What's Cooking (Take Four)

We had BLTs tonight with the first ripe tomatoes from my garden (I had planted late). The bacon was Applegate smoked, "uncured" bacon, and the lettuce was romaine. Yummy. What a difference real tomatoes make.

Jenise, they are my favorites, along with the giant white Limas. I call the Coronas a mini baked potato. I cook all my beans in unsalted chicken stock.

The Thai noodle and bamboo shoot stir-fry was something of a letdown. Aside from the suggested serving garnish of pickled bird's eye chiles it is really a rather ordinary lo mein dish. The Thais have adopted/adapted many Chinese dishes so this may actually be authentic. I won't be making it again--I'll be sticking to my usual lo mein recipe.

-Paul W.

Made a totally splendid caprese yesterday: one Brandywine, one Striped German, a meltingly delicate bufala mozzerella, a sprinkle of fresh basil, salt, pepper, and pine nuts.

Hit up the diner at lunch for a BLT. They are a classic diner so it's a classic sandwich: "boards" (white toast), with a scrape of mayo, thick cut tomatoes, a couple rashers of crisp bacon, a slab of lettuce, wrapped in waxed paper and fastened with frilly toothpicks. It's a nothing sandwich except in August and September....

Tonight, one of my faves: arctic char, pan fried. I'll gussy it up with some muffuletta olive spread, and a side of sauteed fairy eggplants, mushrooms, and courgette.

Made a totally splendid caprese yesterday: one Brandywine, one Striped German, a meltingly delicate bufala mozzerella, a sprinkle of fresh basil, salt, pepper, and pine nuts.

Hit up the diner at lunch for a BLT. They are a classic diner so it's a classic sandwich: "boards" (white toast), with a scrape of mayo, thick cut tomatoes, a couple rashers of crisp bacon, a slab of lettuce, wrapped in waxed paper and fastened with frilly toothpicks. It's a nothing sandwich except in August and September....
.

OK, pine nuts on caprese is new to me, but sounds good.
You're lucky, you must have a good dinner if they had tomatoes that aren't from Sysco, Ace Endico, Riviera etc., Most diners have Central Valley even in August!

Made a totally splendid caprese yesterday: one Brandywine, one Striped German, a meltingly delicate bufala mozzerella, a sprinkle of fresh basil, salt, pepper, and pine nuts.

Hit up the diner at lunch for a BLT. They are a classic diner so it's a classic sandwich: "boards" (white toast), with a scrape of mayo, thick cut tomatoes, a couple rashers of crisp bacon, a slab of lettuce, wrapped in waxed paper and fastened with frilly toothpicks. It's a nothing sandwich except in August and September....
.

OK, pine nuts on caprese is new to me, but sounds good.

I was testing a new supply so I had a pinch of them toasted already.

You're lucky, you must have a good dinner if they had tomatoes that aren't from Sysco, Ace Endico, Riviera etc., Most diners have Central Valley even in August!

It is indeed a good diner. I'm there once or twice a week. Mike F and his wife have been there, too!

It is indeed a good diner. I'm there once or twice a week. Mike F and his wife have been there, too!

We love diners, so we very much liked the one we went to with Jeff. A classic spot!

[Jenise]

I cooked for my houseguest the last few days. She's celiac so no bread but otherwise open-minded, and wine-wise she's in my world. I can't tell you how great it was to open wine for someone who understands the wider wine world much the way I do.

First night we had a cheese board followed by whole Dungeness crab that my neighbor gave us. With that I poured a BC chardonnay from Daydeamer/Marcus Anselm, a Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc that truly rocked my world, and later a Guigal Gigondas. Yesterday for lunch we had the corona bean soup and a shaved cucumber salad. Dinner was iceberg and frisee salad with purple daikons, white wine vinegar and hazelnut oil followed by grilled cowboy steak with a vegetable side of carrots, snap peas and shitake mushrooms that we paired with a 2011 Pegau Cuvee Reservee that she selected from the cellar. The best meal of all just might have been breakfast this morning. She swears that she doesn't eat until dinner but I wasn't sending her off on the long drive home on an empty stomach. We had egg, potato and black truffle frittata with a plum and basil salad.

Tonight I'm on my own again: bean soup!!!

I'm not a fan of hard-boiled eggs, unless I do the Momofuko eggs. I have several in the fridge, and this morning I took one of the eggs and mixed it with plain Greek yogurt, sweet pickle juice, finely diced pickles, tarragon, salt, and white pepper. Nectarine slices were a great addition, along with my V 8 juice with Lisbon Lemon. It doctored up the eggs, and I enjoyed eating them. I originally made them to add to my puppy's kibble...he ate the first bowl OK, but turned up his nose at the rest. Now to figure out what to do with the rest of them. I cooked these eggs a bit too long.

Bought a decent-sized bunch of peaches at the market on Wednesday but we're getting to the time of year when they are less reliable/predictable. They were firm at the market but looked promising to my eagle eye. However, things did not develop as I hoped, they looked to be turning mealy this morning.

So I quickly put them in the oven for a slow roast, dash of olive oil. Pureed. Perfection! So good. I used to make these fruit sauces/purees more often, but don't always get around to it. This one was pure luscious peach goodness, perfect on a spot of ice cream and will see if I can convince my son to put some on his waffle tomorrow morning.

Thanks for that, Rahsaan. We sometimes end up with stone fruit that's a little less than ideal and roasting and pureeing it is a good option that I've not thought of.

Tonight's dinner will be one of my favorite Thai dishes: pad prik gai bai krapow (stir-fried minced chicken with chiles and holy basil). I can't get fresh holy basil so I'll be using ordinary Thai basil (bai horapa) with a bit of dried holy basil to give it some of the holy basil flavor and aroma.

Lull Farm in Hollis NH is still selling 49 different varieties of locally-grown heirloom tomatoes so I picked up several of my favorites. I suspect their heirloom tomato season will soon be over. Their locally-grown hot chile harvest has come in. They have habaneros, velociraptors, ghost chiles, and Carolina Reapers (1.2 - 2.4 million Scoville units). I've used ghost chiles before to make Inner Beauty hot sauce (I called that batch Inner Beauty Ghost Sauce). I've never seen fresh Carolina Reapers before. I'm a fire-eater, but they are way to far over the top for me.

-Paul W.

Paul, I am always amazed by your cooking. You make many different dishes, many of which I have never heard of. I grew up with family who had huge gardens, and we ate simply but healthily, always letting the fresh veggies be the star of the meals. We had lots of chicken, fresh seafood, and nothing very complicated to cook as there were always animals to care for or gardens to tend to. I do get inspired by your posts and have come across many ways to use my huge supply of dried spices and herbs. I used to have a huge garden when my house was full of kids and family, but now it is one. I still love to cook, but don't want to be in the kitchen for hours.
Keep posting, and I will keep learning. I did learn that I can make mashed potatoes with fresh green onions and Zatar from my DIL, who recently retired and is finally having a ball in the kitchen. I have Zatar but never used it. Cannot wait to try it in the mashed potatoes.

Yes, Paul makes fascinating dishes
Karen. Za'atar should be fun with mashed potatoes. Lots of uses, I often put on grilled summer squash.
Last night we took a different approach to heirloom tomatoes. An Ottolenghi recipe, kind of an Asian twist on Panzanella. Recipe had directions for making shichimi togarashi , but I thought since we had some store bought...But then turned out we didn't have enough, luckily had the ingredients needed, Betsy made the shichimi togarashi and decided to always do that instead of commercial. Really delicious recipe

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/788 ... -togarashi

The meals we were served at college were institutional fare, albeit way better than what my high school cafeteria served at lunchtime. There were disappointments (for example what we dubbed "mystery meat") but also some gems. One of my favorites was spaghetti with meat sauce and Italian sausages. Tonight I'm making my take on that dish--Rao's arrabbiata tomato sauce with browned sweet Italian sausages and bell peppers. I've taken to using the "stoplight" pepper packages sold at the supermarket. These have three bell peppers--one each of red, yellow, and green.

Heirloom tomato BLTs are definitely on the menu for this coming week.

-Paul W.

We took supper over to my daughter, her husband, and their three week old baby. (OK, the baby didn't really eat much.) I made a version of the Mississippi pot roast, sauteed green beans with shallots and chantarelles, and mashed potatoes. The pot roast recipe was from Serious Eats, and it has you use buttermilk and dill instead of ranch dressing mix. Pepperoncinis and a little of their brine go into the mix and you put gelatin into chicken broth before using it to braise the beef. It came out really well, although the sauce didn't thicken much at all despite the gelatin. Don't know what happened with that.

Over the weekend I attended a pesto trapanese end-of-summer party at a friend's house. My bring was caponata, a dish I love but have never made before. It is the Italian counterpart to French ratatouille: the latter is an eggplant-peppers-squash stew with tomatoes, while caponata is eggplant-celery-olives with tomatoes. There are other lively ingredients, too (onion, capers, pine nuts, and, most importantly, an agrodolce sauce of wine vinegar and honey). It was just splendid; I'm very pleased with it and myself.

Tonight I made quiche as the week's mainstay: shrimp, Colombian chorizo, and peas in a gouda/cream/egg custard. I did not eat it tonight, though, as there were extra sausages and extra shrimp so I threw together a bit of this and that for dinner. (My only meal of the day today.)

... a pesto trapanese end-of-summer party ...

Ops makes a lovely Trapanese pizza with pesto trapanese as the base. Don't see the name around all that often.

I hadn't heard of pesto trapanese and had to look it up. Sounds delicious.

Tonight's dinner will be gung bao ji ding (aka Kung Pao chicken). I'll be making it with cashews instead of peanuts--yummier that way IMO.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

It came out really well, although the sauce didn't thicken much at all despite the gelatin. Don't know what happened with that.

Same with my verion a few weeks ago--and I used TWO packets. I had to resort to a corn-starch slurry to achieve the texture I wanted.

[Jenise]

Tonight friends are coming over for enchilada pie. The wife half of this particular couple, who grew up in the wilds of Saskatchewan, loves Mexican food more than anything so it's fun cooking elevated versions of same for her. In this case I was inspired by our local co-op's new line of in-house made bulk sausages, including a Mexican style chorizo. I'll serve a green salad starter involving lettuce, frisee and radishes in a vinaigrette heavily seasoned with cumin and shallots. The pie will be baked and cooled in advance, then cut into squares which will get oven-roasted crispy and topped with a fresh pico de gallo (those great summer tomatoes!) as well as a salsa of avocado and grilled corn cut off the cob.