pud'nhed.

When I was little, I loooved lemon, just about more than anything except maybe chocolate. At some point in my adult life, lemon kind of faded away or receded into the background of me favorite tastes, but at some point over the past few years it's come back.

Tonight after a diverting won ton soup experiment and some gyoza, Mara whipped up a perfect lemon pudding topped with blueberries and we ate it.

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lemon pudding.

2/3 cup raw sugar
1/8 cup cornstarch
1 cup milk
2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
Pinch salt
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

This will all happen superfast, so watch it. Whisk the sugar and the cornstarch together in a medium saucepan. Add the milk and whisk until smooth. Add the egg yolks, zest, and salt and cook, stirring frequently at first and constantly towards the end, over medium heat until thickened enough to thickly coat the back of a spoon.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and butter. Pour through a strainer into a large serving bowl or 2 individual serving dishes.

Let cool to room temperature. Chill, loosely covered, for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days, or until set and thoroughly chilled. Serve chilled.

sloppy quo.

EDIT 2012: How is it possible that Mara and I are the only people in the history of the internet to have uttered the phrase "sloppy quo"? We are toying with the idea of making them again, inspired by this.

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Original post, May 1, 2005: Fucking Wikipedia, man. So impressive sometimes. This post shall be completed at a later date, but the gist of it is: Mara and I had serious nostalgic cravings for a Sloppy Joe the other day (the normal American version, not that Jersey abomination, which should be called the "Cuban Reuben"), only problem being that we're not eating meat these days.

Turning to our cadre of meat substitutes, I tapped Quorn Fijngehakt as the lucky cadet. And frankly I thought the results came out perfect...you know, as perfect as vegetarian Sloppy Joes can. If I can ever find the recipe I scribbled down on some piece of paper that I'm sure has something else even more important on the other side, I'll post it here (2012 EDIT: the paper was never found).

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rarebit.

Yeah, not even sure what I'm writing about yet, makes it hard to title a post.
One thing: I think we're headed back down to normal food budget levels, after enjoying a month or so of eating like some other family, one with money. It was nice while it lasted.

Also, it's been a looooong, long time since there's been any kind of dietary moderation happening here, like sustained moderation in the form of what many would call a "diet". Which, as I understand it, when combined with a program of daily exercise, can result in personal size diminishment.

One challenge is that after a year of pretty much eating whatever I felt like eating, I have kind of fallen in love with crusty bread again. And soft cheese. And dark chocolate. You know, the Good Things. Also, I have renewed my love for eating whenever I feel like eating, which tends to be later in the evening. Like after midnight. They don't call me Ratboy for nothing.

This is just kind of turning into a complaint, isn't it, albeit one that I hope will serve as a mopey manifesto for Winter 2012 Cooking and Eating.

It's too cold for raw vegetables. Bah.
I don't love soup.
I just want sandwiches.
And hot gooey things. I feel like I could easily eat pizza every day for a few weeks. Maybe I'm pregnant? High?

Maybe I'll just try and exercise constantly so I can spend my all of my non-exercising time eating pizza.

There's a post in here somewheres.

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this is how we clean the pantry.

This was highly edible, almost really super good. I'd had dried black-eyed peas sitting around for a long time so I made a very harissa- and garlic-centric hummus out of them last night. Today I tried an Israeli-style hummus-crusted fish with it, then served it with a pile of cilantro and the leftover ruby kraut from the tempeh thing.

Drizzled with sriracha, it was a totally gourmet lunch, but would've been even better with a drizzle of a tahini cream sauce and some quick beet or cucumber pickles. I must warn you, this makes a lot of hummus.

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black-eyed pea hummus with harissa.

3 cups cooked black-eyed peas
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1-2 tbsp harissa
2 tbsp EV olive oil
1 or 2 tsp ground cumin
3 or 4 tbsp tahini
salt to taste
possibly water for thinning, or more olive oil

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this is how we clean the fridge.

I think I'm going to try two computerless days a week. I've been considering it for a couple of days, but haven't had the balls to start.

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We've made this recipe a few times without ever writing it down or really talking about it other than here. And it's because there's something just a little not quite right about it (IMHO). There's too much going on in its original configuration, which reminds me a little bit of a certain style of  vegan cooking that desperately throws things into a dish willy-nilly in order to make it taste like something.

But: the combo of textures and flavors here is really promising (why ginger and rosemary go together always mystifies me a bit, but they continue to do so). The quickest and easiest solution to the overcomplicatedness of the original was to eliminate the sourdough bread that it is supposed to be served on. So now it's just tempeh, gravy, slaw, potatoes, spinach.

EDIT: HBF/tc showed up in the Comments section to emphasize the gravy. And she's totally right: when I started putting this dish back together to figure out what parts went great together, the tempeh and the gravy were indisputably chompable. I didn't post the gravy recipe b/c ours wasn't vegan, but I will re-amend this post eventually with the real thing.

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de-sandwich-ized open faced tempeh sandwich with herbed mushroom gravy, garlic-rosemary mashed potatoes, fresh spinach, and ruby kraut.

tempeh
400gr tempeh
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup apple cider
1/4 cup tamari
1/4 cup brown rice vinegar

Bake uncovered in a single layer for 35 minutes at 350F.

ruby kraut
almost a head of red cabbage
2 cloves garlic
1-2 tbsp ginger syrup
2 tbsp oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
3 tbsp cilantro, chopped
salt and pepa to taste

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sunday potluck.

Salpicon. Courgette in agrodulce, kind of based on these flavors. Manicotti with spinach and artichokes. Those brownies.

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buñuelos.

buñuelos de bagre con srirachaioli.

500gr panga/catfish filet
3 medium potatoes
3 eggs
3 cloves garlic, pressed
pinch saffron
1 onion, minced
1/2 cup celery leaves, minced
3 tbsp white port
1 to 2 tbsp smoked paprika
salt
pepper.
oil for frying

sriracha
mayonnaise

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the final countdown.

Maybe the reason I always like arriving in Rotterdam is because it seems like I always end up walking through Chinatown and having a sandwich at Kiem Foei (two below), their bread is excellent and everything I've ever had there has been nice and spicy. Mei Sum (one below) is a bakery that I keep meaning to try. Electricity (bottom) is, yeah, pretty much just that.

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the cruelest month.

Oooh. Seriously nasty winter weather. Above photo taken from ferry, which crashed into the dock earlier in the day, with little Mara on it, injuring six people, bleeding head wounds, etc. It was in the news and everything.

Below photo taken from Stork, where we had post-run debrief and weather escapement accompanied by little expensive fried things: good shrimp croquettes and really really good bacalao fritters, I'm going to try and recreate them tonight.

Bottom: three things from Le Sud, a new vegetarian Mediterranean/Middle Eastern deli on the Haarlemmerstraat that has been getting great reviews. Everything was pretty good if a little undersalted.

time machine.

The photo is from November 2011 after a WAFTUG rehearsal in Groningen. The recipe below is from our past (and our present I guess, we made it last night), it's one of the first delicious things we cooked together back in 1997 or so. It sounds boring and retro, but man is it a complementary and comforting mix of flavors and textures that almost justifies the term fusion. I feel like I've posted about it before but I can't find it if I did.

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salmon a la 1997 (maple-soy-ginger glazed salmon with mustard mashed potatoes and sesame spinach).

1 cup pure maple syrup
2 tbsp finely grated peeled fresh ginger
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 pressed garlic clove
500gr salmon
1 bunch scallions, whole but with roots cut off

Basically combine first five ingredients and reduce over very low heat for 10-20 minutes to make a thickish glaze, salting to taste. Preheat oven to 175C. Coat salmon pieces with reduced glaze and lay on bed of scallions. Bake for 20 minutes, checking halfway through to reglaze if necessary. Serve each piece of salmon on a bed of 3 or 4 scallions on top of a pile of mustard mashed potatoes with some sesame-sauteed spinach on the side, none of which really requires any further explaining, does they?

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