Ain't Nothin' But a Whole Fish, Baby

Subtitled: Seeing Red

Sarah is cool. She's dating a Croatian. Which means whole roasted, salt-crusted fish done like it ain't no thang. See that giant red snapper? I'll admit I was scared. No need. Its dead, roasted eyes cooked into its head, and the flesh got all tender and juicy and succulent and not remotely fishy. It may have been the best home-cooked fish I've ever had.

Then we continued on the red theme with all these luscious red vegetables roasted again (bless Sarah and her not-as-sultry-as-mine apartment which somehow remained fairly cool despite the oven reaching over 400 degrees for a solid 45 minutes).

And THEN--during a heated (haha, get it! *heated*! i mean shit it was hot out) debate on Obama, she unveiled the coup de grace, a Saveur-special Hungarian sour cherry cake with lemon gelato that was so delectable I shoved about three entire pieces in my mouth the next day, with no regard for Josiah and his desire to sample some.

Garrrr. Sarah is a really, really good cook.

Blossom My Blossoms

Squash blossoms have come and, I think, pretty much gone already... I was lucky enough to get my paws on one solid batch that conveniently correlated with a freshly made batch of homemade ricotta. I mashed that up with some chopped mushrooms and basil and a little salt and pepper, then stuffed the blossoms plumply, battered them with Josie's homebrew and flour and paprika, and fried them up in a canola-olive-oil cuvee. Mmmm, summmmmmer!

Jusque Quelque Chose

Perhaps you've been wondering where I've been? See below...

Thirst-Quenching Salad Supper

Ohh, what a long afternoon of whiskey and beer and horse racing and betting and hot, hot sunshine will do to you. A giant crystal decanter of cold water couldn't begin to quench my thirst, so I made a salad of all sorts of delicious, fresh and watery items--all conveniently leftover from the day's pan bagna.

Olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, basil, a bit of hard-boiled egg, some olive oil and salt and pepper... a juicy, delicate big salad that hydrated and satiated. "Oh! 'Ello, Summah!"

Lunch to Belmont

Check it. Ça c'est un pan bagna, et ça c'est délicieux! I won't link to a particular recipe for this Provençal creation because there are too many variations, but look it up, and make it, and be happy. We shoved this down our throats on the train to Belmont Stakes with a bit of homebrew, and it was all happiness.

Choosing Cookware for Beginners

 Image courtesy of the NY Times, by Alan Richardson. I WANT THAT WOK.

To begin with, the "for beginners" part is meant for the type of cook like myself--not a beginner cook per se, but one who is actually serious enough to now begin carefully considering the merits of various types of cookware. Honestly, I've had enough with my cheapy set of warped, non-stick pots and pans.

Hear hear! I demand nice cookware! And a fatty raise so that I may afford it! Sigh. For now, I look but don't touch.

Multiple questions about my recently acquired wok and its cooking surface, size and specs spurred some research on all types of cookware. So here you go. A little intro. This is not fact-checked. Please consult your own cookware's specs for proper specifics.

1) My wok is a Nordic Ware 14 inch "Asian Wok" made with authentic spun aluminum steel. It is said to prevent rust, and it also features a removable stay-cool grip! From my research, spun aluminum is A) fairly affordable, B) created by deforming a piece of sheet aluminum on a spinning lathe, C) widely used in commercial cooking, and D) not as great as cast aluminum or fully-clad cookware at conducting heat evenly, holding up over time, or reducing reactivity in foods, especially those high in acids.

2) Fully-clad cookware (All-Clad, Viking) puts aluminum sheets in between the interior stainless steel surface and the exterior surface (which varies, depending on the line). These are very expensive. And I covet them. Fully-clad cookware is the most efficient cookware as it requires less heat since it is reputedly better at conducting heat evenly; it is also expert at preventing sticking when used properly. Oh, and hell yeah: it's oven-safe.

3) Carbon steel and cast iron are two additional types of cookware with unique benefits for certain types of cooking. Particularly in regards to a wok: Carbon steel seems to be the preference for most chefs and home "professionals." Carbon steel is affordable, evenly conducts heat, and is relatively light-weight. It shouldn't be washed but rather "seasoned" and simply wiped clean, in the same way as a cast iron pan. Instructions here! If you want a wok, get yourself to Chinatown and pick one up for, like, $15.

Carbonara Gorge

Damn hot out, and I'm a little out of sorts, and all I can think about is gorging myself on bacon, butter and pasta. Something seems wrong with that picture, but it's true. I raided my leftovers tonight and dazzled old fusilli and peas (from the parsley pesto disaster) with bacon out of the freezer, scallions leftover from my wok-capades, and an egg. Then, to provide some sort of refreshment, I downed a tall, cool glass of our homemade Dook's Brew IPA.

My Clafoutis Brings All the Boys to the Yard

Yiii, that sounds suggestive. Oh, but the clafoutis was so, so good! And I must send sincere to thanks to my darling Cynthia in Belgium for introducing me to clafoutis years ago in our little catering trailer in West Hollywood. Thank you, Cynthia! "It's like a whole stack of crepes piled on top of each other!"

Free pound o' cherries at the Whole Foods plus the requisite eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla extract all on hand meant clafoutis was so easy (that's a nice rhyme).

Ms. J. Child's recipe, to be honest, was a bit overly sweet for my tastes, so I ended up squeezing some lemon juice over the whole show. Next time, less sugar. Oh, and pitting those damn cherries was seriously tedious. Next time, I leave the pits in.

Hey and here's the yummy cous we munched prior! Cleaned the fridge out of kalamatas, arugula, lemon and some parmesan.

Pol Roger in the Park

Cooking on a ninety-degree Memorial Day in New York City would have been foolish. So we skipped that part, and went straight to the liquid diet: Pol Roger, 04 Neumeister Sauvignon Blanc and 2001 Donnhoff Oberhauser Leistenberg Kabinett and a shady spot on the lawn at Central Park.

Virgin Wok Burns

Fried my arms up right alongside these tomatoes and eggs. Thanks, Saveur for helping me make sure the wok was so hot that my eggs spattered scalding grease on my poor forearms. I am like a real Chinese person now, or what?

But it was really delicious, after all that. Plus, due to the extraordinary heat emanating from my extraordinarily large gas burner, this meal took exactly forty-eight seconds to cook.

Huge, huge thank yous to Frank Baldivino for my sick new giant wok.

Except When You Don't. Because, Sometimes You Won't.

Thanks, Dr. Seuss. It's true even in my exploratorium of a kitchen. Bang-ups and hang-ups happen. Like the miserable parsley and green garlic pesto over leftover potatoes and fusili pasta and peas.

Sure, it looked pretty enough. But it tasted terrible. Like, who wants that much parsley? Especially over old potatoes mixed with pasta. Ugh, and peas! This woman had to have been lying when she called the dish "tasty."

Then there was the near Vita-Mix homicide. So despicable it's embarrassing. And it was dangerous--my dear sweet Vita-Mix almost bit the dust; she smelled of smoking motor and went into overload protection mode... twice. Poor, poor Vita: You're worth more than even the tastiest almond butter. But this one wasn't tasty. It was pure horror, all those waxy fresh almonds whipping themselves into a thick, sticky glob, and not getting any more silken with additions of olive oil, water, peanut butter, Nutella (each added in subsequently desperate attempts to salvage the pricey almonds from total failure). This photo from my trash is frightening:

I swore off cooking for two days after these miserable mishaps. Ordered Chinese takeout, of all the ghastly scenarios possible.

Then I inherited a wok...