What's Cooking (Take Four)

I'm crazy about eating Concord grapes, not crazy about drinking Concord wine.

[Jenise]

Tonight: we'll share a single fat marinated veal chop that I'll serve with mixed broccolini (half oven-roasted, half steamed--I love the combination).

I had one of my faves--a cold, meatloaf sandwich on home-made bread.

It's warm here so cold salad and cold soba. And a really excellent white peach.

[Jenise]

Last night we started with a salad--the first from lettuces that I grew. So proud of that!

I think I'm going to make a cold shitake mushroom/pasta salad for lunch today. Something that will mirror the flavors of a ramen but in cold form with a lot of Lan Chi going on--I have fresh big, wrinkly fresh shitakes from H Mart on hand.

Last night I made Taylor Holliday's Sichuan stir-fried bacon in bean sauces (chao larou). This is the same dish as the famous twice-cooked pork but it uses smoked bacon instead of fresh pork belly. Because of this the first stage cooking of the pork belly (boiling) is skipped. The stir-fry has the same ingredients and procedure as twice-cooked pork and the result is similar but with a smoky quality from the bacon. I prefer this dish to traditional twice-cooked pork, both for flavor and because it's easier to prepare.

-Paul W.

Today I am cooking half of a whole chicken. Seasoned yesterday, today it will be coated with a mix of brown sugar, coffee granules, lime juice, fresh ginger, dark rum, a bit of olive oil, and ketchup melted in a pan on the stove and cooled. At the Farmer's Market this morning I am picking up a bag of small, multi-colored carrots, which looked very good last week, and placing them around the chicken—and red onion. In addition, I am roasting golden beets and Brussels sprouts, The beautiful tomatoes are abundant, so I am making panzanella salad.

[Jenise]

Paul, I haven't seen Twice Cooked Pork on a menu in 100 years. Used to order it often at a favorite Cantonese place near my office--IIRC, the only vegetable that particular restaurant used was green cabbage. Maybe onion. In fact probably onion, too. Your version sounds intriguing, even if more fattening.

Karen, sounds like a good sauce.

This morning I made Bob some shirred eggs for breakfast. It's such a good way to get both high calories and protein into him at the start of the day, an objective that's of prime importance at this stage of his disease. I ate watermelon. Tonight for dinner we're barbecuing lamb chops, the little porterhouse cuts, that I put into a baggie with a lot of soy sauce, vermouth and oregano then put in the freezer a month ago. I'm going kind of Greek here, and will serve them with a cold bread salad of roasted Chinese cauliflower, red wine vinegar soaked baguette, mint and lots of garlic. Not sure what else. Our guests are bringing a shaved fennel salad.

Twice-cooked pork is a fairly common menu item in Mandarin/Sichuan restaurants around here, but it's a very much Americanized version.

The original Sichuan dish uses a cut of pork about 1/2 lean 1/2 fat. Fresh pork belly with the same fat-to-lean ratio is an acceptable substitute. The first cooking step is to simmer the hunk of pork 15-20 minutes. You then let the pork cool and tighten up, then slice it into 2" long and 1/8" thick pieces. The aromatics are leeks (tender leaves only) cut into 2" strips, and 8 scallions, cut vertically into strips about 2" long. The seasonings are Pixian doubanjiang (chili bean paste), tianmianjiang (sweet wheat paste), preserved black beans, and a touch of light soy sauce and sugar.

For the second stage of cooking, you stir-fry the pork until the meat is cooked through and the fat starts to render. Don't let the pork brown or get crispy. Push the pork up on the side of the wok, leaving the fat in the bottom of the pan. Add the seasonings and stir-fry until aromatic (about 30 seconds). Add the leeks and stir-fry until just softened. Finally add the scallions and stir-fry until just softened.

A good bit of fat gets rendered from the pork. One picks the pork and veggies out of the sauce and leaves the fat behind. It's delicious when eaten with a lot of white rice.

-Paul W.

Tonight I made another version of Turkey Cordon Bleu. I smeared tomato paste on the turkey and used prosciutto instead of regular ham. Added a real shot of salty-savory to it. Served with sauteed mix veg and slices from the heaviest loaf of 7-grain bread I have ever feared for dropping on my toes.

Our guests are bringing a shaved fennel salad.

Ooh, shaved fennel salad! I'm getting inspired.

ETA: I forgot to mention last night's dessert: I pitted some black cherries in the afternoon and macerated them with sugar, cloves, and Grand Marnier. Served over flavored yogurt and very yummy. I'm going to do a variant tonight, I think, but with mango ice cream.

Summer is here. Local corn and tomatoes, yippee. Last night some nice (expensive) chanterelles as a side to steak.

I made a shaved fennel salad with a lemony vinaigrette, shaved parm, toasted pine nuts, and a few small croutons. Very happy!

Round 2 of the cherries is a little over-cloved. Stuff is so darn strong, I may switch to cinnamon for Round 3.

I've got 5 ears of corn in the fridge waiting for shucking. Gotta convince Pumpkin to let me cut the kernels off one before he just boils them all.

[Jenise]

Summer is here. Local corn and tomatoes, yippee. Last night some nice (expensive) chanterelles as a side to steak.

Yes! An absolute favorite combination. I need more corn. And I'm getting anxious for local tomatoes; none in our marketplace yet. Not even any piles of imported heirlooms.

Tonight I made another version of Turkey Cordon Bleu. I smeared tomato paste on the turkey and used prosciutto instead of regular ham. Added a real shot of salty-savory to it. Served with sauteed mix veg and slices from the heaviest loaf of 7-grain bread I have ever feared for dropping on my toes.

Our guests are bringing a shaved fennel salad.

Ooh, shaved fennel salad! I'm getting inspired.

ETA: I forgot to mention last night's dessert: I pitted some black cherries in the afternoon and macerated them with sugar, cloves, and Grand Marnier. Served over flavored yogurt and very yummy. I'm going to do a variant tonight, I think, but with mango ice cream.

Yum. I guess my invite got lost.

[Jenise]

Last week I bought two crates of better-than-average (deeper red, firm, uniform size) tomatoes at the Chef Store in order to supply Wine Club with perfectly uniform tomato slices for a burger feed for 72 persons last Friday night. That meant getting four perfect slices from the center of each tomato and stacking them in a neat large spiral for a very classy presentation. The bowl of surplus tops and bottoms will become tonight's tomato paella and a bottle of gazpacho.

Yum. I guess my invite got lost.

I'm sure it's around here somewhere. Maybe Jenise's OutLook instance got it?

perfectly uniform tomato slices for a burger feed for 72 persons last Friday night. That meant getting four perfect slices from the center of each tomato and stacking them in a neat large spiral for a very classy presentation.

Hercule Poirot would have approved. There is one scene where he is served two eggs for breakfast but he refuses to eat them because they are of different sizes.

-Paul W.

Tonight: a heavily bedecked spinach and arugula salad, cheesey toast made with the aforementioned extra-heavy bread, and skirt steaks done under the broiler (well for he, medium rare for me). Fairly quick cooking in this warm weather.

Last night was a variation of kung pao shrimp, with leftover rice for today's fried rice.

[Jenise]

My tomato paella plan never happened. Rather, I took my car in to get a new windshield. Windshield deaths are a common problem up here. Prior to moving here I only ever had to replace one windshield--a branch fell on my Beemer during a rainstorm. In the 21 years we lived here, we had to replace the Jeep once, the Sprinter (which only has 35,000 miles on it) twice, the Audi twice, and now my new Lexus which got a fatal rock bite when it was only seven months old. The place I took it to needed five hours but gave me a loaner, so off we went to Skagit County for lunch and a roundup of various farm stands. Skagit County's largely agricultural so the farm stands abound.

Among the things I brought home were freshly baked breads, farm eggs, summer squashes, Armenian cucumbers, sugar snap peas, fresh garlic, white and chiogga beets, boysenberries, tayberries, cherries (rainiers, lapins and most notably black pearls).

So dinner was a heavenly but simple plate of beets on a bed of red romaine that I grew myself, topped with sliced WW onions, chevre cheese, avocado and thinly sliced sugar snap peas for a sweet crunch, all drizzled with lime juice and EVOO.

Two things I turn to in exceptionally hot weather are Cajun cooking and Sichuan cold dishes. Tonight's dinner will be andouille and tasso jambalaya.

-Paul W.

I'm a lucky guy. I was considering making shrimp scampi, but my neighbor rang my doorbell and handed me spaghetti in marinara sauce and some bread. All I need to fix is a salad now.

That was a beautiful haul Jenise. I have such a heavy basket when I leave our Farmer's Market, it is difficult to carry. Gene always went with me and he handled the basket. I could make a trip back to the car, but alas...I am getting lazy!

[Jenise]

Today I'm starting the (for me, because I'm so obsessive) arduous task of creating a terrine for Bill's annual terrine dinner. I never just 'do' a recipe. I take an idea and turn it into something that's never been done before. There will be many iterations and I don't even always end up where I thought I would. You're probably all aware of the Country French rustic Pate Campagna. Well, my intention is to create a lighter, healthier verison. I'll let you know how it goes. Today is experimental version #1.

Also, for lunch we're having a steak salad thanks to Costco where yesterday I found a large tray of prime filet mignons, PRIME I said, for $22/lb. I have no room in the freezer but yes I bought them all.