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

  Assorted wild fungi, diced tomatoes, okra, spicy collard greens, marinated sun-dried tomatoes and pimentos, scallions, garlic, thyme, ginger, black-eyed peas, whole wheat pasta, jalfrezi curry paste, sorrel, kashmiri curry paste, masala curry paste, chicken bouillon, limes, chopped dates, golden raisins, sweet antipasto peppers and sweet red chilis, chopped parsley and cilantro.......

2nd day of 'weaning' from the excesses of Thanksgiving's fat, animal flesh and sugar.......now at cheesy grits and tangy shrimp in a thin, piquant sauce of globular fats...20 ingredients..rather than 20 courses........I remember 'hating' those Jim Dandy White Grits that Lucy dolloped out at 7 am as a constant companion to her overcooked eggs and already buttered toaster-oven toasted Ideal or Sunbeam white 'loaf' bread.....my pre-school breakfast....yuk! Fortunately my border collie would gobble down even this indelectable combination of bland calories..... I wouldn't 'touch' grits, having developed a prejudice against the cold, plastic, salty, white, vomitous masses with lakes of molten salted margarine at their centers, until I was in my mid-twenties, had discovered polentas and had experienced breakfast at Brennan's, Court of the 3 Sisters, and Joe Dale's....Sorry, Lucy, I loved you, but you were not the 'private chef' of m...

 

my 'untraditional' contributions to Thanksgiving Dinner were ignored and untested this afternoon........gaping fish mouth pasta in cheese-truffle sauce; Indian sweet toast with sauerkraut, German sausage slices and red chili paste & garlic; red pepper hummus with wasabi dissicated green snow peas, Indian wheat puffs and baked root vegetable chips; and toasted focaccia, smeared with red caramelized onions, parsley/garlic salsa verde and red curry paste..........I'll have these peculiarities and the fresh-caught tuna salad with Ritz crackers, not photographed, for breakfast tomorrow morning........I made a cranberry cheesecake, but left it on my kitchen counter......so, I'm having a slice right now...as though I needed another few hundred calories!

  finally......the perfected caramelized, thin, crunchy biscuit....with apple butter and eggs, scrambled in butter and almond oil..... with, habanero hot pepper sauce, asiago and sharp chedder cheeses.....thanks for the childhood cooking lessons, Alma Earl and Frances Teal.....whose 'secret' was to heat the iron skillet to 500 degrees, before adding the biscuits, then popping the skillet into a 400 degree oven.....

"back of the refrigerator bin cleanout" provided some mushy raspberries, some dehydrating blueberries and a cup of giant 'not very sweet' blackberries.....Not one to toss potential meal materials away, I pureed the 'last days' fruit, added some cognac, left in a goblet on the dining table, and the last of the Grand Marnier....whisking in some toasted almond slices, powdered and grated coconut 'flour', powdered cinnamon bark, some sour milk and half a cup of pancake mix.....thereby, producing a crispy-edged skillet cake in a shallow lake of browning, unsalted butter.....then, dabbed with blueberry preserves........This is what Java is 'for'......make that a double!

  "necessity is the mother of invention"..... Since I've been 'operationally' carless for a couple of months, due to my own inertia, having not 'dealt' with any of my three vehicles...., now, with flat tires, empty tanks or dead batteries.... and all three with other complications that I've not bothered with, because of both procrastination and indifference as much as an increasing agoraphobic disposition........I'm going through my 'larder' to create some Thanksgiving Fare to bring to an afternoon dinner......This has led me to the examination of frozen foods in the fridge and the large, downstairs 'deep freezer' in search of some components for a not yet conceptualized 'dish' that would not be out of synch with other friends' contributions.......I've just realized that there are absolutely NO 'normal' foodstuffs here, other than some boxed, dehydrated potato flakes and some canned Asian products, frozen ...

  After yesterday's largesse, and having watched a documentary on the paucity of Native, Indigenous foods and restaurants that serve these, I was motivated, this morning, to soak various 'old' beans, with dried chopped dates, powdered with oat flour; dried bay (laurel) leaves; fresh sliced garlic; Great Salt Lake 'salt'; and rosemary...grown in a planter on my deck, crushed to extract its oils...in my mortar and pestle......Step one of my experiment in imagining what would have been eaten, in America, 500 years ago.......hmm.....the Mohicans and Choctaws may not have had ANY dates, garlic or rosemary.......does it matter? This is a conceptual Art Cooking Project, after all....not a 'real' academic examination of Culinary History, after all......my hands reek of fresh garlic and rosemary...which I absolutely loooove.....so, I'm not washing my hands until the aroma subsides or 'goes south'.....

  Variation #6....Blazing hot Balinese ground pork meatballs with Indonesian chicken, placated with a creamy roquefort yogurt....and a caramelized khasta paratha, smeared with mango-peach salsa..... #7, not pictured, had the 'guilt gift' of diced vegetables in hot Thai red curry/coconut paste.......

VARIOUS SMALL POTATOES,  SHREDDED BABY CARROTS,  MUSHROOMS, SCALLIONS AND SHREDDED FOWL FLESH......SAUTEED IN GRAPESEED AND AVOCADO OILS, WITH HERBS D' PROVENCE, THAI CHILI PASTE, GARLIC POWDER AND PLUM SAUCE.    A 'WARM UP' FOR NEXT THURSDAY'S LARGESSE......

  In the mood for strawberry/rhubarb pie......the beautiful leaves are a bit poisonous, but the stems are delicious.......I settled for a peach pie, from the grocery store.......hard to beat Marie Callender's lattice-top pies.......

  crunchy salmon croquet with ginger, lemon zest, cilantro and toasted sesame oil on a 'starfish' of shredded broccoli stems and carrots, marinated in kirin garlic vinegar, with sweet red pepper 'arms'........an early, light supper course.....before a calorie-laden dessert of moulded thin layers of dense, fine-grained lemon cake, alternating with ultra-thin orange/bitter chocolate wafers, cut in the shape of stars, then dipped in molten hard chocolate, flavored with candied ginger bits and tiny white raisins, marinated in Cointreau....

  I just cranked out a Mumbai-improvisation of Bow-tie pasta boiled in vegetable stock with Bay Leaves, then tossed with Pav Bhaji; pan roasted red potatoes with crunchy rosemary, black beans, lemon rind and mojo; okra and flat beans with Mexican husk tomatoes, ground orange peppers, Vindaloo curry and hot lime pickle......My nose is a fiery snotfall, and my tongue is pulsing between the edge of pain and fiery ecstasy, already......A Cointreau/raspberry vodka/cognac cocktail will both ignite the hunger fuse and solace my throbbing palate!.....All I've done today.....is cook! and cook!....macadamia nut frozen custard was to be the dessert, but there's no milk!.......there must be a 'workaround'....golden beet sherbet? beets, walnuts and ginger in aspic?

  spinach fettuccine noodles boiled in lobster 'juice' with raw garlic, then tossed in sweet red pepper salsa, diced red jalapeno peppers, ginger & tamarind chutney with pine nuts, chipotle, and shavings of parmesan & asiago cheese.....served in a mug with a watchful French tasting overseer......(after a portrait of Charles de Gaulle).....i'm thinking of a portrait mug of  ex-president,  DJT, watching over a bowl of McDonald's chili or deep fried macaroni & cheese with ketchup,,,,.with a hinged figure that i can dunk in the bloody, corn syrupy ketchup! 

late luncheon.......shaved brocolli, sliced mushrooms, spinach, black beans and a mountain of chopped herbs and spices.....with pig meat, marinated in sour orange juice, garlic, cumin, lime juice and pungent peppers.......then reduced to a pungent sauce.....

  This morning I hollowed out a single raspberry bagel, toasted the excavated bread, dabbled some preserved blueberries in the canyon, then filled that with a single egg, scrambled with sautéed mushrooms,  shredded white cheeses, turmeric, chopped scallions, chopped parsley, thyme and scallions....in butter and grape-seed oil......    (blood pressure, before eating, was 132/63.....an hour afterwards, it was 141/72) .........three hours later.....I had a single chicken sausage, with sauerkraut/ black pepper and celery seeds.....(blood pressure, before eating, was 138/70.....9an hour after the salty 'weenie and sauerkraut',  blood pressure was 160/85!!!).......     a good reason that I don't use very much salt when cooking, and NEVER serve salt, in shakers or bowls, to guests....unless they beg for the NaCl.....

....Searing steak in cognac, butter and herbs........How about these, Gordon.......Seared three times....first, grilled with in olive oil and garlic, then pan-seared in harissa sauce, and finally... in hot pear chutney, more garlic, rosemary, butter, salt and cognac....the pan-reduced cognac, coating the 125 degree meat with a rich, dark, but not burnt-tasting sauce.....a technique that i first viewed at Maxim's in Paris, in my early 20's.......i also remember, well, my party of four not having enough money to pay the outrageous bill there......One of our entourage left the restaurant, 'serviced' some strange man in an alley behind the restaurant.....and returned with the extra bucks to pay for our 'perfect' meal......Some events...we never forget! Later, i found a T-shirt for our little 'money-maker'...imprinted with "Will Work For Food"......