eunny jang

Sick as a dog last night. A mysterious head of cabbage in my fridge (origins unknown) that looks almost ready to stage a mutiny. Chicken noodle soup: Sherry/ginger marinated chicken breast, poached and arranged with some whole wheat soba, enoki mushrooms, scallions and wilted savoy cabbage. A quick 40-minute stock from the rest of the chicken, simmered with star anise and ginger and garlic and a couple cardamon pods, ladled over just before eating. Drizzle of temari and chili/sesame oil.

It's not real friendly, but I think a "sharing cost" is usually appropriate if they're going to plate it separately for you. If it's two people eating off the same plate, then it's just gouging.

Ohh, man, I love peanut butter and bacon. Bread (whole wheat is nice here), peanut butter, bacon, grape jelly if you're feeling really decadant, lots of cracked black pepper. Grill in a little butter till the peanut butter gets melty and hot.

I think I posted this somewhere before, but...I usually snap off the ends, parboil in (very) salty water, shock, and then heat them with a little whole-grain mustard and olive oil - the mustard will bloom in the oil and some of the seeds will pop. The mustard cuts the "grassiness" of briefly cooked string beans, and it goes with almost anything. I have to try the long-cooked beans - I've always been a "NO MUSHY VEGETABLES" girl, but am slowly coming around to the idea that long cooking brings out flavors that nothing else can.

I have a friend who eats each thing all at once - he eats the green vegetable, turns his plate so the next side is in front of him, eats that, turns the plate, etc. etc. Meat is always last. Eating with him and watching him eat always makes me feel all itchy.

I will try Straits of Malaysia soon, but I miss Wazuri I would have jumped off that roof deck if a bowl of that callalou fell from it

Thanks everyone :wub: Was the ketchup homemade? If not, is there a source for it? It sounds delicious and intruiging. Tell me more This weekend, I tried really hard to cook dinners that would bridge the summer-fall gap - we've been dipping into the 40s at night, but the days are still in the 70s. Beautiful sunny, crisp weather. Friday: Ravioli with butternut squash, cheese and sage with a little sage cream - my first stab at filled pasta. My pasta dough is starting to get pretty good, and putting it together is starting to become almost intuitive. I am trying to pay attention to how the dough feels by kneading with my eyes closed - seeing if I can judge whether the dough has been kneaded enough just from its springiness and elasticity. Chicken saltimbocca, sort of, by way of Mamster's pancetta-embossed chicken. Chicken thighs with a sage leaf, shrouded in proscuitto, and roasted skin-side down. Nestled in some roasted tomatoes with a bit of hazelnut picada. I was a little ham-fisted with the parsley - otherwise you could see the sage leaf sealed under the roasted crisp, translucent proscuitto. Saturday: Omelet practice Sunday: Had the last of the heirlooms and some astonishingly fragrant basil that smelled the way the Venus of Willendorf looks - round and lush and ready to burst and hinting at an extraordinary, mysterious, long and complicated history. tomatoes, roasted long and slow till their juices had burbled down to thick, concentrated, super-tomato-y sludge, arranged on a quick tart crust with pesto (from the aforementioned basil) and some roasted garlic and cheese. A small tangle or red-leaf lettuces with a shallot vinaigrette (with a thin stream of egg yolk added) emulsified almost to the point of being mayonnaise.

Good god, man! Step away from the chafing dish!

Thanks! Hrrmm...I sort of cobbled something together out of many recipes I saw for the vindaloo, including some over in our India forum. There's a whole thread on "authentic vindaloo" which was also helpful. The spice mixture was something like this: 1 t coriander seed 1 t cumin seed 6 green cardamon pods 10 black peppercorns 1/2 t turmeric 10 dried red chilis 1/2 cinnamon stick 1 inch of ginger 6 cloves of garlic I think that was it, although I adjusted the spices a little as I went and tasted. Grind the spices, mix with a little oil, and toss some chunks of lamb shank (carefully trimmed; it's ok to leave silverskin on though) in it. Let it sit. Carmelize some shredded white onions (quite a lot; I used 2 medium for 2lbs of bone-in lamb) gently in a little oil. Skin some soft, almost overripe tomatoes (I used 3 big ones). When the onions are brown, buzz them with the tomatoes in a separate bowl to make a thick, liquid puree. Meanwhile, sear the lamb very well on all sides in a deep saucepan. Add the tomatoes/onions and a good quarter cup of white vinegar, along with plenty of salt, bring to a boil, and then let it simmer quietly until the lamb is done and the tomatoes have cooked down into a glossy, spicy, vinegary, velvety sauce. The saag paneer spice mixture: 2 t coriander 1/2 t turmeric 1 inch ginger 6 cloves garlic I sauteed a chopped onion in some oil until brown; then added the ground spices and the chopped ginger and garlic. After giving them a minute to bloom in the oil, I added about 1lb of washed and chopped spinach. Once the spinach was wilted, I added a little less than a cup of plain yogurt, gave it a quick buzz to puree everything, and heated it back up. Meanwhile, I fried cubes of paneer in hot oil to give them a brown crust, stirred them into the spinach, and plated everything. To make paneer: I took a suggestion off a website to make quick paneer this way - Bring a gallon of milk to a rolling boil. Off the heat, add 1 cup of white vinegar or lemon juice or a combination. Let it stand for ten minutes or so to let the curds come together, then strain through several layers of cheesecloth, sqeeze dry, and then sandwich the cheesecloth parcel between a couple plates with heavy, and I mean HEAVY, weights on top. Given a couple hours, it should be firm enough to cut and fry as referenced above. Hope this helps!

Oh yeah - this one is really embarassing - the Anchor Inn at the cross of University and Georgia in Wheaton. This was my parent's default "fancy American" restaurant (meaning lobster newburg and clams casino on the menu) when we were kids. Money was rather tight, and this was a very rare treat.

Tuesday and Wednesday: Tuesday: The Great Indian Experiment My first foray into Indian cooking. Made the two most predictable things: vindaloo (with lamb) and saag paneer with some super-quick milk-and-lemon-juice paneer. They both turned out very well (well, delicious anyway), although I can see it taking me a very long time to properly understand the nuances of different spices singly and in combination. Also made some whole-wheat chapatis, which miraculously puffed up like hot-air balloons when held over a flame (they've cooled and deflated somewhat in the picture) A rather chilly, damp night here. Put to rest a daydream I've been having for ages - short ribs, fastidiously trimmed of fat but not silverskin, braised with the usual suspects in red wine and some stock I had knocking around. Spooned over mashed Yukon Golds seriously spiked with horseradish. A little tangle of greens with hazelnut oil. Glass of non-descript zinfandel. The paper. Aaaahh.

Yeah man, what's the deal with those? Someone told me once that they share a kitchen but that they're completely different restaurants.

If I get married someday, I am going to have my reception at the Tastee Diner, and not just any TD - the one in Laurel, with the extraordinarily unbelievably sketchy "TD Motel and Lounge" attached. The only thing we serve will be the extraordinarily unbelievably inexplicably delicious corned beef hash. CORNED BEEF HASH, people, crisp and oniony and lubricated with God-knows-what lipids from years of griddled food. If my groom-to-be has a problem with this arrangement, I will call off the wedding and just go to the Tastee Diner myself and eat a big plate of corned beef hash of my very own.

I love those Ollie's fries, too - especially dig the fennel seeds that bloom and soften a little in the oil and snap between your teeth. And believe it or not, the fettoush there is pretty good. Dunno about the downtown joint.

Goodness - puree soups, make pie dough, coleslaw, anything that requires shredded or grated anything, use when you need quite a lot of grated cheese, make pesto, chimichurri, homemade pasta... :jealous: :jealous: :jealous:

This thread got me all fired up about brasing some short ribs in red wine and maybe making some horseradish-spiked mashed potatoes and eating a big bowl of it curled up on my couch. I started making a grocery list. Looked outside - it looks pretty grey and dingy. Short ribs even more appealing. Then I checked weather.com, and daytime highs/overnight lows are 78 and 67 degrees, respectively

Wiggle the eggs. Do it. You know you want to.

Took a big bite of a lovely burger at a popular diner here in DC...and was rewarded with a mouthful of wax paper. They hadn't bothered to remove the stuff separating the frozen burger patties.

Ohhh man. I love fall foods - Short ribs (I have been dreaming about short ribs for weeks now) Beef stew over mashed potatoes Roast chicken and the next day's chicken pot pie Parsnips, potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, brussels sprouts, fennel, squash.... SAGE and lots of it, anywhere I can sneak it in. Risotto with roasted butternut squash and sage. Waking on a Saturday and stepping outside to find that your sunny shoulders are warm, but the inside of your nose tingles with chill-edged air that suddenly feels very thin...getting coffee and the paper coming back home to spend the day baking and stewing and braising and roasting.

Melonpan - I'm so glad you put up that great tutorial with such excellent pictures. My sister is a shik-hye fiend, but I vastly prefer sujongwa myself. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to delicately drink either one, and end up feeling sticky when I'm done.

The Great Gnocchi Experiment: Gnocchi two ways: on the left with browned butter and sage leaves, and on the right with a proper pork/veal/beef bolognese. It was my first attempt at homemade gnocchi - I think I used waxy potatoes without thinking, and ended up having to add waay too much flour to be able to handle the dough. Still, they were tolerably light and fairly delicious. Both sauces gently glossed over any imperfections in the pasta Just for me, eaten on the couch with a big tumbler of iced Lady Grey and the Sopranos.

This is the kind of thing I cook for myself when I am alone. Tastes good and minimal effort.

Ahh. I posted about this in the Hangover Breakfast thread:

Susan - seriously good looking plate of food, that. Were your timbales plain molded rice?

You should be very glad it's not the other way around