Smithy

Oh, of course! We had it in abundance where I grew up too, though we never knew it was edible. I remember now that you have posted about pickling the buds as an alternative to capers.

I assumed they were bones, although I've never seen bones in cod filets before. These were very thick, though -- thicker than any I've purchased in a grocery store -- so probably cut from a very old fish as you surmise. Thanks for that insight!

Do you have any tips for (a) recognizing that the fish will be tough and (b) what to do with it? Grind it up and make fish balls? Chowder, as @heidih suggested is a good idea, I think.)

What kind of mallow, @heidih? Do you cook it? Eat it raw? Or simply enjoy the flowers?

It's become clear this trip that my darling really doesn't want fish unless it was flipped out of the water just a few hours ago, and I've struggled to find ways to use up the fish I packed along from our last Wild Alaskan shipment last fall. Surely, I thought, he'd like halibut and cod, even though he isn't crazy about salmon. There are some wonderful-looking recipes for fish in the Falastin book that use tahini sauce. I simply couldn't be motivated to mix the stuff in time to cook the already-thawed fish. Instead, I tried reproducing our "Roadway Inn Fish", named for the New Rodwan Hotel in Luxor (Egypt) that invented it. This is another one-off dish that we've made many times over the years and never gotten the same twice. The sauce is heavy on lemon and butter, has a touch of garlic and mustard, and delightful when done properly. Well. First off, we've never tried this recipe on such thick fish filets. I sliced the thickest in half to enable it to cook more easily, and gave the two thickest cuts a head start before adding the other two to the pan. I don't think it matters to the finished product that I tried a dusting of corn starch to assist in frying without spatter. We usually only brown the fish slightly, if at all; sometimes we cook it in the butter/lemon sauce without any preliminary browning. I won't try frying fish with a crust for this dish again; it didn't fit. Disappointment two: "Heavy" didn't begin to describe the lemon flavor! I know I was using Meyer lemon juice from the freezer, but I still used too much. Once it's in there it's difficult to cut down. Disappointment three: the Trader Joe's Aioli Garlic Mustard, a staple for this dish (though you'd never find it in Egypt) has been sitting, sealed, in the cupboard so long that it's lost its mellow amber color and gone dark brown. I don't think it affected the flavor, but the appearance was quite unappetizing. Actual disaster: the fish was TOUGH! How can fish be tough?? I've never had that happen. He was too disappointed by the sauce to detect the fish texture, but this is what makes me wonder whether the fish itself was partly to blame. I don't think it was overcooked, but later recooking didn't help. The best part about this dish was the wild rice pilaf from the freezer that I put it over. That's small consolation. The next consolation is that I'm done with the cod and halibut from that shipment. His "thumbs-up" was before he actually tasted the much-anticipated dish. He did, however, think the brussels sprouts were marvelous. Meanwhile, when it's been his turn to cook it's been hash on the campstove... ...or Superburgers on the campstove. Sometimes, simplicity is best. He certainly thinks so! (He wanted me to show the "money shot" to note the presence of chopped onions in our burger mix.) Edited to add, in case anyone's interested: here's a much earlier writeup on Roadway Inn Fish, complete with photo. We had no complaints about it being tough then, so this cod was a complicating factor.

Mother Nature flipped the switch during my absence, and we've shot from desert winter to late desert spring: winds have died, and this morning the air carried a "hot" smell that I associate with smog...something I rarely see or smell around here. As I write, a mockingbird is embroidering the silence of the nearby wash with his musical variety show, and I've heard a couple of mourning doves. Spring is here. You have to look and listen closely to see it, though: there's been so little rain in our pocket of the world that the usual flowers have been late to bloom and difficult to find. I saw the first prickly pear blossom just yesterday, and usually they come out in February. While I was in San Diego last week, my best friend threw a dinner party and served wonderful composed salads of lettuce leaves topped with shredded cabbage, shredded chicken, mandarin orange segments, chopped walnuts, and probably a few other things I've forgotten. It was an Asian-influenced salad so we made a miso vinaigrette based on a copycat recipe for Karen's Double Sesame dressing, something we both adored and could buy in grocery stores in the '70's. I wish I'd taken a photo of the salad plates, but we were a bit busy making THREE versions of the dressing: one for a guest who is gluten-intolerant, one who is allergic to garlic, and one for the rest of us. You can see the ingredients and the finished product in this collage: The miso paste provided me with a bit of irritation. I had bought it last month when I visited her, then squirreled it away somewhere. A pouch that size is very easy to squirrel away, and very difficult to find later! It took several trips through various hidey-holes in the Princessmobile before I found it. The toasted sesame oil was easier, since I'd just bought it during this last trip. We speculated that ginger would also be good in the dressing, but didn't put it in then. I forgot about it today when I mixed up the dressing, but it will be easy to add it. We both also thought it might make a good cole slaw dressing, and I tried that today for lunch. Not bad. The toasted sesame oil may be a bit heavy for simple cole slaw. I think I'll try it next on a more substantial salad. It'll keep in the refrigerator beautifully. Since I've been home I've also been exploring Falastin: a Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), thanks to @blue_dolphin's demonstrations of some of its dishes. It's an interesting, beautifully photographed and written book loaded with recipes I want to try. Trouble is, I've been suffering from low ambition when it actually came time to start cooking. Today I made their version of tahini sauce. It's good. I think tahini sauce is fairly bombproof, provided you start with good tahini, and the Holy Land brand I can buy in Minneapolis is wonderful stuff. Now I'll be able to put it over vegetables, or fish, or in breads: all things I aspire to before I have to return the book. I had a fish disaster a couple of nights ago, possibly due to the fish itself no longer being good, but perhaps also because I didn't have tahini sauce ready for use and did something else altogether. I'll tell about it in a separate post, lest this be too long.

I like that wine glass, sir!

The short answer is "no, they aren't a direct substitute." @heidih said it well: Meyers are less acidic and more floral in flavor than "regular" lemons. My sister and I loved them; my mother hated them as insipid. You'd never confuse a Meyer lemon curd tart with a "regular" (i.e. Lisbon or Eureka) lemon curd tart, but they're both good. I like Meyers for their milder taste in something like a sauce over fish, although last night's dinner proved that it could still be overdone. Incidentally, if you were to explore Middle Eastern cookery (well, maybe North African) you'd be well advised to use Meyer lemons because they're closer to the Daq lemons found in those areas. This information comes from Paula @Wolfert, who used to frequent these forums. It also matches my experience in Egypt.

The zest freezes beautifully in strips. Do be sure to leave the pith behind, but I think you already knew that. (I actually don't find lemon pith to be as bitter as orange pith, but I think I'm an outlier.) I just put the strips of zest, cut using a vegetable peeler, into a freezer bag, squeeze out the air, and freeze. I can't think of a reason that blending the bejeezus out of the flesh and juice (definitely minus the pith) and then straining it would be a problem, although it's an extra step you might not appreciate since you'll have to remove the pith first. I've always just squeezed the fruit, after collecting the zest if I was a mind to do so, but a blender should work too. Good idea to freeze the juice in ice cube trays. I keep saving it in 1-cup and 1-pint containers, then having trouble getting a small amount out later. Last night's fish with Meyer lemon juice was a case in point. That sauce had pucker power!

The roasted basa fish looks delicious. Please elaborate on the cold fish skin salad. I had to read that twice to be sure of what I was reading!

I love the flavor of tamarind, but found dealing with those pods to be a great deal of trouble. Maybe I didn't have truly fresh pods, or maybe my technique was poor. How do you use / work with them?

Those look delicious! Is this the recipe you used?

I have one like that with a wooden handle. It's been in the family as long as I can remember, and I use it regularly. It isn't good at opening bottles, though: anything as small as a pop bottle will need another tool. It looks as though your longer implement would work for those. I've never seen one of that design.

@Shelby: me three on the nopales. I confess: I bought a package of frozen chopped nopales (ready to cook!) once. A few years ago. I think they're still in the freezer.

Beautiful photos, as always! I liked the comment in the menu above: "Loved your meal? Buy the kitchen a 6-pack for $20" -- that's an innovative way to tip. 🙂

😉 I'm certainly not done with shrimp, or deep frying, but it's likely to wait for a week or so. I'm leaving him to his own devices, starting next Sunday, and returning the following Wednesday. As preparation we're emptying out the strays from the refrigerator and, I suspect, will be making loads of pre-planned meals for him before I go. Bring on the ideas, please! I flinched at the idea of frying inside the Princessmobile, but it actually wasn't bad last time around.

I think my mother may have tried the "beans and franks" thing once, but certainly never the brown bread steamed in a can. I say she may have tried it "once" because I know it wouldn't have gone over well. To this day I loathe sweet bean dishes such as those canned things, and my sister detests cooked beans of any type except green beans. However, my husband loves 'em and has taken to buying "barbecue beans" and eating them with sausages of his choice.

I think another name for what @rotuts is asking about is "peasant food" in various regions: inexpensive, nutritious, filling, not particularly fancy. My husband's version of that is probably split pea stew, with chunks of ham and, if I have my way, chunks of potato also. I'm drawing a blank on what my family might have had in that category, but I discovered a favorite in Egypt: khoshary. The Wikipedia link has some pictures. Here's what I wrote about it in (good grief, so long ago?) 2005: We've made it here in the States a few times, but it's a pain because so many ingredients must be cooked separately before mixing them all together and it necessarily makes large quantities. It's much better for cooking for a crowd. I've never quite gotten the lemon / garlic sauce or the red sauce right, although I might do better at it now. Hmm. The more I think of it, the more I might be willing to try it again. It IS nutritious, cheap, filling, and good.

I guess I haven't made the big time with Google yet! 😄 You'd only find it described in this topic, because it's a dish I invented while we were camped on the Bolivar Peninsula on the Texas Gulf Coast. Unfortunately, it's one of those one-off-things that I've never been able to reproduce, but the different versions have been good anyway. Here is one of my earliest descriptions of it in this post: This post has a picture.

Today's dinner: a salad made of vegetables that needed to escape the refrigerator (the last of the cabbage and green onions; much of the washed lettuce hanging out; leftovers from last night) plus fresh and chopped tomatoes. Last night's shrimp were reheated. Our usual salad dressings were added. Much to my surprise, he liked the "Bang-bang sauce" from last night's dinner. The real issue from last night's dinner disappointment seems to have been that that last night's fried shrimp didn't meet his expectations; everything else seems to have been good. "Don't get rid of that (bang-bang) sauce!" he said. 🤷‍♀️ The few leftovers, after tonight's dinner, are tucked away in separate containers. For myself, I'm delighting in the marriage of my usual lemon vinaigrette salad dressing with this bang-bang sauce. Here's my dinner: Man, that bangs. Delightfully!

A quick look at the weather maps shows that we aren't the only ones in wild weather right now. The current situation explains all the wind that's been rocking the trailer all night... ...but we really don't have much room to complain, given the rain and snow predicted to fall elsewhere... Still, it's interesting to be able to look directly at the sun even after it's cleared the horizon. Shortly after this sequence, the mountains disappeared completely. We have the Princessmobile closed up to keep as much dust out as possible. All the other nearby campers are tucked up against a tree screen, as we are. The forecast nearby is for 65 mph winds! Last night I tried a new-to-us recipe. Something like this has been discussed somewhere on eGullet, but what caught my eye was a recipe from SimplyRecipes that came in my email: Bang-Bang Shrimp Tacos. I found the title irresistible, and made sure to get peeled, deveined shrimp when I was at the right store for it. The instructions in the recipe I linked to are clearly written, and that's useful for a fryophobe like me. They detail the frying station setup and the frying process: Soak the shrimp in buttermilk for at least 20 minutes, then dredge in a mixture of flour, corn starch, salt and pepper, then allow them to dry on a rack while the oil is heating. Have another tray set up with paper towels to drain the shrimp. Keep the oil at 350F (I settled for 180C) and do the shrimp in batches. Keep the fried shrimp in a warm oven until everything's ready. In the meantime, warm some tortillas, and thinly slice vegetables for garnish / additions to the tacos. I sliced cabbage, radishes, jalapenos, green onions, cilantro. One could use other things too. The Bang-Bang sauce is a mix of mayonnaise, garlic-chili sauce, sriracha (optional, and I left it out). I didn't have the specified garlic-chili sauce, but I substituted this Trader Joe's product. The mixture was very stiff, so I thinned it a bit with water until it seemed right. It was quite a production in the Princessmobile. I've said before that I detest frying inside, but the outside campstove would have gone flying into the next county in this wind. I didn't want to wait for good weather (days away) and my darling has never met a fried shrimp he didn't like. He was impressed and happy that I planned to fry those shrimp! Never let it be said I'm not a good sport. I didn't bother photographing the wreckage clutter in the kitchen. Here's the dinner table, and a couple of taco shots. He didn't like it!!! The first issue was that the tortillas were tough. (True.) So on his second round he made it more of a salad. Nope. Still didn't like it. Didn't like the breading. I realized this morning that I was supposed to toss the shrimp in the sauce to coat them -- think of a shrimpy version of Buffalo Wings -- rather than serving it atop the shrimp. I don't think that would have helped for him. The breading was "different". Yes, it was: crisper and crunchier than anything I've ever managed. He can't explain what he thought was missing. (In fairness to him, let me note that he almost never says "I don't like it" for fear of hurting my feelings. At least not until the next morning. He takes a more roundabout route, like suggesting that there are too many leftovers, or oven-baked prebreaded shrimp would have been easier. But I got the rest of the opinion out of him this morning.) So, scratch that recipe. I learned some valuable technique and will thoroughly enjoy polishing off the leftovers! But I'm more than happy to go back to, oh, shrimp scampi or shrimp Bolivar or skewered and grilled shrimp or....anything less messy than last night's dinner!

Brilliant, @Shelby! I especially love the Mardi Gras coloring on the cinnamon rolls. And reading this, the day after Fat Tuesday, I realize that I have a jar of olive salad and could easily have made muffaletta. Didn't think of it yesterday. Oh, well!

This is the first time I've ever thought of a Dutch Baby as an appealing pastry. Nicely done!

I was interested to know that he started out with a chemistry degree! I think I've corrected the links. If not, someone can let me know and I'll try again.

This man was my introduction to Indian cookery, and he was utterly charming on The Splendid Table and in his cookbooks. This article in the New York Times says he's in the final stages of colorectal cancer, but making the most of what time he has remaining. The article should be unlocked for anyone to read it. The title is He Taught Americans to Cook Indian Food. Now He's on His Final Chapter, in case someone needs to look it up otherwise.