What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

So last night was going to be the last truffle dinner but after shopping all afternoon and going thru the whole decontamination rigamarole upon arrival home I just didn't feel jazzed enough to make that dinner feel special. All I wanted was a bowl of cold vegetables (chunks of cuke, red pepper, onions in salt, vinegar and oil).

Oh, and I had two whole Costco rotisserie chickens to deal with. As in, remove all meat from the bones, fill one pot with meat, fill the other with bones, onion and celery, start cooking both. A real appetite killer. Tomorrow night I'm hosting my 'bubble' for a new contest: tequila! So I'm making a scratch Mexican dinner: chips and salsa (tomatillos, guajillo chiles), cold garlic shrimp, smoked pork and cheddar quesadillas, a white chicken enchilada pie, and what I call 'Baja Salad', wherein the dressing is largely pureed avocado and oregano.

So while pondering the chicken selection at Costco, I got dismayed because two of my guests ONLY eat white meat where I'd prefer a mix and I didn't want to buy the quantity Costco would require, and as I pondered buying $50 worth of thigh and breast meat which I wouldn't have room for the extra in the freezer, I was staring at the rotisserie chicken display, and it occurred to me that too bad I don't like recooked chicken because sure would be easy and cheaper to buy two of those rotisserie birds. And then I asked myself if I took the meat off the bones while hot and submerged them on a low flame covered with chicken broth, would I then have stewed chicken which I like vs. reheated/recooked chicken which I don't? I decided to risk it. The result: fabulous. Oh, and Costco chickens are now $8 ea not $5. But still. So I have a ton of really delicious chicken ready to go in that pie and four quarts of excellent broth.

Today I'll make the salsa and juice 10 pounds of limes. And tonight we'll have that black truffle risotto.

The truffle risotto sounds wonderful. I'm making pork lo mein tonight.

-Paul W.

For dinner tonight I made ratatouille. I made it earlier in the day so that the flavours would meld. Onion, courgettes, pepper, aubergine, garlic - all slow fried in olive oil and bound together with tinned tomatoes. Served with french sticks and Ch Sainte-Eulalie 'La Cantilene' Minervois La Liviniere

And then I asked myself if I took the meat off the bones while hot and submerged them on a low flame covered with chicken broth, would I then have stewed chicken which I like vs. reheated/recooked chicken which I don't? I decided to risk it. The result: fabulous. Oh, and Costco chickens are now $8 ea not $5. But still. So I have a ton of really delicious chicken ready to go in that pie and four quarts of excellent broth.

Good convenient thinking. Compare to NYC prices those birds are a good value, too. (I don't even know what a store-bought cooked chicken costs! I rarely buy such a thing and, when I do, I buy from a fancy-shmancy purveyor.)

[Jenise]

I have to admit that I love Costco chickens. Each is typically a 3.5 lb bird so they're of good size, and they taste good. Typically we rip the meat off the bones for stuffing in warm tortillas with a spicy pico de gallo--chicken tacos. In fact, but for this one time I can't remember me ever doing anything else with them. My dislike for the to me 'off' flavor of reheated meat that wasn't braised or stewed in the first place has always meant they were unusable once they cooled off for anything but going into a salad. This new idea's a game changer.

... My dislike for the to me 'off' flavor of reheated meat that wasn't braised or stewed in the first place has always meant they were unusable once they cooled off for anything but going into a salad....

That's called "Warmed -over-flavor. Seriouseats.com did a while back. Check it out https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/08/what-is-warmed-over-flavor-leftover-chicken-meat.html.

[Jenise]

Dan, thanks I'll check that out. I've never had a name for it. Some people don't notice it at all. And some do, but consider it just different, not objectionable. To me it tastes spoiled. Can't go there.

[Jenise]

Last night's tequila contest & mexican dinner got cancelled due to cold, rainy weather. I swear, it doesn't feel like summer ever started and it's close to over already. So I put a pork 7-bone roast in the clay cooker to test pork as a pot roast in place of beef. Tasty!

[Jenise]

Covid hits home: we lost a dinner guest for tonight who's going to be tested for Covid so the tequila contest is again delayed, we'll just have a Mexican dinner with other friends sitting in. (Note: it's not dire, she's not sick, she just has a single symptom that is most likely attributable to a change in medication, a reaction that 1 in 10 have to that new med, but all the same it's on the list of Covid symptoms so the test and immediate quarantine until a negative result comes back are imperative.)

So the menu will be: cold marinated garlic shrimp, purple cauliflower escabeche, fig and jack cheese quesadillas, guacamole salad and chicken/green chile enchilada pie. Oh, and margaritas!

The lo mein I made the other day has left me with a mess of snow pea pods, mung bean sprouts, shredded bamboo shoots, and plain cooked lo mein noodles. Tonight the snow peas will go into stir-fried beef with snow peas. Just for contrast I think I'll have Lo Mein Noodels From Hell on the side.

-Paul W.

Buy those using Hell Money, right?

Chris Schlesinger's restaurant in Cambridge MA--the East Coast Grill--specialized in grilled dishes from the tropical and semi-tropical "ring of fire" cuisines that make aggressive use of chiles and spices. A certain group of his regular customers were always egging him on to create hotter and hotter dishes. He decided at one point to put a stop to that once and for all, and created a dish called Pasta from Hell, made with an unconscionable number of habanero chiles, or with Inner Beauty, the Jamacian style fiery hot sauce made from habaneros. This was the first of a line of "From Hell" dishes that were popular among the fire-breathers at the East Coast Grill. I'll be reheating some of the leftover lo mein noodles and mixing in a bit of homemade Inner Beauty Hot Sauce. Should be just the thing--it's nearly 7 PM and it's still 90 degrees F and very muggy outside.

-Paul W.

Chris Schlesinger's restaurant in Cambridge MA--the East Coast Grill--specialized in grilled dishes from the tropical and semi-tropical "ring of fire" cuisines that make aggressive use of chiles and spices. A certain group of his regular customers were always egging him on to create hotter and hotter dishes. He decided at one point to put a stop to that once and for all, and created a dish called Pasta from Hell, made with an unconscionable number of habanero chiles, or with Inner Beauty, the Jamacian style fiery hot sauce made from habaneros. This was the first of a line of "From Hell" dishes that were popular among the fire-breathers at the East Coast Grill. I'll be reheating some of the leftover lo mein noodles and mixing in a bit of homemade Inner Beauty Hot Sauce. Should be just the thing--it's nearly 7 PM and it's still 90 degrees F and very muggy outside.

Thanks for the background.

So, hot noodles for a hot day. Doesn't that make you hotter?

Doesn't that make you hotter?

Reminds me of the question:

A native who lived in a sweltering hot country was asked, "Why do you eat hot chiles?"

"They grow here," was the reply.

Doesn't that make you hotter?

Reminds me of the question:

A native who lived in a sweltering hot country was asked, "Why do you eat hot chiles?"

"They grow here," was the reply.

Non-sequitur: habaneros come from Mexico while Paul comes from New Hampshire. He should be eating cider doughnuts and boiled dinner.

[Jenise]

... My dislike for the to me 'off' flavor of reheated meat that wasn't braised or stewed in the first place has always meant they were unusable once they cooled off for anything but going into a salad....

That's called "Warmed -over-flavor. Seriouseats.com did a while back. Check it out https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/08/what-is-warmed-over-flavor-leftover-chicken-meat.html.

Dan, just finally read that article. It's cool to finally see in print a problem I've been railing about my entire life, but I was disappointed that it was all about chicken. A simple sentence would have called attention to the problem as many might know it in the Chinese dish "Twice Cooked Pork" or the weirdness of a simple reheated rare steak. The problem isn't chicken-specific, as you might suppose just from reading the article.

This line made me laugh out loud: "From the reheating-methods portion of the testing, the clearest result was that microwaving does gross things to chicken and should be avoided at all costs." My mother-in-law (a terrible cook) not only reheated chicken in the microwave, she did the initial cook in the microwave too--and thought it was good! "Gross" is almost too good a word for it.

I think the ultimate negative reheating is prime rib.

[Jenise]

Ugh. I've never tried. For one, I love it cold. Cold prime rib is one of the best breakfasts in the world!

Amen!

So, hot noodles for a hot day. Doesn't that make you hotter?

It makes you break a sweat. That's why hot chiles became so popular in hot, humid climates around the world.

I grew up with New England boiled dinner and I've always hated it. The recipe for your typical NE boiled dinner is: place corned beef, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes in a pot with some water. Cook them until you can't tell them apart.

-Paul W.

So, hot noodles for a hot day. Doesn't that make you hotter?

It makes you break a sweat. That's why hot chiles became so popular in hot, humid climates around the world.

I still don't understand. I'm already sweating, how does this help?

Evaporative cooling. That's why we sweat in the first place.

-Paul W.

I can't be any wetter.

If eating chilies would make a breeze blow, that would be persuasive.

[Jenise]

Steak tonight. I rarely crave beef specifically, but somehow today I do. Steak with green food.