Cooking And Eating....“Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es”

I've always used 'baby' bok choy.....but decided to get this monstrously huge 'head' of the stuff.........sliced it into strips, quick wok-cooking it in almond oil, then adding some chili oil, crushed garlic....lots of it,...hoi san sauce, oyster sauce, some mediterranean herbs, some plum sauce and a few leftover condiments from the fridge.......after the stems were tender, I served it with hot....as in 'spicy'..... mango/habanero salsa.......

a small glass dish, carrying a single shrimp, anointed with a single drop of the fieriest 'dragon venom' that a friend made for me a couple of years ago.........presented on a jade carving of a mythological, magic bat. 

Thinking about food, at 3am, I stared into the fridge....noting a very small (1/4 cup) of leftover waffle batter....hmm.....adding some pecan meal and almond flour, some cinnamon and powdered toasted coconut, then moistening the now dry mixture with buttermilk....I had 1/2 cup of still-thick, cold paste.....hmmm....while cooking, bubbly golden brown, some molten butter and almond oil, I added a handful of desiccated wasabi-coated english peas,  pressing the clump..flat....then flipped the 'cake' over to embed the peas and caramelize the sugars in  the 'other' side in browned, unsalted butter......a mix of agave syrup and sourwood honey, to which a pinch of smoked paprika had been added, was then drizzled over the small cake.....VOILA!    a new concoction.......

 

Black beans, in a soup of hot pepper seeds and skins, chopped cilantro stems, ground orange and purple peppercorns, bay leaves, fresh green thyme, sliced pickled Jalapeno peppers and pepper jelly, oyster sauce, mango chilli, ground coriander seeds, sliced whole scallions, "Pain Is Good" habanero sauce, diced garlic and sweet chilli/garlic sauce over pink sushi rice (addition of beet powder or a tsp of pickled beet 'juice'), washed 5 times in chicken bouillon. I thought about Nancy VanDevender Ferguson as the taste moved in a Cajun direction.....New Orleans style with an Indonesian accent.....although there are no 'sacred shrimp', lifeless in this broth.....

White Grit encrusted Wild Salmon patty with spicy cole slaw and tartar sauce........carb-cutting.....no bun!  A 'fingers, fork and spoon' combo......   and, the last Salmon Cake Experiment......   sliced Salmon Cake with ginger/tamarind/garlic paste, atop a mound of spicy cole slaw.......

 A raccoon ran off, last night, with the steak and cake  that were delivered and left by my kitchen door, leaving only some paper and plastic and a honeydew melon, some strawberries, mixed field greens, corn and a bunch of asparagus........

Breaded eggplant ravioli caponata, alla Siciliana, with melted shaved Parmesan and Fontina cheeses...in memory of Eugene (Louis) and Mary Leone, who taught me pasta-making during their trip to visit my parents to present his 'plan' for a grand Las Vegas Mama Leone's......Louis squandered his family's hard-earned money on a foolish venture, and by 1959.....it was sold to some commercial New York 'Italian Restaurant' Chain.....Before meeting the Leone's, I had only eaten Chef Boyardee ravioli....from a can.......Alabama wasn't an Italian food Mecca, exactly....in the mid 1950's.....

Some basic, but flavorful, Alsatian fare for lunch......displacing my real desire for mille-feuilles, St. Honoré cake and a bowl of triple-chocolate iced cream......compared to which, my simpler peasant fare seems so utilitarian.....I'll save a potato for you, Jeremy Bentham.....these tubers are the great equalizer, after all, aren't they? (but a half dozen Gateau St. Honores ---not 'pictured', since I ate them earlier, with a mug of java--are the real 'satisfiers') and, never toss those tangerine peels...... a couple of Florentine Lace cookies are the 'satisfaction' component.....remember the adage: 'the last taste is the last forgotten'.....and that is never parsnip latkes with lox and horseradish creme....is it?

Grandmother's 'egg slicer'' a CO2 cartridge holder for my Grandfather's 'seltzer water' dispenser; a fingernail buffer, minus the 'skin', converted into an unusual-shape cookie/biscuit cutter; a 'pump' to remove oxidizing 'air' from storage containers; a citrus fruit 'corer'; a cocktail shaker 'strainer'; a razor-sharp 'pizza cutter'; an unusual 'can'/'bottle' opener; a coffee measurer/tamper; a nut cracker; and, at 7:00, a 'biter' of unknown purpose, that I've used for many improvised purposes.......  These are but a third of the 'implements' that were crammed into this kitchen drawer!   Well.....back they go!   But, not before some artsy-fartsy visual implementation, of course.........  

just keep adding 'stuff', adjusting flavors, textures and idiosyncratic taste sensibilities, until the pot is too full to 'keep on'.......     This 'Stew' began as celery and onions, cooked in butter.....  then celery seeds.... then vegetable bouillon, then dried adzuki beans, then crushed tomatoes, then all the leftover condiments from the back of the fridge, then okra, then corn.....then the last of the dried herbs...about a dozen of them....then, the wilted parsley and cilantro......and, more boiling water to compensate for the absorption by the dried beans.......then, an inch from the top.....cover with a tight lid and simmer for a few hours.......What will be, will be........and it will be thick and flavorful by then......perfect for dumping over a bowl of jasmine rice........ Oh....here's some Scotch bonnets and a couple of Jalapeno peppers.....added at the last few minutes.......the corn was a bit too sweet!   Some Mango Habanero Salsa should remedy ...

table decor for 'Alien'....not as in Ridley Scott.....breakfast of exotica foods, prepared as 'dining in other star systems'....please, no take-out boxes of fried chicken on my table.....no odorless, plasticy Kroger hybrid flowers with cut ferns....unless the ferns are 'tempura', of course....

A 'take off' of old school fried cubed steak with chicken gravy....a ubiguitous Southern staple food.......I tweaked it by rolling the steak in a dozen French herbs, some garlic and Cajun spice mix...for salt and tang... and replaced the old milk gravy with a thick soup of white Nebraska corn grits, rosemary-infused cream and butter, pepper, asiago, white cheddar and aged yellow cheeses.......yummy....I want some more! Now....back to bed to rid myself of this long-lingering political malaise and sniffles.... with a dessert of an ancient bottle of glyceryl guaiacolate and a box of kleenex.....

.....one side is butternut squash, tamari sauce, yellow onions, edamame and grated celery against another, far spicier side of red curry, chopped Vidalia onions, bamboo shoots, miniature corn on its cob, yellow raisins, sliced shitake mushrooms, pink rice cooked in coconut milk, pumpkin mash, hot chilis, chopped scallions, ginger, lemon grass and garlic.......combine the two 'halves' to suit your personal tastes......a trip to Thailand via Georgia.....

shredded beef with hot chillies, chopped fiddlehead ferns and coriander paste with a 'well' of red potato wedges, cooked in vinegar, garlic, grapefruit pulp, thyme and ground rosemary, 'dry' skillet cooked with powdered herbs, then sprinkled with pulverized rusk cakes.........a hour's prep for a small appetizer portion.......a 'tongue-burner'.....

  Re J r a u o n c S u t a c S a r y   2 t , l g   p g m f o 2 e n s 0 f 1 u o r e o d 9    ·  Shared with shredded beef with hot chillies, chopped fiddlehead ferns and coriander paste with a 'well' of red potato wedges, cooked in vinegar, garlic, grapefruit pulp, thyme and ground rosemary, 'dry' skillet cooked with powdered herbs, then sprinkled with pulverized rusk cakes.........a hour's prep for a small appetizer portion.......a 'tongue-burner'.....

well....maybe tomorrow.......but, for this morning......leftover collards and black-eyed peas were not as appealing as a baked sugar-encrusted raspberry preserves-filled, puff pastry petaled 'thingee' and a cup of Fortnum and Mason Conker cold-brewed coffee with a inch of cinnamon crema....