I made a tortilla (potato and a tiny bit of onion), sauteed some chorizo (I was shocked to find it, but hey!), and made pan amb tomate (with homemade bread).
We ran out of potatoes (the horror!) so I was probably one, maybe two short for the 4 eggs, but the tortilla still hit the spot (I made some alioli too). I totally ruined the chorizo – either that, or being made of chicken ruined it. The tomato bread was the bomb – I loaded up on tomatoes the other day when I found them at a normal price (they have been hyper-inflated for the past 2 months) so I could make this, and pasta / pizza sauce
Mom had the pan amb tomate along with vegetable cutlets (potato, cabbage, carrot, cheese, aromatics, spices) and jewish string cheese / peynir.
Take out slices from a local “gourmet” chain, which is pretty good on it’s own but better when I get my hands on it.
Top was their spinach/ricotta and tomato to which I added piri piri shrimp, feta, pickled red onions and Parmigianino Reggianno.
Bottom slice was just their “Canadiana” , pepperoni shrooms and green peppers that I picked off(yuck).
I added some really hot, hot honey from a farmers market, more pickled red onions and moar Parm.
Way better that what was on offer, and I had all the ingredients in the fridge/freezer.
Farmer’s Market day, arancini from the Sicilian, fresh Maine scallops from Roberto the fish monger, pan fried in butter, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes sauteed in evoo, garlic, salt & pepper.
Gotta love NE in the summer.
Should have flip-flopped last night’s dinner and tonight’s, since it would have been been cooler yesterday to have an oven on. But I hadn’t defrosted the ground meat, so here we are.
1/2 lb each of ground pork, ground turkey, and ground beef was mushed together with an egg, Worcestershire sauce, Panko crumbs, s/p, dried thyme, and dried minced onion and formed into a loaf in an open oven pan to bake for about 1-1/2 hours, topping with Plum Ketchup the last 20 minutes or so.
Several yellow potatoes were peeled, cut into chunks, boiled, drained, mashed with butter and s/p and heavy cream, and mixed with about a cup of ginger-maple mashed sweet potatoes from the freezer.
Green beans were steamed and tossed with butter, s/p and sprinkled with toasted almonds.
Mrs. P made the perfect bite with watermelon, fresh basil, goat cheese, homemade sweet and spicy candied pecans, drizzled with hot honey. We then enjoyed some takeout from our favorite Thai restaurant including crispy betel leaves topped with Shrimp, shallot, ginger, roasted coconut,
peanut, scallion, caramelized galangal paste; spicy crab and shrimp curry; pad ped beef; Isaan rice ball with Minced chicken, shallot, ginger, peanut,
scallion, cilantro, peanut, mint, lime; som tum thai (green papaya salad); lon of seafood with Crab, shrimp, coconut milk, shallot, sweet chili, shrimp roe, kaffir lime leaves, rice cracker, cucumber. It all went great with an excellent red blend.
Subz Biryani (Vegetable biryani) from Benares by Atul Kochhar. Served with red onion salad, mint raita, makhani gravy, tarka dal and prawn makhani.
This biryani is absolutely outstanding, containing a ton of vegetables and such a wonderful mix of spices. Though there is a lot of prep, (the gravy, salad, vinaigrette and raita are all part of the dish) this one will be a regular.
Not the best photo, for sure, taken out of the pot with half of it already devoured. The rice used was jeerakasala instead of basmati.
Tropical storm Hilary unleashed a day of rain here at the beach in LA. Mom and I hunkered down to purge file cabinets and bookshelves. I made lentil soup and reheated shrimp quesadillas we got last night. Also, a small earthquake. I am out of practice with those.
All-day project: an absolute VAT of chicken corn soup, made with three dozen ears of excellent, just-picked local corn. Made for an terrific early supper here on the edge of the cusp of fall, with sliced garden tomatoes on the side and blueberry crumb cake for dessert.
The recipe comes from my mother’s best friend, an older lady who spent her life cooking things like this soup in absolutely insane quantity. We have in the past made the recipe together, splitting the cost and the final results, but honestly I was stunned today at how much soup we produced. Now that she is in her late 70s, I did the vast majority of the work. It was great fun removing the corn from the cob once my working hand went numb.
The soup is absolutely scrumptuous, even given its very humble ingredient list (chicken, corn, water, an onion, parsley, salt.) Obviously the few ingredients must be top-notch in order for this to be delicious, which is why we only make it once a year, and freeze to enjoy later.
So you freeze it in glass jars but you don’t process it in a water bath to seal the tops? I understand the numb hand. This takes me back to being a teen still living at home with my parents and brothers on a farm in the midwest. When everything started to explode in the garden we would spend several weeks picking vegetables, preparing and canning them. It was miserable hot steamy work but so wonderful to have homemade vegetable soup and a warm loaf of homemade bread in the winter.
Perhaps? It’s the only way I can enjoy sweet potato
I’ve had incredibly rich & luscious avocado-based blueberry ice cream many years ago that I still remember to this day (obvy ), but that’s of course about as opposite from hot or fried avo as possible
I can’t imagine doing this kind of work at scale/for weeks on end/without air conditioning! But of course you are right that enjoying peak-season produce in the dead of winter is very rewarding
), but that’s of course about as opposite from hot or fried avo as possible 
