What's Cooking (Take Three!)

I actually don't recall Popsicle Pete. Sorry, Mom. Maybe it's because I'm only 29-1/2 years old.

[Jenise]

You had to read the back of the label!

I remember Bazooka Joe, though.

I had a rare steak pho for lunch today, but took half of it (sans the steak) home. I reheated it for dinner tonight and added some thin slices of my roast tri tip from last night. Worked great.

Liquid Popsicle Orange Creamsicle wine, icy cold, was the perfect accompaniment. Mmm mmm.

FWIW, I saw Kellogg's Peeps Marshmallow Flavored Cereal with Marshmallows today. Almost bought a box for Edie. May yet. >gag<

Your Mom was Popsicle Pete?!?!

[Jenise]

Yes, her job was to answer letters from kids. How fun is that?

[Jenise]

Last night's chicken wokness was utterly fantastic. Silly girl, I should do that a LOT more often. Tonight we're going out to dinner with friends.

Yes, her job was to answer letters from kids. How fun is that?

Does sound like a kick.

[Jenise]

We're getting dinner out tonight but I made a splendid salad for lunch today: wilted fennel and spinach salad with a WASA cracker topped with the last of the smoked trout pate that I stretched with some mashed artichoke hearts and fresh tarragon. Absolutely divine. I'm having a real love affair with spinach salads lately. Started buying the real deal in bunches, painful as it is to wash, and the extreme flavor is so appealing. Forget that baby stuff in the bags, it doesn't have even a quarter of the flavor that the real deal does. Like most substitutes, not worth it. The basis of the hot dressing is always red wine vinegar, olive oil and garlic, and other seasonings can include dried or fresh herbs, bacon and/or tomatoes. There isn't always a topping, but graded Jarlsberg type cheese is always good.

Trying to clean out the fridge of things my husband will not use before I head east for 6 weeks. Had some leftover cod cakes and curry sauce so warmed them a bit and popped them beside a big pile of spinach and arugula from the garden, chunks of fresh radish and the last of the avocados in the drawer. Showered fresh dill ( invasive everywhere along with the garlic chives ) and dressed simply with lemon juice and olive oil. The fridge looks better ..... Have been inviting friends and neighbors to pick the snap peas, arugula, spinach, escarole which will be pumping while I'm gone. Hopefully won't miss the strawberries, serviceberries and cherries as it looks like it will be a good year for these fruits.

We're getting dinner out tonight but I made a splendid salad for lunch today: wilted fennel and spinach salad with a WASA cracker topped with the last of the smoked trout pate that I stretched with some mashed artichoke hearts and fresh tarragon. Absolutely divine. I'm having a real love affair with spinach salads lately. Started buying the real deal in bunches, painful as it is to wash, and the extreme flavor is so appealing. Forget that baby stuff in the bags, it doesn't have even a quarter of the flavor that the real deal does. Like most substitutes, not worth it. The basis of the hot dressing is always red wine vinegar, olive oil and garlic, and other seasonings can include dried or fresh herbs, bacon and/or tomatoes. There isn't always a topping, but graded Jarlsberg type cheese is always good.

I love spinach salads. Decades ago there was a restaurant in Minneapolis called Bombay Bicycle Club where I always ordered a wilted spinach salad and French onion soup. I also love WASA crackers. Wish I could bake them as well as the store-bought ones.

In order to beat someone else asking, what grade of Jarlsberg cheese do you recommend?

[Jenise]

LOL, Larry, I deserved that.

But yeah, spinach salads are a great blank canvas. Superior food for your brain, too.

And spinach has made my forearms incredibly huge.

Yeah, I like that thing you do with squeezing the can and the spinach flies through the air and lands in your pipe!

[Jenise]

We had baked salmon last night. Rubbed it with habanero oil and crusted it with grated ginger and lots of black pepper--a favorite combo, and baked it at 250 for 40 minutes--a favorite prep method. Low and slow wins every time. Served it on short grain brown rice and asparagus, and a Pousse D'Or burgundy.

Today: ahi!

I make Beijing meat sauce noodles a lot, but last night I tried a different recipe. The one I normally use is based on the recipes from Joyce Chen and Virginia Lee/Craig Claiborne. Jenise has mentioned that she is on a quest for berbere that tastes like what she used to enjoy with her Ethiopian friends. Similarly I've been on a quest for a Beijing meat sauce recipe that matches what I used to enjoy at Colleen's Chinese Cuisine in Cambridge, MA.

I prefer my old recipe to the one I tried last night. The new one has more ingredients and more complicated prep. But it did give me some ideas on how to move my recipe closer to what I had at Colleen's.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

These quests are fun, aren't they? Gives you a reason to cook beyond just keeping onesself fed.

We had baked salmon last night. Rubbed it with habanero oil and crusted it with grated ginger and lots of black pepper--a favorite combo, and baked it at 250 for 40 minutes--a favorite prep method. Low and slow wins every time. Served it on short grain brown rice and asparagus, and a Pousse D'Or burgundy.

So, how does it come out? I always do a pan-fry because I want to crisp the skin and, anyway, I bard with sesame seeds and they need to cook.

Nice drink, too!

[Jenise]

Neither of us enjoy the skin so it gets chopped up and thrown on the patio for the seagulls. Our seagulls love me, and I never have decaying fish parts in the trash!!!

The resulting filet gets rubbed all over and pressed into the ginger and black pepper, lots of both. The result is gorgeous--silky and juicy but done (cook ten minute less if you want a rare center) without exuding the albumin. Perfect timing for people like us who always eat a first course salad. The main course just makes itself. No turning needed.

Neither of us enjoy the skin so it gets chopped up and thrown on the patio for the seagulls.

Ah, dat ol' debbil Gustibus. Can't argue with him.

I douse the skin heavily with salt and, when that side of the fish gets its turn, 3.5 minutes on a hot cast iron pan turns it into an enormous expanse of 'bacon'.

The resulting filet gets rubbed all over and pressed into the ginger and black pepper, lots of both. The result is gorgeous--silky and juicy but done (cook ten minute less if you want a rare center) without exuding the albumin. Perfect timing for people like us who always eat a first course salad. The main course just makes itself. No turning needed.

Interesting. I'll have to give it a whirl.

The texture out of the frying pan is just fine, but it is more of a balancing act to keep it from going too firm. A lot of that comes from judging the thickness of the piece. There is also considerable variance, piece to piece, in how much salmon fat melts out from under the skin.

[Jenise]

Give it a try. Thickness won't matter much. I use 40 minutes for a 1.5 lb piece like the one described here or 45 for an entire 5 lb half a fish. In fact, that's where the idea of a slow roast came from, an Alice Waters recipe for doing a whole filet and topping it with a relish of raw herbs and chopped fresh meyer lemon (incl peel, which I love, though I do other toppings too). Apparently I'm the only person on the planet besides Alice who read that recipe--I've had pro chefs corner me about how I achieve that cake-like texture. And it's foolproof party food--gorgeous presentation to put a whole side of salmon uncut on a big platter with a pie server and just let people serve themelves as much or as little as they want.

Deleted.

[Jenise]

Today: salmon cakes for lunch with spinach salad. Dinner: seared ahi on rice with ginger sauce and cucumber salad.

[Jenise]

Tonight my brother's cooking and it will be lamb-stuffed peppers. RED MEAT! I finally get to eat RED MEAT!

Have tried to switch to lower glycemic index carbs in salads and stuffed vegetables. Freekeh makes a terrific substitution for rice or crumbs in lamb stuffed peppers or eggplant with Middle Eastern seasoning profile.
Another favorite is the California organic brown rice offered at Rancho Gordo. Just terrific.
Although not totally sure about the relative GI I use a lot of bulgur, all grades # 1 through #4.