Nibbling Along

I'll Be Back...

Just a little FYI: I probably won't be blogging for the next week or so. Jason's going to be away on a business trip to London and Amsterdam (poor guy, he has to take the side trip to Amsterdam to go to a party celebrating the 10th anniversary of a business they work with) so I'm going to go hang out with my in-laws while he's gone. It'll be nice to have help with the baby, so I'm going to be sure to cook them something nice one night while I'm there. Should be fun, and I'm going to try to relax and knit and not do much more than check my email. Have a good week!

Beautiful Braise

When the weather starts getting colder (I had to wear socks the other morning!) my mind starts to meander over to imaginary pots simmering away on cheery little stoves. The word "braise" begins doing a happy little jig in my head, and my mouth starts watering as I think of meltingly tender chunks of beef in rich brown sauces. I've been a pot-roast girl for a while, but after having some delicious braised short ribs over the past couple of years (at Jardiniere in San Francisco and Martini House in St. Helena) I decided to try my hand at developing my own braised short rib recipe. And what better braising liquid than red wine? A little for the pot, a little for me...it's all good. Personally, I think this is one of the best things I've ever made, so I hope you make it and enjoy. Whether you serve the meat and sauce with noodles, as I have here, or break the meat into smaller chunks and serve it as a stew, it's hearty, delicious, and comforting on a cold night. Recipe here.

Wendy was nice enough to nominate me for a "Nice Matters" award -- which was flattering, and what she wrote in her nomination made my day. I'll pass nominations along to Splatgirl, who is nice enough to share photos of her home and creations which are always inspiring; Lolly, who always has something nice to say, and has created the coolness that is Project Pectrum -- and, if that weren't enough, Socktoberfest; and Anny Purls, whose designs are so cute they make the world a better place. I could go on, but honestly, the knitbloggers and the foodbloggers are a sharing, caring bunch, and I think everyone in my bloglines is pretty darn nice!

Eggplant Sandwich

You read the words "eggplant sandwich" and you probably think to yourself, "self, I think I am going to be reading about eggplant inside a coupla slices of bread." But no! In this case, the eggplant is the bread. There is no bread! (Doesn't "there is no bread" sound like one of those Zen koans? Something to think about -- on a mountaintop, perhaps, while drinking green tea flavoured with yak butter.) This is basically a grilled cheesey kinda thing with eggplant instead of bread, topped with tomatoes and parsley, and I totally ripped the idea off from Mr. Red-Clogs, Mario Batali. He had a last step to the recipe which involved putting the whole shebang -- including the topper tomatoes -- back in the oven, but I said "pah!" to that and decided that I wanted to contrast the molten mozzarella goodness with fresh tomatoes. When we get a little further into fall though, and fresh tomatoes are no longer available, I imagine this same little nosh would be very good topped with a little homemade tomato sauce. Recipe here.

Fast Foodie

For the past couple of months, Jason and I have been speculating about the Popeye's which has been on the verge of opening for some time. Those of you from the south or midwest might be more familiar with this chain, but I've only ever seen a few in California. Last night we weren't going to be able to have dinner until pretty late in the evening, and so when Jason mentioned that they had, finally, opened, we decided to give it a try.

Like most farmer's market loving, slow-food advocating, food-destination vacationing foodies, my fast food intake is pretty minimal. Jason and I both like cooking, and we like supporting small businesses, so it's rare for us to bother. Of course, if we had an In n' Out just a little bit closer to us, things might be different -- but In n' Out isn't a franchise and actually cooks everything from fresh, so I am of the opinion that it "doesn't count" as fast food, especially if I'm in the mood for a double-double with grilled onions. I also harbor a dark secret -- I kind of like Taco Bell. Not as a regular thing, mind you, and most of their menu I wouldn't feed to my dog, but for some reason if I'm on a long road trip I start to get hungry for taco supremes. Also, my friend Ingrid and I both had Taco Bell cravings while pregnant.

Anyhow, back to Popeye's. (Or is it just "Popeyes," no apostrophe?) We decided to try it in part because Jason's rare fast food indulgence tends to be KFC, and we were interested in seeing how it compared. My feeling was that, as far as fast food goes, Popeye's fried chicken is actually pretty decent. Not as good as In n' Out, of course, but certainly better than the stuff at KFC. Jason ordered the spicy fried chicken, and while the spice provided mild to medium heat (I'm a weenie when it comes to spicy food) with little complexity, the crunchiness of the chicken really appealed to me. The chicken at that other place tends to turn soggy with grease the second it starts to cool down, but this chicken was not visibly greasy at all (a sign that whatever crazy machines are frying the chicken are at least doing it correctly -- if fried food is greasy, it means it's been done wrong) and was noisily crisp.

Jason also ordered a side of mashed potatoes with something called "cajun gravy," presumably a reference to the chain's New Orleans beginnings, but it tasted like ass and I don't recommend it. All fast food gravy is way too salty, and this was also just...gross. Unidentifiable chunks of stuff floated in it, and it was spicy-hot without having any actual good spice flavour. Nasty. The biscuits were essentially the same as KFC biscuits as far as I can tell.

Overall, not the worst fast-food experience ever. Maybe we'll try it again in another year or so. What about you -- what's the worst fast-food item you've ever eaten? Is there anything on a fast food menu you're ashamed to say you love?

All Food is My Food

My sister is an animal trainer and graduate of Moorpark College's Exotic Animal Training and Management program, and thus a repository for a wide variety of wonderful animal facts. When we were talking on the phone recently, she mentioned that, to the porcupine named Jazz that she works with, all food is Jazz's food. Apparently, this is true of all rodents -- in each and every tiny little rodent brain on the planet, from bunnies to flying squirrels, all food is MINE.

This can cause problems with interspecies interaction, obviously, if the rodent thinks you are hanging onto his or her food treat any longer than necessary. You, the human, are thinking "ah, I am such a nice human for giving Mr. Bunny this little carrot!" Mr. Bunny, meanwhile, is looking at you and thinking to himself, "Carrot! My carrot! That asshole has my carrot!"

I wonder if our ancient rodentlike ancestors all had this mindset. If so, we got over it at some point -- humans, apes, and monkeys are all able to share food with each other. We don't take it lightly, though: from what I can recall of my anthropology classes, other primates tie food access to social hierarchies, and humans across all cultures attatch some serious significance to food. In more extreme cases, such as Polynesian pre-contact cultures, a society may have elaborate taboo structures for food access. Even though it's not codified, every modern society still has "tiers" of food access. We also create social bonds through food. Historically, feeding a guest created a sort of contract, and the guest could feel safe that you wouldn't slit his throat that night. That may not be such a concern these days, but we still build and solidify friendships over bread and wine. Certain foods still have ritual significance in the everyday: a shared study-group pizza, a family meal at the dinner table instead of takeout or catch-as-catch-can, a birthday cake. They are signposts telling us, "you belong here." Instead of being mine, food becomes ours, and that's no small thing.

Oh, yeah, and I have a tasty recipe for pork chops. Sorry the picture sucks, I should have taken a photo when they were on the grill, but whatever -- they are moist, tender, and delicious, yet still nice and lean. Take advantage before grilling season ends.

Mwahahaha!

Finally, I have achieved victory! Ever since I was a wee thing, I have enjoyed the cookie part of Oreos, and loathed the vile "cream" center. When I was younger, I dreamed that someday they would sell a version of Oreos with no filling -- and it did not seem like an unreasonable dream, given the appearance on the market of such disgusting abominations as DoubleStufs and Oreos with "holiday" colored fillings. That day has not come to pass -- apparently the mouthbreathing troglodytes people at Nabisco think that America's already overstuffed gorge wants to be crammed with yet more white greasy filling, and possibly a softer version of the chocolate cookie. Madness.

Incidentally, I looked up the Oreo website before writing this post, and I must say -- the Double Stuf Race link is deeply disturbing. First off, stuff is spelled with two f's, people! To do otherwise is to present us with a sadly amputated word. Next, the concept itself: this site is encouraging people (let's be honest here: children -- this site was built for them) to see how fast they can eat cookies? Gross. And no wonder diabetes is on the rise. Then you click on the link, and well...see for yourself. I think the announcer guy is pretty creepy looking. It's a nice touch that they've made some sort of marketing deal with Nascar -- a "sport" which essentially involved a bunch of men driving billboards around a track for a ridiculously long period of time. Not the sort of thing that encourages the kids to get out and do any actual excercise, is what I'm saying.

So anyway, on to my great victory -- I have achieved an Oreo cookie without paying Nabisco a cent, and it is delightfully free of that sickly sweet partially hydrogenated paste. I strongly encourage you to try this recipe, which hails from Smitten Kitchen. It's wonderful. Oh, and I should let you know: to get the authentic turn-your-teeth-black look, I used half regular cocoa powder, half "black" cocoa powder which I bought here. I also went with just a cup of sugar for a less sweet cookie. These cookies are just sturdy enough that I think you could spread a little softened peanut butter between two of them -- or peanut butter buttercream, if you like things sweeter -- but right now I am reveling in pure, crunchy, not-too-sweet chocolatey goodness.

How Do You Like Them Apples?

Growing up, we had an apple tree in the backyard which my parents have since had to remove. It's unfortunate, because that was the only reliable source of Gordon apples I've ever been able to find. It's not a variety I see often. Last fall I was ecstatic to see a small paper sign advertising "Gordon apples" affixed above a near-empty wooden box at a farmer's market stall manned by a sweet-looking grey-haired couple. I bought a bagful. They were smaller than the ones that grew on our tree at home (which occasionally reached gargantuan proportions) but they were just as delicious.

The following week I sought out the same market stall, hungry for my rare treasures, but the gentleman apologized and told me that the ones I'd purchased the previous week were the last of the season. It's fall again, and I haven't seen that couple's stall at the market yet, but it's only the beginning of September so I'll hold out hope. In the meantime, there's another stall selling a variety of apples, including a variety labeled "unknown" which look and taste quite a bit like Gordons. They may be a hybrid, they may be Gordons themselves, but either way, the taste and texture is close enough that I'm not complaining.

Fresh, these apples are wonderfully firm. I don't understand how they have not managed to usurp Granny Smith as the predominant supermarket apple by that virtue alone -- don't companies like Monsanto spend millions of dollars engineering firmer, more bruise-resistant fruits? Their texture seems more fine-grained than other apples, too, if you understand what I mean by that. They are a perfect balance of sweet and tart. Their tartness isn't acidic so much as it is dry, somehow. There's something about the taste and smell that makes me think of well-preserved old  books -- but sense memory is a strange and imperfect thing, so maybe that's just me.

Apple pie recipes often have you combine two varieties of apples, such as Granny Smith and MacKintosh, to get a nice blend of tart and sweet, and a nice texture. With Gordon apples, you're already there. They retain a pleasant texture when baked, making them perfect for pie -- and I've made delicious chunky applesauce with them as well, which would be delicious with pork. For pie filling, I just peel and cut up however many apples I need to to fill the pie (I usually buy at least 10 apples, but it depends on how big the apples and the pie tin are) then toss them with a little handful of flour, a few vigorous dashes of cinnamon, a handful of white sugar, a small handful of brown sugar, a big pinch of kosher salt, and a couple tablespoonfuls of melted butter. The flour is just there to absorb and thicken the juices that will come out of the apples in the oven, and everything else I do to taste. When I make my own pie crust, I usually make a more free-form pie with the crust simply folded around the filling (because I suck at rolling out pie crust), but I was lazy and bought this one, so I made it two layers and cut a few slits in the top to let air out. Easy enough. Of course, the most important ingredient is the apples -- so hunt around for those Gordons, and if you find any, let me know!

Delicious Shrimp

Some things are not so good frozen. Dinners, for example. And those frozen chicken breasts? I'm not a fan. With seafood, however, you may be better off by buying frozen -- most fish is caught far from shore, and is frozen to preserve quality. Stores often thaw it out for you and sell it as "previously frozen" and the longer it sits in the shop before you take it home, the more the quality degrades.

This 31-40 shrimp was in a sealed bag in the freezer section at Costco, and while that doesn't have quite the same cachet as buying it from a boat plying the waters of the Louisiana gulf, it probably was frozen very quickly after harvesting, and theoretically has remained completely so ever since. (Hopefully the guy stocking the freezer is attentive and quick, and doesn't leave stuff out getting melty and vulnerable.)

Of course we bought uncooked shrimp, and we would have purchased it shell-on if possible -- better flavor. But it wasn't hard to bring these little curls of pink flesh to the peak of succulence, and it only took a few minutes. Our method was mostly inspired by a "Good Eats" episode -- broiling really is the best way to cook these little guys, and a quick brine really enhances the flavor. They're delicious just with a squeeze of lemon, but if you want cocktail sauce, you can make that too. Recipe here.