What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

That sounds good. Fresh trout easily obtained?

Yes, I have a superb fish monger.

Tonight I finished candying a pint of kumquats. Now to find some uses for them!

I saw scallops with Leek Risotto on SeriousEats this week. Whole Paycheck had scallops on sale so that's what I'm making tonight.

I'll need a decent white wine to go with it.

That sounds great and scallops are on my list for tonight as well, if I can find them. Went to our local seafood and meat mart yesterday and there was 10 people ahead of me to be waited on. I was in a hurry, so left. After the Farmers Market today, will go to local grocer and see if they have any. I want to make my favorite seafood pasta, with scallops, shrimp, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon juice and zest. It uses thin spaghetti. I will be making the tomato bread salad again, to use up the rest of the sourdough as croutons. Cannot get enough of that salad.

I found Caserta Zucchini at Farmer's Market on Saturday. I cut it into chunks, and along with cherry tomatoes, purple, red and gold baby peppers, coated the chunks with roasted peanut oil, finely minced garlic, and Chinese Five Spice and roasted. Not only beautiful but delicious.

Let's see... Over the weekend I made a pot of chicken cacciatore, starting from 3# of Roma tomatoes, a head of fennel, a pound of bacon, a pound of mushrooms, and a bunch of legs and thighs.

I converted the last of my cold-brew coffee into popsicles.

I dipped some fillets of sole into a mustard-lemon juice mix then crusted with panko, grated parm, and mustard seed, and set them for a rather long time (25 min.) in a rather hot oven (450*) to get them extra crispy. Yum.

[Jenise]

Jeff I like the sound of your treatment on the sole.

Karen, what is a Caserta Zucchini? Will have to look that up.

I've been away but am home again as of last night. This morning I made black truffle scrambled eggs and broiled tomatoes for breakfast. Will probably skip lunch in order to be hungry for an early dinner of grilled tomahawk steak. I bought this two pounder back in August to cook for my birthday, then didn't end up doing it after all. It's time has come!

I bought some boneless pork chops the other day. I hardly ever do that but these were thin and I thought I might bread them and pan fry them. I had them with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes one night. The next night I had them with marinara and rigatoni.

I usually do these things with pork tenderloin that I cut up and flatten, but I'm glad I tried the chops.

[Jenise]

DanS, I love the wafer-thin cuts. The outside just tastes better to me, and I want more of it!

Last night's dinner was South Indian vegan: sambar with eggplant and zucchini, southern-style curried potatoes, and pappadums.

-Paul W.

Jeff I like the sound of your treatment on the sole.

Karen, what is a Caserta Zucchini? Will have to look that up.

I've been away but am home again as of last night. This morning I made black truffle scrambled eggs and broiled tomatoes for breakfast. Will probably skip lunch in order to be hungry for an early dinner of grilled tomahawk steak. I bought this two pounder back in August to cook for my birthday, then didn't end up doing it after all. It's time has come!

https://www.trueleafmarket.com/products ... _mEALw_wcB

[Jenise]

Karen, thanks. I know those, just never had a name for them.

[Jenise]

Tonight I'm making a chicken pie using a Serious Eats recipe. I've never made chicken pie from a recipe in my life so this is a first, prompted by the fact that this recipe uses gelatine in the gravy. That's something I've never done so I'm curious, and I'm going to make a drop-biscuit topping for it, too--another first for me.

[Jenise]

So the chicken pie wasn't a great success. Edible, surely, but I'll go back to doing pies on the fly. My instincts are better than this recipe.

A sheet pan dinner is on the menu tonight. Bone in pork chops are marinating in mix of garlic oil. balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, honey, fresh garlic, fresh rosemary and Dijon. They will be surrounded by Red Bliss baby potatoes, chunks of watermelon squash, purple, green, and red baby peppers. I have these in a bowl right now, with garlic oil, oregano, thyme, and red pepper flakes. I had never seen the watermelon squash before, they are about the size of my fist, and the Asian grower told me to leave the skin on at this size and that they are sweeter than the usual zucchini, and crook neck squashes.

[Jenise]

I love sheet pan dinners.

Didn't cook at home last night but will tonight. Not sure yet what we're having but it might be smoked pork chops baked in sauerkraut with charred cabbage. I really want some smoked sausage for that dish but might just skip that part rather than drive 9 miles for one item to complete a dish.

Reworked the last of the chicken cacciatore into a sort of couscous royale by adding merguez and couscous.

[Jenise]

Sounds great, Jeff. I love repurposing leftovers. Not for the thrift, but just because it's such a fun canvas.

If I thought Pumpkin was up for it, I was also eyeing some pretty rib lamb chops to add to it.

Tonight, I made two quiches -- one sausage and mushroom, the other crab and shrimp -- because I will be away on Thu-Sun so need to leave some easy-prep food for Pumpkin.

Jenise, I love pork chops and sauerkraut. I make this in my slow cooker, and add caraway seeds. I like the idea of charred cabbage too. Still up in the nineties here during the day. Mornings are anywhere from 58 to 61, so getting some relief. I am still into Fall cooking, no matter what the temperature.

[Jenise]

Jenise, I love pork chops and sauerkraut. I make this in my slow cooker, and add caraway seeds. I like the idea of charred cabbage too. Still up in the nineties here during the day. Mornings are anywhere from 58 to 61, so getting some relief. I am still into Fall cooking, no matter what the temperature.

So as the day wore on I started waffling on my original plan, and by afternoon offered Bob a choice of the sauerkraut and smoked pork chops+European wieners or a Chinese stir fry involving rice vermicelli, bok choy and chinese sausage. And then: !!!

I made a Chinese-German fusion of pork chops, sliced Chinese sausage (which are lightly sweet), fingerling potatoes, sauerkraut, fresh cabbage, 2 star anise and 2 tsien-tsien chiles. Baked all together for an hour and then added thinly sliced bok choy (the adult kind) at the end of cooking, letting them soak in for about 5 minutes in which they maintained their great color and crunch but lost that initial raw flavor. With that I served a 2016 Kettle Valley Reisling that I just bought in Canada. The result: HEAVENLY food, and a wine pairing from the gods. Absolutely the best version of this dish EVER.

ah, Jenise's famous Peking choucroute!

For a big dinner party Saturday, I grilled a tenderloin (7.5 lbs, over 6 trimmed) but should have cut up, too much of the small end was well done. Betsy made an incredible (but laborious) ratatouille.Oysters, octopus salad, potatoes, etc. But one of tastiest (and prettiest) was a recipe for "beet cured salmon" from Polpo book. Basically just adding grated beets to gravlax rub:

https://share.icloud.com/photos/01adp67 ... VqDyPs99mQ

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0366T6Y ... wykR07FxxA

served with a horseradish cream (creme fraiche, Dijon mustard, horseradish)

[Jenise]

Love the color on that gravlax! Very cool idea, thanks for the photos.

On the stove right now: Amatriciana sauce for Bucatini. I have some fresh home grown tomatoes that are beginning to rot, so today's better than tomorrow even though we're going to mildly break our commitment to Meatless Monday (there's some bacon in the sauce).