What's Cooking (Take Four)

I cooked a pot of Royal Corona Beans on Monday. I added onion, garlic, oregano, and the best-canned tomatoes I have ever eaten. These come from CA and the taste is excellent. Bianco DiNapoli Organic Whole Peeled Tomatoes made for a great pot of beans.

When I lived in Berkeley, I would serve beans with ripe farmers market tomatoes cut and added at the last minute, along with rosemary from the backyard. Such vibrant flavors I cannot reproduce on the east coast!

I made Thai massaman curry (chicken and cauliflower) last night. I threw in some green peppercorns. They add a wonderful nuance to a curry.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

So we were off to Whistler with friends on Sunday. Sunday dinner was going to be in their suite with an Italian pasta. I volunteered to bring a salad, as I'd just ordered a giant lobster tail from Maine (larger than my foot, and I wear a size 10). On hand I also had a bag of sugar snap peas, and I envisioned a fresh salad with mint and mizuna from my garden and a tarragon-laced vinaigrette. I poached the lobster and set it aside to cool, then quickly blanched the peas for about two minutes in the same cooking water and moved to an ice bath. Standard stuff. Then I slivvered the peas and chunked the lobster, putting them in a container and adding the herbs on top but not mixing them. The dressing was made in a separate small container. I put these in a cooler for the trip along with an ice cold bottle of VGW chardonnay to serve with them.

And off we went. On arrival, we realized the cooler didn't make it into the car. I went ballistic as one does, and Bob burst into tears about the failure. Killed me, and I took all the blame--I know he's ill, and I need to double-check everything he does. I actually pulled over before we went over the border to make sure the wine bag got into the car. It did, but I didn't check for the cooler.

It was almost 5:30 and we were due in our friend's room at 6:00, so I called the restaurant (this was at a big Westin resort) and ordered two green side salads and an order of roasted mushrooms. For dressing I asked for lemon juice and olive oil which they supplied me separate little containers of, and I arranged all this in a frying pan that came in our kitchenette. The only bowl was too small, and this was a better presentation anyway. So in fact I served a good salad, but oh my that lobster....

Which got rescued by friends who have a key. They refrigerated it for me and we were grateful to have that to come home to last night, but I felt terrible about not producing it as intended.

Oof, always so disappointing to work hard on something and then a simple administrative mishap gets in the way.

I know your pain Jenise. This was not a food happening but still a bad thing. Gene loved working outside but I had to watch him using our cameras outside or checking on him when he was out of range. I had asked him to trim a shrub, went out and showed him the one, and gave an example of how to do it. About 15 minutes later I checked on him and he had uprooted a young Japanese Maple and was cutting it up into small pieces for the green waste wheeler. I almost had a heart attack Japanese Maples are special to me and we have a few very impressive ones. Later on in his care process, I learned I had to do everything myself. I gave him little jobs to keep him occupied, brush the dog, or sit in the chair with the dog because she wanted to take a nap. Even turning on the TV and give him the remote worked well. Another thing he did well was raking up leaves. or blowing leaves.

Funny story when he went into memory care, he had a choice of many activities each week and the one he loved the most was going in with a group of ladies to make bouquets for the rooms and lobbies.

[Jenise]

Jeff, and expensive! Between the cost of the ingredients in the salad I intended to serve and what I had to cobble together from room service ($62) , this was a $200 salad!

[Jenise]

Karen, your maple story made me cry. I know that's my future and it's not that far away. Yesterday we had a shrimp cocktail outside and some popcorn in a bag that Bob wanted. When we finished Bob put the porcelain ramekins of cocktail sauce in the popcorn bag....

Karen, your maple story made me cry. I know that's my future and it's not that far away. Yesterday we had a shrimp cocktail outside and some popcorn in a bag that Bob wanted. When we finished Bob put the porcelain ramekins of cocktail sauce in the popcorn bag....

I'm in the same boat--just not quite as bad. But my workload has doubled, and I have to keep an eye on everything. Very tiring.

[Jenise]

It is definitely tiring, Larry, hugs to both of us as we go through this together. A friend emailed the other day and suggested that Bob helped by driving--no, he hasn't driven in over two years. I do everything. All the planning, all the thinking, and most of the DOing. She said she didn't realize that it's that bad. Well it is, and I haven't been withholding anything. But when, before this, was I asked? There was no unkindness meant there, she just kind of assumed that everything's more or less as she last saw it which was quite some time ago. Larry, does Edith have a diagnosis?

Back to cooking: lamb chops tonight on a pile of steamed rapini dressed with fresh lemon juice, olive oil and myzrathi cheese.

I have three large, thick, bone-in pork chops, seasoned with poultry seasoning, pepper, and salt. Red onion slices, red and gold bell pepper slices are placed on top. Surrounding the chops is Faro. I made a mix of what was left from a can of whole tomatoes, a good red cab, oregano, and a couple of squirts of tomato paste, and poured over the Faro. It cooks covered at 350° for two hours, the lid is removed and I continue to cook for 30 minutes. Grilled asparagus with a lemon, and garlic oil dressing will be served cold.
I have a few veggies to use, up, so a small sheet pan of Brussels Sprouts, baby zucchini, and store-bought tomatoes will be roasted.
Yippee! The tomatoes were in at the Farmer's Market this morning. I came home with 7 round medium size and a large basket of multi-colored cherry types.

[Jenise]

We had a bad day here and at 5:00 I still had no dinner plan. Frustrated by all kinds of things, about then I decided to distract myself with a check on the potato garden (a 6'x2' raised bed) and found some of the plants looking damaged so I dug them all up, yielding about 5-6 pounds of potatoes. I fished out all the little ones (1" or smaller) and dinner was a bowl of boiled and buttered potatoes that hadn't even been out of the ground one hour with a salad of iceberg lettuce, cold chopped rapini and chopped raw walnuts. After dinner we had sliced persimmons. A really great dinner. So good I'm tempted to replant that bed to potatoes if it's not too late.

Sounds good Jenise. I often had days like that, and dinner was a baked potato or boiled and a large artichoke to dip in fresh lemon juice. I loved that dinner.

[Jenise]

The creamy sweetness of the little potatoes was exquisite, Karen. They reminded me of my grandmother when I was a child, all excited about the "new potatoes" with their flaking, paper thin skins when they appeared in the market. It was definitely a thing at a certain time of year. And that's all she'd do is boil them and serve a large bowl with butter. But for her it was a side dish to meat, where for me, it was only the potatoes I wanted and so for us last night, they were the main course.

That whole concept of new potatoes is now gone, at least here on the West Coast. I have noted them--a gorgeous variety called Dutch I think, or maybe it's Dutch-something, with patchy pink spots on them--in B.C. and I'm quite jealous. Unfortunately we can't cross the border with them, so I haven't partaken.

I have a bottle of red wine to dispose of so coq au vin is on the menu for tonight. My version cooks in the pot so I don't need to run the oven (thank goodness!).

I have a bottle of red wine to dispose of so coq au vin is on the menu for tonight. My version cooks in the pot so I don't need to run the oven (thank goodness!).

(I'm allowed to kvell about my own cooking in public, right?:) Gosh, I am just so pleased with the texture provided by the beurre manie -thickened gravy!

Jeff.; of course you are !!


Jenise; my potato bed keeps producing without much intervention . my gardener turns over the bed when he digs the last of them up ,
eaving behind any too small or blemished then he might replenish with some fertiliser//compost He proceeds to plant the next crops and spuds just come up where they will. between us, we have perhaps a peculiar way of gardening but it works for me.

Jenise, Paul Prudhomme wrote about how he could never get a potato to taste as good as those his mom made and then he realized that it was the freshness of the potatoes that made the difference. His mom used to go out to the garden, dig up the potatoes, and use them within an hour or two.

(I'm allowed to kvell about my own cooking in public, right?:) Gosh, I am just so pleased with the texture provided by the beurre manie -thickened gravy!

I use Julia Child's recipe for coq au vin, which is cooked on the stove top and uses beurre manie as a thickener. I think of beurre manie as uncooked roux.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Jeff.; of course you are !!


Jenise; my potato bed keeps producing without much intervention . my gardener turns over the bed when he digs the last of them up leaving behind any too small or blemished then he might replenish with some fertiliser//compost He proceeds to plant the next crops and spuds just come up where they will. between us, we have perhaps a peculiar way of gardening but it works for me.

Mine were simply the result of potatoes left too long in the pantry that were sprouting, and that raised bed was empty so I thought why not.

Does planting from seed potatoes get better results? Or is that merely the best way to get one's hands on less-usual breeds of potato? I have my eye on Adirondack reds and was shopping yesterday for seed potatoes of these but there are NONE to be had. Anyone who might have had them is out.

https://www.woodprairie.com/product/org ... -potatoes/

[Jenise]

Karen, you're a dear, thanks for finding that. I placed an order!

Dinner tonight: Japanese-ish. Raw sushi-grade salmon, cold rice doused with rice vinegar and cherry wood shoyu that I will cut into bars, purple shiso leafs from my garden for wrapping the first two things into dipping bites, and a persimmon/onion/arugula salad.

I use Julia Child's recipe for coq au vin, which is cooked on the stove top and uses beurre manie as a thickener. I think of beurre manie as uncooked roux.

That was the original source, indeed.

Yes, it certainly has the ingredients of an uncooked roux but it seems to behave a little differently. My guess is that the flour is not so saturated with fat (when it's cold) than after it's been cooked a while. That leaves more room for it to soak up water and have a fuzzier texture (Sorry, can't come up with a better word.)

Also beurre manie is made with whole butter, whereas cooked roux usually uses clarified butter (i.e., pure butterfat). Although a white roux can be made with whole butter.

Hot day today so I'll be grilling chicken. I haven't decided what dry rub to use yet. I'll probably use Creole seasoning.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I'm having lunch with Hoke Harden today and then have to be at a going-away party around 4:00. On the stove right now is the brine for a bing cherry confit that I'm going to take to that party. I'm actually making it again for tomorrow's lunch at Bill's and then on Saturday for a pinot noir tasting. If you're not into cherries you might think by Sunday I'll be cherried out, but you don't know me and cherries. There's no such thing.

If you're not into cherries you might think by Sunday I'll be cherried out, but you don't know me and cherries. There's no such thing.

Agreed! My wife made a cherry streusel cake over the weekend for guests and we served it with more cherries!