What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Sounds delicious Jenise, is this just you and Bill or are there others, and is it a competition between the participants?

[Jenise]

Karen, it started out as a competition, and the first was in 2004. I had just moved here and gone to a garden party at Bill Spohn's to which I brought a savory sun-dried tomato cheesecake. It was a hit, and that brought about being invited to the terrine event in 2004. It has happened every year since, save for a two year hiatus for Covid. Bill will post a play-by-play any day now.

Last night for dinner we had tomato tart and a cucumber salad. Considering my love for tomatoes, it's almost ridiculous that until last night I'd never got around to making a tart out of them, but it finally happened.

[Jenise]

Have a big wine tasting tonight. Am taking two whole filets of roasted salmon that I'll paint with miso and douse with a lemon-ginger vinaigrette for service.

Last night I made chicken and noodles in spiced broth. This is a Chinese/Thai hybrid dish. Chicken broth is simmered with star anise, black peppercorns, cinnamon, fresh ginger, and dried tangerine peel. Cooked in this broth are reconstituted dried shiitake mushrooms (to which I added some dried lily flowers), along with soy sauce and fish sauce. Then a bunch of bean thread noodles are added, and finally a topping of sliced poached chicken breast and a garnish of scallion rounds (green part only) and ground Sichuan pepper-salt. I used meat from a Costco rotisserie chicken instead of poached chicken.

A delightful dish for a hot summer's day.

-Paul W.

Both the salmon and the chicken/noodles sound great.
Last night at Betsy's request I made steak (marinated in shio koji, wrote about on learning thread) and kimchi carbonara
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/102 ... -carbonara
The carbonara was fun. Shallots, garlic , ginger, deglaze with wine, add chopped napa kinchi, add pasta and stir, then egg yolks, cheese, and kimchee juice (and had to add a little pasta water). Top with spinach, gochujaru, and more Parmesan. Definite do again. Maybe 25 minutes if you count prep

Last night I made chicken and noodles in spiced broth. This is a Chinese/Thai hybrid dish. Chicken broth is simmered with star anise, black peppercorns, cinnamon, fresh ginger, and dried tangerine peel. Cooked in this broth are reconstituted dried shiitake mushrooms (to which I added some dried lily flowers), along with soy sauce and fish sauce. Then a bunch of bean thread noodles are added, and finally a topping of sliced poached chicken breast and a garnish of scallion rounds (green part only) and ground Sichuan pepper-salt. I used meat from a Costco rotisserie chicken instead of poached chicken.

Oh my, this sounds good. Do you have a recipe?

Yesterday, a neighbor gifted me a beautiful, nice-sized trout from Shasta Lake not far from here. It was cleaned and ready to cook. It will bathe in butter. lemon juice and fresh garlic and will be pan-cooked. Alongside is a tomato and corn salad, with fresh marjoram, basil, lime juice with zest, lemon juice with zest, champagne vinegar, chipotle pepper, cayenne, red pepper flakes, and a little honey. Fresh corn is taken off the cob, and tomatoes are a combo of cherry and regular. Topped with Feta Cheese at serving. Also, roasting a sheet pan of cauliflower, red onion, tiny red whole peppers, 1 yellow bell pepper, and red and yellow potatoes with fresh garlic oil, salt, Sumac, and Zatar.

[Jenise]

Last night I smoked a salmon filet. I swabbed it with maple syrup and coated it with salt and cracked black pepper, then served hunks on a romaine and shaved sweet onion salad. Pretty damn good!

Tonight: a thick Flannery steak.

Last night I smoked a salmon filet. I swabbed it with maple syrup and coated it with salt and cracked black pepper, then served hunks on a romaine and shaved sweet onion salad. Pretty damn good!

That sounds great. Even just roasted, without the smoke, it would likely be terrific.

Tonight was a Heavily Constrained Lamb Korma: I had neither the time nor the ingredients to do it properly but I did have a pound of already-roasted leg of lamb and a cup of plain yogurt. So, I activated some whole spices (cinnamon stick, bay leaf, cardamom pod), threw in the lamb, yogurt, a couple spoons of curry powder and powdered ginger, and a few spoons of coconut skyr. Simmer for 30 minutes and add a little more of the yogurts to build the sauce. Not bad for winging it.

Alongside is a tomato and corn salad, with fresh marjoram, basil, lime juice with zest, lemon juice with zest, champagne vinegar, chipotle pepper, cayenne, red pepper flakes, and a little honey. Fresh corn is taken off the cob, and tomatoes are a combo of cherry and regular. Topped with Feta Cheese at serving.

I've been making a corn and tomato salad a lot. Usually just corn, tomato, red onion, and some herb (whatever I have on hand). Yesterday I decided to go crazy after reading this. I grilled and ear of corn then added some fresh marjoram, champagne vinegar, lime juice, S&P, and topped with feta. It was definitely an improvement. I'm going to keep experimenting on this theme.

Thanks for the ideas.

The "Korma" was inventive way to use what you had!

Hard to beat combination of tomato and corn at this time of year in NE. Lobsters were on sale so we did an old fave- parboil and breakdown lobsters, quarter heirlooms and dress in nice vinegar (Minus 8 ), then the corn, thyme, lobster meat is sauteed in butter.

I think I eat more tomato (and corn) from late July to early Sept than rest of year altogether.

This Saturday I went to a delicious Texas-style barbecue for the New Hampshire Astronomical Society. One of our members is an ex-patriate Texan who cooked up true Texas-style barbecued brisket for us. Absolutely delicious! I made some Tidewater cole slaw (Chris Schlesinger's recipe). Last night I made andouille and tasso jambalaya and had some of the leftover cole slaw on the side.

Next up will be Sichuan cold chicken with pickled cucumber.

-Paul W.

Tonight was pizza margherita with an overnight-rising dough made with 00 flour. Dough was nice to handle. No springback.

Tonight I'm making Sichuan strange-flavor chicken (bang bang ji). The original bears very little resemblance to the version commonly sold in US Chinese restaurants. It is a cold dish with a sesame paste-based sauce. It is a very popular dish in Sichuan originally sold mainly by street vendors. The name "bang bang" comes from the sound when the vendor pushes his cleaver through the bones when cutting up the chicken pieces (the Sichuanese seem to mainly prefer bone-in pieces in their dishes). I'll be using boneless chicken pieces from the last of the Costco rotisserie chicken. The carcass will be made into chicken broth tomorrow.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, a few weeks ago, while working on my project for the annual terrine dinner--to make a chicken terrine from cooked chicken meat glued together with a gelatinized liaison--I decided to try a Costco chicken. That was after my trial with a home-poached chicken. The liaison was ground almonds and a lot of roasted garlic thinned to a workable paste with chicken broth. As much as I liked the idea of being able to eliminate the chicken step, the Costco chicken was too greasy and too salty and made the liaison taste too sweet. Though I hadn't thought the flavors of my liaison subtle by any measure--I wanted big, assertive flavors--the saltiness of the Costco chicken killed the garlic and made it taste sweet. The liaison needed to be saltier than the meat, not the other way 'round. So I poached instead, cutting the bird into four pieces and simmering them submerged with onions, garlic, thyme and 4 or 5 bay leaves--again, assertive--for 30 minutes then turning the fire off and removing the lid to let the whole cool. The final result was perfect.

Anyway, no point here, just a tale of someone else trying to put a Costco chicken to use, as you so effectively do.

[Jenise]

Paul, I meant to add that your post yesterday inspired me to make a cold noodle dish for dinner myself--rice noodles, shaved beef, shaved cucumbers and a tangy spicy peanut dressing.

For all that I adore peanut butter and peanuts, I have to admit that I have never loved peanut sauces typical of satays. They're usually too sweet or too grainy or something else I don't like and I have never been tempted to make one myself. Yesterday's was a first. And good though it was, I'm fairly certain I'll never do one again. There are simply other things I like better.

[Jenise]

Last night we had grilled b/s chicken breasts that had marinated all day in rosemary, garlic, white vermouth and EVOO with a big side of sliced tomatoes. Perfect, uncomplicated summer food for eating outside on the most perfect day of summer so far.

Yes, supermarket rotisserie chickens do tend to be on the salty side and Costco is no exception. In the sorts of Chinese dishes I use them in, there's a salty component to the broth or sauce anyway (soy sauce and whatnot) so it doesn't matter. I can see where it wouldn't be suitable for a dish where you're just looking for pure chicken flavor.

The peanut sauce for satay seems to be Southeast Asia's equivalent of barbecue sauce--lots of different recipes, all over the map. First you have Thai-style vs. Indonesian-style, and it all branches out from there. I make Thai style and I have recipes where the sauce is smooth and others where there are chunks of peanut. I usually use smooth, unsalted peanut butter (Teddy brand, which is local) as I prefer the smooth variety to chunky.

Coarsely chopped roasted peanuts are part of the final garnish for bang bang chicken. I use Planter's unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Yes, supermarket rotisserie chickens do tend to be on the salty side and Costco is no exception. In the sorts of Chinese dishes I use them in, there's a salty component to the broth or sauce anyway (soy sauce and whatnot) so it doesn't matter. I can see where it wouldn't be suitable for a dish where you're just looking for pure chicken flavor.

I like salt and there was plenty of salt in my liaison--it had no sweetness whatsoever until the Costco chicken was present. Anyway, it just wasn't right and I'm glad in the end because I arrived at a perfect, go-to technique for poaching which shall be useful in the future.

I used smooth (Jif) peanut butter and not all that much but even then, it was a bit grainy for my tastes. I also use dry roasted peanuts for garnish--but I don't have any on hand. I truly love peanuts and they're just not safe in my house!

[Jenise]

Last night's dinner: garlicky green salad, cherry tomatoes, and plums for dessert.

Tonight, I'm roasting a pork tenderloin, spiced up with garlic salt, Florida Pepper Seasoning, and smoked paprika. It is surrounded by sauerkraut, topped with a few carrot chunks, brown sugar sprinkled over the top, and Caraway Seeds. I picked up beautiful Fairytale Eggplant at Farmer's Market. Threw into a large bowl, added an array of multi-colored vegetables, a bunch of cherry tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper, and Turkish Oregano, and will roast on a sheet pan. Later today, I will make my favorite Bread and Tomato Salad.

[Jenise]

That sounds terrific, Karen. Your details remind me that I recently bought Turkish oregano. I have never used it, and am very wedded to Mexican. However from afar it seems like Turkish and Mexican are so different they might as well be different herbs, so I did order some from Penzeys recently. Haven't tried it yet.

It's just a little after noon here. I have eaten one half of a slice of sourdought toast, about 8 raw walnut halves and half a nectarine. Meanwhile Bob ate one and a half slices of toast, the other half a nectarine, and a 3 egg omelet filled with chopped brisket, onions and cheddar cheese. Not my kind of food, but he was a bit wobbly this morning and I thought the protein load would steady him a bit.

Tonight for dinner: shrimp and grits.

Jenise, I love the Mexican Oregano, as well. Use Turkish for different things. I grow a lot of herbs but do not have fresh oregano. Years ago, I was watching Ina Garten as she gave her audience a tour of her herb garden. She stated that she rarely uses fresh oregano because it is too harsh. I cannot compare since I have never had the fresh and am happy with both the dried versions, I also grow fresh marjoram, an herb I rarely see in a recipe. I mainly use it for my tomato, bread salads. It gives a wonderful flowery element and I am often asked by a guest, what is that lovely herb I am tasting?