What's Cooking (Take Three!)

[Jenise]

It's just the best flavor in the world. I remember carrots as a side dish in a restaurant in Anchorage that had wok char, and that flavor in the fried rice of a favorite neighborhood Chinese in Irvine, CA when we lived there. Of course I've experienced it in other Chinese dishes but in the fried rice? Only that one restaurant. Absolutely fantastic.

I'll check out Kenji's article. Btw, I adore that man. Started following him on IG when he moved to Seattle last year just wondering what he'd discover. Never expected to learn so much or just love living inside someone else's mind. He's fascinating, endlessly curious and open-minded, and politically progressive on behalf of women, gays, restaurant workers--you name it. And very much the champion of the little guy--he has apparently never passed some mamasita selling tamales out of the trunk of her car in a Home Depot parking lot that he hasn't stopped to buy from.

Love the blow torch idea.

Tonight was a version of Shrimp Scampi: jumbo shrimp, pasta, pesto, portabellas, red pepper flakes, and lots of garlic,

[Jenise]

Larry, I finally worked down my freezer enough in the past month to be able to restock a 2 lb bag of shrimp yesterday. I'm excited! Scampi here I come.

Last night had a simple salad followed by breaded chicken cutlets and purple broccolini. Sort of boring but that was the point. I'm seriously trying to cut back and slim down some more. Like you, for me that requires cutting out my favorite foods: carbs. Btw, had a physical yesterday and my bloodwork was exceptional. Improved in every category especially triglycerides which I somehow managed to lower by a whopping 25% since my last test two years ago.

Larry, I finally worked down my freezer enough in the past month to be able to restock a 2 lb bag of shrimp yesterday. I'm excited! Scampi here I come.

Last night had a simple salad followed by breaded chicken cutlets and purple broccolini. Sort of boring but that was the point. I'm seriously trying to cut back and slim down some more. Like you, for me that requires cutting out my favorite foods: carbs. Btw, had a physical yesterday and my bloodwork was exceptional. Improved in every category especially triglycerides which I somehow managed to lower by a whopping 25% since my last test two years ago.

I couldn't fit a carton of butter in my upright freezer. I'm a packrat.

Isn't it amazing how cutting carbs makes everything better? Yet, they taste so good. It's too bad we didn't evolve to handle carbs differently. Then I could really eat my bread. And potatoes. And pasta. And rice. And pizza. And ice cream. Yada, yada, yada.

[Jenise]

I get you. Carbs are totally my downfall--and basically my only one, besides wines. I have no sweet tooth, I'm not a snacker... It's carbs I love the most. The only good thing about doing without them is that my appetite slacks way off. I get bored easily and push food away, so overall eat less.

Tonight I'm making roast chicken leg-thighs which have been marinating in Tabasco sauce all day. Not sure what else will complete the meal, but that's the main part.

Jenise, I'm guessing the vinegar in the hot sauce helps to tenderize the chichen? Does the heat of the Tabasco soak into the chicken? I've only used Tabasco in buttermilk and Tabasco for a marinade.

[Jenise]

Karen, it probably does tenderize a bit, but it's not the effect I'm looking for. I just want an intense Tabasco flavor, so I poke a few holes in the leg-thigh combos so the tabasco can get everywhere, then just oven roast the pieces. A tray bake with potatoes and chunks of red onion and cabbage can make a fantastic whole dinner.

My kind of food these days. Sounds good.

It's getting colder by the day here. There's a chicken casserole with prunes and red wine in the oven. That means winter's on the way.

Massive rainfall since early this morning, gutters are actually overflowing because downspouts can't handle it all. So weird for this time of year, but it will be good for our lack of groundwater!
So, a nice morning to cook...lamb shanks are on the menu, browned first then cooked in onion, garlic, tomato paste, fresh thyme, cinnamon, cumin allspice, bay leaf, Merlot wine, pomegranate juice, honey, chicken broth and a little vinegar, and carrots which I will add later in cooking.
I'm also making a red cabbage salad, with green onions, fresh cilantro, and bell pepper. A rice vinegar, fish sauce, garlic, red pepper flakes for dressing.
I have Brussels Sprouts, cauliflower, and lots of multi-colored small tomatoes, and herbs to trim, so will make a pan of roasted veggies, to be tossed with fresh garlic oil, lemon juice, a bit of honey and the herb trimmings. I may steam a few red bliss potatoes, if I get around to it, to soak up some of the wonderful juices from the lamb shanks.

I made Nigerian Jollof Rice last night. Delicious. It's amazing how much heat just one habanero can impart to a dish.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

We had a big lunch out yesterday, Thai food. Lots of rice and noodles which I am trying to avoid at the moment, so in atonement I skipped dinner. Just a fruit and cheese plate for Bob and one slice of cheese for me.

Remember that Tabasco chicken of a few days ago? It got detoured but will happen tonight, and I'll serve it with braised napa cabbage.

Yesterday I roasted a pork loin stuffed with sage, parsley, lemon zest, and garlic, and wrapped in thin slices of pancetta to keep the moisture in. Very yummy, and the leftovers have totally (aromatically) taken over the fridge!

[Jenise]

That sounds wonderful. Somewhere here I have a recipe plucked from online, maybe Food & Wine, in which a pork loin is sliced into one large flat thing, stuffed and rolled such that the slices of cooked roast will have that pinwheel effect. Looks beautiful and has been on my list for some time. Perhaps yours came out like that?

Our dinner last night: had to get the trash out. Bob can't do that kind of thing right now. So at the exact moment I should have been removing the shrimp I meant to from the freezer I instead went to the garage to work on trash (including, this week, all the recycling). Recycling includes glass, scrap paper, cardboard, yard waste and compostable food scraps. This all takes a bit of time on on Sundays to gather and get out to the curb.

Now, understand that my husband is a bit of a hoarder. If he can think of one good reason to keep something, like a pretty or especially sturdy empty box, he does. If he's undecided, it stays. Where I'm the other end of that spectrum, if I can't think of ten good reasons to keep something, it goes away. If I'm undecided, it goes. So the garage, I was to discover, is full of empty boxes. I broke down one after another after another, in all about 30 filling up all my bins plus the neighbors', since they're away.

What I thought was going to be a fifteen minute job took an hour and a half.

In the meantime: dinner? What's that? We ended up having a finger-food cold dinner of ham steak cut into thick batonnets and sliced raw rutabega, a vegetable I'm totally in love with these days. I thin-slice them on my Benrinner and sprinkle them with vinegar and salt. Nothing fancy but it sure is healthy. With those, an American Dolcetto.

Raw rutabega? Not sure I have had that. We get white baby turnips at the Farmer's Market and I love them in salads. Must try the rutabega.
Jenise, your chore with the garbage, recycle, etc. peeked my curiosity. In our area we have waste wheelers designated to each disposable. We have a large can which garbage goes onto, kitchen scraps, some junk items and they even allow some yard waste into them. We also have a smaller recycle can, which accepts cardboard boxes, glass, some plastic, bottles and paper. Then I have two yard waste cans whichs the yard crew used to put leaves, branches, and other yard waste. There is no separating on the day of pick up as it is all deposited into the designated cans each day as needed. Every Tuesday, I wheel them out to the curb, and they are picked up by the City on Wednesday, in different desiganted trucks. We get three trucks, one picks up the garbage, one the recycle and they other, our two yard waste cans. They schedule very well so each truck arrives within about 30 minutes of each other, most times. Does your community do it differently?

[Jenise]

Ours is pretty similar. Every week the regular household trash goes out in its own bin and that's easy. Though the day before collection, we empty the trash cans in the bathrooms, cat litter and final bag of kitchen trash. Every other week is recycling. That's a lot more work. For one, I'm the yard crew. So I'm the one it falls on to fill that particular bin which gets added to here and there but sometimes, a final sweep to pick up more and ensure it goes out full is usually required. We're not required to have yardwaste bins, but I pay extra for it because it's the right thing to do. Food waste, which I produce a heck of a lot of, goes in that too. Glass goes out to another stackable bin, but we don't necessarily walk every bottle out the second it empties. So a few wine bottles and jars tend to accumulate in the kitchen so that bin gets a final sweep too. Ditto the bins for scrap paper and newspaper. Cardboard doesn't have it's own bin but all boxes must be flattened and need to be put out in such a way that they don't blow away overnight.
A lot of little tasks are involved to get it all done, and Bob usually does them. But he doesn't police his own box accumulation; it's just as well that I'm doing this right now!

[Jenise]

Oh, meant to add, back to the subject of food: rutabegas are sweeter than turnips. If you like turnips (I do too), you'll adore rutabega. Btw, what we call rutabegas are called 'turnips' in eastern Canada. And they're often volleyball sized.

Rutabagas are called 'swedes' in the UK.

-Paul W.

That sounds wonderful. Somewhere here I have a recipe plucked from online, maybe Food & Wine, in which a pork loin is sliced into one large flat thing, stuffed and rolled such that the slices of cooked roast will have that pinwheel effect. Looks beautiful and has been on my list for some time. Perhaps yours came out like that?

I looked at a recipe like that, and there's a vaguely-related recipe in the original Silver Palate like that, too, but I was under a bit of time pressure so kept it simple: the recipe actually says "cut the loin on the side like a hot dog bun"!

I suppose I could flap cut each half again to get a larger "sheet" or maybe just pound it a bit before filling.

Does your community do it differently?

Where I live, in Brooklyn, there are three pickups. Well, two and a half, kinda. Ahem.

1. Garbage pickup Mon and Thu. Can be garbage bags or wheeled bins. The City is having a 'rat moment' so they encourage wheeled bins with snap-lock lids. (Larger items, up to 4' long, will also be taken.) We recently bought some sturdy 48-gal bins and use extra bungee cords on the lids.

2. Recycling pickup on Thu. Recycling is two streams: paper and cardboard in one, glass / metal / plastic in the other. We are instructed to use clear or transparent blue bags for the recycling.

3ish. There is a composting initiative. The City gave everybody a single little brown, lidded bin for food scraps and yard debris. (We all have small yards here so that part is OK.) But the bin is pretty flimsy; it's more of a rat buffet than a real garbage can so we don't do it. I think my neighbor downstairs does some kind of composting, and my kitchen is managed like that even if it ultimately ends up on the trash heap.

And, after Christmas, the City sends chippers to every neighborhood so you can turn your tree into mulch!

I made Thai mahogany fire noodles last night, using a new packet of fresh rice noodle sheets (fun). This packet was flat and not crumpled up like the last one and so I got nice, even wide noodles this time around. There wasn't any Thai basil at the local grocery store so I bought a couple of packets at Saigon Market, which is where I bought the fun.

At least the sign on the shelf said "Thai basil". When I opened the packet I saw immediately that this wasn't either conventional European sweet basil or the usual Thai basil (horapa in Thai). There was no basil aroma and the leaves resembled mint, but not as shiny. The leaves were also rather limp, which surprised me because the produce at Saigon Market is usually top-quality. They perked up a bit after I'd washed them.

Then it occurred to me. This was indeed Thai basil, but it was krapow, not horapa. Krapow (there is no standard Latin spelling for the word) is in English "holy basil". The scientific name for common European basil is Ocimum basilicum. Horapa is a variety of that same species. Holy basil is a different species--Ocimum sanctum. It gets its Latin and English name because in India, where it's known as Rama tulsi, it is considered sacred to the god Vishnu.

Fresh holy basil is very hard to find in markets because it doesn't keep well--it starts wilting the minute you pick it. Several famous Thai dishes call for it, including the ubiquitous stir-fried chicken with chiles and basil (pad prik gai bai krapow). Every Thai restaurant I've been to in the US uses horapa, which doesn't have the same flavor profile. Holy basil has a more minty nuance than horapa. When I make this dish I use horapa but add in some dried krapow leaves to get some of that flavor.

Mahogany fire noodles calls for a cup and a half of holy basil leaves. This is the first time I've been able to make it using fresh bai krapow. The more minty tone of the krapow complements the dish better than horapa (or common European basil) and tones down a bit the heat of the chiles (the dish has 30 fresh red Thai bird's eye chiles). I can see now why the cookbook author suggests substituting mint--rather than another variety of basil--if you can't find fresh krapow.

I'm going to use the other packet to make pad prik gai bai krapow.

-Paul W.

I made pad prik gai bai krapow last night using the second bag of holy basil. Definitely different in character from using Thai horapa basil, which again is different from using European basil. All three give good results.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Rutabagas are called 'swedes' in the UK.

-Paul W.

Yes, I know. I just wanted to mention to Karen that to some people, a rutabega is a turnip but not what we'd call turnip on the west coast.

Just for some thing different buffalo chicken wings. Did the oven fry thing, tossing the wingettes in salt and baking powder……turned out incredibly crispy. Tossed in hot sauce and served with blue cheese dip.. very American

Turnips and rutabagas are both members of the cabbage family, Brassicaceae. The rutabaga is thought to be an ancient cross between a turnip and a cabbage, and therefore a hybrid. Both of these root vegetables are a good source of complex carbohydrates for soups, stew, and casseroles. and have edible greens as well.


Difference Between Turnips and Rutabagas
Turnips are usually white and purple on the outside, with very white flesh, while rutabagas are yellowish and brown on the outside with orange-yellow flesh. Rutabagas are also generally much larger than turnips.

So for a quick rule of thumb, the brownish-yellowish ones are rutabagas, and the smaller white and purple ones are turnips.

In terms of their flavor, rutabagas are slightly sweeter-tasting than turnips whereas turnips have a slightly more radishy flavor.

The most obvious visible difference between the two root vegetables is their size. Turnips are best when small and tender, like around the size of a tennis ball. They get woody when they get bigger. You don't usually need to peel a turnip, but the bigger it gets, the thicker its skin, and the more likely you may have to peel it. A potato peeler works perfectly for this.

Rutabagas stay tender at larger sizes. Even though you might find some small ones, they are usually harvested at a larger size.