What's Cooking (Take Four)

[Jenise]

Might be, Jeff, I don't know. An even scarier thought: the water table's getting higher and the roots grow long enough to finally have their toes in salt water and that's why it dies?

Weird. I've had a couple of rosemary bushes for decades. The only one that died from cold was when we had -20F for several days about 15 years ago. Reminded me of Minnesota. It killed lower branches on my other bush, too. Otherwise, they're pretty hardy.

The only thing that happened in my garden in the last month is my rosemary plant died. We covered it up to protect it from a brief phase of extreme cold and frost and uncovered it two weeks later: total brown. GONE.

Rosemary is fairly easy to strike from cuttings so maybe you could try taking cuttings each year so you have new ones on the way all the time. I just stick a bit in a pot let it go.

[Jenise]

Rosemary is fairly easy to strike from cuttings so maybe you could try taking cuttings each year so you have new ones on the way all the time. I just stick a bit in a pot let it go.

Good idea, but I don't have the space to run a little nursery. I'll just have to buy a new plant.

Breakfast this morning is a marinated egg, bathed in Asian flavors including black vinegar, soy, dark soy, and ginger. Also, fresh pineapple chunks drizzled with Bordeaux, Cherry, and Walnut. Delicious!

After Jenise mentioned cabbage rolls, I realized how long it had been since I made them. So, today is the day. I found a 7 % fat ratio organic hamburger and will add cabbage rice, onion, garlic, fresh parsley, sea salt, fresh gr. black pepper, roasted red bell pepper, sauerkraut juice, and a bit of juice from a jar of green olives stuffed with garlic, sauerkraut, and passata. The split or damaged leaves will be used to line the bottom of the Dutch oven and also the top of the rolls after all the ingredients are in place. These cook at 350 degrees for 2 hours. A side dish of broccoli, mushrooms, and shallots with sherry wine, red pepper flakes, chicken stock, and toasted cashews.

Yesterday, I made Chicken Manchurian. I turned it into a soup and made it in the crock pot. Chicken breast bite-size pieces lightly coated with corn starch and ground white pepper then browned in the slow cooked. To this, unsalted chicken stock, soy sauce, red chili garlic paste, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, red chili flakes, garlic, onion, and red and green bell peppers were added. I had frozen rice in the freezer, which went in, then cooked low and slow for three hours. Sliced green onion added at serving. It was delicious! I have lunch for a few days this week. I loved that the bell peppers still had a little crunch to them—especially the green.

I hadn't heard of Chicken Manchurian before. It looks yummy.

Last night I made Thai mahogany fire noodles. The recipe calls for sweet dark soy sauce but I've been using ordinary Chinese dark soy sauce instead. A short while back I bought some Thai sweet dark soy sauce and so I tried that last night. The added sweetness helps tame the dish a bit (you start the dish with 30 fresh Thai bird's eye chiles and 10 cloves of garlic mashed to a paste).

Thai sweet dark soy sauce is very similar to Indonesian kecap manis. It is thicker and sweeter than Chinese dark soy sauce and has a bit of a molasses aroma. Chinese dark soy sauce with 1/4 the volume of Chinese thick soy sauce ought to yield something similar.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Wow Karen, you actually got in on Monday! Almost no one else did. The Manchurian chicken sounds excellent as did your cabbage rolls. Btw, I'll admit that I was taken aback by your making a side dish for the cabbage rolls. When I make and serve them, they're a complete meal though starter salads or cold/raw things like cherry toms or radishes are welcome.

I have not been cooking. I've had the flu (no idea where I got it) and been flat on my back, nauseated, raging fever, and migrained since Sunday. As sick as I've ever been but for a bout of Norwalk virus, and I was totally unprepared for it. It came on so fast. Poor Bob had to fend for himself, and our freezer is not full of little cartons of leftovers he can heat up for himself. He lived on crackers, peanut butter and cheese. Mind you, mangos, apples, tangerines and blueberries were also available as healthy alternatives but will he feed himself fruit? NO.

Today I will start eating fruit, and maybe have some chicken broth.

Hope you are feeling better Jenise, that does not sound like fun. Regarding my side dish with the cabbage rolls...I cooked for the week and planned six cabbage rolls, but ended up with seven. I suppose it comes from my upbringing, where it was proper to have a protein, a starch, a veggie, and/or a salad. Plus, I like food and like a substantial meal. That said, like you, I have been losing weight and am now 1 lb below goal. My usual size 8 and it feels great. Eating a good amount of veggies, taking whatever carbs out of meals, fat other than the necessary oils for cooking, and the good fats like avocados, etc. has worked well for me. Last week I went to a favorite kiosk downtown and got a Polish kraut dog, no mayo but spicy brown mustard, and a wonderful fresh bun. Boy, did my tummy rebel! I recalled many years ago when I lost weight and went out to have Steak Diane to celebrate. I barely got out of the car at home before my tummy warned me that something awful was about to happen. I have to move back into eating some favorite things slowly. One thing for sure is that it is so much easier to stay on track when I have no one else to cook for.

[Jenise]

Nothing wrong with side dishes. But between the cabbage and the rice in the mixture, to me the cabbage rolls comes with their own built-in sides and are, therefore, perfectly balanced as is. To make it more vegetable intensive, I make a slivered cabbage+O+V slaw (equivalent cut to the kraut) to put on top. Gives fresh crunch, and looks lovely.

Today I'm going to try cooking chicken schnitzels of a sort for dinner. Going to stay low carb for now. Will toss b/s pieces of chicken thighs in Dijon mustard with tarragon and roll in a little corn meal+flour to oven-bake to a crisp finish. Will serve that with roasted asparagus. I'm hungry, but nothing in the house appeals. I've otherwise only eaten half an avocado today. I'll start adding back fruit in a few days to try to get back to that sweet spot of low carb/low-fat/less-meat where I still lose weight.

[Jenise]

Oh btw, Karen, congrats on reaching your goal. I'm a long way from mine, but at least closer than I was a year ago and where I haven't really been dieting for the last three months, I've kept off the weight I lost and didn't float back up. That says the lifestyle is real and effective for the long-term.

Last night I made Sichuan dry-fried beef. A mandoline really helps when cutting the celery into thin shreds.

-Paul W.

Last night made a cheater's bouillabaisse. Don't hate on me people. Had cod and shrimp in freezer. Thawed. Peeled shrimp, used shells and some veggies to make a broth. Sauteed a couple of plum tomatoes, onion, carrot with saffron and bay leaf. Added the stock, a bottle of clam juice, some white wine, and a dash of Ricard. Added shrimp and cubed cod, simmered till cooked through. Added a can of diced clams (I said don't hate on me). Rubbed toast (Betsy's sourdough) with garlic and topped with stew. Took no more than 30 minutes (except for thawing). I love doing a full bouillabaisse, but this was pretty satisfying on a night when I had a schedule.

Given that bouillabaisse was originally a way to make something palatable out of the leftovers of the catch of the day, I'd say your use of freezer scraps is well within tradition.

-Paul W.

What's cooking today is half of an organic chicken, sitting on a bed of onion, garlic slices, and slices of fresh lemon. Chicken has been seasoned with CindyLou's Big Kahuna seasoning rub. I was in our local meat shop and one of the local chefs bought meat for a large wedding party. The man and bride wanted that rub, so I had to try it.
An interesting and new product to me is shelf-stable gnocchi. It is tossed on a sheet pan with red, and yellow bell peppers, garlic, cauliflower, dried basil, salt, thyme, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and oregano-infused olive oil.
The salad will be oranges, avocado, and red leaf lettuce, with a dressing of walnut oil, salt, pepper, lime zest, chives, Dijon, honey,
red grapefruit juice, and champagne vinegar.

I made Beijing meat sauce noodles last night. This is the dish that Marco Polo allegedly brought back to Italy and that inspired Bolognese ragu. But the sauce is based on fermented soy beans, not tomatoes.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Dale, I love that quickie bouilliabase. I'll sometimes use canned clams them for a quickie clam sauce for pasta or a small bowl of quasi-chowder for myself because I love that flavor and Bob is severely allergic. No hate from me at all!

Karen, the only shelf-stable gnocchi I ever tried were just awful. Sinkers, not floaters. Did you have a better experience?

Dinner tonight will be something about pork chops. After being sick all week, I'm kind of excited at the prospect of real food.

Jenise, the gnocchi are tossed uncooked with all the other ingredients, and then roasted. They browned up and had a crispness to them which I liked but no taste other than the spices and oregano oil. I'd rather have potatoes with the skin on.

I'm making Thai tom kha gai (chicken and galangal soup) tonight.

-Paul W.

Tonight I made croziflette. I brought home a package of crozets from the Savoie, bought a reblochon at a cheese shop, cut up a couple duck legs config, maitake, morels, simmered up a fennel bulb in butter and garlic and wine, and stirred them all together for a fancy French casserole. (Well, there was also a little Italian cheese in there.)

Very yummy.

[Jenise]

Well, Saturday night's pork chops didn't happen. By 7:00 I was so sleepy I just served the rice and broccoli I'd prepped earlier and went straight to bed. (Yes, I'm fighting off some evil bug right now). Yesterday I felt a bit better and decided some long-cooked beef pot-roasty kind of thing sounded good so I braised a tri tip--because that's what I had in the freezer. Not exactly an ideal meat for braising, and my taste buds were off. I kept changing what direction I wanted the broth to go in. In the end I ended up with exactly the bastard I deserved. Bob liked it, but I wasn't pleased. A bowl of plain buttered noodles would have pleased me more. Sigh.

Sorry you are having a rough time Jenise, hoping you get rid of that beast fast. My opinion of tri-tip is the opposite of yours. I never liked it grilled, no matter what I did to it, so I tried a different approach. I cook it with sliced onions, garlic, and season with Montreal Steak Seasoning after giving it a good splash of Worcestershire and Soy sauces. I cook at 325 for about 3 hours and then check it. It is cooked in foil and unwrapped last 30 minutes to brown. We loved it and also used it for tacos. Of course, I am a huge fan of braising beef. I like to prep it the day before, wrap it up, and let it soak in the delicious seasonings.

[Jenise]

Tonight I made croziflette. I brought home a package of crozets from the Savoie, bought a reblochon at a cheese shop, cut up a couple duck legs config, maitake, morels, simmered up a fennel bulb in butter and garlic and wine, and stirred them all together for a fancy French casserole. (Well, there was also a little Italian cheese in there.)

Very yummy.

Croziflette!!!! Wild coincidence but until a week or two ago I had never heard of crozets. But a friend in a French cooking group used some and showed a picture of them so, curious of course, I went hunting. Only found one brand available in the U.S. which are opaque, where Jonathan's were clear. A darker color, but translucent nonetheless so different. Anyway, have never seen them IRL and had not heard of them until Jonathan mentioned them. In my hunt to understand this item better I found a video of the very dish you describe. Interesting dish--a tartiflette, but made with pasta instead of potatoes essentially. Looks to die for. If anyone looking on is unfamiliar, here's a video I watched: https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/v ... tion=click