What's Cooking (Take Three!)

A toga party? Are you a nineteen-year-old frat boy? What is wrong with you?

Never a dull minute, Barb.

Indeed! Surprise keep coming. Asked himself if he had any requests as I headed off to the shop, whaaa, okay. He asked for soft rolls with fish fingers, remoulade sauce and shredded lettuce for lunch. Go figure. I don't think I have had a fish finger since I was a teenager.
Do they still exist? Yep! So that was today's lunch, kind of a po'boy I guess.

I do not know WHY they still exist, yuck.

Dinner tonight is Sichuan yu xiang qie zi ("fish fragrant" eggplant).

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

A toga party? Are you a nineteen-year-old frat boy? What is wrong with you?

The cool thing, as the organizer (this was our neighborhood monthly wine tasting) for up to 100 people, I never actually mentioned the 't' word. I sent out a clever invitation (for instance, describing the Club House where these are held as The Clubbasseum) and included the words "Period costume appreciated but not required", and the descriptions of the five prizes that would be awarded for those who would attend including "Most Roman" and "Most Likely To Be Fed to a Lion". The RSVP's came back, "TOGA PARTY! Count me IN!" I went as Italy's First Mobster with black fedora, pencil thin moustache and cigar. Bob was a Roman Brothel Inspector. Best costume of all was the guy who came as Caesar. No, not Julius Caesar. Caesar the Salad.

Best costume of all was the guy who came as Caesar. No, not Julius Caesar. Caesar the Salad.

I once went to a party dressed as a tomato and carrying a tote with celery and vodka.

Indeed! Surprise keep coming. Asked himself if he had any requests as I headed off to the shop, whaaa, okay. He asked for soft rolls with fish fingers, remoulade sauce and shredded lettuce for lunch. Go figure. I don't think I have had a fish finger since I was a teenager.
Do they still exist? Yep! So that was today's lunch, kind of a po'boy I guess.

I do not know WHY they still exist, yuck.

Eeesh. Toga party in the other posting and a six-year-old eating fish sticks in this one.

Barb, maybe you and I should grab a wheel of cheese and a couple bottles of wine and make tracks.

[Jenise]

Best costume of all was the guy who came as Caesar. No, not Julius Caesar. Caesar the Salad.

I once went to a party dressed as a tomato and carrying a tote with celery and vodka.

Now that's progressive costuming. Me like!

Barb, maybe you and I should grab a wheel of cheese and a couple bottles of wine and make tracks.

Always wanted to visit NY! Guess I can't bring my own cheese though, but the NY delis should be able to help us there!!!

Dinner last night was an old favorite--Cantonese stir-fried beef with green peppers. This was the second Chinese dish I ever cooked.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, isn't there something magical about beef with green peppers? The Cantonese restaurants of my childhood simply called it Pepper Beef, and it was one of two dishes I'd request when I got to choose a dish. The other was called Green Pea Chow Yuk--snow peas, genuine BBQ park, and water chestnuts in a blonde sauce.

I am SO hungry for that right now.

Last night we had a plain cheese pizza, homemade. I set the temp to 400 vs. my usual 425 and the timer for 19 minutes instead of my usual 22, and it was practically burnt, which kind of confirms that my oven is cooking too hot again. If that's right then I'm due for another $600 repair, and that will be my third in less than ten years. F word!

[Jenise]

Grilled corn and shrimp.

On my new barbecue.

Trying desperately to not let a single squash blossom or zucchini fruit go to waste....Masa crepas with roasted poblanos, corn, blossoms were terrific. Blossom soup after Rick Bayless recipe and zucchini noodles in the Carbonara style were also wonderful. The usual fried blossoms but expanded the stuffing options to whole prawns [ the variety this year produces blossoms that have gone nuclear} or a scallop shrimp forcemeat stuffing. Savory pork forcemeat sandwiched between 2 rounds, dipped in flour then egg then garlic buttered panko then fried. The 2-3" babies can be sliced horizontally this way as well. Grated with onion, basil, grated parm with/without potato and eggs latke style. Very happy with these trials. Pickle trial next. Only one thing....next year, not allowing my husband to put in so many plants. I love the challenge of trying to not let anything go to waste but he can not resist the plants that look so small and unassuming at first but come on like King Kong by mid summer. Not quite at zucchini fatigue but balk at use in bread, cookies, cake.

Seared Shishito peppers. Tried Padron several years ago and season just not long enough here but Shishito are similar if not identical. I hand wipe them with the lightest coating of olive oil and sear quickly. A sprinkling of Maldon is enough but they are wonderful with a Romesco or Salbitxada. The wonderful variety of Spanish whites and roses are great with this as an appy.
One plant provides enough for an every other day serving for two - a prolific plant.

Grated with onion, basil, grated parm with/without potato and eggs latke style. Very happy with these trials.

Those sound very good!

You might try adapting eggplant recipes. I think miso-glazed eggplant (nasu dengaku?) would shift over to zucchini nicely. You might adapt my lotus root sandwich idea: cut the squash into medium slices on a mandoline (you might have to work on the diagonal to make them wide enough to be worth the fuss), make a sticky pork-scallion-ginger mush, make sandwiches, wrap with a strip of nori, then pan fry the heck out of them.

And there's zucchini spaghetti.

[Jenise]

Christina, The shisito peppers I've had have been longer, curlier and thinner-walled than the Padrone peppers I've had, but growing conditions could I suppose influence either outcome. Still, love them both.

Re zucc blossoms: pizza. Brush dough with an olive oil seasoned with salt and thyme, then scatter some lightly cooked thin slices of fresh orange (with rind), blossoms and scoops of ricotta. Had this at Industrial Eats in Buellton and it's one of the best pizzas I've had in years.

[Jenise]

We're having dinner at the neighbor's tonight, so not cooking per se, but I'm making some of the bits and pieces for my two terrines for Saturday's annual Terrine Fest at Bill's. Pickled baby golden beets, spiced walnuts, etc. Tomorrow I'll make the chevre and potato terrine, and Friday I'll do the blue cheese terrine.

Sounds like a Trinity Terrine ! Cant wait to see the plate

[Jenise]

Doing the blue cheese and walnut terrine for tomorrow's big do today, and will do roast rack of lamb for dinner tonight. Will dry-rub the surface with Vaudovan and use a 50/50 blend of panko and dry, unsweetened coconut for the crust. Will probably serve those with wilted beet greens.

Another try for the oncoming birthday dinner

chocolate mousses tarte filled with raspberry sauce, mango salad and fresh berries

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Cannelloni of the avocado on cucumber salad with salmon tartare and honeydew melon

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Hi Heinz, are those mousses frozen or cooked? They look lovely.

'Tis the season for tomatoes, so we had BLTs! Okay, we had BLAT (by adding avocado), which I don't use because I feel it takes away from the platonic ideal that is the BLT. The bread was a miche from Feel Good in Berkeley, bacon by Niman Ranch, tomatoes from the farmer's market that day, mayonnaise by Hellman's / Best Foods. Served with Brentwood corn grilled in just the last layer of the husk; leaves it slightly smoky to go with the prodigious sweetness of the corn. I grilled the bread a bit just to try it, probably better left alone, not that it still wasn't delicious.

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[Jenise]

Heinz, both dishes are absolutely incredible looking--your artistry is always so impressive but that mousse tarte is off the charts. What's the technique for getting the layers so perfect?


Today for dinner, I'm making stuffed eggplant. I have a smallish eggplant that I will have and fill with a mixture of chicken Italian sausage and rice, seasoned pretty forcefully in a middle east direction with the addition of fresh mint.

Last night I made Chinese red-cooked chicken and ratatouille.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, I was feeling Asian yesterday, too. Was having two widowed bachelors over for dinner--I'd bought two rib racks last week, and had some corn on the cob. But I got bored just thinking about having ribs in BBQ sauce again, so prodded by some giant enoki mushrooms I'd bought for something else and not used yet, I went Asian. Rubbed the ribs with a mixture of five spice/cayenne/white pepper, salt and sugar and baked them for 2.5 hours. I cooked the corn, cut it off the cob, and cooked-then-cooled some rice, and turned those into a corn fried rice with mushroom soy and tiny bits of diced red cocktail peppers and green onions. A cucumber salad and a dish of those giant enokis sauteed with oyster sauce and ginger-fried brussels sprouts completed the meal.

Heinz, both dishes are absolutely incredible looking--your artistry is always so impressive but that mousse tarte is off the charts. What's the technique for getting the layers so perfect?

Thank you so much for your statement.
I'll explain the technique in my poor words, but I'm still working on it. So it will last one more day to be posted.