What's Cooking (Take Two!)

[Jenise]

Rahsaan, to be honest, even after 12 years it still blows my mind, too.

Ah, caprese! Just finished a plate consisting of half a Brandywine, two Black Prince, and half a bufala mozzerella. One of the joys of summer, (And the sudden, boomy downpour outside, too!)

[Jenise]

Yum! Great tomato season here, though my own plants haven't done so well.


Tonight: crab and grits with fried green tomatoes.

Sunday's dinner was Tuscan Chicken al Mattone with thyme pesto. I don't have any paving stones so I followed the suggestion in the recipe and used a 12" cast iron skillet instead to weigh down the butterflied chicken. The grilled chicken was delicious. This is the first time (thyme?) I've made my own pesto, and it won't be the last.

--Paul W.

Blended tomato paste and harissa as a spread for oven-roasted chicken. Not good, not bad.

[Jenise]

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Hamachi sashimi with miso-mango-habanero vinaigrette last night (at home). You can always tell when I've been to Seattle because it's just about the only time we have fresh fish.

[Jenise]

Just picked our crab traps. Brought home nine keepers. Am making a big crab-green chile enchilada to take to tonight's chardonnay tasting.

Am making a big crab-green chile enchilada to take to tonight's chardonnay tasting.

This sounds perfect!

Yesterday I was at a Mexican bakery and hoping their tortilla machine would be up and running, but it wasn't. (Always difficult to predict, I haven't gotten hip to their rhythms and they don't speak much English) Tomorrow I am likely to buy some crab, but am reluctant to drive 25 minutes to find the tortilla machine down again. Still, this is a great idea that I will make a priority for the upcoming weeks.

(I love crab but have a limited repertoire: either crab cakes or noodle soup with crab)

Tell me more about noodle soup with crab, Robin.

Tell me more about noodle soup with crab...

One of my standard dishes is a soup using various Asian-inspired broths/stocks and various Asian noodles. For the crab version I just add the crab to the bowl (I buy it picked and steamed from the fish shop, direct from the NC coast) and top with the broth, cooked noodles and garnishes (usually herbs, sometimes corn or mushrooms as well).

I also make versions with roasted scallops or baked shrimp, but I love crab!

(And crab goes particularly well with miso, which is a pretty simple broth to make. I also make Vietnamese-inspired broths, based on star anise and ginger, or Chinese-inspired broths with fermented black beans, but those take longer to get depth, as I don't use meat)

Tell me more about Vietnamese-inspired broths, Rahsaan.

Tell me more about Vietnamese-inspired broths, Rahsaan.

Not much more to say. Star anise is a central ingredient in pho, along with onions and ginger. Many Vietnamese broths will use fish sauce (which I don't, for the sake of my family) and of course pho is based on beef broth (which I don't use). But for my purposes, star anise adds that fragrant Vietnamese element and makes me think of rice noodles (as opposed to some ramen-style noodles for crab and miso).

Herbs are also a key component, so cilantro, mint, Asian basils and other funky Vietnamese/South Asian herbs (e.g. rau ram/Vietnamese coriander) help take it in the right direction.

It's all very delicious for us, but I don't claim to be the most 'authentic' here. Others may have different recipes.

I have never made one. Jim won't eat lemongrass or cilantro so your offer of 'broth with star anise and ginger' is appealing. Do I start with water? Do I start with a commercial vegetable broth? I understand leaving off fish sauce - the fermenty thing can be a nuisance - but how about a bottle of clam juice? A couple sprigs of herb, a whole handful? Simmer for a few minutes, an hour, a day? And one star anise, three stars....

Tell me more about Vietnamese-inspired broths, Rahsaan.

I have never made one. Jim won't eat lemongrass or cilantro so your offer of 'broth with star anise and ginger' is appealing. Do I start with water? Do I start with a commercial vegetable broth? I understand leaving off fish sauce - the fermenty thing can be a nuisance - but how about a bottle of clam juice? A couple sprigs of herb, a whole handful? Simmer for a few minutes, an hour, a day? And one star anise, three stars....

Tell me more about Vietnamese-inspired broths, Rahsaan.

Hey, like I said, I'm no expert and your experimentation is probably just as good as mine!

I do start with water (sometimes sauteeing aromatics first, sometimes just putting them in) but your other ideas sound fine too.

I rarely have time to simmer for more than an hour, often much less, and it's still delicious. But of course if you have time to create something special with longer simmering, I'm sure that would be interesting as well.

The amount of star anise depends on your pot! Personally I don't find it *that* strong that it easily overpowers, but I wouldn't load up either. (I usually use 2 or 3 at most for 4 people's portion) Cloves are another key ingredient in pho. Obviously you can taste as you go, but star anise and cloves are both fairly mild so the broth will be very delicate and if you want more full-flavor you can look to things like soy sauce or the stocks you mentioned.

And the herbs are totally up to you. In Vietnam they serve massive amounts of herbs on the side of every dish, that you can use for your own garnish. But of course it's up to you!

Enjoy and report back!

First weekend we've had the whole family here in about six weeks. Tonight, it will be a mishmosh of stuff from today's farmers' market and a David Lebovitz recipe. First up will be bruschetta with figs, buffalo ricotta, bacon, and honey. Then caprese with heirlooms and homemade pesto. The Lebovitz recipe is for grilled deviled chicken thighs and that will be served with elotes.

Dinner last night was chicken wings that had been marinated overnight with the marinade customarily used for Chinese fried chicken wings. But I grilled the wings instead.

-Paul W.

Every so often you see a gem in the fishmonger's tubs. Almost evenly thick throughout, gorgeous electric color, ripples of marbling, perfect.

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The only thing to do is not screw it up. I put it on indirect low heat, and roast for 15-25 minutes until the top (which is the last part to cook) measures 117F / 47C. Like custard!

Every so often you see a gem in the fishmonger's tubs...

Every so often? Sounds like a pretty weak fishmonger if you ask me!

[Jenise]

Pan-seared strips of Wagyu short rib last night with some salad-y things. Not sure what we're having tonight.

[Jenise]

Smoking some ducks for the Bellingham Supper Club tonight. Will serve those with Bok Bang--thin little pancakes for which I've made the dough, but a group activity will be rolling and cooking them (two stages, first you cook them on a griddle, then you steam). I've also lined up 11 Sriracha sauces for a tasting, and one guest is bringing one home-made! For a side dish, I prepared shitake mushrooms in an oyster sauce-duck-ginger sauce that I'll layer over thinly shredded cabbage tossed with rice vinegar. Clubbers are bringing the rest of the food, and I'm not sure what those will be. But I know one couple is bringing a Thai peanut ice cream and 'mooncakes' for dessert.

Smoking some ducks for the Bellingham Supper Club tonight. Will serve those with Bok Bang--thin little pancakes for which I've made the dough, but a group activity will be rolling and cooking them (two stages, first you cook them on a griddle, then you steam). I've also lined up 11 Sriracha sauces for a tasting, and one guest is bringing one home-made! For a side dish, I prepared shitake mushrooms in an oyster sauce-duck-ginger sauce that I'll layer over thinly shredded cabbage tossed with rice vinegar.

This sounds like a Thai-ish twist on Peking Duck!

[Jenise]

This sounds like a Thai-ish twist on Peking Duck!

It did turn out like that, yes. Guests brought a wonderful eggplant dish, a cold noodle salad, grilled shrimp with satay, coconut-peanut ice cream and Chinese mooncakes.

All turned out great considering that Bob and I had no power from early Saturday morning till just a few hours before guests arrived.

All turned out great considering that Bob and I had no power from early Saturday morning till just a few hours before guests arrived.

Yikes. I guess the smoker didn't need electric. Is this a common occurrence in your neck of the woods?

[Jenise]

All turned out great considering that Bob and I had no power from early Saturday morning till just a few hours before guests arrived.

Yikes. I guess the smoker didn't need electric. Is this a common occurrence in your neck of the woods?

It's not. Never had one like this. 70 mph winds did major damage up and down our coast--I guess our dry summer made the trees less able to stand up to the gusts. We were shocked to wake up yesterday morning still in the dark. So we got up, loaded up the iPad and went off in search of ice and a working 3g connection so that we could let our guests know of our plight--no power meant no land line, no access to our main computer-based Address Book, and no hot water as well (the kitchen was piled high with dishes from Friday and Saturday). And I gave everyone my cell phone number. The ice was for transferring our freezer contents into coolers (nothing like a power outage to force one into a complete freezer overhaul) since we were plausibly looking at days of this.

On our way into town (we had to go some distance to find a working 3G connection) we passed several residences with buzzing generators. And one of us said, "Too bad the only generator we have is on Fritz." Then we went: "Fritz? FRITZ!" Fritz is our Mercedes RV. So when we got back out came the manual on Fritz' genset, which we determined could run 12 or more hours on his propane supply. So we fired it up, rolled the smoker into the driveway and plugged him into an exterior outlet. The generator allowed us to heat the water supply which meant that a few feet away I showered with the transom hose and we made enough additional hot water to trundle some back to the kitchen for dishwashing. When our guests called to get an update, they learned that dinner was on--we'd dine by candlelight, but dinner was on. Just had to warn them (I didn't know what all guests were bringing--and this was Supper Club, so everyone was contributing something) that we didn't have a working oven. I could manually light stovetop burners but though the oven's gas, it has an electric igniter that cycles every ten minutes or so.

Fortunately the power came back before dinner.