cook: from tuscan pork stew and apple hand pies to summer vegetables in all their simple glory

June Gloom done. I started the month of drab and dreary (for California that is) with cooler weather cooking of Tuscan pork stew. I hesitantly accepted the shank from a leftover pork roast from Cecilia. I boiled the bone with cannellini beans and then added fennel bulb, onions, garlic, and lots of herbs--parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. And then Cecilia gave me even more leftover roast pork. T'was delicious though.

I capped that foggy summer meal with apple hand pies

I also started reading a vintage cook book I got from Buy Nothing.

  

I couldn't help but notice the illustration on the back cover by Dora Maar, and how do I know about that surrealist painter? Why she was a mistress of Pablo Picasso, whose art I really enjoy despite his horrible treatment of the women in his life. Anyway Toklas's cookbook was the start of turning actual pages in book rather than scrolling through Facebook and Instagram reels or plunging into rabbit holes of Internet articles. Hwe tales of dining and cooking in post World War II Europe are very reminiscent of the kitchen meditations of Tamar Adler, who also has another book published last year that I now want to read. I'm doing a bit of a digital detox and have been reading more physical books, and am finally feeling like I'm leading a more beautiful (albeit) messy life. Yesterday I capped off the first month of summer by watching whales in Monterey. Truly glorious.

What truly captures summer for me is vegetable cookery. I recently bought this cookbook from Kitchen Arts & Letters because it's published in Europe and one I wouldn't find in a chain bookstore here in the U.S.

I inaugurated cooking from the Scottish chef's recipe with this salsa verde, which I slathered on bell peppers I roasted in my new portable Smokey Joe charcoal grill. The 14" Weber is kind of too small for my grilling needs, but then again I used to grill on tiny hibachis. I also grilled sliced eggplant, which I slathered with leftover tahini sauce. I also grilled zucchini and yellow squash which along with feta cheese (didn't use the pickled cauliflower after all) went into the focaccia bread Cecilia baked for a sandwich picnic.

I didn't get a chance to photograph my vegetable sandwich because it got eaten before I could. I was busy constructing other people's focaccia sandwiches of Caprese and Italian salumeria with arugula.

I loved my sandwich so much that it's going on repeat for summer meals. I aim to bake focaccia too. But for today's leftover vegetables, I'll just pick some bread up at the supermarket.

cook: tuscan salmon dinner for midsummer

I've cooked Tuscan salmon for a winter dinner, but I don't think I've ever prepared it in midsummer when I usually just grill the salmon, boil ears of corn, and sauté summer squash. Mise en place first. I pan fried the salmon first, skin side down to get crispy for 4 minutes and then removed it from the cast iron and set aside. 

 

Rather than discard all the olive oil in the cast iron, I put it in my stainless steel for sautéing the summer squash. And into the cast iron with some of that frying oil went the chopped shallots and then minced garlic and julienned sundried tomato in its olive oil.

 

After the alliums were translucent, I added white wine, let it cook off, and then added the defrosted spinach (squeezed of all its water).

 

After I had broken up the spinach and let the cast iron heat back up and then set to low, I turned my attention to heating a smaller cast iron, where I placed the chopped zucchini and yellow crooked neck squashes, which I had also salted and let drain in a colander. My pan needed to be hotter for more browning to happen, but no matter, I added the chopped garlic and thyme afterward.

 

Squash done in and turned to low, I turned attention back to the larger cast iron to which I cranked the heat a little and then added heavy whipping cream and then the fish to simmer for 3 more minutes for medium rare protein.

It was now time to turn to the starch. I had for the mise en place already boiled the penne in salted boiling water until al dente. Into the stainless steel went a very good jarred Alfredo sauce (which honestly was so convenient) to heat until a low simmer and to which I then added the pasta and sprinkled with chopped parsley and chives. I had also forgotten to chop basil, which I hurriedly did as the pasta was heating up.

 

Atop the salmon went the chopped basil.

I had just called out, Dinner! Before I could plate and photograph the meal, husband was already serving himself. If I do this again, I'm gonna lighten up the dish. Instead of sundried tomatoes, use fresh. Less cream and add fresh squeezed lemon too. The acidity of the wine was not enough. And there was a lot of creamed spinach along with that one salmon filet. The plan is to cook more penne and add leftover vodka sauce and more sauteed squash to that spinach and add a side lettuce salad for a leftover more vegetable-forward lunch.

cook: asian fried rice

I had gone to a birthday dinner at Benihana, which frankly is not my favorite restaurant. However, I dutifully honored a friend and brought home leftover udon and rice. Ate the leftover udon with seafood, but was still hungry. There was still rice, and I had all the staples in my pantry to cook something scrumptious: leftover ribeye steak, frozen shrimp, frozen vegetable medley of carrots and corn and green beans and green peas, Chinese sausage, scallions, and an array of Asian sauces. I grabbed oyster sauce (Chinese), mentsuya (Japanese), and Korean teriyaki (which sounds frankly confusing, and so why not?)

And into a small cast iron pan went avocado oil and sesame oil. Once the oil was shimmering on medium high heat, I added the shrimp, sausage, vegetables, and then the sauces.

  

Next into the pan the rice and onto the rice I added Maggi because I wanted the rice to have a bit more color.

 

I forgot to add white pepper. But I did sprinkle chopped scallions once plated.

Fried rice Sunday morning from leftover Saturday supper was a staple of my growing up, and the dish is such good use of pantry ingredients.

cook: smoky fish chowder

On my third visit to the county fair, I couldn't bring myself to pay another expensive albeit refreshing $7 for lemonade, and so when I came home I squeezed what lemons were left of a $4 bag and added pulp and juice (note to self, do like Hotdog on a Stick and muddle the lemon peels too!) to simple syrup (1 cup sugar to 1 cup hot water until dissolved). I also visited Goodwill and bought a brand new Bodum French press pot ($6.99) as well as 2 wineglasses ($3.99 each). But I did buy at my favorite kitchen emporium, Crate & Barrel, a pie server.

  

I had hamachi in the freezer and decided to cook a smoky fish chowder. I cut 4 to 6 slices of bacon into smaller pieces and reserved.

  

Took out the hot smoked paprika and vermouth (didn't have dry and decided to try the sweet in the chowder) and then sautéed the onions and garlic in the bacon fat. 

  

Next added peeled and diced potatoes and fennel bulb. Remembered the Aleppo pepper in the spice drawer.

  

Added a bit of the Albariño to the soup pot as well as a bit of heavy whipping cream.

 

Hamachi is more tender as poke than in a chowder, but oh well. 

  

That evening I continued reading a novel after admiring the floral arrangement of hubs. Summer is good.

clay: red clay body with blue green glaze vase

Clay Body: Red Velvet

Underglazes/Glaze: Amaco Blue Midnight; Amaco Seaweed

Method/Firing: Hand build/slab/Cone 5-6

I had red clay scraps, which I think were Laguna's Red Velvet and wanted to use it up. My neighbor, Helen had seen this vase and suggested I give it to her. 

 

And so yes, I gifted it to her on her birthday.

cloth: county fair entries or from book to quilt

In the span of 6 months, I stitched 3 quilts that were all entered into this year's county fair. I thought I was going to stitch a painting from this book. 

But I ended up finding an image of Albers' Homage to a Square: Ascending. I do love the color palette, and this panel is going up on my wall.

 

The quilt that originally was to be a duvet cover as conceived In Stitches by Amy Butler. 

Instead I used her design and fabrics to make a large quilt, which took over a decade to finish earned me some praise from the judges.

  

I did copy some of the color palette of not terra cotta, but of cantaloupe in the quilt design from this book, Zen Chic Inspired: A Guide to Modern Quilt Design by Brigitte Heitland.

The judges deemed the quilt as "a graphically striking composition in contemporary colors." I am less in love with it and will likely give it away.

Let the quilting resume. Working on the Bay Area Modern Quilting BOM today.