What's Cooking (Take Four)

Lovely Lamb chops, well seasoned with freshly ground black pepper, garlic salt, will be browned in an All-Clad pan in olive oil, then finished off with a mixture of beef stock, lemon juice, butter, and chopped rosemary leaves. The sauce will form a nice glaze on the chops as they finish cooking. A side of skin-on potatoes, cut into fingerling size, then tossed with extra-virgin olive oil, dry white wine, fresh thyme leaves, and baked. They will be dressed with extra-virgin olive oil, sour cream, red wine vinegar, creamed horseradish, salt, and pepper, while still warm. I will serve them on a bed of arugula. The recipe calls for using freshly grated horseradish, but I do not have any. Nor have I ever seen any...but then I've never looked for it. I am also going to roast cauliflower florets and cherry tomatoes in roasted peanut oil, red onion. and tarragon.

[Jenise]

Fresh horseradish is not super-common, but it's not exactly super-rare either. Regular supermarkets sometimes have it bulk or in the little baskets of unusual items they'll have off to one side, perhaps in packets marketed by the Frida brand. I love it, absolutely love it, in mashed potatoes, and also grated into the butter I'll saute some cooked beets in.

Sounds like a nice dinner! I'm not cooking at home tonight.

My father grew horseradish in the back yard. It's really hardy. Perhaps you could grow it in a pot or in your garden.

I adore the Tule Lake Creamed Horseradish and have used it for decades. The eldest son prefers the Old Fashioned type, and he adds the sour cream he loves to it. Runs in the family, except for the daughter, who doesn't like spicy food. I've tried two other brands, and they were terrible

Fresh horseradish is not super-common, but it's not exactly super-rare either. Regular supermarkets sometimes have it bulk or in the little baskets of unusual items they'll have off to one side...

Fresh horseradish is all over Nyc before Passover. (Perhaps other relevant parts of the country as well) I believe early spring is the peak season, along with another harvest in late fall.

[Jenise]

Rahsaan, interesting to know. I had not realized that it's seasonal--only that I have a hard time finding it when I really want it!

Our new neighborhood grocery store deli has an Asian section with a group of talented Sushi makers. I have a favorite called Spicy Shrimp Inari. The lines can get very long for special orders, and since I have zero tolerance for waiting in line, I decided to make my own. I bought 2 containers of the bean curd boats, which I will stuff with sushi rice (arriving this morning), top with a shrimp, and the spicy topping, which I will start with Sriracha Mayo. I have never made sushi rice, but I have all the ingredients for it, so this should be fun. By the way, the sushi makers are all of Asian descent. I do not know where they are from, but they all have heavy accents, are super sweet, and good with the public. When I order the inari, it takes them about 10 minutes to make up the tub, and when I return, they always remember who I am and hand me my order.

I made an Instacart order yesterday, and my shopper texted me that there were 20 + folks in line for sushi, and since she was doing multiple orders, she could not wait. That is when I decided to order the Sushi rice from Amazon and get to work learning how to make my own.

I have a favorite called Spicy Shrimp Inari....That is when I decided to order the Sushi rice from Amazon and get to work learning how to make my own.

Always a fun idea to try making new dishes!

[Jenise]

If there were white people wanting the job of sushi maker, someone would be screaming discrimination because--name the market, they ALL do it--all the sushi makers are Asian. Not neccessarily Japanese, but yeah, Asian. And regardless of market the sushi rolls are pretty much all the same, from conception to squirt-bottle saucing methodology, leading me to suspect that they're all sent to the same School of Sushi. Sushi in Washington looks like sushi in British Columbia looks like Sushi in California just as sushi at Whole Foods looks just like sushi at the Kroger outlet, Fred Meyer. All that said (ranted?), though I've seen them making a day's worth of sushi in stores I've never seen supermarket sushi made to order like you're experiencing, Karen, so Redding has that over some of the rest of us.

[Jenise]

Today I'm making a test batch of paella, which dish I'm taking to Bill's lunch on Thursday. I decided to not do the typical chicken and seafood combo--great as that is everyone's had it. We're already heading into fall up here and so I'm going with what strikes my little pea brain as a more fall-like combination: duck, sausage and olive with some sherry in the broth--duck/olives/sherry as a stew being a classic dish of Seville.

Jenise, I mentioned Asian, but I do not know where they are from. Redding has a good-sized population of Hmong, some Chinese, etc. The new store has a large deli that is very popular with our locals, and the line at lunchtime is crazy. I love the vibe of the sushi makers; they have a section where they all work. The store is employee-owned, and the service is great; everyone is very customer-conscious, especially if one is looking for something. They don't seem to discriminate against any ethnic or other differences. There is a gay male who works in the deli area. He is a very popular employee, always has a smile on his face, and just being around him is fun. The store is owned by a local person who has at least 16 other stores in the mountain and valley communities around here. When Gene and I remodeled this house, our interior designer took me to the owner's home to see a type of granite she thought I might like. I was very impressed with his home, staff—just a down-to-earth nice guy.
Just another comment: the sushi folks have a lot of it already prepared in the glass counter, which is how I was introduced to the one I love. However, it is not always there. So I usually ordered it and finished my shopping, and went back to pick it up. They will make anything you want. The other part makes up hundreds of sandwiches for folks who come in and wait in line for their special sandwich at lunchtime. They also prepare some great casseroles that taste homemade.

Tonight I'm making Thai green curry with beef.

-Paul W.

Paul, will you share your recipe, please? I have green curry, but have not used it.

[Jenise]

Karen, I wasn't suspecting your store in particular of discrimination. It's just that the supermarket sushi industry as a whole seems to follow the same formula for in-store sushi which is afterall Japanese food. A Chinese person is no more qualified than a Mexican to make it, but only Asians are hired for these jobs because they look more authentic to non-Asians.

[Jenise]

Last night's test batch of Duck and Olive Paella was outstanding. I won't need to make many changes to what I'm making tomorrow--I just need to find some good manzanilla type sherry because I don't want to put half a bottle of 30 yr old Palo Cortado in the dish!

Tonight I'm having cold Dungeness Crab, caught Sunday.

Karen, I wasn't suspecting your store in particular of discrimination... A Chinese person is no more qualified than a Mexican to make it, but only Asians are hired for these jobs because they look more authentic to non-Asians.

Well, that is discrimination. And frankly it's not even clear that any given Japanese person would necessarily be more qualified. Especially these days with the global spread of sushi culture.

There was a time in Nyc when you would see the preference for Asians as sushi rollers, but these days it can be anyone in the supermarkets. Certainly lots of Latinos, but white, black, anyone. And especially in the supermarkets, where it seems like sushi has become very Americanized anyway, given all the bizarre spicy flavor offerings.