What's Cooking (Take Three!)

One good thing about needing a new fridge is that it forces you to uncover what's been lurking in the old one ! I discovered a jar of ramp, green olive tapenade that I made and froze the last time I was able to forage for ramps, 2021. I am loath to waste food so I used it for a Friday pasta sauce and it was spectacular. I sweated a small amount of finely chopped red onion mostly for color, in the olive oil from a can of Ortiz tuna, added minced fresh parsley and deglazed with a bit of Dolin before adding a healthy amount of the ramp green olive tapenade and lots of black pepper and a pinch of Urfa pepper. A few tablespoons of cream then to slightly thicken then off the heat added the tuna and broke it up to make a chunky sauce. I don't like cooking the canned tuna, just heated it through. Served with Fara San Martino spaghetti and grated Parm it was fantastic. We wanted more than the 2 oz each that I made. Glad I didn't use the entire jar of tapenade.

I'm happy I finally fixed our fridge that was waterlogged in the refrigerator section. Woo-hoo. I also found interesting items that I had forgotten about.

Another offshoot of the new fridge is an irresistible urge to clean out the pantry. Found some not too dehydrated prunes and rehydrated them in hot Earl Grey tea to make a prune frangipane tart in an almond crust. An old NYT recipe. I am not a sweets loving person but after cutting down the sugar in both the crust and the frangipane the flavors in the prunes spiked with some Slivovitz stood out. Having friends for tea tomorrow because it has to disappear. I will not have another slice even though I love the flavors. I would much rather have something savory.

However I think the truth is that--and I've run into this before--the sommelier heard a female voice on the other end of the phone and immediately discounted everything I said by 100%. Only men are supposed to know anything about fine wine. He said, "Just bring it down, we'll take care of you!" at least three times. When I claimed that I knew it needed 2-3 hours, his answer was "an hour will be fine. You just hang out and have a few cocktails. Just bring it down when you come for dinner!" Last thing I said, then, was that I would pull the cork 4 or 5 hours ahead of time, "not the same thing as decanting but it will help a little". To then get told they could not pour that wine?

This place just goes from bad to worse.

Son coming up for a visit and attempt to fix an IT issue so we are having lunch. I made a tomato, bean soup that is excellent and also serving fresh, large shrimp with the best cocktail sauce I have ever had from a company called Ken's. I add fresh Bearrs lime to it and it is a killer.. Also, slices of sourdough bread with melted cheese on top. Not sure what cheese as of yet, need to check my supply. I think he'll like it.

My nephew and his family are coming so I'm making Osso Buco and Risotto Milanese.

[Jenise]

This place just goes from bad to worse.

It was inexcusable. And to think we wasted the better (because that night, being Tues not Monday, had more options) of the only two evenings we'd have there. Just kills me.

[Jenise]

Dan, a great dish. We should all come to your house!

We're going to a 3:00 Happy Hour. Will probably be snacked out and not preparing dinner tonight.

Tonight I'm making Thai beef massaman curry.

-Paul W.

This morning I made a Thai Chicken and Bean Threads Soup, with shallots, fresh ginger, Thai green curry paste, chicken stock, coconut milk, fish sauce, dark brn. sugar, fresh lime juice and Tumeric. Garnished with cilantro, scallions, Sriracha sauce and probably more lime juice. I am having Asian cravings for my lunches, so going with it.
My neighbor has a Bearss Lime tree that produces tons of limes, they use very little and cannot imagine what I do with all the limes they give me. Oh, if they only knew what they are missing.

[Jenise]

Aren't you lucky, Karen. I miss California neighbors with fruit trees.

[Jenise]

I just put pot of green beans on the stove with garlic, bay leaf, clove, and a minor amount of chopped raw pork belly because I had it in the freezer. Will add potatoes and swiss chard later. Not quite vegetarian for a Monday meal, but close enough.

Thanks for the inspiration DanS! Lamb osso bucco for Easter. If on the Italian side of seasonings, coarsely ground corn meal polenta. If veering to North Africa, #4 Bulghur. Garlicky broccolini as veg. Have to decide on seasonings but the lamb is a done deal.
Because of Ramadan my local market has lots of Halal lamb, chicken, beef, fresh falafel, beautiful dates, figs, filo pastries, interesting pickles, fava beans, artichoke hearts, malokhia, kanafeh. The store is an education in geography, history and culture. Can't imagine being around that stuff and not being able to eat or drink. It makes shopping and cooking in the upper midwest interesting.

Making hmmm…is caprese salad on grilled bread bruschetta Margherita?
Anyway that’s what I’ll snack on while I’m freezing, drying and bottling excess produce from my garden
Tomatoes, spinach, parsley. A bunch of apples with minor blemishes or peck marks washed trimmed sliced and dried.
Mostly not large quantities but enough to make the effort worthwhile. It is satisfying to see the results and more so when using it later in the year.

[Jenise]

Sounds right to me, Barb!

Speaking of apples, I saw something interesting on a cooking competition today. A must-use ingredient of crabapples were sliced then combined with potato chips and eggs to make a riff on a classic Spanish tortilla. I liked the looks of that--a lot!

@Jenise Osso Buco is one of my favorite dishes. I keep frozen D'Artagnan shanks in the freezer so I can make it at the drop of a hat.

@Christina You're welcome. I've not made lamb Osso Buco, but I braise lam shanks as often as I do veal shanks. I tried pork shank osso buco once. It was very good flavor wise, but so rich. A little over the top for me.

I Offered my guests a choice. Osso Buco or Cassoulet. I had not made either for a while. I had all of the ingredients for either so it would have been a win for me either way. I'll have to make the cassoulet soon.

Aren't you lucky, Karen. I miss California neighbors with fruit trees.

Yes, it is great. I am on my third try with a Bearrs Lime tree, it was doing so well until we got snow in the valley, too much of it, and it split my baby lime in half. My miracle worker handyman who is also an arborist again rescued my lime tree by putting the branch back together with a hose clamp. It was doing well until the second round of snow came, then atmospheric rivers of rain. It looks very sad right now and I will wait to see if it picks up. Years ago when my lemon tree split because of snow, he used three huge screws, a ratchet thingy to pull it together. It worked and to this day my beloved lemon tree is Ok. Although, loosing a lot of leaves due to the cold temps. It is a challenge to grow citrus here. here. The navel orange tree seems to handle it OK.
I've told my neighbors what I cook with them, but I don't think it interested the one who cooks. But that is OK, I take all they give me.

They are yellow, and I cannot figure out why the commercial lime growers do not use these instead of the small green ones the stores sell, many which hardly have any juice. I get 2 to 3 TBSP of juice out of one of the limes he gives me. Sometimes more depending on the size. It is a sad day when I use up my stash. I need to start juicing them, but when I finish with my lemon tree, I do not want to see another juicer until next year!

This morning I made a Thai Chicken and Bean Threads Soup, with shallots, fresh ginger, Thai green curry paste, chicken stock, coconut milk, fish sauce, dark brn. sugar, fresh lime juice and Tumeric.

I have a very similar recipe for a Thai-style chicken and bean thread soup that I'm very fond of. It calls for poached boneless skinless chicken breasts that are sliced up and added to the soup at the end. I instead use meat from one of those lovely Costco rotisserie chickens.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Dans: you mention pork shank. I don't think pork shanks have been mentioned here in years BUT, wild coincidence!!!, I came to my desk after lunch planning to ask if anyone ever roasts pork shanks. The reason being, I dug one out of the garage freezer just this morning--a rarity, stores here do not stock pork shanks, EVER, I boubght this at an Asian market in Seattle--and it's thawing for our dinner. I've only seen them in an American restaurant once--and yes, I ordered it--otherwise in German restaurants but on this coast, every shank would seem to end up smoked for bean soups and the like. I noticed that D'Artagnan sells them as does Snake River Farms in Idaho.

So I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet but a Mexican braise with red chiles is what's speaking to me right now.

This morning I made a Thai Chicken and Bean Threads Soup, with shallots, fresh ginger, Thai green curry paste, chicken stock, coconut milk, fish sauce, dark brn. sugar, fresh lime juice and Tumeric.

I have a very similar recipe for a Thai-style chicken and bean thread soup that I'm very fond of. It calls for poached boneless skinless chicken breasts that are sliced up and added to the soup at the end. I instead use meat from one of those lovely Costco rotisserie chickens.

-Paul W.

The one I made calls for rotisserie chicken also, but I had chicken pieces in the freezer frozen from a whole chicken last month. So I had some white and dark meat. I love Costco rotisserie chicken but it never gets used in anything as I eat it all up within a few days. Yum!

[Jenise]

Last night's pork shank was fantastic. I didn't have a specific direction for flavor until I considered using the guajillo chile sauce I'd made for enchiladas a few weeks back. So, it was to be Mexican. After three hours, though, at 350F, it was still on the tough side and much as I loved the sauce, I found it a bit plain and it suddenly occurred to me to slightly oversalt it and add vinegar and bay leaves in the style of Philipine adobo and finish it in my pressure cooker. Everything but the soy sauce, if you will. So I did that--the result was spectacular! I finished the plate with garlic rice, a green bell pepper salad and opened a Cabernet Franc. Divine.

[Jenise]

Friends just recovering from their second bouts of Covid in six months will be coming over tonight to celebrate their release from captivity. They isolated for 10 days.

Will be doing a French menu. Brown bread with cheese and radishes, a salad of cold asparagus with a chopped shrimp and truffle vinaigrette, and for the main, mirotons--the dish originally designed to use leftover beef from a pot-au-feu layered with equal amounts of onions and tomatoes and baked into a harmonious oozy slather for scooping onto crusty French bread. Anchovies are considered an essential seasoning but I use capers. There is no better food in the world for pairing with old red wines.

Sounds great Jenise!
Last night my turn to cook, didn't have a ton of time, did a shortcut bouillabaisse. Sauteed onion, celery, carrot, and fennel. Pinch of saffron. Added some yellow cherry tomatoes, then a can of diced tomatoes and some shrimp stock. Let it simmer while took dog for a walk. Added a can of clams (!!!)*, then some pollock, then shrimp. Finished with a dollop of Ricard and some fennel pollen. Probably 25 minutes active time,.
*OK, the canned clams. During lockdown Betsy tried a very good quick clam pasta from NYT using canned clams. I noticed we had a can still (expiring this summer). We've been trying to stay away from pasta , so thought could use this way. I missed having clams and mussels in shells, but it was tasty

I make a really good chowder using canned ocean clams. They taste like they should, and the texture is right, so I leave my prejudices outside.

For this one, anyway.