What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Are you having any trouble finding fresh lemongrass?

Paul, no problem finding lemongrass.

Just checked my local shop: they have lemongrass, $5/bundle (which seems to be about 5 stalks, 2' long).

I like the flavor of lemongrass but I've never cooked with it.

[Jenise]

Very easy to cook with. Love it especially with chicken and seafood. I may roast crab tonight with lemongrass and garlic.

I finally got around to making gung bao ji ding last night using Sichuan baoning black vinegar. Baoning is a bit more subtle than zhenjiang, but they are very similar. Sort of like different brands of ketchup--they don't taste the same, but the difference in flavor isn't radical and they can be used interchangeably. I didn't notice any difference in the Kung Pao chicken. The difference might be more pronounced in something like bang bang chicken where the vinegar flavor is more prominent. I was again impressed by the difference that using fresh dried chiles and Sichuan peppercorns makes. There was still a numbing tingle on my tongue half an hour later, and the kitchen was filled with the chile/peppercorn aroma.

Tonight I'll be using up the rest of the chicken thigh package in pad prik gai bai krapow.

-Paul W.

[Robin Garr]

What to do with a surfeit of summer garden #tomatoes? Cook them down with onions, a little basil, and salt. Don’t over-cook. Run them through an old-school Foley food mill. Behold! Fresh tomato sauce.

Tomato sauce.png

[Jenise]

Good job, Robin.

Last night we had corn on the cob and a tomato salad, one of my favorite vegetarian dinners.

Tonight: pork verde with fresh Hatch chiles. Like so many things I make only once a year if that, it's a seasonal delight I always look forward to.

I've been meaning to cook bbq pork ribs two days in a row, but I keep getting waylaid with things until it's too late to start. So, right now I'm not sure what we'll eat. Probably a steak; it's quick. And we have lots of garden veges.

[Jenise]

So last night's pork verde turned into a posole. I'd made a veritable amount of broth which was too delicious to throw out and too rich to reduce, so going in the soup direction made so much sense. Added a can of hominy and some diced zucchini, then finished it with a slice of cheddar and a mound of lightly pickled fresh cabbage salad on top. Divine.

Finally! Today I'm cooking bbq pork ribs. Friend today sparked a dinner idea for later this week: seafood gumbo.

Made wonderful bread today. I let it rise overnight in the fridge. It was about 2/3 bread flour, 1/3 WW flour + rye flour + amaranth flour. I threw in some fennel seeds, some dried orange peel, and some small cubed dates. Good combo. Yummy!

Okay, my bbq pork ribs happened. And I sliced some fresh tomatoes and cooked up some calabacitas as accompaniments.

Thought I'd just report that I have nothing to report. I've been eating heirloom tomatoes and cheese for lunch, and various leftovers or simple things for dinner. Yummy and quick but not fodder for discussion. Just fodder for me.

That is all.

Tonight was gumbo with sausage, shrimp, scallops, and fake crab. Accompanied with basmati rice and some really tasty bread I made with a blend of flours incorporating fennel seeds, orange peel, and dried cubed dates rolled in coconut flour.

I think I'm lighting up some charcoal today. Still working on the menu.

OK, cooked over charcoal today: asparagus (organic, really skinny), maitake, shishito, brussel sprouts, beef tenderloin (one chunk about 2.5#), Cornish game hens (x2), moulard duck breasts (x2). Ate the duck, shroom, peppers, and a bit of the other greens.

Jambalaya tonight.

-Paul W.

I bought a big bag of baby portabellas for only a buck, so I'm going to make mushroom soup and something else.

I bought a big bag of baby portabellas for only a buck, so I'm going to make mushroom soup and something else.

Mushroom powder! Mushroom jerky! Mushroom caviar! So many perfectly pointless things to do with mushrooms.

[Jenise]

Last night I felt tropical, so I used a 50/50 ground pork/chicken blend to make a highly seasoned ground meat mixture using oyster sauce, Taiwanese preserved fried onions, Lan Chi Chile-Garlic sauce for spice, slivered almonds for crunch and scads of green onions and leeks to up the vegetable/meat ratio for scooping into leaves of iceberg lettuce which we enjoyed with a 2006 Fritz Haag Spatlese. Sweeter than I'd have preferred but with plenty of acidity and with that great aged Riesling flavor, it was no less matched on the other side by salt and spice so in fact it worked as a wine pairing.

I bought a big bag of baby portabellas for only a buck, so I'm going to make mushroom soup and something else.

Mushroom powder! Mushroom jerky! Mushroom caviar! So many perfectly pointless things to do with mushrooms.

I put the unused mushrooms in my dehydrator for another day. Rehydrating in soup (and other dishes) or using as mushroom powder umami seasoning are two things I do..

Last night I felt tropical, so I used a 50/50 ground pork/chicken blend to make a highly seasoned ground meat mixture using oyster sauce, fish sauce and Taiwanese preserved fried onions for a basic framework, then Lan Chi Chile-Garlic sauce for spice, slivered almonds for crunch and scads of green onions and leeks to up the vegetable/meat ratio for scooping into leaves of iceberg lettuce

Chinese larb. Brilliant!

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Chinese larb. Brilliant!

-Paul W.

Thank you! And an aside to Larry: low carb, high fiber too!

[Jenise]

Last night, grilled marinated lamb chops with potatoes and green beans, pre-cooked and mixed in the skillet with onion and mustard powders, after a salad of avocado halves filled with cherry tomatoes in a vinaigrette. With that, a really really splendid 2001 Tertre Rotebeouf, which I may not have spelled correctly.

Tonight, rum tasting food: apple-chardonnay soaked chicken wings oven roasted crispy in a corn meal crust, dry rubbed ribs with an intense curry flavor, rice and peas using garbanzo beans since I don't have the correct Caribbean 'pea', and a cabbage and peanut salad.

OK, cooked over charcoal today: asparagus (organic, really skinny), maitake, shishito, brussel sprouts, beef tenderloin (one chunk about 2.5#), Cornish game hens (x2), moulard duck breasts (x2). Ate the duck, shroom, peppers, and a bit of the other greens.

Finally cut into the tenderloin today. Made a potato gratin. Served a green salad. And a bottle of Burgundy... it is Saturday.

Chicken breast with mole verde and sauteed zucchini with onions, garlic, and salsa.

Last night's dinner was chicken, green pepper, and broccoli Thai green curry with jasmine rice.

-Paul W.