I decided to do a pantry update with just one dish, so I could write down all the details of a highly successful experiment. Although I was working without a recipe, I was following tips from the colleague who recommend the brand of fish curry masala, and cross-pollinated those tips with the instructions from the side of the box of masala. I was very happy with the result: a flavourful sauce and perfectly cooked fish.
Category: Recipe
A food how to.
Grilled Greek Salad
When brainstorming dinner plans (as we drank our breakfast coffees) I said I was thinking of perhaps roasting vegetables. Fronx said he would rather have something crunchy, like a Greek salad. Vegetables and low effort was the main motivation for me suggesting roasted vegetables, so I agreed that Greek salad was also good.
But thinking about romaine lettuce reminded me of the fantastic grilled meal we’d had over at Ole’s in the summer …
Mapo tofu
Morgan has been on a mapo tofu kick since he went to Mission Chinese when he was in San Francisco. Even before he got back from that trip, the Lucky Peach newsletter landed in his inbox, including the mapo tofu recipe from Mission Chinese!
The very tasty recipe is here:
http://luckypeach.com/recipes/mission-chinese-foods-mapo-tofu/
After sourcing all the ingredients (except the beef fat), Morgan invited me over to prepare it. We made it using a technique best described as “pair cooking”, a reference to “pair programming”. In pair programming, often one person is at the keyboard doing all of the typing, and the second person formulates and talks over ideas with the person typing.
Kimchi Chicken Stew
Our friends Mike and Morgan made an experimental batch of kimchi which I personally found lacking the crunch of previous batches. I pumped up its fizz and flavour by keeping it closed up tight in the fridge for a week, but it was still on the soft side.
What do you do with a jar of lovingly made, perfectly tasty, but slightly underwhelming kimchi? Make a stew! Kimchi stew was something I had heard of, but never had. The closest thing I’d had was a chicken version of gamjatang, from the Korean restaurant Core, which I occasionally crave.
Spicy black bean burgers
Around here we regularly eat hummus sandwiches and I’m always looking for new ways to introduce more beans into our diet.
Powdered lemon peel
I saw some powered lemon peel at the spice stand at the market this past weekend. I bought it on a whim. They also had orange peel. I had seen some at a Christmas market in Nürnberg when we were there but stopped myself from buying it: it’s a super-fine powder that I had no idea how to use.
Kick-ass Kohlrouladen
I wasn’t planning on writing another post today but I found a recipe that was so good I just had to share. When I asked what I should make for supper tonight, the answer I got was some song about “gołąbki.” Sounded good to me, and I figured I already had all, or at least most, of the ingredients–tomatoes and onions from the garden, a cabbage from my CSA share, ground beef in the freezer. I just needed a recipe. Epicurious came through once again, and I used this one for Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage Rolls. Continue reading “Kick-ass Kohlrouladen”
Banana bread, jacked up, adapted, interpreted
Dirty secret: I keep imported Betty Crocker cake mix stashed in my cupboard for emergency cakes and cupcakes. I spend the time saved by the mix making fancy icings.
Continue reading “Banana bread, jacked up, adapted, interpreted”
Rhubarb Syrup. Panty Remover.
In Spring, this young man’s fancy turns to rhubarb. Follow me through this.
I make rhubarb syrup during rhubarb season. It’s simple, and it’s amazing in cocktails. Any cocktail that calls for grenadine can be rhubarbified. The trick to making a good rhubarb syrup is to maximize the rhubarb flavour in as small a volume of liquid as possible.
Soup
Looking for a laugh, I picked up an old cookbook from my South Dakota grandmother this weekend, “The German-Russian Pioneer Cook Book.” I have three editions of this cookbook, all originally typed on a typewriter, two plastic spiral-bound with laminated cardstock front and back covers and one bound with binder rings. In addition to some “real” German and Russian recipes like Schupfnudeln, Einlaufsuppe and “Borsch,” it also contains some recipes I can only describe as very regional. Continue reading “Soup”
VIVRE POUR MANGER 