eG FoodBlog: Jensen

[Jensen]

I'm wishing I had coloured plates though. Wouldn't that look so much nicer on something other than white?

Perhaps it would but did you notice how many of my plates were white? (that woudl be all of them)

Oh, that's too funny ... without looking, I was sure that you'd had wonderful, coloured dinnerware in your blog!

My dinnerware is cheap old Corningware. The bowls that come with the set are shaped like rice bowls so, the last time I was at IKEA, I bought some even cheaper but shallower white bowls for 50 cents each.

I love a good bargoon!

[Jensen]

Tonight, dinner will be a little later than usual, as the Spawn has her aikido lessons until 7:30. (Wednesdays are like this too.)

Because I also want to go grocery shopping tonight, I prepared that old family stand-by ... spaghetti! Actually, it's tagliatelle with sauce Bolognese but the Spawn still calls it spaghetti

Here's the sauce:

and the pasta:

It will be served with a simple salad of baby spinach, bacon bits (using some yummy smoked bacon from Ronnie Suburban!), and a vinaigrette.

More pictures later ...

[Jensen]

It's later ...

One of these days, I will learn not to put so much food on my plate. I could only eat half of that serving!

And here's the salad:

[Ling]

You could only eat half that plate? The first thing I thought when I saw the spaghetti was, "What a small serving!"

[phaelon56]

Is that fresh pasta as it appears to be.... and if so, do you have a good local cource for it or do you buy it?

[Jensen]

Is that fresh pasta as it appears to be.... and if so, do you have a good local cource for it or do you buy it?

Yes, that's fresh pasta...I made it yesterday afternoon, tossed it with some semolina flour, and just let it sit on the counter until it was time to cook.

I used a different recipe yesterday for the first time--the one from Moby Pomerance's eGCI course. The pasta was much easier to work with than it has been in the past. I liked it!

The only downside of the meal was that I tried to anticipate the return of the Spawn and put the pasta on to cook too early. Little did I know that Wayde was going to socialise with Sensei for a while! (It got a little overcooked.)

I'm looking forward to trying the pasta recipe again when I don't screw it up

[Jensen]

Breakfast was more than just coffee this morning ... yep, that's right, I had granola and yogurt (and a big latte that Wayde brought home for me after dropping the Spawn off at school). No picture because there is just no way I could make it look interesting (and besides which, now you'll all be wondering whether I tried that strata thing and failed!).

This morning, I'm off to my yoga practice. I started practising yoga about a month ago after spraining my back in January at a dog race. I waited until my back was strong enough to handle activity before starting and, after two lessons, I haven't had any more back pain.

Anyway, back to food ... recently, I read that yoga can change your life, including how you eat. I immediately pooh-poohed that thought but it keeps popping up in my brain, especially after I've been to practice (I go two or three times a week for 90 minutes at a time). When I leave the dojo and start thinking about what I'm going to eat for lunch, all I ever want to eat are salads. Big, crunchy, romaine lettuce salads. I've also noticed that on the days that I practice, I think more often about eating fish.

Unfortunately, I don't act on that fish impulse because the Spawn will only eat "fish and chips" (which are not readily available in any recognisable form in Sacramento). So, I fulfill my fish impulse by going for sushi, where Kathleen has invented her own "sushi" rolls -- ones not involving fish products or seaweed.

At any rate, I thought that whole yoga-food connection was interesting.

[Jinmyo]

invented her own "sushi" rolls -- ones not involving fish products or seaweed.

Whaaaa?

[Jinmyo]

Okay. I can think of tamago on gohan tied wih a blanched scallion instead of nori.

But what else?

[balex]

shinko I guess, shiso leaf + ume, err ... you already said egg, avocado, and I guess you could do inside out rolls, but the wrapper is a problem.

[Jensen]

Ahhh, but the Spawn is very creative. Xian (sushi guy) has soy wrappers. So, Kathleen thought up a roll that uses those, is filled with cucumber and tempura zucchini, and has avocado on top. Wayde, who will eat fish but only if it is cooked but who also dislikes nori, has a roll made with the soy wrapper and filled with Korean-style barbecued albacore and crab. No avocado for him as he doesn't like it.

Xian also does rolls using cucumber as the wrapper. I think Kathleen has had one of her own concoction using that.

[balex]

When you say "soy wrappers" is that "fu"? I have never had that in sushi, but it sounds good.

[Cynthia G]

There are some obligations that go along with this trip that you should know about before you volunteer to take my place.

......

Obviously, the "go fuck yourself" benefits* of turning 40 have yet to take effect for me.

Well Jen, being over 40 myself, I know exactly what your friend means. I'd simply tell your sisters GFY about the bed situation and the pedicure thing. Only certain "significant" persons in my life get to touch my feet!

Back to food.... this is interesting.... are they playing any subtle healthy-eating-brainwashing-underneath-the-music in the background at yoga or is it in silence?

My daily dishes are a mixed set of cobalt blue, light yellow, and white with cobalt blue and yellow flowers around the edges, all in the same shape by the same manufacturer so they mix and match really nicely. But for things like your "spaghetti" I think the white plates are really very visually lovely!

[bergerka]

I'm with your Kathleen on the sushi thing, I think it's icky. Cucumber wraps sound delicious though--about half my problem with sushi is the seaweed wrap *gag*.

LOVING the blog.

K

[Jensen]

When you say "soy wrappers" is that "fu"?  I have never had that in sushi, but it sounds good.

I don't know what it's called in non-English. Sometimes it is green and sometimes it is pink; Xian says that the pink sheets are higher quality.

Now I wish I'd taken my camera to lunch with me ...

Wayde was working from home this morning (beaucoup de con-calls) and so, when I got home from yoga, he took me for lunch. Of course, we went for sushi

He had his regular Korean-style barbecued albacore and crab on soy wrapper. I had himachi and sake (and then Xian gave me a couple of freebies ... one tuna (not toro but the cheaper one) and one hirame). Another side effect of the yoga ... I am losing my taste for the rolls. When I want sushi, I want it to be very simple and I want to taste the fish.

Right now, my favourite is himachi. There is something so wonderful in its buttery smoothness and yet it is so very simple in flavour. Whenever I eat it, I get this amazing sensation along the sides of my tongue.

Another one that gives me the same sensation is uni.

Hmmmm. I wonder if that's where the fat receptors are...

Wayde has thrown another spanner into my plans for the week's dining by inviting friends to go out for dinner on Thursday night. We'd talked to these particular friends about Xian's before and so Wayde said we'd be going there. This is actually just fine with me (although now I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't take a page out of Linda Evangelista's book and cut back on my fish intake). I'll try to remember to take the camera so that I can take pictures of the soy wrapper-wrapped rolls.

Cynthia--the music played during yoga is eastern-style music. It's funny that I ended up at a more "spiritual" yoga place. I was looking just to strengthen my core muscles so that I wouldn't have ongoing problems with my back. This place offered both aikido for the Spawn and yoga for me so we signed up. Now, I'm really starting to appreciate the meditative aspects of the practice as well.

Oh, I've also found that, since starting yoga, I've been losing my taste for beer. Considering that one of my personal goals since retiring here was to become a functional alcoholic, this is somewhat disturbing to me.

Back to cooking ...

On the way home from yoga this morning, I walked to Los Hermanos Lopez Carneceria y Taqueria to buy some banana leaves. This is all part of my plan for tomorrow night's dinner. While I was on a road trip last October, I happened to be in a small Mexican corner store in Wendover, UT and saw an interesting spice packet called achiote rojo. Of course, I had to buy it.

Normally, I wouldn't take a picture of something so ordinary but I wanted to show off my cutting board. Isn't it nice? My neighbour, Bob (of "Bob and Marge" from this Sunday's events), made it for me.

I thinned the spice packet with the juice of that lemon in the picture and then spread it on some pork:

Then I vacuum-sealed it and popped it in the fridge to marinate it overnight. Tomorrow, I will wrap it in the banana leaves and cook it for a looooonnggg time.

I haven't decided yet whether to serve it as part of a tostada or as a taco filling. I'd be happy either way.

Which brings to mind a little tidbit about being a Canadian living in California...

Even though there is almost no decent authentic Chinese food to be found in Sacramento, I love the Mexican food here. There is nothing like it at home, especially carnitas.

And we all know carnitas is just a fancy word for barbecue, something else that is woefully lacking from the Canadian palate.

As for dinner tonight, I am making pork chops. It's at this point in my blog that I bare one of my deepest, most defended secrets ... I cannot fry.

For this obvious lack of character, I blame my mother. We simply did not eat fried food when I was growing up (with the exception of the occasional treat of bread fried in bacon fat). Food was baked or roasted or stewed but it was not fried.

And so, I never learned how to make pork chops. If I baked them, they were overcooked (and I mean waaaay overcooked) and if I tried frying them, they were undercooked. Imagine, if you will, a life without pork chops. That was my existence.

Recently however, through something I read here on eGullet, I was inspired to try pork chops once again. Not just any pork chops either ... those big thick ones that are particularly intimidating. And I was successful!

I brine the pork chops for several hours. When I'm ready to cook them, I put my Calphalon grill pan in the oven and pre-heat it to 400. When the oven is hot, I put the pork chops on the pan and then bake them on it for about 25 minutes. Flip them over and let them go for another 25 minutes or so.

Heaven!!!

(Edited to correct embarrassing homophonic confusion.)

Edited March 30, 2004 by Jensen (log)

[Jensen]

<HOMER SIMPSON>Mmmmmmm. Pork chops.</HOMER>

Served with steamed spinach and "baggies and tatties", mashed and then fried. (Okay, maybe we had fried potatoes when I was a kid too...)

If anyone is interested, here's how I made the brine for the pork chops:

* 2/3 cup kosher salt

* 1/3 cup sugar of some sort (in this case, turbinado but I've also used brown sugar and golden syrup)

* 6 cups water

* 2 cloves garlic, crushed

* some peppercorns

The reason I use 2/3 cup is because that's the size of measuring cup I have. I asked for kitchen stuff for Christmas this past year and the Spawn obliged by getting me some beautiful brushed stainless measuring cups from William-Sonoma. What she didn't notice was that it was a set of "odd" measures. So, I've got a 2/3 cup measure and a 1-1/3 cup measure and a 1-1/2 cup measure but no 1/2 cup or 1 cup.

They're just too pretty not to use though so I've made up recipes around them.

I know I had spinach salad last night but sometimes I just don't think these things through. I like to serve "greens" with the pork chops and have been buying a fair amount of chard of late. But, the last time I bought it, Kathleen was almost sobbing at the table ... "Please don't ask me to eat that!"

So I bought spinach instead. Heheheheheh. Never let it be said that I don't have a sense of humour when it comes to tormenting my child.

The root vegetable melange was an aborted effort at duplicating a recipe from the February issue of Olive.

The recipe was for "Swede and Bacon Cakes with Dill Sauce". I'm not entirely sure what a swede is ... either a turnip or a rutabaga. I didn't really care though, as I thought rutabaga ("baggies", as my Papa used to call them) would do nicely. I cooked and mashed two baggies and two potatoes.

The recipe calls for the addition of carmelised onions and bacon bits. I went with the onions but decided against the bacon. Then, you're supposed to form them into cakes, refrigerate for an hour, and then fry them.

That just sounded like entirely too much effort to me so I threw the pot of mashed into the fridge and, when the time came to cook it, just made one big cake in the frying pan.

Hey! It worked ...

[Cynthia G]

Dinner sounds and looks great, Jen. I'm so glad you're past your pork chop deprived days..... I cannot even imagine a life like that.

I can't wait to see what you do with that marinating pork for tomorrow!!

[Jensen]

Dinner sounds and looks great, Jen. I'm so glad you're past your pork chop deprived days..... I cannot even imagine a life like that.

It's even hard for me to imagine now. When I think back to my childhood experiences of pork chops (you know, baked in the oven with mushroom soup on them), it's a wonder I was even tempted to try.

I can't wait to see what you do with that marinating pork for tomorrow!!

That's a new "recipe" for me so it should be interesting, at the very least.

[Marmish]

This morning, I'm off to my yoga practice. I started practising yoga about a month ago after spraining my back in January at a dog race. I waited until my back was strong enough to handle activity before starting and, after two lessons, I haven't had any more back pain.

I also began yoga because I strained my back. After I finished a summer of physical therapy - yep, I sprained it good - I started yoga. I have been doing it off and on for three years. I can always tell when I have been away too long. Like now, unfortunately. We are moving in just under 3 weeks and I will look for a new class then. I agree about the healthy eating too. I took a 4:30 class, and went home after to prepare dinner. I also tended to want simple clean flavors after yoga, and not too much of anything. I wish I could be more whole grainy vegetariany nonsugary.

Edit to add: What do you feed your dogs?

Edited March 31, 2004 by Marmish (log)

[Jensen]

I also began yoga because I strained my back. After I finished a summer of physical therapy - yep, I sprained it good - I started yoga. I have been doing it off and on for three years.  I can always tell when I have been away too long.  Like now, unfortunately. We are moving in just under 3 weeks and I will look for a new class then.  I agree about the healthy eating too. I took a 4:30 class, and went home after to prepare dinner. I also tended to want simple clean flavors after yoga, and not too much of anything.  I wish I could be more whole grainy vegetariany nonsugary.

I bought a yoga magazine (Yoga International) last night and just got around to looking through it. Of course, I can't find the article now but there was one little bit talking about balancing different parts of one's nature and how food contributed to that balance.

The bit that stuck with me was this: if one is overweight, then one has too much pitta and one should reduce the amount of red meat, alcohol, and caffeine consumed and increase the amount of leafy greens and fish.

After reading that, I just reckoned my pitta was getting in line...

Edit to add: What do you feed your dogs?

I used to make a homemade diet of raw meat and raw vegetables but, after a couple of years, I saw signs of dietary imbalance. Tighe's toenails lost their pigment and, while I can't rule out trauma as a factor, it could also be due to diet. The other problem came up with Dayton; he had an accident which required an xray of his shoulder (he ran into a tree while chasing a squirrel and tore some of his deltoid out at the insertion; initially, we thought he'd fractured his humerus though). In the xray, the vet found that he had some possible signs of OCD (osteochondritis dessicans), which was likely caused by a high protein diet as a puppy.

I loved how the dogs looked on that diet and how they performed but I knew it couldn't be balanced correctly.

So, they went back on their former diet: a high quality kibble mixed with a small amount of raw beef. I've just switched them to Eagle Pack Performance and I'm liking it so far. The only down side is that Streaka has gained weight on it; she was retired after breaking a leg a couple of years ago so she's not as active as the other dogs. Now that the weather is nicer though, she should be able to run around more in the garden.

I plan on keeping an eye on her and, if I need to, I will put the retired dogs (Streaka and Tighe) on a different food.

[balex]

The recipe was for "Swede and Bacon Cakes with Dill Sauce". I'm not entirely sure what a swede is ... either a turnip or a rutabaga. I didn't really care though, as I thought rutabaga ("baggies", as my Papa used to call them) would do nicely. Swe

Swede is rutabaga. One of the non-obvious British/American translations.

[MobyP]

Is that fresh pasta as it appears to be....  and if so, do you have a good local cource for it or do you buy it?

Yes, that's fresh pasta...I made it yesterday afternoon, tossed it with some semolina flour, and just let it sit on the counter until it was time to cook.

I used a different recipe yesterday for the first time--the one from Moby Pomerance's eGCI course. The pasta was much easier to work with than it has been in the past. I liked it!

Yeeeey! Success! (Tears off clothes, runs naked down the street, Mariachi band starts playing - which is quite impressive for London, I can tell you).

Great blog, Jensen. Keep the pictures coming.

What temp and time are you going to cook the pork for? I tried it recently - very low, and very long - but it didn't quite make the pulled pork texture I was going for.

[Jake]

I used a different recipe yesterday for the first time--the one from Moby Pomerance's eGCI course. The pasta was much easier to work with than it has been in the past. I liked it!

Yeeeey! Success! (Tears off clothes, runs naked down the street, Mariachi band starts playing - which is quite impressive for London, I can tell you).

[Jensen]

The recipe was for "Swede and Bacon Cakes with Dill Sauce". I'm not entirely sure what a swede is ... either a turnip or a rutabaga. I didn't really care though, as I thought rutabaga ("baggies", as my Papa used to call them) would do nicely.

Swede is rutabaga. One of the non-obvious British/American translations.

Thanks!

My mum's family is Scottish; they never called them Swedes though. Rutabagas were "baggies"; turnips were "neeps"; and potatoes were "tatties".

[Jensen]

Yeeeey! Success! (Tears off clothes, runs naked down the street, Mariachi band starts playing - which is quite impressive for London, I can tell you).

I have to ask: which is more impressive ... the Mariachi band or the nakedness? (Feel free to wax poetic in your response, keeping in mind that I'm "retired" and don't get out much.)

What temp and time are you going to cook the pork for? I tried it recently - very low, and very long - but it didn't quite make the pulled pork texture I was going for.

I think I'm going to follow these directions for Yucatecan roast pork. I found this site (and others) while I was looking for things to do with my little spice packet.

Whenever I've made any pulled pork products in the past, I usually use a higher temperature for a long period of time. Kalua pig is usually 325 for 5 hours. Carnitas are done at the same temp but for a slightly shorter period of time (maybe 3 hours?).

I think, unless you've got a smoker of some sort, higher temps for a long period of time seem to work better.