What's Cooking (Take Four)

Jenise thank you, dinner came out great. Whoever came up with cooking meat and veggies in apple cider was brilliant. I had never heard about it until recently. Also, adding vinegar to a marinade for chicken is a match made in heaven!

Peter, your loaves look great.

Years ago, I had a friend who was a very fussy eater. He hated marmalade. After a trip to London, he was telling me he was eating a hotel breakfast and they served him marmalade! Outraged he went down the street and purchased some kind of "proper" jam to finish his breakfast. Makes one wonder....

I had a friend who was a very fussy eater. He hated marmalade. After a trip to London, he was telling me he was eating a hotel breakfast and they served him marmalade!

In UK marmalade is made with bitter Seville oranges. I have not encountered this type of marmalade in other countries which use ordinary oranges which make a very sweet jam.

But the hotel your friend was staying at surely had other jams; I've not encountered one that didn't.

[Jenise]

A friend's low score on a bone density test has me concerned about the fact that I take in very little calcium. My own such test a few years ago was fine, but I'm less a spring chicken every day and it's probably something I should pay more attention to. I consume close to zero dairy and that's been the case my entire life--as a child I was given calcium capsules daily. Tofu is especially rich so that's what's for dinner tonight: curry seasoned and baked with a light coating of corn starch. A saute of nappa cabbage will complete the meal.

A few days ago I made a very thick red sauce - ground beef, mushrooms, carrots, celery, garlic, &c. - almost more of a potage than a sauce. It needed a little something, a little acidity to liven it up, so I added a spoon of balsamic dressing. But I slightly over-did it... still good but just a little too much obvious balsamic dressing. I put the other two portions away, figuring I'll think of something.

I did not.

But, when I used a portion of it yesterday, the balsamic flavor was gone. I have to remember not to worry about stews. They come together after a couple days.

You are right, Jeff. The secret ingredient to any soup, pasta, veggie, or any dish with multiple ingrediets which is fine, but not excellent, is adding a bit of balsamic (or any good vinegar) or lemon, lime, or even orange juice. It brightens the dish and the next day it is even better.

[Jenise]

So I played with that Tofu last night. I started out thinking Asian but in fact really wanted Italian flavors after discovering that I actually like raw tofu sprinkled with white truffle oil and a few grains of Maldon salt. A basil leaf would have been nice too--but I didn't have any. I did more than one version of the hot/crispy tofu, and hands-down my favorite was the version I sprinkled with Penzey's Tuscan Sunset seasoning (I don't buy this, but had a sample they sent) and dredged in corn starch before pan-frying, then topped with tomato jam (an Italian import) and slivers of fresh kaffir lime leaf.

And stupid me I then accidentally left the pan on the burner, still going, for an hour and completely ruined the most perfectly seasoned skillet I've ever had. F word!

Thank you, Karen. And it worked, too!

Jenise, I have gotten so tired of buying basil and, unless making pesto, three-quarters of it just goes bad. I have found that chopped basil in a tube is actually pretty good. (Tomato paste in a tube is fine, Harissa in a tube is fine, so why not?) I have also recently bought a little jar of grated ginger, another thing that molds too easily in the vegetable drawer. It's not as strong as it should be so I just use more. (Horseradish in a jar is fine, so why not?) But I draw the line at pre-chopped garlic; that loses too much of its strength and charm.

But I draw the line at pre-chopped garlic; that loses too much of its strength and charm.

And garlic bulbs have a pretty good shelf life.

-Paul W.

Peter, you inspired me. I went to Trader Joe's and bought a jar of Seville marmalade. Been a long time since I've had any.

There are a bunch of Seville orange trees on the grounds of the California State Capitol. Although you're not allowed to pick the oranges, you can gather fallen ones. I've done this in order to make Cochinita Pibil in the past. (I think you sent me Seville oranges a long while back that were used for the same purpose, Jenise.)

Also along these lines, my pal Nilo has a Chinotto orange tree. The oranges that come off of it are on the small side and they produce small amounts of bitter juice. He makes an excellent marmalade from the peels. The tree is an interesting one. It's about 6' tall, and rather broad. Every other year or so, it produces a LOT of orange - like 100 lbs plus. There's no way he could turn them all into marmalade, but through Darrell Corti, he found a Canadian amaro producer that uses the oranges in their products. He sells his bumper crops off to them and they always send him a few bottles of their product. It's quite good.

[Jenise]

Seville Marmalade at TJ's? I'm on it! Haven't found an acceptable marmalade (the 2 or 3 I've tried were too sweet) since the Canadian marmalade that turned out to be no longer in production.

Yes, Mike, I sent you those oranges that time. The market they were at has never had them again. They had just opened and were trying to be impressive. There's a whole let else that's never been seen again there. In fact, I went yesterday after a close-by charity drop (I'm emptying out the house), needing silken tofu. They had three cartons, three different dates, all expired. I dropped them at a cashiers stand with a scathing description and yelled I HATE THIS STORE! as I vacated the premesis. I remembered the oranges as I fumed on my way home--thinking about the difference between their early ambitions and now.

Last night I made the three dal soup from Yamuna Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking. It came out very tasty. The three dals (hulled, split dried beans/lentils) were mung, toovar (pigeon pea), and urad.

Yamuna Devi was for a long time the personal cook for A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Hindu spiritual leader best known in the West as the founder of the Hare Krishna movement. The book is very comprehensive with hundreds of lactovegetarian recipes from all over India, although it's a bit heavy on Bengali dishes (Swami Prabhupada was from Bengal). But it does have a blind spot. The Swami and his followers practice Vaishnavism, which forbids consumption of onions and related plants (garlic, scallions, leeks, shallots) because they stimulate the baser passions. So these ingredients--commonplace elsewhere in Indian cooking--are completely absent.

Westerners tend to think of vegetarian dishes as diet food, but many of the recipes in this book are far from that. The Swami traveled in the upper levels of Indian society and many of these dishes are rich and elaborate. Yamuna Devi tends to go heavy on ghee as a cooking oil, even using it for deep-frying.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Peter, you inspired me. I went to Trader Joe's and bought a jar of Seville marmalade. Been a long time since I've had any.

DANG! I knew there was something I meant to buy at TJ's this morning. Wandered up and down every aisle hoping for a mental nudge that never came.

[Jenise]

Yesterday I discovered a forgotten tray of cherry tomatoes in the fridge, which had shrivelled quite a bit, so I poured those into a pan with onions and made a tomato sauce. Tonight: pasta! Can't wait. I don't allow myself many carbs these days and a dinner like this is my idea of heaven.

Tonight I pan-seared some chicken thighs and made a pesto cream sauce with mushrooms (and shallot and a chiffonade of basil). Not sure quite what I got right here - maybe a hefty squeeze of lemon? - but OMG good. I have not eaten so greedily in ages.

That sounds tasty, Jeff. I am slowly cleaning out one of my freezers and came across some pesto I made a couple of years back. I wonder if I could turn those into something to use on chicken. I used to experiment with creating all sorts of interesting and tasty pestos. The basic basil one never grabbed me, and I decided to venture out using many different fresh herbs, nuts, etc.

This weekend's big project is making a batch of ghee. In addition to Indian cooking I use ghee whenever clarified butter is called for and when making the jambalaya a few days ago I saw that the ghee is running short.

A hollow voice says "Plugra".

-Paul W.

I have chicken pieces sitting in a mix of fish sauce, apple cider, red wine vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, Chico Honey, a small drizzle of Olio Santo, and a spice mix from Thailand (I've forgotten the name). A Tomato Paella will go with this. I used a wild rice mix from Lunberg Rice that I keep in the pantry. This has white wine, salt, pepper, evoo, onion, garlic, tomato paste, saffron threads, piment d'espelette, and chicken stock. I will lay cut-up tomatoes on top, which have salt, pepper, and a little olive oil, before putting them into the oven. Fresh Parsley will be added at serving. My choice of veggies for this week is roasted asparagus with a few cauliflower florets I had left over from another dish. and Brussels Sprouts. Not sure about the seasoning just yet, but definitely will have Ponzu Sauce, a little honey, and ??? Any suggerstions?

[Jenise]

Karen, speaking of wild rice this week I wanted to buy some at Trader Joe's. None on the shelf. I inquired and learned that it's a seasonal product, generally only available September to December. That makes me crazy--I probably haven't bought wild rice anywhere else in 30 years, but somehow I *always* managed to *only* buy it in the final quarter of the year such that I never ran into this problem before? Apparently so!

[Jenise]

Tonight I pan-seared some chicken thighs and made a pesto cream sauce with mushrooms (and shallot and a chiffonade of basil). Not sure quite what I got right here - maybe a hefty squeeze of lemon? - but OMG good. I have not eaten so greedily in ages.

I'm having a friend to dinner tonight just thawed out chicken thighs. Without another trip to the market I have everything needed to make something like what you describe, and that's on the menu. Thanks for the inspiration! (And three chicken thighs: so enough for tonight with one leftover for another day!)

Jenise,
https://www.lundberg.com/products/lundb ... D6DJlJAkKi

A hollow voice says "Plugra".

Ha! (I think I'm the only other person here who gets that joke.)

I am slowly cleaning out one of my freezers and came across some pesto I made a couple of years back. I wonder if I could turn those into something to use on chicken. I used to experiment with creating all sorts of interesting and tasty pestos. The basic basil one never grabbed me, and I decided to venture out using many different fresh herbs, nuts, etc.

Sounds like fun, actually. I know there is a whole world of 'variant pesti' out there, using cilantro, mint, rosemary, etc. Somewhere around here I have a book of condiments and it also lists a pistachio pesto and a parsley pesto!