What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

Dinner for friends tonight: smoked trout crostini; salad of crisp romaine, walnuts and and fried camembert, lemon vinagrette; then grilled veal chops with some kind of risotto, haven't decided what yet.

Had red dragon fruit for dessert today. I've had the white variety before, but both are rather interesting.

I also bought more jalapeno poppers today as a manager's special. I don't know what's going on because they were so cheap. On Saturday, I bought two packs of 6 jalapeno poppers for about $1.65. Today they were selling for about 65 cents for six. At that price, the bacon alone is worth more than that. And they taste good.

Last night I found a container full of red Thai bird's eye chiles (prik ki nu) that had been lost in the back of a refrigerator shelf for who knows how long. Somehow they hadn't gone bad but instead had dried out perfectly. I ground up five of them and put them into the Thai yellow curry with beef and cauliflower that I made last night.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Last night I found a container full of red Thai bird's eye chiles (prik ki nu) that had been lost in the back of a refrigerator shelf for who knows how long. Somehow they hadn't gone bad but instead had dried out perfectly. I ground up five of them and put them into the Thai yellow curry with beef and cauliflower that I made last night.

-Paul W.

Tonight I'm doing wokness--kind of a pepper beef. I love that stores around here are now carrying shaved or super thinly sliced beef for Asian dishes. Costco, too.

I generally use flank steak for Chinese stir-frying. Easy to cut thinly across the grain and lots of flavor. For Sichuanese dry-fried beef and for Thai curries I prefer a more tender cut of beef.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Guests tonight. Dinner will be smoked trout and leek crostinis, tomato bisque with gorgonzola, Zuni Cafe roast chicken with bread salad, apple torte.

Last night was crab cakes w/remoulade sauce, asparagus, and red dragon fruit. Colors were pretty, and it tasted good.

Tonight is homemade vegetable beef soup and homemade bread fresh out of oven. In fact, right now I'm about to take bread out and let it cool for about 20 minutes

Last night was tomato soup, using up a few tomatoes. A sourdough cranberry walnut bread from a local baker. Dessert was a few bites of a chocolate truffle tuxedo cake a local market makes in house. They sell small squares of it.

Shanghai-style red-cooked chicken tonight.

On the downside, our local Thai grocery is currently out of commission due to a fire in their building. On the upside, a halal meat market has opened next to the Indian grocery. My next Indian gosht dish will be made with goat rather than lamb.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Last night was crab cakes w/remoulade sauce, asparagus, and red dragon fruit. Colors were pretty, and it tasted good.

Tonight is homemade vegetable beef soup and homemade bread fresh out of oven. In fact, right now I'm about to take bread out and let it cool for about 20 minutes

I've never seen red dragon fruit. The difference in taste between it and the white is...?

[Jenise]

Karen and Larry, this is definitely soup weather.

I've been craving a bean soup all week but tonight will probably make chicken soup using up the leftover roast chicken from last night's dinner. My god that chicken was good! I washed, dried and salted the birds (heirloom chickens from Trader Joe's which are absolutely the best-tasting chickens around) inside and out, tucking some under the breast skin, and put them in the outside fridge to dry for 24 hours. They roast at 450 for one hour, turned twice (breast side up, then down, then up to finish). The result is the moistest, tastiest bird imaginable.

I've never seen red dragon fruit. The difference in taste between it and the white is...?

In my experience, there is no real difference in taste. Some people say the red is sweeter, but it's still a pretty mild fruit. And overall, I've found just as much variation between different examples of red or different examples of white.

But, the striking color of red-flesh dragon fruit is one advantage, if one wants to be dramatic!

[Jenise]

Thanks for that input, Rahsaan. And on the outside, they look identical or is the red variety a deeper scarlet shade?

Thanks for that input, Rahsaan. And on the outside, they look identical or is the red variety a deeper scarlet shade?

The red does tend to be darker outside and there are also differences in the structure of the scales:

https://www.seedsdelmundo.com/blog/red-dragon-fruit-vs-white/

But safer to ask, if possible.

Jenise, I've had TJ's chickens before and they are really great. Sort of forgot about them. Need to revisit.
Yesterday, I seasoned a hunk of meat with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder. Will flour today, brown well on all sides and toss into the slow cooker on a bed of sautéed leeks. Bay leaves, crushed, fire roasted tomatoes from Muir Glen, a good red wine and let it cook for a few hours. When the time is right, carrots, onion wedges (both red and white) Yukon Gold potato chunks, a couple celery stalks, cut into 2 inch pieces, and fresh rosemary, and dried oregano will be added. House should smell great soon. Serving with sourdough baguette hunks which I will lightly brown with garlic to sop up the gravy.

Paul, I grew up with goats, my grandfather used to raise them to keep his back gulley neat. I never thought about it as a kid, but wonder now if we ate them??? I have no experience with goat meat. It is similar to beef or poultry?

[Jenise]

Thanks for that input, Rahsaan. And on the outside, they look identical or is the red variety a deeper scarlet shade?

The red does tend to be darker outside and there are also differences in the structure of the scales:

https://www.seedsdelmundo.com/blog/red-dragon-fruit-vs-white/

But safer to ask, if possible.

Great site, good information. So the red is sweeter and with more anti-oxidant properties. Also, generally smaller. I'm going to look for them--not a common sight in this part of the woods. Always available in Canada but then not border-safe. Still, would love to try them.

[Jenise]

Jenise, I've had TJ's chickens before and they are really great. Sort of forgot about them. Need to revisit.
Yesterday, I seasoned a hunk of meat with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder. Will flour today, brown well on all sides and toss into the slow cooker on a bed of sautéed leeks. Bay leaves, crushed, fire roasted tomatoes from Muir Glen, a good red wine and let it cook for a few hours. When the time is right, carrots, onion wedges (both red and white) Yukon Gold potato chunks, a couple celery stalks, cut into 2 inch pieces, and fresh rosemary, and dried oregano will be added. House should smell great soon. Serving with sourdough baguette hunks which I will lightly brown with garlic to sop up the gravy.

They have more than one whole chicken in the meat case, be sure to look for the ones described as Heirloom. The skin's actually yellow, like chickens were when we were kids.

That slow cooked beef dish sounds fantastic. I have a slow cooker but I don't like it. Haven't used it in ten years. I think it has three settings but it might as well be just two: high, and almost-off. If I want the slow-cooker effect, I just put a covered pot in the oven at 200F. A few months ago someone in my neighborhood was trying to sell an All-Clad that she'd been gifted for $100. I thought about it, then the ad disappeared. Well apparently she didn't get any bites and a few months later put it on the Free list. I did not get there in time, sadly.

Karen, goat meat is more similar to lamb or mutton than to beef. But it has its own distinctive flavor. When Indian recipes call for gosht (meat) in India goat is what is usually used. In the West goat is hard to find and lamb is the usual substitute. I found some goat once and made one of my favorite lamb curries with it. The spicing complemented the goat in a way I've never experienced when making the dish with lamb. The goat and seasonings very clearly were made for each other. I did discover that goat has to be cooked considerably longer than lamb.

-Paul W.

They have more than one whole chicken in the meat case, be sure to look for the ones described as Heirloom. The skin's actually yellow, like chickens were when we were kids.

Perdue used to make a big thing out of the yellow skin color of their chickens. It's mainly due to their being fed marigolds.

My favorite Perdue ad showed a photo of Frank Perdue holding a chicken leg. The caption read, "Who cares where the beef is?"

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, yes, that's what I understand about the skin color.

Last night for dinner I kind of invented a new dish we shall henceforth call French Onion Toast. We were watching the Hulu series The Bear, and it was after 5:00 and I didn't have a dinner plan. Well, I thought dinner would be a cold platter for sharing in front of the TV with an amazing big loaf of bread purchased in B.C., but something on the show itself made me think of French onion soup. But I didn't want a bowl of soup, I wanted the bread and cheese part. So I cut up one giant onion and simmered it in a minor amount of broth with bay leaf and nutmeg and scooped that mixture over pan-toasted 1" thick slices of this extra wide loaf, topped it with grated fontina cheese, stuck it under the broiler, and then topped them with lightly marinated chopped tomato salad. That dish with a bottle of good zinfandel was a match made in heaven.

That sounds so great, you come up with the most creative stuff!

Tonight, for me: T-bone (a BOGO deal) with sauteed mushrooms and onions, a popper or two, and beef-braised leeks (they're huge). For Edie: Cream of celery soup, homemade bread, and braised leeks. Blackberries for dessert.

Tonight: two beautiful NY strip steaks, done in a hot pan and finished in the oven; long-stemmed broccoli; and a batch of fondant potatoes.