ups/downps.

Not me, my cooking. My continuing love of all things seafood and pickled, uh...continued some more tonight, I took one of those tricky bags of Cheap Dirk Fish (Alaskan salmon this time) and turned it into an escabeche with cider vinegar, nice olive oil, green olives, red onions, and capers. This is really the perfect preparation for such a strong-tasting fish because the flavors are so darn feisty...you'd never guess that this fish costs something like 3 euros a pound. This is a new staple, it'd probably be great with a dash of ouzo or pastis or something anise-y.

And then I had a failure with those dang kale chips. I think my oven was too hot and I wasn't lavish enough with the olive oil rub beforehand: my chips we a little too brown at the edges and not really cooked enough at the center of the stem. And they were kind of dry....blecch. Luckily 300gr of kale only costs 0.96 euros, so yeah it's OK Mark. I think I'll ask the Staatsliedenbuurt Crispy Kale Queen if she'll give me a lesson this week.

So, backup dinner is necessary, hmmmmmmmm.....

+++

Turned out being a green apple and Hirtenkäse (the cheap version we get is very much like feta but melts much easier) quesadilla. Granny Smith apples are once again proving to be my favorite snack food, you really feel like you're eating something, as stupid as that sounds.

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trouble at the mill.

Speaking of addictive personalities...geez, Whitney. You shoulda done did a Doomsday Rehab like the Duck!

+++

No trouble at this mill, comparatively speaking. I didn't realize that this was something English people said, and I'm just trying it out. According to Urban Dictionary, it means "the shit has hit the fan", which, come to think of it, is a colloquialism I should really examine the origins of.

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In the Self-Soothing Department: I tried making some millet, and....it took me a long time to find some other tastes that it really seemed to go well with. I mean, it doesn't really have a pronounced flavor of its own other than a certain seedy bitterness (very slight). It was edible with some Thai curry paste but not really good. Mexican flavors were also fine, but not good. The first thing that really seemed to make sense was a little butter and sugar: then suddenly it was a perfect replacement for breakfast semolina. I don't know, I guess I should look at some Chinese and African preparations for inspiration.

too, mara.

Hey I also have not yet mentioned: Mara is in America for a month. I couldn't say anything before now b/c she was surprising her parents, but now the baby has popped out of the cake and everyone in Atlanta is very very pleased.

+++

On Monday I start an experimental regimen, one that's designed to corral some of my historically uncorrallable tendencies. You may or may not know this, but I have what people and Wikipedia call an addictive personality. It's something that I've known about for a long time, but it wasn't always the annoying/monstrous problem it has become, I guess because the things I got addicted to at first (reading, playing guitar, researching, working) had mostly functional and positive side effects (this is called foreshadowing).

At some point, or over a long period of time, this changed, I guess mostly in the last 5 or 6 years, probably in conjunction with our closing of our record shop, because I no longer had to "be somewhere" every day. So things gradually got worse. And by now I'm at the point where my problem is not only claustrophobically, profoundly frustrating, but undeniably severely detrimental to most areas of my health as well.

So! I figure that if the world is going to end in a few months, it would be nice by then to have at least figured out some small ways to understand/manage/control myself so that I'm not the kind of used-up, tattered thing of a person I was as of last week. You know, so I'm in decent shape when I have to fight off the apocalypse zombies that will eventually try to lurch their way into our (nonexistent) storm cellar.

So that's what all this is about. OK! Nice work everyone...thanks for sharing. See you tomorrow, it's Day Four I think.

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status report.

Hey, maybe I forgot to tell you guys!!! There's going to be some boring, boring-ass posts coming up. Here's an example:

+++

Saturday night. Alone, sober, straight, and....calm. Possibly even happy, and if not happy, then at least peaceful. I felt very good all day even though I didn't really do anything to tax my resources. I just did some recording, and now I'm about to watch the one TV show that I actually wait for and sometimes consider basing plans around b/c I don't have a way to record TV. The Good Wife. There, I said it. Maybe I'll make some popcorn.

+++

acquisitions/research.

I don't know what I imagined. I thought I vaguely remembered lots and lots of wonderful and healthy non-wheat-based grains and snack products at the Natuurwinkel, but I guess that's because I wasn't actually shopping for them at the time.

In reality: from a grain perspective, there's quinoa, rice, buckwheat, amaranth, and millet. I'm still quinoa-shy from a couple of stomachaches a couple years ago; rice I find nutritionally suspicious; amaranth I generally find to have a gross and alien texture. That leaves buckwheat and millet, both of which I bought, along with kale, almond butter, and a couple other things for normal eating.

+++

I also bought some "just in case" foods. For example, what happens if I start panicking about never having a marginally-edible goo-filled chocolate cupcake ever again? How will I know if these things exist in a gluten-free world? I had to test one of the snack products to see just how disappointed I would be at this future emergency date (see above and bottom).

Below: again, more emergency supplies.

+++

Now, this. Not exactly bad. I give it a 4 out of 10, which goes up to a 6.5/10 if you only eat the gooey center and throw the rest away, as I eventually did. In any case, this is obviously not a "regular" snack: it's just as unhealthy as any other highly-processed thing, nutritionless and hydrogenated, it's just that the grains in question here are corn and rice flours.

Conclusion: not really worth eating.

UPDATE: Emergency noodles also tasted (buckwheat/sweet potato). They cook in 4 minutes, had them with scallions, furikake, sriracha, and a pat of butter. Everything's going to be just fine.

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day three.

Why hello there. Part of the problem with casually blogging this kind of "life correction" is that these first few days are largely transitional and not very interesting, especially if I'm not disabled by the shame of cumulative failure and thus desperate to sort my head out via writing.

If, like now for example, I'm in a good (dare i say "healthy"?) frame of mind, well....there's just not much to say because I don't want to go digging around in there if everything's kind of OK, you know, "there" (points at head).

+++

Still, there's food to talk about I guess, as always. I realized last night that I must solve this problem of "needing bread texture." One of the not-so-secret secrets to my incredible weight gain over the past 6 months has been lots of bready and crackery things. How does one satisfyingly snack without this gluten-y chewy-crunchy toothsomeness? Without resorting to potato chips and corn bread I mean. It's a good question. Popcorn is a provocative suggestion but I fear for my teeth. This is the most promising possibility but it means I have to learn to bake.

+++

Discipline, my boy, that's going to be your snack food from now on. Clandestine nibbles of self-control. Yummy.

+++

Nonetheless, a brother does have to eat something, doesn't he? I am now about to be forcing myself to go outside and go to the Natuurwinkel (which it hasn't actually been called in years, but they were changing the name so often for a while I just stopped learning the new names) to look for non-gluten noodles (brown rice? buckwheat?) and fuck if I can think of any fruit or vegetable I'm truly interested in but I've got to find something. Maybe I'll buy a head of kale and finally try that roasted kale chip thing.

+++

Can you at least feign some enthusiasm, brother? Come on.

+++

day two.

Once or twice a year I consider writing about something different in this space, something more real, or real in a very different way than this is usually real, and I'm having that feeling again right now. I assume it's that there's something I really need to "write my way through" at the moment, and I've almost always learned something from reading other people's attempts at doing this.

It'll be an experiment and it'll hopefully start very soon.

+++

There's still dinner to think about, as always. All I've had today is a couple morsels of chicken and some almonds and some tea. I need to get to the store but I've been procrastinating for hours about taking a shower and putting on clothes (possibly one of the "areas for improvement" we'll talk about soon)...I finally got the shower done a few minutes ago, and...yes, ok, it was a very good idea that should've been looked at sooner.

The next step will hopefully bring me to the store and then we'll have something extraordinary for dinner. Or, you know, something.

+++

return of celiac boy.

I've written about it before here, but in case you don't hang on my every word: when I was little I had celiac disease. At some point it "went away" and I was able to eat like a "normal person".

Fast forward to now: after a year or twenty of unhealthy living, I am starting to notice that I don't feel 100% awesome. There are many obvious reasons for this.

But last year was more toxic than most, and right now I feel the need to tweak some of my inputs to see what if any difference they have on my output. And for a number of reasons, I'm a trifle suspicious that my body isn't handling gluten all that well any more. 

So, I'm trying some time without it. At least a month. This means, among other things, no beer, which is simultaneously tragic and awesome, more on this additional challenge later.

+++

Unsurprisingly, I will need some fun things to cook. In this space will be some suggestions from ze gluten-free community. Soonish.

Honey-Roasted Cinnamon-Walnut Butter.
Slaw.
Kale with Sausage and White Beans.
Sichuan Cucumber Salad.

+++

sweet, greens, made of this, etc.

This totally looks like something boring you'd see on one of those "special diet" websites, but it's what I had for breakfast today and it's actually super tasty and I will be making it again very soon.

+++

sweet potato + greens.

4 big handfuls of fresh spinach, or possibly kale
1 clove garlic, minced, 2 cloves if you don't have social/romantic plans
1 tbsp EVOO

1 sweet potato, cubed small
1 red onion, chopped
1 pinch ground cumin
1 pinch garam masala
2 tbsp EVOO
salt and pepper to taste

+++

Do the spinach/kale and garlic as if you're sauteeing greens and garlic for a sandwich or something. Remove them and set aside. Saute the rest of the ingredients on medium-low heat until the sweet potato is done. Then add the spinach/garlic mixture back in and season to taste.

frends.

OK, so one last blast of alcohol and gluten and socialismizing before a period of thoughtful and rejuvenative asceticism. File under Menu Planning, please.

+++

mussels in escabeche.
crostini of endive (witlof)/onion/balsamic compote with warm goat cheese.


seared scallops with pomegranate reduction and beurre blanc; arugula salad with pomegranate-balsamic vinaigrette.


codpiece time capsule: MSC cod with cajun spices; corn/scallion/red pepper relish; calvados/crayfish cream; roasted garlic mash (here).


grand marnier souffle with maple infusion.


bundled up collabradoodle friends biking 20 minutes home in the relentless Siberian frost.
























+++

belgian endive compote.

2 Belgian endives, julienned
2 biggish onions, sliced thin
2 to 4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter over low heat in saucepan. Add endive and onion, caramelize for 30 minutes over lowest heat possible, flipping pile over every 5-10 minutes. When almost all liquid is gone, add balsamic and sugar, continue to caramelize for 10-15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, chop compote into whatever form factor you need, or maybe you could have done this at the beginning if you'd known what you were going to be using it for.

bok bok b-bokking.

This is bokking: smoked herring that's been fried, basically the same thing as what the British would call a kipper. Fried. It's very cheap, €1.35 per piece like the one above, and if you like herring, or sardines, or any omega-rich healthy small fish, this is worth looking at.

I got mine from Viscenter Volendam on the Kinkerstraat, which I find to be a pretty fair and interesting fishmonger with the broadest selection of both prepared and raw seafood on my side of town. They could be slightly better about carrying and/or letting you know which fish are MSC (responsibly fished), but for example this bokking was advertised as "MSC bokking".

I'm filing this under "Amsterdam Eating" because for me a trip to Viscenter Volendam would be and always has been an interesting and informative lunch that is very Dutch and not touristy at all. And probably less than 4 euro per person whether you get a fried something or a sandwich. Plus you're right at Ten Katemarkt (general market needs) and Suriya Food (decent Surinamese sandwiches) and a couple of new Turkish bakeries with good-looking lunch options (a few doors east of Viscenter Volendam). And there's a newish bar over there that I like called Bax (Ten Katestraat 119).

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spanglutch.

Above: Cafe De Spuyt.

+++

Here in the Netherlands and maybe other countries, I don't know, they sell handy bags of de-shelled cooked mussels in the freezer, cheaply, less than 3 euros per pound. I never quite understood what these could be useful for until tonight. This was a José Andrés recipe (from the book I never cooked) but I went completely bachelorstyle on it and destroyed its technical integrity in the interest of speed and convenience. And it's something I'm now going to make all the time.

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mussels in escabeche.

500gr cooked mussel flesh from the freezer (so, no shells)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 big garlic cloves, sliced thinly
1 tsp orange zest
3 tbsp orange juice
1/2 tbsp pimentón
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp fresh rosemary
1 tbsp fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste

You could probably do something smarter and/or safer given these ingredients, but here's what I did: I opened a bag of still-frozen mussels, threw them in a covered pot with two big glugs of olive oil then let them cook/steam for 10 minutes or so. This was apparently enough to defrost them, hopefully in a way that doesn't result in my imminent death.

Then I separated them from the liquid in the pot and reduced the liquid for a few minutes, then I threw all the rest of the ingredients in (except the reserved mussels) and cooked for like 10 minutes, and poured that whole mess over the reserved mussels and put the whole thing in the fridge overnight, supposedly they are better made the night before serving. Serve via toothpicks or grilled/toasted bread, I imagine...this would also be a knockout summertime double bill with the famous salpicon.

UPDATE: I served these, and though they were all eaten, mostly by Noops, the general reaction was skepticism, possibly b/c everyone involved had read the above description of how carelessly I'd prepared them with regard to food safety.

But also I think that maybe serving them with a stack of buttery crackers might have been more inviting than the toothpick option. I also thought they were totally excellent on a piece of buttered crusty bread.

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leafy green.

Tiny steps toward New Concepts in Dieting: kale and feta frittata with caramelized onions, smoked paprika and nutmeg. Based on this, pretty reliably great.

+++

ccccccccc.

Cold. It's cold. Minus 7 Celsius. It's bordering on unpleasant. Helpfully, there's wine.

+++

terrific, pacific.

We need more vegetables. Back in our former lives, we vaguely remember making a couple of broccoli things that we used to eat all the time, but I can only seem to find this one, from an oft-used and now dilapidated and barely-usable pan-Asian cookbook called Terrific Pacific by Anya von Bremzen.

You can see that this was a well-loved cookbook, despite the mid-90s graphic design nightmare that is the cover. That is the whole book really. As a physical object, this thing is quaintly misguided, dated, and, um, shoddy (! damn, grrl, wtf? It uses Curlz MT, OK?).

But the content! I'd kind of forgotten about it until this week, but looking at it again, it's one of the most useful cookbooks we own, almost every sidebar is informative in one way or another, and the recipes are well-selected and authentic.

Since it's only $0.01 from Amazon I should buy another one, because as you can see, this one has fallen apart into 10 or 11 sections. Not so useful for actually finding anything, but kind of nice as a random-access nostalgia generator: for example, the "Cooking Squid" page sticking out of the top reminds me of one of my earliest bachelor gourmet cooking attempts, where I actually did that thing that cookbooks always fucking tell you to do. "Go see your local Asian fishmonger for the freshest (and cheapest!) fish around."

I went to Buford Highway to one of the "International Farmers Markets" (really just a big Asian grocery store), and as the only non-Asian person there, I must have provided a few minutes of good entertainment trying to pantomime "squid" and "dead, please" to the non-English-speaking guy with the dirty apron and the big knife.

But when I got it home, it was in fact squid and thankfully dead. And I did cook it the way Terrific Pacific told me to (3 minutes, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, basil, lime, sugar, cilantro, mint, basil). And while I was doing so, a repairman came to fix something, probably something one of our friends had pissed on or threw up on or otherwise destroyed, and he said: "Man, what the hell you cooking? You a chef or something? Smells like a damn restaurant in here...I got to get me some lunch after this".  

+++

broccoli with miso sauce.

2 tbsp shiro miso
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 and 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp raw sugar
2/3 cup chicken or vegetable broth
2 tsp sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

+++

pock pock.

When the hangover strikes: strike back with ma po tofu and a frozen pizza.

+++

ma po tofu.

500g tofu
90g ground beef or pork
1/2 cup scallion whites, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1 tbsp Chinese chili bean sauce
1 tbsp Chinese black bean sauce
1/2 tsp shirichi togarashi

1 tsp chilli oil
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp dry sherry
1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil
1.5 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1.5 tbsp cold water
1 tsp szechuan peppercorn, toasted, ground, and well-sifted
Boiled white rice to serve

+++

evil twin.

Two new beer places finally visited last night: Beer Temple and Cafe De Spuyt.

Well neither place is really "new": Beer Temple's probably been there a year or two and de Spuyt has supposedly been there for 50 years.

I wish I'd gone to de Spuyt much much sooner, it's my kind of room: dark wood and red walls, seats at an actual bar, and 100 interesting beers. It's been on my list of recommendations for a long time, so it was good to verify that it's totally worth recommending.

Beer Temple is quite different, run by the Arendsnest people and focusing on American microbrewed ales. The ambience is fine, a bit sterile but at least it's nice and dark. Prices are a little expensive, but most of these beers can't be found anywhere else in this neck of the woods, so it's all about priorities. One extra nice thing about Beer Temple is that for snacks they offer unusual trappist cheeses and some bootykicking chorizo from Frank's Smoke House.

It was all, yes, you guessed it: nice.

+++

pud'nhed.

I've seriously been living like a lazy retired person for the last month (versus an industrious retired person), and I really can't remember the last time I've enjoyed doing so little so much.

There's almost no guilt at all: I just kind of wake up whenever, usually around 11. I have one or two cups of coffee and shoot the shit with Mara, at which point there's often the first discussion of the day regarding what's for dinner.

Then I fuck around online for a bit looking for recipes and/or stretch some work-related task that should take 10 minutes into something like 2 hours. Throughout we will typically engage in some sort of advanced kung fu dancing or hallway battle or general horseplay to liven things up.

I usually threaten to work out at this point but never end up doing it. Sometimes I take a shower regardless.

Then about 50% of the time we've been taking a nap around 3 or 4. After which we get up and possibly play Scrabble and I go to the store and then we make dinner or we make dinner and watch a movie or some other combination of those activities.

Around 7pm I sometimes like to watch Eggheads or one of TLC's makeover shows (during which I am actually saying to my TV screen things like "Oh you're not going to put her in that, are you)?. Then we either eat or watch a movie or fuck around on the internet for a bit or whatever leisure activity we didn't do before dinner. Then we go to bed and read for a while.

It's about to end, but while it lasted it was AWESOME.

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When I was little, I wasn't really the ahem, bleccchhhhhhhh "foodie" I am today. I was a celiac kid, so I didn't eat the same way most other children ate until I "grew out of" my illness/allergy (more on this soon, I'm considering returning to a gluten-free diet for a while). I tended to fixate on sweet things more than savory.  One of my absolute favorite things was either Rice Krispies or Frosted Flakes with blueberries and/or bananas, I've been fantasizing about it lately (when I say fantasize, I mean in a wholesome way, like imagining a version of Momofuku's "cereal milk" with blueberries and bananas).

I also 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 my 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 Dun Yong gyoza, Mara whipped up a perfect lemon pudding topped with blueberries and we ate it. That's the whole story. Supersatisfying.

+++

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.

+++

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

+++

fridgecleaner.

I've made this recipe a few times without ever writing it down or really talking about it, a lack of commitment that probably exists because there's something just a little not quite right about it in me opinion. There's too much going on in its original configuration, reminiscent of a certain style of  vegan cooking that throws things into a dish all willy-nilly in a desperate effort to make it taste like something.

But here the combo of textures and flavors 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 mine wasn't vegan, but I will maybe 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

Cut tempeh crosswise into 0.5 cm thick slices. Combine rest of ingredients and marinate tempeh in this for a couple of hours. Bake uncovered in a single layer for 35 minutes at 350F.

ruby kraut
almost a head of red cabbage, sliced as thinly as you have patience for
2 cloves garlic, minced fine
2 tbsp ginger syrup
2 tbsp light olive oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
3 tbsp cilantro, chopped
salt and pepa to taste

Combine.

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sunday potluck.

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

+++

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

+++

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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feelin' froggy.

Blogging like the wind I am. This will probably turn into a discussion of one of the following: our new refrigerators; what to do with current leftovers; or Moroccan bread.

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basbousa.

Wow, I just had a blip of a flashback/fantasy where I wrote a piece of code that went out to the online TV Guide, looked at the three to seven Hollywood films that are on the major Dutch networks every night, then went out to Metacritic and found out their metascores and averaged them, so I could have like a daily Cultural Apocalypse Quotient just handed to me.

Tonight's is a good one: we have Demolition Man (34/100), The Saint (50/100), Night at the Museum 2 (42/100), A Cinderella Story (25/100), and Intolerable Cruelty, which gets a 71 out of 100, BUT unfortunately stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, for whom Mara and I harbor such an irrational hatred that we are unable to watch any movie featuring her except High Fidelity (79/100), so there would be some automatic adjustment code happening for special cases like this.

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Ummm....right. A few days ago I sent Mara an article from Serious Eats about 10 great winter desserts featuring oranges or something, oh wait here it is. I sent it to her because she really likes winter oranges and because I really like it when someone makes dessert for me.

Her choice from that list was the Orange Semolina Cake, which sounded great and was an interesting recipe (you puree two oranges whole, skins and all, for example): little did I know that it was essentially a recipe for one of my favorite desserts of, if not all time, then of the last 5 years or so: basbousa. Anyway, it turned out really really authentic-tasting, and if you want some, come by, 'cause there's lots.

Speaking of which, this recipe: it makes an imposingly dense cake that you will want to share with other people. We tripled the amount of syrup in the original recipe because that's the only way it really seemed like the basbousa that I know.

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orange semolina cake (aka basbousa, revani).

syrup
2 cups sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tsp orange blossom water
2 and 1/4 cup water

cake
2 almost softball-sized navel oranges, scrubbed
3/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup sugar
5 large eggs
2 cups semolina
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup almond flour
1 cup untoasted almonds with skins, chopped

Fill a medium pot halfway with water. Add oranges and boil until softened, about 45-60 minutes, you might have to add more water. Drain and let cool. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9 1/2 inch cake pan.

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, lemon juice, orange blossom water, and water. Bring heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. Let mixture come to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 6 minutes. Let cool.

Quarter oranges and remove the seeds but not the skin. Place oranges in a food processor and pulse until you have a smooth pulp. In a large bowl, combine orange pulp, oil, sugar, and eggs. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. In a small bowl, whisk together semolina, baking powder, and almond flour. Stir dry ingredients into orange mixture.

Pour batter into pan and garnish top with chopped almonds. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 40 minutes, but keep an eye on the almonds on top, ours browned really fast and we had to cover the top with foil. Cool cake for ten minutes then pour syrup over the top.

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space invadors.

In progress, based on this but the below proportions/ratios seem to work OK.

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niu rou mian (sichuan beef/noodle soup).

1/8 cup peanut oil
a 2 1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, cut into 1/3-inch-thick rounds, each smashed with flat side of knife
3 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 cups chopped onions
2 1/2 tbsp chili bean paste (Sichuan hot bean paste; dou ban jiang)
3 whole green onions, trimmed, plus 2 cups chopped green onions (for garnish)

1/2 cup (or more) soy sauce (do not use low-sodium)
3-4 whole star anise
2 tbsp raw sugar
1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
1 pound eggless Chinese wheat noodles (Shandong la mian)
2 to 3 cups bok choy, sliced
Chopped fresh cilantro (for garnish)

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x=2012.

This entry is in-progress. I could just save it as a draft, but I never finish anything I save as a draft, and I would like to finish this.

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I really thought I was going to write some kind of year-end wrapup for 2011. I had all that time and everything, from, say, 21 December til, say, now, and then, yeah, nothing happened. Excessive punctuation happened.

OK, useful things too. Reorganizing the apartment happened. Going out like normal people happened.

I read something about introverts a while back that seemed familiar enough to where I kind of adopted it as an explanation for why I do things. It basically said something like "extroverts thrive on social contact and are energized by it, whereas introverts are worn down by it and need time to process their experiences and recharge before continuing to be social", or something along these lines. 

And basically for me, 2011 was a year of downright historical amounts of social contact, so it would make sense that the quiet aftermath would involve a proportional amount of processing time. I think at some point around October it was almost like I couldn't handle any new social/experiential input b/c I had this backlog of recent input shit that needed dealt with. 

I mean yes, also, perspective: it wasn't like any of this just "happened" to me. I did it all to myself. But yeah, the two big new things I did this year, I did them at the same time: one work-related and planned, one personal and totally unplanned, and together they just tore my unprepared ass up.

What's the opposite of a phoenix? At a certain point I just devolved into this frustrated, selfish, burned-out, more-unhealthy-than-usual version of myself because it seemed like I was constantly failing at everything, including the existing personal life I'd enjoyed pre-2011.

Lessons Were Learned. Personal Growth Occurred. Etc. But: if you were engaged with me in some humanoid form throughout the March 2011-December 2011 timeframe, I'd like to simply offer you a brief but heartfelt apology and say: I think I'm better now.

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a-fusion + onze eigen willy (nsfw).

This is a record-breaking number of evenings out for me and Dr. Moop. Tonight's adventure started with a beer at Brouwerij De Prael, and then we relocated a couple of streets over to A*Fusion for some little various nibbles. A couple of Singhas, some sushi, a garishly marinated octopus salad (sorry guys), an unusually syrupy but somehow good hot & sour soup, Peking duck pancakes, and cha siu buns, all tasting relatively homemade and not too chock full o' preservativos.

I've always liked A*Fusion. It's a good place to go when you know you want something Asian and can't make up your mind exactly what. Plus it's a way for me to get some Peking duck for under 10 euros. And they have my favorite daikon cakes. And the staff has always been very friendly and ready to laugh. I don't know: the sushi is fresh, everything else seems pretty well-done, you could do a lot worse in Chinatown.

Then a walk through the red light district (maybe I'm getting old, but I had no idea that fisting had become mainstream enough to warrant its own dildo variant, below, on the wall, above the giant penis dildo) to In de Wildeman for a nightcap (Rogue Double Dead Guy and Rodenbach Grand Cru). Well done.

my birthday dinner.

These were actually the best bitterballen I've ever had. And not just because I was rabidly hungry. Our movie at Kriterion (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) started 20 minutes late and then had the gall to last 127 more minutes. Which meant that by the time we got to Cafe Maxwell (above) to taste their supposedly delicious 14-euro burger, the kitchen was closed.

But the deep fryer was open and my blood sugar was dangerously low, so we ordered some bitterballen, which we kind of expected to be the most pathetic and bad birthday dinner ever, but they were actually way more edible than your average bitterbal. There was a hint of curry to them and, I don't know, they were just pretty much delicious.  Then we had a couple more beers, then we came home and ate a bag of BBQ Baked Lays (which have somehow only just arrived in Holland) with sour cream.

vegetize me.

Above, an irrelevant but delicious taleggio/sundried tomato/basil/chive/black pepper knackepizza.

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Just a note: spinach salad with hard-boiled eggs, candied pecans, red onions, a tiny bit of gorgonzola and warm bacon dressing is a great great thing. How could we do a vegetarian version of this?

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