What's Cooking (Take Four)

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....

I just took two partridges out of the freezer. Their turn comes sometime this week. Pan sauce of mustard, vermouth, and peppercorns you say?

And a dollop of cream.

Made this tonight. Two gamy little birds, spatchcocked (that was annoying), dressed with lime+sage+tarragon, browned in the pan and finished in the oven; pan sauce made from dijon, rainwater madeira, cracked black pepper, a little water and a little cream. Messy to eat but OMG good.

I made two birds; no pan sauce left for the second one. I have a little pan gravy (a tad salty) I made from searing off a couple turkey thighs to go with gnocchi. Or, maybe, swirl a spoon of pesto into a little mayo?

I finally mastered Momofuko eggs with a perfect yolk...not runny or all dried out either. Having sliced eggs on sourdough bread with Peruvian Pepper jam, a sprinkle of Mignonette pepper, and a mandarin orange for breakfast.

Sometimes I use some Koon Chun Plum Sauce--yum. Tonight was one of those times.

Koon Chun Plum Sauce is great. I like it with deep-fried wontons. Plum sauce is the original from which that Chinese-American abomination Duck Sauce was derived.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

In my experience, OK-style burgers are grilled on top of fried, chopped onions, but I'm no expert.

I think that's right.

It is. I press the raw onions into the meat and they kind of burn, which is just the flavor you want.

I finally mastered Momofuko eggs with a perfect yolk...not runny or all dried out either. Having sliced eggs on sourdough bread with Peruvian Pepper jam, a sprinkle of Mignonette pepper, and a mandarin orange for breakfast.

What are Momofuko eggs?

I did see a new video from "Chef John" about curing egg yolks. He did three styles: in hot honey, in chili crisp, and in garlic butter. Might give it a whirl.

[Jenise]

Making a shrimp/pasta/chili crisp salad to take to a rose wine thing tonight.

I finally mastered Momofuko eggs with a perfect yolk...not runny or all dried out either. Having sliced eggs on sourdough bread with Peruvian Pepper jam, a sprinkle of Mignonette pepper, and a mandarin orange for breakfast.

What are Momofuko eggs?

I did see a new video from "Chef John" about curing egg yolks. He did three styles: in hot honey, in chili crisp, and in garlic butter. Might give it a whirl.[/q

https://shop.momofuku.com/blogs/recipes ... cEQAvD_BwE

I found that Farmers Market eggs do not work well, too fresh and do not peel nicely. Now I use an organic large egg from the store, cook for 6 minutes and 40 seconds, put into an ice water bath to cool. Then peel They come out perfect. I do not remove them from the marinade, I cook 5 eggs and use them up within 10 days.

Menu today is two large, organic bone-in, skin-on, chicken breast halves. They have been sitting in Honey Crisp apple cider since yesterday. Today, they will be seasoned with salt, pepper, fresh rosemary, and fresh garlic. I will brown them in a grill pan, then finish them in the oven later today. I am also making a potato salad of very nice looking multi colored small potatoes, steamed, then they will be tossed with low-fat sour cream, a bit of creamed horseradish, garlic, fresh parsley, and tarragon. Fresh asparagus will be roasted in the oven along with thick slices of fresh lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan chees. Then topped with fresh cherry tomatoes, red, gold, black, and yellow. Fresh basil from the herb garden will be sprinkled on top. Very pretty dish with the charred asparagus and fresh toms. I like to put them on an oval white platter, bouquet style, and sprinkle the fresh toms on top. Easy meal to prepare, lots of color, and healthy.

That all sounds great, Karen!

We had a bit of a fire drill yesterday. A friend of ours invited us over to try a meat loaf he was making with ground beef and ground goat (which he had picked up at a South Asian market). I offered to make a salad and when my wife heard about it, she decided to make a flourless chocolate cake. This all started at about 4:30 and we were invited over at 6. I ran straight to the corner market to grab stuff for a basic chopped salad while she commenced to baking. We ended up getting there closer to 6:30, but the salad and the cake were great. The meat loaf was 50/50 beef/goat. It was delicious, but I can't say I could taste anything specifically goaty.

That all sounds great, Karen!

We had a bit of a fire drill yesterday. A friend of ours invited us over to try a meat loaf he was making with ground beef and ground goat (which he had picked up at a South Asian market). I offered to make a salad and when my wife heard about it, she decided to make a flourless chocolate cake. This all started at about 4:30 and we were invited over at 6. I ran straight to the corner market to grab stuff for a basic chopped salad while she commenced to baking. We ended up getting there closer to 6:30, but the salad and the cake were great. The meat loaf was 50/50 beef/goat. It was delicious, but I can't say I could taste anything specifically goaty.

When I saw your very last word, I couldn't help but think of Ogden Nash's "ghoti," which is a different critter.

Indeed! There was no ghoti in the goat.

https://shop.momofuku.com/blogs/recipes/soy-sauce-eggs

I found that Farmers Market eggs do not work well, too fresh and do not peel nicely. Now I use an organic large egg from the store, cook for 6 minutes and 40 seconds, put into an ice water bath to cool. Then peel They come out perfect. I do not remove them from the marinade, I cook 5 eggs and use them up within 10 days.

Thank you!

For tonight's supper, I made pasta with tuna, capers, lemon, shallots, garlic, and Aleppo pepper. The pasta I used was paccheri that we bought when we were in Sicily last year. This is a Sicilian style of pasta that's sort of like rigatoni but much larger in diameter and around 1.5 inches long. Unfortunately, our self-imported artisanal paccheri did not maintain its structural integrity. During the boiling process, most of the noodles fell apart, some into 1.5 inch-long strips, some into smaller pieces. I was quite gentle with it, keeping the boiling down to a high simmer and draining and tossing carefully, but to no avail. The end result was a mess of pasta that still tasted pretty good. Very disappointing, though.

I grew up around chickens, rabbits, goats, and more chickens. We ate a lot of chicken and seafood (living only three blocks from Humboldt Bay, with the Pacific Ocean behind that. I loved the goats, used to run and play with them, they are quite goofy and very curious. I sure hope I never ate any of them, as grandpa did all the killing on his small farm, and I would never eat rabbit, as they were my pets, too. He used the goats to keep the area where all the critters played a bit neater. Here in Redding, we have goat herds, and during the late spring and summer, it is not uncommon to see a herd of them being herded by dogs and their owner to a local residence to clean up a field of fire fuel. The road where they are being herded is closed to traffic until they pass, and our local police are there to see that they are kept safe. Many folks stop by and want to pet them and or offer a treat, which is a big NO, NO. Very fun to watch the process and bring back my girlhood memories of my goat friends.

Good to know, Mke, I have a couple of bags of pasta that I ordered that came from Italy, as they do not have the junk in them as pasta made in the USA. I should get the dates on the packages.
Thanks for the tip.

One of our local Indian groceries opened a halal butcher shop that sells goat. In India the term gosht (meat) almost always means goat. In English it is translated as mutton or lamb. I made my favorite lamb curry with goat once. Goat takes longer to cook than lamb (no surprise there) and the flavor is different. But it's a better match for the seasonings. The dish clearly was originally designed for goat.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

My BIL is cookign prime rib tonight. I'm taking a salad: sliced raw crimini mushrooms will soak in a red wine vinaigrette all day then get tossed with red onions and romaine. All good choices for beef.

Last night I braised a bunch of pork ribs and spare ribs, swapping out the usual Italian herbs for coriander and fennel seed. Not sure I taste too much difference, honestly; maybe I need to use more.

Sorry to hear about the paccheri, Mike. It's a nice pasta when it behaves.

[Jenise]

Only night I cooked at home this week was Tuesday. It was a lunch day at Bill Spohn's from which I rarely come home hungry enough for dinner, but for some reason on Tuesday I was but only if it were light and vegetable-based. So I took a small cabbage that was getting a little yellow, trimmed it down to the good leaves and quartered it before caramelizing each piece, then browning some shallot and garlic in the same pan, then adding tomato paste plus a few scoops of a pesto rosso that's really just finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes plus chicken broth and then simmering the lot for about 30 minutes. Dinner was two pieces and half the broth in one of my new flat dinner bowls showered in parsley. Dead easy, and so good! Plus, big bonus, enough for another meal.

Tonight the gas grill comes out for the first time this season. I'll be grilling marinated chicken wings. The marinade is Chinese (soy sauce, 5-spice powder, garlic, fresh ginger, scallions, roasted sesame oil, lemon juice) and intended for deep-fried wings. But I'm going to grill them instead.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, thought of you when dining at a Chinese restaurant in Seattle yesterday. There were several dishes featuring pork bung.

The approach of Chinese cooks take to pork reminds me of the old saying in the late 19th century meat packing industry: "We use all parts of the pig except for the squeal."

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Tonight I'm getting my first piece of fresh local halibut. I'm going to cedar plank it on the outside grill and serve it on avocado waffles with a cumin-shallot-cilantro butter sauce.

This week's food is ready for the oven. Pork Tenderloin sitting on a rack in a sheet pan, under that are whole carrots, halved Brussels Sprouts, on rosemary stems. Everything is bathed with fresh garlic, olive oil, soy sauce, honey, apple cider, saffron, salt, and pepper. Then I tossed together Yukon Gold potatoes, red bell peppers, red onion, dressed with fresh garlic oil, apple cider, Mexican oregano, French Thyme, s & p, and fresh parsley. I was going to make pasta, but the potatoes and bell peppers needed to be used up. Plus, I was craving potatoes. As always!!!