pecunium

tenacious_snail and I had a party. It was a swell party, if not so heavily attended. This meant we had more than enough munchies, and no one complained of a lack of nommies.

I did some cooking.

A week, or so, ago tenacious_snail sent me a recipe. I filed it away for something to make before I leave on, The Trip and a party seemed a good reason to make something which would generate 3-4 cups of stuff.

I did deviate from the recipe; I forgot the cilantro, and added lime juice. I didn't measure the pepitas, nor did I count the tomatoes. It was, barring a complaint about it not being smooth enough, texturally, it was praised by one and all. Even the complaint wasn't about the flavor. The worry I had was the habeñero peppers, even deseeded they have some punch. It was fine. There was the lovely flavor of them (they are very sweet) but the heat was moderated by the pepitas, and it built.

I kept referring to it as, Mexican hummus.

In the course of shopping for it my food plans changed, and then again.

We had the grill. I decided I wanted a steak, but the meat at Tj's was looking sort of pekid, and I decided I wanted some retsina. Since the only peppers Tj's had were jalpeños, and I dislike the flavor of them, I needed to go somewhere else in any case, so I put the meat aside (because Draeger's, where I decided to go has a very nice butcher).

I asked for a couple of bratwurst, and then realised I could get lamb, as they have quite the selection, and I got a decently sized steak. No other interesting peppers, so I got the habeñeros, the retsina, and headed to the Menlo Park farmers' market, where the peppers were not yet in season. One grower had any, and they were cubanelles, which are tasty, and roast well, but aren't hot. I bought two, so as to roast them.

When I got home I realised I didn't need to mess with marinating the meat (I was going to dress it in lemon and oregano, dust it with salt and rub it with a bit of pepper), I could, instead, mince it, add some onions, oregano (I have a nice plant, and could use the fresh; since I don't have any dried yet), and rosemary. I could also roast one of the peppers and add that, before stuffing the other pepper with the mix.

So I took out my new knife, and gave it a spin. I'd not really tested it yet (it was a lagniappe from Henkels, for attending a training session. They wanted feedback, and to convince us what a swell knife it is), and this seemed a good test.

As easily as it went through the cukes I pickled last week (which was helped by being a french profile, which makes point work easier than a german chef, or a santoku), it sliced the lamb, and then minced it, and then turned it into lamb tartare.

I like it, but as I expected, the edge (with an included angle of 9°-12° wasn't completely happy with the wiggles required to do the mincing. A touch on one of my finer steels (I have five, from, "standard" to "satin"), and it looks pretty good, but I suspect this may be the first knife I sharpen to a slightly more dull edge than it came to me from the factory, but that's a small complaint. I'd say the total chopping time, to reduce 2 oz of meat to mush, was about 3 minutes.

I took the mix, stuffed it into the pepper, rolled it up in a long strip of foil, and set to to cook. With the remainder I made a keftide and shared that out with people. It was very good, and I am tempted to make more for myself when I deal with the rest of the lamb.

The stuffed pepper was better, and the texture of the lamb was so much better than having it ground in a machine. My only complaint was that I didn't plan this, so I got a leaner steak than this wanted (because the "lambiness" is in the fat).

Since lady_mondegreen can't eat nightshades, I may prepare something similar for her, when I am visiting, using grape leaves, or perhaps as stuffed cabbage, with a cumin and tomato sauce around them, to make up for the lack of peppers.

A couple of weeks ago CG decided she wanted fish for supper. Specifically she wanted something high in Omega 3 fatty acids. Salmon is top of the mark, but I don’t care for it cooked (link to old post). Doing some research we found sardines are pretty good too.

Like mushrooms I’ve always thought I should like more of them then I do. Reading accounts of people eating (say Preserved Killick frying up pan after pan of fresh flying fish, or mackerels, etc.) makes me drool, but the real thing, not so much). We decided to be adventurous and began to call around for fresh sardines. Sardines because I like mackerel, and because I’ve used them (and more generic kippers) in the making of (insert post about sandwich)

No place had them. The only recommendations we got were for places in San Francisco. Feh. In the course of a rainy day we decided the hell with it (because the mackerel we found in various parts of the search, was all frozen), and swung by Whole Foods to get a steak.

Lo, and Behold, they had fresh sardines. The fishmonger was amused at our description of the search, telling us they get 20 lbs of them everyday from Monterey (which fishery the proximity of had caused me to think finding fresh sardines would be almost trivial). When she found we’d never had one, she gave us the one we’d asked for as a lagniappe.

I took it to her house, taught her how to gut/clean/butterfly them and tossed it in a pan, with a bit of olive oil. The three of us thought it was a swell idea.

The meat was firm, with a bit of the tooth one gets from good canned tuna. The browned bits (esp. near the tail, where the flesh was more done) were sweet, and crunchy.

But one wasn’t enough. So CG found a Moroccan recipe, basically a condiment (parsley, onions, garlic, cumin, lemon juice, paprika) which was to be used as the filling in a “sandwich”. We headed back to Whole Foods, and thanked the fishmonger for the sardine. She and I talked about gutting/filleting. Because of the issues of time/volume (it’s about 6 sardines to a lb) they will gut, and remove the heads and tails, but boning is left to the buyer.

I told her it was easy, remove the head, and tail, flop the cleaned fish open, and place the heel of a knife beneath the spine (at the tail end), slide a bit toward the head (so at least one, two is better, vertebra is on the blade), pinch the spine to the knife, and lift. Me, I do it with my fingers, pinching the spine and then lifting. The dorsal spines will want to be peeled out, which may give you two fillets, or they can be ignored; providing a small bit of crunch.

She seemed to be taking a long time to clean 6 fish (I was being lazy, which is how we got to the conversation on filleting sardines), and brought out 6 butterflied fish. She said she had the time, so she’d felt like trying it. She agreed, it is easy.

They were a bit of a disappointment. The garnish was too pungent for the fish. I reduced the cumin, and the paprika, and it was still very forward. Sardines, contrary to general expectation/understanding, are not really strongly flavored, poorly canned ones are as strong as they get, and they are still pleasant spread on toast with a bit of butter.

Tonight we try it again. This time closer to the first time. Butterflied fish, pan-fried in olive oil, and dressed with caper butter. A side salad (romaine, tomatoes, english cucumbers and minced shallots, asparagus; pan fried in bacon fat), Rice and a gewürtzraminer.

For everyone else I tossed the asparagus with the crispy bacon from rendering fresh fat for the asparagus. Me, I was feeling the need for different variety, and used the bacon in the rice.

The verdict is... cook them more than you think is ideal; they are oily, and can take it. Get them crispy brown on the flesh side, and then flip them for a moment to crisp the skins a bit et voila

Well, not really.

I am making a "chili-soup" (beans, tomatoes, vegetable stock, spices),and some bread to go with it.

Because I'm working with whole wheat I need some gluten. Because I'm in the south I need more gluten. Because this is a simple bread, I'm winging it (water, flour, salt, yeast). Because this isn't my kitchen, I'm really winging it.

I miss my breakmaking board. I really miss my bench scraper. I was making a ciabatta style bread. So I was planning on a floopy dough. Factor the softer wheat (which is differently absorbent), and the higher ambient humidity (so the flour is less willing to take on water; which I forgot) and the dough was really floopy.

It wasn't that bad, really. Heck, it looked more like ciabatta than it usually does. Fire up the oven (wish I had my water pan). Do the last shaping and realise... my father doesn't have a half-sheet baking sheet. Crap.

I've reshaped it, and it's rising a bit more. It won't be a slipper.

It will be a loaf of bread. I will eat soup with it.

Last week I posted a comment to Pewsitter pointing out the logical problems with the stance taken by a poster there, and the person he was praising.

No surprise, (since it did, functionally, call him, and her; and a lot of people who agreed with them, hypocrites), it wasn't published.

So, why have comments? I didn't use foul language. I didn't say they were hypocrites; just pointed out that the moral certainty they were espousing had been lacking when it was a Republican, and his lackeys, who were getting honorary degrees from Catholic universities.

If asking a question isn't allowed, what is? Are the comments only to be echo-chamber praises of the "brave" people who get to pontificate without public disagreement?

Then again, that's pretty much par for the course for reactionary religious types. They pick and choose what they want to follow, and then pretend all the rest isn't there.


It seems to me it ought to be harder for Catholics; we have a doctrine, and dogma, and the Pope, etc. to tell us what are, and aren't things which we need to pay particular attention to (and the last two popes have spoken out against the War in Iraq, Torture, mistreatment of the poor, etc.; which Pewsitter doesn't seem to oppose. Looking at their splash page, well the only way to know it's not a bunch of narrow minded Protestant bigots is the repeated mention of being Catholic).

But, people being people, these folks are quite capable of holding mutually conflicting beliefs, and condemning others; even when those
others don't.


[addendum]
It has been suggested I am judging their sincerity: I am. The fellow who wrote the original post said this:

Additionally, the declination of this award by Ambassador Glendon should send a message to all members of the Catholic educational establishment, namely: Catholics are no longer going to tolerate secular interpretations of our most sacred Catholic principles. Either you are Catholic in your beliefs, or you are not. There can be no middle ground...

Notre Dame…return to the fold. Rescind the offer of an honorary degree to the President and respect Catholic teachings and principles. The bestowal on an honorary degree on any individual that so blatantly disregards our respect for human life through his political, personal and government policies has no right to any honorific degree from Notre Dame or any other Catholic educational facility.

If the speaker believes there can be no middle ground, and Papal Dicta are inviolable, not merely when speaking ex cathedra (which applies, because the issue of abortion has not been addressed ex cathedra), then the plaudits given to Condoleeza Rice by Boston College, and to Micael Mukasey by Notre Dame, should have been every bit as anathema as the award being given to Obama.

When someone makes a binary statement like this one (which is broader than, "Abortion is so wrong it needs to be opposed with every fiber of our being."). there is every right to hold the speaker's position up to scrutiny. To see if they really believe it, or if it's a convenient piece of rhetorical posturing, meant to fool the unwary into thinking there is more to it than a personal interest.

So yes, I am judging their sincerity, and finding it lacking. They do not mean what they say; no matter how much they seem to be saying what they mean.