Anna N

So here we are in downtown Espanola. You can see the papermills in the distance. At least today it’s not stinky here. But we are off-island and that means we could get into all kinds of trouble.

Because the beer gets too watered down!

So I’m sitting here enjoying my breakfast and wondering what the beep is that seems to be coming from the kitchen. I know I turned everything off in there but it’s very persistent. Eventually I get up off my derrière to investigate. All appears well in the kitchen. There is nothing there that could be beeping. Perhaps I am hallucinating? Finally I clue in! The water level in the sous vide bath (in the hallway) has fallen below the required amount. The temperature has dropped only a couple of degrees as the circulator shut off. Added more water and we appear to be in business again. I should have fashioned some sort of lid I think to prevent so much evaporation!

Breakfast is served.

Until 5 PM this evening so give or take 20 hours.

Good morning. Another beautiful day on the waterfront. Currently 21° heading for a high of 26°. I suspect it will get higher than that. Yesterday, just when I thought I had finished for the day and was already in bed, I remembered that I needed to send the beef shank for a swim in the sous vide bath. I am anal about getting it to temperature before I introduce the meat. Apparently that is not the way everyone does it. And the wait for that water to reach 68.3°C almost did me in! Perhaps next time I will toss it in there and let it come to temperature along with the water. That makes me nervous. Kerry has rounds this morning but once that is over with she is off for the rest of the day. So far I have no plans. I am thinking about breakfast and it will probably be a poached egg on a slice of Kerry’s bread which I will toast in the CSO. I will wait until Kerry has left to do that as she is in the kitchen making treats at the moment.

Well Kerry made it home long enough to enjoy some of the chicken before it was cold. Didn’t last long though. She’s back at the hospital again. I am taking a well earned rest. At least I think I earned it. Going to kick back in my chair for the rest of the evening.

Jealous doesn’t even begin to describe how I am feeling.

Almost forgot to post my Negroni which Kerry poured for me even though she can’t drink tonight. Now that’s the measure of a true friend.

Dinner is served but Kerry is off practising her needlework skills on somebody’s anatomy.

Production almost came to a screaming halt when I discovered that there was not enough sugar to make my Asian pear pickles. But Kerry found time between seeing patients to run off to the grocery store and grab some sugar. The mise which I’m pretty sure you have seen before. Sugar is in the sauce pan and missing from the picture is the salt but I did remember it ultimately. These will now sit on the counter at room temperature for 24 hours before being put into the refrigerator to be enjoyed a few days from today. On the subject of checking if you have the ingredients before you start a recipe… Kerry is now back at the grocery store trying to acquire a bottle of roasted sesame oil for tonight’s dinner. It’s pretty hard to avoid it since the recipe is called Sesame roasted chicken or something very similar so the oil is integral to the flavour profile. In other words, it won’t taste good without it. (Might not taste good even with it. Never made it before.) Both sugar and sesame oil are such staples that it never occurred to me to check if they existed.

Breadcrumbs would then be all white rather than sprinkled with brown crust. It matters to some people. I also remove the crust if I’m using the crumbs to make a panade — that’s probably just me.

Smoked Benedictine blue with some of Kerry‘s lovely bread from this morning.

One Note.

It is absolutely my favourite pasta!

That is the one. I forewent the thyme since Kerry is not a big fan of that herb. (It’s my favourite.)

One important job that needed to be done today and which I had completely forgotten about was making chicken soup from the broth I made the other day. Being completely unfamiliar with anything but very ordinary green beans and haricot verts, I found myself texting Kerry and asking what those flat beans were that she had brought up from home and were they suitable for soup. Apparently they are aptly named “flat beans” and work fine in soup. The chicken Marylands have been dealt with. The thighs are back in the fridge waiting for dinner time. The drumsticks or vacuum packed and safely stashed in the freezer. There was just enough extra skin for this tiny wonderful little pan which Kerry came across here yesterday. Not only will we have a tiny bit of crispy chicken skin, we will also have the beginnings of a well seasoned cast-iron pan. Edited because I managed to muck it up. The beef shank vacuum packed and ready to go into the sous vide. I tried my best to show you how thick it was in the second photograph.

Looks and sounds marvelous. I’m drooling.

I think it depends very much on what you’re aiming for. If you’re aiming for rustic or it just doesn’t matter then leave the crusts on. If you’re aiming for something refined then take the crusts off.

Fuel for perhaps a too ambitious day! Kamatama Udon — basically Japanese “carbonara” at least according to some. Udon noodles tossed with a raw (farm fresh) egg, a little soy sauce, sliced scallions and for me, the icing on the noodles, a generous sprinkling of shichimi togarashi. Kerry is on call today so she will appear and disappear with some regularity. On my to do list: Vacuum pack the beef shank in preparation for a 20 hour swim in the sous vide bath. I am going to closely follow @rotuts‘ favourite Brazilians for this experiment. Turn the Asian pears into pickles. Prep the chicken Marylands. The thighs will become an Asian-inspired dish for tonight’s dinner which I am hoping will reheat nicely if necessary for Kerry. The drumsticks will be frozen for later consideration. That is at least a start!

Ah well. We’re of the “warts and all” persuasion. But we never allow lousy food to interfere with a good lunch. We still managed to find things that amused us. I particularly recall how long it took for our server to punch in our order on her iPad. Any other server worth her salt could’ve written it at least twice as fast on a pad of paper with a pencil stub. Ah progress .

I think Max said he tried the amber and found it “flat”. I think he went with the lager.

Mmmmmm. It’s what’s for dessert! One of @Alleguede‘s Kouign-amanns. Brought up here from her freezer by Kerry.

So good. Done with ginger, garlic and sake. But no matter how many you have there’s never enough!

Max is experimenting with a local craft beer in his sausage making (click).