What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

That would be the bay laurel, then. The California laurel's leaves have a stronger but coarser flavor, and are more pointed in shape.

-Paul W.

Yeah, long and narrow. Bought some fresh (in the little clamshell packets) and wasn't impressed. It wasn't until I moved up here and had real bay laurel fresh leaves that I realized what I'd been missing in fresh leaves. And then I got a tree.

Tonight, for just Bob and I, prime rib, jus, horseradish mashed taters, and cold asparagus salad to start. We're swimming in asparagus, I bought a bunch to make an appie for Friday's champagne fest which got cancelled due to weather.

I've had a niece visiting all week, she was supposed to be here for lunch on her way down to see the other 7 siblings and families in Marin Co. She surprised me and stayed three days. So, I was a caught off guard... It all went well and I refrained from running to the store everyday because I am pretty well stocked. Yesterday for lunch I made this: I used sun-dried tomato/basil 8 inch wraps, drizzled with Sriracha mayonnaise, then semi- dried tomatoes in an herby oil and put a layer down the middle of the wrap. One wrap had a layer of thinly sliced roast beef , the other black forest ham slices, then swiss cheese slices. Wrapped tightly, then put into microwave just until the cheese started to melt. I cut at a deep angle in the middle, and we each had a beef half and a ham half. Very pretty, very tasty and fun. I did pick up a pre-mad potato salad, but took it out of the clam shell and added to it, It became edible, but had way too much mayo...which I never use in my potato salads.

Both my usual supermarket and Whole Paycheck were out of stock on fresh pork belly, but I did finally find some at a supermarket I don't usually visit. So I will be able to do lardons for the coq au vin I'll be making on Christmas day. And twice-cooked pork will be in the rotation next week.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

The wraps sound great, Karen. I can buy interesting things like that just over the border at almost any grocer in Canada but not here in lily-white fuddy-duddy Bellingham.

Speaking of roast beef though, I did make French Dip style sandwiches out of English muffins (what I had, and going to the store in this weather isn't happening) and the leftover braised tri tip yesterday, loved that.

For dinner last night we had veal piccata, and I substituted fioretta cauliflower for pasta underneath. Pretty delicious with a '14 red burgundy.

Not sure what we're eating today. Have to get ready for tomorrow night, which may require some menu revisions because where I thought by tomorrow I'd be able to sneak out for X and X, I may not. Desperate times!

Baked some cardamom rose thumbprint cookies tonight. Discovered I had eaten all the almonds I had, so I substituted almond flour, which worked okay.

I've made a batch of chocolate cinnamon ice cream, a batch of chocolate-hazelnut cookies, and a batch of peanut butter cookies with Hershey's kisses. I've made the chocolate ice cream before but not with cinnamon added; we'll see how I did on quantity and introduction. The choco-hazel cookies are new to me; cookies are fine but the batter was very strange, almost like taffy. The peanut butter cookies are a repeat, Pumpkin's faves, but always come out too crumbly. I did some reading in McGee, who suggested adding a little water to give the gluten 'more room to develop' - didn't work.

We're going today to a friend's house to eat posole. This morning I baked three loves of bread for Xmas dinner tomorrow. Tonight, I'll bake a pie (either mincemeat or pumpkin). And tomorrow morning I plan to bake Christopsomo.

[Jenise]

Speaking of posole, tonight I took the last third of the chicken enchilada pie I made last week and chopped it up and combined it with a large can of hominy with most of the can liquid, more oregano and dried chiles to make a posole with a stew-like consistency. Really good!

[Jenise]

Today I'm going to recreate my stepmother's Hungarian cabbage rolls. I have been hungry for them for weeks now. They're the best I've ever had: filling is finely ground pork and ham plus rice. They simmer in a tomato-garlic broth full of sliced smoked kielbasa type sausages.

Jenise, I love cabbage rolls. My German girlfriend called them Halupki and she taught me how to make them. She lined her cooking vessel with the leaves that were unusable for the rolls. It was a ground beef, rice, onion, garlic mix. Rolled up into a cabbage leaf. She layered a good, jarred sauerkraut, tomato sauce and cabbage rolls until the vessel was full. Tomato sauce and cabbage was the last layer, then topped with more cabbage leaves. I also put a little sauerkraut juice in my beef, rice mix, along with fennel seed. I loved them so much and often ate one for breakfast, and again for lunch. Our kids loved them too, so I always made a large Dutch Oven full of them. They were always better the next day! As I recall, I bought the jarred sauerkraut from a family owned farm in Bellingham which made fermented products. It was the best I could find here and it came from a local Cash and Carry type store.

[Jenise]

The cabbage rolls you describe are the more common mixture, with beef. Someone who used to be on this site described her Polish husband's love for something very similar with a similar name--it ended with 'ki' anyway but was more like Humpki or Frumki. Betty's version, which I made, are loyal to the Hungarian preference for pork in all things. I never had a recipe, I just have a vivid memory of hers (I was 18 when she married Dad, and I had no prior experience with cabbage rolls), and I know what has to go in the pot to get there. Including sauerkraut, which I had none of, so I poured off some pickle brine and finely shredded all the extra cabbage I had--worked pretty well.

Interesting about your sauerkraut from Bellingham! Whoever that was, I'm sad to report that they don't exist now. I'd like to try making a beef version sometime.

https://eatlocalfirst.org/listing/pangea-ferments/ I called them this morning and got a voice mail saying they would call back.

[Jenise]

Oh Pangea! Yes, I do know them and love their products. I didn't realize they were local to Bellingham, though, or that they'd been around awhile. I've lived here for 20 years and am only aware of them in the last 3-5 years.

Today, I will marinate 1/2 of a very large chicken breast, bone-in and skin on. Marinade includes. zest of one lime (I have a bunch of delicious limes from a neighbors tree, they are yellow) 4 tbsp. of lime juice, garlic cloves, brown sugar, pepper, olive oil, cilantro and fish sauce. After marinating all day, I will bake in the oven with red onion wedges, and carrots drizzled with the rest of the marinade. Serving with Basmati rice sautéed in coconut oil, coconut flakes, and butter. Then adding coconut milk, chicken stock, salt, 1 lime zested and juiced and red pepper flakes and fresh cilantro on top. I may add a few mango chunks, if the mango is sweet.
Extra veggies today are whole, in shell edamame beans, cooked and finished off with a little pistachio oil and pink flaked salt, eaten at room temp.

I tried to order online from Pangea but they have a weird set up and want one to order 4 of each item you select. I did not want to do that so found what I wanted on Amazon. I did not take the time to look around to see if there was another way, as I wanted to do other things and I am a fan of easy websites, which are easy to use.

I made pizza this weekend. And just to annoy some people, I put pineapple on it. Yum.

Spatchcocked a chicken and oven-roasted it; also made double-stuffed potatoes. Working my way through bits and bobs of leftovers in the fridge... a fruit/cinnamon sauce served with the chicken, a few ounces of bacon and a handful of leftover cheddar for the potatoes....

I made pizza this weekend. And just to annoy some people, I put pineapple on it. Yum.

To quote Jacques Pépin, " A recipe is a teaching tool, a guide, a point of departure. Follow it exactly the first time you make a dish, As you make it again, you will change it, massage it to fit your own taste and aesthetic Eventually, it will become your own personal recipe."
My Portuguese grandmother, who was a great cook told me the same thing. She went further and said "no recipe is authentic, because as each family cooked it, it became their own." It angers me when people judge someone else's recipes for a change in ingredients, or adding a not expected spice, etc. It is food after all and meant to be eaten the way the cook wants to deliver to their family or guests. I change recipes all the time. I make many recipes, that are Italian, Asian, Mexican, Mediterranean, and more, created by another cook, and yes they are excellent, so I leave them alone. But, there are times when I MUST add that little something...

So Larry, put all the pineapple you want on that pizza! Enjoy!

Today I'm going to recreate my stepmother's Hungarian cabbage rolls. I have been hungry for them for weeks now. They're the best I've ever had: filling is finely ground pork and ham plus rice. They simmer in a tomato-garlic broth full of sliced smoked kielbasa type sausages.

That sounds insane….recipe?

Betsy is making an Ottolenghi recipe for ....wait...shrimp bolognese. ???
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/101 ... all&rank=0

Apparently coarsely pulse fennel, shrimp, etc, fry, add tomatoes and paste, finish with stock and Pernod (in our case Ricard). After my initial doubletake looking forward to trying. With Bolognese I usually do Chianti, but the fresh tomatoes, tarragon, fennel and of course shrimp all say white to me. First thought was Pigato or Ligurian Vermentino, but don't have some. Probably will stay Italian (even if this dish might not be), so probably a Collestefano Verdichio di Mat (only other Italian white I know I have are Trebbianos in offsite).

[Jenise]

That sounds insane….recipe?

John, there's no recipe. I have the flavors and textures in my head and just combine in that direction. But I'm going to teach my brother how to make them in a few weeks--when I do, I'll write everything down and post it for you.

[Jenise]

Betsy is making an Ottolenghi recipe for ....wait...shrimp bolognese. ???

OMG that sounds killer. I presumed you loved it?

I made pizza this weekend. And just to annoy some people, I put pineapple on it. Yum.

In the days when I ordered-in pizza for my Indian co-workers, they preferred pineapple-jalapeno topping - sweet and spicy.

Betsy is making an Ottolenghi recipe for ....wait...shrimp bolognese. ???

Sounds good!

I made pizza this weekend. And just to annoy some people, I put pineapple on it. Yum.

I saw that Kenji has a blog entry on New England style Greek Pizza on the web site today. Barring my dislike for people telling me "where to go" when their politics differ from mine (or even if they don't), I may have to try it. There are people who say that Greek pizza ins not pizza at all. I point them to the varying styles of pizza around the world (Neopolitan, Sicillian, Detroit, Chicago, etc.) - but I'd never tell them where to go because of it.