Sep 15

Raspberry and Figgy Goodness

Inspiration can strike at odd times. In my case, it usually strikes between 5 and 7 am. Yesterday I was rummaging in the refrigerator for breakfast when I noticed the figs and raspberries we’d bought the other night. The neurons started firing: A fruit salad for lunch.

I washed a handful of raspberries and mixed them with four small figs that I’d halved and de-stemmed. I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar into the bowl before closing it. The flavors had several hours to merge before lunch. The end result was very tasty for little effort on my part. Another experiment that bears repeating.

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Sep 15

Welcome to the Rainy Season

Last winter and spring were very wet. We just slogged through one of the hottest and driest summers on record. Now the rain is back. How long will it take before the locals start complaining about the rain?

[Note: This is the 500th post for Edible Thoughts! Thanks for reading and following along with the fun!]

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/09/15/welcome-to-the-rainy-season/

Sep 09

Doing Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill is a Seattle neighborhood near my workplace. I taught for a quarter at Seattle Central College, in the heart of the neighborhood. Capitol Hill has become highly gentrified in the 15 years we’ve been here. It’s also the traditional LGBT neighborhood in Seattle, with many businesses catering to this demographic. We hadn’t been up there together for a while, so that was our Saturday adventure this weekend.

First challenge: Parking. We wound up on 12th Avenue near Seattle University. Second challenge: Lunch. We settled on sandwiches at a French bakery/café called Sémillon. Both of us brought half of our sandwiches home. We also purchased two macarons for after-dinner eating. Julian said his passionfruit macaron was the best he’d ever had. My mint chocolate one was close to the best I’d ever had. The mint cookies had a layer of chocolate buttercream in the middle rather than a thin glaze of jam.

Following lunch, we went to Eltana Bagels to pick up provisions. Eltana makes Montreal-style bagels, which are thinner and chewier than your standard poofy bakery bagels. We also got some za’atar and scallion cream cheese to schmear on the bagels.

The next stop on our stroll was The Elliott Bay Book Company. This bookstore moved from Pioneer Square to Capitol Hill in 2010. It’s the only full-line bookstore on Capitol Hill since Bailey-Coy Books on Broadway closed. Naturally, I went straight to the cookbook section. I was disappointed at the large amount of shelf space devoted to Paleo and ketogenic diet books. Three years ago I blogged on the diets that made the most sense and had scientific evidence to back up the claims. I restrained myself and bought three foodie lit books, suitable for bus commutes.I’ve been waiting to get this book since before we went to Paris last year.It’s unusual to have a chef go after pseudoscience, which is why I bought the one on the left. History has always been an interest of mine. Culinary history even more so.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/09/09/doing-capitol-hill/

Sep 09

The Cult of Shoes that Fit

Several of my friends and colleagues belong to the Cult of Cute Shoes. They have 8-8 1/2 medium feet, which means they can walk into any shoe store and find what they want. Meanwhile, I have size 10-10 1/2 narrow feet. Two of my former roommates have the same dilemma. Therefore, I’m proposing a new cult: The Cult of Shoes that Fit.

Consider this typical scenario: I walk into an average department store shoe department and look at the styles. An eager salesperson comes over and asks if I need assistance. I describe what I’m looking for and add: “Oh, by the way, I have size 10 narrow feet.” The salesperson’s face goes from enthusiasm to pity: “I’m so sorry, we don’t carry narrow widths”, and scurries off to find more promising customers. I wander off to the next store and more disappointment.

I have a little luck at certain stores around Seattle. Naturally, I have to pay more than my cute shoes cultists for the privilege of finding shoes that fit. Nordstrom usually carries narrow shoes, even in my size. I’ve also had good luck at a store around the corner from my office, Anderson’s Comfort Shoes. I can also find walking shoes in my size at New Balance or Brooks. As long as I can find local stores that have shoes that fit, I won’t go to online sources.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/09/09/the-cult-of-shoes-that-fit/

Sep 08

The Heavy Equipment

Okay, I’ve given my advice on kitchen gadgets. Now it’s time to talk about cookware and baking gear. You can spend lots of money on these items when you may be able to get away with a more reasonably priced set.

Again, the first consideration is what you do in the kitchen. Do you use the microwave more than the regular oven? On average, how many pans do you use to make dinner? Do you bake anything more complex than buy and bake pizza?

Second consideration: What kind of cooktop do you have? Electric, gas, smooth top electric, or induction? We learned when we bought our induction range that most of the pots and pans we’d accumulated over the years wouldn’t work on it. We failed to factor in the cost of new cookware in the price of the range.

Third consideration: Are you comfortable with obsolescence? The average non-stick pan may last a couple of years before you have to replace it. On the other hand, your descendants can inherit your cast iron pan if you care for it properly.

Here are the bare-bones items for a starter kitchen:

Two frying pans, one cast iron and one non-stick;

One large pot suitable for boiling pasta or making soup;

One medium and one small saucepan;

One large and one small shallow baking pan (often called cookie sheets or half sheet pans);

A 1 1/2 quart ceramic casserole dish, preferably with a cover;

A 9″ x 5″ loaf pan, for bread or meat loaf;

One 9″ square and one 9″ x 13″ baking pan for cakes, cookies, or casseroles.

The type of pans you buy will depend on the above considerations and your views on cleaning cookware. Julian ordered a pricey set of cookware that’s compatible with our induction range. For most of our everyday cooking, I use our old induction-compatible pans or the items we bought at Ikea while we were waiting for the good stuff to arrive. The Ikea pans and glass/ceramic casseroles can go into the dishwasher. The pricey stuff and cast iron need to be hand washed, dried, and regularly re-seasoned. The ability to let the dishwasher do the work gets you back to watching silly online videos or reading blog posts faster.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/09/08/the-heavy-equipment/

Sep 06

Deconstructed Chiles Relleños

Hatch chiles have arrived in Seattle. These are the state chiles of New Mexico, and come in medium and hot varieties. (This is by New Mexico standards. By Seattle standards, Hatches come in hot and incendiary varieties.) Central Market offered a recipe for chiles relleños using Hatches. It looked feasible and didn’t require deep-frying.

Hatches require roasting to remove the rather tough skins. Some stores will do the roasting for you; however, it’s easy to do on an outdoor grill. Roast them over medium coals or flame until they’re blackened on all sides. Put the chiles in a paper bag to steam for a few minutes before peeling off the skin. DO NOT do the roasting indoors unless you love the smell of pepper spray in the evening. While the chiles were steaming in the bag, I sautéed some onion and bell pepper. I then added a little ground beef and let it brown. I added a little salsa to the meat mixture and went back to peel the chiles.

Most standard chiles relleños recipes call for Anaheim or poblano chiles rather than Hatches. There’s a good reason – Hatches are thinner-walled than the other chiles and more prone to tearing. I wound up using the chile pieces more like lasagne noodles and putting the meat mixture in between the layers. I topped the casserole with some grated Monterey Jack cheese and put it in the oven at 400°F for 20 minutes. We served it with a salad. You can top the chiles with sour cream to abate the heat a little.

 

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/09/06/deconstructed-chiles-rellenos/

Sep 02

Power Tools!

Now we get to the Tim Allen/Home Improvement part of arming your kitchen. Some people love kitchen electrical gadgets. Others eschew them. We are in the middle camp. Our main consideration: Will we use this appliance  enough to grant it precious space on our counter or in our cabinet? Here are a few other factors to consider as you walk through a kitchenware store.

What are your physical abilities? You may not need a food processor if you’re an expert with a mortar and pestle. If your knife skills are flagging because of arthritis, a food processor can help cut up potatoes and carrots quickly.

What do you cook or bake? For a casual baker (cake mixes, cookies), a hand electric mixer may work fine. If you turn out yeast breads, you may need a heavy-duty stand mixer. A blender is a necessity if you make a lot of smoothies or shakes.

How much of a particular item do you make at a time? If you have a large family, a large rice cooker is a good investment.

Is the time spent cleaning and reassembling this gadget going to outweigh the time saved by using it? See my earlier post, Inspecting Kitchen Gadgets.

The electric gadget that gets the most use here at Casa Sammamish is the rice cooker. We have a small one with an on-off switch and no neuro-fuzzy logic or different settings for different rices. We have small and standard-size food processors, and hand and stand mixers. I picked up an electric spice grinder at a kitchen yard sale several years ago. I admit I don’t use it very often, but it works very well on grinding dried chiles and hard seeds. The bowl and knife assembly are metal, so there’s not much flavor carryover. It’s a unibody construction; however, the bowl is shallow enough so you have less chance of ripping up your fingers during cleaning.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/09/02/power-tools/

Sep 02

Arming Your Kitchen

Over the years we’ve accumulated a large batterie de cuisine, armaments to wage battle against ingredients to make meals. I’ve come a long way from the time a former roommate and I beat egg whites for a soufflé – with a fork. It worked, but our arms were mighty sore afterward. Since we all have limited space in our kitchens for every gadget in creation, let me give you some suggestions on arming your kitchen. This post deals with the non-electric stuff. I’ll cover electric gadgets in a subsequent post.

The bare bones. A chef’s knife, a paring knife, and a serrated (bread) knife will handle most of your cutting needs. Don’t skimp on the quality of your knives. Add a vegetable peeler for carrots and potatoes. Buy some wooden and metal spoons for mixing and serving. A good set of measuring cups: Metal for dry ingredients, glass for liquids. A set of metal measuring spoons. A balloon whisk. A slotted spoon and a ladle. A four-sided metal cheese grater. A set of mixing bowls, either metal or glass.

You can never have too many sets of tongs. They’re handy to flip steaks and chops, and to fish things out of boiling water. Buy some extra-long tongs if you grill.

A thermometer. This is good to test meat for doneness. You can get a pen-type thermometer or get one with a remote sensor in case you’re roasting something and you’re in another room.

Can and bottle openers. The can opener can be electric or manual. Add a sturdy corkscrew if you drink wine. (The first time Julian made dinner for me, his corkscrew fell apart when he attempted to open a bottle of wine. I bought him three corkscrews the following Christmas so he’d always have a backup.)

Not only does ease of cleaning matter, so does usability. If you’re in a mixed household as we are, consider whether these items can be used by both left- and right-handed people. Julian bought a peeler that can be switched for southpaw use, but that’s too much of a hassle. I just grab an ambidextrous y-shaped peeler.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/09/02/arming-your-kitchen/

Sep 01

Inspecting Kitchen Gadgets

These are a few gadgets we have in our kitchen. They’re all quite useful for their purposes. However, to paraphrase an old Sesame Street song, “Some of these things are not like the others.” The difference? Ease of cleaning. The items on the left are dishwasher safe, the ones on the right less so.

In our house, s/he who doesn’t cook cleans up. This can be onerous when the chef du soir uses every implement within reach to make dinner. The dishwasher is a godsend on these nights to get things cleaned up quickly. Trying to get every last ginger fiber out of the Microplane grater by hand is not my idea of fun.

Ease of cleaning also applies to larger tools. Both of us used to have blenders with blades that could be detached from the container. Our current blender has one-piece construction so you can’t pop it into the dishwasher or clean the blades easily by hand. The workaround is to buzz some soapy water in the blender, but even then you may miss some blueberry skins from your morning smoothie. That’s when you have to get out the brush or risk your fingers by reaching into the blender with a sponge.

Julian’s philosophy of kitchen gadgets is that one should consider time spent cleaning them along with time saved using them. Stay tuned for my philosophy of gadgets.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/09/01/inspecting-kitchen-gadgets/

Sep 01

Thought for Friday

I was at work, so I couldn’t watch more than snippets of Aretha Franklin’s memorial service last night. This morning when I opened the article on The New York Times on her service, I read these lines from Stevie Wonder:

“Please remember the greatest gift that we’ve been given in life itself is love,” he said. “We can talk about all the things that are wrong, and there are many, but the only thing that can deliver us is love. So what needs to happen today, not only in this nation, but throughout the world, is that we need to make love great again. Because black lives do matter. Because all lives do matter.”

Thank you, Stevie. Rest in peace, Aretha.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/09/01/thought-for-friday/

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