cook: christmas salsas

I'd been invited to a tacos dinner party. I volunteered to bring a green and red salsa. For the raw salsa, I needed tomatillos, a jalapeno pepper, a serrano pepper, avocados, lime, cilantro (not pictured, but probably 8 stems and leaves--keep the stems as they contain a lot of flavor) and salt and maybe a bit of water.

All of the green ingredients went into the blender except for the avocado and lime juice. Also I had de-seeded and removed the membranes of the peppers to make this a mild salsa; I pulsed the blender in order to keep the ingredients coarse.

 

I love onions in a salsa, and so I chopped and minced what I had in the fridge, a couple tablespoons of red onion and soaked in cold water. I also put it in the fridge to chill more and remove its bite. I then added the avocado into the blender and pulsed again just for 5 seconds.

 

For my cooked salsa, I put a large tomato, cut in half; half a yellow onion; 4 cloves of garlic; a serrano pepper; and a jalapeno pepper on a baking sheet and broiled.

I also brought out dried oregano, coriander seeds, hot smoked paprika, and chipotles in adobo sauce for the mise en place.

I think the vegetables roasted for 15 minutes which was too long as my garlic was mostly burned. I could only add a couple cloves to the salsa. I'll need to remember in the future to remove the garlic sooner. 

I then added the roasted vegetables and generous sprinklings of the spices as well as a couple of chipotles and tablespoon of adobo sauce and a tablespoon of honey to the blender and let it whiz for a few minutes. My red salsa was thick! And so I added another tomato which then made it too thin:( Oh well. And so I added Valentina's to thicken it again.

Tomatillo avocado salsa and Tomato chipotle salsa done! I decanted the Christmas salsas to take to the taco dinner.                     

I also found beers at the Grocery Outlet to bring.

Once at the party, I helped as a sous chef and brought dishes to the table.    

I chopped Romaine and had also brought pickled radishes to which Zan added her newly pickled radish and red onion made just that afternoon.

Jeff had de-leafed the cilantro leaves from the stems, and I decanted my red salsa into a handmade ceramic bowl.

We decided we wanted tomato too for the tacos, and I decanted my green salsa into another handmade bowl to sit next to.

Zan had bought mango pico de gallo at the market which I set next to the bowl of Cheddar cheese I had grated.

I had also grated the Cotija cheese and set it next to the marinated mushrooms Zan had sauteed.

Jeff chopped and sliced yellow onion and red bell pepper which he sauteed while Zan grilled chicken breasts marinated in lime and tequila. And all together the taco condiment bar looked pretty darn impressive. One of those bowls of cheddar cheese disappeared because I had sprinkled it on to tortillas and popped into a 350 degree oven to melt the cheese. And from the kitchen, we plated chicken and cheese tacos, Elote corn, and Jeff's frijoles cooked in a crockpot with onion, peppers, Epazote, and avocado leaves--no ham hock as the other men didn't eat pork. We were starving while guzzling margaritas and trying not to eating too many blue corn chips and salsa while waiting for Markos and Aaron to arrive. But yeah taco condiment bar is a fun way to feed a dinner party, buffet style.

(stay)cation: beach cottage getaway menu planning

This weekend, I'll be going with a couple friends to a beach cottage in Santa Cruz. I invited Meral to come on Sunday if she's free and spend overnight and leave on the Monday we check out. I looked up the location on Airbnb and discovered it's right next to the beach and harbor where I paddled my very first outrigger canoe race. I'm so excited.

And they're cool with me cooking. I already said I'm going to cook and assemble a seafood tower and will likely do a meal of Korean bbq or bulgogi, with of course, my tried-and-true banchan. Mustn't forget to bring homemade kimchi. Panini boards too with wine for happy hour, I think. Here are my generic shopping and to-pack lists thus far. 

1. Lobster (maybe) and crab, beef bulgogi and Korean short ribs and Japchae from Costco
2. Homemade banchan (kimchi, Japanese eggplant, bean sprouts, cucumber)
3. Oysters, mussels, scallops, shrimp from H&H Fresh Fish
4. Italian panini of Trader Joe's baguette, prosciutto, mozzarella balls, pasta
5. Kimchi, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame seeds, sesame oil, jasmine rice, Jagalchi grill
6. Pasta with salmon (Costco), lemon, kale, peas and herbs (Trader Joe's)
7. Beach craft of decoupage trinket dishes made with shells (mostly oyster), decorative cocktail napkins, liquid gold paint, pearl paint, and decoupage
8. Sea mug and vases gifts for Cybil and Lyra
9. Watercolor, colored pencils, mixed media sketchpad, paintbrushes
10. Speaker for Apple music playlists and phone charger
11. Journal, one nonfiction, one fiction
12. Toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, contact lens, deodorant, face and body sunscreens, hydrogen peroxide, retainer, 
13. 3 t-shirts, nightshirt, shorts, jeans--there's a washer and dryer at the cottage--Converse, flip flops, hat, laundry bag
14. CPAP & laptop

I have a little field notebook in which maybe I'll get more granular with my lists to include staples from my kitchen. My cooking is so good because of the arsenal of ingredients I always have on hand for flavoring and seasoning. I'm thinking I want to return to the little gift shop in Capitola that had these white stoneware and cobalt glazed vases (from Thailand according to the shop owner) I loved, loved, loved.                    

I had taken one lovely little white and blue vase up to the cash register when Preet had stopped me and said that she got me the one below as a gift.

I love the little brown and white vase, and it coordinates so well with my little Heath bud vase. But I also want the little blue and white one I had in my hand, and by myself, I would have dithered in that shop for more than an hour to buy 2 more because I like sets of 3. And so I am going to cajole Cybil to drive to Capitola, not only to Gayle's Bakery for coma cookies and sourdough bread but also for my ceramics fix. I also know we're going to visit bookstores and breweries, so I need to be mindful of what I do bring.

cook: kare kare or filipino oxtail peanut stew

I was supposed to cook this elaborate stew on Mother's Day, but unfortunately didn't because of an emergency hospital visit. However, I still wanted to express my love and support for family, and so I shopped the Filipino grocery store and found the fish sauce I grew up with. Rufina has some sketch ingredients compared to the fish sauces I usually buy like Red Boat or 3 Crabs, but I had to get it for nostalgia's sake. I also cooked a chili con carne y frijoles to put into my brother's refrigerator that has the usual suspects of ground beef, pinto beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, onion, tomato paste, cumin, cayenne, chipotles in adobo sauce, oregano, and granulated garlic and of course, s&p.           

I had also bought a can of sliced banana blossom, Asian eggplant, and cut-up long beans at Seafood City for the mise en place. As soon as I got up that Saturday morning, I trimmed the fat and rinsed the oxtails and got them boiling for a couple hours.

In the last hour of boiling, I also added some boneless chuck short ribs and made a thick slurry of peanut butter and shrimp paste (salted dried shrimp with water). After the meat was fall off the bone tender, I set it aside and then sauteed onions and garlic in some beef fat I skimmed off. I then added a bit of the commercial packet of spices for the kare kare which contained the toasted rice flour and annatto coloring plus some I had in my pantry for the stew. Next went in beef broth from the boiling, the peanut butter slurry, and the oxtails and chuck beef. I kept tasting and added salt and black pepper and the Rufina.

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When the stewing meat and gravy cooked down, I put all the vegetables on top.

My brother and his son said they simmered the stew on medium heat until the vegetables got tender and then spooned it atop fluffy steamed rice. Success! I wished I had taken some kare kare for myself. I pondered the repetition of words in Tagalog vocabulary. Kare translates to curry or thick sauce. I'm taking it upon myself this summer to teach my nephew to cook (and plan and shop for a meal) because he needs that life skill for self-sufficiency and be more helpful for his dad.

(stay)cation: monterey bay

Last Friday, I attended a conference at California State University, Monterey Bay, which meant I stayed overnight at a hotel near the campus. I always treat a hotel room as a vacation even if only for one night. I left early enough for the drive to also spend an afternoon at Fort Ord State Beach. I breathed in the ocean breezes while Preet took the photos below as we strolled along the 4 mile beach.

This state beach was a lot less peopled and definitely not swimmable.

I love that Preet's photos captured the shades of indigo and aqua.

And looking back on her photos, the shades of blues and greens and turquoises are stunning.

Some day I'll paint a watercolor of a beachscape.

I thought the sand dunes pretty spectacular as well.

It's still spring, and so the flora is a riot of color too.

I then made my very brief getaway to Schooner's restaurant in Cannery Row, where we enjoyed early evening views of Monterey Bay.

I'm even loving the shades of gray in the marine layers.

And this panoramic view pleased me as well.

I like the perspective this girl provides here to see how expansive the views were.

I am definitely coming back to Monterey Bay, which feels more rugged and less touristy than some parts of San Francisco Bay.

clay: speckled buff with white gloss and peppermint creme and copper red

Clay Body: Laguna Speckled Buff

Glazes: Clay Life's Majolica (white gloss), Peppermint Creme, Copper Red

Method/Firing: Wheel thrown/Cone 6  

I saw someone else's speckled buff pot with a bluish cast I liked so much that I looked at the test tiles to discover what glazes produced this color.

I like it. In retrospect, I wish I had scraped the heavy spots of glaze or maybe fan brushed even heavier applications of the Peppermint Creme and Copper Red. I poured in the Majolica into the interior and then poured it out and dipped the rim too in the bucket.

I had dipped the bottom of the bowl into first Peppermint Creme and then into the Copper Red, letting the glazes dry in between dips. My counts of one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand were too fast, maybe a second or two longer would not have resulted in the glaze being too thin or the transparency of little color between the white and blue bands on the side of the bowl.

However, I do like the application of the white gloss in the interior. Pouring the glaze into the bowl and then rotating it to get the glaze to sit near the edge of the rim, and even to do it again to get it even all over allows that white glaze to sit longer than the 3 second dip of the exterior of the bowl.

If I try this glaze combination again, I'm going to take the fan brush to adhere more coats of the Peppermint Creme and Copper Red.

clay: commercial glazes + red clay body, part 2

Clay Body: Laguna Red Velvet

Glaze: Amaco Blue Midnight, Amaco Seaweed

Method/Firing: Wheel thrown/Cone 6 

I found this bowl that my friend, Meral had thrown and gave me. And I had just bought on a whim, two bottles of Amaco's Potter's Choice glazes after watching Facebook reels of potters using these glazes. 3 very thin coats of Blue Midnight in the interior followed by 3 very thin coats of Seaweed atop the blue and then just 3 coats of Seaweed on the exterior.

Oh my gosh, do I love the colors on this bowl. 

So gorgeous.

And I love the contrast of raw clay next to Seagreen and the Seagreen and Blue Midnight overlapping. So very lovely.