrette.

I make it with pancetta, too, Karen, and even bacon. No guanciale needed; could you even find it in Redding? Btw, how was the eclipse?

Tonight it is Bucatini all' Amatriciana made with Pancetta because I have not purchased Guanciale, (should I?)

A salad of baby heirloom tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, red bell pepper, green onion and a red wine vinegar vinaigrette.

I make it with pancetta, too, Karen, and even bacon. No guanciale needed; could you even find it in Redding? Btw, how was the eclipse?

Maybe, I have not started looking. It tastes amazing with the pancetta, I know. I will have to check with Kent's Meats. They process a lot of their own cured meats.

Eclipse? It was amazing....I heard Redding was one of the perfect spots for viewing. It was strange to watch it get darker and darker during mid-day. Our local TV news stations shot some great photos. We also had spectacular views of the "perfect moon", last week. Did you get to see it? Naturally, there were lots of fun events happening all over town with both, especially on the Sun Dial Bridge.

Karen - If you happen to be down this way, Corti Brothers usually stocks guanciale.

Thanks Mike, I usually send our son to Corti to get goodies for me. Working for Southern Wine and Spirits, he gets around all over down there. Great place. I will have him check it out. I would like to try Guanciale.

Tonight's dinner is pad prik gai bai grapow (Thai stir-fried chicken with bird peppers and holy basil) and jasmine rice.

-Paul W.