What's cooking? part 4

Would use nam pla, but want to keep it vegetarian. I found this recipe for kecap manis - might try that with lime and chilis (dried or chili oil though, we've already made one shopping run today!)

Wow, the kecap manis is cooling now - does it ever smell fantastic! I substituted ginger for galangal, bay leaves for salam leaves and reduced the proportions, because I only had a 15 oz bottle of dark soy. Here's a tip though - carmelized sugar is freaking HOT, and when you pour room temp soy into it, it wants to splatter and foam all over the place. Make sure you use a pan that is plenty deep. Also, do not turn your back on a pan of sugar when it's on the fire, it can turn from crystals to burnt black char quicker than you think.

Wow indeed, that sounds exciting! I am, as usual, super-impressed by your resourcefulness.

ooh, I have a small hunk of galangal in the fridge that I was wondering what to do with.

Okay, final sauce was 3/4 c of kecap manis, 1/4 c of lime juice (+ some pulp from lime squeezing) and 1/2 tsp of sambal bajak which made for extra-spicy sauce goodness, a perfect foil for the light crispy sweetness of the carrot/jicama/asparagus fresh rolls. A++ will eat again (do need to remember that assembly time is approx. 8 min/roll though, and not try to make up a huge batch 45 minutes before the party is supposed to start!)

i want to eat at jaq's house!

oh wait--i have! and it was awesome!

I never did make those berry tarts.

hot-smoked bluefish. we caught a 7-pounder over the weekend!

^^^would devour

Inspired by Ed's drum-grilling on the WDYLL thread, am marinating cubes of lamb in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, coriander, cumin, oregano, and mint. Will grill tonight, but unfortunately on a grill pan on the stove. Would trade left arm for a charcoal grill.

geeta!!!! Come visit again; I will cook for you any time - that was a very fun evening.

Lamb was better than great; should make this once a week all summer.

things i am making this weekend:
salmon & asparagus
japanese curry w/ beef
kale, chorizo and white bean soup
strawberry shortcake on biscuits

i can't believe how many groceries i just bought!

does anyone have any advice with what to do with the salmon? i was planning to broil w/ cajunny spices and then put maple syrup on for the last minute, but i forgot to get maple syrup. maybe i will try it with honey instead? it's pretty thin so maybe i should pan roast it?

If you've got some brown sugar, you could sprinkle that on at the last minute then run it under the broiler - the darker, caramel-ier flavor of that would go better than honey, I think. I'm still kind of tenuous about cooking fish, but high temp roasting (450 deg F) in a hot cast iron skillet for 10 min/inch of fillet thickness has been doing me pretty well lately, even for less oily fish like halibut.

mm i need a cast iron skillet. i will definitely do it with brown sugar instead oh honey, that is a fantastic idea.

They are sooo cheap! Heavy as hell though, they will build your muscles up - I have to use 2 hands on my 14" one (great for bacon and steaks). The 10" one is my go-to pan for pretty much everything else (cornbread, hamburgers, dutch babies, potato rosti). I've also got a 6" saute pan (mostly used for eggs), a huge pizza pan/griddle (also great for baking round loaves of bread on, or biscuits) and a special one that makes triangular wedges (scones I guess, or cornbread in theory - it's too specialized and fussy so I don't use it much).

i need themmmm. i made a brown sugar mixture with sriracha and lemon for the salmon b/c i am bored.

I'm doing Leek Fritters. The recipe is by Yotam Ottolenghi (and here incidentally). I don't know if they're in his new book, which looks lovely and interesting, but I've done other things by him and they all turned out good.

yum. all of this sounds so yum. i have to think up something to take to a party on monday. i was thinking of tabouleh but someone already mentioned a cous cous salad and i think w/ the bulgar, it might end up too similar.

The fresh rolls I took last weekend were a big hit, and also vegan. Labor-intensive though.

yeah i don't feel like anything too labor-intensive right now... i'll have to brainstorm today.

Ned, those leek fritters sound yummy - what is a banana shallot?

tza, a big pile of larb nuea (thai spiced ground beef) and a bunch of lettuce or cabbage leaves? Non-veg though. I'm still working on my veg repetoire.

i think there will be plenty of grilled meats, so i was thinking a side dish or dessert item would be best. or, i can just grab a bottle of wine.

i'm making a japanese beef curry tonight. mmm i want it now.

me too! hah

oh and the salmon turned out really well. thanks jaq for the brown sugar idea. the glaze was perfect!

Yay for summer fish cooking! It was nice out today, overcast and cool, so we walked up to the market, had lunch and then made some groceries: milk, butter, and cream per usual, apples for Mr. Jaq's lunch, nectarines for me, an eggplant, rhubarb to make into a crisp w/the remaining strawberries from last week, 6 huge scallops and a 1.5" thick ahi steak. For dinner, I coated the ahi with olive oil, then pressed it in a mixture of white and black sesame seeds while the cast iron pan sat on a medium flame warming up (about 15 minutes, I wanted it good and hot). Seared for 5 minutes on each side (perfectly rare) and served with the kecap manis dipping sauce (3:1 w/ lime juice and sambal to taste). A simple salad of red leaf lettuce - made a nice light summer meal and didn't heat the place up too much.

oh my god i want scallops. probably my favorite fruit of the sea. today we made hamburgers and hot dogs on a little grill on ian's fire escape. well, ian did all of the grilling but i made margaritas at least.

i had scallops over the weekend, proper local ones. so good! some went into a bouillabaisse - pictures on ITP?.

lauren, that bouillabaisse looks incredibly good!

thanks! it was delicious. i'm very happy to be cooking with fresh seafood. clams in chili-coconut broth and tons of grilled squid next weekend, i think.

Are you cleaning the squid yourself? I keep looking at the whole ones in the asian market, but haven't tackled one yet.

oh wow that looks amazing!

i do clean it myself, yes. the market i like doesn't do it for you. it's actually not difficult. there are pretty clear directions available online and in seafood cookbooks. the four basic steps are remove head from body, remove beak/head from tentacles, remove cartiledge/guts from body, and remove skin (which comes off very easily). it's a little ooky, but no more so than dealing with any kind of flesh. i think it's much easier than carving a chicken, for instance.

Thanks lauren, that's encouraging.

link to the bouillabaisse pix?

http://isthatpie.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/seafood-lust/

Seared scallops tonight, after a quick marinade in olive oil, minced garlic, ginger, lime juice, thai chili pepper (birdseye?). Finished with chopped mint and cilantro. So so good.

yum! i need to buy some fresh seafood apparently!

i made salad with romaine, edamame, tomato, cucumber, orange sections, and a ginger dressing.

yeah those scallops sound great, will try it w/a milder chili for the timid palates in my household.

It was a good riff on your olive oil/lemon/garlic/parsley prep, m, which I've been using since you posted it.

I've got to make up that rhubarb/strawberry crisp today or the strawberries will be too far gone. But it's also warmed up again, so feels far too hot to cook. Dilemma. I am thinking this honey-flavored greek yoghurt will be excellent with it though.

so much rhubarb in the greenmarket this week. i'd like to try a crisp, but i'm very lazy when it comes to baking.

Jaq, does anyone in Seattle have air conditioning?

Crisps are the easiest baked fruit thing I know how to do. Chop fruit (or if berries, just pick over and rinse), layer in casserole, sprinkle with sugar (maybe some lemon juice if fruit is over-ripe), maybe dot with some butter (totally optional), make a streusel topping of some sort (1.5 cup of some mix of flours/semolina/rolled oats/other grains, 1 cup of white/brown sugar, 1-2 tsp of cinnamon/clove/allspice/nutmeg/other sweet spice, 1/2 tsp salt, all blended together; cut in 1-2 sticks of butter), sprinkle topping over the fruit layer, bake @ 350 F for 30-45 min. Eat hot, warm, or cold, plain or with cream/yoghurt/ice cream, for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

It's very rare here Rock. Our gym has it, thankfully. I've yet to live in an apartment or house here that has it though (out of 8 places we've lived around the city).

And to be fair, this is the first place we've lived where we really couldn't catch a breeze through the place. There have been few days when we felt desperate for cool in our other places.

thanks, jaq! btw, one of my best friends just moved back to portland after several years in austin, tx and is complaining of being cold!

Ha lauren, your friend's blood needs a week or so to thicken back up :) We're getting some thunderstorms this afternoon, so it cooled off some. I jumped at the chance to reduce a gallon of stock I'd had in the fridge (down to a nice solid cup) and make up the strawberry rhubarb crisp - 3 big stalks of rhubarb, about 2 cups of strawberries, made into 2 4-quart ramekins with streusel topping (rolled oats, white flour, whole wheat flour, white and brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, mace, 1.5 sticks of butter). Smells really delicious right now!

That crisp was deeelicious with a little scoop of rich greek yoghurt. Nice thick rolled oats (Snoqualmie brand, if you're in the PNW) gave a crunch and toasty nuttiness and the fruit turned a shocking pink color.

i think i'm going to make a rhubarb relish over the weekend. since i'm not much of a dessert person, trying a savory recipe seems like a better bet.