What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Fideua is like paella, not like soup. It ends up dark and crispy and is served with aioli. (Sometimes the darkness is helped along with squid ink.)

Here's an example: https://food52.com/recipes/78077-daniel-olivella-s-fideua-fideo-noodle-paella

Blue Coat, made in Philadelphia.

I'm a Sapphire gin guy.

[Jenise]

Fideua is like paella, not like soup. It ends up dark and crispy and is served with aioli. (Sometimes the darkness is helped along with squid ink.)

Here's an example: https://food52.com/recipes/78077-daniel-olivella-s-fideua-fideo-noodle-paella

I know that. I was just relating my earliest experience with that noodle type.

[Jenise]

Blue Coat, made in Philadelphia.

I'm a Sapphire gin guy.

Too sweet for me. If I had to choose just one gin from the mainstream brands, then Tanqueray. But I didn't serve the Blue Coat, instead I realized that I had more than half a bottle of a gin made right here in Bellingham; I don't like it as well but as for appropriate to the occasion? It had no equal. We killled it.

Fideua is like paella, not like soup. It ends up dark and crispy and is served with aioli. (Sometimes the darkness is helped along with squid ink.)

Here's an example: https://food52.com/recipes/78077-daniel-olivella-s-fideua-fideo-noodle-paella

I know that. I was just relating my earliest experience with that noodle type.

Just checking. Cultural differences crop up occasionally.

[Jenise]

Tonight I'm doing a big steak salad to celebrate my brother's birthday (which was last week). Will start with a tomato bisque topped with marinated plums, and finish with an open apple tart. Wines will be big Washington reds.

My most interesting meal that I e cooked lately was tempura, prawns, broccoli florets, asparagus, mushrooms, sweet potato, peppers. Whilst I was at it I remembered someone (Bill maybe) had floated the idea of bacon tempura so.....much as I love bacon and tempura the idea hadn’t tickled my fancy"but in the interests of research I added a half rasher of bacon. It was actually very good,
The same could not be said of the strawberry experiment. Weird and too sweet, probably not helped by background notes of prawn from the oil LOL.

My most interesting meal that I e cooked lately was tempura, prawns, broccoli florets, asparagus, mushrooms, sweet potato, peppers. Whilst I was at it I remembered someone (Bill maybe) had floated the idea of bacon tempura so.....much as I love bacon and tempura the idea hadn’t tickled my fancy"but in the interests of research I added a half rasher of bacon. It was actually very good,

I recently did calamari fritti but used a crumb coating instead of a proper batter.

The same could not be said of the strawberry experiment. Weird and too sweet, probably not helped by background notes of prawn from the oil LOL.

Ha! I have noticed that deep-fry on sweet things makes them tooth-achingly sweet. Not sure if the heat releases more sugar, or changes the sugar, or what.

The same could not be said of the strawberry experiment. Weird and too sweet, probably not helped by background notes of prawn from the oil LOL.

Homer Simpson: Strawberry and prawn tempura... MMMMMM......

[Jenise]

Fresh Maine lobster (again), with chardonnays, rustic wheat sourdough bread and Bretonne butter, and a green salad with lots of local radicchio. Yesterday the Co-op had four or five kinds all with names, like apples. Treviso, which is fairly common now, the Castelfresco I bought last week and a new one, Sugarloaf. Tall tight heavy heads, some almost 24 inches long. Who can resist a name like that?

[Jenise]

Tonight, our main course will be a Milk Street recipe from the Extremadura region of Spain: pan-seared butterflied pork tenderloin smeared, after the cook, with smoked paprika/EVOO/garlic/oregano mixture. It soaks in while the meat rests. Those I'll slice on the bias and layer over a panful of fideus (you can blame this on Jeff). I'll garnish them with parsnips cooked with caraway seed and cider vinegar, also a Milk Street recipe. Washington syrahs for the wine.

And a comment about Milk Street: I've been getting the emails for months but only today did I finally sign up for a subscription. They wore me down--this really is my kind of food. Not dumbed-down food for the average joe or josefina who doesn't know caraway from fennel, but food for adventurous palates and people who will go out and buy what they don't already own or have never cooked with.

Parsnips and caraway... hm....

[Jenise]

The seared pork tenderloin was outstanding, and my very picky guests LOVED it. With a minimal mis en place done before guests arrived, I was literally able to cook the entire dinner for four in about ten minutes between courses. The mis en place consisted of 1) trimming the pork (two tenderloins) of silver skin, dividing each in half, then butterflying each piece, pounding each lightly to even the thickness and seasoning with salt and pepper about an hour before dinner. 2) making the sauce, a raw (uncooked that is) sauce of olive oil (around 4 Tbls) and smoked paprika (1 heaping teaspoon), dried oregano (1 tsp), 1/2 tsp sugar and salt to taste. 3) Adding a healthy pinch of saffron to about 2 cups of chicken broth, bringing that to a boil, then removing it from the fire to steep. At dinner, I threw the meat in a skillet to brown on both sides at the same time browned the fideos and added the broth to cook out and create a noodle cake. When I was convinced the meat was almost medium I removed it, painted it with the paprika mixture, and then turned my attention to browning the bottom of noodle cake. The whole thing was so pretty I served it on a platter, family style. There wasn't a drop left. It's a dish I'll do again and again, and boy does it reward red-fruited, rusty red wines.

That sounds great, Jenise. I think I need a picture of the noodle cake next time.

[Jenise]

That sounds great, Jenise. I think I need a picture of the noodle cake next time.

Super easy, super pretty. The recipe called for broiling the noodles once the liquid cooked out but I thought it was so pretty with all the varigation of yellow and toasted noodles that I opted for pouring in a little oil to brown the bottom (I used a 12" teflon skillet) instead--could control it better too. I should have taken a picture for several reasons, but my foot was killing me and I let that rush me back to my chair.

Tonight, chicken and rice using an achiote paste I brought back from Costa Rica.

Tonight it was Revenge of the Fideua. This time I did not over-toast the noodles. I subbed crayfish tails for the squid and proceeded as before. Much better though I think it was a bit wetter than I want it to be. I will reduce the stock from 5 cups to 4 cups next time (for 8 oz. of noodles in a 16" paella pan).

And one more nice tomato and burrata lunch:

2020-10-14 14.23.33 sm.jpg

Sunday cooking:
- Tian: I cut three delicata squash into rings, cored and sliced two huge Jonagold apples into similar round slices, shuffled and fanned them into a roasting pan, drizzled with a slightly sweet vinaigrette and dashed with dried herbs. Roast in a hot oven approx. 30 minutes. Texture is excellent, the apples overpower the squash I think.
- Pot pie made from leftover pot roast! Sauteed up some more carrots, celery, mushrooms, peas, added just a wee bit of broth, and loaded it between two sheets of puff pastry. Excellent.
- Pumpkin bread pudding made mostly from ciabatta but also the end of a pumpernickel and two cinnamon-raisin bagels (they're finally good for something!). I bolstered the custard with dark rum, toasted walnuts, raisins plumped in rum, a handful of dried apricots, my last Luxardo cherries, and a couple spoons of my boozy cranberries. Great texture, not too sweet, I'll increase the mix-ins and the seasoning a little more for next time. I spilled a bit more rum on it for serving but it would be very fine indeed with vanilla ice cream.

[Jenise]

Tonight it was Revenge of the Fideua. This time I did not over-toast the noodles. I subbed crayfish tails for the squid and proceeded as before. Much better though I think it was a bit wetter than I want it to be. I will reduce the stock from 5 cups to 4 cups next time (for 8 oz. of noodles in a 16" paella pan).

FWIW, for the 'noodle cake' I mentioned above, I started with two cups of broth for about 8 ounces of noodles, then added maybe half a cup more a few minutes into the cook. Turned out perfect.

Tonight I'll be doing a simple Shanghai-style stir-fry of pork, scallions, and bean sprouts.

-Paul W.

That "noodle cake" sounds a lot like Cantonese "two sides golden" noodles. You form cooked lo mein noodles into a flat cake, heat a bit of oil in a skillet, fry the noodle cake until golden brown on one side, then flip it over and brown the other side.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

That "noodle cake" sounds a lot like Cantonese "two sides golden" noodles. You form cooked lo mein noodles into a flat cake, heat a bit of oil in a skillet, fry the noodle cake until golden brown on one side, then flip it over and brown the other side.

-Paul W.

Exactly what influenced me in my choice, though I didn't brown both sides because I just loved the bright yellow look of the top as-is for a platter presentation.

[Jenise]

Last night my brother and his partner made and excellent chicken paprikash for dinner. Got Chris and I talking about our stepmother's cooking--she was first generation American-Hungarian whose mother Rosie had emigrated here as a young bride but didn't even speak English. Rosie taught Betty well and we all loved her "Hunky food". Too, those dishes really stood out among the Campbells soup casseroles that were otherwise the bullwark of Betty's repertoire. Anyway, Chris remembers her paprikash and I don't--we were already out on our own when they married, so it was just a matter of opportunity and apparently I never showed up on Paprikash nights.

I brought four bottles of wine for them to select dinner wines and keep the rest. A Mordoree Tavel was a perfect accompaniament for the Paprikash.

[Jenise]

Tonight: pot roast and cab franc. It's the perfect kind of day to praise the braise!