Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

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• 5 ounces trader joe’s red argentine shrimp, deveined, butterflied.
• one package of trader joe’s dried mushroom medley.
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 12 dried lily buds* (sometimes called golden needles)
• 1/2 cup canned sliced bamboo shoots*, cut lengthwise into 1/8-inch-wide strips (from an 8-oz can)
• 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (not seasoned)
• 2 tablespoons balsalmic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce*
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 4 cups chicken broth
• a block of firm tofu, rinsed and drained, then cut into 1/4-inch-thick strips
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground white pepper
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion greens
• 2 tablespoons fresh whole cilantro leaves

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Soak mushrooms in 3 cups boiling-hot water in another bowl (water should cover mushrooms),until softened, about 30 minutes. Cut out and discard stems from mushrooms, then squeeze excess liquid from caps into bowl and thinly slice caps. Remove mushrooms from bowl, reserving liquid, and trim off any hard nubs. . Stir together 3/4 cup mushroom-soaking liquid (discard remainder) with cornstarch in a small bowl and set aside.

Meanwhile, soak lily buds in about 1 cup warm water until softened, about 20 minutes, then drain. Trim off tough tips of lily buds. Cut lily buds in half crosswise, then tear each half lengthwise into 2 or 3 shreds.

Cover bamboo shoots with cold water by 2 inches in a small saucepan, then bring just to a boil (to remove bitterness) and drain in a sieve.

Stir together vinegars, light soy sauce, sugar, and salt in another small bowl.

Heat a wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1 to 2 seconds of contact. Pour peanut oil down side of wok, then swirl oil, tilting wok to coat sides. Add shrimp and stir-fry about 1 minute, then add mushrooms, tree ears, lily buds, and bamboo shoots and stir-fry 1 minute.

Add broth and bring to a boil, then add tofu. Return to a boil and add vinegar mixture. Stir cornstarch mixture, then add to broth and return to a boil, stirring. (Liquid will thicken.) Reduce heat to moderate and simmer 1 minute.

Beat eggs with a fork and add a few drops of sesame oil. Add eggs to soup in a thin stream, stirring slowly in one direction with a spoon. Stir in white pepper, then drizzle in remaining sesame oil and divide among 6 to 8 bowls. Sprinkle with scallions and cilantro before serving.

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Holy crap for crap!

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This was seriously, seriously good. The perfect soup base, with the ground white pepper providing all of the warmth. Not really heat, just warmth. I never thought I could cook a meal without onions, ginger, or garlic, but this has none of them and is still amazingly savory and delicious.

One of the very best soups I’ve ever eaten.

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I think I’m going to go get another bowl of it right now.

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Also, seriously easy to do vegan, just skip the shrimp.

Or go the other way, and use pork or chicken or both.

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Next time I catch cold I am making one hundred gallons of this and I’m dropping in a tablespoon of sambal olek into every bowl I eat.

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Go make this, right fucking now.

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Namaste.

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Breakfast

Breakfast was an omelette made with the chorizo and pork and potatoes from last night and a big pot of strong, hot coffee.

 

If there is anything better than that I don’t want to know what it is.

 

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I don’t usually eat breakfast, but when I do I want it big and hot and bad for me.

 

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Namaste.

 

 

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Portuguese style pork and clams with chorizo and potatoes

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Another one from Suzanne Goins’ Sunday Suppers at Lucques.

 

This one kept me in the kitchen from eight in the morning until four pm. Then I took the dog for a walk on the beach for an hour and came back and put it all together and served it up.

I learned how to confit. I didn’t have three quarts of rendered duck fat, or pork fat, so I cheated and confitted the pork loin in olive oil. Just cubed up the pork loin (after marinading it in garlic, white wine, red pepper, and paprika for a few hours) and spread it out in one layer in a dutch oven, then covered it in olive oil and let it cook in the oven at 300 for two hours or so. Then pulled it out and chilled it. Then, right before serving I pulled it out and fried up the cubes again, so they were crispy on the outside and meltingly gooey on the inside. And broiled potatoes, cubed up and fried again with the pork.

 

Chorizo and roasted tomatoes, onions and white wine and butter simmered for a while, then a pound or two of clams.

 

Then you just ladle the clams and chorizo into big, wide bowls. Spoon the pork and potatoes over the top. Serve with crusty bread and a bottle of some earthy wine.

 

 

 

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Something new for dessert, too.

 

Caramelized bread pudding with chocolate and cinnamon.

 

Woot.

 

 

Under that caramelized crust is a rich custard and at the very bottom is a layer of melted dark chocolate.

 

Oh.

My.

God.

 

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I am a slut.

 

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Namaste.

 

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Yesterday my mom loaned me her library copy of Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Supper at Lucques. *   So, for dinner tonight we started out with Avocado and Citrus salad with green olives.

cut the hearts out of some oranges or tangerines, a lime or two, and mix with a tablespoon of minced shallots, a teaspoon of red wine vinegar, another of lemon juice, a quarter cup of olive oil, a half cup of pitted good green olives, and some micro greens or frisee or watercress. mix it all up and then spoon it over a half of an avocado, sliced and salted and peppered. add a few drops of sriracha for color. serve on a big, chilled, white plate.

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The main course was grilled mahi-mahi in a lemon-zest, thyme, salt and pepper rub. Seared quick and served over a bed of arugula, with a roasted beet salad and horseradish creme fraiche.

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Shit, it were good enough.

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For dessert, mango sorbet with a blackberry sauce and mint garnish.

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Even the wild woman of borneo ate it all up and called it good.

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Well, shit howdy.

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I am fallen in love with good cooking. I never did think it could happen to me.

But, damn.

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What I think I might be good at is looking at something and just knowing it will be good to eat. I hardly ever make a recipe that isn’t any good. If it looks good to me, it usually tastes pretty damn wonderful.

I don’t know.

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I am having a hell of a time at it, regardless.

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Namaste.

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Sweet Potato and Corn Fritters with Poached Eggs

So, we made a couple of dishes to take to the big Christmas Eve feed at my father’s place. Yolie’s favorite, a sweet potato and chipotle dish, which always gets raves, and then I made a creamed corn with fresh basil. Really good, and they both went well with the crab cakes and pork loins he served up. I think we had twenty or so there, all manner of friends and family. It were nice, really.

I am not much of a leftover man, but we had all that sweet potato with chipotle goodness in it, and that creamy corn, and since I hadn’t done any real food shopping we had almost nothing in the fridge to make Christmas dinner with. A bunch of fresh green beans. The leftovers.

And the Cookie Crock closed for the whole day.

Anyway, the idea of mixing up the two leftovers and making fritters just popped into my head. And once it did, it wouldn’t leave go of me. So I went for it, mixed up a cup of the creamed corn and a cup of the mashed sweet potatoes, added a little milk and a half cup of flour, an egg yolk, and then whipped up two egg whites until they were stiff and folded them into the mix. Salt and pepper to taste. A tablespoon of fresh minced ginger for good measure. I let the mixture sit in the fridge while I cleaned up the green beans. I roasted some pine nuts and shredded some parmagiano reggiano and set that aside, then mixed the beans up with some olive oil and lemon zest and a couple of cloves of garlic, sliced thin and roasted on a baking sheet at 450 for twenty minutes. When they were done I added the pine nuts and the parm and mixed it all together, again with salt and pepper to taste, and squeezed the juice of half a lemon over it.

Then I just fried up the fritters in butter, topped each with a smear of creme fraiche with lime zest and garlic and a poached egg, and we were off to the races.

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Simple Christmas dinner.

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Namaste.

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Cooking with Ezra

So, Ezra is one of my bigtime influences in cooking. Besides making the most delicious meals, he also makes the best movies about cooking. And the best custom bicycles. And takes the best photos of his dog and his wife and the world around him.

If you watch these short films and then make what he makes and then eat it you will be happier than you were before, I guarantee it.

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And, you know,

Namaste.

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Food

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So, this weekend was, for me, all about cooking and eating. When we were not taking Yolie’s mom to the hospital to be checked out for a possible heart-attack, or buying diapers for the grandbaby, or going to office Christmas parties, I was in the kitchen, cooking.

Moqueca de Peixe is a Brazilian fish stew that starts with sweated onions, garlic, and bell peppers, adds some chicken broth and coconut milk, and a bunch of shrimp, tilapia, and cod, along with serranos and cilantro. Mushrooms. tomatoes.

I served it over bowls of orzo, with crusty bread, butter, and a big bottle of red wine.

It were good enough.

After that, though, we had to pack up my mother in law and take her to the hospital. Indigestion disguised as a myocardial infarction.

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Today, while Yolie tended to her mother at the hospital, I stayed home and made my interpretation of David Chang’s Momofuku pork buns.

Instead of roasted pork-belly, which is hard to come by here, I made a Chinese-style pulled pork in the slow cooker. I made his steamed buns from scratch and served them with some ginger-garlic roasted green beans. Quick-pickled cucumbers, ginger-scallion sauce, and sriracha.

Fuck me running.

Even the wild woman of Borneo ate her fill, and gave me a big thumbs up. For a human who mostly survives on goldfish crackers, it was a ringing endorsement.

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It could be I enjoy spending the day in the kitchen even more than hitting people.

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We have not a single Christmas decoration up yet, and aim to keep it that way.

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That grandchild undoes us all.

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Namaste.

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