Camping, Princess Style

[Smithy]

@Porthos and @FauxPas: I never had any Kliban cat mugs, but I have at least one book of his sketches, complete with his "love to eat them mousies" blues bit. I also have at least one set of socks with Laurel Burch cats!

 

Next up: fun with food language. Schmutz, schmaltz, smarm (or smarmy). Well, maybe that last isn't a food term. 

[Smithy]

Tonight's dinner was relatively simple: bacon rendered, then set aside; then brussels sprouts, halved, browned in the fat; then cooked down in a mix of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. All reassembled, and served.

 

 

His bowl looked nice.

 

 

"I need to show your bowl, not mine. Mine has too much schmutz on it." 

 

I admit: I may have been mispronouncing the word, and I may be miswriting it now. The most interesting part is that he'd never heard the word. And his parents were of Germanic parentage! His grandfather drove for the Kaiser! 

 

That led to a silly but funny discussion of Yiddish / Germanic words he didn't know. It all started with schmutz. I just hadn't dished out my bowl beautifully enough for a good photo.

 

 

 

 

Schmutz. He didn't know the word.

 

That led to "schmaltz" and "smarm" or "smarmy". 

 

Our dinner conversations range far and wide.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Smithy
Corrected great-grandfather to grandfather (log)

[FauxPas]

Schmaltz is a thing of beauty. Schmutz is the opposite!  🙂

 

Loving the look of those sprouts, how did they taste? 

[Katie Meadow]

36 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Tonight's dinner was relatively simple: bacon rendered, then set aside; then brussels sprouts, halved, browned in the fat; then cooked down in a mix of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. All reassembled, and served.

 

 

His bowl looked nice.

 

 

"I need to show your bowl, not mine. Mine has too much schmutz on it." 

 

I admit: I may have been mispronouncing the word, and I may be miswriting it now. The most interesting part is that he'd never heard the word. And his parents were of Germanic parentage! His great-grandfather drove for the Kaiser! 

 

That led to a silly but funny discussion of Yiddish / Germanic words he didn't know. It all started with schmutz. I just hadn't dished out my bowl beautifully enough for a good photo.

 

 

 

 

Schmutz. He didn't know the word.

 

That led to "schmaltz" and "smarm" or "smarmy". 

 

Our dinner conversations range far and wide.

And don't forget schmear, schnitzel and schnoodle. Well, that last one isn't technically a food, but it sounds like it should be.

[heidih]

To me the not perfect bowl is verschmiert - so smeared. Schmutz to me is dirt as in soiled.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

To me the not perfect bowl is verschmiert - so smeared. Schmutz to me is dirt as in soiled.

Am frequently reminded of the inept flight attendant who slopped husband's main course onto his tray, responding without apology, saying only "Eats the same."     It's become a house phrase for incompetence accompanied with lack of concern.

[heidih]

3 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Am frequently reminded of the inept flight attendant who slopped husband's main course onto his tray, responding without apology, saying only "Eats the same."     It's become a house phrase for incompetence accompanied with lack of concern.

Kind of like the one that people say when things are mashed inadvertently together "all ends up together in the same stomach"

[Smithy]

11 hours ago, FauxPas said:

Schmaltz is a thing of beauty. Schmutz is the opposite!  🙂

 

Loving the look of those sprouts, how did they taste? 

 

We liked them. The browning helped with flavors, and of course the bacon and balsamic did too. They were a little softer than I'd have liked because I added too much water to cook them under a lid after they were browned. (I forgot to mention that part up above.) Once they were cooked as I liked them, I took the lid off to let the water boil off so the balsamic could concentrate and turn into more or less a glaze. That took longer than it should have, because of the extra water. Next time I'll use less water at that step.

[Smithy]

A quick look at the weather maps shows that we aren't the only ones in wild weather right now.

 

The current situation explains all the wind that's been rocking the trailer all night...

 

 

...but we really don't have much room to complain, given the rain and snow predicted to fall elsewhere...

 

Still, it's interesting to be able to look directly at the sun even after it's cleared the horizon.

 

 

Shortly after this sequence, the mountains disappeared completely. We have the Princessmobile closed up to keep as much dust out as possible. All the other nearby campers are tucked up against a tree screen, as we are. The forecast nearby is for 65 mph winds!

 

Last night I tried a new-to-us recipe. Something like this has been discussed somewhere on eGullet, but what caught my eye was a recipe from SimplyRecipes that came in my email: Bang-Bang Shrimp Tacos. I found the title irresistible, and made sure to get peeled, deveined shrimp when I was at the right store for it.

 

The instructions in the recipe I linked to are clearly written, and that's useful for a fryophobe like me. They detail the frying station setup and the frying process: Soak the shrimp in buttermilk for at least 20 minutes, then dredge in a mixture of flour, corn starch, salt and pepper, then allow them to dry on a rack while the oil is heating. Have another tray set up with paper towels to drain the shrimp. Keep the oil at 350F (I settled for 180C) and do the shrimp in batches. Keep the fried shrimp in a warm oven until everything's ready.

 

In the meantime, warm some tortillas, and thinly slice vegetables for garnish / additions to the tacos. I sliced cabbage, radishes, jalapenos, green onions, cilantro. One could use other things too.

 

The Bang-Bang sauce is a mix of mayonnaise, garlic-chili sauce, sriracha (optional, and I left it out). I didn't have the specified garlic-chili sauce, but I substituted this Trader Joe's product.

 

 

The mixture was very stiff, so I thinned it a bit with water until it seemed right.

 

It was quite a production in the Princessmobile. I've said before that I detest frying inside, but the outside campstove would have gone flying into the next county in this wind. I didn't want to wait for good weather (days away) and my darling has never met a fried shrimp he didn't like. He was impressed and happy that I planned to fry those shrimp!

 

Never let it be said I'm not a good sport.

 

I didn't bother photographing the wreckage clutter in the kitchen. Here's the dinner table, and a couple of taco shots.

 

 

He didn't like it!!! The first issue was that the tortillas were tough. (True.) So on his second round he made it more of a salad.

 

 

Nope. Still didn't like it. Didn't like the breading. I realized this morning that I was supposed to toss the shrimp in the sauce to coat them -- think of a shrimpy version of Buffalo Wings -- rather than serving it atop the shrimp. I don't think that would have helped for him. The breading was "different". Yes, it was: crisper and crunchier than anything I've ever managed. He can't explain what he thought was missing. (In fairness to him, let me note that he almost never says "I don't like it" for fear of hurting my feelings. At least not until the next morning. He takes a more roundabout route, like suggesting that there are too many leftovers, or oven-baked prebreaded shrimp would have been easier. But I got the rest of the opinion out of him this morning.)

 

So, scratch that recipe. I learned some valuable technique and will thoroughly enjoy polishing off the leftovers! But I'm more than happy to go back to, oh, shrimp scampi or shrimp Bolivar or skewered and grilled shrimp or....anything less messy than last night's dinner!

Edited February 23, 2023 by Smithy
Removed extraneous "how" (log)

[Dave the Cook]

Simply Recipes' Bang-bang shrimp reminds me of a recipe we sometimes use for shrimp tacos,  part of which we stole from Kay Chun's recipe for Salt and Pepper Shrimp Rolls. Instead of buttermilk, Chun calls for whole (or 2%) milk, and omits the wheat flour altogether, using only cornstarch. Without wheat, there's no gluten to speak of, so you can fry in batches (so you need less oil); the first batch of shrimp can easily wait for a second one.

 

Admittedly, it's not your everyday fried shrimp, but it is very crunchy.

[Smithy]

Today's dinner: a salad made of vegetables that needed to escape the refrigerator (the last of the cabbage and green onions; much of the washed lettuce hanging out; leftovers from last night) plus fresh and chopped tomatoes. Last night's shrimp were reheated. Our usual salad dressings were added. Much to my surprise, he liked the "Bang-bang sauce" from last night's dinner. The real issue from last night's dinner disappointment seems to have been that that last night's fried shrimp didn't meet his expectations; everything else seems to have been good. "Don't get rid of that (bang-bang) sauce!" he said. 🤷‍♀️

 

The few leftovers, after tonight's dinner, are tucked away in separate containers. For myself, I'm delighting in the marriage of my usual lemon vinaigrette salad dressing with this bang-bang sauce. Here's my dinner:

 

 

Man, that bangs. Delightfully!

Edited February 23, 2023 by Smithy
spelling (log)

[Porthos]

20 hours ago, Smithy said:

...  or shrimp Bolivar or ...

I couldn't find anything on shrimp Bolivar Googling it. I'm curious what it is.

[Kim Shook]

One of my favorite Yiddish words is fakakta.  I have made plenty of fakakta meals in my life!  LOL

[Smithy]

5 hours ago, Porthos said:

I couldn't find anything on shrimp Bolivar Googling it. I'm curious what it is.

 

I guess I haven't made the big time with Google yet! 😄

 

You'd only find it described in this topic, because it's a dish I invented while we were camped on the Bolivar Peninsula on the Texas Gulf Coast. Unfortunately, it's one of those one-off-things that I've never been able to reproduce, but the different versions have been good anyway. Here is one of my earliest descriptions of it in this post:

 

Quote

 Fettucine or linguine, cooked until nearly done, drained and tossed with olive oil, garlic, butter if I'm feeling decadent.  Meanwhile, saute the shrimp in butter and/or olive oil, dried parsley and oregano; toss all together with grated parmesan and fresh parsley.  Salt and pepper to taste.  When it's right, it's stellar; otherwise it's still good.  The secret seems to be having the best shrimp and garlic possible.

 

This post has a picture.

[Dave the Cook]

As long as we're continuing is the shrimp vein (ha!), are you done with deep frying for a while? 'Cause if you're not, I've got a couple of ideas to run past you.

[Smithy]

7 hours ago, Dave the Cook said:

As long as we're continuing is the shrimp vein (ha!), are you done with deep frying for a while? 'Cause if you're not, I've got a couple of ideas to run past you.

 

 

😉

 

I'm certainly not done with shrimp, or deep frying, but it's likely to wait for a week or so. I'm leaving him to his own devices, starting next Sunday, and returning the following Wednesday. As preparation we're emptying out the strays from the refrigerator and, I suspect, will be making loads of pre-planned meals for him before I go. 

 

Bring on the ideas, please! I flinched at the idea of frying inside the Princessmobile, but it actually wasn't bad last time around. 

 

[Smithy]

Mother Nature flipped the switch during my absence, and we've shot from desert winter to late desert spring: winds have died, and this morning the air carried a "hot" smell that I associate with smog...something I rarely see or smell around here. As I write, a mockingbird is embroidering the silence of the nearby wash with his musical variety show, and I've heard a couple of mourning doves. Spring is here. You have to look and listen closely to see it, though: there's been so little rain in our pocket of the world that the usual flowers have been late to bloom and difficult to find.

 

 

I saw the first prickly pear blossom just yesterday, and usually they come out in February.

 

 

While I was in San Diego last week, my best friend threw a dinner party and served wonderful composed salads of lettuce leaves topped with shredded cabbage, shredded chicken, mandarin orange segments, chopped walnuts, and probably a few other things I've forgotten. It was an Asian-influenced salad so we made a miso vinaigrette based on a copycat recipe for Karen's Double Sesame dressing, something we both adored and could buy in grocery stores in the '70's. I wish I'd taken a photo of the salad plates, but we were a bit busy making THREE versions of the dressing: one for a guest who is gluten-intolerant, one who is allergic to garlic, and one for the rest of us.

 

You can see the ingredients and the finished product in this collage:

 

 

The miso paste provided me with a bit of irritation. I had bought it last month when I visited her, then squirreled it away somewhere. A pouch that size is very easy to squirrel away, and very difficult to find later! It took several trips through various hidey-holes in the Princessmobile before I found it. The toasted sesame oil was easier, since I'd just bought it during this last trip.

 

We speculated that ginger would also be good in the dressing, but didn't put it in then. I forgot about it today when I mixed up the dressing, but it will be easy to add it. We both also thought it might make a good cole slaw dressing, and I tried that today for lunch.

 

 

Not bad. The toasted sesame oil may be a bit heavy for simple cole slaw. I think I'll try it next on a more substantial salad. It'll keep in the refrigerator beautifully.

 

Since I've been home I've also been exploring Falastin: a Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), thanks to @blue_dolphin's demonstrations of some of its dishes. It's an interesting, beautifully photographed and written book loaded with recipes I want to try. Trouble is, I've been suffering from low ambition when it actually came time to start cooking. Today I made their version of tahini sauce.

 

 

 

It's good. I think tahini sauce is fairly bombproof, provided you start with good tahini, and the Holy Land brand I can buy in Minneapolis is wonderful stuff. Now I'll be able to put it over vegetables, or fish, or in breads: all things I aspire to before I have to return the book.

 

I had a fish disaster a couple of nights ago, possibly due to the fish itself no longer being good, but perhaps also because I didn't have tahini sauce ready for use and did something else altogether. I'll tell about it in a separate post, lest this be too long.
 

[Smithy]

It's become clear this trip that my darling really doesn't want fish unless it was flipped out of the water just a few hours ago, and I've struggled to find ways to use up the fish I packed along from our last Wild Alaskan shipment last fall. Surely, I thought, he'd like halibut and cod, even though he isn't crazy about salmon. There are some wonderful-looking recipes for fish in the Falastin book that use tahini sauce. I simply couldn't be motivated to mix the stuff in time to cook the already-thawed fish. Instead, I tried reproducing our "Roadway Inn Fish", named for the New Rodwan Hotel in Luxor (Egypt) that invented it. This is another one-off dish that we've made many times over the years and never gotten the same twice. The sauce is heavy on lemon and butter, has a touch of garlic and mustard, and delightful when done properly.

 

Well. First off, we've never tried this recipe on such thick fish filets. I sliced the thickest in half to enable it to cook more easily, and gave the two thickest cuts a head start before adding the other two to the pan. I don't think it matters to the finished product that I tried a dusting of corn starch to assist in frying without spatter. We usually only brown the fish slightly, if at all; sometimes we cook it in the butter/lemon sauce without any preliminary browning. I won't try frying fish with a crust for this dish again; it didn't fit.

 

Disappointment two: "Heavy" didn't begin to describe the lemon flavor! I know I was using Meyer lemon juice from the freezer, but I still used too much. Once it's in there it's difficult to cut down. 

 

Disappointment three: the Trader Joe's Aioli Garlic Mustard, a staple for this dish (though you'd never find it in Egypt) has been sitting, sealed, in the cupboard so long that it's lost its mellow amber color and gone dark brown. I don't think it affected the flavor, but the appearance was quite unappetizing.

 

Actual disaster: the fish was TOUGH! How can fish be tough?? I've never had that happen. He was too disappointed by the sauce to detect the fish texture, but this is what makes me wonder whether the fish itself was partly to blame. I don't think it was overcooked, but later recooking didn't help. 

 

The best part about this dish was the wild rice pilaf from the freezer that I put it over. That's small consolation. The next consolation is that I'm done with the cod and halibut from that shipment.

 

 

His "thumbs-up" was before he actually tasted the much-anticipated dish. He did, however, think the brussels sprouts were marvelous.

 

Meanwhile, when it's been his turn to cook it's been hash on the campstove...

 

 

...or Superburgers on the campstove.

 

 

Sometimes, simplicity is best. He certainly thinks so!

 

(He wanted me to show the "money shot" to note the presence of chopped onions in our burger mix.)

 

 

 

 

Edited to add, in case anyone's interested: here's a much earlier writeup on Roadway Inn Fish, complete with photo. We had no complaints about it being tough then, so this cod was a complicating factor.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Smithy
Added comment at end (log)

[heidih]

Falastin - great book I agree. As to your crud fish experience - interesting. I've never had that diapointment whether fresh or frozen except with some very large squid the guys brought back from  Mexico.My Vietnamese friemd was so excited to cook me a traditional dish with pineapple. OMG - the texture was awful.We double bag trashed it! Yet a wife of another guy luiked it but she battered and deep fried it.  Def would not have cooked your "tough" fish further. I wonder between the delivery experience from the seller to your home and the travels - careful as you may be ????  With boring fish like pollock I'll do chowder but add another more flavorful item (smoked porky stuff). At least you know what the boundaries of enjoyment and taste are for DH - some things are immutable ')

Edited March 13, 2023 by heidih (log)

[Shelby]

We've caught fish that ended up tough before.....catfish and flathead so I'd assume that cod could be the same way.  When they are big and old their tendons are larger, meat is tougher.  Stripers, too.

[Smithy]

7 minutes ago, Shelby said:

We've caught fish that ended up tough before.....catfish and flathead so I'd assume that cod could be the same way.  When they are big and old their tendons are larger, meat is tougher.  Stripers, too.

 

Do you have any tips for (a) recognizing that the fish will be tough and (b) what to do with it? Grind it up and make fish balls? Chowder, as @heidih suggested is a good idea, I think.)

[Shelby]

3 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Do you have any tips for (a) recognizing that the fish will be tough and (b) what to do with it? Grind it up and make fish balls? Chowder, as @heidih suggested is a good idea, I think.)

Could you see the big tendons in the fish?  Like round "cords"?  That is a big sign... and if the meat is super firm...which is harder to pick out because sometimes firm doesn't equal tough when cooked.

 

I imagine that this cod was a huge, old one--old meaning lived a long time in the sea.

 

Best thing is to remove the tendons and then, yeah, make a fish cake?  Or chowder--chop up really small.

[Smithy]

2 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Could you see the big tendons in the fish?  Like round "cords"?  That is a big sign... and if the meat is super firm...which is harder to pick out because sometimes firm doesn't equal tough when cooked.

 

I imagine that this cod was a huge, old one--old meaning lived a long time in the sea.

 

Best thing is to remove the tendons and then, yeah, make a fish cake?  Or chowder--chop up really small.

 

I assumed they were bones, although I've never seen bones in cod filets before. These were very thick, though -- thicker than any I've purchased in a grocery store -- so probably cut from a very old fish as you surmise. Thanks for that insight! 

[Smithy]

The place we go to dump our holding tanks was originally a small store and community to serve a nearby gold mine. It's quirky and fun, and the grounds are loaded with artifacts found in the desert from the mining operations or, later, General Patton's training exercises. Their store is limited now to treats like ice cream bars. It's been a bit cool for ice cream, but I want to share this bit of culinary history / humor with you:

 

(It's part of a still.)

 

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by Smithy
Explained the joke (log)

[Smithy]

We had to go into Yuma one day for pickup servicing. The waiting area had a coffee / drink dispenser the likes of which I've never seen before. You choose the hot drink you want from the menu, tell which size, then watch as it mixes and dispenses the drink. I've only shown one page of the menu, but there was a second page as well. Then the status screen keeps you apprised of progress until the mixing and pouring is done.

 

 

What an improvement over the pot of stale coffee getting staler and more intense as the day goes on!