eG Foodblog: snowangel - Freedom!

[snowangel]

The only two things I have not successfully larbed are hardcooked eggs (yolks got too mushy) and tofu (too soft). Although, if one deep-fried cubes of the latter, it would work well.

Leftover meat larbs well.

OK. I'll have to try larbing a venison sausage. I will report later this week.

Oh. Forgot. Canned tuna does not larb well, either. It's a texture thing, once again.

[snowangel]

Once the snow melted this spring, we were able to see the outside of our house. After we hooked up a chain to the back end of the Bronco (Ford, not equine), we yanked out the 40' of way overgrown arborvitae that were hiding our house. This revealed more "river rock" as "mulch" than one can imagine. I have spent a majority of the summer getting rid of the rock. It's everywhere. It's been an awful job. But, I am bound and determined to have a flower garden in the front (which is very uncommon in this suburban neighborhood). I got rid of the rock before we went to the cabin.

So, after my trip to the lumberyard and making larb, I dug out the roots which were remaining and laid a line for edging.

So, just what does this have to do with larb?

I was really hot and sweaty, even on this cool (low 60's -- f) day. I came in, cracked an icy cold beer and almost finished the larb. I discovered long ago that really spicy food tastes especially good when one is really hot and sweaty. I even chopped up a couple more hot peppers and added it. So, why didn't I finish it? When I told Diana that I was going to larb for lunch, she made me PROMISE that I would save her some. And, some it is. About 2 bites. Better than nothing.

Sweat and larb = happy!

[Marlene]

One of these days, I'm going to have to try this larb thing. Geesh, I just conquered Onion Confit.

[little ms foodie]

ok...i'm dumb....someone please tell me about larb! I have no clue!

[tejon]

ok...i'm dumb....someone please tell me about larb! I have no clue!

Ah, lovely larb.

[Susan in FL]

One of these days, I'm going to have to try this larb thing.

Same here!

Geesh, I just conquered Onion Confit.

LOL!

[snowangel]

Dinner tonight. It was great.

I did make more larb; I had the right amount of extra pork. I used the long beans from the farmer's market in the prik khing. The thing I really hated was that I could not, for the life of me, find that beautiful Chinese broccoli in the fridge. The good news is that the fridge has been thoroughly cleaned; the bad news is that I did not find the stuff I was looking for. I'm sure it will turn up. Probably as a bag of wet stuff I can't recognize .

For the prik khing, I used a little can of this

This is a "dry" curry. Fry the curry paste in oil (I used whatever I had in the cupboard), then add ground pork, then the beans, then some chicken stock (water is recommended, but I prefer stock). It is traditionally made with long beans, but works with green beans. The disadvantage of long beans is that they can be difficult to come by, and they seem to have an extremely short shelf (fridge) life. Don't know why. The recipe on the can recommends adding shredded kaffir lime leaves (which I did) and chopped peanuts (which I didn't because I prefer it without).

I got my kaffir lime leaves here

A friend gave me this tree a year ago. It winters indoors, summers outdoors in my garden (but still in it's pot). It is doing fine. I leave it in the garden so it gets water whenever the garden is watered when it needs it. Cuts down on hauling a watering jug around. What looks like a weed growing in it is a volunteer petunia. I probably should pull it, but it looks sort of neat when it blooms (red).

Dinner was yummy. To satisfy Heidi, who will not eat anything remotely spicy or green, I added some grated cheese to her rice and tucked a couple of chopped hard-cooked eggs inside.

Paul and I drank beer, the kids limeade. Beer and Thai food go together really well, IMHO.

A bit of background on the pork. There is a fairly new Asian market (largely Thai/Hmong) not too far from where I live. It is a very good market, with a huge selection of things imported, things fresh, things meat. It is entirely too clean. But, it is good. I stopped the other day and picked up some things. I can't for the life of me understand why stuff here that is available at the my local "regular" grocery is so much more expensive. Coconut milk, for example. $.79 for a 16 oz can vs. $1.89 for 14 oz. Go figure. Anyway, I wanted some ground pork, and was too lazy to do it myself. So, not seeing some, the man came over, and I asked for ground pork. His comment "so, missy, what you will be cooking?" I said larb. He proceeded to pull a hunk of pork out of the cooler and ground it perfectly. Right amount of fat, right consistency. Not too fine.

Now, you ask, why do I say that this supermarket seems too clean? I take you back to the first time I ever had larb. It would have been fall of 1966. I was 9. We were in northern Thailand. The people we were with took us to a restaurant and we ordered larb. This restaurant sat on a corner, with two sides totally exposed. I'm sure there was a chicken or two, a dog, and some babies crawling or walking around. Our hosts ordered larb. The cook walked over to the "cooking" area, chopped a hunk of pork off of a side (or something big) that was hanging from the ceiling on a meat hook, proceeded to take a cleaver to it and the other things, and pretty soon we had larb. Raw pork larb, served with sticky rice (experiences like this probably contributed to my gastric health; I never, ever get sick to my stomach or have other such trouble). It was probably a more miraculous moment than that first taste of squid salad on my 9th birthday.

It's these many stories I could tell -- the squid guay tio (sp?) early Sunday mornings before scuba diving trips. The hoping my folks would go out for dinner so we could eat ba mi off the cart that would ring it's bell outside of our house on Soi 13. The haunting the markets on Saturday mornings for kanom krok. My first taste of kao soi. These are the stuff that has made me appreciate the many tastes and textures that food involved.

[hillvalley]

My left over pork chop made me very happy until I saw your larb. Oh, that looked good. The tree is beautiful.

For those of us who cannot go through that monster that is the larb thread, could you give a bit of info on it?

What do the kids do for lunch? Do you have to pack three of them?

You need to start bragging about Diana and Peter's culinary and knife skills, by the way:wink:

[snowangel]

Hillvalley, do spend the time to go through the larb thread. It is good, and you you will get a good idea of what to expect. And, remember, you don't have to poach raw, chopped or ground meat. Leftover meat (rare steak or venison is my fav larb) larbs very well. Next time, cook an extra pork chop, but just make sure the extra is barely cooked!

The kids have been making meal suggestions, but are too tired and overwhelmed by the new school year, in new schools, making new friends to help cook. But, they did a mighty fine job of making salsa, waffles, bacon ( ), and learning how to start the grill this summer -- at home and at the cabin. And, Diana wields the chef's knife just fine.

All of this thinking has me hungry again, which is a good thing. I need to eat more. Toast? With butter? With liverwurst and mustard? Or, that Trotter's granola with half and half? I'm saving the leftover prik khing for my cousin. He is a sucker for leftovers, but only if they are really only spicy...I train my close family well.

[snowangel]

I always eat something before I go to bed.

So, just a little bit ago, I poured a generous shot of Shakers.

While perusing what I wanted, I had a small handful of granola.

I opted for that heel on the loaf of Acme bread. With a nice, thick slice of cold Hope butter (unsalted). I love cold butter on un-toasted bread.

Then, there was that tomato, sitting on the counter, looking lonely, like it needed to be eaten. Sliced, with salt and pepper.

I also found a lone hard boiled egg. Halved, s & p.

Plus a peach that looked like it needed to be eaten.

I love eating not long before I go to bed. Somewhere, sometime, I read this is not necessarily a good thing.

It just seemed perverse to photo grazing in the kitchen after 11:30 pm.

Probably time to brush the teeth and head to bed. Better wash that peach juice off my arms. The Colorado peaches from Grand Junction have been terrific. Interesting that they only sell them by the lug. The individual "by the pound peaches have been from Washington state and crappy.

Now that the kids are back in school, there's no lolling in bed until 8:30 am...

The coffee maker is full of water and the grinder full of beans. I never grind the night before.

[SethG]

Susan, good to see you larbing... er, blogging, this week!

This comes from way back at the beginning of your blog, but I couldn't let it pass without comment:

To finish the process [of making Hope butter], Kruckeberg scoops out great waxy hunks with his bare hands and plops them into the packing machine's square mouth. An extravagant scent of buttered popcorn fills the room as the satin-soft butter is pressed into one-pound blocks and wrapped with the simple Hope label.

Does that sound like heaven or what?

[snowangel]

I had a piece of toast (again) for breakfast along with my coffee out on the deck. It is so quiet now that the kids are back in school (both inside and outside -- there are a lot of kids in our neighborhood) and as I sat there, I watched the pair of blue jays frolicking and caught sight of an oriel. The woodpecker (red headed one) was busy pecking away on the willow next door.

I love eating out on the deck. We have a lot more birds in this neighborhood. Maybe not more birds, but a bigger variety, and almost no starlings.

We often eat out on the deck, and this has been a good summer for that because outside of a few nights, the bugs (mainly mosquitoes) have not been bad this year.

Time to vaccuum the sun room. Today, we finally get the furniture we ordered for this room on March 28. I hope I remember what it looks like!

[rabidscottsman]

Snowangel

Where is this Asian market located? I always like to stop in to these little places when im in certain parts of town. Have you ever been to the thai market in Burnsville?

[snowangel]

I live a long way from Burnsville! I now live in Coon Rapids.

The one I have just discovered is mentioned here.

We used to live not far from Brookdale, and there are also a couple up there.

I'm excited though, to get to Shuang Her later this month following our EG dim sum outing. That Nicollet Avenue area is packed with great places to eat and shop.

If you are looking for Japanese or Koren ingredients, there's a good place on Snelling between Hamline U. and University called (as I recall) Kim's Oriental Market.

Where in the Cities do you live?

[afoodnut]

Probably time to brush the teeth and head to bed.  Better wash that peach juice off my arms.  The Colorado peaches from Grand Junction have been terrific.  Interesting that they only sell them by the lug.  The individual "by the pound peaches have been from Washington state and crappy.

Colorado west slope peaches are a great secret, aren't they? Do you also get the Rocky Ford (Colorado) melons there?

[reesek]

The individual "by the pound peaches have been from Washington state and crappy.

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snowangel - so glad to see you blogging! i'm sorry you've been getting bad washington peaches - they're so incredible here this summer. (i guess we're keeping the good ones?) i wonder how the fruit-powers-that-be make those decisions...

glad you're getting good ones from somewhere at least. have you posted photos of your new kitchen anywhere? i love your cabin photos.

[snowangel]

The Colorado peaches have been outstanding. So outstanding that I had three of them for lunch, along with a handful of granola. I've been busy gardening today, so didn't take the time for a sit-down lunch.

I've not tried the Colorado melons; I'll have to look for them.

With the Colorado peaches, at least here, they are fairly widely available, but only by the lug, not individually, so I've been splitting lugs of them with my folks or a friend. They don't last long around here. The kids adore them.

Pretty soon, I will start getting really great local apples at the farmer's market. I think my favorite is the Haralson, both for eating and cooking. They are crisp and tart (I like my apples tart) and the texture is great for cooking. Another favorite is the Chestnut crab, but they are not widely available. A friend who has an apple orchard says that most people don't have very many of those trees, and eat them all themselves, so they never make to market. They are quite small -- maybe an 1-1/2" in diameter with an almost sour taste that turns sweeter as you chew them.

I'll photo the kitchen tonight. It's much, much smaller than my previous kitchen, but I'm finding it much more effecient. I thought I'd miss all of the cabinets and cupboards I used to have, but I've got tons of storage space in the basement for all of those things that you use once or twice a year, and I have found that I no longer have to rummage through the rarely-used stuff for the essentials.

Back to the garden. I'm going to trim the hell out of the tomato plants in the hopes that perhaps some will ripen. I noticed today that one is starting to turn pink!

[rabidscottsman]

Snowangel

I live in lakeville, Im originally from a town called Randolph wich is about 6 miles west/norwest of Cannon Falls. Not a real big place, only about 350 people.

Im not real framilliar with Minneapolis, The only places in Mpls i can find is Kramacurzek meats on Hennepin Ave and Gastofs restaurant on University Ave.

I know my way around st paul and have found quite a few interesting places there

[Smithy]

So, just a little bit ago, I poured a generous shot of Shakers.

That stuff is sooo good. Last winter my friends from the Twin Cities came up for the usual winter camping/river skiing/see how much you can damage your liver weekend, and one of them brought a bottle of Shakers. I don't think it lasted the first night. There's something about being out under the northern lights, in the hot tub, long past midnight, that just...well...dried us out. Had to rehydrate, ya know.

[snowangel]

That stuff is sooo good.  Last winter my friends from the Twin Cities came up for the usual winter camping/river skiing/see how much you can damage your liver weekend, and one of them brought a bottle of Shakers.  I don't think it lasted the first night.  There's something about being out under the northern lights, in the hot tub, long past midnight, that just...well...dried us out.  Had to rehydrate, ya know.   

←

Yes, it is great. Every Thanksgiving Day, three college buddies (we've known each other since the late 70's) and I head up north to Blue Fin Bay. We stay in one of the condos (same one every year, at the end of one of the rows) and we always take a bottle of Shakers. This year we are taking two (we also take wine and all sorts of other spirits). Every evening, we head to the outdoor pool and whirlpool with glasses of Shaker's.

OK, back to gardening. I'm putting up a trellis, but was hungry (again) so came in and had a few hunks of Eichten's aged gouda (which is not listed on their web site). I got it a couple of weeks ago at the St. Paul Farmer's Market. It is very yummy.

[Fritz Brenner]

I love eating not long before I go to bed.

me too...

[SobaAddict70]

Are there any Thai desserts that you like beyond the seemingly ubiquitous sticky rice and mango that many restaurants seem to serve these days?

Soba

[snowangel]

Are there any Thai desserts that you like beyond the seemingly ubiquitous sticky rice and mango that many restaurants seem to serve these days?

Soba

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Soba, one of the things that I don't really like is dessert. Living in the U. S., the occasional ice cream cone. The only things I really like for dessert are fruit or something custardy.

Thai desserts, with a couple of exceptions, quite frankly, left me cold. I did like a bite of sticky rice with an entire mango. And, we used to get a wonderful custard (that was somewhat pumpinky -- is that a word? -- or squashy). Cooked and served in a mini-pumpkin that was, as I recall, green.

The only other prepared "sweet treat" I enjoyed were fried bananas (they use different bananas there for that -- they are short and much sturdier) and kanom krok. Kanom krok are these little things, I'm not sure what they are made of, but they are custardy and cooked in a pan that looks like one of those Danish apple whatever-you-call-them pans that has the round indents. They were sold on the street. A little lady with a charcoal grill (in a cement thing with tin around it). They were really wonderful.

What I've really missed is some of the fruit. Mangosteins. Rhambutan. All that stuff.

[snowangel]

We had a typically Midwestern (perhaps, perhaps not) late-summer meal. We grilled some pork chops and threw some zucchini and red peppers on the grill, as well. Steamed some green beans. The latter three items were from my Farmer's Market bounty.

The pork chops were wonderful. I got them at the Anoka Meat and Sausage Company, my new local meat market. I have had mostly good luck there, although I prefer the bacon at my former local meat market, Hackenmuellers. So, when Diana has an ortho appointment, I stop at Hack's (close to the ortho) and stock up. The Anoka joint has a larger selection of sausages than does Hack's, and regularly has a special on whole, untrimmed briskets for $1.99/lb. Whole, untrimmed briskets are hard to come by here, especially at that price (just ask Klink).

Easter Sunday, I decided to host here. We had been in the new house 3 weeks. (This forced me to get my proverbial S--- together and get stuff unpacked; after 18 years and 3 kids in the former house, on Easter, I only had 12 unpacked boxes!) I got a ham from Anoka. It was possibly the best ham I had ever had. Perfectly smoked, and not nearly as salty as most I've had. So, I get what I can at the best place possible. Lately, I've been getting chickens through the Whole Foods Coop. Although they arrive frozen, they have been outstanding. Tasty, not nearly as fatty as what one gets at the supermarket. What's especially endearing is that some of them come bearing a label naming which 4-H kid grew the chicken for a project .

Anyway, I digress. Everything tonight was wonderful. I love roasted red peppers. The green beans this summer, thanks in part, I'm sure, to the cool weather are still tender and fairly slim. One of the things I've noticed at the farmer's market is that the Hmong growers tend to pick their stuff earlier and smaller, which is fine with me.

The kids want me to cut into that watermelon I have. Eaten on the deck. Geez, it's getting dark early! I long for those days in late June when sunset is after 9:00 pm!

[snowangel]

Here is my kitchen

My former kitchen had acres of counters and miles of linear cupboard and cabinet space. As I said before, I don't miss it.

I do also have a pantry (of sorts):

The shelves are very deep and do not roll out. That's another project for the fall.

Some things I really like. In the pantry photo, you will note that the living room (which opens to a sun room). Very open. That, I like. There are a few other houses like ours in the neighbhood (heck, we live in a development, albeit 30 years old), and in all of the other houses, there is a wall between the living and dining rooms. So, the space plays out large.

I like my much smaller kitchen. I never could have afforded granite for the acres of counters I had, and I love my granite. It is cool, very carressable, and very deep when one looks at it. Nice and irregular. No regrets there. I am outlet-impaired. There is one 4-plex at the end of the peninsula, and one duplex to the right of the sink.

All of the appliances are new. I fired up the dishwasher the second day we lived here, and it leaked -- FROM THE TOP! When I shut the fridge door, the freezer door popped open (and when I shut the freezer, the fridge door popped open). Good thing I baked something before I put the ham in on Easter, because I discovered that the oven took 1.5 hours to heat to 350 F. Worst yet, they were harvest gold. I spend a winter at our former house eradicating the harvest gold. The previous counters were harvest gold formica -- with the "leatherette" texture. Read, get out a toothbrust to clean them. We had intended to replace the floor in the kitchen/dining area in a "few years" but as soon as we replaced the counters, the floor looked even worse. So, I have started floor shopping. I am leaning toward commercial vinyl tile. Ceramic is out (Heidi falls a lot and drops a lot of things), and I don't want wood (hardwood will be revealed when we tear up the living room carpet next spring and I want some definition to this space.

So, this is where it all happens. The homework around the table. The noshing. The dining. The talk about the day. The FOOD!

I'm off for a snack and then to bed. Farmer's market tomorrow and get ready for a short visit from my sister. She hails from Berkeley, and is making a 36 hour stop on her way home from a conference in Milwaukee. Kids to school. Meals to cook.

The days have been beautiful. As much as I want to braise and roast, I know I need to seize these days and eat late summer bounty (sweet corn and tomatoes!) and spend the evening on the deck grilling.

Edited September 10, 2004 by snowangel (log)