Good For What Ails You!...

The cure of mothers all over the world...chicken soup. Gina has been sick today, so I decided to make her some. I decided on Soto Ayam, the chicken soup of Indonesia. When it really comes down to it, many of the most common seasonings in SE Asian cooking are powerful phytomedicinals, and this soup is full of them.

For my version, I browned chicken thighs in vegetable oil, then added water, coconut milk, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, half of an onion, half a fresh lime, some thick slices of ginger and galangal, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and let it all simmer for a while. In the meantime, I prepared a rempah, or spice paste, from shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger and fresh turmeric, almonds, coriander, cumin, and caraway seeds, and white peppercorns. This got put through the processor and fried in oil for a few minutes, then dumped into the stock. I shredded the chicken thighs, and put them back in the broth with a bunch of fresh, very thin egg noodles. To serve it, each diner places a selection of accompaniments in their bowl then pours some broth, chicken and noodles on top. I had a selection of fresh bean sprouts, shredded napa cabbage, chopped celery and scallions, fried onions, kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), and Sriracha hot sauce, for us.

The broth was rich and savory, and everything worked very well together. Yummy! And its already breaking up Gina's congestion a bit, has her breathing more freely, and just generally feeling a bit better. I suspect we'll be having this soup again. It'd be great for entertaining, too.

Xmas Dinner...

Dinner was good. The company has gone. We are sated and tired. Everything was tasty. I basically used the sauce from my macaroni & cheese recipe for the Au Gratin Potatoes, and the cheesy topping browned beautifully. Gina decided this batch of BBQ Beans was her favorite of the ones I have made. I thought beans with a bit of a peach overtone would go well with the peach-glazed ham. They were really simple...

Easy Peachy BBQ Beans

3 36-ounce cans pork & beans, drained

1-1/2 to 2 cups BBQ sauce of choice

3/4 to 1 cup peach preserves

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

A handful of bacon odds & ends, or scraps

Combine everything well in a crockpot, turn on high heat, and cover. When the beans reach a boil, crack the lid so that moisture can gradually escape. Cook for several hours, or all day, until the beans have thickened. Serve.

Christmas Eve Dinner...

I am feelin' fat and happy right about now. We just finished eating homemade beef taquitos (with enchilada sauce for dipping), Mexican-style red rice and our favorite holiday salad - a Moroccan mix of romaine, oranges, dates and toasted almonds, with a dressing of orange and lemon juice, orange blossom water, honey and cinnamon (from one of Paula Wolfert's cookbooks). I can't eat another bite.

Gina's made a bunch of truffles - a batch of maple and one of chocolate - and a couple batches of rice crispy treat balls - one with peanut butter and chocolate, the other chocolate. She's still got pies (pumpkin, buttermilk and chocolate mousse) and fudge planned.

Tomorrow will be a peach-glazed ham, bbq beans, au gratin potatoes, green beans, rolls...a big Xmas spread. We're having company tomorrow. There'll be nine of us, total.

Food for a Dark and Stormy Night...

We find ourselves a bit tight financially this weekend, what with various expenses we've had recently and the holidays, so its been a time for ingenuity. We're also getting ready for some major changes in the way we eat...we'd like to be healthier. Knowing what stores we have in the house...a definite surplus of beans, peas and lentils, flour and pasta, rice and couscous, potatoes from our garden, lots of onions, boxes of frozen spinach, dried fruit, nuts, canned tomatoes and corn...guided my choices. My instinct was Middle-Eastern. I looked at three or four books and ended up with Ghillie Başan's The Middle Eastern Kitchen and a warming Iranian bean soup, along with a loaf of my wife and son's delightful homemade bread. I made a few adjustments for what we had in the house...no lamb, as in the original recipe, chicken stock instead of water, and dried figs standing in for dried prunes...

ÂB GHOOSHTE FASL

1/2 cup dried, skinned fava beans (the small Egyptian variety is ideal)
1/2 cup dried white beans (navy, great northern or limas)
1/2 cup dried black-eyed peas (or chickpeas)
1/2 cup yellow split peas
1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
8 cups stock or water (I used chicken, but beef or lamb would work)
2/3 cup chopped, dried fruit (I used Mission figs, but prunes, apricots, dates, raisins, peaches or apples would work)
1 14.5-ounce can petite diced tomatoes
4 potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons dried parsley (or a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley)
1 teaspoon dried Saigon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
Sea salt, to taste

• Pour 6 cups boiling water over the fava beans and white beans. Soak for 2 hours.
• Add the black-eyed peas to the beans and continue to soak for 2 more hours.
• Place the soaked beans and peas, lentils, chopped onion, and stock in a large stockpot. Bring to the boil over high heat, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 1 hour.
• Add the dried fruit, tomatoes, potatoes, dried parsley (if using), cinnamon, black pepper, coriander and turmeric to the pot. Raise heat to medium-high and return to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 more hour.
• Taste for seasoning and add salt as required. If using fresh parsley, add at this time. Serve.

It would be traditional to add some cubed lamb or beef. One could add a box of frozen spinach. Rice, barley or pasta would work well. Traditional accompaniments are a salad plate of fresh herbs, chopped radishes, and pickles. If I'd had whole wheat flour (which I hadn't realized we were out of...lol), I would have prepared some hushva naan, the pebbled, yeasted flat bread of the Iranians, but the homemade bread worked quite well. Next time. The soup was delightfully warm and filling, and Gina loved it. She considers it one of her favorite soups, which warmed me a little more.

Last Night...

...it was a dark and stormy night. Freezing rain. Yuck. But we knew this was coming, so I planned for something warm and filling and comforting. In this instance...my beef stew. Inspired, originally, by the classic Flemish beef stew. I cook browned, cubed beef and almost an equal weight of sliced onions all day in a crockpot with a couple bottles of porter (instead of a Belgian-style beer), beef consomme, a little bit of cider vinegar and sugar, and seasonings (bay leaves, black pepper, thyme, parsley and juniper). After hours of simmering in the crockpot, the beef is falling apart tender, and the onions have nearly melted into the delightful stewing liquid, which turns a dark brown color and starts thickening. It is wonderful, rich and savor. We served it atop egg noodles, as I didn't feel like making mashed potatoes, the other carb of choice for this dish. I think spaetzle would work well, too.

I wanted to make Gina a dessert, too, but I wanted it to be easy. I did some looking around online, and decided to modify the Nestles(TM) golden brownies recipe. The first thing I did was drop the chocolate chips from the recipe. Chocolate is my craving, not hers. Then, I tripled the vanilla extract, because she loves vanilla. It is her preferred ice cream flavor to this day. I decided a little bit of ground mace would be a good thing, too. I went to the kitchen and started gathering ingredients. !!*#@&%@!! We didn't have nearly enough brown sugar for the brownies. Ahhh! Gina had gotten a Taste of Home magazine in the mail yesterday. In it, a reader had written in with a white sugar-molasses mix as a brown sugar substitute! Serendipity. I surged ahead and whipped up a batch. They finished baking a few minutes before dinner was ready...just in time for us to have a warm brownie before dinner, actually. Lol. Very tasty. The molasses-vanilla-mace trio end up creating a flavor somewhat reminiscent of butterscotch and toffee and molasses cookies all at the same time. They are even better today, a bit chewy and rich, but not super sweet. They cooked up a bit darker than golden brownies. I think the gal in the magazine went a little heavier handed with molasses than the sugar companies actually do, but it all worked out: Gina has a new all-time favorite brownie.

Tonight. Well, tonight is going to be my creamy macaroni and cheese, and a pile of fresh steamed broccoli...

Leftovers? Turkey Salad Sandwiches a la Grecque...

I took the last of the leftover turkey breast tonight and shredded/chopped it, along with celery, yellow onion, pickled peppers, feta cheese and garlic. For the dressing, I mixed mayo with some sour cream, tahini and a Greek vinaigrette. We had them on onion rolls, with french fries on the side. They were very tasty. We'll likely have them again. Chicken or tuna would work, too.

Well, We Finally Did It...

...yes, that's right...we finally got around to making our Thanksgiving Dinner. Better late than never...lol. I had worked on Turkey Day, so we hadn't wanted to cook it then. We were going to cook last weekend, but didn't feel up to it. We decided to go with a pretty simple meal, since there are only three of us: a whole turkey breast coated with a simple rub and cooked on the rotisserie, cornbread stuffing and gravy, dinner rolls, garlicky green beans (always a fav), an apple-and-cranberry chutney I got from the local newspaper, some cranberry jelly (for Gina) and black olives (all mine...lol). It was yummy and we are pleasantly full (or stuffed, as the case may be). The rub for the turkey was simple and very good -

Turkey Day Rub

2 tablespoons mild California chile powder

(or sweet paprika)

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon seasoned salt (such as Lawry's)

1 tablespoon rubbed sage

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Use as desired. Store jar of rub in a cool, dry place. Makes a little over half a cup. Good for a few months.

Kebabs!...

I made some chicken kebabs, this evening, in the rotisserie (too chilly to want to use the bbq). I had seen a recipe in an Indian cookbook for a very simple chicken kebab with honey, lemon, garlic, ginger, chile and a bit of soy sauce. Being me...by the time I went in the kitchen to cut up and marinate some chicken, it began to morph. We ended up with more of a Central Asian kebab that came out tender and moist, sweet and spicy. There's still a little tweaking needed, and I'd love to cook them over hardwood charcoal, but here's the basic idea right now...

SWEET-HOT SILK ROAD CHICKEN KEBABS

4 boneless, skinless half-breasts of chicken, cut into about 8 cubes each

1-1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root

1-1/2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic

1 tablespoon crushed Sichuan chile, or to taste

1 tablespoon Silk Road spice mix (my adaptation of the Xinjiang spice mix bouncing around the Internet)

2 tablespoons peanut, sesame and/or vegetable oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce or mushroom soy sauce

2 tablespoons black rice vinegar (Gold Plum Brand Chinkiang is a good choice)

1 cup honey or agave syrup

Mix together the ginger, garlic, Sichuan chile, Silk Road spice mix, oil, soy sauce and vinegar. Put the chicken in a bowl, dump the marinade over and toss well. Set aside in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours, or as long as overnight.

When ready to cook, thread the chicken pieces onto skewers...not to close together, leave space between the pieces...and cook either on the grill or in the rotisserie for the recommended time.

Approximately 10 minutes before finishing, begin brushing the chicken pieces with the honey, working to build up a good glaze on the chicken.

Let sit a couple of minutes before serving. We served 'em with rice and coleslaw.

Dinner Last Night...

Gina made chicken and dumplings last night, of which I am a big fan. There's a healthy dose of white wine and herbs in her broth and it is so flavorful, plenty of chicken and veggies (onions, celery, carrots), and big, substantial dumplings...which are my favorite. I make chicken and dumplings sometimes, and make very light dumplings...which are what she prefers...lol. Funny how that works.

A Week for Carnivores...

We don't normally eat tons of meat, but we started this week off with Gina cooking a pot roast with oven-roasted root vegetables, gravy and homemade bread, all of which was yummy. I had this 8-lb. pork roast in the fridge...it was unthawed and needed to be used...so I oven-roasted it Tuesday, coated with an Italian mix of seasonings - lots of garlic, herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram), black pepper, lemon zest, coriander and fennel, mixed with extra-virgin olive oil - 'til it formed this delightfully savory crust. Finally, on Wednesday, we had a dear friend over and I made a pile of chicken-fried steaks, mashed potatoes, and garlicky green beans, which we topped with Monday's leftover gravy. Yesterday morning, breakfast was machaca - scrambled eggs, shredded beef, onions and peppers, with cheese and salsa, all rolled up in flour tortillas...

Its Good Stew Weather...

I've eaten a few bowls of our Vegetable Stew latey. I originally came up with the recipe. This last batch was made by my wife, Gina. Now maybe it was just that I didn't have to cook it, but I liked hers better than my own...it seemed subtly different. The weather has been gray and rainy of late. Today, the rain has been steady, and harder than the usual PNW drizzle. A good time for a bowl of something warm and filling. I'm going to make my own interpretation of Hopkins County Chicken Stew: a big pot of chicken, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and corn, seasoned with chili powder. So that the chicken meat doesn't dry it from all that simmering, I'm going to coat it with chili powder and cook it in the rotisserie, chop it, then add it at the least moment. I'll just use some good strong chicken stock to encourage the chickeny flavor. The potatoes are from the garden. The tomatoes are crushed, and some of the corn is in the form of creamed corn. Its supposed to be a perennial hit in East Texas. We'll top it with grated sharp cheddar cheese. Gina and our son have been making a lot of homemade bread lately. Tonight I'll make skillet cornbread. We like the first recipe in Crescent Dragonwagon's The Cornbread Gospels. Iced tea is a must. I really should throw together something in the way of a dessert, too. Hmmm...maybe some peach cobbler. Yeah...

French Toast from Heaven...

Gina, and our son, Matt, have been using the bread machine these last few days, making several loaves of some delightful white bread (heavy with a nice, fine crumb, ever so slightly sweet), and one of cinnamon raisin bread. Both of us being tired, I suggested French toast, made with the homemade bread, for dinner. I sliced it about 3/4 of an inch thick and dipped it in a mix of eggs, milk, vanilla extract, freshly ground nutmeg and Saigon cinnamon, then fried them in oil on our electric skillet. Butter and a little syrup to finish. OMG good! Better even than the English muffin bread we normally prefer for French toast.

Tomorrow, I'm going to make what I'm calling "West Indies Bean and Pumpkin Soup". It'll be a thick, filling soup of white beans, cubed pumpkin (from our own garden), and spinach flavored with a sofrito of onions, carrot, celery, bell pepper, garlic, ginger root, and jalapeno, as well as some allspice, cumin, black pepper and thyme - typical Caribbean seasonings. Some coconut milk, scallions and flat-leaf parsley will finish things off.

Yum...

I made teriyaki chicken bowls tonight for dinner. I made a simple (and more authentic) sauce from mirin and sake (had to substitute Chinese shaoxing wine for the sake), soy sauce and sugar, thickened with a bit of cornstarch, while I coated a couple of big chicken breasts with a basic rub of black pepper(lots!), salt, paprika, onion and garlic powders, and just a bit of smoked paprika and cooked them in the rotisserie. I ate mine with a bunch of pickled ginger, for some zing. Gina loved it...thought it was the best she'd had. It was mighty tasty, though I'm fonder of the spicy chicken available at some of the teriyaki places in the PNW. I chopped up the chicken after it rested for a few minutes, put it on top of some sticky short-grained rice, and poured some sauce over the top...

I've Been Bad...

...at least as a blogger. I just burned out for awhile, on the issue of writing here. Been busy, had plenty of stressful things going on at times. I let the cooking contests slide to the wayside, too.

Things are calming down enough that I'm looking at the contests again. We are laying down plans for entries in the Build a Better Burger Contest, and the Scharffenberger Chocolate contest. There will be more besides those.

I've been doing a lot of cooking, at times, but just haven't taken the time to jot things down. Night before last we had breakfast for dinner, and we used some of our homegrown Kennebec potatoes to make hashbrowns, along with grated onions, seasoned salt, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. I pan-fry them until they build up a nice brown crust on both sides. The Kennebecs were great, and so tender in the middle. Gina likes hers with a bunch of melted sharp cheddar on 'em, while I like mine with chile ketchup (ketchup + Sriracha hot sauce...lol).

I've taken an interest in the food of Central Asia, especially Uzbek and Uighur-influenced food. For lunch, I made some noodles...somewhere between lagman and chow mein. I stir-fried some chicken tossed with a Central Asian-influenced spice mix (black cumin, black and Sichuan peppercorns, crushed Sichuan chilies, powdered garlic and ginger, and a couple other things), and some fresh aromatics (garlic, ginger and scallions), lots of onions, green beans, sweet red peppers and carrots. The sauce was flavored with dark soy sauce, rice wine and some smoky black rice vinegar. I used the fresh, thick, yellow Chinese wheat noodles, boiled briefly and added to the chicken and veggies at the last minute. Good stuff. Ideally, there should have been little bowls of fresh cilantro and scallions, chilies, vinegar, fried garlic and chopped peanuts for the diners to add to the noodles, but I just made it as a quick lunch dish. Still quite tasty. Different from regular Chinese food, because of the spicing.

Last night was Gina's request: my Swedish-style meatballs with gravy, garlicky mashed potatoes (more of the fresh Kennebecs from the garden), and quick-pickled sliced cucumbers (again, from our garden) flavored with dill. These meatballs are one of her favorites. I like fixing her things she enjoys so much. And between yesterday's dinner and lunch, I have some pretty good eating here at work today...lol.

Nova Scotia and Iberia...

I've been very bad about blogging for months now. Haven't tried competing in any contests, either. I've been occupied with other things. Trying to get back to writing now.

I have been cooking. We had doughnuts this afternoon, homemade, for the first time in ages. They were a simple, but sublime, creation. They are what plain cake doughnuts aspire to be, but do not normally achieve. Gina and I found the recipe, entitled "Sour Cream Doughnuts", in a spiral-bound cookbook we found at a thrift store, entitled "Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens". They are a basic doughnut, made of eggs, buttermilk and sour cream, sugar, flour, with a hint of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. After the dough idled in the fridge for awhile I rolled it out thin, cut it in modest rectangles, and tossed the doughnuts into some hot oil. They fried up into airy pillows, tender, delicately spiced, only a little sweet...delightful. A little powdered sugar on top is acceptable. More might be gilding the lily. Gina declared them the best she's ever eaten. I might still hold out for the buttermilk doughnuts I used to pick up on the way to work in San Antonio, at the H.E.B. bakery counter, still warm...mmmmmmmm.

Dinner was a dish inspired by the Andalusia Garbanzos con Chorizo in Clifford A. Wright's "A Mediterranean Feast". In this case, we cooked up a thick, stick-to-your-ribs stew of nutty chickpeas, ample quantities of Portuguese linguica sausage, onions, green bell peppers, tomatoes, seasoned with garlic, paprika, saffron, black pepper and a little white wine, finished with a handful of flat-leaf parsley fresh from the garden. A hunk of sourdough bread to mop up the sauce was all it needed. We stuck to the style of his dish...just fancified it a touch with the garlic, wine and parsley...and substituted the sausage we had on hand. Very, very nice, and my wife and son blessed off on it, to my son's initial surprise. I'm not easy on his autistic desire for the 'same-o, same-o' all the time...lol.

Recent Culinary Forays...

We haven't been doing too much in the way of fancy cooking lately. Our daughters left for Montana and California recently, and we've just kind of heaved a big sigh and rested.

We had French toast and bacon earlier this week...always a fav of ours.

Last night was bacon sandwiches and coleslaw. Along with nice, thick bacon, we had seared Walla Walla sweet onions and tomatoes, sharp cheddar cheese, and for me, pepperoncinis, all between slices of grilled English muffin bread.

Tonight. Tonight was dinner cooked outdoors. We had a salad of tender romaine lettuce fresh out of the garden; chicken breast rubbed with ground Ancho chile, ras el hanout, and onion powder, then grilled; dried Mission figs; grilled sweet onions; and crumbled feta cheese. The dressing was a mix of extra-virgin olive oil, figs, white balsamic vinegar, orange blossom water and fresh ginger. We grilled up some corn-on-the-cob and ciabatta bread that we had brushed with some of the Lebanese olive oil-lemon juice-garlic mix. OMG. Dinner was sweetspicysaltysoursavory...and we are very pleasantly full.

Mexican Soul Food...

Today, we harvested the second item from our garden - three large plants of Goldgelber purslane, an improved version of the well-known and common weed, and an excellent source of Omega 3 oil. With them, I cooked up a pot of Verdolagas con Carne de Puerco, or pork and purslane stew, a popular Mexican dish. Again, none of us were sure how it would go...but it turned out very tasty indeed. Its a stew of cubed pork, pureed onions, garlic (lots!) and tomatillos, mild green chilies and handfuls of purslane, seasoned with freshly ground black pepper, Mexican oregano and cumin. For a personal touch, I added some chicken stock and a little golden tequila. It really was a sort of Mexican approach to the universal soul food...braised pork and greens. Good stuff, and I've got more purslane growing. We'll be having this again...

A Humble Weed...

We've made tacos with greens, caramelized onions and queso seco cheese for a few years now. The recipe, tacos de quelites, comes from Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen, and we've really enjoyed them. Even our autistic son likes them (he of the hot dogs, canned chili and ketchup...lol). Tonight, however, was the first time that we've made them with the greens they use down in Toluca, Mexico...quelites, the unprepossessing lambs' quarters(Chenopodium berlandieri), a weed common to sidewalk cracks, empty lots and the edges of roads and fields all across America. Rick Bayless recommended Swiss chard if lambs' quarters are unavailable, but considers it inferior to them. Still, there was some trepidation in my home as I prepared them. They are good! Gina and I agree with him. They are the better choice. The next step for authenticity would be to get some blue corn tortillas...

We had a couple of plants growing in our garden plot. The majority were growing wild in the untended portions of the community garden, so I just picked the larger plants, 'til I had enough for dinner. Thankfully, I kinda' overshot the mark, so we have a healthy batch of leftovers!

Some quick nutritional facts about lambs' quarters: a 180g serving of boiled and drained lambs' quarters contained 281% of the USRDA for Vitamin A, 111% of the USRDA for Vitamin C, 46% of the USRDA for calcium, 6g of protein and 4g of fiber, its inflammation factor is 351 (strongly anti-inflammatory) and its estimated glycemic load is a whopping...5. They are also a good source of Vitamin E, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Magnesium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese. A serving has a whopping 58 calories. Instead of spraying these weeds with Roundup, we should all be gathering them and eating them...they're a damn superfood!

Oh...and here is a good guide to Mexican herbs...

Recent Dinners...

Yesterday, I put some glowing hardwood charcoal in the bbq, tossed a double batch of water-soaked hickory chips and dried yerba santa leaves on top, and put an 8lb. pork shoulder (coated in a rub of ancho chile, paprika, onion and garlic powders, Mexican oregano, marjoram, thyme, and a little allspice) in there for a couple of hours to smoke.

For some reason (coals too close together? wood chips too wet/numerous? or...?), the coals stalled and failed to completely burn, so the pork hadn't developed quite as planned. Luckily, when I poked at the coals and spread 'em out, they proved to still have a lot of heat at their core, and immediately started smoking again. Another 45 minutes or so in there really helped the pork. After that, I took it out, wrapped it in foil and put it in the oven to finish. When it was done, and tender, I removed it, broke it up and let it cool enough to handle (barely) and pulled it.

We had the pork in taco, with cheese, shredded cabbage, pickled onions and hot sauce. YUM! I had made a fresh pot of beans earlier in the day, and cooked up some long grain rice and fideo (the really short Mexican vermicelli) with extra-virgin olive oil, chicken broth and garlic. A very tasty dinner.

A few days ago, we had a late lunch/early supper of Lebanese-style grilled, spiced chicken with garlic sauce, grilled ciabatta bread (brushed with the lemony garlic sauce too), and cucumber-onion-tomato salad. Also a very tasty meal!

A Warm Sunday...

I kinda' burned out on cooking anything elaborate for awhile. I'm starting to get back into it. After a morning working in our new community garden plot, I came back and fixed lunch.

Philly has its cheesesteak, Boston has chowder, Cincinnati its own unique chili. The Northwest, in my mind, goes for pizza, subs and teriyaki chicken (...besides the ubiquitous coffee). Teriyaki is probably the big one of that trio. I've seen an intersection in the Seattle area where there were three different teriyaki joints. I decided to try my hand at it, so I cooked up some homemade teriyaki sauce (fairly traditional - just sake, mirin, soy sauce and sugar, w/a little cornstarch to thicken it) and marinated some chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on) overnight. For lunch, I grilled it over oak charcoal and served it with some short-grain rice, homemade coleslaw and watermelon. It came out quite nice. Smoky, moist and tender, good flavor from the marinade (soy & mirin, garlic & ginger, scallions, sesame oil, some fresh ground pepper & seven-spice powder, etc), a mellow, molasses-y sweetness (not as strong as actual molasses) probably offset by the winey flavor of the sake and mirin. All-in-all, very successful.

Dinner was just some simple bacon, egg & cheese burritos, a few (leftover from Friday) spicy chips, and for the warmth, a refreshing drink called es timun, an Indonesian drink of fresh squeezed lime juice, sugar, peeled and seeded cucumbers and ice, all put through the blender. Very nice.

Next Weekend!...

May 16th-17th will be the dates for the 5th annual Seattle Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market. Over 200 local and international cheeses are supposed to be on hand! Yum! I'd love to go...but I don't know that we can make it this year. We do have some tentative plans the 15th and 17th...so I don't know if we want to try for a triple play weekend...lol.

Its sooo tempting, though.......... . ... . . . . . . .. . .

Oh yeah. And coming soon, there should be details on Portland's Cheese Festival, the Wedge!

Not Much...

...going on in Sun Bear's kitchen, lately. I've been busy with a lot of other things, and haven't had much time for the cutting board and food processor, spice mill and skillet.

We've been eating a lot of breakfast burritos (bean, egg & cheese or bacon, egg & cheese), sandwiches, and the like...simple food. I did break down last night and make a Burmese curry of pork & pineapple, along with akyaw (a simple stir-fry of...in this case...green beans, onions, garlic a little turmeric, and sesame oil), and lots of rice. The curry was standard Burmese fare...browned cubes of pork cooked 'til tender in a puree of onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric (fresh...yum!), and (mostly mild) chilies. I tweaked it with a couple of seasonings, added some petite diced tomatoes, and in the last ten minutes of cooking, half of a fresh pineapple I'd cut up. Good, good food...really savory and filling, but with the occasional burst of sweetness from the fruit. I'll be making it again.

A Good Dinner...

We had good enough weather today that I felt confident we could grill. I went through a book called Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and a History of the Iraqi Cuisine and picked out some grilled chicken (djej meshwi), a baked spinach dish, and a tabbouleh recipe. I changed the seasoning in the chicken recipe a little bit, substituting thyme and Turkish-style baharat for the za'atar and ground coriander in the original. We marinated chicken tenders in a mix of buttermilk, grated onions, garlic, a little honey, lemon rind, herbs and spices. The spinach dish had two layers: the bottom layer was spinach, fresh dill and a little bit of potato to bind it a bit, while the top layer was a mix of seasoned eggs, feta and romano cheeses. The tabbouleh came out pretty much how I remember from Iraq...lemony, full of herbs, very fresh tasting.

The chicken skewers cooked quickly, using the breast tenders, and came out moist, very flavorful, and golden, with nice grill marks. We agreed that it was one of the best grilled chicken recipes I've made. And the other two dishes were good as well. Thankfully, there's enough for all of us to have lunch tomorrow!

Lately...

Not too much serious cooking of late.

Made Penang, Mussaman and Yellow Curry Pastes, along with the Red and Green ones earlier this month. Made a Penang Chicken Curry one night. It was good.

For Easter we had a piece of boneless pork tenderloin coated with a simple rub - paprika, smoked paprika, black pepper, cumin, allspice and rosemary - and cooked in the rotisserie, basting it with the peach tea and beer bbq sauce I made awhile back. We had a bunch of the sauce left over in the freezer. Then I took some canned pork & beans, drained them, and added chopped onions, peaches, raisins, the peach bbq sauce, a bit more ginger beer, hot sauce, and some spices. Baked these for a few hours. They are yummy! Took a second dish of 'em in to my work for an Easter potluck. We rounded the meal out with coleslaw and some leftover garlic bread. It was a pretty good dinner. Not too heavy.

Gina made some caramel popcorn and peanuts that is miles better than Cracker Jacks, or even the caramel corn from Harry & Davids'. Addictive and evil.

I'll make something good tomorrow.

Yesterday was Easy Stuff...

Gina had a craving yesterday morning for a sausage biscuit. By chance, we had a pound of bulk maple sausage in the house so I made sausage patties and whipped up some biscuits, served 'em with my cheesey hashbrowns. It took us years before we learned to make hashbrowns we were happy with. We tried all kinds of things. Nothing came out right. Finally, after giving up at some point, something sparked an idea in my mind (can't remember specifics though). Now we get consistently crunchy hashbrowns. Here's how we do it (this is more a guide than a strict recipe):

Vance Family Hash Browns

You'll need...

Potatoes, washed well (I find a couple medium ones, per person, works well if you want a BIG helping - otherwise one per...)

Onions, peeled and cut to fit in a food processor (probably one small-medium onion per every three or four potatoes is good)

Plenty of freshly ground black pepper

Seasoning salt (I like to use a couple of different ones...yesterday was typical -Lawry's Seasoned Salt and Zatarain's Creole Seasoning...you could use whatever appeals to you...I've also added dried parsley - its full of trace minerals that are good for you...Mrs Dash works well, too)

Vegetable oil

Cheddar cheese, grated (optional, but very tasty)

Chili ketchup (ketchup with a little Sriracha, or other kinda' neutral hot sauce added, to taste)(also optional)

• Grate the potatoes and onions in your food processor - you need a coarse grate for this to work right. Toss to mix well, in a large bowl.
• If you've got the hand strength, take a big handful at a time and squeeze out the excess moisture over the sink, until you've done this with all of the potato-onion mixture. If you don't have the hand strength use a towel, twisting both ends until you get the same result, repeating until finished. Return to the bowl.
• Season liberally with pepper and the seasonings of your choice. Toss to distribute the seasonings throughout.
• Heat oil in a large skillet, over medium-high heat. Use one that has slanted sides...suitable for omelets and tossing pancakes.
• Add the potato-onion mixture to the pan. If doing large servings, its probably best to do one serving at a time, for ease of cooking. Flatten the potatoes out with your spatula to a large round pancake. Cook until browned on one side.
• If you have the inclination and skills, you can flip the potato round just like you would a pancake. Otherwise, use a spatula. Add oil, if needed. Brown the other side.
• You can add the cheese 1) all over the top of the hashbrown cake 2) just on half, a bit heavy, than fold over to enclose the cheese 3) fold over, then add the cheese on top. Allow to melt.
• Remove to paper towels, to drain off excess oil. Serve, with chili ketchup if desired.
• Makes as many servings as feel like cooking.

Last night was simple, too - the grandkids had some little friends over, and the weather was gorgeous - so we barbecued hot dogs (for them) and cheddarwursts (for us). Today we'll heat up the barbecue again, this time for some pork satay (with peanut sauce, of course...lol).

More Thai Food...

Tonight was easy stuff...the Thai noodle dish Rad Na, noodles and pork in gravy. I wanted to make something I knew the kids would enjoy. I improvised with a couple of ingredients...I didn't have any taucho (yellow bean paste), so I substituted Japanese shiro miso. Gina doesn't care for fish sauce, so I have taken to substituting vegetable stock concentrate (the stuff that comes in jars at the store) with good results. I discovered I didn't have any wide rice noodles, so I substituted some imported Italian mafalda we'd gotten awhile back at Big Lots (for $0.59!), which came out well. And, of course, I had my homemade kecap manis, instead of the flat store-bought variety. It came out a little sweet, but mostly savory. And there were NO leftovers. Which is nice, for a change.

THAI-STYLE RICE NOODLES AND PORK WITH GRAVY
(Rad Na)

¼ cup vegetable oil
1 pound boneless pork tenderloin, thinly sliced across the grain
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
¼ cup yellow bean sauce (taucho) or yellow miso paste (shiro miso)
¼ cup sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
1 tablespoon vegetable stock concentrate or fish sauce
2 cups chicken or pork stock
6 cups broccoli florets or Chinese broccoli, chopped (fresh or frozen)
2 tablespoons cornstarch or tapioca flour dissolved in ¼ cup cold water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8-12 ounce fresh or dried broad rice noodles, or other broad wheat noodles
Salted water, for cooking the noodles

• Heat the oil in a wok over high heat. Swirl around to coat the pan. Put a stockpot of salted water on to boil over high heat.
• When the water is boiling, cook noodles according to package directions (so judge when to put the noodles in the water accordingly)
• Add the pork and cook until the meat has started to brown, stirring frequently, 3-5 minutes.
• Add the garlic and stir well. Cook an additional 1-2 minutes.
• Add the bean sauce or miso paste, sweet soy sauce and vegetable stock concentrate. Stir until they are mixed, form a thick sauce, and reach the boil.
• Add the stock and stir to mix. Bring to the boil.
• Add the broccoli and cook until it turns bright green.
• Add the cornstarch mixture and stir well. When the sauce has thickened, remove from the heat and season, to taste, with salt and pepper (I didn't need to add any salt...there's a lot in the various soy products and stock).
• Drain the noodles and add to the wok. Toss well. Serve.
• Makes about six servings.

This weekend I need to finish making curry pastes - Panang, Mussaman, maybe Yellow. We're supposed to have good weather this weekend, with 60+ degree weather, so I intend to barbecue. I want to make some pork satay with my hybrid peanut sauce - I use both kecap manis (for Indonesian peanut sauce) and red curry paste (for Thai peanut sauce), and we feel it can stand in for Thai, Indonesian and Malay dishes. And I think I shall make some Panang Chicken Curry.

Thai Food...

The weather has been a little warmer, and I've been wanting SE Asian food. So tonight I fixed Thai dishes...

Northern-style Red Curry of Beef and Green Beans

Southern-style Green Curry of Chicken and Greens

Spicy Shrimp Salad

Quick-pickled Cucumbers

White Rice

The curries were yummy, but it was the Shrimp Salad that was the star of the night! And I have lots of yummy food when I go to work tomorrow.

Sausage Gravy...

Sausage gravy (preferably over fresh biscuits) is one of those things that can be really, really good...or quite awful. I think the majority of restaurants offer something that leans towards the totally bland, pasty, gluey mess with just enough sausage specks in it to call it "sausage gravy". I like it thick and creamy, spicy, and chock full of sausage. My daughter counts it as one of her absolute all-time favorites. And she hadn't been able to get a decent plate full the whole three years she was in Germany, so its been high on her list of priorities since she got here. I obliged this morning, after my morning walk. She's a sated M now...

This isn't really a proper recipe...more of a formula or set of guidelines, as its one those things I've never measured when I make it.

Steven's Sausage Gravy

1 pound bulk hot breakfast sausage

1 pound bulk maple breakfast sausage

A little unsalted butter or vegetable oil, if needed

All-purpose flour

Milk

A couple of dashes Worcestershire sauce

Sea salt and LOTS of freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Biscuits hot and fresh out of the oven

• Cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it up with your spatula, until it has lost all pink.
• Remove the sausage to a bowl, a little at a time, putting it first in a fine mesh strainer over the skillet, pressing all the grease out of the meat and returning it to the pan. When all the sausage has been removed, check the amount of rendered fat in the pan. If you think you'll need additional, add some butter or oil.
• Add sufficient flour to make a thick roux, stirring continuously, until the flour has lost its raw smell and the roux has darkened.
• Begin to add milk to the roux, a little at a time, stirring continuously to remove all lumps. As you are doing so, add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Season with sea salt and quite a lot of freshly ground black pepper.
• When you have the desired quantity of thick, creamy gravy, return the sausage to the pan, stir well, and cook until it just starts to bubble. Serve piping hot over biscuits.

Cooking For Our Daughter...

We haven't had M at home for several years, and she's missed our cooking, so its nice fixing things for her. There are a lot of things we make regularly now that she's never had, too. I gave her some of my pan-fried ham, cream cheese and hot sauce quesadillas last night. Tonight was babi kecap (pork in sweet soy and coconut milk), acar ketimun (quick-pickled cucumbers & onions), and rice...an easy Indonesian meal. Gina made a pineapple gooey butter cake (that is EVIL, basically a pineapple cheesecake). Sometime tomorrow there'll be sausage gravy and biscuits...one of her favorite foods. One she hasn't been able to reproduce since she lived at home (I make mine a particular way). I don't know what else yet...

Barbecue!...

I dragged the barbecue grill out this evening and threw a batch of gai yang, Thai-style grilled chicken, on it. I've made it several times in the past and never really been satisfied with the results, so I sat down today and came up with a new version. Hit the bullseye this time. Here's the recipe...

GAI YANG

(Thai-style Grilled Chicken)

4 teaspoons black or white peppercorns
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, stems, and/or roots
1/3 cup chopped fresh garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger root
2 tablespoons palm sugar or golden brown sugar, tightly packed
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
3 tablespoons whiskey or rice wine
3 tablespoons coconut milk
12 bone-in chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat and skin

• Toast the peppercorns, coriander, cumin and caraway seeds in a skillet over medium heat until they darken a little and smell toasted. Immediately remove from the pan and grind in a coffee grinder, pepper mill or grain mill.
• Combine the ground spices with the cilantro, garlic, ginger, palm sugar, salt, and turmeric in a food processor and process to a coarse paste. Add the whiskey and coconut milk and process to a smooth paste.
• Place the chicken thighs in a non-reactive bowl or casserole dish and pour the marinade over. Toss to coat the pieces well and refrigerate at least a couple of hours, or overnight.
• Grill as appropriate for your particular barbecue, until done. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving. Serve with a Thai-style garlicky sweet-hot chili sauce. We use the one in Nancy McDermott's book, Real Thai.

We served it with rice and some broccoli stir-fried with mushroom soy sauce, sake, and lots of garlic. We've got leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

What Would It Mean...

...if we were to make an effort, culturally, to shift over to such a diet? The changes would be all-encompassing and profound. Vast tracts of land are devoted, both here and globally, to the grain- and meat-based diet of America. That would have to change.

Why did mankind (probably) switch to eating these foods? Ease of production, probably. A large game animal, and later, large domesticated animals, can feed quite a few people at one time. Cultivation and harvest of cereals was likely an efficiency issue as well. Both have subsequently been adapted to the techniques of the Industrial Revolution, which holds efficiency up as its Holy Grail.

To convert to a greens/vegetables/fruit-based diet would necessitate taking large amounts of land out of cereal cultivation and putting them into market gardens. Large, carefully managed parklands/rangelands with substantial herds of wild game animals (bison and deer are logical choices, as well as wild sheep and goat species) would have to replace feedlots, ranches and factory farming. These lands could support a broad range of biodiversity, as a matter of course. Today's monoculture farms bear little resemblance to tradional farms, which often had as many as fifteen or twenty different production projects going over the course of a year, providing a system of backups should any given project fail.

I like the idea, personally. It would certainly change the face of our world.

Is There Any Topic More Confusing...

...than that of what constitutes the best human diet? High carb, low carb, high protein, raw foods, vegan, macrobiotic, etc, etc, to infinity and beyond! I've read extensively on some of these, and at least a bit about most of them. Most of them can sound quite convincing, even though they often contradict one another. The whole thing can be quite frustrating. High protein-low carb has been one of the most popular in recent years, in a number of incarnations and, generally speaking, one of the diets I trust least. Let me explain a few things I think are important...

• The human digestive system does not resemble that of a carnivore, nor do we have the teeth and head/neck musculature of one. We do not manufacture vitamin C in our own bodies, a feature common to true carnivores.
• Neither do we have the digestive tract and teeth of a ruminant. We only have one stomach, just to point out one of the most obvious things.
• What we do have are teeth that are almost identical to those of an orangutan. It can be difficult for an expert to tell them apart if they are just loose on a table. What do they eat? Fruit, leaves, seeds and nuts are the mainstays of their diet, if I'm not mistaken.
• Chimpanzees and gorillas (more close relatives of ours, along with the orangs) are not all that different in what they eat. In lean famine years, chimpanzees supplement with starchy roots and tubers. They eat small amounts of meat and insects, as well.
• The highest rates of osteoporosis are found in the countries with the highest rates of dairy consumption (and protein, therefore). Excess protein in the human diet is excreted in the urine. Said protein leaches minerals (calcium, magnesium, etc) from the bones on its way out. There are a number of additional problems that can come from a high protein diet.
• Paleolithic people, if they had decent access to food, generally were bigger than us, and had better teeth and denser bones. They ate a lot of wild game and fish, wild greens, vegetables and fruits.
• The people of Crete were found to have the healthiest diet (in relation to cardiovascular disease and cancer) in a major study that spotlighted a variety of cultures around the globe. A lot of the low carb diets speak out on the evils of grains. And yet the people of Crete eat about three times the bread Americans do! All of it is whole-grain, though.

I could go on for awhile. A thing that I think is key, from all the reading I have done, is the consumption of omega oils. This was found to be central in the Cretan diet (The Omega Diet). It is also central to the paleolithic diet advocated in the The Paleolithic Prescription. There have been a number of books written on this topic since, but I was not happy with them. They seemed a simple repackaging of high-protein, low-carb diets. Domesticated meat sources are NOT the same as wild game and fish. When we start hybridizing (i.e., breeding) animals, one of the first things lost are the high levels of omega oils found in wild proteins. Additionally, wild game is much leaner than domesticated meat. Another key is the consumption of large amounts of dietary fiber...at least 30 grams a day.

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that the ideal diet would include large quantities of leafy greens, vegetables, and fruit, supplemented with smaller quantities of wild game, fish and whole grains. Oils should all be cold-pressed. Highly processed foods should be avoided as much as possible. Fermented foods appear to be healthful in a number of ways. Pasteurization is not a good thing. Organic, locally produced foods are a good idea. Chemicals are not. Neither are feedlots and factory farms. If it is domesticated, it should at least be organic and free-range.

I believe there is some merit to the idea that a lot of a person's intestinal flora and fauna are set in youth. I do quite well digesting beans...but I ate them a lot as a child. If I am active and feeling good, I do well digesting dairy products...another thing I had large quantities of, growing up. Some people are not so fortunate. I do not digest large quantities of meat well. What works best for one person may not for another. We need to learn to listen to our bodies. They can tell us a great deal.

A good diet by itself is not enough. An active lifestyle is also required, as are good strategies for dealing with stress.

(And this is not meant to be a scholarly tract complete with hundreds of references, endnotes, etc...just my thoughts concerning something that bothers me a bit)

Potluck Sunday...

We often do potlucks at work on Sundays. This week, someone decided on hamburgers. I was tired when they asked me what I could contribute. I had no desire to stop at the store, so I said I'd make oven steak fries. We do them every so often at home. They're a lot less mess than deep-frying french fries. I just cut the potatoes into eight wedges each and tossed them in extra-virgin olive oil, and plenty of garlic, dried rosemary and freshly ground black pepper. Turns out we didn't have any salt in the breakroom, so I used some Zatarain's Cajun Seasoning. I bake them on cookie sheets at 425-450 degrees until they brown. I had a few requests for how to make them. I tried to eat light at the potluck (and throughout the day...it was slow, so the temptation to snack is a tough one) since I'm trying to get in shape.

For dinner, we had my Swedish meatballs, with mashed potatoes and green beans. Our daughter had never had them before, and ended up eating quite a few of 'em. Another convert...lol.

Sunny Weather...

With the Ultimate Recipe Showdown 3 deadline bumping back to the end of April, and Pillsbury not due 'til about then, we've kinda' eased up on so much rich cooking. I did make something pretty good a couple of nights ago that we're probably going to submit, along with some Pulled Pork and some Peach Tea & Beer BBQ Sauce before that, and some shredded beef (yummm...we enjoyed some machaca burritos for a bit...I LOVE machaca).

The recent sunny weather (which ended yesterday...grrr!) has created a renewed interest for me in SE Asian food. I've been browsing cookbooks, looking at stuff. Especially vegetarian and nearly vegetarian recipes. I've still got contest cooking to do. Light SE Asian dishes of green and vegetables have a great deal of appeal for the times in between. Plus, my interest in losing weight/getting in shape. Gonna' have to make a pilgrimage to an Asian market or two soon...

Taking Advantage of Sales...

Saturday I made a breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, and some biscuits. For dinner, I cooked up a huge bottom round roast($1.89/lb) with beer, garlic, chipotle chilies, Mexican oregano, cumin, etc, then shredded it. We have a ton of it leftover for the coming week.

Today I cooked up what I'm calling a Peach Tea & Beer BBQ Sauce that is a little spicy, and pretty tangy, and I've got a pork shoulder($1.09/lb.) in the oven. I coated it with plenty of dry rub. It wasn't the kind of day for barbecuing outside - we've had snow, rain and periods of blue sky today. I'm hoping I'll get some decently chewy, crispy ends because Gina wants me to make some bbq beans with the barbecue sauce. I'm going to shred the pork whenever it finishes cooking. More food to get us through the week. I made macaroni & cheese this evening. I tried a new recipe I made up. I have been accused in the past of making the Mac & Cheese of Doom. The three of us all agreed that I have surpassed my previous version. Its amazing what a 2 1/2-year old Cheddar($5/lb) does for your macaroni...lol! I'd share the recipe, but it is now destined for an entry in the Ultimate Recipe Showdown.

I am sooo full...

Welsh Rabbit and Ants' Egg Omelets...

I'm off work 'til Monday morning, so I actually made us breakfast this morning. Gina's TMJ has been bothering her so soft food was called for. I decided on Welsh Rabbit, which she'd never had before. Her mom always told her she'd hate it. WRONG. She loved it, and wants me to make it again when our daughter gets here.

WELSH RABBIT

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 scallions, minced (green parts only)

1 cup dark beer or ale (I used Henry Weinhard's Special Dark)

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Freshly ground black or white pepper, to taste

1 pound extra sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (I used Tillamook Extra Sharp) tossed with 4-5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

6 or 8 slices of good-quality bread (I used English muffin bread), lightly toasted

Preheat the broiler. Place the toast either on individual, oven-proof plates (two slices per serving) or on a very large cookie sheet.

Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When hot, add the scallions and saute until soft, a minute or two. Add the beer, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard and pepper, stir well and heat. When it is just beginning to bubble, start adding the grated, floured cheese, a handful at a time. Stir until each handful melts completely into the mixture. When all the cheese has been added and the sauce is smooth, spoon over the toast and place them under the broiler. Heat under the broiler until the cheese sauce begins to brown and bubble, a minute or two. Serve (3 or 4 servings).

Notes: You can use any decent beer or ale, really. The cheese should be fairly sharp...a sharp, extra sharp or New York cheddar, or any of the good cheeses from the British Isles. A good bread of character is a must - English muffin bread, a country or peasant bread, something of that sort. Thickly sliced, if at all possible. Its not traditional, but you can put some bacon, ham or Canadian bacon on the bread before you pour the cheese sauce over (we added some Black Forest ham this morning).

As for the ants' egg omelets, we were watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations while I was cooking breakfast. He was in Laos this episode. Its a very poor nation, landlocked, dependent on the Mekong River and the surrounding forests for much of their food. Its a very interesting cuisine. Amongst the many...um, different...foods he got to try was an ants' egg omelet, which he said was very good, indeed. He didn't like the fried whole sparrows, however.

It was a beautiful and friendly place. It was difficult for him (and for us) watching the damage America did to that country in the war. People are still picking up (well over 30 years later!) some 400,000 pieces of unexploded ordinance each year...a whopping 1/2 of one percent of the total. Many people - farmers, children, innocents all - are still being injured, maimed and killed every year by the leftovers of the Vietnam War. A sad testament to how we all-to-often "help", bringing freedom and democracy to the masses.

I'm In An Andalusian Mood Today...

Yup. I'm going to take a peppery Andalusian rabbit stew from Clifford Wright's book Real Stew, and make it with chicken thighs (we don't eat Bugs Bunny around here...lol). And, just for fun, I'm adapting a recipe called Mahshi, from An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century. The original was a dish of eggplant, meat or fowl, cheese, eggs, breadcrumbs, almonds, cilantro and mint, spices and oil, all baked until golden and set. I'm going to modernize it a bit...remove the meat, slice the eggplant (and some zucchini for added visual appeal), coat 'em with the breadcrumbs and almonds and fry them 'til golden, and put the herbs (mint and cilantro) and spices (pepper and coriander, cinnamon and saffron) in a tomato sauce. Layer the whole thing (sliced veggies, tomato sauce, eggs-and-cheese) and bake it. Sort of an Eggplant Parmesan meets Moorish Al Andalus... I'll serve a simple salad with a vinaigrette alongside.

More Contest Work...

I've been working to finish some entries for Taste of Home's America's Best Loved Recipe Contest(http://www.tasteofhome.com/Contests/Recipe-Contests/Best-Loved/), which ends here in a little over an hour, and managed to submit three:

The Vance Family's Navy Bean Soup
"Not Quite Beef Stroganoff"
Easy Portuguese-style Bean Soup

We'll see. They expect about 20,000 entries, competing for the $25,000 grand prize, and will announce the four finalists within twelve weeks. The public will then have a month to vote on their choice for the grand prize winner.

Hallelujah!...

I was falling behind on my Ultimate Recipe Showdown entries - a couple of days of being exhausted and one day-long headache had cost me too much. I went to the website a few minutes ago to check something and the Feb 28 deadline has been changed, sometime recently, to the end of April. Big, big sigh of relief...I can ease up on a few things now, get some other important stuff done, and take the time to really do the recipes right.

I still need to have the Taste of Home entries submitted by Sunday, but that shouldn't be a problem. Those were easy ones that we already have typed up.

Falling Behind, but the Results...

...were very good tonight. I'm a good chunk behind where I wanted to be this week (a couple of dishes and some typing). A nasty headache put me out of the competition all afternoon/evening yesterday. So tomorrow will be very, very busy. I made a rice dish for the Ethnic Dish category tonight. The cooking got off to a really rough start this evening, but it worked out well for the final product. Better, maybe. It led me off in a couple of directions I might have overlooked, if I hadn't been running into difficulties. Nice.

My Progress On The Cooking Contests...

We mapped out a battle plan for entering the Ulimate Recipe Showdown 3 and Taste of Home's annual competition (all entries due by this next weekend) back on Friday, and did some grocery shopping Saturday morning. Today's lunch and dinner were both entries for URS3. They went really well, and the three of us are sooooo full right now. We have plenty of food for my breakfast and our lunches tomorrow (I have to go back to work...sigh). I also got some serious prep work done for tomorrow night's dinner. Gina will get it started for me tomorrow, and make notes about times, etc. We were too tired for the dinner we were going to have Saturday, so it got bumped to Tuesday (my short, 8-hour shift). There's a lot of writing to be done over the next week.

On other news, I got a pot of our pinto beans made, and a batch of Gina's spiced Amish lemonade. Tired now...

A Favorite at the Palin Household?...

I wonder if this is a special treat for folks that like to hunt moose...like Sarah Palin and her family? I don't think it'll catch on anytime soon at my house (thankfully). My wife found this on Kate Harding's blog, Shapely Prose(http://kateharding.net/) :

Jellied Moose Nose

1 Upper jawbone of a moose
1 Onion; sliced
1 Garlic clove
1 tb Mixed pickling spice
1 ts Salt
1/2 ts Pepper
1/4 c Vinegar

Cut the upper jaw bone of the moose just below the eyes. Place in a large kettle of scalding water and boil for 45 minutes. Remove and chill in cold water. Pull out all the hairs - these will have been loosened by the boiling and should come out easily (like plucking a duck). Wash thoroughly until no hairs remain. Place the nose in a kettle and cover with fresh water. Add onion, garlic, spices and vinegar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the meat is tender. Let cool overnight in the liquid.

When cool, take the meat out of the broth, and remove and discard the bones and the cartilage. You will have two kinds of meat, white meat from the bulb of the nose, and thin strips of dark meat from along the bones and jowls. Slice the meat thinly and alternate layers of white and dark meat in a loaf pan. Reheat the broth to boiling, then pour the broth over the meat in the loaf pan. Let cool until jelly has set. Slice and serve cold.

A BUSY Weekend!...

We've been very busy of late, and it suddenly dawned on me a couple of days ago that the deadline to enter Season 3 of the Ultimate Recipe Showdown is a week from Saturday(the 28th), the last chance to enter the Taste of Home contest is the next day, March 1st, while the Pillsbury Bake-Off is still out there in April. And I haven't submitted a single entry to any of them yet...

So...I sat down today and went through scores of recipes I've made over the years and compiled a selection of about thirty recipes and ideas that might work as entries. Then I set out all the potential categories for the three contests I mentioned, and my wife and I started finding homes for some recipes and ideas, setting others aside for the future, and shuffled a few around. All-in-all, we selected about fifteen recipes for the contests. Thankfully, a few exist in a sufficiently finished form I shouldn't have to cook 'em in the next week to submit them. The majority just require some tweakage and a final preparation and rewrite, and there are only a couple that are existing only in my brain right now.

The Pillsbury entries don't need to be done this week...we've got almost two months still. The rest are going to keep my time off extremely busy. Matter of fact, I've got something in the oven right now. 'Course, its a Pillsbury entry(LOL)- that's where it ended up getting shuffled off to tonight, after I got everything going on it earlier. If it comes out as good as last time, and is consistent, it'll be ready for submission. One less thing to be concerned about.

Gotta' run...busybusybusy.

Tasty Romanian Food...

So...over the course of the day, I worked on the various elements of the Romanian dinner. Got the beans on early, cooked the mamaliga and put it in a baking pan to set up. Mixed up the ingredients for the mititei, formed them, and put them in the fridge. Got the cabbage and apples going by late afternoon. All I had left by evening was to sliced and pan-fry the mamaliga and cook the mititei. I tried sliding the sausages onto the rotisserie skewers, but after two fell off, I switched to the rotisserie basket.

It all cooked up well. The mititei were very tasty, Gina loved the texture, but found the herbs a bit strong. Next time we'll cut back just a little. I see a lot of fried mamaliga slices in our future...lol. The baked beans were good. They are different from American baked beans...not nearly as sweet, with some red wine in 'em. And the varza, the baked cabbage and apples, was very good. Not too sweet. Red cabbage and apples are always a good pick for Gina...lol.

Interestingly enough (at least to me), mamaliga probably predates polenta. In "Olive Trees and Honey", Gil Marks states that while grain porridges called puls were brought east by the Romans, it was the Turks who brought corn to the Balkans in the sixteenth century. It then moved west to Italy. Italians even called corn grano turco(Turkish grain) and sorgo turco(Turkish sorghum).

Easy Caribbean Tonight, Romanian Tomorrow...

We had picked up almost everything needed, awhile back to make my Easy Creole Beans - cans of pork & beans, dijon mustard, ginger beer, habanero hot sauce, pineapple - but we hadn't gotten around to it. Walked over to Safeway today, being its my day off, and discovered their thick-cut bacon on sale (3 pounds for $4.49!), so I brought that home. I whipped up a batch and popped it in the oven to cook. We had some country-style pork ribs leftover from the other day - ones that were even more irregularly cut than the ones I grilled (i.e., they're country-style ribs in name only). I put them in a pot of water with some onion, herbs and spices to cook until tender enough to shred. While they were simmering, I made some Haitian-style coleslaw, flavored with lime juice and dijon mustard, garlic and dill. Finally, I threw a few things to create some tasty Caribbean Sauce to soak the shredded pork. Here's the recipe for the sauce:

Caribbean Sauce

1 cup ginger beer

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice, strained

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

A dash of habanero sauce, or to taste

A large pinch of dried thyme

A large pinch of ground allspice

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and boil, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is somewhat reduced and thickened.

I simply dumped the shredded pork into the sauce and let it had heated up, then would remove it with a slotted spoon, so that the sauce drained back into the pot, before putting the meat on buns.

Tomorrow is going to be a Romanian dinner:

Mititei (Romanian sausage rolls)

Mamaliga Prajita (Fried, sliced cornmeal mush)

Gebakeneh Beblach (Baked beans in tomato sauce)

Varza (Baked red cabbage with apples)

At least I think it is...

Better Luck Next Time...

The results for the 2008 Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest (http://www.chocolateadventurecontest.com/) have been posted. I didn't place this time. Looking at the results for the 2007 and 2008 contests, it seems to me that I didn't think far enough outside the box with my entries. Of course, I only had about 60 hours to throw the three entries together. I will enter again this year (after October 1st), and will definitely get wilder with my entries. Here is a copy of my beverage entry...

COCOA D'ANNAM

Spiced Simple Syrup:

1 cup cold water

1/2 cup palm sugar, crumbled, chopped or grated

1 whole strip Saigon cinnamon

1 whole star anise

15 peppercorns

Pinch of salt

The Cocoa:

1 cup spiced simple syrup (see above)

3/4 cup Scharffen Berger unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder

2 cups half-and-half

1 cup coconut milk

1/4 teaspoon pandanus extract

1/4 cup cream sherry (optional, but recommended)

1/2 cup heavy cream

2-ounce segment of Scharffen Berger 62% Cacao Semisweet Chocolate Baking Bar

4 whole star anise pods

Place all simple syrup ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Turn the heat to low and stir constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved, and the spices have had time to flavor the syrup, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer into a large glass measuring cup. (If not using the syrup right away, let cool to room temperature. The syrup can be made ahead and stored, in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a week.). Makes about 1 1/4-1 1/2 cups.

Place the warm syrup (reheat if made ahead of time) in a small saucepan and add the Scharffen Berger cocoa powder. Whisk until the cocoa has melted into the syrup and the mixture is smooth. Turn the heat under the pan to medium. Slowly add the half-and-half and coconut milk to the pan, whisking continually until smooth and combined. Add the pandanus extract. Continue to occasionally stir the cocoa until it is hot and steaming. Do not boil. Remove from the heat. Add the cream sherry (if using) and stir to mix.

Place the heavy cream in a high-sided bowl and whip with a hand-held blender until somewhat thickened and frothy.

Divide the cocoa between four mugs. Top with a dollop of heavy cream, garnish with a star anise pod, and grate a little Scharffen Berger semisweet chocolate over the top. Serve immediately. Four servings.

We Had This Cheese at the ICU Super Bowl Potluck...

...and I really enjoyed it, but the nurse that brought it didn't know what it was. Her sister gave it to her. It was a crumbly white cheese with a very sharp flavor that was cut by the little pieces of apricot all through the cheese. She thought it was French, since her sister had recently come back from Paris. It appears that it was White Stilton with Apricot. White Stilton is the young, immature version of the well-known blue cheese. Its very tangy and delicious, but it needs something to complement it, so they have added the fruit. I loved it, but didn't have a clue where to find it. The fruit did not make it too sweet in my opinion. Looks like it might be available at Trader Joe's, and through several sources online, including https://www.caviarmore.com/ , http://www.ilchester.co.uk/ , and https://www.wegmans.com/. Good stuff, Maynard...if you get the chance, try it on crackers.

A Day for Baked Goods...

Gina supervised Matt today on some things that needed doing, while I grabbed her recipe for zucchini bread and made a couple of loaves with zucchini that needed using. I love her zucchini bread.

Dinner was potatoes au gratin with kielbasa and sweet peppers. Its something we've made for years, but we realized we probably haven't had it in about six months. We've missed it.

And I'm waiting for a cake to cool, so we can taste it before bed- basbousa -a semolina and almond cake common across the Muslim Mediterranean. They usually flavor it with orange, but I prefer lemon. Nor did I soak it in quite as much syrup as they would...

...and we just tried it. It is very good, though not as good as my wife's lemon cake (which is the best lemon cake in the known Universe). It may possibly be the richest cake I have ever tasted that isn't coated in a bunch of frosting.

Using Up Stuff...

I discovered piles of fresh herbs in the fridge a couple of days ago. Amazingly, they were still good, so I wanted to use 'em. Also, a partial can of tomato paste and some feta cheese that were loitering around. I settled on a Georgian beef stew: cubes of beef, new potatoes, lots of onions, red bell peppers, tomatoes, a whole bottle of wine, mounds of herbs - basil, cilantro, parsley, scallions. We sprinkled the feta on top for a nice salty accent. Dipped wedges of ciabatta bread in the juices. Good stuff.

"Don't worry, it won't smell like urine..."

My wife found this article on Yahoo:

Does your Pepsi lack pep? Is your Coke not the real thing? India's Hindu nationalist movement apparently has the answer: a new soft drink made from cow urine.

The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India's biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the man who makes it.

Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called "gau jal", or "cow water" – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched "very soon, maybe by the end of this year".

"Don't worry, it won't smell like urine and will be tasty too," he told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy cities on the River Ganges. "Its USP will be that it's going to be very healthy. It won't be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins."

The drink is the latest attempt by the RSS – which was founded in 1925 and now claims eight million members – to cleanse India of foreign influence and promote its ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness.

Hindus revere cows and slaughtering them is illegal in most of India. Cow dung is traditionally used as a fuel and disinfectant in villages, while cow urine and dung are often consumed in rituals to "purify" those on the bottom rungs of the Hindu caste system.

In 2001, the RSS and its offshoots – which include the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party – began promoting cow urine as a cure for ailments ranging from liver disease to obesity and even cancer.

The movement has often been accused of using more violent methods, such as killing 67 Christians in the eastern state of Orissa last year, and assaulting women in a pub in Mangalore last month. It also has a history of targeting foreign business in India, as in 1994, when it organised a nationwide boycott of multinational consumer goods, including Pepsi and Coca Cola.

The cola brands are popular in India, now one of their biggest markets, but have struggled in recent years to shake off allegations, which they deny, that they contain dangerous levels of pesticide.

Mr Prakash said his drink, by contrast, was made mainly of cow urine, mixed with a few medicinal and ayurvedic herbs. He said it would be "cheap", but declined to give further details about its price or ingredients until it was officially launched.

He insisted, however, that it would be able to compete with the American cola brands, even with their enormous advertising budgets. "We're going to give them good competition as our drink is good for mankind," he said. "We may also think of exporting it."

Somehow, I don't see this as an up-and-coming secret ingredient on Iron Chef, or as likely to take away a lot of Coca-Cola's or Red Bull's marketshare. The anti-Western backlash issue is interesting, however. Its not just Islam that is tiring of us, apparently. Nor am I sure cowpiss soft drinks are likely to make huge inroads against Westernization. I don't know whether to laugh or shudder...

Mission-Style Ribs...

Made these the other night. They were pretty good, and I've had a request for the recipe so I decided I'd post them, too. The ribs were inspired by some of the early Mission- or Rancho-style cooking of California. Enjoy.

There are so many different styles of grill, barbecue and smoker out there now that I am not going to try and offer specifics about how to cook ribs. Follow the methods that work best for your particular piece of equipment. I will say that it would probably be best to cook them with indirect heat, at least at first, so as to avoid flare- or flame-ups, and burn them. They were especially good cooked with mesquite hardwood charcoal. Without further ado...

MISSION-STYLE PORK RIBS

6 pounds country-style pork ribs, trimmed of any excessive fat as needed
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup dry red wine
8 large cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
1½ tablespoons dried thyme
1½ tablespoons dried oregano
1½ tablespoons dried marjoram
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 tablespoon sea salt
3 tablespoons sweet paprika, mild California or mild New Mexico chile powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin seeds
2 teaspoons ground coriander seeds
2 teaspoons freshly ground black peppercorns
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, or to taste
A little olive or vegetable oil, for greasing the grill rack

Combine all ingredients, from the olive oil to the red pepper flakes, in a blender or food processor and puree. Pour over the ribs and toss to coat the ribs thoroughly. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight.

At least an hour before cooking, remove the ribs from the refrigerator, allowing them to warm somewhat.

Start your grill or barbecue. When at the appropriate stage for cooking, oil the rack of your barbecue. Five to ten minutes later, add the ribs, shaking any excess marinade back into the container. Best cooked, initially, over indirect heat to avoid flame- or flare-ups that will burn the ribs early on. Cook, turning as needed, until done.

You may brush excess marinade on the ribs as desired. This recipe does not produce a great deal of extra. If that is desired, increase quantities as needed. Number of servings is dependent on the size of the ribs.

A Pot of Beans...

Some forty-five-or-so years ago, two friends of my parents got married. She was of Spanish ancestry, he was of Mexican. She wanted to learn how to make the Mexican dishes her husband grew up with, so she asked her mother-in-law to teach her. My mother went with her for some of the lessons. She's been making pots of beans ever since, and I grew up on a diet that included frequent servings of tacos and tostadas, enchiladas and taquitos, rice and beans. I just got finished making a pot of beans this morning...we cooked 'em yesterday, I mashed and seasoned them a few minutes ago. And for the first time ever, I actually measured everything. Shock, gasp! Lol. If been making them for over twenty years and have always just eyeballed the quantities. "Yup, that looks about right." Anyway...

"Mock" Frijoles Refritos

6 cups dry pinto beans

Plenty of water, to cover

1 large sprig of epazote (optional)

1 15-ounce can tomato sauce

4 teaspoons sugar, or to taste

1 tablespoon sea salt, or to taste

1 tablespoon onion powder, or to taste

1 tablespoon garlic powder, or to taste

Soak the beans in a large crockpot overnight, with plenty of water, and cover. (I fill the crockpot almost to the lid, and while you can use a big pot on the stove, that requires a lot more watching...this is almost start-it-and-forget-about-it easy). In the morning, add the epazote (if using) and turn your crockpot to high and begin cooking. Stir occasionally and add additional water, if needed. By mid-afternoon, the beans should be soft enough to mash.

When they are tender, remove the epazote and drain in a colander. Transfer the beans back to the crockpot and mash thoroughly. Add the tomato sauce, sugar and salt, onion and garlic powders. Stir to mix completely. Taste for seasoning and adjust, if needed. Quantities are subjective, based on your tastes. Reheat and cook for 30-60 minutes, to give flavors time to blend. Serve. Makes a very large batch. They do freeze well.

Notes: If you forget to soak the beans the night before, simply place them in the crockpot and add the same quantity of boiling water. They should still finish about the same time. The quantity of beans can be reduced to 4 cups. Just adjust the seasonings accordingly. Nor is it absolutely necessary to cook the beans afterward. They can be eaten right away, if desired. A purist can used minced garlic and onions, instead of the powdered. We've done it before. We just happen to prefer the texture using the powdered.

A Spanish Dinner...

Gina and I have been wanting to try leeks. We'd just never gotten around to it. I found a Sephardic recipe that appealed to me, so I threw together a menu for it. And it looked like this...

Sephardic Leek-and-Cheese Casserole

(Quajado de Puerro con Queso)

Murcian Salad

(Ensalada Murciana)

Spanish-style Garlic Bread

The casserole was divine! A pile of thinly sliced, sauteed leeks, a pound of cheese, and a mess of eggs, flavored with some freshly grated nutmeg. Super-rich and good. The salad was very tasty (see recipe below), with lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and a piquant dressing. I wanted to make garlic bread, but I wanted something a bit different from my usual Italian-style garlic bread. I found some fresh ciabatta bread at the store, and whipped up a spread that owed more to Spain than Italy (I've had instructions from the Boss to keep the details to myself...lol). Suffice it to say there was butter, Parmesan cheese, garlic, some herbs, and...

Here's the recipe for the salad:

Murcian Salad

1 small head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 small head escarole, curly endive, radicchio, or other bitter green, torn into bite-sized pieces
2 green and/or red bell peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
2 large Roma tomatoes, seeded and thinly sliced
½ large sweet onion, thinly sliced

For the dressing:
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon capers, well-rinsed
¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pinch of cayenne pepper, or to taste

Toss the greens, peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, and onions together in a large bowl.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend or process until the garlic and capers are minced and the olive oil emulsifies.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well. Serve.

Makes 8-12 servings.

(And on another front...the Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies are better the second day...yum!)

Tonight: Cookies, Spoonbread and a Dragon...

Gina made a batch of Paula Dean's Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies. Yum! Tomorrow she's planning on some of her homemade zucchini bread.

Dinner was simple: skillet-cooked cheddarwursts, Texas-style spoonbread with plenty of cheese, green chilies, garlic and oregano, and coleslaw. The spoonbread was almost verbatim out of the Texas the Beautiful Cookbook and we really liked it. It'll be a make-again.

We just caught the tail end of the 2004 World Pastry Championships and the newcomer team, South Korea, did the most amazing sugar piece that included a huge (for a sugar piece) red dragon. They easily won that portion of the competition.

Tomorrow's a more ambitious dinner...Sephardic leek-and-cheese casserole (quejado de puerro con queso), a Murcian salad (salada murciana), and garlic bread.

And some work on entries for the Ultimate Recipe Showdown 3...

Latin Night...

I fought a nasty headache today while fixing dinner today. I had picked up some country-style pork ribs at Fred Meyer - they had them on sale @$1.28 a pound - and started marinating them this morning. Red wine, red wine vinegar, EVOO, lots of garlic, herbs (thyme, oregano, marjoram, rosemary), and spices (pepper, cumin, coriander). Then I put a pot of my drunken beans on to cook - pinto beans, dark beer and tequila, stock, tomatoes, salsa, garlic, some bacon. This afternoon, when the headache had subsided, I made a batch of salsa with oven-roasted Roma tomatoes, Anaheim chilies, onion, and garlic, fresh cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, and a little red wine vinegar. Good stuff. I followed that with a batch of colache...baby potatoes, zucchini, onion, spinach, tomatoes, corn-on-the-cob, seasoned with garlic, oregano, basil, and marjoram. I'd also picked up some mesquite hardwood charcoal from Freddie's. It was great for barbecuing the ribs (the weather has been really good these last two days), which turned out really good. The beans were finished with crumbled bacon, queso seco (cotija) cheese, garlic flakes, and lime wedges, and are so savory and good. I could make a meal of 'em, with some tortillas to sop up the juices. Tired now. A bit headachey again, from the barbecuing. But full and otherwise happy.

Today...

...spent a lot of time sitting with a patient. I took advantage of the chance to do some brainstorming for the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown 3. I came up with a couple of ideas that I think are pretty solid. I'm looking forward to making 'em soon. Part of the fun is getting to eat your "homework"...lol.

Making Points with the Wife...

I was supposed to be be making my oven-fried chicken once a month...and I hadn't made it since the first time (oops!...askin' for trouble). So I made a batch of it tonight...a dozen chicken thighs. I added something to the coating, and made it more garlicky (can't offer details, since we're thinking of submitting it to the Ultimate Recipe Showdown). The chicken came out with this lovely dark crunchy coating, and oh-so-flavorful. We made it with a good, dark gravy tonight, for the mashed potatoes, and a pile of garlic green beans. And we are so full.

Food Fit for an Emir...

Tonight I made a palov, the national dish of Uzbekistan. There are at least a couple of hundred different varieties there, and probably as many different versions of these as there are cooks. I decided to create a big festive one, and so I made mine with lots of cubed beef (I didn't have any of the more traditional lamb), onions and carrots, dried apricots and raisins, cilantro and parsley, cumin, turmeric and black pepper. After all of this cooked for a bit, I flattened it all out, placed two big heads of garlic on top, and covered it all with basmati rice and boiling water. Then just turn it down and let it cook until all the moisture has been absorbed. I grabbed a big platter and inverted the whole thing out onto it. It looked glorious (I've really got to pick up some batteries for our camera. Grrr!) and tasted great. It was rich and savory, the meat fork tender, the apricots and raisins melting bits of sweetness in the mouth, the garlic cloves soft like butter...and it took some effort to stop before a food coma set in. Lol. I think the Emir of Bukhara would have been pleased with my efforts...

I LIke It!...

Food coma. Rachel Ray used the term today on the Food Network, referring to the state achieved after an afternoon of eating during a football game party. I know I've achieved a food coma before, and I know someone who eats, occasionally, like a big cat, gorging on something particularly tasty and becoming rather somnolent afterwards...

In the Kitchen Today...

Gina's having a really bad day with her fibromyalgia, but we had a pile of lemons we bought for the lemonade she makes that needed to be used, so I made it this afternoon. Its her interpretation of a Amish spiced lemonade concentrate. We bought a dozen lemons, which makes a double batch of concentrate...about a gallon or so, which reconstitutes to about five gallons of lemonade. Yummm! I love her lemonade!

I barbecued chicken Friday, since the weather permitted, and made my version of an Indonesian dish, ayam panggang kecap...chicken grilled with sweet soy sauce...one of Gina's favorites. I always try to make extra, as its customary for me to use some of the leftovers in a batch of nasi goreng, Indonesian fried rice. Which was what we had for dinner tonight. I make it as a one dish meal, chock full of barbecued chicken, onions, peppers, daikon, zucchini, celery, carrots, and tomatoes. Its flavored with garlic, ginger, turmeric, coconut milk, tamarind, chilies, and sweet soy sauce, and topped with fried garlic flakes and a drizzle of sweet soy. I make a ton, so there are more leftovers.

And since we finally had the cable TV hooked up this weekend, we've been watching the Food Network again. They're finally showing the season two episodes of the Ultimate Recipe Showdown, which means they are taking entries for season three. Thankfully, I have until the end of next month to get some entries in. I made it to the semifinals for season two, my first time entering a cooking contest. I really want to make it to the finals this time.

Catching the Kitchen Garden Bug...

I got a $50 gift certificate to Fungi Perfecti (http://www.fungi.com/) for Xmas, and I've been getting the annual barrage of gardening catalogs. Then, when I was at Walmart yesterday, they had a reasonable deal on seed potatoes. I am feeling the urge to plan a kitchen garden. I want to find a source for a few oak logs and use the mushroom plugs from Fungi Perfecti - I'm thinking of getting a hundred plugs each of Shiitake, Reishi, Maitake and Turkey 'shrooms. Good for cooking and great for health. I grabbed a bag each of Yukon Gold and Kennebec seed potatoes. There's an amazing difference between store-bought and fresh-from-your-garden spuds! And I've got a pile of seeds I've gathered over the years (some probably aren't any good now, but a lot of 'em are gonna' sprout). The yard gets a lot of sun, and we have quite a few spots where I could plant stuff. I might get some junk tires to put along the fence for the potatoes. I could just put up a board at the end of the row of tires to block the unsightly view...*rolling my eyes*. Yup, I've got the bug...

Lol.

Dinner in North Africa...

That's where we ate tonight...sitting in our living room. We had...

A beef stew of the Algerian Jews: beef slow-cooked 'til meltingly tender with a pile of grated onions, diced tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, and harissa(a North African chili paste).

A salad of romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, onions, daikon, cucumbers, olives and feta cheese, tossed with a dressing of extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and fresh mint.

Kesra, the country bread of Morocco, a round, yeasted flatbread with a coarse crumb and thick crust, made with wheat and a little corn.

It was very tasty. We are pleasantly full. There are ample leftovers. (Yay leftovers!)

We ran pretty late this afternoon, trying to get errands done. Thankfully, its a pretty easy dinner to make. But there was one thing I decided to simplify: the harissa. I am a big fan of taking the time to soak dried chilies in hot water. Its what I do when I make my chili. There wasn't time this afternoon. So I made an Easy Harissa...

Easy Harissa

2 ounces ground New Mexico chile powder
1 ounce ground hot New Mexico chile powder
2 teaspoons ground coriander seeds
1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground caraway seeds
1 teaspoon sea salt
6 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons water

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until a smooth paste results. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator. Should keep for at least a month. Makes over a cup.

You may cover the top of the paste with additional EVOO, to help it store longer. If you want a hotter harissa, you may use a hotter chile powder or add a little cayenne pepper. This version is not terribly hot, but that is the way my wife prefers it.