What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Hopefully the appetite and ability to eat matches your efforts. Glad you are on the mend.

[Jenise]

Christina, what I'm recovering from now is not the original illness but a rather violent adverse reaction to the med given me for the other illness. Blew up the tendons in my feet and there's some evident systemic damage as well, which hopefully is temporary. But in the interests of not upsetting the apple cart any further, I've chosen my eats very carefully. And no alcohol.

Yikes, must 've been some nasty meds.

Glad to hear you're revving your engines again.

I don't think I posted about this year's anniversary dinner with Pumpkin. The menu was roast squab, oven-roasted delicata squash and maitake mushrooms, and a khachapuri. As I commented earlier this year, I did, indeed, buy a ball of pizza dough from my favorite local parlor and filled it myself: a sprinkling of prosciutto cubes followed by lots of feta, a double-creme gouda, mozzerella, and a grating of auricchio for that extra nasal something:

Before:

2021-06-05 khachapuri 1 sm.png

After:

2021-06-05 khachapuri 2 sm.png

That is the form of Khachapuri I am most familiar with and it looks spectacular. Bravo !

[Jenise]

Oh god, you had to ruin it with the eggs.

Looks beautiful, though; and happy anniversary to you and Pumpkin from Bob and I.

Thank you!

It was actually a slip on my part... only supposed to top with the yolk, not the whole egg. And, after everyone admires it, you stir it into the gooey cheese.

[Jenise]

Potentially on deck for dinner tonight is Sheldon Simeon's Pork Belly Adobo. I love, just love, adobo but have never had it done with pork belly. Apparently this recipe is in Sheldon's new book, the title of which is something about Real Hawaiian cooking which documents and differentiates the multi-cultural Asian food he grew up with from the resort food most people unfortunately think of as Hawaiian food.

This recipe is very special to him because, of course, he's Filipino, but it's a significant change from what he'd grown up with: the pork is browned BEFORE the braise, not after. The illumination came from his first trip to the Philippines when he was an adult. So he came back home and made this new-method adobo for his father who kind of scratched his head and said, "You know, this DOES taste more like what your grandmother used to make." Apparently, over several generations, the recipe they'd considered authentic had changed/simplified without anyone realizing it.

I can't wait to try it.


Sheldon Simeon's Pork Belly Adobo

Serves 4 to 6

.25 c. neutral oil
2 lbs. pork belly, skin removed, cut into 2-inch cubes
3 tbsp. minced garlic (about 10 cloves)
.25 c. shoyu (soy sauce)
2 tbsp. oyster sauce
.25 c. cane vinegar
.25 c. apple cider vinegar
3 bay leaves
.25 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 c. halved cherry tomatoes (about 1 pound), for serving
Cooked rice, for serving
In a large, deep skillet, wok, or Dutch oven, heat the oil over high heat until shimmering-hot. Pat the pork dry with paper towels. Sear it in the hot oil, turning, until evenly browned on all sides, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in the shoyu, oyster sauce, both vinegars, the bay leaves, and pepper and toss to coat the pork belly. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the pork has started to soften and most the fat has rendered, 40 to 50 minutes. What you’re going for is not a melt-in-your-mouth bite, but rendered fat and meat with some texture to it, like spareribs almost.

Once the pork is cooked, remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside. If desired, skim off some of the rendered fat and discard (I usually keep it). Increase the heat to medium and reduce the sauce, stirring constantly, until a sticky glaze starts to form. Return the pork belly to the sauce and toss to coat.

Serve with tomatoes and cooked rice.

[Jenise]

Adobo didn't happen; was stupid to think I could be on my feet like that, I'm mobile now but not healed enough for that. So dinner was asparagus and cherries. Life is simple.

Adobo didn't happen; was stupid to think I could be on my feet like that, I'm mobile now but not healed enough for that. So dinner was asparagus and cherries. Life is simple.

Bob rolled cherries across the table and you swung on them with "Louisville Slugger" asparagus?

[Jenise]

How'd you know?

Jenise, I hope your brawn soon matches your culinary musings. Are you able to prep sitting at the island or beside a lower prep counter ? Bob would have to be a go-for and promise to faithfully execute your meticulous directions.
I just realized that although not planned for working from a seated position the nearly 1/3 of my total counter space intentionally designed at a lower height for dough work could be used in such a situation.
Take your time to recover fully. Asparagus and cherries are perfectly seasonal !

[Jenise]

I'm very happy with simple vegetarian meals like that, fortunately. Not a hardship to wait, though of course my brain is thinking up all kinds of other things. I break things down in stages. Like the other day I cut up a pile of roma toms that were starting to go and put them on the stove with half an onion and a few ladles of the cooking water from the pre-cook for a couple weisswursts Bob grilled. Took five minutes if that to get that going. It simmered for several hours then got refrigerated. A few days later I put the pan back on the stove with some leftover tomato salad, some garlic cloves and a toasted English muffin. Transferred that to the Vitamix and made a Romesceau-like puree. Now the puree's in the fridge awaiting it's fate which, if I get out today, will make a great sauce underneath a filet of grilled halibut. So that's how I'm getting by--in stages. I do have a stool for sitting in my kitchen but my real issue now is the getting up and moving around between stations as needed for even simple meals.

Bob can help and will do ANYTHING for me, he's just VERY unskilled. When I asked him to just make me a bowl of buttered noodles last week during the four-five days in which I couldn't stand up at all, he had to Google it. I was marooned upstairs and couldn't even supervise from nearby. Thank god this happened in summer with all the fresh fruit available.

How'd you know?

I play with my food, too. Years of experience.

I don't think Bill cares. He walks his talk and that matters more to him than the business he loses. To that I think, good for him!

In today's sale flyer, Bill refers to the same-sex marriage decision of 2015:
"At the time, those dead set against LGBTQ+ people being allowed to live regular lives were quite vocal about it. Back then I used to get actual letters of rage and praise. I used to fish out the envelopes with American flag stamps and no return addresses to open first to get the yelling out of the way. It was outrage and demands for apologies and this will be the end of Penzeys!!! As you may have noticed we are still here...."

[Jenise]

That's our Bill!!!

Today I'm making a cold salmon carpaccio to take to a Southern Rhone tasting. I had originally planned to do a cold salad topped with sliced cold roast lamb but alas--COSTCO HAD NO LAMB. None, nada.

Both cold lamb and cold salmon sound good to me.

[Jenise]

Yeah. I was disappointed about the lamb--with a rosemary-tomato vinaigrette would have been just right. But alas, salmon it will be with lots of onions, capers, lemon juice and tarragon. Pretty good to gnosh on with the whites (and on this hot day, I expect there to be a lot in this department).

The Francophile cadged a recipe from a friend last time we ate at her house. She'd cooked a rather delectable dish based on wild rice, and we have our first attempt steaming away on the stove top as I write. I'll post later about how it turned out, and whether chunks of panfried chicken was the right thing to have with it.

[Jenise]

Matilda, we'll wait to hear? What's the geographic source of your wild rice?

[Jenise]

Tonight: grilled chicken, homemade BBQ sauce, potato salad (with jalapenos escabeche).

Jenise said:

Matilda, we'll wait to hear? What's the geographic source of your wild rice?

The wild rice is sourced from the USA and packaged here in Oz by the local importer. I don't think we grow wild rice here at all but I could be wrong.

I can report that the wild rice dish left a lot to be desired. Its a kind of pilau, with lots of currants and carrot in evidence, and it also has some risoni in it as well. The wild rice remained a bit too chewy and if we'd cooked it any longer the vege components would have turned to mush.

We plan to try again with black rice instead of wild.

Jenise said:

Matilda, we'll wait to hear? What's the geographic source of your wild rice?

The wild rice is sourced from the USA and packaged here in Oz by the local importer. I don't think we grow wild rice here at all but I could be wrong.

I can report that the wild rice dish left a lot to be desired. Its a kind of pilau, with lots of currants and carrot in evidence, and it also has some risoni in it as well. The wild rice remained a bit too chewy and if we'd cooked it any longer the vege components would have turned to mush.

We plan to try again with black rice instead of wild.

The hybridized wild rice (black, and probably from California) does take a long time to cook. Have you considered cooking it separately or, at least, starting it sooner than the rest of the ingredients? The real wild rice from Minnesota (tan like grass seed) takes only about 10 minutes to cook. Mixing cultivated wild rice (there's an oxymoron!) with white or brown rice will also lighten things up.

[Jenise]

I love love LOVE the taste of wild rice but yes I do cook it separately and then combine with other ingredients, or at least give it a head start if planning to blend it with a white rice. It does stay somewhat chewy, though, which along with that earthy flavor is what's attractive about it.