Tried a recipe one of my food friends has shared multiple times in another of my food groups, Chicken Scarpariello. It calls for “hot, sweet pickled Peppadew peppers in brine” but I could only find red cherry peppers in a sweet and spicy brine.
So tonight I scaled back a Bon Appetit recipe to 1/3 the meat quantities and about half on the remaining ingredients, give or take. (Didn’t make the fingerling potatoes, since I had had roasted potatoes last night with my lamb steak.) Cut a single large sweet Italian sausage into quarters before cooking.
I used 3 of the red cherry peppers, chopped up, and a tsp or so of the brine.
It was good, but my mouth is a bit fiery right now. I might make this again with only 1 of the cherry peppers. Yup. I’m a heat wimp. Sorry, Linda Caterine Nylen!
Roasted Brussels sprouts alongside. There was wine.
Felt almost like the pope today holding private audiences while I spent most of the afternoon catching up with my oldest HS friend, who’s in the process of moving her life to Mallorca (aka the 17th German Bundesland #IYKYK), and with my Argentinian friend with whom I compared notes on the respective states of our countries. Yikes. She’s celebrating her 50th in May and is hopeful to do so in Crete, and we are hoping to meet up with her wherever in Yurp she may be this summer while we are around. We haven’t seen each other in person since they left Berlin in 2015!
Dinner was another meal of leftovers: vegetable & egg fried rice with bok choy & napa cabbage, lots of garlic, ginger & Thai bird peppers, made with some of the YUGE amount of rice that came with the Indian food last night. Fried up two sai oua from the freezer stash we hoarded from the SEA market in Philly last fall & added them to the party. I’d forgotten just how good those sausages are
Yeah, I’d definitely make this again with jarred roasted red peppers, and I could add a pinch of RPF or Aleppo for some slight heat that I’m able to withstand.
Already prepared meatballs from Lilac Hedge Farm [MA] roasted with red peppers, frozen hot peppers, onion, garlic, chopped Pomi tomatoes from the box, dried rosemary, and olive oil.
Tonight we enjoyed this dish with an arugula salad and sourdough bread from Pizzelle [Lowell, MA]. Even better, this gives us leftovers for this week.
I’d made a very small batch of white kimchi (kimchi without any heat) yesterday so my sister could try it - @LindaWhit - you’re not the only spice wimp around! - but the raw garlic was too strong for her. So i took it home and mixed it into my daikon kimchi.
Thus, Kimchi jiigae i cobbled together tonight, with my not-too-sour-yet, chopped up kimchi, a little very thinly sliced pork belly (made for hot pot), and tofu. I looked at a few recipes, including Maangchi’s, and added fish sauce instead of making an anchovy broth, and tossed in some cut up nori, as well as sauteed onions & garlic, sesame oil, kimchi juice, chicken bouillon, water, a little sugar, scallions, and gochugaru. We absolutely LOVED this - nose-sniffling hot, super homey comfort food.
Made another batch of fussy-but-worth-it hummus, and a ton of chicken stock.
I’ve seen Lilac Hedge Farm at our winter farmers market in Somerville, and I’ve purchased duck from them. Good to know you like their meatballs, a favorite of our son. I hope to purchase next Saturday. Beautiful meals!
I’ve been making a lot of vegetarian dishes lately, not sure why, but hey. So I made Tuscan kale sautéed with a little onion and garlic plus harissa powder and ras el hanout. Then pearl couscous with sumac and garlic. Served with yogurt with harissa paste.
Trying to figure out how to work with these flavors I love. I’m sure I am not at all traditional
