Coconut curry is one of our go-to mindless meals; it’s healthy, delicious, infinitely malleable, and suited to weather of all seasons. This time of year, all I have to do is push my metaphorical shopping cart through the garden and toss in everything that looks good. Today’s specials were carrots, red and green onions, zucchini, beans, tomatoes, Thai and lime basil, cilantro sprouts, and nasturtium leaves. With the addition of half a can of coconut…
Category: Lazy
Three meals here- all made in haste- but sharing a profound pleasure at being home and taking dictation from the garden. The first was a beautiful trout that our neighbor gave us a while back, which I cooked en papillote (my preferred method for trout) with thyme and shallots. To accompany, a salad of cucumber, cherry tomato, and red onion from the garden, dressed with cider vinegar and good olive oil. I refried some rice…
There was talk of burgers; good beef was procured. But just because I’m posting doesn’t mean I’m not working like a lunatic- having never before built a skinny octagonal pyramid 16 feet high that can be assembled on site in a field with no power tools, I’ve been frantically doing math (which I sucked at last time I had to do any, over 25 years ago; I was the only person in the history of…
This tasted better than it looked, but it wasn’t my best work. Kind of re-entry into the world of the living. Mixed garden veggies (beans,peas, potatoes, beets, zucchini, carrots onions, garlic- all added at different times so that they would each be perfectly cooked at the end) with fenugreek and lemon juice formed the base, along with brown rice. On top, chicken thighs simmered slowly in coconut milk, garam masala, and some other spices that…
I got home this evening after a quick round trip to Boston, which was productive but involved far too much driving in too short a time. Fortunately we had some good stuff in the fridge, and I did manage to get a piece of fish on the way home. I combined the rest of the turnip soup with some kale Christine puréed with ricotta while I was gone to make a good green sauce. I…
I woke up this morning figuring that I should have planned something nice for Easter, but that since I hadn’t- bad parent/husband that I am- I should pretend that I had and figure out what I could bust out convincingly. To begin with, we had eggs. A good start, and lucky, because the wife she likes the eggs so we’re often low or out. And I had bought a big bar of organic super-dark chocolate…
It’s still raining, and our stream has risen to the point where it overflows through the field and rejoins itself down below the garden. This happens a couple of times a year; at some point I may rebuild the stone wall where the water comes through- especially if I plant some fruit trees out there. We have had an absurd amount of precipitation this winter. So for a rainy evening, something rib-stickular and warming: roasted…
Alright, it’s lame. I admit it. But I had a finite amount of paint mixed, and it wasn’t going to last until tomorrow; it needed to go on the piece today before it dried on the table. So this is what I was able to pull off. Lasagna (jerusalem artichoke pasta, with ricotta, tomatoes, herbs, and smoked mozzarella.) And a really nice mesclun salad. And a bottle of the ever-awesome and love-inducing Pleiades XV, the…
A while back I did a thing with red snapper and red pepper juice, so seeing snapper in the store today I figured I’d try a variation with some carrot juice thrown in. And then I remembered the blue potatoes. In back there are cubes of caramelized turnip with onion, to the right the potatoes mashed with Greek yogurt, all around is the pepper-carrot juice reduction, and on top of the crispy fish is the…
We’ve had this wretched flu all week, and are only just climbing out from under it, so this was a meal worthy of such a hangover. (My Father is English, and when I was living there spent a memorable weekend in Sheffield- late-night Dalek imitation with trash cans was involved- with friends where we soothed throbbing heads with eggs, beans, chips, toast, mushy peas and pints of tea.) I had the foresight to soak pinto…