What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Last week I made a pot of Alubia Blanca beans cooked in garlic and chicken broth. The beans were then combined with cherry tomatoes, Aleppo pepper, cumin, parsley, Pecorino Romano, Parmesan, and fresh lemon juice. I put them away in the fridge and forgot about them until today. Went looking for something for lunch. I bought a bag of arugula at Farmer's Market on Saturday, so topped it with the beans, which I had already brought to room temperature, drizzled a little pineapple vinegar over, a sprinkle of Trader Joe's black garlic, and placed a slice of Le Gruyére cheese on the plate. Wow, it was such a nice treat and a very tasty one at that. It was the first-time cooking with that small, white, heirloom bean, they are creamy and full of flavor.

[Jenise]

Karen, sounds great. I'll have to look up that bean. We had an almost identical lunch just now, though with canned Great Northern beans: added albacore tuna, diced jalapenos, a little red onion, vinegar and olive oil then scooped that on shredded lettuce.

That sounds great too, Jenise....going to do that this week.

[Jenise]

Because I'm dieting I'm not making anything interesting these days. Last night we had broiled brats (1 for me, 2 for Bob) with roasted broccolini. Hard to make food sound interesting when it's so plain and unimaginative.

I'm in Delaware with friends. Mary and Ben served dinner: salad made with forellenschluss ("speckled trout's back romaine") from her garden and various chopped vegetables, a cold spicy watermelon-mint-jalapeno soup, home-smoked chicken and pulled pork, crisp ears of corn, home-made chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, with three flavors of ice cream from a local creamery. Everything was really excellent, especially that soup and the oatmeal raisin cookies (kinda spread out and loose, almost like a florentine).

[Jenise]

Jeff, that sounds like a splendiforous meal, elevated by generosity of offerings. I've never heard of that romaine, btw.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts have been in a buttermilk, Tabasco bath. Will be seasoned with garlic salt, paprika, dry Italian seasoning, and pepper. These will be browned in butter. Will be combined with cooked Farro, sliced lemon, fresh rosemary, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, baby spinach and Kalamata olives. I will top with Asiago cheese, and a sprinkle of fresh rosemary. I have a marinated green bean, garbanzo bean and kidney bean salad to go with, and will also sauté broccolini with garlic and a little olive oil, butter and lemon.

[Jenise]

I got out a prime rib roast this morning. Then people came to see my Audi, which was for sale. They bought it, but it took four adults and three kids three hours to figure out how to do the instantaneous transfer or money from them to me. It's done now, but meanwhile: nothing has happened about dinner!!!!

Tomorrow for my birthday I'm making andouille and tasso jambalaya along with ratatouille.

-Paul W.

Tomorrow for my birthday I'm making andouille and tasso jambalaya along with ratatouille.

I'll be right over.

Jeff, I saw that lettuce in someone's garden one time, I thought it had a disease until the grower educated me on the variety.
https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/products/ ... routs-back

Yep, that's it. Though that is a nice pic. The ones from Mary's garden were more long and straggly.

[Jenise]

Great pic--I do know that lettuce. Don't see it often, but the adventurous farmers who supply our Food Coops get stuff like that which is why it's where I buy most of my produce.

Tonight for dinner: a platter of cold vegetables and cold leftover prime rib from Saturday night which I'll splash with a rosemary/tomato vinaigrette,

[Jenise]

Today I'm making Charles Phan's (he of Slanted Door fame) roasted Dungeness Crab with lemongrass and garlic. Bought two fresh 3 pounders for the job (8 inch carapaces!).

I'll be making a big batch (starting with 5 pounds of butter) of ghee this weekend. I've got only a couple of tablespoons left from my previous batch.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, how much volume do you net from what you started with? Maybe 2/5-3 cups out of 4?

A Shrimp Vermicelli Soup is on the menu tonight. It is getting up to 110 degrees today and I am craving this soup?? Instead of using Vermicelli, I am using extra plump soup barley, easier to eat too. Soup has green , red, bell peppers, red onion, garlic cloves, s &p, 3 fresh tomatoes, red onion, tomato paste, dried oregano, sweet paprika, chicken stock, large shrimp, lemon zest and juice, parsley fresh dill, and a green onion for garnish. Will also make a refreshing cucumber and radish salad.Our god daughter is coming for a visit on Sunday and I am making for her a Greek Pasta Salad, and Ciabatta Bread with garlic, herb butter. Salad is served cold which is good beause it be 111 degrees tomorrow! Good thing I have two A/C units in good working condition. Hate summers here.

[Jenise]

I've been a bad girl for the last couple days so today it's salad all day to atone for my sins while preparing for a small dinner party tomorrow which will be a menu centered around Smoked Chicken which I'll brine tonight in apple juice and white wine.

Paul, how much volume do you net from what you started with? Maybe 2/5-3 cups out of 4?

Ghee is pure butterfat. It's the same as clarified or drawn butter except that instead of separating out the butterfat immediately you let it simmer at very low heat for a few hours until all of the water evaporates and the solids at the bottom of the pan start to brown. That gives ghee a bit of a nutty flavor. Ghee also doesn't need refrigeration.

So if you take the butterfat percentage for the butter and multiply by the starting volume, you'll get a figure very close to the final yield. US unsalted butter is 82% butterfat unless labeled otherwise, so that would yield about 3-1/4 cups of ghee (I don't know if that 82% is by weight or volume). Plugra and other high-fat butters would yield more. I use Kate's unsalted butter, which comes from a local (Maine) dairy.

-Paul W.

Jenise, I feel your pain, I was a bad girl yesterday. I made the mistake of buying some Kettle Chips, salt and vinegar flavor wich I adore. Soooo, after my lovely salad for lunch I decided to treat myself with about three chips. Ended up like two cups!!

[Jenise]

Karen, I feel you!!! I am not a snacker, but there are three things we just can't have in the house because I won't leave them alone: potato chips (in particular Ruffles plain), Chile-Cheese Fritos, and roasted/salted peanuts in the shell.

There are two bags of Chile-Cheese Fritos in the pantry right now. They're for tomorrow, about which I've promised myself they're only for guests though in all likelihood I will not be able to resist.

[Jenise]

Karen, I feel you!!! I am not a snacker, but there are three things we just can't have in the house because I won't leave them alone: potato chips (in particular Ruffles plain), Chile-Cheese Fritos, and roasted/salted peanuts in the shell.

There are two bags of Chile-Cheese Fritos in the pantry right now. They're for tomorrow, about which I've promised myself they're only for guests though in all likelihood I will not be able to resist.

Yesterday, at a salad bar, I had a serving of cucumber-pineapple salad and it was incredibly fresh and cooling and terrific. So, I'm making some for myself. Starting out simple: one cucumber (peeled, seeds scooped out), a cup or two of fresh pineapple chunks, and half a lime (squozed). We'll see what it's like tomorrow. I have some fresh oregano leaf on hand to add -- which I expect it will need -- but not sure whether to think about a more complex dressing, e.g., a spoonful of honey, a splash of rice wine vinegar, etc.

I was very happy to have a dish of my favorite carrot sald around the house the past few days so now I'm on a kick of making side dishes.

Have you tried Trader Joe's Chile Lime Cashews? Planter's Pistachio Nut mix is a fave of mine. I keep a pretty, small round dish on my kitchen counter. It greets guests coming in through the back door, and when they enter the kitchen. My neighbors love it, and one son sits down at the counter and makes a meal out of them. I can resist them thankfully, 99 per cent of the time.