Lonnj

Thanks for all the kind words about my dumplings, folks - you've convinced me to stick around. Tonight, Carnitas! Yesterday the butcher had nice looking pork shoulders there for super cheap. I can't resist the opportunity to cut up a 7 pound piece of pig (especially at a less than a buck and a half a pound), so I had to buy it. Cut up (my favorite part) and browned. Into the dutch oven it went, with the liquid from deglazing skillet I browned it in along with some (whole) coriander, cumin, bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves, garlic cloves and chili flakes, and then into the 300° oven for two and a half hours. It ended up having a little too much liquid (I like it to have a little structural integrity left), so I cooked it down on the stove top uncovered for about 20 minutes. Then I took out the meat, removed the bigger chunks of fat (my dog LOVES those) and strained the liquid/fat that was left. Dumped the strained juice back into the pot to cook out most of the rest of the liquid and then crisped/glazed the meat with the remaining fat and small amount of liquid left. This was the result: A plate of carnitas with cilantro, lime and fleur de sel. Who needs tortillas??

I LOVE these little buggers. Blanching, roasting, etc. all produce good results, but I'm too impatient and lazy. Here's what I do: clean and slice them into 1/4" slices. Sautée in butter (lots and lots) over medium high to high heat until they just start to get a little brown on them. Usually I just leave it at that, but for Thanksgiving this year, I fancied them up a bit. First sautéed some hedgehog mushrooms that I found in the woods (chanterelles, criminis or even regular white button mushrooms would also work) and reserved them. Then into the pan went a lot of butter (for four cups-ish of unsliced sprouts) I used almost a stick of butter. Let the butter melt, and get good and hot (but not burning). This is in a cast iron skillet by the way. Then I dumped in the sprouts and sautéed them as above, until they picked up a good amount of color. Into the serving bowl & mixed with the hedgehogs. Then, and here's the key, I added about two tablespoons of white truffle oil. I have family who won't eat salad because it's green. They usually wouldn't go into the same room as a vegetable. My cousin who, as a child, was "allergic" to green food, took home the leftovers.

So I've been lurking in the dinner thread for a long time, and finally have some pictures I'm proud enough of to post. Last night I used up some of the Thanksgiving leftovers by making Turkey Tetrazzini (yet managed to produce even more leftovers). Tonight, inspired by a trip to the local asian grocery store (Uwajimaya, for you northwesterners), I made potstickers (first time for me!) and Tom Kha (Thai lemongrass and coconut soup). It was all really good, but I screwed up and left the lemongrass out of the soup (facepalm). I made it better with some lemon zest and lime juice, but it just wasn't as good as it should have been. Potstickers Step One. Turn this: into this: Step Two. Mix w/egg, Worcestershire, sesame oil, salt, pepper, egg, etc. Step Three. Make Dumplings Step Four. Make dipping sauce. I should have done this hours earlier to let everything mellow out and blend. It's chili flakes, fresh ginger, garlic, scallions, soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar and sesame oil. Step Five. Steam-Fry. Step Six. Gorge Self. And a few of the Tom Kha. Note the absence of lemongrass. I used monkfish as the meat and the fish was incredible.

There's a restaurant here in Portland (Cafe Mingo) that makes grilled skewers of prawns and bread seasoned with red chili, fennel seed and olive oil (salt and pepper too). I've made it but didn't pay attention to the proportions, I just threw everything (not the olive oil) into my mortar and pestle, crushed it up and sprinkled it on the skewers (of alternating shrimp and good sourdough bread), drizzled on the oil and grilled it until the shrimps were just cooked. Lonn (Edited to prevent my high school english teacher from hunting me down and killing me.)

I don't want to sound like everyone else, but this blog is great! I would have killed for this in college. When I was in college (finished last year), I lived in my Fraternity House for two years. The greek houses at my school had kitchens for student use, but everyone had to buy a University Meal Plan and eat with everyone else at the Student Union (which was very decent for institutional food, but got really old after three years-I moved off campus for my senior year). My dorm also had a kitchen. The sororities did use their kitchens, but usually it was small groups of girls. Our kitchen barely got used, except for the brewery that my friend and I operated out of the kitchen and storage closet in the basement. We usually had 10 gallons going at a time, and 10 in kegs (5 gallon soda kegs). We made all-grain beers, and they were really good. Good enough that we bought locks for the keg taps since people would try to break into our rooms and get free beer (as we each had a kegerator in our room). Great fun. People did bitch about the hop smell when we were brewing, but I thought it covered the stale beer (among other things) eau-de-frat nicely.

...and some Funions, man. (If that makes no sense, go see Half Baked)

I graduated from the University of Puget Sound last year so here is 4 years worth of places: I'd second the rec's for 6 Olives, Greek to Me, Southern Kitchen, Silk Thai (on 6th Ave). For Mexican, Tacos Guyamas on 38th is GREAT (pass on the burritos and get tacos). Katie Downs on Ruston Way on the waterfront has the best pizza in town. Lonn

I have a Whustof Classic serrated knife, and it works wonderfully, but is not this particular one. Kind of expensive though. Lonn

It is expensive and hard to get if you're not a doctor, but they make this stuff called Gel-Foam. Its a gelatin sponge and sticks to blood (ie wound) like superglue and nearly instantly stops any bleeding. They used it on my finger after I sliced the top off a couple months ago. This stuff sticks until new skin has formed underneath and then flakes off. Slick. I managed to find a site in the UK that sold this stuff after some googling. Lonn

I'll second the recs for Lauro, but would add Wildwood to the list as well, if you don't mind a wait, Cafe Mingo (the one in northwest not beaverton) is also great. Lonn

Try to chop herbs while also watching tv and carrying on a conversation. This led to a trip to the emergency room and showering with a bag on my hand for two weeks. Funny moment though. While I was in the elevator on my way out of the building, I had my hand in a kitchen towel, resting on my head (trying to keep it elevated). A guy gets into the elevator, asks me what I did to my head. Not thinking clearly, I hear "what did you do to your hand?" thus my response, "I cut the top off." He freaked out. Lonn