Agave Syrup

 I have to thank Russell and Brittany for helping me understand agave syrup.  I knew it was around, and had even had drinks made with it, but its most important attribute hadn't really sunk in:  It is liquid at room temperature.  So, unlike honey and sugar, you can stir it into your salad dressing or whatever and it will blend right in--no crystals to dissolve, no thick, sluggish honey to coax into combining.

I found this quite perfect miso dressing on a blog called Savory Sweet Life.

Sesame Ginger Miso Dressing

1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
1 tablespoon agave syrup (or sugar)
1 tablespoon miso paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1" piece of ginger, peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth and creamy.  Store in refrigerator.

Cilantro Pesto

Every once in a while one ends up with too much cilantro--a plant in the garden that's about to bolt, or several bunches in the refrigerator that didn't get used up as planned.  I have a couple of solutions to this problem:  the first is to make Aida Gabaldon's  Green Green Sauce, which I wrote about here; the second is to make cilantro pesto.  I tried out this recipe from Simply Scratch a few months ago and it was delicious, but I waited to write about it until I could see how it held up after being frozen.  I'm happy to report that when thawed it was jewel-bright, fragrant, and delicious.

Cilantro Pesto

1/2 cup blanched, slivered almonds, lightly toasted
2 bunches fresh cilantro, stems removed
3 tablespoons cotija or Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1 lime

In food processor, pulse almonds until finely chopped.  Add cilantro, cheese, garlic, salt, and lime juice and pulse until you have a coarse paste.

1/2 cup olive oil

With food processor running, slowly drizzle in olive until well mixed.  Store in refrigerator or freezer.
We ate this as an appetizer with pita chips, and also as a topping for broiled fish.

Is This Bacon?

This was today's breakfast.  When I pulled out the bacon, I found that I had bought "reduced-sodium" by mistake:  well, excuse me, but the whole point  of bacon is the salt and fat!  I pouted and cursed myself for a minute, but then I went ahead and cooked it and it wasn't too bad.

Korean Pancake

Over the past year, I've been trying to perfect my own home version of pajeon, the big pancakes one often sees on appetizer menus at Korean restaurants. Some versions have green onions; some have kimchi; some have squid and shrimp.

I bought some Korean pancake mix at the Hyundai Market, hoping that would make things just right. It's a powder -- just add water. I worked my way through the small bag, trying various mixtures and additions, but the resulting pancakes never fluffed up properly.

I also struggled to find the right pan. The pancakes were too big to flip neatly; I'd always make a huge mess of orange batter.

So I switched things up quite a bit, drawing from the Dutch baby method to come up with this recipe. It's eggier than some versions, and it contains only wheat flour, no rice flour. I often make it for a solo dinner.

When I made a version of this out in Arizona, I left out the kimchi, because we were using Russell's amazing homemade kimchi as a condiment. And I used Dad's tender carrots, so I cut them in bigger slices. The nice big pan made it quite thin and fast-cooking. It was part of a lovely family meal: Will made spicy pork and we ate it with Dad's lettuces, some rice, and more things I can't remember. The reason I can't remember is probably that it was preceded by Manhattans made by Russell using his homemade maraschino cherries.

Eva's Korean Pancake

Beat lightly:
2 eggs

Add and mix:
dash sesame oil
2 pinches salt
1/2 cup white flour
some kimchi juice from the jar
enough water to make a thin batter

Toss batter with:
1 carrot, peeled and grated or julienned
2-3 green onions, cut into 1- or 2-inch lengths
some solids from the kimchi jar

Preheat oven to 425.

Heat peanut oil on medium-high in a nonstick, oven-safe pan or a cast iron skillet. Tong the batter-coated vegetables out of the bowl into the pan, distributing them evenly. Pour the rest of the batter over the top. Turn heat down to medium and cook, without stirring, for a few minutes. Transfer to oven and cook for 12-20 minutes, until lightly browned in patches.

Serve with thin dipping sauce made from:

spoonful of sambal
wine or rice vinegar
soy sauce
sesame oil

Cut into squares using pizza cutter or knife.

Grilled Chicken a la Rubber Mallet

We had grilled chicken like this in Portugal, and yesterday Dad and Russell recreated it.

1 medium broiling chicken (3 to 4 pounds), split in half through the breastbone
Red chile flakes
Salt
Several cloves of garlic
Juice of one lemon
1 rubber mallet

Pound the chicken with salt, chile flakes, and garlic to flatten slightly, in order to make each half more or less an even thickness.  Squeeze the lemon juice over all and let sit for an hour or so.

Grill indirectly over a hot charcoal and mesquite fire (that is, put a drip pan in the middle and push the hot coals to the side before putting on the chicken) and grill, covered, for one hour, turning every 15 minutes.   Let rest ten minutes or more before serving.

Baby Eggplants

These two-inch baby eggplants were on sale at Sprouts fifteen for a dollar
this week, so I scooped some up without knowing how I'd prepare them.

I half-peeled them and cut them in half--Dick doesn't like the peel,
but I do--and instead of brushing them with oil, I put them in a plastic bag with
some olive oil and salt and shook them.  I put them on a piece of foil in a
baking pan and broiled them, turning once, for about 10 minutes total.

They were nice and brown on the outside but tender inside.

After letting them cool to lukewarm, I dressed them with olive oil,
juice of one lemon, a tablespoon of capers, a chopped tomato, and generous
salt and pepper.  It was delicious, even more so the next day.
This would be a good appetizer as well as a vegetable side dish at a meal.

Christmas Marmalade (Grammy’s Recipe)

3 large oranges

1 lemon

Cut in quarters, remove seeds and center membrane, and chop finely in a food processor or grinder.

1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple

6 cups sugar

¼ cup water

Combine oranges, lemon, pineapple, sugar, and water in large kettle.  Bring to boil, then cook at slow boil for approximately ½ hour, or until mixture jells slightly when dropped from a spoon.

1 small jar maraschino cherries, drained and chopped

Remove from heat and stir in cherries.  Pour in sterilized jars and seal.

This recipe is infinitely variable.  I often use a mixture of puny citrus fruits from our trees, and sometimes omit the cherries.  I usually store it in the freezer.

Yum--Roasted Okra!

This is a new way of preparing okra for me.  It's better than candy, I swear.  I asked to borrow Susan's copy of The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chesman and she GAVE it to me.  I plan to try many more of the recipes.

Roasted Okra

1 pound okra pods
2 tablespoons olive oil
Coarse salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Oil a large shallow roasting pan.

Toss okra with oil and spread in pan.

Roast for 15 minutes, shaking pan occasionally to turn, until pods are well browned.

Serve sprinkled with salt.

Condiglione: Fresh Tuna Salad

I used some leftover pan-broiled albacore to make this dish, which is loosely based on the recipe in La Place and Kleiman's Cucina Fresca.

I broke up the albacore and mixed it with 3 cloves minced garlic, slivered red bell peppers, chopped green onions, halved cherry tomatoes, and chopped fresh basil.  I dressed it with liberal olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and garnished it with hard-boiled eggs and black olives.  It was a perfect cold supper for a hot day.

Sonoran Hot Dogs

Green chiles! Hatch green chiles! The Fresh Market was roasting and selling Hatch chiles a few weeks ago, and though the staff didn't seem to quite know how to roast them (they were quite underdone), it was no problem at all for me to brown them a bit further in a dry cast iron skillet. Also the guy roasting them was wearing a sombrero and serape, like exactly nobody in New Mexico, but I'll take what I can get. The movement of green chiles eastward is a good thing.

We had people over to watch football last night. I made posole, and Will made Sonoran hot dogs, so it was quite a Southwestern feast.

The posole recipe I've evolved is very, very similar to yours — boneless pork, onion, garlic, green chiles, hominy, oregano. But I don't use any tomatoes, and I add carrots and bay leaves and a little cumin. Sometimes it needs a touch of lime juice at the end. For yesterday's batch, I tossed in some pork bones and a Maggi chicken cube as well. Very tasty. Even with mild green chiles, it was too spicy for the French guests, but they liked it anyway. For the Americans it was just right.

Will is very adept at wrapping hot dogs in bacon. This time he used two presoaked toothpicks in each dog, which seemed to keep things neat.

The Sonoran hot dog fixins:

• mayo mixed with sriracha 
• sour cream
• beans
• onions
• tomatoes
• grated cheese
• pickled jalapenos
• cilantro

We forgot to buy radishes, but I do like thin slices of radish in there, too. And I eat small fresh chiles alongside. Delicious.

At some point, someone spiral-cut one of my aribibi gusano chiles and put it in a half-bottle of Jameson, which actually ended up tasting pretty good. It was that kind of night, I guess.

Whacking Brussels Sprouts

In San Diego last week I had a fabulous lunch of the world's freshest swordfish accompanied by Flash-Fried Brussels Sprouts.  They were so delicious I vowed to make them as soon as I got home.

Further research revealed that they had most likely been deep-fried, which is something I do not do.  It's a mess, and it makes my missing gall bladder uneasy.  So I decided to fry them in about a quarter inch of canola oil, which worked out fine.  Heat the oil really, really hot and let them get good and brown, even a little crispy around the edges.  Mine took about seven minutes.

It looked like the restaurant ones had been halved and flattened, so I whacked mine with a rubber mallet.  It was fun and provided a nice release.  I think it make them cook faster.  I drained them on paper towels and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a little ground cumin.

Cod a la Portugaise

I wonder where I got this recipe?  I was surprised I hadn't posted it before, as it's so simple and flavorful.

1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme, or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1 cup chopped tomatoes (canned OK)
1/2 cup white wine

Place the first six ingredients in a large skillet and simmer for five minutes

1 pound cod, cut in serving pieces and seasoned with salt and pepper

Place fish in skillet and bathe in sauce.  Simmer, covered, for five or ten minutes until just done.  Cod cooks very quickly this way.

1 tablespoon butter

Remove cod to serving dish and keep warm.  Boil sauce to reduce by about one third.  Stir in butter and pour sauce over fish.  Serve at once.

An Afternoon Meal

My sister Katherine put on the nicest spread for a few family members on Sunday afternoon:  wings with blue cheese dressing; salmon and trout which she and Greg had smoked; kidney bean and celery salad and a tomato salad; a goat cheese log with apple and nuts.  Everything was cold or room temperature so it was very relaxing as well as delicious.

Pulled Pork

Pulled Pork

Here's how I do my pulled pork.  The recipe came from a newspaper many years ago.

Make a dry rub by mixing these ingredients together:
3 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
3 tablespoons coarse salt

Rub this blend all over a 5- to 7-pound pork roast (preferably a shoulder or Boston butt).  Cover and let rest in refrigerator for 1 to 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Place pork in roasting pan and cover.  Roast for 6 hours, removing cover after about 4 hours.

Remove from oven and let meat rest for 10 minutes.  Then pull the meat apart with two forks until it's shredded.  Add some barbecue sauce to keep it moist, and serve with extra sauce and cole slaw.

Zucchini Fritters and Sea Bass Tostada

I tried the Zucchini Fritters from the Bon Appetit link you put in your July 30th post.  They were delicious and easy, and the dipping sauce was especially perfect!

And a few days ago I had the most wonderful Grilled Sea Bass Tostada for lunch at Bluefin.  There were two small crisped flour tortillas layered with flavorful beans and rice and topped with a fillet of sea bass and drizzled with a sort of chipotle crema.  It was supported by a spicy and crispy coleslaw.  Just heaven.