Watermelon, arugula, feta. Scallops, shishito, corn. = Dinner.



Dinner, count me a Fan!

Just found out that like you folks, a local fruit stand is selling fruit and vegetables on a curbside pick up, and they just added frozen, freshly ground hamburger, sausage, and pork chops from a local farmer.

Also, the Salem Oregon Saturday Market has opened. I haven't gone, limiting my weekly shopping mainly to two stores.

It would be nice to have the options you folks have there in Chicago, but your city's population is more than half of the whole state of Oregon. Just wow. Portland, our largest city has less than a quarter the population you have.

Jerk chicken and potatoes on the grill over lump hardwood with added chunks of cherry. I got distracted and the breasts were a little overcooked, but everything was so good. I had forgotten about jerk chicken and will try to not let that happen again.

Had a taste for carmelized crust pan pizza last night. Crust is Bon Appétit's no-knead focaccia recipe (only needed 1/4 recipe). Prepared the pan using a technique I saw in a YouTube video by the North American Pizza and Culinary Academy where he greased the pan with softened butter and dusted it with grated parmesan which resulted in a crisp layer of deeply carmelized parmesan on the outside of the crust. Topped with tomato sauce, onions, pepperoni and a mix of whole-milk mozzarella and provolone cheeses.

lougord99 wrote:Jerk chicken and potatoes on the grill over lump hardwood with added chunks of cherry. I got distracted and the breasts were a little overcooked, but everything was so good. I had forgotten about jerk chicken and will try to not let that happen again.

We've been on a jerk kick the past few weeks. Probably 3 whole chickens. It is just luscious. Found some Walkerswood jars clearanced out last year at Marianos, so I have a bit of a stockpile.

Even on the gas grill, it's just luscious. Can't beat smoking it, but juss sayin' even on the gas grill, it's fantastic. I've just been buying whole chickens, splitting them in half, letting them fester overnight with the paste, GOTTA get it under the skin - it simply gets magical.

I'm gonna do a trial of smoked jerk neckbones, I think.

I like your style, lougord99!

lougord99 wrote:Were you born in Minnesota?

Well, from a pros/cons point of view:
My birth cert says Rush St Luke's.
I DO like Prince, but not like over the top.
And I'm not hooked on meth, sooo...

Signs point to "Chicagoan."

People, please - just a bad joke.

I've made two orders from local farms in the last month. Both have been great. Doing so comes at a higher premium than my usual but the quality is on point. Great way to supplement what I can carry on a bicycle from my neighborhood cermak (which has been pretty much dried beans, bananas, and chile arbol in perpetuity).

Avram Farms is especially good for meat. Great variety of stuff.
https://avromfarm.com/

Closed Loop Farms out of the Plant in Back of the Yards totally rules.
https://www.localline.ca/closedloopfarms

Both are great ways to eat locally and well. And both operate outside of the problematic instacart/gig economy paradigm. I'm happy to support these endeavors as much as I can. Its great to have accessible ins to this stuff.

Looking forward to Patchwork Farms CSA to start up as well. http://chicagopatchworkfarms.com/

Oh and on the subject of Jerk. Epic Spices has a great jerk spice mix. Might have to re-up on that soon.

I've heard glowing reports about the Walkerswood jerk paste. If you need more, I think Woodman's usually carries it.

My only concern about the jarred paste is whether it has the fresh lime overtones. I think that is important to a good jerk paste. It really is pretty easy to make your own.

Real easy to make your own and it is fresh. I usually give it two nights of time alone with an occasional massage.

Today was odd day for lunch: a package of Bruce Aidel pineapple and teriyaki chicken meatballs, a package of krab and vegetables in a sweet and sour sauce.

The 12-ounce package of meatballs was bought on a lark at Jerry's sometime ago. It bounced around the kitchen freezer, because I could never figure out how to include it in a meal.

The krab was in the downstairs freezer hoping someday to emerge. It was defrosted in the refrigerator, then reheated slowly in melted butter.

Leftover from a Culinary Historians meeting was a bottle of Pantai sweet and sour sauce from Thailand. This leans toward sour more than sweet. It was poured over some pan fried vegetables. It will work nicely with sweet and sour pork sometime.

I made a double-batch of rice for future garlic fried rice and/or fried rice.


Good bye and fare thee well!

Regards,
Cathy2

lougord99 wrote:I've heard glowing reports about the Walkerswood jerk paste. If you need more, I think Woodman's usually carries it.

My only concern about the jarred paste is whether it has the fresh lime overtones. I think that is important to a good jerk paste. It really is pretty easy to make your own.

Add your own lime. I love the WW "as is," but I'm definitely adding lime, or squeezing lime juice after the cook next time. When it comes off the grill, we usually get greedy, FAST, and forget. I make a batch of my own jerk paste at least once a year usually near end of summer after my pepper harvest, or I can find some interesting fresh produce from a csa or farmers mkt (or friend.) Walkerswood is an easy, and very tasty sub for homemade, imo.

An LTH Jerk Thread: https://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19803&p=338641&#p338641

More clean out the pantry:

I made my chipotle chili. Nothing new there as I make it 20 times a year. However, it is the first time that I have made it with dried chiles as opposed to chile powder. I had a feeling that given the age of the chiles (bought while I was in Illinois), that it would take more tweaking. And that is true. Another change was the kidney beans were frozen kidney beans. My neighbor who is always on a diet had a stretch where all she was eating was beans and sent me over 15# of dry beans as she is no longer eating beans (wonder why?). I cooked the kidney beans and froze that I could not use the last time.

Lessons? My 1970 era Hamilton Beach needs a new gasket. My last two tries on Amazon were disasters as the first was NOT for a blender and the second had a centimeter gap around where is was supposed to go. It is way too large.

Still more stuff out of the pantry.

Dinner Winner

jlawrence01 wrote:Still more stuff out of the pantry.

I know how that delights me!

Tacos with homemade, 3 day cured chorizo, and fried potatoes topped with raw small dice white onion washed after dicing, sour cream, grated parmesean, cilantro on the absolute last day of possible use, Rick Bayless salsa.

Looks really good LouGord!

***

Last night, I had the Asian snack food of Ramen, egg poached in the broth with the noodles heaped on top, some butter and a slice of cheese. I did not have American cheese, so a few thin slices from a block of sharp Cheddar. At some point, the cheese melted into the noodles, then it was a large mass to eat from. I can understand how it became a favorite post-school snack.

Yes, I did take a picture in less than idea lighting and really it just looks like a mess. Not that this necessarily stops me from taking a picture.

Regards,
Cathy2

lougord99 wrote:Tacos with homemade, 3 day cured chorizo [ ----- ] on the absolute last day of possible use, Rick Bayless salsa.

Looks tasty, nice color on the chorizo. I do find it odd you would choose to make chorizo and buy salsa. From my perspective one is 78.5% more involved to produce than the other. (Simply an observation, please do not infer any reproving connotation)

You are correct.

Not sure why I did that either, though I do like Rick's salsas and it is not very easy to find good chorizo

Cathy2 wrote:The other plus, I took this book out of the virtual library Hoopla for 3 weeks. I can thumb through it a bit more to get some ideas and poof, it goes back on the shelf.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy

I can't thank you enough for this suggestion. Hoopla is an AMAZING resource. I just looked at a review of 'The 10 best new cookbooks of 2020' and Hoopla had every one. I am starting with 'Mosquito Supper Club' which looks like a great Cajun treatise and cookbook. Through this service one can look at the book on an ipad for 21 days and can check out 10 books a month. Thank you again. I will no longer be in a rut.

Cathy2 wrote:

jlawrence01 wrote:Still more stuff out of the pantry.

I know how that delights me!

Yesterday's casualty was Krusteaz's Honey Cornbread mix. It is not even as good as the old Jiffy Cornbread at 4x the price.

Going forward, I will not be buying all these baking mixes.

Today, I am using up some brand of spaghetti sauce taht claims to be Phoenix's best. We will see. We have been using Classico a lot recently as it comes packed in a real mason jar. And at $0.99 per bottle on sale, it is cheaper than buying an empty mason jar.

lougord99 wrote:Cathy

I can't thank you enough for this suggestion. Hoopla is an AMAZING resource. I just looked at a review of 'The 10 best new cookbooks of 2020' and Hoopla had every one. I am starting with 'Mosquito Supper Club' which looks like a great Cajun treatise and cookbook. Through this service one can look at the book on an ipad for 21 days and can check out 10 books a month. Thank you again. I will no longer be in a rut.

Your tax dollars at work!

I was impressed by the broad range of cookbooks. Now when access to a library is sometime in the future, it is a great alternative.

***
On my Mom's bucket list is attending a tailgate party. It is strictly for the food and fellowship, because she is certainly no sports fan.

In a small way, our lunch today scratched that tailgate party itch. It was something seen in Cook's Illustrated sometime ago: a pizza dip made in a caste iron pan.

Before leaving for grocery shopping, I made one-pound pizza dough. When I got home, I turned the oven to 400 degrees. I quartered three-ounces pepperoni, then fried it crisp. After removing the pepperoni, I added some oil and minced garlic. I portioned the dough into half-ounce balls, rolled it in the garlic oil and lined the edges of the casteiron pan.

The dough balls baked for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, I made dip from cream cheese and pasta sauce blended together, then mozzarella and most of the pepperoni was folded in. At 20 minutes, I added the dip to the pan and returned it to the oven for 10 minutes to heat though.

I set the table with dessert plates, forks and spoons. My family was suspicious of my choice until they began eating. When you pull one ball of bread with some hot dip, you don't need a big plate.


The pizza dip really scratched our super duper party food itch. Plus where else are we going during this time of sheltering at home.

Regards,
Cathy2

Opted for the 'big hunk of meat' cooking route this week, figuring that it would set the course for a series of meals. So, pork shoulder got the call . . .


Seasoned and Seared Pork Shoulder
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin


Aromatics
Gotta get that delicious fond off the bottom of the pot and into your braise. Onions, scallions, crushed garlic.


Braising Medium
Hitting the pantry hard to concoct the perfect blend.


Chiffonade of Horseradish Leaves
Had some on hand so, why not? But they went in after the braising medium and only saw wet heat. They're slightly bitter up front and have some spiciness. The aftertaste is very much like the root itself. Also in at this point went a bay leaf and about a dozen whole, peeled cloves of garlic.


Pre-Braise
Fond incorporated, aromatics nicely sweated, braising liquid added, greens soaked . . . roast back into the pot. Covered and into a 275F oven for about 2.5 hours before the first check.


Halfway
Looks and smells great so far. Ladled a little of the liquid onto the shoulder, re-covered the pot and put it back into the oven for another 1.5-2 hours, before the next check.


Just About There
After about 4.5 hours, it was tender but not quite where it needed to be. I ladled some of the veggies on top of the shoulder and decided to go another 30 minutes . . .


Just Right
I know not everyone probably agrees with this but over-braising is a thing. So, even though it's relatively easy, braising is not merely 'set it and forget it.' I kept a close eye on this, balancing my desire to not overcook it with my goal of interrupting the cooking as infrequently as possible. I think I got this just about right, as the bone easily pulled free about 98% of the way, only requiring a tiny tug for full removal at its last little corner.


Plated Up
A lot went on between the last step and this one that I didn't photograph. I removed the shoulder from the pot and put it in a low oven to keep warm while I completed the next steps. I strained and fat-separated the braising liquid and also separated out the aromatics. I then put the strained and defatted braising liquid on the stove top and reduced it by about a third. After that, I added the strained aromatics back to the reduced braising liquid and hit the entire thing with the stick blender to homogenize and thicken it. That blended gravy went atop our servings, as you see here . . . including the 1 whole garlic clove that managed to evade the stick blender.

We also had salad and some oven-roasted buttermilk smashed potatoes with caramelized onions and fresh chives.

=R=

HI,

Are you growing horseradish in your yard?

Regards,
CAthy2

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

Are you growing horseradish in your yard?

Regards,
CAthy2

No, I got the leaves from a farmer friend. Unfortunately, we can't grow much in our yard anymore because even though it's south-facing, our trees have grown substantially over the past few years, leaving our dedicated garden space in shade most of the time. I guess I should have known not to put in a maple tree. It's gone absolutely crazy.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Opted for the 'big hunk of meat' cooking route this week, figuring that it would set the course for a series of meals. So, pork shoulder got the call . . .

Alas, Cubanos for lunch today . . .


Press
2 pans + wrapped brick = panini press


Dos Cubanos
The 2-pan method worked really well.


Ready To Eat

The Cubanos were very good but the Turano Sub Rolls we used were the obviousl weak link, and can definitely be improved upon. I have a promising recipe for actual, proper Cubano bread that I hope to make before the end of the week.

We also took another stab at Oatmeal-Raisin cookies recently. This time we made several adjustments, including increasing butter slightly, pre-soaking the raisins in a bit of Gayanese Rum (elevating), adding butterscotch morsels (lowering but fun). The overall results were great, though. They were much better than the last batch we cranked out . . .


Oatmeal Rum-Raisin Butterscotch Cookies
Tinned for storage but I don't think they'll last too long.

=R=

I finally made this Home/Made Mushroom Lasagna from my NY Times Recipesto try. It has been almost nine years since I ran across the recipe.

I finally gathered all of the ingredients since I have been home in mid-March. I had to replace some of the mushrooms but finally made it Thursday night.

It’s glorious. I will make it again. Even though I made it incorrectly, I misread the instruction about mixing the bechamel.

a few images over at insta.

ronnie_suburban wrote:The Cubanos were very good but the Turano Sub Rolls we used were the obviousl weak link, and can definitely be improved upon. I have a promising recipe for actual, proper Cubano bread that I hope to make before the end of the week.

Do you have a recipe that can be shared online or do you have a link?

I have never made anything close to cubano bread

lougord99 wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:The Cubanos were very good but the Turano Sub Rolls we used were the obviousl weak link, and can definitely be improved upon. I have a promising recipe for actual, proper Cubano bread that I hope to make before the end of the week.

Do you have a recipe that can be shared online or do you have a link?

I have never made anything close to cubano bread

I've baked a lot of bread but never anything like Cubano bread. But when I try it, here's the (bread) recipe/method I'm going with. It's from Joshua Weissman . . .


How To Make Cubanos with Homemade Cuban Bread

The ingredient list is in the description section below the video (click 'show more') but watch the video for the method, which seems completely viable and doable. Personally, I wouldn't use any commercially processed lard. I have some homemade lard from a friend that I'm going to use.

After a lot of weekend cooking, Sunday dinner was a welcome respite . . . an easily prepared dinner I could cook with my eyes closed. The hardest part was raising the patio umbrella in order to keep the rain off the grill . . .


Bone-In, Skin-On Chicken Thighs
Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and oregano. These cooked indirect for approximately 23 minutes, after which they were ready to come off (~175 F internal). With thighs, I like to go a little longer than is food-safe necessary because they're fatty enough to maintain their moisture but become more tender/fob at around 170+.


Plated Up
Grilled asparagus, sauteed zucchini with garlic, oven-roasted buttermilk smashed potatoes with caramelized onions

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Bone-In, Skin-On Chicken Thighs

Yes Sir Senator!