What's Cooking (Take Three!)

My dad had gout. He took allopurinol for 40+ years. Claims it has no bad side-effects.

Every couple of years he'd stop, just to check that he still needed it. About two weeks later he'd start it up again.

[Jenise]

If I dealt with this regularly I'd have to take it too. It's possible I should look into it--gout is a result of purines. Does the med dissolve them or prevent them from happening in the first place? If the latter, could be good for me.

The latter: https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supple ... g-20075476

I think I still have that childhood hankering for the Sunday roast. Except it’s been on the agenda for 3 days.
So finally tonight is roast diner.
I found a small piece of pork belly, so roasted and crispy crackling, roast spuds and pumpkin and a green salad
Oh And of course gravy.
Will be enough fora roast pork roll for lunch tomorrow.

[Jenise]

I'd been hungry for prime rib for weeks, months maybe, and last night was the night. I bought a four pounder at Costco a few days ago which I unwrapped to dry age for two days in the outside refrigerator, then coated it with a sage-y Italian salt and threw it into a 250 degree oven for a few hours. Removed it to rest at 122F.

Most perfect prime rib I've ever done. Perfectly warm rare in the middle with a well-done ring/cap which is, I think, the magic of prime rib when napped with a rich jus. I served it with my favorite prime rib accompaniament, creamed spinach. Or at least I started to, but then I got this idea of throwing in the rest of the shallot-truffle-chestnut stuffing mix I'd made Thursday night for a stuffed pork roast. The result turned my creamed spinach into a spinach stuffing you could form into a lovely ball with an ice cream scoop. Mostly spinach but now loaded with golden flecks of soft bread. Great color, texture and flavor--just divine. Before the prime rib I served a salad of romaine, walnuts and avocado in a dry-mustard vinaigrette. Wine: a 2002 Karl Lawrence cab from Napa.

[Jenise]

A friend just turned 60 and is opening a bunch of '59's tonight in celebration. I'm taking a platter of pesto-parmesan coated haricot verts, a platter of truffle-coated lamb 'lollipops' (four racks of lamb sliced, a perfect meat for this event since knives won't be needed), and an epoisses with macadamia nut honey for the '59 Suidurat.

The lollipops sounds great. Betsy turns 60 this year, I have a bunch of '59s for the party (In a restaurant). But crowd is not wine-centric so may hold the Pichon Lalande and couple others. Never thought of epoisses and honey

Made choucroute for tonight, just waiting for Betsy to get home

First pot roast of the season here. Will make the eggnog in a little while... it's better with 6 weeks on it!

[Jenise]

The lollipops sounds great. Betsy turns 60 this year, I have a bunch of '59s for the party (In a restaurant). But crowd is not wine-centric so may hold the Pichon Lalande and couple others. Never thought of epoisses and honey

Made choucroute for tonight, just waiting for Betsy to get home

The lollipops were perfect. I brined (three hours), crusted them and roasted them here at home first, and carried them to the event on a cutting board where I sliced and arranged them on a platter. Where I put the haricot verts out when the whites started, I waited until the first red showed up to pour the mustard-tarragon-truffle sauce over and pass the lamb. With 12 people packed into a table made for six or eight and no room for knife-and-fork anything even if that's what you wanted to do, the lamb was perfect--all you needed was a napkin and a tiny plate for the bones. The epoisses was great with the '59 Suidurat and '27 Bory Rivesaults (which I brought). Happy birthday to Betsy!

[Jenise]

I recently bought a jar of Costco's fresh excellent pesto and am kind of craving that flavor now on/in everything. Last night I threw some into a Meatless Monday dinner of what started out to be a cacio de pepe-like prep to use up three separate mall handfuls of fettucine-like noodles (a little spinach, a little spicy red pepper, and a little plain white) that were otherwise too annoyingly scant for any singular purpose with fresh basil leaves wilted in for a stronger basil flavor. Quite delicious!

Dinner last night was doro wat, with rice instead of injera. I need to make another batch of niter kibbeh.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, that sounds like what I would kill to have for dinner. I usually use flour tortillas--the excellent ones at Trader Joe's. No dinner plans here yet--I haven't felt great all day and just haven't been able to make myself figure it out. I wanted to make a posole, and I've soaked the dried hominy overnight, just didn't feel like going to the store for the meat part.

Last night I made soupe a l'ail et aux pommes de terre from volume I of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's prepared the same way as aigo bouido except that instead of being finished with a mayonnaise liaison, you add diced boiling potatoes and a pinch of saffron and simmer for another 20 minutes until the potatoes are done. It's a thin, slightly yellow, aromatic soup, and Julia's right--you'd never guess that garlic was the primary ingredient.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Sounds interesting, Paul. I have her books but never paid attention to that recipe, I've only made garlic soup the Spanish way where, like so many Spanish things, it's thickened with toasted bread.

BUT FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK (you didn't, just creating a segue) this morning it dawned on me that my holdup on the posole I spoke of yesterday didn't need to exist--why didn't I create a vegetarian version? BINGO. Tomato, onions, chiles, cilantro and oregano. Unfortunately, however--this is where your soup comes in--I added too much garlic. Or rather, the single clove of garlic I used was from a head that I've had here since summer, and it was strong in an objectionable way so the soup tasted more of garlic than onions, tomatoes ore oregano. So I've thrown the rest out.

Ah, yes, kitchen work occasionally fails. That was my first introduction to this board, in fact.

I saw recently a quote from Julia Child, something to the effect that a cook really has to maintain a "what the hell" attitude about things.

[Jenise]

True enough. And I do--but to be honest, I rarely fail. That is, as an instinctive cook more than a recipe cook, I can usually see the problem coming and head it off. I just didn't guess that the garlic would taste so tinny (the clove I used was the first from it), or how pervasive and objectionable that would be in the soup. It was a weird bulb--locally grown--from a bulb with but six very large cloves. And when I cut into it, it was closer to tan in color than white. Not shrivelled or anything, but you wouldn't mistake it for perfectly fresh. But I used it anyway....

It was a weird bulb--locally grown--from a bulb with but six very large cloves. And when I cut into it, it was closer to tan in color than white. Not shrivelled or anything, but you wouldn't mistake it for perfectly fresh. But I used it anyway....

Perhaps it was some sort of "heirloom garlic" with a stronger flavor that the usual cultivated varieties. The off color might mean that the tissue of the clove had died, even though rot hadn't yet set in. That would explain the off flavor.

-Paul W.

Last night I made soupe a l'ail et aux pommes de terre from volume I of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's prepared the same way as aigo bouido except that instead of being finished with a mayonnaise liaison, you add diced boiling potatoes and a pinch of saffron and simmer for another 20 minutes until the potatoes are done. It's a thin, slightly yellow, aromatic soup, and Julia's right--you'd never guess that garlic was the primary ingredient.

Inspired by you, I made it, too. Lovely. I added some shrimp at the end to make it a main course.

But I want it as a cream soup. So next time I will reduce the liquid a bit and build a bechamel base first.

Thank you for the introduction!

[Jenise]

But I want it as a cream soup. So next time I will reduce the liquid a bit and build a bechamel base first.
Thank you for the introduction!

Or take it to Spain by thickening it with bread instead of dairy!


Last night we had cauliflower steaks with a butter/lemon/garlic/fresh basil sauce on a dill-y couscous. Our starter course was a plate of gin-fried sugar snap peas. Drank an 06 Burgundy with that. All pretty great!

Tonight I'm making Sichuan stir-fried ground pork and hot chiles, using jalapenos. I'm going completely unconventional for Thanksgiving and making Paul Prudhomme's Cajun chicken and andouille sausage gumbo.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Sounds great, Paul. Hot and spicy has been appealing to me all week.

Speaking of that, our Thanksgiving is going to be Portugese spicy. Not my idea but I'm excited about it nonetheless. Turkey marinated in piri piri, spatchcocked and grilled outdoors. Stuffing made with Linguica sausage, etc. I'm taking a fresh cranberry relish that I'll spike with a lot of orange bitters to impart a bitter Seville orange flavor, an Iberian marinated leek salad and a conventional pumpkin pie. Our friends live three hours away and only have one oven, so these are perfect for do-ahead, transporting and serving.

[Jenise]

Came home from our overnighter on south Whidbey island with something either start of a cold or an allergy. Wasn't sure which. This morning I'm sure: nasty cold. Throat feels like it's full of razor blades. I bought fresh scallops (can't tell you the last time I saw fresh scallops) yesterday to cook tonight. Unfortunately they'll be fairly lost on me, as is a desire to cook (or pair wine, which will smell like water) at the level they deserve. S#!t!!!!!

Bummer Jenise
I just got back from a week in the big smoke (Melbourne) had a nasty sore throat, but as it has resolved in 48hrs I rather think it was just my respiratory system dealing with the rubbish in the air.

Found some frozen green scampi in Aldi, defrosted a few for tonight’s dinner. They are too small really to to whack on the grill so served them pan fried with a sauce made from the heads, garlic, saffron chilli.

[Jenise]

Smoke can really get to you, Barb. Even being in a room with a wood-burning fire place amounts to second-hand smoke for those of us who are sensitive to it (like, asthmatic).

Tonight: pot roast for two. Want to do something to make it special/different, but no idea what that might be yet. Sherry?