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.

Sundaland Supper...

the cool evening air tells a tale
of chicken over a charcoal fire
garlic galangal and lemongrass
star anise and kecap manis
of smoky goodness pulled apart
with greedy hands swiftly consumed
shadows toss restlessly about
characters in a wayang drama
gamelan echoes faintly in the dark

I'm Fat and Happy...

Gina cooked prime rib and Yorkshire pudding tonight. I made the gravy (I'm the official gravy cook at home...lol). And dinner was wonderful. I'm so full. This has usually been our Xmas dinner, but we haven't done it for the last two or three years. I've missed it. I'm going to sit here and digest for a bit, then get some rest...

Fun Stuff...

We were at the Salvation Army today, where Gina picked out a darling dress for our granddaughter (a $50 dress for $1.99!), while I grabbed an older ('84 reprint of a '72) spiral-bound cookbook, Tony Chachere's Cajun Country Cookbook, that has some "fun" recipes, like "Brice Palmer's Fried Alligator", "Coot in Soy Sauce", "Smothered Snipe", "Baked Juicy Swamp Rabbit", Louisiana Cajun's Squirrel Stew", "Baked Coon and Sweet Potatoes", "Cleve's Smothered Armadillo", and the ever-popular "Tony's Nutria Sauce Piquante". Lol. There are a lot of other, more "mainstream" recipes. I'm looking forward to looking through it in more depth later...

The Last Couple of Days...

Yesterday I made version 1.0 of my sweet entry for the Pillsbury Bake-Off. The second cookie sheet ended up as v.1.1, as Gina and I felt that the entry needed to be shaped differently. I am not, generally, a baker of sweets. That is Gina's realm. So...I am learning at the same time that I am working on this contest. We didn't really know how long it would take things to bake, since we are making the recipe as we go. The second cookie sheet, things went better in that department, too. We were very pleased with the flavor of the finished product. Appearance still needs some work (and practice). Preliminary reviews from coworkers have been favorable.

I made a big pot full of our homemade (never) refried beans.

And I came across a write-up in the Portland paper of a kitchen that I love!

And a Little Dark Culinary Humor...