What's Cooking (Take Four)

Yes, blond. Approx. 4 tbsp butter and 7 tbsp flour, recognizing that the pot was already used for sauteeing other things so there was additional oil in it. Between that and the cooked tomato paste, it gives a medium-ish brown gravy; the addition of the concentrated wine moves the color a little darker but not really as much as I was hoping. But it tastes good so I'll find something else to complain about.

[Jenise]

So I bought some more bacon the other day. Oscar Meyer brand center cut--a brand I would usually avoid but where I was, it was the best available. 12 ounce pkg. This morning I decided the time had come as it was cool enough to have coffee (a must with bacon). Opened the pkg. Removed the bacon wad. It felt light. Threw it on my kitchen scale. Shy of 11 ounces. Then, with dismay, despite these being center cut (meaning without the fattier tips and tails), I noticed that the two not quite three inches on the right were virtually 100% fat, so I cut that off. The rest was very lean, but I was now down to about 7 usable ounces which I tried to separate the pieces for oven baking. They were woefully thin, as thin as I've ever seen, and separating them proved futile so I just threw the whole wad on the cookie sheet hoping they'd separate more easily after warming thru. Which they did, but barely.

Good thing I wasn't feeding anyone else. I didn't end up with much, and they were more shards than strips, but what I did have was exquisitely lean that shattered nicely when bit into. I ate it all!

I think some brands cut bacon with a microtome. I prefer thick bacon.

Tonight, as if all that food in the fridge were not enough, I marinated a beautiful filet of black cod in soy sauce, black vinegar, grated ginger, lime juice, black pepper, and charnushka seeds; then gently sizzled in a frying pan. Great fish.

I made a composed salad to go with it: an entire baby red leaf, two Roma tomatoes, two roasted red beets, a few grilled olives, and a few roasted artichoke hearts. Dressed simply with OV and a sprinkle of tarragon.

I've cooked bacon in the microwave for years. It's easy, fast, and it comes out perfect in three minutes, and most of the fat gets soaked up by the paper towels. I have a microwave grill-style tray. I put paper towels on the bottom, bacon, then paper towels on top. I also like Coleman's natural apple-smoked bacon, no chemicals. It is cured with celery powder. Great taste. Good-sized pieces.

https://thrivemarket.com/p/coleman-natu ... 98QAvD_BwE

Another fun pork product to cook in the microwave is pepperoni slices: wrap them up in paper towels -- I use three because they are very greasy -- and nuke for 1 minute. Knocks a lot of the grease out of them and they get crispy. Perhaps the Pringles of bacon but they're still tasty.

[Jenise]

I think some brands cut bacon with a microtome. I prefer thick bacon.

Put me down for both. I love thick especially when it's pepper crusted, but I also enjoy the crisper texture of thinner bacons. But this stuff was beyond just thin. It was like lace.

[Jenise]

Another fun pork product to cook in the microwave is pepperoni slices: wrap them up in paper towels -- I use three because they are very greasy -- and nuke for 1 minute. Knocks a lot of the grease out of them and they get crispy. Perhaps the Pringles of bacon but they're still tasty.

Haven't done that, but the #1 reason I'll never get rid of my dehydrator is because for some parties I'll dehydrate pre-sliced salami into thin crisp wafers. It's a real show stopper, so I can appreciate the pepperoni thing you do. Must try it!

Speaking of showstoppers, went to a block party last night and the #1 food everyone was talking about was a big bowl of white cheddar corn puffs (from TJ's), maybe the Pirate one, which had been tossed in a caramel of butter, brown sugar, and Karo syrup to which she added a little baking soda, then baked for 45 minutes stirring at 15 and 30. Only lightly sweet and salty, crunchy in a nice way and without the hard sticky stuff that endanger dental work. KILLER!!! Everybody was gaga over this stuff, even me--it's junk food in the best way possible. There are recipes for this all over the internet.

[Jenise]

Dinner tonight: garlicky romaine salad and mushroom/truffle pizza.

[Jenise]

Just pulled a pkg of chuck steak from the freezer, about a year old. From the month that Bob died. Why was I buying steak then? (a head scratcher)

Anyway, just made a marinade of dry sherry, worcestershire sauce, garlic, mustard and herbs d'provence. Will grill them off later.

Just returned from a six day trip to Chicago where we stayed with some friends we met a year ago on a food tour in Austria. We ate at a couple of very good restaurants, with a particularly good meal at Cafe Lula. We had Chicago hot dogs and Italian beef, of course (but no pizza). We all cooked one afternoon, putting together a meal of barbecued short ribs, prawn skewers, and a vinegar based cole slaw, all of which were delicious.

Tonight's dinner will be a BLT made with North Country Smokehouse's delicious applewood smoked bacon. It's labeled "uncured" but of course that merely means that they are using celery and sea salt to provide the requisite nitrites vs. using chemical sodium nitrite. This weekend I'll be making Paul Prudhomme's Poor Man's Jambalaya.

-Paul W.

I visited a furniture store on my lunch hour today. On the way back, I stopped into a Shake Shack to grab a quick burger. Not one of my usual haunts but it was on the way and was going to be fast so....

And on the menu were BLTs! They promoted adding avocado or caramelized onions (I took the onions). Not the world's greatest sandwich but a nice surprise.

I have Midnight Black Beans, bay leaf, shallots, and garlic cooking away in chicken stock in the slow cooker. Later, I will add Mexican Oregano, salt, and pepper. Rancho Gordo sent out a text that Mother Stoddard Beans were in stock. I had never had them, but they had great reviews, so I ordered 1 bag. I needed to make room in my dried bean container, so I decided to cook the rest of the black beans to fill in at lunchtime this upcoming week.

Sounds very good, Karen.

Last night, I met a pal for a pre-concert supper. He suggested a sushi place that I'd never been to and it was a hoot! It's one of those kooky places that could only be cooked up by the Japanese, Kura Sushi is a chain of restaurants based in Japan which features two conveyor systems and robot busboys.

We sat at a numbered booth, to the right of which was the conveyor belt which runs past every booth and bar seat in the place. There's a second conveyor belt above it. There's a constant stream of plates coming by on the lower belt, each of which has some type of sushi on it and a hinged plexiglass cover. Two plates of each sushi type will motor by with a little sign ahead of the first to let you know what it is. When you see something you want, you hit a little latch on the cover to open it and grab your plate as it goes by. After enjoying your sushi, you slide the empty plate into a slot that each booth has under the conveyor belt. The plates are counted and that's how the sushi portion of your bill is calculated. Each plate is $4, and you'll see all sorts of nigiri as well as various rolls passing by. The booth also features a touch screen tablet for ordering drinks and some more substantial dishes such as ramen and udon and for checking out.

"But wait!", you say, "What if the Hokkaido scallop nigiri that I love keeps coming by after the folks upstream of me have already plundered both of the plates?" No problem! The full array of sushi also appears on the touch screen menu. You can order those delicious scallops on the tablet, someone in the back will make it for you, and it will come by on the upper conveyor belt. That belt moves at lightning speed so that no one upstream can grab it, and the plate stops dead right at your booth!

Having never either been in nor conceptualized anything like Kura, we sat down and fumbled with the touch screen, trying to figure out how it all worked. After a suitable period of our incompetent touching, the all-knowing tablet switched to a screen showing a bowing figure and letting us know that help was on the way. (My guess is that the employees there call that the "moron screen".) A non-robotic server appeared and led us through the whole thing, which was nice as beer was not one of the items on the conveyor belt. We ordered water and beers and shortly thereafter, the robot busboy came by with the water and a little plate of wasabi. A flesh-type server dropped the beers off.

So how was the sushi? Quite good, with a nice variety of fish and some tasty rolls. Most of the fish was the type of stuff you'll find at any sushi bar or grocery store but there was some that was more obscure and upscale.(Most nigiri plates contained two pieces, but you only got one piece of the fancy ones for your $4.) As a bonus, the wasabi was the actual ground root rather than the reconstituted powder. I would certainly go back, but only with folks who'd appreciate the whole goofy concept. I'd also go early. We met at 5:30 and had no problem getting a table, but by the time we left at 7 there were quite a few people standing around outside waiting to get in.

Those places are fun! The generic name for the conveyor-belt places is 'kaiten sushi' and I've only ever been in one in Japan.

Counting plates is how dim sum places work, too.

There's a Kura nearby but I haven't been.
20+ years ago there were similar places in NYC that had little boats that floated down a "canal" (trough of moving water)
Glad you had fun!

[Jenise]

Today I blanched, then boiled, then broiled, four pounds of trimmed brussels sprouts along with thin lardons of bacon and sliced garlic. Once out of a pan and into a bowl, they were doused with red wine vinegar and a little salt. Those are going to a whiskey party in about an hour.

Sounds very good, Karen.

Last night, I met a pal for a pre-concert supper. He suggested a sushi place that I'd never been to and it was a hoot! It's one of those kooky places that could only be cooked up by the Japanese, Kura Sushi is a chain of restaurants based in Japan which features two conveyor systems and robot busboys.

We sat at a numbered booth, to the right of which was the conveyor belt which runs past every booth and bar seat in the place. There's a second conveyor belt above it. There's a constant stream of plates coming by on the lower belt, each of which has some type of sushi on it and a hinged plexiglass cover. Two plates of each sushi type will motor by with a little sign ahead of the first to let you know what it is. When you see something you want, you hit a little latch on the cover to open it and grab your plate as it goes by. After enjoying your sushi, you slide the empty plate into a slot that each booth has under the conveyor belt. The plates are counted and that's how the sushi portion of your bill is calculated. Each plate is $4, and you'll see all sorts of nigiri as well as various rolls passing by. The booth also features a touch screen tablet for ordering drinks and some more substantial dishes such as ramen and udon and for checking out.

"But wait!", you say, "What if the Hokkaido scallop nigiri that I love keeps coming by after the folks upstream of me have already plundered both of the plates?" No problem! The full array of sushi also appears on the touch screen menu. You can order those delicious scallops on the tablet, someone in the back will make it for you, and it will come by on the upper conveyor belt. That belt moves at lightning speed so that no one upstream can grab it, and the plate stops dead right at your booth!

Having never either been in nor conceptualized anything like Kura, we sat down and fumbled with the touch screen, trying to figure out how it all worked. After a suitable period of our incompetent touching, the all-knowing tablet switched to a screen showing a bowing figure and letting us know that help was on the way. (My guess is that the employees there call that the "moron screen".) A non-robotic server appeared and led us through the whole thing, which was nice as beer was not one of the items on the conveyor belt. We ordered water and beers and shortly thereafter, the robot busboy came by with the water and a little plate of wasabi. A flesh-type server dropped the beers off.

So how was the sushi? Quite good, with a nice variety of fish and some tasty rolls. Most of the fish was the type of stuff you'll find at any sushi bar or grocery store but there was some that was more obscure and upscale.(Most nigiri plates contained two pieces, but you only got one piece of the fancy ones for your $4.) As a bonus, the wasabi was the actual ground root rather than the reconstituted powder. I would certainly go back, but only with folks who'd appreciate the whole goofy concept. I'd also go early. We met at 5:30 and had no problem getting a table, but by the time we left at 7 there were quite a few people standing around outside waiting to get in.

We have one of those in Livermore, Mike. Very popular as yours is, likely because the price is well below the typical sushi restaurant around here. The quality is acceptable, slightly better than grocery store, but it is a fun experience and a good value, especially if you like uni. Our robot waiters always seem to be broken when I go, though. Typically I go for lunch, because it is extremely fast, and there's not a wait with many large parties like on the weekend. Still hard to believe it's actually a real Japanese concept, but the service, real wasabi, and excellent gari certainly confirm it.

I was perusing one of my favorite cookbooks, Favorite Recipes of California Winemakers. A 1963 issue, the year I was married. I came across a reciepe I have not made in a long while. Risotto alla Cucamonga (I love saying that), from Regina Grape Products in Etiwanda. It has regular rice, butter, onion, beef consommé, water, California Sherry, and Parmesan cheese. This will be a side for flank steak, marinated in sherry wine, fresh ginger root, soy, garlic powder, and salt. I am also making a coleslaw with rice vinegar, honey, salt, red and green cabbage, carrots, scallions, and sesame oil. The two cookbooks are simple ones, with no photos, but each has a short sentence about the doner, the winery, or the company it came from. It also offers suggestions for a choice of wine to accompany the dish.

Tonight I'll be making a Chinese dish from the Dongbei region (formerly called Manchuria) in Northeast China: di san xian (three delicacies from the earth). Chunks of eggplant, potato, and green bell pepper are separately deep-fried and then combined with soy sauce and oyster sauce. The pictures look very colorful.

-Paul W.

The greenmarket had everything I wanted today: heirloom tomatoes, Jimmy Nardello peppers, bi-color corn, crisp green and red lettuces, and a whole lot of other things I want at other times.

I've already served myself two heirlooms and an avocado with my best salt and my best balsamic. About to prepare an ear of corn simply with butter and salt. Later, I think I will pit some dark red cherries and 'gild' them with a little vanilla sugar. (ETA: and Cointreau.)

The season is good today.

I was perusing one of my favorite cookbooks, Favorite Recipes of California Winemakers. A 1963 issue, the year I was married.

Funny you should bring that book up, Karen. A friend of ours gave us a copy he scored at a thrift store just a couple of weeks ago. We haven't cooked out of it yet, but that looks like a good rice recipe.

Mike, it is very tasty, I love it. I know you use good products. Here is the recipe. Linda Stradley's daughters, who manage her website now, redid many of the recipes. The original called for water, as well. I see it is not listed in this one. I used the water, and it came out fine.

https://whatscookingamerica.net/karenca ... amonga.htm