Cabbage and Jalapeno Gratin

When my Food 52 Cookbook group did Melissa Clark's Dining in French it was early in the pandemic. April, in fact, when it was actually hard to get some very basic ingredients. Not our issue--we even had 25 pounds of all purpose flour and a good 10 pounds of bread flour even. But for those who live week to week, either because of finances or space or habit, it was a challenging time. Melissa Clark herself was devoting the New York times food column to recipes that could be made with things in your pantry. So I never gave this book the due it deserved. I have had a collossal amount of cabbage this winter (a giant head every two weeks since September, to be exact, sometimes a Napa cabbage added on for good measure) and I finally got around to making this easy gem. 10 cups of shredded cabbage 1-2 cups of diced onions 3 cloves of garlic minced 1 jalapeno, sliced thinly 2 Tbsp. butter 2 Tbs. olive oil salt and pepper to taste 3/4 cup Gruyere cheese grated 1/4 cup Paremsan cheese grated a splash of half and half Saute the onions in the butter and olive oil. Add the garlic and jalapenos after the onions have softened. In another few minutes add the cabbage and cook until it is soft and silky. Turn off the heat and splash in some half and half or cream if you are adding. I mixed in the cheese but the original recipe has you put the cabbage in a gratin dish and sprinkle it on top. Broil it until the cheese is melted (I on the other hand put it in a hot oven and let the flavors settle in together.

We Can Laugh Again

I know that there are people who are upset that Biden won the election, but for me and my friends and family it has been a huge releif to have a traditional politician in the White House, one who set about restoring government as we know it as early as the first afternoon he was in office. There is no question that all politicians, regardless of party, are beholden to corporations and big money. The last administration was only about that, and nothing about the people, so it is a relief for those of us who think that good quality health care and public education are the bedrock of what makes our country great. That, and a very diverse multi-cultural population. After all, from the very beginning there were the indigenous people who lived here and the slaves that were brought. So for me the Bernie memes are all about being able to laugh again, to take a deep breath and enjoy something so purely fun. It feels like a very long time since this kind of humor, born not out of sarcasm, which is at it's core immature and sometimes just mean, but out of humor that is for the joy of it. Even Bernie himself was able to laugh at it. And by the way, I have a pair of those felted wool mittens made out of discarded sweaters and lined with fleece. They are very very warm. He was right about that.

Cream of Poblano Soup

I have to say that I was surprised by how good this soup tasted, after almost no time on the stove. I would definitely make again, especially as I have chilis roasted, seeded and peeked in the freezer. 5 large poblano peppers or 7 small ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons avocado oil 1 medium onion chopped 1 jalapeno minced 6 cloves garlic minced ¼ cup chopped cilantro ½ teaspoon white pepper 4 cups broth 1 cup half and half 4 ounces vegan cream cheese can sub regular cream cheese if not vegan 1 teaspoon sea salt Toppings: ½ cup pico de gallo 1 cup shredded cabbage we used a cabbage, cilantro and jalapeno blend 1 avocado diced or sliced Instructions Place the poblano peppers on top of a gas burner, alternatively place them on a baking sheet under your oven broiler. Roast for 5 minutes until charred on each side. Place the roasted peppers in a glass container with a lid or a paper bag. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, scrape off most of the charred skin and slice off the stem and remove the seeds. Chop the poblanos into bite sized pieces. Heat the avocado oil in a 5-quart Dutch oven over medium heat. Once hot add in the onion, jalapeno, garlic, and cilantro. Cook 4-5 minutes until soft but not browned. Add in the white pepper and salt, cook another 30 seconds. Pour in the Pacific Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Broth and almond milk. Bring to a simmer then add in the chopped poblanos. Simmer for 10 minutes then stir in the vegan cream cheese. Taste for salt and add more if necessary. If desired, use an immersion blender to slightly puree the soup to a creamier texture. To serve, divide the soup between bowls and top with pico de gallo and the avocado.

London Town (2016)

We all enjoued this movie very much. The audience consisted of myself and my spouse, who were young in the time of the Clash, and my son, who was clearly not. The Clash were punk light. Their music is sincerely anti-Thatcher, who allowed white supremacy to boil to the surface, pitting lower and middle income Brits against each other rather than the upper class, who deserved a bulk of the ire. The main character is Shay, a 15 year old boy whose mother has abandoned her family to live in a squat and pursue her dreams, leaving Nick, the father, to fend for the family. Shay does what he can but has quite a bit of resentment about it, as you might expect, and that gets even more pronounced when he meets Vivian, a street wise girl more or less his own age. She like Shay for what he is, and when Nick has a terrible accident and Shay is left to fend for the family, she does everything she can to help, from teaching Shay to drive, to sitting for Alice, to helping Shay grow up a bit. It is a sweet coming of age story told against a grim political back drop with a soundtrack of protest songs sung by likable performers who actually identify with the plight of the lower class. Recommended.

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

We had just returned from a long road trip, and our kitchen was taken over by another cooking team, so my spouse decided that a soup was what we were going to contribute to the dinner we were going to, and we had a mixed bag of different mushrooms, so wild, some cultivated. It was a delicious outcome, using a Deborah Madison recipe, which takes us back to the days when we were solely vegetarian (ie. days that are long gone but remembered fondly). 3 Tbsp. Butter 1 yellow onion, sliced 1/4 c. flour 1 tsp. Salt 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped 2 Tbsp. Parsley, chopped 1/2 cup dry white wine 1 pound mushrooms, roughly sliced or chopped 8 ounces mushrooms, thinly sliced for garnish (optional) 6 cups stock 1/2 cup light cream Pepper Chopped chives, parsley, or tarragon, sliced sauteed mushrooms for garnish 1. Heat the butter in a soup pot until it foams; then add the onion and salt. Cook over medium-high heat for 3 minutes to soften the onion, stirring frequently. 2. Add the garlic, parsley, and cook 2 minutes more. Pour in the wine, raise the heat, and reduce it for another 3 minutes. 3. Add the mushrooms and stew them with the onion over medium-low heat for 6-8 minutes, giving them a stir partway through the cooking. Add the flour, and stir for another couple of minutes. Pour in the stock and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat, add the bread, and simmer for 20 minutes. 4. Let the soup cool slightly; then either briefly puree it in a blender, leaving small pieces of mushroom, or puree it longer, making a smooth, creamy soup. Heat the soup again and stir in the cream. Taste it and season with more salt, if needed, and freshly ground black pepper. Serve with the fresh herbs or crème fraîche in each bowl. I saute some sliced fresh mushrooms and add them to the soup just before serving.

Time Convert by Deborah Harkness

I loved this author's first book, The Discovery of Witches, and the subsequent books in the trilogy. I would not have thought that I would enjoy a series about vampires and witches as much as I did, and so diving into this book, which is adding to the overall story. This book begins about a year later and is told from three perspectives — 24-year-old Phoebe’s present-day transformation, or rebirth, as a vampire in Paris; Marcus’ recollections, from his warmblood youth fighting against the British at Breed’s Hill in 1775 and choice to be reborn in 1781, at age 24, at the hands — or fangs — of Matthew, rather than die of fever; and Diana’s first-person account from Les Revenants, the family’s home in south central France, where, between grading papers and doing her own research, she is busy parenting twin toddlers, Bright Borns who exhibit both vampire and witch proclivities. There are some historical aspects of the book that are interesting and a different back drop to delve into. I would probably not read another one of these, but I am not sorry that I read this one. And if I had a more fantasy oriented enjoyment, I would do more. The book is well constructed and written.

Sesame Ginger Dumplings

We have jsut returned from a westward vacation, which involved driving long distances in the winter. Always a bit of a crap shoot and while it was not without a bit of nail biting, it went well. The highlight was seeing friends, and cooking with them. We spent much of our time assembling furniture for a new house we had gotten, and this is one of the memorable dishes we had. I highly recommend this! pound ground chicken or pork 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger 1 clove garlic, minced or grated 2 cups roughly chopped spinach or bok choy 2 tablespoons plus, 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce or tamari Black pepper 24-26 round dumpling or wonton wrappers 1/4 cup plus, 1 tablespoon raw sesame seeds 3-4 medium shallots, thinly sliced 3 cups low sodium chicken broth 2 tablespoons rice vinegar 5 tablespoons sesame or olive oil 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced or smashed The wrappers should be round--either dumpling or wonton wrappers will do. Make the filling. It’s very simple but very good. Just some fresh ginger and garlic mixed with ground pork or chicken and chopped greens of some sort. Add a bit of soy sauce for saltiness, and a pinch of pepper for a little kick. Assembly is not hard. You can also fold the dough into half-moons or gather them up into a knot top. Either way, it’s an easy process. Just spoon the filling into the center of your dumpling wrapper, then lift the edges of the dough up and over the filling, pinching at the top to seal. Don’t stress about making these look perfect. Finally, brush the bottom of each dumping with water and coat in sesame seeds. The crispy sesame seeds on the bottom are delicious. Before you start cooking the dumplings, make that spicy, gingery broth. The key to this is caramelizing the shallots. They add so much flavor and make the broth feel rich and indulgent. Let the broth simmer while you cook the dumplings. Pan-fry them, then add water to steam and finish cooking them. It can be a little messy of a process, but it’s pretty easy. Once the water evaporates, I like to leave the dumplings on the pan another minute to allow the bottoms to get crispy again. When pan-frying/steaming, it’s important to note that the pan will splatter when you add the water. So please be careful and stand back when doing so. Last thing is to toss the Panko breadcrumbs and thinly sliced garlic into the skillet and let them get nice and crispy with some chili flakes. To serve, I like to arrange the dumplings in low bowls, spoon the steaming broth over, then top with that crispy garlic plus fresh green onions

Set it Up (2018)

This is pretty good as a romantic comedy goes.  It is part The Devil Wears Prada meets Cyrano de Bergerac (so drawing from a wide range). Harper and Charlie work for two driven and successful workaholics, one of who is now divorced and the other of whom hasn't dated in the foreseeable past.  They require their assistants to be at their beck and call all the time, it is like the bad old days of medicine, where the only friends you could realistically have you saw at the hospital, everyone else was just not an option.

So Harper convinces Charlie they should set up their bosses and they will have more free time as a result because they will spend time with each other and not need them as much.  This goes hilariously well, with a script that keeps the movie from being straight ahead formulaic, or at least entertainingly so, and what happens is pretty much what you would suspect. A tale of unsustainable relationships.
 

Hoisin Beef and Cabbage

Well color me surprised, I really liked this dish.  My youngest got it off one of those packaged meals sent to your door and all you have to do is put it together and voila!  I can see the attraction, especially in the pandemic where shopping is risky and inspiration might have worn thin after months of doing your own menu planning.

So this, which uses ground beef (something people who got a pandemic cow have a lot of), is lickedy split quick to mak on a weeknight, and start the rice first because it will be the rate limiting step to getting food on the table.  I used a pound of beef and 1 1/2 times the recipe.

10 ounce Ground Beef

2 unit Scallions

4 ounce Coleslaw Mix or shredded cabbage

4 tablespoon Sweet Soy Glaze

2 tablespoon Hoisin Sauce

1 teaspoon Sriracha

1 teaspoon Vegetable Oil 

1 tablespoon Butter 

Salt

Pepper

Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add beef* and cook, breaking up meat into pieces, until browned, 3-5 minutes (it’ll finish cooking in the next step). TIP: If there’s excess grease in your pan, carefully pour it out.

Once beef is browned, stir in scallion whites and coleslaw mix. Cook, stirring occasionally, until veggies are wilted and beef is cooked through, 2-3 minutes. • Stir in sweet soy glaze and hoisin.

Fluff rice with a fork and stir in 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4 servings); season with salt and pepper. • Divide rice between bowls and top with beef mixture. Drizzle with sriracha to taste and sprinkle with scallion greens. Serve.

 

Four Weddings and a Funeral (2019)

I am a fan of Mindy Kaling and the 1994 original movie of the same title.  This is not so much an homage to the original film but rather it just uses its premise,  that a group of friends weathering four weddings and a funeral together (for better and for worse), as a basic structure for their own stories. It’s also still based in London for seemingly no reason other than nostalgia; all four of the main characters are American Anglophiles who returned to the U.K. after spending a transformative semester there in college.  This version gets ten episodes of time over which to delve more deeply into the characters, their loves, and their inter relatedness.

There are things that test the strength of the relationships between this group of friends over the years, and sometimes the priorities are hard to fathom.  However, the homage to the romantic comedy genre is well intentioned and enjoyable to watch.
 

Soy and Tahini Roast Potatos

This is from Ottolenghi's new cookbook, Flavor, which veers away from his traditional approach to variations of Mediterranean food and into some other spice and flavor profiles.  There is not a lot about the background for these new pathways, which borrow from the foods and traditions of other places, but if you love Ottolenghi's approach to vegetables, you will not be disappointed. 

• 1 lb. roasting potatoes, leave the skin on and cut into 3cm cubes
• 50g rose harissa 
• 1 garlic clove, crushed 
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1½ tbsp chives, finely chopped
• 1½ tbsp black and/or white sesame seed, toasted

FOR THE DRESSING: 

• 60g tahini (stir well before using)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1½ tbsp mirin (or maple syrup)
• 1½ tbsp rice vinegar

Preheat the oven to 240°C fan. 

In a large bowl, mix the potatoes, rose harissa, garlic and olive oil together with ¾ tsp of salt and plenty of black pepper. Transfer the mixture to a parchment-lined baking tray and spread out, then cover tightly with foil and roast for 15 minutes. 

Remove the foil, reduce the heat to 200°C and roast for another 25 minutes, uncovered, stirring halfway, until the potatoes are cooked and browned. 

Meanwhile, whisk all of the ingredients for the dressing together with 1 tbsp of water until smooth. 

Transfer the potatoes to a shallow serving bowl and drizzle over the dressing. Garnish with the chives and sesame seeds.

 

Quarantine Diaries

 Just before Christmas the thing that we had worried about and prepared for happened.  My spouse, an ICU physician taking care of a dozen patients who had COVID, tested positive for it himself.  We had etched out a plan for this in the early days of the pandemic, but as the months slipped by and we had negative test with each COVID symptom that emerged, we started to feel like we might get through it.  Once the vaccine became available we felt like there might be light at the end of a still lengthy tunnel.  COVID, however, had different plans.

On the eve of Christmas we had to enact our COVID plan to live under one roof separately but together.  We had to regather the masks, the cloves, the hand sanitizer and start masking up at home.  Luckily we had been doing it for months at work, so it didn't feel totally weird, and amazingly, we had choreographed it beautifully.  I did the food preparation, and delivered trays of food to the COVID patient.  We set up a table and chair so he could eat upright.  I left the kitchen so my son could eat but that was as close as we got for 2 solid weeks.  In the end, we managed to keep each other healthy and not go crazy.  The only silver lining is that we finally decided to get our groceries delivered, maybe even after the pandemic.  So have a plan, think it out, and hope you never need it.  But if you do, it will not be terrible.

Sweet Potatoes in Lime, Tomato and Cardamom

The thing about Ottolenghi cooking is that he covers every vegetable, gives you multiple flavor profiles with which to enjoy said vegetable, and leaves it entirely up to you how much work you need to do to achieve the dish.  You can zip right through it or you can find a very fussy project written all over it kind of option.  This falls in to the easy peasy realm, and packs great savory flavor.

• 4-5 medium sweet potatoes, skin on and cut into 1 inch/ 2 1/2 cm thick rounds
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 1/2 tsp maple syrup
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• salt and pepper
• Tomato, Lime and Cardamom Sauce:
• 5 tbsp/ 75ml olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped ( not crushed)
• 2 green chillies, finely chopped (deseeded for less heat)
• table salt
• 2 small shallots (100g), finely chopped
• 1 x 14 oz/ 400g can of plum tomatoes, blitzed in a food processor or blender until smooth
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 1/2 tsp superfine sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 limes finely grate the zest to get 1 tsp, and juice to get 1 tbsp; then cut the remainder into wedge
• 1 cup/ 240 ml water
• 2 tsp dill finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 500°F/ 240°C Fan. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix the sweet potato with the olive oil, maple syrup, cardamom, cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Spread out on a large, parchment-lined baking tray, cover tightly with foil, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and return to the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the rounds are cooked through and the undersides are very nicely browned. This might take longer if your sweet potato rounds are particularly large, or less time if they are smaller, so do keep an eye on them.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Put the oil, garlic, chilli and 1/8 teaspoon of salt into a large sauté pan, for which you have a lid, and place on a medium heat. Fry very gently for 8-10 minutes, stirring every now and then, until the garlic is soft and fragrant ( you don’t want the garlic to brown or become crisp, so turn the heat down if necessary). Transfer half the oil, chilli and garlic to a small bowl, leaving the rest in the pan. Add the shallots to the same pan on a medium heat and cook for 5 minutes , stirring often, until soft and translucent. Add the blitzed tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, cardamom, cumin, lime zest and 1 teaspoon of salt, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring a few times. Add 250ml of water and bring to a gentle simmer, then cook for 5 minutes.

Transfer the sweet potatoes, browned side up, to the pan of sauce (not all of them will fit in the sauce, but that’s fine, just pile them up haphazardly). Turn the heat to low, cover with the lid and continue to cook for 10 minutes.

Mix the dill and lime juice with the reserved chilli and garlic oil and frizzle over the sweet potatoes. Serve from the pan, with the lime wedges alongside.

 

A Piece of Mine by J. California Cooper

This is a short in length, long in emotion collection of short stories that my book group read recently.  We had read some lengthy and weighty books of late, including Isabel Wilkerson's Caste, and this was chosen for the sparseness of it's pages.  I found that it was a lengthy read after all though.  The ten stories cover a range of black women's experiences in a world where they are the bottom of the American caste system.  Black men in these stories see themselves as more powerful than black women.  There is a thread of poverty that runs through this as well, with women making choices because they lack funds as well as other means, but the lowest caste always has to deal with poverty unless that has been taken off the table and no longer exists.  There are children being sexually abused, there are children having children, and everything else you can imagine in these short powerful impactful stories.  This is not a short read, nor is it an easy read, but it is a very good read.
 

Broccoli Sausage Pasta

This recipe from Six Seasons (which is one of my all time favorite cookbooks) was very popular when the Food 52 cookbook club did this book one year, but it took me until now to get around to making it.

For the Pasta

• 8 ounces rigatoni
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage casings removed
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6 garlic cloves thinly sliced
• 1 pound broccolini stems sliced crosswise into 1/4 inch coins, and tops cut into small florets
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes
• 1/2 cup whipped ricotta see below
• About 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs toasted with 2 tablespoons olive oil

For the Ricotta

• 1 1/2 cups whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and break up with the back of a wooden spoon and cook for roughly 6 minutes until it starts to brown.
• Add the broccoli coins, the remaining olive oil and sliced garlic to the skillet. Toss the sausage and keep cooking until the sausage is just about fully browned and the garlic is fragrant. Add the chili flakes and season with salt and pepper.
• While the sausage is browning, cook the pasta according to the package directions. About 3 minutes before the pasta should be al dente, add the broccoli florets and cook all together, until the pasta is al dente. Drain and reserve 1 cup of the pasta water
• Add ½ cup of the reserved pasta cooking water to the skillet with the sausage and return skillet to the heat. Add the drained pasta, the whipped ricotta, and half of the Parmesan. Stir the ingredients in the pan to combine the ingredients, put back over medium heat, and cook for a couple of minutes to warm everything through and make a saucy consistency. Serve with more Parm and top with the breadcrumbs.

To make the Ricotta

• Put the ricotta, salt and plenty of pepper in a food processor and start to process. With the motor running, add the olive oil in a thin stream. Pause and scrape down the sides if needed. The mixture should get lovely and creamy. Taste and adjust with more salt and pepper as needed. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week.

 

Otherhood (2019)

I watched this while quarantining in my house over the holidays.  I was looking for lighter movie fare, and willing to sacrifice some in the realm of quality in order to not think too hard.  Unfortunately I pretty much missed the mark this this choice.

The movie has three well known leads in Angela Bassett, Patricia Arquette, and Felicity Huffman.  The play three mothers who seem to have distant roles in their son's lives but are none-the-less incensed that they have not gotten Mother's Day greetings.  I find the day to be largely manufactured to sell things (although I have always enjoyed the garden planting that my kids and husband have done each May, I do not under any circumstances get riled up about not hearing from them).  They storm off unannounced to New York City to somehow set the record straight on how important they are.  They stir up a few pots, then get seemingly rewarded for bad behavior in the end, which seems somehow unfair.  It is particularly ironic to see Huffman in her largely hands off role as a mother when in real life she spent time in jail for fraud and bribery related to getting her child into college. 
 

Shrimp Masala

I have been struggling with a cold and caring for a COVID family member, and my energy level is not high.  That, it turns out, is enough inspiration to make this super easy dish from Nik Sharma's new cookbook, The Flavor Equation.  Start the rice cooking before you do anything as it will be the rate limiting step, and this is so flavorful and good!

• 1 pound fresh or thawed frozen raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails left on
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated
• 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, plus lime wedges
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoons minced chives 
•  

Place the shrimp in a colander and rinse under cold running water. Pat them dry with paper towels.

In a large bowl or resealable plastic bag, combine 1 tablespoon of the oil and the garlic, ginger, tomato paste, lime juice, garam masala, cayenne, and cinnamon. Taste and adjust the seasoning if desired.

Add the shrimp, season with salt, and coat evenly. Let sit for 5 minutes.

In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, warm 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the shrimp along with the spice mixture and liquid and cook, stirring and turning occasionally, until they turn pink, 3 to 4 minutes. (The tomato paste and shrimp might make it tricky to determine the pink color, so to test for doneness, cut a piece of the shrimp in half; the flesh inside should be completely tender and white in addition to the outer surface and tail turning pink.)

Transfer the shrimp to a platter. Garnish with the chives. Serve immediately with the lime wedges on the side.

 

 

Sedition at the Capital, Family Style

 Yes, a jubilant First Family addressing the crowd that then went on to invade the White House.  For some reason I can't get this video out of my head, that there is real celebration over inciting a crowd of people to storm the Capital while both the Senate and the House were gathered to certify a democratically conducted election.  It is on the one hand no more disgusting than all the rest of it, of course.  He was a dictator want to be who made no bones about the fact that he thought there should be a Trump in the White House for many years to come, that somehow they would all be continually shielded from the law by their "elected" power.

Yet somehow I cannot get it out of my head.  They are live streaming their excitement for what can only be seen as the incitement to do violence, break the law, and subvert the Constitution.  Five people died as a result, and our national shame was broadcast around the world.  The president of the United States encouraging a crowd waving Confederate flags to invade a place of government for the purpose of doing harm.  No one erects a lynching scaffolding who comes to a gathering to be peaceful.  This is where he leaves us.

Chickpeas with Greens and Lemon

I put up a bunch of cooked greens this summer, and now realize I need to use one of them every other week in order to use them up before we have more greens, maybe more often, so that is what I subbed into this Ottolenghi recipe from Ottolenghi Simple.  I doubled it for a dinner side dish.

2 carrots, peeled and chopped into 2cm pieces
60ml olive oil, plus extra to serve
Salt and black pepper
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp caraway seeds
1½ tsp ground cumin
200g swiss chard leaves, cut into 1cm-thick strips
1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed (240g drained weight)
1 lemon, cut in half – one half juiced, to get 1 tbsp, the other cut into two wedges, to serve
80g Greek-style yoghurt
5g coriander leaves, roughly chopped

Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas 6. In a bowl, toss the carrots with two tablespoons of oil, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Spread out on an oven tray lined with baking paper, then roast for 20 minutes: they should still be a little crunchy.

Heat the remaining two tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan on a medium flame, then fry the onion, caraway and cumin for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Add the chard, cooked carrots, chickpeas, 75ml water, half a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper, and mix through. Cook for five minutes, until the chard is soft and just about all the liquid in the pan has evaporated. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, then serve with a generous spoonful of yoghurt, a sprinkling of coriander, a drizzle of oil and a wedge of lemon.

 

Sedition at the Capital, Part II

I am deeply disturbed by the number of elected members of Congress who openly called for the overthrowing of a democratically run election *just* for the President.  Clearly members of the House were themselves elected in the same election in the same states that they were now contesting, and without a shred of evidence were illegitimately conducted solely as they pertained to the presidential election.  So on the one hand it didn't even make sense.  Each state gets to decide how they are going to conduct their part of the national election, and not one of the states had a separate process for the presidential vote.  So if it was wrong, you, dear elected official, are also not legally elected either.

So in the absence of producing evidence of fraud, or suggesting that they too, were not legally elected, the acts of over one hundred members of the House and a dozen members of the Senate should be considered acts of sedition, and investigated and prosecuted as such.  That they then invited others to violently storm the Capital, a place they themselves were at the time, is just an example of how truly self destructive they are to our country,
 

Lime and Yogurt Tomato Salad

This is definitely not the time of year to have the very best of tomato salads--but on the other hand, cherry tomatoes can be had throughout the year and they are pretty good little flavor bursts any time, so this is a salad to prioritize for the non-tomato season if you don't just skip them all together until July.  The cardamom (which I just did as ground) gives it an interesting kick.

70g Greek-style yoghurt
11/2 oz.  soft, rindless goat’s cheese
½ small garlic clove, peeled and crushed
Salt
1-2 limes – zest finely grated, to get 1 tsp, and juiced, to get 1½ tbsp
15 cardamom pods, shells discarded and seeds finely crushed in a mortar
1 large green chilli, finely chopped (pith and seeds removed if you prefer less heat)
500g ripe, sweet cherry tomatoes, halved (or any other great tomatoes you can get)
1 large banana shallot, peeled and finely sliced
60ml olive oil
10g mint leaves, roughly torn

Mix the yoghurt, goat’s cheese, garlic and a pinch of salt in a large bowl until smooth. Add half the lime zest, half the cardamom and half the chilli, and stir to combine. Set aside an eighth of a teaspoon of the remaining crushed cardamom, to serve.

In a second bowl, mix the tomatoes, shallot, lime juice, two tablespoons of oil and half a teaspoon of salt with the remaining lime zest, cardamom and chilli. Add the yoghurt mixture and most of the mint, and stir gently, but not too much – you want still to be able to see the red of the tomatoes and green of the mint in parts.

Transfer to a platter, drizzle with the remaining two tablespoons of oil, finish with the remaining mint and cardamom, and serve.

 

COVID Resilience

 Here we are, ten months into the pandemic, and there are more than 200,000 new cases a day and on average 2,000 new deaths.  The plague that swept through Europe in the Middle Ages and it took two years to get it under control.  When did that happen?  After everyone started to stay home.  The importance of protecting yourself, your family, and your community cannot be emphasized enough, and yet so many people continue to disregard the simple steps of masking up, staying many feet apart, frequent hand washing, and if you need to be in close, wearing a face shield.  

The consequences of not doing so are raining down on us, Los Angeles being the current example of where reckless behavior brings one.  There are oxygen tank shortages because hospitals are over capacity and patients are being held in temporary tents outside the hospital or worse yet, in an idling ambulance.  They are ceasing presumed futile resuscitation in the filed rather than bringing to the hospital.  There just is no room for that.  And ICU beds are hard to come by, some hospitals with triple the number they normally have.  It is sad and infuriating that we are on the cusp of having an intervention, a miraculous vaccine developed in record time using novel technology and yet before such a scientific breakthrough can work it's magic, many more will die.  Thankfully my elderly parents have been able to stay safe until now and got their first dose of the vaccine this week.

Sedition in the Capital, Part I

 The Capital police waved off any offer of help prior to the events that unfolded in Washington, DC on Wednesday.  There is so much to unpack about why that might be why and why it is so terribly wrong.  The first is that while the greatest terrorist threat to our communities and our country are armed and angry white men, they are treated absurdly well by law enforcement.  The teenager who shot and killed two people at a Black Lives Matter protest that occurred in the wake of yet another person of color shot and killed by law enforcement was allowed to walk away.  Officers did nothing to stop him. 

So at the Capital when a largely unmasked largely male crowd blew through the barriers in front of the Capital in a stated attempt to stop Congress from doing it's duty and certifying the Electoral College vote, with the plan to over throw the vote of the people and install their own choice of what is nothing more than a dictator, there was very little done to intervene.  A Black Lives Matter crowd would have been gassed, beaten to the ground, and arrested, but no, these men took selfies and marauded through offices of Congressmen.  And in the end, five people lost their lives.  Congress went back to work and stayed until the job was done, but the open sympathy of officers in uniform with white supremacists engaging in a coup attempt is something that needs a long and hard look.

Nomadland (2020)

Frances McDormand must be seen as a treasure for a film maker wanting to make a certain kind of film.  She can take a role that may not seem like much and imbue it with texture and depth and beauty.  That is exactly what she does with the story of Fern, a woman who is grieving and grappling with a life that has been ripped away from her.

She appears to have been happy in Empire, Nevada, one of any number of American small towns built around an industry that feels no debt of gratitude to the workers who make their money. When the gypsum plant there closed, the town of Empire quite literally closed with it. In six months, its post office and its zip code was eliminated. In the midst of this calamity, Fern’s husband died.  She has no family, few friends, and no roots to a twin that exists any more.  She thinks about retirement, but doesn't think she can survive on that government check and besides, she wants to work.  So she travels in search of work as a seasonal employee, first at an Amazon center, and she starts living in her van.  This is not a motor home--it is a van.  She eventually gets involved with a group of modern nomads, people who sometimes form makeshift communities, but she inevitably ends up alone again, traversing the American landscape.  Her restlessness depicts a segment of older Americans who cannot afford to stop working and may not have enough to live on ever if it is in their vehicles.  This is a beautiful and unsentimental telling of that tale.
 

Quarantine's End Cocktail

We have been a house divided for two weeks as one of our valued members tested positive for COVID.  He is yet another health care worker taking care of critically ill COVID patients who has been themselves infected as a result.  I have a deepened antipathy for those who carelessly infect others, which leads to vulnerable becoming ill and then healthcare workers being left to clean up their mess.  The profound lack of empathy for one's fellow man is the hallmark of the political divide and now the pandemic response.  

Today we emerge from our house, where we happily protected and cared for each other, and that is indeed something to celebrate.

1 oz tequila

1 oz Aperol

1/2 oz luxardo Maraschino liquer

3/4 oz lime juice

 

Shake and serve over ice.  Delicious!  Yet another great Aperol drink.

 

Pink Baked Pasta

This is another great recipe from Open Kitchen--although I confess that I am not a huge pan of radicchio, so I substituted rainbow chard stems and beet greens to get the pink flavor.  Mine was more earthy and less bitter than the original.  I also eliminated prosciutto as well, but you could certainly choose to add it back in.  I thought it didn't add what you might hope it would, so better vegetarian

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium red onions, sliced lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick wedges
2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 large head radicchio, cored and sliced into 1/2-inch-thick ribbons --or anything pink
salt
8 ounces soft goat cheese
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 pound short pasta, such as gemelli, strozzapreti, or penne
6 ounces fontina cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
generous gratings of nutmeg
10 to 12 grinds black pepper
1 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a large (3-quart) baking dish and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large (12-inch) skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until lightly browned and softened, 10 to 12 minutes total. After the first 7 minutes, add the garlic.

Add the radicchio and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until wilted, 3 to 4 minutes. Crumble in the goat cheese, add the cream, and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Cook the pasta in a pot of liberally salted water until shy of al dente. You want it a little firmer than usual, as it will continue to soften while baking. Scoop out 1 cup of the pasta water, drain pasta, and add the pasta and the water to the skillet with the vegetables, stirring.

Fold in two-thirds of the fontina cheese. Toss well and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Transfer to the prepared baking dish. Dot the top with the remaining fontina cheese and sprinkle with the parmigiano cheese. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden brown on top and bubbling at the edges. Serve immediately.

Alternatively, let the assembled dish cool, cover with foil, and refrigerate until ready to serve. Take out of the refrigerator about 1 hour before baking and bake 45 to 50 minutes.

 

Plus One (2019)

Yes, this is yet another romantic comedy, this one centering not on the pressure of bringing "someone" to Christmas or Thanksgiving, but rather to weddings.  Yes, I know, no one should be throwing a big holiday party or a wedding with lots of people these days, but it is still nice to think about when that was possible, because it is very hard to picture it happening soon.  So while living a quarantined life (now on lock down), this was a pleasant diversion, streaming on Hulu.

This is a movie about more than having a date for a wedding.  It is looking the capture a time in your twenties and early thirties when it seems like every weekend there is another wedding to go to and, unless your own is on the calendar, it can seem like running a gauntlet of questions from friends and relatives about your own relationship status and doubts about whether there is some secret conveyer belt of adulthood that you haven’t figured out how to get to.  

Ben and Alice have been friends since college, and they decide they are going to go as friends to weddings and be each other's wing man.  The rest is fairly inevitable in the romance department, but Ben is also just not figuring out life either.  He has some trauma from his parents splitting up that interferes with his idea of marriage and finding a partner.  It is both bawdy and sweet as rom com's go and worth a winter weekend viewing.
 

Crime Boss in Chief

I think Edward Norton is correct.  There is something the crime boss in chief is avoiding, something he is so frightened of he will do anything, say anything, threaten anyone, no matter how ridiculous it is, no matter how criminal it is, no matter how bad it makes him look because there is something worse that he is running from.

The tape of the conversation Trump had with Raffensberger, who failed to answer the phone 18 times before picking up, is that Trump lied on Twitter about the content of the conversation.  The blatant display of threats, cheating, and encouraging corruption in an election official makes him guilty of the crimes he has accused others of.  Despicable.

Then there are the people who are enabling his behavior , who are traitors to their country, as defined by the 14th Amendment.  After the Civil War it was spelled out clearly in the Constitution that what  Ted Cruz and the likes are advocating is in fact sedition.  They are treasonous traitors to their country and they should all be prosecuted as such.  Enough already.  The GOP does not want a democracy because despite their very presentable showing in the 2020 election, they appear to think that in the not too distant future they cannot win elections in a democracy and therefore they are advocating for a dictatorship of their choosing.  Please put those people on trial and make the punishment fit the crime.
 

Perry Mason (2020)

I watched the Raymond Burr version of Perry Mason as reruns as a child, and the show ran in the late 1950's into the early 1960's.  So both it and I are over 60 years old.  The books go back even further and I read some of them in my teenage years.  This iteration of Perry is quite a bit more interesting.

I do not know the Erle Stanley Gardner origin story, but in this one, set in the early 1930's while the country is in the throws of the Depression as well as Prohibition, Perry becomes a lawyer without having to actually attend law school, Hamilton Burger and Della Street share secrets and a bond that keeps them helping each other out at any cost, and Paul Drake is a black cop who is both repeatedly subjected to degrading treatment based on his race by much stupider, far more corrupt cops, all before he leaves and hooks up with Perry.  The series is way grittier than the previous one, way better written and acted, and most importantly, way more interesting.  Do not miss this, even (I think) if you are not a huge fan of noir or legal procedurals.
 

Cauliflower Pomegranate Salad

Here is another great vegetable side dish from Ottolenghi Simple.  I had cauliflower and a cup of pomegranate seeds already pulled apart because my spouse had used them to decorate a pie.  This is a combo of roasted and raw cauliflower--I used the stems and the less than perfect to be to pulse in the food processor and roasted the rest.  Very tasty and completely do ahead (I put the pistachios on just prior to serving, but they help up the next day).

1 extra-large cauliflower

1 small onion, roughly sliced

⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil 

Kosher salt 

1¼ cups fresh parsley, roughly chopped 

½ cup fresh mint, roughly chopped 

½ cup fresh tarragon, roughly chopped 

Seeds from ½ medium pomegranate

⅓ cup shelled pistachios, lightly toasted and roughly chopped 

1 teaspoon ground cumin 

1½ tablespoons lemon juice 

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. 

2. Coarsely grate a third of the cauliflower into a bowl and set aside. Break the remaining cauliflower into florets, roughly 1¼ inches wide, and place them ina separate bowl with the cauliflower leaves, if you have any, and the onion. Toss with 2 tablespoons of the oil and ¼ teaspoon salt, then spread on a large parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast for about 20 minutes, until cooked through and golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. 

3. Once cool, put the roasted vegetables in a large bowl with the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil, the grated cauliflower and the parsley, mint, tarragon, pomegranate seeds, pistachios, cumin, lemon juice and ¼ teaspoon salt. Toss gently, just to combine, then transfer to a platter and serve. 

 

Merchants of Doubt (2014)

This is an infuriating movie that details just how long the rich have been peddling lies to those they feel are lesser than them.  It is incredibly anger provoking given what is going on now with the political scene.  

The basis is that there is a long history of people in power, largely businesses but also politicians, lying about the dangers of things in order to make money, avoid consequences, and displace the blame for any fallout onto something or someone else.  This documentary looks at the tobacco company history of deception, lying, and publicly stating that people should be free to make their own choices, all the while pocketing profits withour paying any consequences. 

This is the same thinking that I see throughout the pandemic.  There are leaders and governors who, despite that we know this does not work, it does not save lives, say let the people decide, often while modeling bad behavior themselves.  On the other hand there have been leaders who actually seem to care for the people they have been given charge over, who make tough decisions that keep people both safe and happy.  May we have those leaders again.