pork olives? are we talking stuffing pork into olives, Mr. H?
that cauli sounds divine, i keep forgetting i have a giant can of unopened salt-packed anchovies at home.
From the Thai restaurant downtown called Spice of Melrose I’m favoring:
- Thai Vegetable Spring Rolls with sweet and sour sauce;
- Papaya Salad - Som Tum (I usualy have seaweed salad);
- Drunken Noodles - Pad Kee Mao. With chicken, shrimp, egg, and vegetables in a spicy basil sauce.
In this place the Som Tom is accompanied by sticky rice, and peanuts, tomatoes, green beans. The seasonings are on point here and the spice can be adjusted to preference, but I find their “3 chili icon” is quite hot so 2 chili/medium is just right for me. We always make 1 order for 2 people. It’s plenty for the 2 of us, with leftovers which I’ll have for breakfast. We’ll share the 3 dishes I listed above, plus G will probably order some sort of chicken dish he always has to have. I won’t have any because it’s bound to be sweet.
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Yes, I read that too. I’m inclined to think, though, that baking soda, as it does with legumes and vegetables, leaches nutrients away from such ingredients. Still, many maintain the use of baking soda is an old Chinese secret. I’ll have to ask Grace Young, The Wok Guru, what she has to say about it.
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A rare weekend night off for yours truly.
We’re meeting a couple of friends for an early dinner at a local Indian place where I’ve never eaten (but from which I’ve delivered many a meal).
A local jazz duo is set to play from 6:30-8 PM, with an incredible bassist who’ll be sitting in with us for our last show before I leave for the summer.
Afterwards, we’re going to see Amy Schumer, who’s in town tonight. Hope the show is better than her most recent standup special.
Have a great weekend, HOs!
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Here’s some science re baking soda:
Life is too short to stuff an olive.
In this case, it’s what we Britons call the dish I think the Italians call involtini. The more usual dish is beef olives - definitely something from my childhood - it was something Mum used to cook regularly.
In the event, the escalopes weren’t a good shape to make the olives, so we just pan fried them and made a quick white wine sauce with the buttery pan juices. They were quite chewy - Mrs H accepts she overcooked them. All round, probably the worst meal we’ve mad ein ages. Cauliflower was decent enough but not enough to save it.
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You are probably noticing a pattern… I’ve been eating leeks. That’s because I am challenging myself. That’s right. I despise leeks and scallions. The latter being one of the most vile green things!
Made a bunch of dumplings with half of the cooked clam meat (Vietnamese, frozen). Some of it was in a simple soup, some of it was stir fried and mixed with blanched mung bean noodles. I used jarred Sichuan sauces (with preserved vegetable bits/black beans) in chili oil. That’s how a small bag of clam meat was used up. Nice thing about living in food hell is that I am motivated to make many things from scratch, and with pleasure.
No time to make photos of everything today. Just the dumplings, which took the longest time to make.
I still prefer chives. More refined and mild.
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are there at least olives in the Brit dish??
these pics are making me VERY HUNGRY. delectable!
i must confess, i am having a hard time wrapping my head around you hating leeks and scallions!
What starch(es) did you use for these dumplings?
Smoked beer sausage cooked low and slow in CI skillet . A couple of fried eggs . With a nice big slice of ciabatta from this hippy dude who is blowing off the doors with his home baked bread . Oh , and a nice bottle of Pinot to celebrate Friday .
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Spam musubi. The “leafy green vegetable” will be the nori and the furikake 
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To me leeks and scallions have a gross texture (slime issue) and taste/smells awful. I’m mincing my words. Foods in Asia always come with copious amounts of scallions (noodle soups, ramen, stir fries, so many things, really). After making photos I diligently remove every single scallion ring. And only then I will start eating. Good thing it only takes a few seconds.
Scallion kimchi is a thing of nightmares to me. We shall see when I make it to S. Korea.
Plain flour. Though I really need to get a small rolling stick.
I bookmarked these 2 sites: workflow, and Sichuan dumplings.
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'Fraid not. It’s a very British dish.
Olives in beef/pork olives would be just odd.
It’s a very old dish (in the beef form), with references back to the 1600s. Unfortunately, Google is no help as to the origin of the name
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The idea for dinner comes from a recipe for an accompaniment - charred red onions. The onions are cut in half and go into a hot frying pan till the cut side had charred. Then, a little water, red wine vinegar and sugar go in and a lid goes on and it simmers till the onions are tender. They come out and cool - and are then separated into the leaves. A little pomegranate molasses goes in & gets a couple of minutes more to thicken slightly. That’s then poured over the onions. A scatter of pomegranate seeds, parsley and sumac finish it.
All very Eastern Mediterranean. So, there’s lamb chops, khobez bread, salad, olives, tzaziki, torshi - apart from putting the chops under the grill, there’s nothing more complex than opening supermarket bags and jars. There’s figs to nibble on for afters.
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If you scroll to the bottom of this link there’s a great recipe for that type of dumpling. Also a little dowel is all that’s needed (and I rarely use even that). I have a tortilla press that works just perfectly. And if I get one too thin I just reroll and do it agai.
Amy Schumer was fantastic; the Indian food incredibly mediocre; the jazz duo great.
Stopped in at the CBDTR after the show for a martini and sashimi (saba, hamachi, sake). I just couldn’t stop eating last night 
Working again tonight & tomorrow night, so not quite sure what’s happening on the dinner front. There’s fixins for TCC, which will be et one of these evenings; there’s also salad stuff and fixins for burrata.
Realllllllly exciting stuff ovah heah. Ha.
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Just bought a whole duck at Costco for $2.99 # . A little over 5 # . I have all afternoon to figure how am I going to cook it . Ideas ?
I have a whole duck in the freezer. The last one I had was taken apart. Breasts served med rare. The rest used in a confit and odds and ends used to make duck sausage patties. Of course the liver was pan sautéed for a quick app
I’ve made this once using a Costco duck. Only took four hours. I’d prefer what Scoobie does but this is nice and easy.
