Back to one tonight . . .


Veg Mise En Place & Anryu Blue #2 Hammered Gyuto, 210mm
Ssamjang, chopped garlic, scallion whites, broccoli florets, shoyu, avocado oil, gochujang, mini tomatoes and scallion greens. As I was cooking this, I thought it needed a boost, so I drizzled some fish sauce in, too.


Stir-Fried Broccoli & Mini Tomatoes


Charcoal-Grilled Chicken Thighs
Working through a small stash of SPG rub I mixed together last week for some wings I grilled.


Plated Up
With yet another ear of buttered Mirai schweeeeet corn from 3SG. Yum!

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Back at the grill tonight for a last-minute dinner . . .


Cheeseburgers
Had the burger meat. Didn't want to freeze it or lose it, so I decided I'd better just cook it.


Plated Up
With the usual accompaniments -- chips, home-fermented garlic-dill pickle and a blob of the weekly slaw.

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at the beach with a crowd (and of course everyone has their eating issues) so fish taco bar it was! guacamole, housemade salsa w farm tomatoes, farm corn salad (quick grill, then cut off cob, w scallion, basil, lime), cumin-garlic black beans, red cabbage slaw, crema, and grilled haddock fresh off the boat. adaptable for the vegetarians, the dairy free, the gluten free, and so delicious.

Part of tonight's dinner was inspired by an eggplant from 3SG, and ended up being a full-on bastardization of caponata . . .


Capo-NOT-a Mise En Place & Anryu Blue #2 Hammered Gyuto, 210mm
Red onion, raisins, mini tomatoes, chopped Castelvetrano olives, homegrown parsley, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, evoo, mystery pepper, homegrown basil, jalapeno, celery, chopped capers, black pepper, granulated sugar, roasted/chopped walnuts, salt and roasted eggplant.

Really went off half-cocked here -- and took a ton of liberties -- but made the best of it. Thought I had some pine nuts in the freezer. Never found them, so I used some walnuts instead. No bell pepper, so I used some very mild jalapeno instead. In the end, not enough eggplant but whatever. Not pictured are some red wine that I used to loosen things up during the cook, and the leftover oil from a tin of littleneck clams that I had for lunch, and used to start the eggplant roasting. Figured I might as well toss that in there, too.


Capo-NOT-a
In spite of it all, still pretty damned good.

Meanwhile, there was also some grilling going on . . .


Pork Shoulder Chops
Probably easier to list what I didn't include in the marinade than what I did. . Soy sauce, ssamjang, fish sauce, Shaoxing wine, scallion greens, garlic, lime juice, lime zest, etc.


On The Platter
Still more scallions . . .


Plated Up
With some leftover/reheated/boiled/smashed/roasted fingerling potatoes.

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I wanted to finally put to use a half-gallon of some 'special' beef broth that I've been hanging onto since late April. This was the reclaimed/cleaned-up/reduced braising liquid from some lengua tacos that I made at the time. A 1-inch plug of hard fat had formed at the collar of the canning jar, which effectively preserved it in the fridge. I also had some leftover smoked beef ribs from last weekend that I wanted to put into play. So, I figured a beef noodle soup would be a good way to go . . .


Mise En Place & Kagekiyo Blue #1 Gyuto, 210mm
Chopped garlic, celery, black pepper, scallion whites, carrot, parsley, 'special' beef tongue broth, leftover smoked beef rib, scallion greens, udon noodles, cremini mushrooms, evoo, salt and yellow onion. With a finished stock and already-cooked meat, there wasn't much to do here. Cooked down the mushrooms, sweated the mirepoix+, added the broth, brought it to a simmer, then added the beef rib chunks and the noodles a few minutes before dinner time.


Plated Up
With some toasted/buttered multigrain bread.

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Cooked some boneless/skinless chicken thighs I bought last week and used up some tortillas I had on hand . . .


Chicken Quesadillas
Flour tortilla version up top, corn tortilla version below. With some esquites, leftover caponata and a bit of homemade tomatillo salsa I had in the fridge. Here, the corn tortilla version was superior.

Happy Monday!

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Once a year. A bit of work but totally worth it. Mozzarella-stuffed, tempura squash blossoms (from Nichols Farm) . . .


Stuffed Tempura Squash Blossoms
Garnished with chives, basil and parsley from our garden.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:Once a year. A bit of work but totally worth it. Mozzarella-stuffed, tempura squash blossoms (from Nichols Farm) . . .


Stuffed Tempura Squash Blossoms
Garnished with chives, basil and parsley from our garden.

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Those look fantastic!

LynnB wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Once a year. A bit of work but totally worth it. Mozzarella-stuffed, tempura squash blossoms (from Nichols Farm) . . .


Stuffed Tempura Squash Blossoms
Garnished with chives, basil and parsley from our garden.

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Those look fantastic!

Thanks, Lynn. I realized today that I've made them 5 years running now. Always a treat. For people who grow their own squash, this would probably be a no-brainer. But even buying them from Nichols, it's well worth effort (aka the clean-up).

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There won't be a ton this year but started today's cooking by using some homegrown ingredients . . .


Salsa Fresca Mise En Place & Saji R-2 Gyuto, 210mm
Yellow onion, homegrown tomatillos, lime, homegrown garlic, cilantro, avocados, white vinegar, salt and jalapeno. I think we're below average gardeners to begin with and a huge oak tree shades most of our south-facing front yard but we manage to get a small harvest out of there every year.

Later, dinner prep which, as it so often does, started with some side-dishery . . .


Squash Mise En Place & Saji R-2 Gyuto, 210mm
Avocado oil, homegrown garlic, lime, baby squash, jalapeno, homegrown mini tomatoes, fish sauce and soy sauce. Just a quick stir-fry here, using some new items and some that didn't make it into the salsa.


Stir-Fried Squash, etc.

And, there was also some meat . . .


Grilling
Charcoal-grilled strip steaks


Plated Up
With some boiled/smashed/roasted fingerling potatoes. The steaks were tasty and I didn't really need the salsa here but I was happy to have it and even happier to have put some of our garden output to good use.

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Not really cooking per se but I did pick some stuff from our garden and slice it . . .


Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella Salad
Homegrown tomatoes and basil. Our garden isn't going great this year (too much shade?) but we do have lot of fruit. Whether it eventually ripens or not is another matter. Fortunately, these Sungolds and Supersweet 100's did.

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Easing back into 'the kitchen' after having been traveling for ~10 days . . .


Grilling
Had a few extra mouths to feed and no real time to shop, so hit the freezer stock as best I could. That's a couple of strip steaks and a half-dozen "grilling" sausages that I thawed this afternoon. I also grilled a couple of ears of corn because I was in the mood for it. Per group preference, the rest of the corn found its way into the instant pot.


Plated Up
With some leftover/reheated restaurant fries. I turned my corn into some esquites.

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I have a question about last night's disappointing experience: I made some baked cod using rather nice looking frozen US wild caught cod fillets from Butera. It had a good texture and flavor but was incredibly salty. Is this typical for frozen cod? I added no salt while cooking (450F until it seemed done, about 15-20 minutes) just a pat of butter.

Another disappointment, although not as big, was that the 5 for $1 corn at Jerry's Fruit and Garden isn't supersweet. I didn't know anybody still grew regular sweet corn.

BTW, I found cans of S&B Oriental Curry Powder at Woodmans. Good stuff, thanks for turning me on to it, Ron!

tjr wrote:Another disappointment, although not as big, was that the 5 for $1 corn at Jerry's Fruit and Garden isn't supersweet. I didn't know anybody still grew regular sweet corn.

There are people who miss this type of corn.

Regards,
Cathy2

There is an organic farmer that comes to the Evanston farmer's market who does not grow supersweet corn because it is too sweet. Henry did not bring any corn this year, because he was involved in a bad accident, where he was run over by his tractor, and he downsized his farm, and he has been going to the Peoria market instead, but he planted a bunch of fall veggies last month, and once they kick in he will show up at the Evanston market again. The Peoria market only runs through the end of September anyway.

Regular corn is still really good if you eat it several hours after you pick it. When my father used to grow regular sweet corn, he would go and pick his own, if the corn we had at our fruit stand was over three hours old.

Cathy2 wrote:There are people who miss this type of corn.

Well, now they know where to find some.

And Nancy, yes, I remember the evening ritual of us kids going out to the garden to pick some corn, husk it, and hand the cobs in at the back door for dinner. Along with when the first bicolor corn varieties for home gardeners came along - Butter & Sugar, etc. I really think the new supersweets, sugary enhanced, etc are significantly sweeter than even the freshest of the old fashioned corn.

Some of the local farmer families would simply pick some of the greenest ears of ordinary field or dent corn and cook those, but that was regarded as sort of "low", too little git up and go to raise a proper garden. And with a garden full of good sweet corn, a housewife could freeze plenty to have year round at minimal cost.

Re: Sweet corn . . . some farmer friends who grow it tell me that just letting it sit for a few days after picking it mitigates its sweetness. Most people try to avoid this but I'm in the camp that doesn't mind it at all (and actually prefers it).

Speaking of farmer friends, with a couple of beautiful eggplants from 3SG and a fresh stash of really nice pine nuts on hand, I decided to take another stab at caponata . . .


Caponata Mise En Place & Tsunehisa Nami AUS10 Gyuto, 210mm
Evoo, granulated sugar, red pepper flakes, tomato paste, homegrown mini tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, roasted eggplant, black pepper, red wine, celery, castelvetrano olives (pre-chop), orange bell pepper, capers, red wine vinegar, red onion, salt and homegrown parsley. With apologies to the purists, I had to omit the raisins this time.


Caponata
Chiffonade of homegrown basil.

Needless to say, there was also a protein involved. Marinated some chicken thighs overnight in buttermilk and hot sauce. After patting them dry and seasoning them up (16-mesh black pepper, salt, garlic powder, oregano and a sprinkle of Hungarian sweet paprika), out they went to the grill . . .


Grilling
About 25 minutes covered, on the indirect side.


Plated Up
With some not overly sweet buttered sweet corn (2 minutes instantpot).

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in the too hot to cook category, which is a double whammy with our kitchen renovation not quite finished category, tonight we had sandwiches: baguette w prosciutto, white cheddar, nectarine, kewpie mayo, and chili crisp; side of our roof tomatoes (which remain glorious).

ronnie_suburban wrote:Needless to say, there was also a protein involved. Marinated some chicken thighs overnight in buttermilk and hot sauce.

This is one of my favorite preps—I use Franks since my people don’t like it too spicy but it’s always a crowd pleaser!

boudreaulicious wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Needless to say, there was also a protein involved. Marinated some chicken thighs overnight in buttermilk and hot sauce.

This is one of my favorite preps—I use Franks since my people don’t like it too spicy but it’s always a crowd pleaser!

I agree. I'll use anything I have on hand but Franks is what I try to have on hand. That's what I used here, and it's always my first choice.

Tonight, a clean-out-the-fridge dinner . . . chicken nachos!


Mise En Place & Tsunehisa Nami AUS10 Gyuto, 210mm
Everything but the chips . . . avocado oil, black pepper, salt, leftover charcoal-grilled corn, cilantro, spices (cayenne, ancho, thyme, Mexican oregano, granulated garlic/onion, cumin), roasted poblanos, grated cheddar, chihuahua, cherry bombs, green jalapeno, garlic, canned beans x 2, ground chicken thigh meat, yellow onion and ground cotija.

Sauteed the chicken, raw peppers, onions and garlic with a bunch of the spices to make a crumbly topping. Mixed the beans together to make a creamy topping. Then, used both to assemble the nachos atop some chips, tossed on the cheeses and threw it in under the broiler for a few moments. After that, garnished with the rest+ (avocado, crema, etc.) and served with a couple of salsas . . .


Chicken Nachos


Up Close & Personal

Happy Monday!

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Reviving an old favorite. It's been months (dead of winter) since we made Red Thai Curry . . .


Mise En Place & Shigeki Tanaka Blue #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Avocado oil, fish sauce, cremini mushrooms, palm sugar, Maesri red curry paste, gapi, Thai bird eye chiles & lime leaves, dried Thai chil powder, Bangkok blend, coconut milk, baby squash, shallots, Thai basil leaves, bamboo shoots, chicken broth and chicken thigh meat.


Plated Up
With some jasmine rice. Damn, I've really missed making this one. Gotta get it back in the rotation more often.

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Used a bunch of the week's leftover and unused remnants -- plus a few other odds and ends -- to make a veg fried rice . . .


Mise En Place & Shigeki Tanaka Blue #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Avocado oil, scallions bottoms/sweet onion, carrot, dark soy sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cremini mushrooms, scallion tops, white pepper, conehead cabbage, minced garlic, eggs and leftover jasmine rice.



Veg Fried Rice
Did this 'golden-style,' in which the eggs are separated and the leftover rice is coated in the yolks before hitting the wok. This leads to a light and crispy texture and distinctly separated grains. The whites are cooked separately, set aside and eventually added back during the final assembly.

Not only does it feel great to use up so many odds and ends but it tasted pretty damned good, and I can see the light bulb in my fridge again!

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Serendipity led me to this one which ended up being really fun. Decided earlier today that a frosty bag of shrimp in the freezer had to go (you can only fall out and land on my foot so many times before I dispatch you). I took it out and thawed it. Meanwhile, I happened to catch a newly-posted video on Cook! Stacey Cook's youtube channel for Garlic Ketchup Shrimp. It didn't immediately sound great and watching the video, I wasn't convinced about the dish. I figured it could go either way. But with some shrimp of dubious quality ready to go, it seemed like the perfect time to try it . . .


Mise En Place & Shigeki Tanaka Blue #2 Gyuto, 210mm
Salt, bamboo shoots, scallion bottoms, hot banana pepper, sweet onion, granulated sugar, sliced ginger root, scallion greens, jalapenos/cherry bombs, minced garlic, dark soy sauce, soy sauce, ketchup, rice wine, avocado oil and previously frozen, partially freezer burned shrimp.

Of course, I tossed more in here than Stacey did. As always, I was looking to use some stuff up (peppers, onion, bamboo). And not pictured is some corn starch (Stacey calls for this) in which the shrimp were lightly coated before being fried in the avocado oil. I also dashed a bit of Chinese black vinegar into the sauce while I was cooking/tasting it. Per the video, the dish came together quickly and easily . . .


Garlic Ketchup Shrimp
Tough, chewy and . . . utterly delicious. Honestly, this was a really tasty dish, more than the sum of its parts. Even with the shrimp's textural deficiencies, it was a clear winner. I'd love to make it again with some nicer shrimp.

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Lookin' good! I keep the freezer burned shrimp in the back so the frozen elephant trunk pork loin and turkey breast can fall on my foot. Shrimp would hurt less!

I think I will dig it out and try something along this line.

I love to read about someone else trying to use up the ends of ingredients - it makes me feel happy to know I'm not alone

I would never have tried that shrimp recipe without reading a good review - maybe I will now.

No pictures - but I tried a recipe something new that I liked a lot this week. If you like green curry it's a new way to use some zucchini. Thai-spiced zucchini stew: https://www.101cookbooks.com/zucchini-stew

I ate mine with pita bread instead of rice. Rice would be great though. I think a crunchy topping like sunflower seeds would be really good as well!

tjr wrote:Lookin' good! I keep the freezer burned shrimp in the back so the frozen elephant trunk pork loin and turkey breast can fall on my foot. Shrimp would hurt less!

I think I will dig it out and try something along this line.

Haha - the shrimp didn't hurt. They just repeatedly pissed me off! Now, they're gone.

zorkmead wrote:I love to read about someone else trying to use up the ends of ingredients - it makes me feel happy to know I'm not alone

I would never have tried that shrimp recipe without reading a good review - maybe I will now.

Zero food waste is always my goal in the kitchen. I almost never get there but I usually get pretty close. I think living through the pandemic really reemphasized this for us. It's become a way of life.

As for the dish, while I was making it, I realized that it's basically just a simplified take on sweet & sour. In fact, that's why I decided to add the vinegar as I was cooking it. It felt like it was missing. With some nicer shrimp, I don't think I would have tried it but I was glad that circumstances gave me license to.

zorkmead wrote:No pictures - but I tried a recipe something new that I liked a lot this week. If you like green curry it's a new way to use some zucchini. Thai-spiced zucchini stew: https://www.101cookbooks.com/zucchini-stew

I ate mine with pita bread instead of rice. Rice would be great though. I think a crunchy topping like sunflower seeds would be really good as well!

That looks really good and for home gardeners with an abundance of squash on hand, it's very timely.

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At the grill for burger night . . .


Grilling
I've got dibs on that one with the pepper jack and roasted poblano!


Corn
Lightly oiled and salted, then a few minutes directly over the coals. Keep those ears moving, though.


Plated Up
With some Route 11 Yukon Gold potato chips, a home-fermented garlic-dill pickle and a blob of the weekly slaw.


The Meat of the Matter
After I plated up, I decided to cut my burger in half because I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish it, and I didn't want whatever was leftover to be all gummed and such. As you can see, because the grill was excessively hot, the burgers domed up. They were still cooked to our preference but that usually doesn't happen. No harm, no foul.

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Saw this little ~3-pound bundle of meaty joy in the case at Zier's, and decided I had to take it home . . .


Pork Loin Roast
The dark/marbled end. This isn't a low & slow cut but I figured it would do well with some smoking, so I decided to put it on the pellet grill, give it some smoke and then finish it in the oven . . .


Lightly Oiled & Aggressively Rubbed
Went with a combo of my BBQ rub and my SPG rub. Started it right out of the fridge and set the cooker to 200F/super smoke mode. I figured this would allow it to take on the maximum amount of smoke before it hit the desired internal temperature of 135F.


Smoked Pork Loin
I suppose I guessed right because it took nearly ~4 hours to reach 135F. That was plenty of smoke time. I used combo pellets of hickory/cherry/pecan. From there, into a 450F convection oven to crisp up the exterior . . .


Smoked & Roasted Pork Loin
~3 minutes per side in the oven, then out. Once rested, it was time to slice it, serve it and eat it . . .


Plated Up
With steamed broccoli (butter, red pepper flakes), homegrown tomato/basil salad (evoo, balsamic) and some leftover/reheated veg fried rice. All in all, a really nice meal. I was very happy with the way the pork turned out. The smoke was clearly present but soft, and not overwhelming. It was juicy with a pleasantly crusty exterior. Chalk up another win for the Traeger. I swore I'd never buy one and now every time I use mine, I appreciate how great a job it does, and how it easy it is to use. I did a bunch of other projects today while the pork was smoking and, until it reached temperature, never needed to stop what I was doing to tend to it. Is it as good as a woodburner? No, but it's only a fraction off the pace, and many times easier.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:... This isn't a low & slow cut... Is it as good as a woodburner? No...

Years ago we used to frequent the very good BBQ Revue in Cincinnati. Boneless pork loin was one of their signature items: thick juicy slices a little more well done than your pics. Their loin inspired me to make a similar thing in the electric smoker for parties: Easy to cook and serve, all meat, little fat or gristle for the meat-experience-averse.

Just out of curiosity, what would cooking in a log burner have done better? More smoke? Smoke ring?

tjr wrote:Just out of curiosity, what would cooking in a log burner have done better? More smoke? Smoke ring?

I think it would have probably been a bit smokier (not necessarily better, though, as this had plenty of smoke) and perhaps, its exterior texture a bit more heterogeneous. Don't get me wrong, I loved the exterior crust on this loin but it was pretty uniform. The natural temperature fluctuations from a wood fire would have probably mitigated that. As for smoke ring, perhaps but its presence doesn't necessarily indicate anything flavorwise. As I've learned on other cooks with the Traeger, it can certainly produce one, especially on a true low & slow cook. Here, I think it was present but hard to see because of the doneness of the pork loin.

Tonight, working through more fridge stock. Mainly trying to extinguish some char siu pork (from Jason BBQ) and some green beans via a stir-fry . . .


Mise En Place & Moritaka AS Gyuto, 210mm
Avocado oil, white pepper, charsiu pork, rib glaze (this is basically some amped up hoisin sauce that also includes fresh ginger & garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, toasted sesame oil, etc.), greenus beanus, scallions, leftover charcoal-grilled corn, toasted sesame seeds, my Chinese-inspired spice mix (black pepper, white pepper, Sichuan peppercorn, coriander, cumin, salt, granulated garlic, granulated onion, gochugaru), my 5 Spice Powder, Shaoxing cooking wine and minced garlic.

Once the green beans started to get tender, it was pretty much done. Add everything else, with the pork going in last because it was already cooked . . .


Green Bean & Leftover Char Siu Stir-Fry
Pretty much what I was expecting/shooting for. A really nice dish and a great way to put the char siu to use (in something other than fried rice).


Plated Up
With some freshly machined jasmine rice.

Happy Monday and Happy Labor Day!

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