What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

Where's Karen? Haven't seen her in a week or more. Not like her.

[Jenise]

This morning I invited two couples to dinner tonight. Both said yes. Had originally planned enchilada pie but at the last minute I pivoted and am making this menu:

Finger food: gin-fried sugar snap peas and crostini topped wtih caramelized onions and Stilton
Salad: Little gem lettuces with avocado dressing and radishes
Main: Beef simmered with dry vermouth and consomme scooped over thick slice of lightly toasted puffy bread topped with sauteed mushrooms, fresh chives and broccolini
Dessert: honeydew and blueberry sorbet

[Jenise]

Tonight for dinner: not cooking! Going to try a new Mexican food truck.

Where's Karen? Haven't seen her in a week or more. Not like her.

I'm here, laying low, business stuff, lost interest in cooking for a few weeks. Right now, buried in snow, part of a tree down in my yard, everything was in bloom, yesterday it was beautiful, today, a disaster zone.

[Jenise]

Where's Karen? Haven't seen her in a week or more. Not like her.

I'm here, laying low, business stuff, lost interest in cooking for a few weeks. Right now, buried in snow, part of a tree down in my yard, everything was in bloom, yesterday it was beautiful, today, a disaster zone.

Thank you for checking in, I'm relieved! But of course sorry to hear your news. Hope the tree didn't hit anything on it's way down. This cold snap is really a tough one. Did you see that San Diego was going to get a blizzard yesterday? Of all places. Would have made the polar bears at the zoo happy but no one else!

For a short time, as a kid, I lived in San Diego. Loved going to the zoo and the polar bears were my favorite but always wondered if they were happy in that area. I know those who have Husky type dogs up here in Redding had some very happy pups all day yesterday, My dog finally found a way to go potty this morning without getting buried in the snow. I have an arborist coming over today to take some snapped branches off my lemon tree and give some assistance to a few other favorite specimens in the yard. What a mess! Snow is pretty but not in the City of Redding with huge oaks...and the snow was wet, not of good combination for here. We have beautiful mountains on three sides of us, the snow needs to stay up there!

[Jenise]

Karen, I had a dream about you last night. You and I were roommates--we shared a single story single family home somewhere near Newport Beach (god knows why there) and I worked nearby. Came home early from work one day due to a monster headache to find you making dinner for us. It was corned beef, only it hadn't actually been corned--you were cooking a rump roast in vinegar with mustard seeds, which you believed would achieve the same result. It did taste good but it was nothing like real corned beef. The only side I remember was cabbage, chopped finely and lightly stewed until super soft and heavenly. All this because I saw corned beef at the market yesterday and realizing oh yeah St. Patricks Day is coming.

Last night for dinner I made a Stilton cheese souffle with a minor amount of finely chopped and lightly cooked shitake mushrooms. Absolutely fantastic, and the pairing with a mildly musty 22 yo St. Emilion was incredible. One of those stratospheric wine-food matches.

Wow Jenise, that is quite the story. We have never met, so that seems strange you would dream about me. All my dreams are in color and I actually see the characters, usually family. Thanks for the chuckle this morning.
Last night's dinner was store made chicken enchiladas with green sauce. Our local market makes the best chicken enchiladas, lots of white breast meat, very moist, and taste home made, everyone loves them. I added extra black olives on top, slivers of a green chili pepper, and an array of sliced up colorful cherry toms that were getting wrinkled. Baked until the dish was nicely browned around the edges, cheese was golden, and tomatoes roasted. It was lovely, served with some very thinly sliced dill pickles. Really hit the spot. I am recuperating after thirty years of no sickness of any sort. Some bug got me, lost my appetite, desire to cook, and energy, Finally, made a turn around, I have most of my appetite back, energy coming too. Thanks to my eldest son and wife who came up from Sacramento and got me on the BRAT diet, electrolytes, and an array of things I never worried about!
Had to toss out a lot of food that had gone bad. On my way to the market today for an adventure after being in house for three weeks.

I'm going Cajun to combat the current cold snap. Tonight I'm making chicken and andouille gumbo. Tomorrow's dinner will be chicken sauce piquant.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Karen, my dreams are silly like that. Random thoughts throughout the day pasted together to make a story. At present I have a lot of concerns about the future I can do nothing about, and that's really where this dream was coming from.

Baked a mincemeat pie with a dash or two of rum. Yum.

I finally have my appetite back and feel like cooking. Yesterday, I seasoned up a half of an organic chicken, placed on a bed of onions and drizzled the whole thing with Vermouth. A few days ago I found a bag of beautiful Purple Peruvian, Red Bliss, Yukon Gold spuds, all about the same size. They are bathing in a bowl of salt, pepper, a Country French Vinaigrette seasoning, fresh garlic cloves and Vermouth. I've been craving potatoes and these will go in with the chicken to roast later today. I also tossed in what was left of some colorful cherry toms, cut in half as they were large. They look very pretty in the bowl and will be yummy, for sure.

[Jenise]

Karen, very glad you're back on your feet and cooking again. Sounds like a perfect dinner.

No plans yet for tonight. Might heat up the leftovers from last week's Beef Burgundy but re-vise it in some way. Not sure what yet.

Cooking a vaguely Spanish meal tonight for a friend visiting for a few days.
Not sure about final order of dishes yet.

Gazpacho with garlic croutons
Bacon rolls with cheeses stuffed dates
Tortilla
Artichoke hearts with salsa verde
Warm marinated olives
Garlic prawns
Fresh baked olive bread
Crema Catalana with fresh raspberries

[Jenise]

Barb, that should be a fun meal. You'll do little plates, tapas style?

[Jenise]

I'm up in the middle of the night. Couldn't sleep for worrying about Morton's Tender Quick Curing Salt.

So decided to get up and consult Michael Ruhlman's book Salumi. No help, he and co-author Brian Polcyn don't use this product which, I take it, might be considered a cheat vs. using pink salt or pink salt #2 (for longer cures).

So what happened is that I'm making lunch for Bill Spohn and the guys tomorrow. The wine topic is Loire Valley. I didn't have a specific dish in mind when I volunteered to do the main, but decided to pull out my Jacques Pepin book and choose one of his recipes. Forces me to expand my repertoire rather than just fall back on something reliable, however good.

Several things are involved in the choice, not the least of which is what I can do at home with minimal fuss at Bill's and transport without exciting the goons at the border. The most appealing dish I found, and committed to, a dish called Sausage and Potato Salad Richard. Richard is Jacques' brother, and this country dish is one of his favorite foods in the world. It consists of a potato salad paired with sausage that is made 2-7 days in advance with Morton's Tender Quick Curing Salt and poached at a very low temp (while wrapped securely in cling film) just before service. It was the sausage, seasoned with garlic and red wine, that really captured my attention as Curing Salt and poaching like this are both techniques outside of my experience. Cool, right?

So I gathered up all the ingredients needed last week and immediately began curing a sausage. Two days later, on Sunday, I poached it as per Jacques' directions. I also made the potato salad. Four pounds of it, which was perfect for taking to Sunday night's Dorks tasting--vegan and plentiful. It's utterly fantastic btw. A very wet, wine-y, herb-y, mustard-y sauce that coats every morsel of potato, which is finished with melted leeks. Very different from any of the other potato salads I do. Big hit at the tasting, too.

But the sausage. Basically the look and texture of a Hickory Farms Summer Sausage sans the smoke flavor. It's cured all right, but YUCK. For one, too salty in its cooked state though it tasted fine raw. I tested it warmed as it would be direct from the poach, sliced/panfried and cold from the fridge later. All too salty. And the only salt in it IS the curing salt. So early tonight I made another sausage, the one that will go to Bill's, and I cut the curing salt by more than half--1 tsp vs. two and a half--added a wee bit more wine, 2 cloves of garlic instead of just 1, plus two things that weren't in the recipe: some fennel seed and a few tablespoons of parmesan cheese hoping that will loosen up the texture a bit. My pork was bit leaner than recommended.

And then I went to bed and laid awake thinking about nitrites and nitrates and bacteria and and and...you know the drill. With less curing salt, what color will the result be? Did I use enough to be safe? Does that matter only 48 hours after I mixed it? What if I roast it instead of poach it? What if I poach it and then sear it off for color? EITHER WAY WILL IT BE SHIT?

I'm going back to bed now. Wish me luck.

Ah Jenise, I know your pain. When I would have a big family event going on, I would worry about the silliest things, over and over until I had changed the entire menu. That is when I was doing a different kind of cooking than I am now. Now, it is all about simplicity, health, easy, not a lot of work. Oh, and it must taste like I cooked all day...hard to accomplish sometimes, but it is usually just for me these days so I am not too hard on myself.

Got around to making Paul Prudhomme's chicken sauce piquant last night. In his Louisiana Kitchen cookbook, Prudhomme says, "To a Cajun, piquant means 'it's hot and hurts like a sticker in your tongue.'" Well, to my palate this dish came out very tasty and nicely warm, but far from Prodhomme's description of 'piquant'. The main heat source here is jalapenos. I used a bit more than the amount called for in the recipe. I did notice when I bought them that these were unusually large jalapenos. Perhaps another case of veggies bred for size and not flavor? I bought way more than I needed for the sauce piquant and the rest of them will be going into Chinese ground pork with minced chiles. That's a dish I make very often, so we'll see how the jalapenos fare in that one.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

The main heat source here is jalapenos. I used a bit more than the amount called for in the recipe. I did notice when I bought them that these were unusually large jalapenos. Perhaps another case of veggies bred for size and not flavor?
-Paul W.

Yes. This trend has been going on for quite some time. You get the bonus of more green bell pepper flesh for your dish but on the whole they're milder. Keep the cayenne handy to add back heat if necessary.

Since you have that book, would you mind typing up Paul's recipe for Dirty Rice? I'm hungry for it, and I don't have the book.

[Jenise]

Ah Jenise, I know your pain. When I would have a big family event going on, I would worry about the silliest things, over and over until I had changed the entire menu. That is when I was doing a different kind of cooking than I am now. Now, it is all about simplicity, health, easy, not a lot of work. Oh, and it must taste like I cooked all day...hard to accomplish sometimes, but it is usually just for me these days so I am not too hard on myself.

The tiniest things can keep us awake, can't they. And tiny problems all look larger in the dark. But that's why God selected us for motherhood, not men, isn't it.

Yeah, stay with the comfort food. Definitely what we all need.

Barb, that should be a fun meal. You'll do little plates, tapas style?

It was fun… I served each in small dishes to share, except for individual soups and desserts.
With lots of conversation, good red wine, and nobody had ti drive anywhere afterwards.

Last night I had leftovers from the chicken sauce-not-so-piquant. I tossed in some cayenne and some hot paprika. Now that was more like it. Next time I make the dish I think I'll add a minced habanero.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Good for you, Paul. I wonder in a contest between you and Larry, who'd have the highest heat tolerance?

Dinner tonight: corned beef with warm potato salad and stir-fried cabbage.

I can tell you my heat tolerance isn't what it used to be, but it's still pretty high. Went to the Annual Fiery Foods Festival today and tasted a number of samples. Picked up my annual bottle of Simmie-J's BBQ sauce out of California. I've known the owner for a couple of decades now.