cook: arroz caldo

It was the eve of my birthday, and I was longing for a comfort of home. My mom always used to cook Arroz Caldo, a chicken and rice stew redolent of garlic and ginger and fish sauce. The recipe called for a cup of rice and 3 pounds of chicken! Umm, I only had one pound package of chicken wings, and so I went to the supermarket and picked up lots more. I fried the wings in a tablespoon or so of grapeseed oil to brown and render its fat. And then I removed them from the dutch oven to hold in the lid.

 

There was some nice schmaltz in the pot to which I added chopped onion, garlic and ginger.

 

I softened the aromatics in the fat to soften and then added white and brown rice to toast.

 

A lotta fond at the bottom of the pot to which I then added the chicken and water to cover.

I also ladled in tablespoons of fish sauce and let that mother boil. Sometimes I left the lid on but I wanted the rice and water to simmer into porridge, and so I placed the lid ajar or sometimes completely off as it cooked down for an hour and half.

While my arroz caldo simmered, I halved calamansi or Filipino citrus, took out the crispy garlic in oil, hard boiled a few eggs, chopped scallions, and halved bok choy--I used those greens instead of spinach in my lugaw.

Unlike my mom's and other porridges, mine was a caramel brown, probably because I browned the onions too much and used brown rice and lots of patis or fish sauce.

I had also added lots of black pepper because husband said it was rather spicy. Cecilia liked it though, and I have leftover for more bowls of comfort.

cook: ethnic breakfasts and greek sunday dinner

Before Saturday clay, I decided to use up the half avocado in the vegetable bin and the two telera rolls in the pantry to make chorizo egg tortas.  There was no time for process pics as I had to get to the clay studio. Here in California, we're lucky that we can find Mexican bread at Safeway and chorizo at the Grocery Outlet. I shaped raw chorizo into a patty (more ground pork than filler from a particular sausage company) and fried it. On top I put a slice of cheddar and chopped pickled jalapenos to melt. On the split and toasted rolls, I spread chipotle mayo and guacamole and chopped green onions and cilantro.

The piece de resistance, of course, was the fried egg.

Oh my! Delicious AF, and next time I'll use a jalapeno cheese bagel to sandwich those ingredients. And because Sadie was on my heels, my dog came to clay class with me, where my cylinder turned into a small, tall pitcher.

It's now Sunday morning, and I've got leftover chorizo as well as pinto beans I boiled before clay class. I've also got leftover brown and white rice, which impelled me to pull out the longaniza in my freezer to thaw along with the package of phyllo dough. I fried the Filipino sausage with a few slices of tomato, and I added toasted garlic and its oil to stale rice.                               

 

And not having to fry the rice but just microwave it with the garlic and oil was so convenient. In the meantime, I fried my eggs sunny side up. I had bought expensive GreenPan from Food 52, but really any pan like my favorite stainless steel and cast iron are nonstick if you add enough oil. The company recommends cooking low to medium heat to prolong the longevity of the pan, but I consider a hot pan my friend. I want that Maillard process to brown my food. Also I don't find them that nonstick, and it kind of drives me crazy to not use the green side of a scrunge pad to scrub my nonstick cookware. However, I can't quite get rid of my nonstick cookware yet. I'll try to get more uses out of them before I donate them. Putting a lid over the eggs ensures that the whites cook to solid but that the yolks remain runny.

 

Another favorite weekend breakfast in the books.

I never got around to re-frying the boiled pinto beans, nor making breakfast burritos for the week. Maybe I'll have an afternoon free this week. 

Next up, a Greek dinner. And I started cooking after lunch! I started with chopping onions and washing spinach.         

I then chopped the spinach and sprinkled salt over it in a colander to sit at least 10 minutes before squeezing excess water. I then chopped the fresh herbs: dill, a bit of basil, mint, green onions. 

  

I then added yogurt and crumbled feta to the herbs and spinach. I knew I was still missing ingredients and referred again to the recipe. Good thing! I still needed to add nutmeg, cayenne (I substituted aleppo and harissa pepper), black pepper, lemon zest, lemon juice, and an egg. I totally forgot to add garlic. However, the filling was so yummy, which I kept tasting and adding a bit more crumbled feta.

The difficult part of making spanokopita is handling the phyllo dough. I didn't cut, nor get fancy with the crush. I used a stick of butter or half cup melted to brush on the 6 layers of phyllo I did use.

Afterward, I sprinkled lots of white and black sesame seeds and scored the spinach pie with a sharp paring knife.

Eggplant next, which I sliced before laying on a sheet pan and sprinkling salt. Not pictured is the zucchini I also sliced and sprinkled salt on. I always wondered if I had too many sheet pans, but they sure are handy for tasks like prepping and broiling vegetables.

I had blotted the slices of eggplant and zucchini with paper towels, and while they were roasting in a 400 degree oven, I also started the ragout. I browned the onions and the lamb and tomato paste and bay leaves and deglazed with white wine and vegetable bone broth. I then added a couple of chopped tomatoes as well as a teaspoon of bouillon chicken powder, a couple teaspoons oregano, one and a half tablespoons white sugar, and half a teaspoon of cinnamon. Instead of salt, I added dashes of Golden Mountain seasoning sauce and boiled the meat mixture until thick. I then laid all the slices of roasted eggplant into the bottom of my dad's cast iron pan. I should have put a few spoons of sauce first, but no matter.

On top of the eggplant, more meat sauce and then the slices of roasted zucchini. Then more meat sauce. Then a béchamel I made into which I forgot to cool and then combine with an egg and did not photograph because I was interrupted by a visit from Mocha, a neighbor's dog who wanted her treat. It was already past 6 o'clock, and Patrick had just arrived from the gym. I got to cooking the completed moussaka by popping it into a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30 minutes.

And I think it turned out beautifully. That's béchamel, not melted mozzarella on top of my finished moussaka.

There was no room in my upper oven too for the spanokopita, and so I turned on my lower oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit to bake at the same time. I think it turned out beautifully too.

And I was so ready for dinner after 4 hours of kitchen work.

 

Episodes of Before the 90 Days: 90 Day Fiancé and Ted Lasso later, I'm already in a quandary of over what to cook this week. Fish me thinks.

cook: fall meals

Is it time to wear booties and cute sweaters? a colleague asked. No because of my hot flashes, but I have been cooking meals with root vegetables and gravies. It started with my Saturday British breakfast; only I didn't fry the toast and subbed it out for buttered English muffin. Instead of back bacon and pork sausage, I grilled chicken sausage. Nor was there fried black pudding, mushrooms, and baked beans. But yes fried tomatoes and eggs.              

A chilly afternoon made me want to prepare a shepherd's pie because I had carrots, celery, onion, cabbage, sage and rosemary and thyme, beer, and ground lamb.

I had coated the meat and vegetables in flour and then deglazed the pan with Mexican beer, forgetting about the Guinness stout in my alcohol cupboard. And I should have chopped the herbs, but I was lazy and bundled them to remove later.

 

I turn to my Asian ingredients of chicken broth mix and seasoning sauce to add a salty umami bite to my stews.

 

I remembered why I was cooking shepherd's pie--the potatoes in my pantry were sprouting, but they made for a delicious mashed potatoes

Cecilia took comfort in her shepherd's pie after the death of her sister, and I felt compelled to cook even more comfort food. And so I cooked Julia Child's beef bourguignon but without the mushrooms and yes to tomato paste and Cabernet Sauvignon. And mashed potatoes turned into pomme puree with lots of chives for color. I made myself an old fashion to sip with my beef stew. And Cecilia said she imagines that my beef bourguignon is what she'd get at a French restaurant.

There's one serving of beef bourguignon leftover in the fridge for the coming week. And I've been eating chocolate mousse and tiramisu cups with my tea for dessert after my stew dinners.

Patrick has brought home a lot of eggplant--both Japanese and globe--from the garden. And so I've thawed even more minced meat, both lamb and pork to cook with that vegetable this weekend.

clay: branding a business

I spent the morning designing a business card to pass out at our booth.

 

My ceramics are so minimalist that everyone I asked for feedback mentioned the need for color. And so the surrounding frame for my pottery needed to add that visual movement; hence my friend Nicole chose this preset design. It’s grown on me. I like it very much now that the insecurity over decisions and fatigue of choosing is done.

craft: art booth

I paid $50 to set up a small artist booth at a harvest fair at a winery for Sunday, October 22nd. So much to do. Later this week, I’ll be tracing, appliqueing and sewing handmade canvas banners for our booth, and a couple weekends ago, Meral and I did a mock-up of what our booth will possibly look like.                      

I had texted pictures of our display to my sister-in-law, Maggie, who suggested a runner for color and some greenery. Noted! I'll remember to bring my pots of succulents and bouquets of flowers to put into vases. We decided we would put Meral's mermaid and face vases on the center table to be flanked by our different wares--mine on one side and Meral's on the other.

I remember when Meral said she found these shelves with drawers on the side of the road during the pandemic. Our mugs look terrific in them.

I'll need to remember to bring other props like citrus and wooden spoons for my ceramic display and to highlight their functionality. Below I was loving my speckled buff stoneware in the left photo and to the right of them is a photo of my black clay plates.

Meral's thrown bowls cohere better and add a pop of color alongside my plates better than my hand built bowls, but it'll all be okay. I just want to sell all these plates, so I can learn to throw bowls on the wheel to coordinate with my hand built plates.

And dang is Meral prolific.

I told her she has to submit an application to sell her ceramics at the Palo Alto Clay and Class Festival next year. However, your work to be shown at their festival has to be cohesive and yet varied. But, definitely, you see her hand in her ceramic artistry.