fimbul

Saturday night I cooked fajitas for my family: flank steak marinated in orange-ancho puree and grilled, rajas poblanos, salsas, cebollitas, guacamole, etc. Nothing fancy. Monday night I cooked chicken with preserved lemon and olives. I have no idea how it's done traditionally, so I made it up. I browned chicken thighs in a skillet, then moved them to a plate, and caramelized onions in the same pan (deglazing once with a little liquid from my jar of preserved lemons and once with half a ladle of chicken stock to even the caramelization). When the onions were good and brown, I added 4 chopped garlic cloves and a large pinch of raz-al-hanout. Then I turned the heat to low, returned the chicken to the pan, and added another half ladle of stock. I then threw in the diced peel of half a preserved lemon, and covered the pan. After the chicken had simmered a bit, I pre-heated my broiler. Once the broiler came up to heat, I removed the lid from the pan and added a handful of pitted green olives and the peel of yet another quarter of preserved lemon, then broiled the whole thing quickly to get a little color. Topped with chopped cilantro and parsley and served. I was very pleased. Served this with asparagus cooked with pan roasted cherry tomatoes and a mint and romaine salad with an orange-yogurt vinaigrette. Should have served iced tea to drink, but drank crappy beer instead. O well.

Archaic British systems do seem to be the most arbitary, and often the most fun. It's only tangentially related to food ( I hope), but, I remember reading once, while I was studying Maxwell equations in physics, Maxwell's note on [something or another, the memory of which has long since been washed away by beer] in which he explained that the amount of electicity he'd used was enough "to cook a cat."

Cooked dinner last night for my sister, who was visiting from out of town. This turned out to be quite the feat since I managed to begin yesterday by accidentally ingesting a sleeping-pill that knocked me flat on my ass (note: must separate bottles ): Veal chops with pan jus and lemony salsa Quartered white mushrooms cooked slowly in a covered pan with chopped, rehydrated mushrooms and ancho paste and garlic Swiss chard sauteed with garlic and shallots Salad of romaine leaves with red bell pepper-cucumber vinaigrette.

(feigning shock) You mean the labels are in ENGLISH? O, not all of them! There's still lots of stuff in kanji, more in what might be Sanskrit, a few in what appears to be ancient Egyptian, and a great number in Engrish. Don't let me scare you away; in most of the store you'll be just as bewildered as always.

You think he's trying to keep it on the QT?

Because you have such frighteningly developed ABs.

I'd thought of that, but, in practice, calling any sauce a "salsa" might confuse the issue. I'd hesitate, for instance, to serve chutney with an Indian meal and call it salsa. Of course, I've found various definitions for both "salsa" and "chutney" that begin more or less, "a relish often comprised of...."

The Super H Mart in Fairfax, VA is indeed larger than the Hanh Ah Reum near me, though it sounds as though our Hanh Ah Reum is relatively small. (Which I'd not have believed. ) The primary difference between the two stores, however, is that Super H Mart tries much harder to be an all around, run-of-the-mill supermarket. Asian foods alternate aisles with tons of more or less standard mid-Atlantic grocery store fare; i.e, breakfast cereals, pop tarts, supermarket cheeses, yogurt, coffee, trash bags, plastic wrap and the like. At the nearby Hanh Ah Reum, there's very little of that sort of thing.

What is the difference, if any, between salsa, chutney, relish and the like? Is it ingredients? preparation? context? I was thinking about this the other night, when I prepared (what I called) a salsa of chopped orange, capers, shallot, parsley, and red wine vinegar that caused my father to ask why my concoction was a "salsa" rather than, say, a chutney. My short answer was that I was the cook and I could call the concoction "Whale Snot" if I wanted to, but the question got me thinking, and I tried to give my dad a better answer without much success. In today's world, where ingredients and preparations are less and less bound to one tradition or another, is there a difference?

Last night's dinner was an attempt to thin out the contents of an overflowing fridge. What I had thought was going to be a night of cooking drudgery, however, turned out to be fairly inspired (at least for a weeknight whomp). It was pretty good. Chicken legs cooked in a cast-iron grill pan, and served with lemongrass salsa (tomato, lemongrass, cilantro, shallot, jalapeno, fish sauce, and a touch of rice wine vinegar). Green beans parboiled in rice wine and chicken stock, then sauteed quickly in sesame oil and tossed with black sesame seeds, diced red pepper, diced jalapeno, thinly-sliced scallions, and shoyu. Salad of whatever leaves were in my fridge (spinach, red leaf lettuce, radicchio, watercress, other stuff?), diced cucumber, and a rind of goat gouda waved quickly over a microplane, with a sherry vinaigrette. Served with a white Rioja that had been contributing to the clutter in my refrigerator.

I bought a black chicken a few months ago, and decided I'd buck tradition and just spatchcock and roast the thing. Don't do that. If the chicken I had was a good example of the breed, they're fairly scrawny little things, and kind of tough and dry to boot. I think soup is definitely the way to go. I must confess, I was a little put off by the bird I cooked. My brain just isn't wired to accept glistening black fat, grey meat, and dark blue bones. I felt like I was eating muppet. The strange (to me) color was what drew me in and caused me to buy the bird, but in the end the color was much more unappetising than entertaining. edit: to say I don't mean for my comments to put you off your own meal. I was just sayin', as they say.

Dinner Saturday was a fancypants affair for friends whom we owed a favor. We started the night with hors d'oeuvres (roasted, salted pepitas with chipotle, salsa, chips, sausage-poblano canapes, and guacamole) and cocktails (tequila shots with sangrita chasers, both served in lime halves -- idea taken from last month's Bon Appetit-- then tequila cosmopolitans) then moved on to: squabs that had been marinated in orange juice spiked with a touch of achiote paste and grilled served over watercress tossed with orange and grapefruit juice grilled asparagus quinoa pilaf with scallions, green garlic, a handful of pepitas, and a white wine vinaigrette and a salad my girlfriend composed of spinach leaves, red onion, and avocado with a papaya vinaigrette that was very good, though the details of its composition elude me. (I blame the tequila. For everything.) We finished up with a chocolate torte with candied orange peel and toasted almonds. Sunday night I cooked dinner for my mother. It was little more low key: seared veal chops with a salsa of chopped orange, shallot, capers, and parsley (and tarted up with a touch of red wine vinegar) manchego-chipotle grits cooked in cream sauteed asparagus and a salad of watercress and red leaf lettuce topped with shaved parmesan and date slivers with roasted hazelnuts and a sherry-lemon vinaigrette.

I recently used grits (along with some manchego cheese) to stuff jalapenos which I then dipped in flour, then egg, and fried. It was a fun experiment. Grits are fun. This sounds damn good. You had me with the Manchego, corn and jalapeno combo. Totally ballsy trio for kicked up bar food. Nice. Thank you! I'm flattered. I need to try it again with more manchego. The one flaw in my scheme was that I underestimated the amount of cheese I'd want.

I recently used grits (along with some manchego cheese) to stuff jalapenos which I then dipped in flour, then egg, and fried. It was a fun experiment. Grits are fun.

This... I... You.... I do not know whether to high-five you, or to add you to The List so I can deal with you more appropriately when I rule the world.

I know *I've* made fancypants triangles from grits before, and I'm sure I must've stolen the idea from somewhere. Seriously, though, I know a lot of folks fry their leftover grits, and I've seen a few examples of grits squares, diamonds, and triangles a la polenta. It's done, though because it's usually polenta you find in more "serious" restaurants, it's usually polenta you find all gussied up as hearts, clovers, and horseshoes. All righty, I'm wishing right now as I type. But if I'm not independently wealthy by the end of the week, I'm going to be so disappointed.

I'm with Fatguy on this. I grew up eating grits, and my thought when I had polenta was, "Hey! These are like grits!" That said, I didn't think they were identical to grits, just similar. I still feel that way. If you asked me why, I think I'd tell you polenta is a different type or grind of cornmeal than grits are, but I'd be hard-pressed to go into more detail than that. I could tell you, though, that, in my mind's eye, polenta is usually yellow and grits are normally white (till you add cheese, anyway) and that polenta always seems to be made of discrete grains no matter how creamy it is, while grits are more often a less distinct mass of smooshed grains. edit: rearranging words to better represent thoughts

Last night was Cornish game hens, semi-boned and rubbed with blood orange juice, habaneros, and achiote paste and left to sit overnight and think about what it had done. Seared in a cast-iron pan and finished in the oven. (Eh.) Green beans quickly steamed and tossed with a diced serrano and some pepitas I'd sauteed together in olive oil. (Eh.) Salad of arugula, green garlic, and cucumber, with a lemon-yogurt vinaigrette (Pretty good.) Pretty colors though.

Indeed. At the Del Ray market I'm finding little but asparagus, arugula, spring onions, and a vendor who sells fabulous mushrooms for barely more than my week's worth of lunch money. It's worth it though; the Black Trumpets I bought there were divine and I'd trade my soul for more morels like I had the other week. Last night was my SO's turn to cook: Ancho- and Chipotle-rubbed pork tenderloin Shiitakes tossed with ...fish sauce? sauteed in chile oil Zucchini and yellow squash simmered in citrus juices and a touch of chicken stock. Served with iced tea and a single bottle of wheat beer. I too am trying to lose weight.

Saturday night was: mint juleps to start seared lamb chops atop baby greens (including green garlic shoots and fresh spring onions from the farmers market) Oven fried potatoes tossed with rosemary oil Sauteed asparagus Sunday night: I roasted chicken leg quarters and served them with a (tart) blackberry reduction over ginger-citrus rice. More asparagus (it's what our Farmers' Market has in abundance at the moment) Arugula salad with more garlic shoots and a lemon vinaigrette

Yah. I was unconsciously lumping tamarind in with lemons and limes (and, I'd say, oranges). It's not a citrus, I don't believe, but tamarind has the acidity to make it a good match with savory foods. Acidity makes a huge difference it seems to me. I once made a blackberry-orange-red wine vinegar reduction type thing to go on squab, and it went well, though normally I shy away from anything containing blackberries that isn't a cobbler or a sorbet. I am, now that I think on it, not so much a purist as I thought I was. O well.

I've been reading this thread and pondering the few instances of fruit-on-meat action that have really appealed to me. There aren't many, but I keep coming back to tacos al pastor, which I've often had in the guise of pork and pineapple together in a tortilla. Tacos al pastor are shockingly unsucky, despite my aversion to meat'nfruit. Really, they're damned good. On the other hand, I regard with suspicion and distrust the idea of paring sausages and grapes.

Every time someone mentions recipes obtained from boxes etc., I remember this one gawdawful recipe I found on the side of a bottle of malt vinegar. Without going into details (which I don't really recall), the recipe was for a concoction made of malt vinegar, (canned?) peaches, and chicken breasts. It made me wonder what sort of people they have testing and concoting these recipes.

And I do exactly as the shampoo bottle tells me, but I don't repeat.

I still faithfully follow the tollhouse cookie recipe (excepting of course, the times I don't). That originally came from the back of a package, I believe.