What's Cooking (Take Four)

We had all parts for BLTs, our first of the year. IMO, one of the best sandwiches ever invented.

It certainly is. I love the thick-sliced applewood-smoked bacon. My DIL loves avocado in hers. I also like bread that is thinly sliced; sourdough is great.

Last night I made larb woonsen moo (Thai pork and glass noodle salad). It came out delicious. I made an extra large batch of khao khua so that I'll have it on hand for the next time I make larb. I decided not to drag out my big granite mortar and pestle. Instead I ground the toasted rice in a small food processor. That worked very well. Larb is usually served over a bed of fresh greens. I used Boston lettuce leaves. Traditionally larb is served with steamed glutinous (sticky) rice and eaten by using a ball of rice to pick up some larb. I just used a fork and spoon. I also served the larb with Brabant potatoes instead of rice.

I only used 1/2 of the package of glass noodles and about 1/4 of the package of ground pork. The remainder of both of these will become Ants Climbing a Tree.

Larb is an excellent hot summer day recipe. The only cooking over heat is cooking the ground pork and 2 minutes to boil the glass noodles. And this time to toast the khao khua, since I didn't have it at hand. Larb can be (and usually is) made without glass noodles. So if one were to make larb gai (chicken larb) using diced meat from a Costco rotisserie chicken the only cooking over heat would be the rice accompanying the dish. I'll probably try that approach later this summer.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

We had all parts for BLTs, our first of the year. IMO, one of the best sandwiches ever invented.

Couldn't agree more. Really crazy that I didn't have my first one until I was in my 40's, isn't it? Didn't grow up with them and I've never been much of a sandwich eater. I converted just in time to realize that for health reasons I should never eat bacon again.

I've always liked BLTs. As a child I didn't like either mayonnaise or raw tomatoes, so I ate BL sandwiches without mayonnaise. As an adult I came to like both mayonnaise and raw tomatoes and so now I enjoy BLTs with lots of mayo.

-Paul W.

My Dad used to make BLTs by the trayful. A favorite of mine when tomato season is upon us. (It's not so good with regular supermarket toms.)

Agreed about the tomatoes. BLTs are best made with real, vine-ripened tomatoes, not the artificially-ripened golfballs that you find at most supermarkets. Fortunately Lull Farm in Hollis NH has proper tomatoes year round. And it's glorious when the heirloom tomatoes are in season in August.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

You guys got to me. I broke down and bought bacon yesterday. I have good tomatoes and rye bread...might be dinner tonight.

We had all parts for BLTs, our first of the year. IMO, one of the best sandwiches ever invented.

Couldn't agree more. Really crazy that I didn't have my first one until I was in my 40's, isn't it? Didn't grow up with them and I've never been much of a sandwich eater. I converted just in time to realize that for health reasons I should never eat bacon again.

Like when I discovered my love for steamed clams eight months before I moved to New Mexico.

My erstwhile picky-eater receptionist liked BLTs, too, if you removed the tomatoes and lettuce.

FWIW, I'm having BLTs again tonight.

[Jenise]

Hosting the neighborhood wine tasting tonight.

I'm making a pile of marinated shrimp which, if I don't run out of time, will end up mounted on skewers with a slice of cucumber.

We returned from a three week trip on Thursday morning and found ourselves hosting the neighborhood front yard Friday evening get-together last night. I ended up making a Thai style fried rice dish with chicken from a cookbook by Gizzi Erskine. The recipe was not proofread well as the first thing you do is scramble a couple of eggs, remove them from the pan, and place them on a plate. The rest of the recipe has no mention of what to do with those eggs (eat them while you cook the rest of the dish? ) I was also unable to find any Thai basil and had to use regular basil as a poor substitute. Not a complicated recipe at all, but I was pretty rushed in making it and when it was done it was surprisingly flat in taste. I put it off as possibly an issue with the recipe, not helped by the basil substitution, added some lime juice, and figured, "Oh well". And then as I was putting it in the serving bowl, I realized that I had forgotten to put the ginger in.

Braising away in the slow cooker are two large, cross-cut beef shanks, nicely browned, surrounded by Cabernet Sauvignon, beef stock, fresh garlic, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, dried guijillo pepper, 2 Ca dried chili peppers, one arbol. A Portuguese-inspired dish that is quite tasty. I made a potato salad with baby red potatoes, garlic, green onions, celery, celery leaves, low-fat sour cream, creamed horseradish, white pepper, salt, dried thyme, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, and Lisbon Lemon juice. Freshly cut chives will be put on top.
I am going to roast broccoli, zucchini, carrots, and red onion with roasted-garlic-infused EVOO, salt, and pepper, and drizzle with balsamic vinegar near the end.

Good grief, Mike, that is quite the story. How did it all end up? Was it well received by guests?

Good grief, Mike, that is quite the story. How did it all end up? Was it well received by guests?

Well, people ate it. In fairness, it wasn't terrible or anything, it just wasn't anything like what it should have been.

Sounds like you have a great supper lined up, Karen!

Tonight, I cooked up some halibut and some corn on the cob on the pellet grill. We had those with a chilled soup made from cucumbers, avocados, buttermilk, lemon juice, dill, mint, a little garlic, and a hit of Aleppo pepper. Simple meal but a nice one.

[Jenise]

Still haven't made that BLT, but I did order bacon with my oatmeal pancake and scrambled egg at a nice restaurant in La Conner yesterday morning. On my way home (a 90 minute drive) I drove thru a rural area and chanced upon a farm stand that had berries, lettuces and beets for sale, "two for one" said the owner/farmer, and the beets were 2 lb bundles of three each chiogga beets which are, for me, the best in the world: less sweet and earthier than their darker cousins. I actually had plans to look for those very same type of beets this week for a dinner I'm doing for my book club next Monday--that I just stumbled over them, farmer-direct, out in the boonies is nothing short of a miracle. I got four bundles and two heads of lettuce for $9. Not sure why the odd number but what a bargain.

By the time I got home, though, I wasn't feeling that productive so dinner was steak with a green salad.

Great price for that produce, Jenise.

I'll be having a BLT for dinner tonight.

Yesterday's dinner was leftover pork and bean thread noodle larb. Such a convenience in this hot weather--just take it out of the fridge and let it warm up to room temperature.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I had a pkg of thin sliced beef in the freezer. I had thoughts about turning it into a sauce, but instead decided to resurrect a recipe I remember from long, LONG ago in which beef or was it lamb, plus cabbage, onions, maybe garlic, and tomatoes were layered up and baked together for like two hours, with the vegetables providing all the moisture. It turns into something wonderful and messy, a slather of sorts for scooping onto crunchy/crusty slices of bread.

That's what's for dinner. I'm seasoning it with just truffle salt, pepper and a drizzle of black truffle oil. Should be good, and if it seems underseasoned at the end of cooking then I can make it better. Either way, there will be one less candidate for freezer burn in my kitchen.

That sounds delicious, Jenise, and very creative.

[Jenise]

It was essentially what the French call a miroton, which is traditionally: leftover beef from a pot au feu, a major amount of onions, sliced tomatoes and a few anchovies for seasoning, maybe some thyme, all layered up and baked for a few hours into a slathery goop. I used to make it for Bob and I with a crusty baguette and a bottle of Bordeaux, which I served on a picnic blanket on the floor.

Using the thin-sliced raw beef, now available in most markets in my area for Asian food including Costco!, is a ridiculously good shortcut, and I really liked the inclusion of cabbage to extend the vegetable-meat ratio. For seasoning, at the end I added a bit of sriracha sauce for rich heat and a generous spoonful of capers in place of anchovy.

It was DELICIOUS!

Omigosh that sounds great. I think I need to try it. Where do I buy leftover pot au feu?

[Jenise]

Just use thinly sliced raw beef like I did here! Not as rich as the leftover pot au feu meat but no one on the planet would call this baby ugly. My plans for last night went awry, but where I served this with toasted rye bread on Monday, last night's carb-free plan was to scoop the remaining portion over spears of oven-roasted zucchini with a glass of good Bordeaux in observance of Bastille Day.

Cool story, Jenise, your picnic on the blanket on the floor. Reminded me of all the times, our kids had friends over to swim, which was all the time, and after they had worn themselves out, I put a large blanket on the lawn and fed them lunch. The kids loved it.
Summer afternoons can be really hot here, so after lunch, our guests went home, and my kiddos came into the family room and lay on their huge pillows I had custom-made for the room. They watched TV and took a nap.

Tomorrow I'm making Thai larb nur (spicy beef salad). This recipe is a bit unconventional in that it doesn't use ground beef. Instead you grill some marinated flank steak and then cut that into tiny pieces.

-Paul W.