AUNTIE ARWEN'S EARLY SPRING 2006 NEWSLETTERMy, how time flies! It seems as if I just finished the last newsletter! And here we are in 2006! Here in Connecticut, we are at present enjoying (as it were!) a frigid blast of arctic air, courtesy a southerly dip in the jet stream. My woodpile is taking a major hit, but I should have enough to make it to warm weather. Right now, I'm typing this next to the woodstove. The cats are comfortably arranged in the near vicinity, and I've tossed some of my Mesmerizin' Mulling Spices into a pan of apple cider which is sitting on the woodstove. Maybe when I serve it, I'll also toss in a kitork of rum. Which brings me to "how do I measure things?" Around here, a kitork, which is a liquid measurement, can be generous (i.e. the bottle glugs a few times) or stingy (one glug). A skotch (pronounced "skoa-tch") is just a tad bit more than a pinch or dab; a dusting is a pinch to a skotch applied to its target from a height, so that it spreads out. A garam masala gets dusted onto a pot of curry and isn't stirred in, so's you can get an occasional "aha!" of spices. My garam masalas tend either toward the aromatic sweet spices (cinnamon, cardamom, etc) or savory, having as first ingredients cumin and coriander. They are delicious dusted over curries as well as other casseroles, to give 'em a bit of life. To "slather" essentially means to drench the target with whatever sauce, preserve or jam that you?re using. If you "drizzle" it, that's a fine stream of semiliquid to liquid applied to the target dish in small to medium quantities. Slathering isn't subtle; that's what I do with ribs. I'll make up some wicked barbecue sauce for the slathering, usually fairly tame but tasty, since I've dry-rubbed aforesaid ribs or chicken with Grandpaw's Secret or Saloon Fight or Uncle Amos', all of which have some thermal thump to them. For calm ribs or bird, I'll use Lazy Dog or Big Bad Wolf's Pig Roast Blend, or Chicken Little's Finger-Lickin' Mix. Generally for bird, I parboil; that way I also get some chicken broth. For ribs, I can pre-bake, or better yet, wrap 'em in several layers of heavy duty aluminum foil and set towards the side of the grill for a half hour or so. Yep, I'm also thinking of grilling season. But you know that you can also wrap goodies in aluminum foil and stash that packet on the top of the engine block of your car when you take a trip. There's a delightful cookbook that I accumulated years ago (wonder where it went?) called "Manifold Destiny." Recipe cooking times and temperatures were given in what speed you're doing for how long. Such as 45 minutes at 55 mph. It even had diagrams of the tops of the then popular cars' engine blocks, showing where was the best place to stash your cookery. If you can find a copy of this cookbook, it's a winner! I also enjoyed the Mafia Cookbook (really good Sicilian recipes) as well as the usual tomes by Julia Child, Paul Prudhomme, James Beard, Irma Bombeck, the local fire department, the alumnae association, my great grandmother, and the list goes on. Cookbooks. I have 'em. Everything from Anglo-Saxon (think "Beowulf") to Mongolian to "To Serve Man" (bought at a science fiction convention; substitute pork or chicken or tofu for where it calls for what is euphemistically known as "long pig"). There's Clementine Paddleford (tried and true and a "must-have" for the cookbook lover), the Time-Life series (published a lonnnng time ago; try finding it on eBay or Amazon.com "buy it used"); really excellent recipes there! If there's a used bookstore or library book sale nearby, go there for a wide selection of cookbooks. Remember that food is one of the great joys in life, and it's something that we have to have. So why not do it right, so's to get maximum pleasure units out of it? Fast food and pre-packaged commercially made offerings are, for me, stopgap emergency fare. Like, I've even run out of Whiskas or Friskies and milk, and that's all that's left in the larder. As you've probably guessed by now, I love to eat. I love to cook. Cooking is a sort of biodegradable art form. You don't have a dust-catcher after your "performance"; instead, you have a great memory, satisfied tastebuds, and hopefully, some leftovers. It'' so much fun to plan a dinner. I?ll pick out the mats, tableware, dishes, get the flowers, napkins (gotta be cloth!) and candles coordinated (yes, I dine by candlelight. Sure beats a fluorescent! Try it!). I'll have my Tellicherry peppercorns in the pepper mill and coarse sea salt in the salt grinder. There's jugwine or some of my homebrew ale. Or fresh cold sweet cider. California makes darn good jugwine; I tend to lay in Rossi's Burgundy, Paisano, or Chianti. Now, the aromas of what I am doing start permeating the house. I may bake bread for the occasion (Beard's bread book comes out for that), or make bread sticks which I roll in my Sesame Sensation blend and bake. Or maybe blueberry muffins, or cornbread (and yes, chopped fresh jalapeño pepper goes splendiferously therein!). I look at textures, colors, and flavors. You can also use my Merry Meat or Loose Moose or Ave Caesar blends for the breadsticks. For example, tonight I'm doing a simple curry dinner. Basic curry ingredients: olive oil, 1 medium chopped onion, some black mustard seed, leftover chicken from that nice roast bird a few days ago, chicken broth and/or leftover gravy, about a half cup of frozen peas, and my Two Knives Special Curry Powder. This blend is aromatic but has absolutely no chile peppers in it whatsoever. If you want something with more snap to it, try Rolling Thunder or Fireball Freakout. I'm cooking rice (toss a buncha rice into a pot of salted boiling water; boil until finger-soft, strain, then steam). Now, to make the curry: put a bit of olive oil (one kitork should do it) into the pan, add the onion and cook until sorta translucent. At this point, I'll toss in about a half teaspoon of black mustard seed (actually, it's brown) and cover the pan quickly, because the mustard goes off almost instantaneously, sorta like mini popcorn. Adds a lovely nutty flavor to the curry. Then I toss in about a tablespoon of the curry powder, simmer about 3-5 minutes, and then toss in the chicken and the broth/gravy. Let simmer and cook down for about a half hour or more. And just after you pour the rice into the salted boiling water, I carefully drop in 3 or so eggs to hardboil while the rice cooks. If you drop them in after you add the rice, they have a soft landing and don't crack. Makes for a nice garnish. About 5 minutes before the curry is ready to serve, I dust some garam masala over it. Tonight I think I'll use Sahib's Surprise. Just before serving, I toss in the peas. Then I put the rice into a low-sided pottery bowl (which incidentally I also made), hollow out the center, pour the curry into that, arrange hard boiled egg quarters in an artistic pattern thereon, and serve. I may also make a nice tossed salad (green leaf lettuce or spinach) with a simple dressing. Serve with some Major Grey's chutney in a nice little dish. It's now about an hour later. Dinner was yummy. Amazing what you can do with leftovers. The cats are still in their original positions next to the woodstove. I guess they don't like curry. Now, if I'd grilled a steak, there woulda been some action. I think I'll dust some of my organic catnip on the floor to jazz things up a bit. They could use the exercise. Some of you Out There have asked for when I'll be where with my spices. So far my projected schedule is:
And then the farmers? market season begins. I?ll usually be set up at the following:
Well, this should do it for today's newsletter. If you have any dandy hints, recipes, or whatever, please send 'em in and I'll post 'em (subject to my testing them out first). The cats are all tuckered out now. Catnip only lasts for so long. They are draped in front of the woodstove, right where I can step on them. Will try to get another news letter out Really Soon Now. The daffodils have poked the tips of their leaves up, and are now in a holding pattern, waiting for the weather to turn warmer. We're getting more birds at the bird feeder. Including swarms of starlings. Anybody out there have a good recipe that calls for lots and lots of starlings???? |