What's Cooking (Take Four)

[Jenise]

We just returned last night from a three week trip so we're bleary and jet-lagged, but I'm happy to be home in the kitchen Tonight, it will just be pan-fried maple-brined pork chops, broccolini (maybe with some ramps that we got from my daughter in New York), and mashed potatoes.

You remind me of a dish I had in a restaurant, have copied at home, and then forgot about. The pork chop wasn't brined in maple but it was placed on mashed potatoes and doused with a sweet-tart sauce of maple syrup-vinegar-soy sauce. Really good, I need to resurrect that!

And welcome back.

We just returned last night from a three week trip so we're bleary and jet-lagged, but I'm happy to be home in the kitchen Tonight, it will just be pan-fried maple-brined pork chops, broccolini (maybe with some ramps that we got from my daughter in New York), and mashed potatoes.

You remind me of a dish I had in a restaurant, have copied at home, and then forgot about. The pork chop wasn't brined in maple but it was placed on mashed potatoes and doused with a sweet-tart sauce of maple syrup-vinegar-soy sauce. Really good, I need to resurrect that!

And welcome back.

I remind you of a pork chop? Cool - I've been compared to much worse!

Thanks!

[Jenise]

Be careful what you wish for! My nickname for my lousy first husband was "pork chop" not to his face but to friends because one night, in anger, I did scream that he was so disagreeable that no one wanted to be around him. That "you could hang a pork chop around your neck and not even the neighbor's dog would come near you." After telling that story to girlfriends later, it's what everyone called him behind his back.

Sometime this weekend I'll be making a Thai curry mainly involving some smallish Indian eggplants. It will probably be a green curry.

-Paul W.

On my menu today is a favorite, Shrimp Scallop soup. Very easy to make with clam juice, white wine, canned tomatoes, herbs . Some sort of salad will be a side. I have broccoli to use up, so I may create a salad with that.

[Jenise]

I'm going to be playing with a concept for braised chicken with saffron and almond sauce that a friend and I plan to make next weekend. The recipe, and this is common in Spanish cooking, calls for the crumbled yolk of hard boiled eggs to thicken the sauce which AFAIK I've never had. My friend is a by-the-book kind of cook and would blindly follow that instruction but I'm not and can't imagine that being a betterment--at the least, would think the result would be grainy. And I don't like grainy. Need to find out!

Back in 1969 our 9th grade Spanish class spent spring vacation on a one-week trip to Madrid. As you say, several of the dishes we were served involved hard-boiled egg as a garnish. I'm not a visible egg fan. I'm OK with eggs as an ingredient in a dish as long as I can't see them. So no problem with mayonnaise- and hollandaise-based sauces, or with eggs in cakes, batters, or meat loaf. But no fried or boiled eggs. The closest I'll come to visible eggs is the scrambled egg in stir-fried rice.

So back to Spanish dishes. On our trip to Madrid I just left the egg to one side. Were I to make one of those dishes I'd leave the egg out entirely.

-Paul W.

We had a neighborhood brunch this morning, so I made one of those egg-based breakfast casserole things. This one included toasted baguette pieces, spinach, mushrooms, leeks, andouille sausage, gruyere, and parmigiano. Pretty easy to throw all of that together and bake it and pretty hard to not like the results. (Unless you don't like visible eggs. They were pretty obvious with this one!)

[Jenise]

Paul, scrambled is okay and frittatas are good. Used to make them frequently for Bob, especially once he got sick it was a terrific way of getting protein into him early in the day, and they're easy to eat. I even made one for myself last week--a lifetime first! And I not only like, I love scrambled eggs in fried rice, especially if they're finely chopped and evenly distributed. Mike's dish sounds pretty good!

I just went and read-up on Sauce Gribiche. This is a member of the mayonnaise family that is made with hard-cooked yolks. The general advice, for the smooth version, is to beat the crumbled yolks with mustard until it is a paste and then proceed. There is also a chunky - no emulsification - version where you just chop and sieve the yolk crumbs.

The virtue of using cooked yolks, say the recipes, is that cooked yolks taste eggier than raw ones, but at the cost of losing some of their emulsification powers.

[Jenise]

Jeff, pretty much what I understand. I am def familiar with a Grbiche--I think of it as tartar sauce with chopped egg or liquidy deviled egg--but my aversion to such things means I have almost no experience with the texture. I can't cooked egg yolk being a positive improvement to a warm sauce since for me 'silky' would always be the preferred outcome.

I played my piano gig at a French restaurant for Mother's Day. Did very well on the tips.

Afterward, Edie and I were served a tossed mixed salad with strawberries and vinaigrette, butternut squash soup, quiche, and chocolate mousse. Everything was yummy, and I don't need to cook tonight.

It's getting into peak farmer's market time here, so today's dinner included a saute of favas, asparagus, morels, and spring onions. That went with chicken in tarragon cream sauce and couscous with the ramps we brought back from New York. Also picked up cherries and mulberries from the market for snacking purposes.

I'll be making sambar and idli tonight. Haven't had that in a while.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I've been under the gun to solve phone and computer problems that are unrelated but occurred simultaneously, more or less, which has occupied just about all of every day for the last four-five days with worry making sleep difficult. As a result, I never got around to the Spanish chicken dish but have more or less just grazed my way thru a late, quick evening meal. Last night was just a salad--romaine, avocado and pesto vinaigrette. The night before was a stir-fry of pea vines, golden chives and oyster mushrooms.

I absolutely love golden chives. They have a funky odor in their raw state, but are sweet when cooked. You don't mince them like you do green chives, they're not a garnish. They're mild and sweet enough to be a primary ingredient in a stir-fry. They're quite delicate. They come in paper-wrapped bundles, and I'll use a whole bundle in the one serving I make for myself after trimming the tips and bottom two inches. (I then cut them into 2" lengths.) The first time I ever had them was, believe it or not, at my first visit to a PF Chang's in Houston TX. I had never seen or heard of PFC before, and at the time I didn't even know PFC was, or was destined to be, a chain restaurant--it was just the Chinese restaurant next door to the hotel we were staying at. In the years since I've seen them only occasionally, but in the last year I've found them routinely at Canadian chain T&T Markets, two of which have recently opened in the Seattle area.

If you ever get a chance, try them!