First, the bad news: Milo has spontaneously started saying “Yum-O!” despite having had zero exposure to the Rachael Ray (we have no TV.) I always thought that he would be older- perhaps wrapping our car around a tree- before I would be forced to disown him. But I think we all saw it coming; not even the fact that he looks unbelievably adorable rocking my Grandfather’s vintage and yet totally of-the-minute skinny ties is going…
Category: Asian
I was away all weekend, so this here was dinner from last Thursday. The night after all the lovely sashimi we had Phase II of the post-Mitsuwa feast. I had bought a small tray of domestic Wagyu-style beef, sliced super-thin for shabu-shabu, and that was the jumping-off point for the meal. We had dashi left in the fridge, flavored with the black radishes I had pressure-cooked in it, and to that I added all the…
I just realized that this blog is three years old as of a couple of days ago. In honor of this momentous millstone milestone, why don’t you all take six or seven hours to go back and reread the entire thing? I’m pretty sure there will be lots of enlightening little details that you missed the first time, and you’ll be glad you did. Some of you may wish to write post-graduate theses on it,…
Mired in a microbial morass, sleep-deprived, and with a heartless wife abandoning me for some girl time out at a restaurant with friends, I scoured the cupboards for something quick, easy, and kid-friendly to make for dinner. There was ground turkey in the fridge, and I was just going to make a stir-fry with that and some kale with kimchi and egg when I spotted a little jar of Poubelle Blanche‘s homemade Thai eggplant chutney.…
As always- slave to peasant efficiency that I am- with the carcass of a roasted bird in the fridge, I wanted to make a brothocentric meal based on the remains of our Christmas duck. Heather made turkey pho after Thanksgiving, and then Hank, inspired by her post, made wild duck pho, so it was only a matter of time before I caught the faux-Vietnamese virus (get it?) and did the same. The interweb: it’s like…
High quality ingredients inspire. Yesterday I made a vegetable curry with cauliflower, sweet potato, carrot, and peas; puréed radish greens with yogurt, fenugreek and mustard seeds; and tofu simmered in one of my patented mutant soups. It started as the dashi in which I cooked the radishes for Sunday’s dinner, then turned into a funky addition to some pappa al pomodoro- Tuscan tomato soup with stale bread- which I made for lunch. That puréed bread…
Milo has another cold, so I made chicken broth today. I set some aside for him with the soft broth carrots in it- the way he likes it best- and added coconut milk and some red curry paste to the rest to make a simple tom kha gai. I shredded some of our cabbage with a little garlic, ginger, and radish, and rolled the mixture into wonton wrappers and fried them in a little oil.…
Coconut curry is one of our go-to mindless meals; it’s healthy, delicious, infinitely malleable, and suited to weather of all seasons. This time of year, all I have to do is push my metaphorical shopping cart through the garden and toss in everything that looks good. Today’s specials were carrots, red and green onions, zucchini, beans, tomatoes, Thai and lime basil, cilantro sprouts, and nasturtium leaves. With the addition of half a can of coconut…
The green beans needed urgent attention, and were just about at the too-big place where they get all chewy and you have to leave them alone and wait for the beans. And Milo doesn’t like green beans, so I took advantage of both things and made them super-hot Chinese style- one of our favorite things. With copious garlic and ginger, two chiles de arbol, a big glug of sambal oelek, and rice vinegar, soy sauce,…
The garden is getting to the point now where my job is simply to produce substrates, mediums, and vehicles which can allow the plants to shine. Our escarole is perfect, so I lopped off the inaugural head and sautéed it briefly with a couple of cloves of garlic then deglazed the pan with smoked duck broth. If you’re noticing a pattern here, it’s one of our favorite ways to eat greens- sometimes with lemon in…