you. keep. on. eatin' cars.

Ja. Still not blogging, this isn't blogging, this is just pre-coffee typing to document a couple of facts.

1) I have taken something out of the freezer that no one can identify, and I am thinking about eating it. It has many of the characteristics of pumpkin soup, and yet it smells strongly of fish and smoke. No one remembers making this, but it must have been made since December when we cleaned out the freezer. I know I made a smoked pumpkin soup in November, but this can't be that. I mention all of this in case I die from eating this. UPDATE: it seems to be a smoked mackerel and pumpkin soup. I remember talking about trying this, but I remember nothing about making it. It's pretty good, if it doesn't kill me.

2) In the past couple of weeks I've twice made a very good Mexican roasted chicken recipe from Zarela Martinez: basically rub the chicken with a mixture of black pepper, cumin, cloves, oregano, and thyme; stick a couple of cloves of sliced garlic under the skin in strategic places; give the whole thing a splash of apple cider vinegar and and salt liberally. Marinate for more than 1 and less than 6 hours. Roast as you would a regular old chicken. I served with basic black beans and a quick chile sauce from Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz's Book of Latin American Cooking, called salsa de chile ancho y almendra. Really good.

3) Yesterday, Korean food. Every single time we make Korean food I say something like "why don't we make this more often": it's fast, easy, healthy, and great. Last night was "salmon bulgogi" (based on a Rozanne Gold recipe) with a side of kim chi, perfectly good.

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salmon bulgogi.

2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/3 cup scallions, chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
one 3/4-inch cube peeled fresh ginger
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
3/4 tsp dochujang

four 125 gr salmon fillets

Process first eight ingredients in a food processor til smooth, pour over salmon (possibly reserving a little marinade to drizzle over at the end if you don't mind raw garlic), marinate for an hour. Bake salmon in the oven for 15 minutes at 200C. Serve with kim chi on the side maybe, or some kind of other milder pickle.

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