What's Cooking (Take Four)

[Jenise]

Sounds really interesting, Paul. I didn't know any of that!

Yesterday, I put a tri-tip roast on a bed of onions, garlic, and red bell peppers, bathed it in a homemade Ponzu Sauce and Quebec seasoning, and cooked it in the oven at 250 for four hours. I take the top layer of foil off and let the meat brown for the last hour. I also made Zakarian's Grilled Summer Veggie Ratatouille. I had a huge russet potato and a few Yukon Gold potatoes to use up; those got a dusting of malt vinegar powder, salt, pepper, Herbs de Provence, and fresh garlic evoo. The tritip came out delicious, tender, and falling apart, but it made so much juice that I spilled some on the floor getting it out of the oven. I hate messes like that. It was all very yummy.
Today, I am going to make a cabbage salad to keep me fed for lunch for a few days. Both green and red, with carrots, radish, and a honey lime vinaigrette. Nothing exciting on my end, just good comfort food that is easy with less fuss.

Has anyone heard of a mashed potato bar? I had never heard of it, but a family member made one last week for the family using an Ore-Ida frozen mashed potato product. She had bowls of corn, bacon, tomatoes, and other stuff one could add to the potatoes. My son did steaks on the grill outside, and she said the family loved it. I rarely go down the frozen products aisle except for low-fat ice cream by Dryers!

[Jenise]

Jeff, char sounds good (I'm a skin eater).
Jenise, hope you feel better soon.
Last night pork chops, rice with furikake, sesame spinach, crunchy salad (endive, chicory, radicchio). The pork chops were an easy Eric Kim recipe where thin chops are marinated in jalapeno/cilantro stem/garlic vinaigrette, grilled, then garnished with jalapeno/onion relish. Easy and tasty. But my favorite part of meal was the salad dressing- silken tofu blended with miso, sesame paste, honey, and rice vinegar. Probably too creamy looking for Jenise, but great with the sturdy greens (well greens and reds).

I might like that if I know beforehand what's in it. I would definitely try it. It reminds me of an intriguing variation on a creamy caesar by Ming Tsai also using silken tofu. Haven't tried it, but I'm caesar-curious.

Yesterday I made a pot of cullen skink, a milk/cream-based Scottish chowder made with finnan haddie (smoked haddock). Smoky and creamy, a favorite soup of mine.

Today I am making a 3# boneless lamb roast, marinated overnight (garlic, rosemary, thyme, juniper, OJ), slathered in mustard and crushed peppercorns. Baking a few spuds at the same time.

With a name like "cullen skink", it's got to be good!

Ratatouille tonight with baguette and Klein Zalze Shiraz Mourvèdre Viognier

Quite some time since we had ratatouille, not sure why...

Got to get ingredients this afternoon - onions, aubergine, baby courgettes & pepper ( got tinned Italian tomatoes). Not ideal as I prefer to make it the day before then warm it before serving, giving time so the flavours meld.

I might like that if I know beforehand what's in it. I would definitely try it. It reminds me of an intriguing variation on a creamy caesar by Ming Tsai also using silken tofu. Haven't tried it, but I'm caesar-curious.

And this reminded me of a favorite Ming Tsai recipe, tofu/spinach napoleons with a spicy (sambal olek) miso dressing. Need to make that again!

I love cullen skink!

For the next time, I'm getting an immersion blender. It's good as a rustic chowder but I want to velvet it a little.

I've got all the ingredients for corned beef and cabbage. Can hardly wait for tomorrow.

So cullen skink isn't made with skinks.

-Paul W.

Nope. I'm saving mine up for a croque au dile.

[Jenise]

Had pork and green chile tacos last night at my brother's house. Good to eat out of hand while watching the Oscars, and a tribute to our L.A. upbringing. I took a guacamole salad to serve as a starter (easy bowl food also good for TV watching). For that salad, I smash an avocado very coarsely with a fork in the bottom of a bowl, add smooshed garlic, the juice of one lime, a hefty dose of Mexican oregano, salt and pepper. Lettuce, cilantro and thinly sliced sweet onion go on top, and then all is tossed then or later with an addition of EVOO.

Tonight I'm doing a small curry-cured flank steak just for me.

Another round of char and maitake here.

It turns out that I'd posted the recipe for dhansak masala (the spice powder used in dhansak) a long time ago here.

-Paul W.

Last night mussels steamed in coconut milk with a can of karee curry paste, served over udon. Loved it.

We don't use a lot of prepared foods, but it's hard to beat the little cans of curry paste, or the Japanese curry blocks. For the latter we switched from S&B to Vermont, but recently read a Serious Eats article where Torokeru and Kokumaro came out on top. Not carried at HMart, but will stop at Japanese market soon and give a try.

Agreed about store-bought Thai curry paste. For a while I tried making my own from scratch. It's a huge amount of work and the result isn't as good as the top brands imported from Thailand. Among other things I suspect they use fresher ingredients than what I can get. My two favorite brands are Aroy-D and especially Mae Ploy. That curry pastes almost always call for a bit of shrimp paste. Most of the producers leave that out of the curry pastes they export to the US because inclusion of shrimp paste puts the product into the "contains meat or fish" regulatory category and involves red tape the exporters would rather avoid. Some (but not all) of the Mae Ploy curry pastes include the shrimp paste and I prefer them because of that--it saves me adding the shrimp paste myself.

You can find a lot of curry pastes at this page at importfood.com.

For Thai shrimp paste, my favorite brand is Trachang. It comes in yellow containers with scales weighing a shrimp as their logo.

-Paul W.

thanks Paul, I think the brand we used is Maesri, but will look for Mae Ploy or Aroy-D.
I think we have shrimp paste, will add a dollop next time.

I have tri-tip leftover. So today I am making a soup. Shredded beef, leeks, Rainbow Swiss Chard with leaves and those pretty stems. I also found a batch of carrots, long and thin, purple, yellow, white, and orange, onions, garlic, chicken stock, fresh herbs, canned tomatoes, and whatever else looks good. Maybe I will toss in a bit of Farro.

[Jenise]

As y'all know, these days I don't make much in the way of proper meals for myself, but yesterday I did: I spatchcocked a tiny half pound game hen and marinated it with lemon juice, dill and salt for a few hours, then pan seared it before popping it into the oven for a final fifteen minute roast. Meanwhile I added dry white vermouth, water and a dollop of cream to the fond along with dijon mustard and cracked black pepper to make a tart sauce au poivre to spoon over the bird and some steamed asparagus. Really good!

Karen... Love the idea of that soup. A bowl of it must be like looking in a kaleidoscope!

Jenise... Also sounds good, and very French (swap that dill for tarragon and you're in the French countryside for sure). I have a couple little birds in the freezer....

Last night I made Thai red curry chicken soup from a recipe I found on Food52. This is chicken broth with Thai red curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves, and lime juice added, along with rice noodles and shredded cooked chicken, garnished with minced cilantro and mint. I used meat from a Costco rotisserie chicken. It was delicious.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Jenise... Also sounds good, and very French (swap that dill for tarragon and you're in the French countryside for sure). I have a couple little birds in the freezer....

It was tarragon I went into the pantry to get, but ran into the dill first. Not that "any will do", but I always reach for tarragon and rarely use dill these days, so in the interests of not being so rote I deviated. This was the smallest small bird I've seen at retail. Not as large as the typical rock cornish game hen, that is and I don't think it claimed to be. Maybe just 'cornish hen'. Anyway, I liked it!

Jeff, the soup came out very tasty, colorful tool. I added a bit of beef stock, along with the chicken stock, apple cider from Honey Crisp apples, and a few red pepper flakes, along with fresh Herbs. There are some tasty lunches in my future.

On this week's menu is uncured corned beef, flat cut ( from a local company), seasoned, browed and then roasted in a pan along with the rest of those pretty carrots I put into my soup. One half a head of cauliflower and one Yukon Gold potato, unpeeled, will make a mash . I will add salt, pepper, light sour cream, fresh chives from a new batch in my herb garden, and maybe some goat cheese. A roast of cabbage steaks with a brush of roasted garlic and butter will be my veggie side. I never got around to making my usual St. Pat's dinner, so doing it today. I will add a drizzle of red wine vinegar to the cabbage at serving

I stopped by the local Thai grocery to restock on fish sauce and a few other items. Much to my surprise and delight, they had fresh holy basil (krapow). You don't often see that for sale because the leaves start to wilt almost as soon as they're picked. The owner told me that they freeze well, something I'll have to try. Fresh holy basil leaves (bai krapow) are the principal ingredient in the famous Thai dish pad prik bai krapow (stir-fried meat with chiles and holy basil). All Thai restaurants I've been to in the US substitute Thai basil (bai horapa). When I make it myself I do that, too, but I add some dried holy basil to give it the distinctive holy basil flavor.

So tonight's dinner will be pad prik gai bai krapow (stir-fried minced chicken with chiles and holy basil).

Holy basil is a different species (Ocimum tenuiflorum) from ordinary basil (Ocimum basilicum) and has a distinctive, almost minty taste. Thai basil (horapa) is a variety of ordinary basil. Holy basil gets its English name because the plant is used in religious ceremonies by Vaishnava Hindus, who call the plant tulsi.

-Paul W.