What's Cooking (Take Four)

[Jenise]

My use for it so far has been strictly as a steak seasoning. Oh, and Bob really liked it on eggs vs. plain salt and pepper, and I used it on a plain avocado half (which I eat a lot of). What's great about it would probably disappear into a big mix--save it for plain meats.

Today, I am making a classic beef stew. Instead of chuck, I am using a sirloin tip cut that the butcher at our local grocery store told me about. It has less fat and a great flavor and does not take as long to get tender. Yukon Gold potatoes, carrots, leeks, onion, and garlic are cooked in beef stock, red wine, balsamic vinegar, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper, and I threw in the chopped trimmings of three chive plants. The meat is very tender and tasty. I have jalapeno, and cheese cornbread in the freezer.

[Jenise]

Karen, that sounds very comforting. I have no idea what we're doing. Was going to have my brother and partner over for dinner--a fanciful version of surf and turf in order to stretch one huge lobster tail into four servings, over grilled rosemary veal chops with sherry-chanterelle sauce. But my brother just got some very bad health news. I don't know if we're still on for dinner or not. Don't know if I feel up to it myself.

I got a bottle of Quebec Beef Spice as a freebie in a Penzeys shipment. Haven't tried it yet but I intend to. I assume this is their take on Montreal Steak Seasoning?

Tonight I'm taking advantage of the current wonderful weather to grill some merguez sausage.

Sunday I'm making Khao Soi (Thai Chaing Mai curry noodles). It's made with lo mein-style noodles, most of which are boiled up but some of which are deep-fried and used as a garnish. The only other place I've seen this deep-fried noodles shtick is as the noodle base in Chinese-American chow mein.

-Paul W

[Jenise]

The only other place I've seen this deep-fried noodles shtick is as the noodle base in Chinese-American chow mein.

-Paul W

When I was a kid, EVERY Chinese restaurant put bowls of those on the table along with the pot of tea the second you sat down. Liked them okay that way, but hated them in Chow Mein though that wasn't typical on the west coast. Rather our chow mein was all bean sprouts and celery with chicken or pork and maybe a few snow peas or slivers of carrot for color.

Authentic chow mein (modern transliteration is chao mian) is made with soft noodles. Here on the east coast all of the old school Chinese-American and Chinese-Polynesian restaurants use the crispy noodles. And yes, they often are placed on the table as soon as the guests are seated.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, maybe re Montreal steak seasoning. What I've seen (but have no experience with) of the latter, I have the impression that it's a rub. Maybe not! But red, paprika seemingly involved. The Quebec is really more of a condiment to use in place of regular salt (and pepper).

Of Montreal steak seasoning the Wikipedia says it was based on a rub and usually contains garlic, coriander, black pepper, cayenne pepper flakes, dill seed, and salt.

Penzey's Quebec contains salt, black pepper, coriander, garlic, white pepper, sugar.

Nobody reports proportions so aside from dill + cayenne vs sugar, only your tastebuds know for sure.

[Jenise]

You sleuth! Well, of course, proportion is everything. I might add that the Montreal steak seasoning I encountered was a fine powder. Penzey's Quebec is coarse and flakey. Which is more to the point about condiment not rub.

Montreal Steak Seasoning offers more flavor than Quebec Steak Seasoning. Both are fine; it all depends on what you want. My jar of Montreal is not a fine powder it is coarse, about the same as Quebec.

https://fiorefoodscanada.com/difference ... udiciously.

[Jenise]

Depends on maker too. The only Montreal I had any experience with was a sample I received of one of those grocery store brands, Schilling perhaps. It was a fine powder, and reddish from a high proportion of paprika. Not something I had any use for, rub or otherwise. In fact, I tossed it out.

The brand sold out here in our stores in Grill Mates, the only one I have ever seen. It is wildly popular and we have a lot of BBQ places here in the Wild West as you can imagine.

[Jenise]

Night before last made a comforting and delicious mixed rice dish: quick-seared diced green bell pepper and quartered crimini mushrooms, then added rice, 1" bits of green onion, chicken broth and fat pinches of black pepper and sage. Let that cook covered for about 10 minutes then added 12 good sized shelled/deveined shrimp to steam on top. Stirred it altogether about five minutes later and served. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and the flavor combination with the peppers and mushrooms was divine. I love, absolutely love, mixed rice dishes that make rice the star of the plate vs. relegating it to a side dish or undergarment for something else. Other than Jambalaya, though, I rarely see it done.

Bought a cheap frozen pizza out of curiosity to see how it tasted. First one I've ever seen that has no cooking instructions anywhere on it. Nada. I finally went online and asked Dr. Google. It was obvious that other people had the same problem.

I love, absolutely love, mixed rice dishes that make rice the star of the plate vs. relegating it to a side dish or undergarment for something else. Other than Jambalaya, though, I rarely see it done.

How about pullao and pilaf dishes?

[Jenise]

Fair enough. Biryani too, and paella, plus there are meat+rice dishes among the Eastern European nations.

But other than paella I have never been served such a thing in someone's home. Paella and Jambalaya aside, I don't think it's as popular thing in mainstream America as it deserves to be, especially as a dish that's such a versatile canvas and can be ready in under 30 minutes.

Got around to making the kha soi last night. This is a coconut milk-based soup with curry paste and chicken served over boiled noodles and garnished with crispy fried noodles and chopped shallots. Originally it was a Burmese dish but it's now popular in the northern Chiang Mai region of Thailand and in Laos. The recipe (from importfood.com) differs from the one in my Thai cookbook and the ones I've found online in that it uses a lot more coconut milk (6 cups vs. 14 ounces) and has neither shrimp paste nor fish sauce, which surprised me. Thai curry-type dishes usually involve shrimp paste. Very tasty nonetheless. Next time I'll try one of the recipes that does involve shrimp paste.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, I don't know Burmese food from anything else, but for a dish I used to order at Seattle's Wild Ginger that was Dungeness crab stir-fried in a Burmese curry. We would fly down from Anchorage 2-3 times a year and head straight to WG for lunch. We had a routine: first day in town we'd order this dish with a bottle of Gunderloch Riesling, and next day we'd come back and order meat curries with a bottle of Rafanelli Zin. Anyway, I've never had anything else curry quite like the flavor of THAT curry. Dear god, it was good.

Apparently Burma, Northern Thailand (where Chiang Mai is) and Laos share a lot of dishes, with lots of regional variation of course. Just as the Eastern Mediterranean countries have a lot of dishes in common. Khao Soi has become a popular street vendor dish in Bangkok.

-Paul W.

Making Swiss steak using a Dutch oven and a bit more complex recipe tonight.

Turned out to be quite good. Adding raisins was unusual, but they added a nice complexity to the sauce.

[Jenise]

The Co-op had unusually BEAUTIFUL fat, thick fresh shitake mushrooms yesterday, so I decided to feature them in a vegetarian stir-fry with red bell peppers, bamboo and 1" lengths of green onion for dinner last night.

Tonight my brother and BIL are coming for dinner. Finally going to have that surf and turf dinner we'd planned for several weeks ago. So we'll start with raddichio and goat cheese tarts, then move on to a salad course of green leaf lettuce, arugula, watermelon radishes, green onions, blue cheese and walnuts in a dressing of lemon juice and walnut oil, and that will be followed by the grilled veal chops and lobster with a tarragon-centric bearnaise and haricot vert on the side. Martinis to begin with then a progression of white wines.

I will roast a whole chicken, seasoned overnight with salt, paprika, cayenne, onion and garlic powders, thyme and black pepper. It is stuffed with onion and laid on an onion bed, breast side down for 5 hours at 250°. I will turn it over halfway through. I am making another batch of Florentine baked potatoes, with fresh baby spinach, nutmeg, non-fat sour cream, salt, and pepper. I will not add the pepper jack cheese or the bacon. Another side is cauliflower, and broccoli seasoned with fresh garlic oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and Turkish Oregano. I might add just a touch of pepper jack cheese to those potatoes.

[Jenise]

Black bean soup tonight with some black beans I bought at a little Mexican market. They're smaller than the typical American supermarket black beans, and quite shiny. I am hoping they cook up firm and earthy like the black beans I experienced in Costa Rica, which are the best I've had. We'll see!

I made Thai stir-fried minced chicken with holy basil (pad gai bai krapow) recently, using a different recipe from my usual one, from the Imperial Hotel in Bangkok, which I posted here. The new recipe calls for more garlic and shallots than the one from the Imperial Hotel and also has a small amount of Thai sweet dark soy sauce added. It also omits the garnish of fried holy basil leaves. I suspect it's closer to the street food version vs. the Imperial Hotel's more elegant version.

-Paul W.