What's Cooking (Take Four)

[Jenise]

We just returned last night from a three week trip so we're bleary and jet-lagged, but I'm happy to be home in the kitchen Tonight, it will just be pan-fried maple-brined pork chops, broccolini (maybe with some ramps that we got from my daughter in New York), and mashed potatoes.

You remind me of a dish I had in a restaurant, have copied at home, and then forgot about. The pork chop wasn't brined in maple but it was placed on mashed potatoes and doused with a sweet-tart sauce of maple syrup-vinegar-soy sauce. Really good, I need to resurrect that!

And welcome back.

We just returned last night from a three week trip so we're bleary and jet-lagged, but I'm happy to be home in the kitchen Tonight, it will just be pan-fried maple-brined pork chops, broccolini (maybe with some ramps that we got from my daughter in New York), and mashed potatoes.

You remind me of a dish I had in a restaurant, have copied at home, and then forgot about. The pork chop wasn't brined in maple but it was placed on mashed potatoes and doused with a sweet-tart sauce of maple syrup-vinegar-soy sauce. Really good, I need to resurrect that!

And welcome back.

I remind you of a pork chop? Cool - I've been compared to much worse!

Thanks!

[Jenise]

Be careful what you wish for! My nickname for my lousy first husband was "pork chop" not to his face but to friends because one night, in anger, I did scream that he was so disagreeable that no one wanted to be around him. That "you could hang a pork chop around your neck and not even the neighbor's dog would come near you." After telling that story to girlfriends later, it's what everyone called him behind his back.

Sometime this weekend I'll be making a Thai curry mainly involving some smallish Indian eggplants. It will probably be a green curry.

-Paul W.

On my menu today is a favorite, Shrimp Scallop soup. Very easy to make with clam juice, white wine, canned tomatoes, herbs . Some sort of salad will be a side. I have broccoli to use up, so I may create a salad with that.

[Jenise]

I'm going to be playing with a concept for braised chicken with saffron and almond sauce that a friend and I plan to make next weekend. The recipe, and this is common in Spanish cooking, calls for the crumbled yolk of hard boiled eggs to thicken the sauce which AFAIK I've never had. My friend is a by-the-book kind of cook and would blindly follow that instruction but I'm not and can't imagine that being a betterment--at the least, would think the result would be grainy. And I don't like grainy. Need to find out!

Back in 1969 our 9th grade Spanish class spent spring vacation on a one-week trip to Madrid. As you say, several of the dishes we were served involved hard-boiled egg as a garnish. I'm not a visible egg fan. I'm OK with eggs as an ingredient in a dish as long as I can't see them. So no problem with mayonnaise- and hollandaise-based sauces, or with eggs in cakes, batters, or meat loaf. But no fried or boiled eggs. The closest I'll come to visible eggs is the scrambled egg in stir-fried rice.

So back to Spanish dishes. On our trip to Madrid I just left the egg to one side. Were I to make one of those dishes I'd leave the egg out entirely.

-Paul W.

We had a neighborhood brunch this morning, so I made one of those egg-based breakfast casserole things. This one included toasted baguette pieces, spinach, mushrooms, leeks, andouille sausage, gruyere, and parmigiano. Pretty easy to throw all of that together and bake it and pretty hard to not like the results. (Unless you don't like visible eggs. They were pretty obvious with this one!)

[Jenise]

Paul, scrambled is okay and frittatas are good. Used to make them frequently for Bob, especially once he got sick it was a terrific way of getting protein into him early in the day, and they're easy to eat. I even made one for myself last week--a lifetime first! And I not only like, I love scrambled eggs in fried rice, especially if they're finely chopped and evenly distributed. Mike's dish sounds pretty good!

I just went and read-up on Sauce Gribiche. This is a member of the mayonnaise family that is made with hard-cooked yolks. The general advice, for the smooth version, is to beat the crumbled yolks with mustard until it is a paste and then proceed. There is also a chunky - no emulsification - version where you just chop and sieve the yolk crumbs.

The virtue of using cooked yolks, say the recipes, is that cooked yolks taste eggier than raw ones, but at the cost of losing some of their emulsification powers.

[Jenise]

Jeff, pretty much what I understand. I am def familiar with a Grbiche--I think of it as tartar sauce with chopped egg or liquidy deviled egg--but my aversion to such things means I have almost no experience with the texture. I can't cooked egg yolk being a positive improvement to a warm sauce since for me 'silky' would always be the preferred outcome.

I played my piano gig at a French restaurant for Mother's Day. Did very well on the tips.

Afterward, Edie and I were served a tossed mixed salad with strawberries and vinaigrette, butternut squash soup, quiche, and chocolate mousse. Everything was yummy, and I don't need to cook tonight.

It's getting into peak farmer's market time here, so today's dinner included a saute of favas, asparagus, morels, and spring onions. That went with chicken in tarragon cream sauce and couscous with the ramps we brought back from New York. Also picked up cherries and mulberries from the market for snacking purposes.

I'll be making sambar and idli tonight. Haven't had that in a while.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I've been under the gun to solve phone and computer problems that are unrelated but occurred simultaneously, more or less, which has occupied just about all of every day for the last four-five days with worry making sleep difficult. As a result, I never got around to the Spanish chicken dish but have more or less just grazed my way thru a late, quick evening meal. Last night was just a salad--romaine, avocado and pesto vinaigrette. The night before was a stir-fry of pea vines, golden chives and oyster mushrooms.

I absolutely love golden chives. They have a funky odor in their raw state, but are sweet when cooked. You don't mince them like you do green chives, they're not a garnish. They're mild and sweet enough to be a primary ingredient in a stir-fry. They're quite delicate. They come in paper-wrapped bundles, and I'll use a whole bundle in the one serving I make for myself after trimming the tips and bottom two inches. (I then cut them into 2" lengths.) The first time I ever had them was, believe it or not, at my first visit to a PF Chang's in Houston TX. I had never seen or heard of PFC before, and at the time I didn't even know PFC was, or was destined to be, a chain restaurant--it was just the Chinese restaurant next door to the hotel we were staying at. In the years since I've seen them only occasionally, but in the last year I've found them routinely at Canadian chain T&T Markets, two of which have recently opened in the Seattle area.

If you ever get a chance, try them!

Yesterday, for lunch, I stopped by a sweet Kiosk sitting out in the parking lot of a health food store. A family-owned place that has been in business for a long time. My favorite is a Polish Kraut Dog. They use excellent dogs, long and fat, lots of good sauerkraut, and the buns are perfect. They also make good potato salad. I only get a one every few months, so it is a real treat for me. They also make many other great things, which I have not tried. Yesterday, my esthetician told me they make great brownies, homemade and brought to the kiosk. Will get to those eventually!

HMart had lobsters on sale for $10/lb. Picked up couple for last night, was thinking of something other than just straight steamed (we've done a lot recently) and started thinking fra diavolo or possibly with nduja. But then Betsy said she was making Bolognese tonight, so went Asian. Parsteamed the lobsters, broke them down. While soba was cooking, got garlic, ginger and white part of some scallions sizzling, then added the lobster meat. Added a mix of oyster sauce, soy sauce, and chicken broth, then a (very) little cornstarch dissolved in broth, the soba, and the green scallions. Very happy with the results, with some Shanghai bok choy.

What? No vanilla sauce?

The asian-inflected prep sounds good.

I've had some homemade Sicilian style pizza dough in the freezer for quite some time, so I thawed it out yesterday. Topped it with red sauce (Rao's Pizza sauce), mozz, linguica, and thick-sliced mushrooms that had been sauteed in butter. It was good although a little chewier than ideal.

I have half a chicken, which has been in a Feta Cheese brine since yesterday. It also had Greek Oregano, white wine, and salt. I posted the recipe site above, but am going to shorten it up, and instead of Lemon Garlic rub, I am placing the chicken on lemon wedges, garlic slices. I have a large sheet pan loaded with an array of veggies, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, carrots, potatoes, bell peppers, tomatoes, with Lisbon Lemon oil, garlic oil, oregano, garlic powder, salt, and Aleppo pepper. It all goes into the oven for a nice roasting.

I'm making Turkish chicken doner kebab tonight.

-Paul W.

The younger daughter and her roommate are out visiting from New York, so we had the older daughter and her husband over last night. I made a very simple honey-mustard chicken, mashed potatoes, and a sauteed mix of favas, morels, asparagus, and green garlic. The younger daughter made an appetizer of burrata with peas, basil, basil oil, (and some other things that I can't recall at the moment), and the older daughter brought a lemon tart with a shortbread crust that would have gotten her a handshake from Paul Hollywood. We had a 2010 Rioja from Vina Ardanza to go with,

[Jenise]

Yesterday, for lunch, I stopped by a sweet Kiosk sitting out in the parking lot of a health food store. A family-owned place that has been in business for a long time. My favorite is a Polish Kraut Dog. They use excellent dogs, long and fat, lots of good sauerkraut, and the buns are perfect. They also make good potato salad. I only get a one every few months, so it is a real treat for me. They also make many other great things, which I have not tried. Yesterday, my esthetician told me they make great brownies, homemade and brought to the kiosk. Will get to those eventually!

I love the irony of a place to buy Polish Kraut Dogs in the parking lot of a health food store! Not that I wouldn't love it....

[Jenise]

I spent the weekend in L.A. Remember that Spanish menu I mentioned a month or so ago for a group with several picky eaters, none of whose I-Don'ts aligned? Well, one couple had to cancel and there went 90% of our problems. Funny though, where we were dreading all the things we'd have to leave out of our menu because of that couple, they were stuck at home with a visiting college friend of Jim's: a GF, vegetable-hating, teetotaller from the midwest.

For the wine dinner, we made: seared scallops on a bed of romesceau sauce, olives marinated with mixed citrus rinds (not from a jar, we made); a classic Spanish tortilla topped with a chunky gazpacho sauce; chicken thighs lightly braised with garlic, fresh thyme, saffron and sherry thickened with fried sourdough and ground almonds with garlic rice and melted leeks; and lastly carrot-almond caked topped with macerated orange supremes and tarragon.

The ideas for the food were great and the flavors excellent, but the execution lacked because my friend's 50 year old gas stove doesn't have the BTU's to brown/sear ANYTHING. And everything sticks to her pans: even her non-stick pans were sticky because she scrubs everything with steel wool. SIGH.

But we had other good food. On Thursday night when I arrived, she had out a 7 yr old box of arborio rice, a package of green chile sausage from her farmer's market, and a fennel bulb. Could I make dinner out of that? Oh, and here's a '97 Girardin 1er Cru to go with whatever you make. Well, okay!, I did, and it was delicious--though I recommended throwing out the rest of that box of rice*. The next day, Friday, we shopped for ingredients for Saturday night. Before we left we discussed options: a 2000 Chandon de Brialles Corton could go with Friday's dinner and an '89 Grange for Sunday. We agreed on fresh halibut and rack of lamb respectively.

*Annabelle's a hoarder. She never throws anything out no matter how brown, tired and useless. It's such a shame. Cooking in her kitchen is not the usual someone-else's-kitchen challenge, it's a nightmare. At one point I asked for red wine vinegar and she produced a bottle of brown liquid per the label made from Chianti. I took it out of her hands and dumped it down the sink while she screamed. Hoarders do not easily part with their hoard. Ditto 7 or 10 other things similarly useless, including every jar of dried herbs I found in her cabinet. I poured them out without even asking--one has to. I would be willing to bet that the cardboardy Arborio rice didn't leave. I never saw it in the trash.

But fresh halibut was not to be had (tried Costo, and two Gelson's including one in the ritzy, wealthy enclave of Westlake Village), but Costco had beautiful bright red fresh ahi, and we nabbed a package with a lot of belly (toro). It was just enough to cut one into tournedo-sized servings for that night's dinner and chop up the rest for a fine lunch ceviche the next day. Because we had committed to cooking Spanish-ish for the weekend, and had produce Annabelle had picked up at the Farmer's market before I arrived to incorporate into things--not to mention that '97 Girardin for pairing--I made a smoked paprika-lemon-onion butter for the seared rare Ahi that we set atop a melange of sliced yukon gold potatoes, sliced carrot and freshly shucked peas. It worked.

Anyway, I love these people, I really do. They're the oldest friends we have. But cooking in their home is not easy. In addition to the things described above is the fact that there's almost no room to chop and assemble because the hoarding extends to dead appliances, like the stack of three toaster ovens on one counter of which only the top one works, and the piles of excess other things acquired at garage sales--will she ever be able to use 42 cookie sheets? No, but that misses the point. They were good (enough), and cheap, and it's fun to shop. The laundry room next to the kitchen is no longer usable for laundry because the surface area is open storage for all the things she doesn't need and can't find (like her food processor, which I needed but is currently MIA--one thing I know for sure, she didn't give it away!)