What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

We had lamb last night too, Karen. Shoulder chops that I tear in half (to remove the connective tissue) and had marinated on a previous occasion with white vermouth, soy sauce, oregano and garlic. Just those with wilted spinach and garlic--we were still full from our terrible Mexican lunch. I always BBQ these but could tell Bobby wasn't in the mood so I opted to broil them instead.

Makes me wonder why I don't broil more often. 8 minutes on each side at 400 gets each side deeply colored and super crusty. Frankly, better than barbecued.

Today I'm only making lunch at home: a cobb salad made with nappa cabbage, bacon, blue cheese, tomatoes and green onions. Dinner will be at a friend's: it's Booze Group night. Theme: Canadian whiskey and dinner featuring Alberta beef.

That sounds delicious Jenise. I have never cooked lamb shoulder. Yesterday, I was contemplating ordering a delivery from Safeway, and they had a large selection of lamb cuts and shoulder was one that caught my eye.. Think I will check Costco this morning and see what they are offering. I love the idea of broiling and was just wondering recently why I never see any recipes that call for it. Many seem to use the broiler now for getting a nice brown, crusty finish to their dishes. I used to broil all the time, interesting how things like that come and go.
My lamb chops came out fine, but the accompanying dish of black beans, with peppers did nothing for me. I had a large heirloom tomato that needed to be used so I peeled it, diced it and added to the mix. It has an off taste I could not figure out what it was. I added fresh lime and that helped a lot. Maybe it will be better today. It did taste better when I served it over a Jasmine rice, with chives, butter and cooked in chicken stock.

[Jenise]

I have never seen shoulder at Costco. Strictly the small Australian porterhouse, if you will, chops that I find stronger and gamier, sometimes almost liver-y. In addition to rack, shoulder's our favorite but it's not very elegant. We're fine for gnawing off the bone which shoulder kind of begs you to do.

I prefer rib chops by a long shot over shoulder chops or loin chops. Shoulder chops have too much fat, gristle, and bone inconveniently strewn throughout the meat. Loin chops are just a little too hard to get all the meat out.

[Jenise]

I agree, the rib chops are the most elegant to eat, and the flavor's good. I find the loin chops a bit on the strong side, flavor wise. And shoulder tastes best of all to me--but I understand that chewing meat off a bone isn't everyone's cup of tea. I must have been a cavewoman in a prior life.

I find the loin chops a bit on the strong side, flavor wise.

A plus in my book!

Yesterday was simple. Breakfast was French toast, bacon and eggs. Dinner was Senate bean soup, HM bread and a tossed salad.

I'm going to do BLTs as a dinner tonight.

-Paul W.

I’m on the east coast now and shad, like salmon are anadromus moving from the sea to freshwater to spawn. Shad roe is now plentiful in the market. I have cooked it twice now in bacon fat after dredging in seasoned flour. Once plain and second with a shallot, caper, parsley sherry vinegar deglaze. Careful to adjust heat so eggs don’t pop all over the stove it has a unique flavor and I look forward to being here when the shad are running.
Have also had the fish which requires an expert in filleting the complex bone structure or else you end up with shredded flesh. As it is it finishes up with long, thin wide ribbons of fish.
I may be the only person coming to New York who prefers not to go to restaurants but buys groceries to cook and eat in because of the wonderful things that are not available to me in the Midwest.

Christina, when our daughter got married and moved from CA back to the hometown of her husband in a small town, Sidney OH, she was dismayed by the lack of food items she was used to here. Her biggest issue was she could not find tortillas to make tacos. Imagine that!

Tonight I'll start the marinating process for a batch of Chinese chicken wings. The marinade is based on light soy sauce, with scallions, fresh ginger, garlic, five spice powder, lemon juice, and toasted sesame oil. The original recipe calls for the wings to be deep-fried, but I'll be grilling them.

-Paul W.

wait, Christina's post made me realize I haven't had shad roe this year. Haven't seen, but will check fishmonger and farmers market. Betsy doesn't like, but I MUST have it each spring.
We're going ramp hunting this weekend as well.

It is Pizza again on this Thursday, another Margherita, tweaked with some faves of mine, and a fresh green salad of yet to be determined ingredients.

Karen, I felt your daughter’s pain when I first moved to Wisconsin 38 years ago. There were absolutely no ethnic groceries. Pizza was the most exotic thing for the locals aside from several German restaurants and meat markets ( exotic to me at that time) Thankfully things have changed and we now have Korean, Hmong, Mexican, Indian and Middle Eastern markets and wonderful summer farmer’s markets.

Everything came together over the weekend. I was at Lull Farm and they had ramps. The other day in the NY Times there was an article about foraging ramps with Allan Benton. In it they describe cooking potatoes, ramps, bacon, and ham.

Based on the recommendation of Paul, I bought one of Lull Farms chickens. I put it on the Jotisserie and cooked it up. Served it with some of my "Universal mushroom mixture" fixed in a sauce consistency.

Oh, boy! What a meal! Drank a half bottle of Nuits St George from Maison Ambroise.

Seems like every day lately I'm too tired to cook anything elaborate, so we've been winding up with simple spreads or leftovers. However, I baked some nice bread this morning, which will contribute to tonight's meal (whatever it is).

I did score some prime strip steaks for $3.99/10 oz. They look beautiful. I'll probably cook one on Saturday night, making ultra-sure it doesn't go above med-rare.

Since I am cooking for one now, I usually cook two big meals a week, and do various things with them as leftovers. I have had the time however to look into good prepared foods at the market. Our local neighborhood market makes chicken enchiladas, fresh ingredients, with either a green or red sauce and lots of chicken. They are very good and company never knows they are not made by me. They have started carrying Panera at Home, a Panera Bread product and a great find was their creamy tomato soup. All natural ingredients, and the taste is perfect. I love it. They also make great chicken tenders which I love with The Ginger People's Sweet Chili Sauce. So I finally have some fall back stuff I can rely on to be very tasty. Another neighbor and I have been trying different things, but I am fussy about ingredients and do not want any strange things in my food. We share what we find, good and bad. Mostly bad!

The grilled chicken wings with Chinese marinade came out great. I ate 1/3 of them. There was a local Chinese restaurant that served a variation of the classic spare ribs in black bean sauce, using fried chicken wings instead of spare ribs. I was very fond of that dish and I've never seen it at other Chinese restaurants. The remaining grilled chicken wings will go into my version of that dish.

-Paul W.

So I have this lovely, fragrant Chinese marinade left over from the grilled chicken wings. Seems a shame to throw it out. I'm going to try out the Chinese cooking method called 'lu', where you slow-bbraize meat in an aromatic broth. It's like red cooking except with aromatic dried spices thrown in. I'll be adding cinnamon, fennel, and Chinese cardamom to the marinade mixture.

-Paul W.

Had a great dinner last night, chicken legs, thighs and wings marinated 2 days in strong bold flavors, such as Aji Amarillo, red pepper paste, soy sauce, lime juice and various spices. I went too soft on the spices, AGAIN!. Had baby Red Bliss potatoes, threw on a sheet pan with baby multi colored peppers, red onion, garlic, fresh garlic oil, Mexican Oregano. My usual favorite! Made a salad out of grilled corn, cut off the cob, and added multi colored cherry tomatoes, red onion, garlic, dressed with a red wine vinaigrette, very yummy stuff.. Oh, and I added young carrots to the chicken to roast alongside. Brushed them with fresh garlic oil, and added fresh Tarragon the last 30 minutes.
Not very adventurous anymore, falling back into favorites most of the time now. When my hubby was home, he was always so complimentary and fun to cook for. But he loved the same favorites as I did...

So last night I made the Turkey Cordon Bleu. Deboned a frozen kosher half breast I found at Trader Joe's and doused it with white vermouth and olive oil which spent the day under plastic rehydrating. At dinner time, I splayed it out to make a larger canvas, loosened some of the skin so it was all outside and didn't get rolled inside, plunked provolone cheese rolled in Trader Joe's rosemary ham in the center, added a few more leaves of fresh rosemary, then rolled/pinned/tied it into a uniform log shape, pan seared it for color and then put it in a 250F oven to bake for 40 minutes. All guess work--since what needed to cook was the outer ring, not the center, and the internal temp would be misleading to a Thermapen. I baked it for 30 minutes initially, then added ten more.

I copycatted this idea tonight. I bought two turkey breast filets, marinated them, butterflied and gently pounded them, rolled/tied them around Virginia ham and swiss cheese and rosemary, breaded and browned in a pan then baked in the oven. Excellent. Very happy with the result. Next time: more cheese!

Thank you, Jenise, for the inspiration.

Last night I made the chicken wings in black bean sauce, using the grilled Chinese chicken wings. It came out very close to the restaurant dish I used to enjoy. But chicken wings are not chopstick-friendly. They're finger food, and in conjunction with black bean sauce, messy to eat. I think I'll stick with spareribs (cut into thirds crosswise in the Chinese manner) and meat slices for black bean sauce from now on.

BTW, I took a shortcut and used Lee Kum Kee black bean sauce with garlic instead of starting from scratch with fermented black beans. It works out well.

-Paul W.

But chicken wings are not chopstick-friendly.

You just gotta whack 'em up with a cleaver. Then you can eat like real Chinese... with sharp, irregular bits of bone all over the place. (No, I have not gotten over it.)

Tonight's dinner will be beef short rubs, which got a nice massage yesterday, with s & p, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, Mexican oregano and gr. coriander. Cooking in a bath of sautéed onion, lots of garlic, fire roasted tomatoes, red wine, chicken stock, Hatch chilis. and fresh lime juice. Garnished with cilantro, and lime.
A side of Farro, tossing in what is left of a jar of semi dried tomatoes, the oil from jar, and a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand which I love with Farro, chicken stock.
Salad will be arugula, with nice big blueberries, goat cheese, almonds cooked in butter and honey, and a lemon, garlic, and honey vinaigrette.
Eldest son and wife gifted me with enough honey to last the rest of my life, one infused with Meyer Lemon, one with lots of heat, and another with sea salt. All very interesting and tasty. So I have been playing with honey all week.