There’s nothing quite so problem-solving as a chicken carcass in the fridge. Especially if it was spatchcocked, meaning the back is still raw and thus able to add extra collagen and unctch to the resulting stock. A few carrots (still those I dug before the freeze, though almost depleted), a piece of parsnip, half an onion, a dried shiitake, and some herbs made for a good base. I tossed in smashed garlic and ginger with…
Category: Asian
We made it back from Chicago in much less time than it took us to get there; all told we could nearly have driven the 800 miles in the 11-ish hours we spent on Thursday getting from here to there. Winter holiday travel can be such a treat. I’ll put up a post about Xmas dinner, and I have a couple others which predate the trip, but for now we’ll just have a look at…
I’ve been getting earnest requests lately for authentic Chinese and Indian food; up here in the sticks the choices are pretty slim, especially after a decade in the Best Ethnic Takeout City in the whole world™. I tried some Chinese the other night, but got lazy and basically combined two dishes’ worth of food into one and made a muddy (if decent-tasting) mess. The key there is to feature each ingredient in its own dish,…
This soup bears a resemblance to the soup I linked to in yesterday’s post- it’s wontons, broth, and some vegetables. But the flavors were completely different. To start with, the broth was made from a smoked chicken carcass I saved from my birthday party on Sunday, just simmered with a little carrot, onion, and celery for about two hours. The wontons (round wrappers this time) were filled with ground local veal seasoned with grated ginger…
What could have been framed as a giant pain in the ass- taking the bus down to the city, renting a 14′ truck, loading it full of crates at the Brooklyn apartment, then driving back up here- was instead pretty painless, and made even pleasant by the scintillating weather, lack of traffic, and a stop at Mitsuwa for a whole basket of goodness. I didn’t take any pictures of the first dinner: sashimi of yellowtail…
What a difference a couple of weeks make. Having fully pivoted into high spring, we have shifted away from storage crops and braises towards just-picked salads and herb-heavy sauces or garnishes. Everything is so perfect and new that a little goes a long way, allowing for the much subtler warm-weather eating that those of us with seasons have been pining for so ferociously for so long. For example, here’s something from a while back, and…
With so much work to do, it’s been pretty hard lately to rise much above maintenance mode in the kitchen. I don’t even feel the urge to get fancy or spend all day messing around with various components or techniques so that dinner can be a unique and creative improvisation like I did so much in the winter. Having said that, I still want things to taste good, and given the chance I will incorporate…
Christine has been in Florida with her Mom for just about a week now, so Milo and I have been enjoying our time together. Much Lego has been involved, as has some gardening- planting early things, mulching the ramps (they’re coming up) and putting a cherry tree next to the garage. It’s still pretty cold- tonight it will go down to a totally unreasonable 15˚- but the days are warming and I simply will not…
After chafing repeatedly at the inadequacies of my Thai food- specifically in terms of that restaurant-perfect authenticity that makes us (those of us who live in places that have it, that is) seek out cheap ethnic takeout much more often than we should- I finally broke down and ordered some stuff to help bring my cooking up to the level which my cravings require of me. Specifically, kaffir lime leaves and galangal, which I just…
This doesn’t look like much, admittedly, but the flavors were stellar. I made a simple broth from the BBQ pork bones we saved from Saturday’s dinner, simmering them for about three hours with onion, celery, carrot, ginger, fennel, anise, clove, garlic, and lemongrass. Then I strained it and ladled it into bowls of silky udon to which I added a spoon of soy-braised burdock and a big heap of kimchi from the jar. The result…