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TUESDAY 30 APRIL 2002
I just got back yesterday from Louisiana. My dad was born there and it's the first time I've visited. Food highlights: muffaletta sandwich from the Central Grocery in New Orleans, a roast beef po-boy from Fat Daddy's in Plaquemine, bread pudding from everywhere.
The most Louisiana-y thing I ate, though, were boiled crawfish. I tell you what, they were good. The way to cook them is outside (they do tend to smell!) in a gigantic pot, in ten-pound batches. When one batch is cooked, you dump them out onto a paper-covered table and start the next batch while you're eating the first one. No sauce, no butter, but you cook them with salt and spices so they have a lot of flavor. I ate my fair share, that's for sure.
And it's so nice and warm there. I love the warm nights. I was assured by everyone that the temperature this weekend was perfect, and that of course it's unbearable in the summer. But to a coastal Northern Californian, it just seemed balmy. I was warm down to my bones.
Now it's back to turtlenecks and socks!
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WEDNESDAY 17 APRIL 2002
I made a little more time for my priorites today - lunch! I was getting pretty tired of Taqueria Vallarta and scrambled eggs, so I made an extra effort and had barbeque today.
This is one of the joys of working at home. Barbequing isn't difficult and doesn't require a lot of attention, but it does take a long time. Since the grill is only about 25 feet away from my desk (it's right outside the front door), I can throw the charcoal in the starter, come back and work for a while, dump them out when they're starting to get ashy, come back and work, throw on the meat, come back and work... It's no big deal to get up every fifteen minutes or so to make sure the temperature doesn't get above 300º. And it makes me so much happier than rushing out to buy something that someone else made.
I got some organic country-style pork ribs the other day and cured them overnight. I made the cure from salt, brown sugar, black and cayenne peppers, smoked paprika, oregano, and dry mustard. You rub it into all sides of the meat, wrap the meat tightly in plastic wrap, and let it sit overnight in the fridge. The smoked paprika, plus the applewood chips I used for smoking the ribs, makes everything nice.
Some grilled asparagus AND coleslaw. Not bad!
If you want directions for barbequing, I highly recommend The Meat Cookbook by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly. It's a really good cookbook - clear instrucions, delicious recipes, and a story here and there for entertainment.
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MONDAY 15 APRIL 2002
My mother mentioned to me that I haven't been updating very frequently lately. Sorry, folks. It's very very busy around here - we've got lots of work that we're trying to get finished before I leave for my family reunion in Louisiana. I don't want to leave Catherine holding the bag.
Won't I have lots of stories for you when I get back, though! Crawfish, beignets, hush puppies, waffles, po-boys... I'll gather some links and post them tomorrow (or the next day?). Anyone have any recommendations for Baton Rouge or New Orleans? Good food, not touristy, does not have to be fancy in any way.
In the meantime, I'm back to my old rule that I won't cook anything for dinner that takes more than twenty minutes - and I'd rather it took fifteen! So, we've been eating a lot of tofu. (I've got tofu tacos down to a science.) And eggs. I'm not even bothering with a dozen anymore. I buy a dozen and a half at the market on Saturday so I don't have to buy an extra half dozen from the grocery store to get me through to the weekend.
I did have a day off on Saturday, and I spent it gardening. Tomatoes and herbs are the focus of my garden, as they are every year. The tarragon is really starting to grow back, and so are the chives.
Herb soufflé, anyone? It only takes twenty minutes!
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MONDAY 8 APRIL 2002
Made myself a treat for breakfast today. Two not-quite-hard cooked eggs, cut in half and then spread with a tiny bit of dijon mustard, some mayonnaise, and sprinkled with salt and freshlyground pepper. It's like a de-constructed deviled egg. Not bad with tea, but the sharpness of the mustard would make them delicious with a chilled glass of rosé.
You should try them!
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FRIDAY 5 APRIL 2002
Beef has been a regular topic of discussion around here since last week's article in the New York Times*. I've stopped buying beef, for the most part - we probably only eat it once every month or two. I do buy organic, so I don't have to worry about hormones and antibiotics and other nastiness, but even so... I know how destructive factory farming is to the planet, how inefficient beef production is in terms of planetary resources, and I've driven the Harris Ranch feedlot on Highway 5 a few too many times.
But I love a good steak. With blue cheese. Or anchovy butter. Or carmelized onions. And a glass or two of a big fat Cabernet. So what's a girl to do?
Grass-fed beef is the answer. You can't buy it in a grocery store, but you can order it from a farm. I'm splitting an order with a few friends, and I can't wait until June when I get to throw a nice piece of red meat on a mesquite-fired grill, completing the archetypal image of an American summer.
Read about grass-fed animals at www.eatwild.com. I'm ordering my beef from Morris Ranch in San Juan Bautista, but they have a list of suppliers at Eat Wild, so you can find a source near you.
* It is free, and quick, to register to read the NY Times online. They do send out junk emails as soon as you register, but they stop sompletely when you unsubscribe to the email list. (You can unsubscribe from the emails and still have online registration.) I highly recommend it.
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MONDAY 1 APRIL 2002
I've finally hit on a compromise solution to Catherine's objection to fish. Oven-roasting is the key. I heat up a skillet with olive oil on medium-high heat on the stove, season the fish with salt and pepper, and sear it in the pan. When that side is nice and brown, I flip it over and then throw the whole pan into a preheated 450º oven for 5-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish, until the fish is cooked.
I get my nice brown crispy crust, and it cuts down on the fish smell in the house, since a lot of the cooking is done in the oven instead of on the stove.
The other night I made mahi-mahi this way, with an orange-butter sauce. It will take longer to type the directions than it took to actually make this dish. Try it!
Wash very well and spin dry two bunches of spinach. Cook two filets (or one big one, cut in half) of mahi-mahi as described above. While the fish is finishing cooking in the oven, cook the spinach in a big pan of garlic butter. (Those who are dairyfat squeamish may use olive oil for the spinach.) Divide the cooked spinach between two plates. When the fish is done, put a piece on each plate and put the plates into the turned-off oven, leaving the oven door open. (That oven is still plenty hot; I'm assuming you're all smart enough not to put plastic plates in the oven.) Pour any fat from the fish skillet into the garbage, leaving the nice brown bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan. Put the pan on the stove, medium heat, add a teaspoon of olive oil and some minced shallot or onion. Cook until the shallot is soft, and then squeeze the juice of an orange and a quarter of a lemon into the pan. Let it bubble and reduce for a minute, then remove from the heat. At this point, you could be finished. But it's even better if you swirl in a tablespoon, or two, or three, of unsalted butter. Taste for salt and pepper, and pour over the fish. You'll only have a couple of spoons of sauce per person, but that's all you need. Easy!
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