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

                                                              More basil is even Better 

  As though it were not hot enough, today........how about some Hannibal Chili with fava beans, chopped tomatoes, minced garlic, every chopped herb in the kitchen, rasam powder, sweet chili sauce, pad Thai sauce, oyster sauce, ground peppercorns, Cajun seasoning, dehydrated chopped onions, golden raisins, Scotch bonnet peppers and, of course, chili powder....lots of it ....and 'topped' with molten Mexican cheeses..... consumed from/with crunchy sweet yam tortilla chips........a 'side' of cole slaw mollifies the 'heat'....... breakfast variation on 'leftovers'.......halved thin-skin yellow potato, microwaved, smashed, then pan 'browned' in avocado oil, then sprinkled with herbs and ground pepper, piled high with Hannibal chili and crowned with a puree of tomatoes, sweet  mango salsa, garlic and hot peppers...

                                  Project "Make a Dish that resembles a 17thC Flemish painting"   

I seldom 'dine out' ....especially on Atlanta's 'crowded everyplace' weekends.......nevertheless, last night I relented and accompanied a far more 'social' friend to a packed Thai restaurant for some delicious food and potent mixed drinks.........other than having to wipe all that fancy salt from the rim of a couple of potent margaritas, [which I estimated...had 4,500 milligrams of sodium and lots of nasty sugar syrup].....that I drank anyway, because I was being "treated to drinks", I was in the 3rd tier of Food Heaven.......but 'salt licks' and 'simple sugar syrup' are for cows and hyper-active pre-diabetic teenagers with high blood pressure.......Soy sauce, salad dressings, sauces, dips, ketchup, mustard and relish all contain sodium......lots of sodium.......A good 'rule'....avoid restaurants that put 'salt shakers' on their tables, while serving already overly salted food on their menus! and remember....

  I can't keep away from the kitchen today........5 hours to make a few 'appetizers'......this is the 3rd 'course', of 6........Greek lemon eggdrop soup; seafood 'salad' of crab/lobster/shrimp/flounder on a bed of spicy mixed greens and super-thin sliced shitake mushrooms with shaved orange beets and roquefort cheese; 'mojo' panko encrusted marinated Cuban steak, pickled beets, asparagus in sesame oil and ground orange and red peppercorns, wild carrots cooked in rosemary, thyme and sourwood honey; vegetable 'plate' of assorted ugli tomatoes, see-through thin purple carrot slices on quinoa, Indonesian style, field green salad with chopped cilantro stems, pickled orange rinds, walnuts and toasted pine nuts and Gorgonzola cheese crumbles......and, of course, Dessert! Apricot and dark, bitter chocolate truffle with salty macadamia nuts and candied ginger along with homemade mango iced heavy cream, sweetened with orange and tangerine liquors...

 

a day before watching 'Yes, Chef'......I practiced some old Julia Child-style cooking....chicken, heavily seasoned with rosemary, then cooked in olive oil with blueberries, garlic, tumeric, chervil, white wine and strawberry preserves.......served up with red potatoes, cooked in the pan fond, deglazed with wine....this will end up on a platter of mixed wild salad greens with as yet still undetermined dressing.......likely, a balsamic vinaigrette with pureed blackberrys and crushed fennel seeds.....

a luncheon treat, today.......Endometrial Omelet.....many ingredients, including yam gnocchi Moroccan style and sweet yellow corn and pimento chutney, dissicated spicy okra and Bhindi masala and 5 varieties of Asian peas, beans in green curry sauce, and peppers, upon a Malabari Paratha, enveloped by a translucent Vietnamese rice flour spring roll skin.....in the final version: the super thin, fragile 'skin' was a bit awkward to handle, without disturbing the arrangement of many ingredients, within...... and.....for 'dessert'......frozen blackberries and raspberries, 'food processed' with coconut milk, Cointreau and Grand Marnier and a splash of Drambuie... garnished with ripe strawberries, marinated in Grand Marnier......

 I BASTED SOME SOURWOOD TOAST IN A BUTTERED IRON FRY PAN.....THEN COVERED THE MOISTENED TOAST WITH  MY FROMAGE FORT, WHICH WAS A MIXTURE OF 3 KINDS OF CHEESE THAT BEEN DEHYDRATING IN MY REFRIGERATOR FOR AS LONG AS SIX MONTHS, THAT I DID NOT ATTEMPT TO BREAK DOWN IN THE FOOD PROCESSOR OR FINELY GRATE, BUT LEFT IN SMALL, CRUSTY CHUNKS.....TO WHICH I ADDED SOME LEFTOVER WHITE WINE THAT HAD BEEN SITTING ON THE DINING ROOM TABLE FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS...... A LARGE  CRUSHED GARLIC CLOVE , A TEASPOON OF HOT PEPPER SAUCE......AND A SPRINKLE OF GROUND BLACK PEPPERCORNS........THE CHEESE WAS NOT VERY MOLTEN, SINCE IT WAS REALLY 'HARD' AND 'DRY'....THE SALTINESS, ACCENTUATED BY THE DISSICATION, EXPECIALLY IN THE 'RINDS', WHICH I DID NOT REMOVE.......A VERY SMALL PORTION OFF THIS GOES A LONG WAY, SINCE....TO MY TASTES ANYWAY.....THE RESULT IS EXTRA-SALTY!    THIS MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY LOTS OF FLAVORED WATER.....I HAD SANPELLEGRINO 'BLOOD ORANGE'.....TO ASSUAGE THE ...

  WHEN 'IN A HURRY', PREPARING A QUICK B'FAST FOR US......WITH MINUTES TO SPARE BEFORE THE SCHOOL BELL RANG.......MY FATHER OPENED A GLASS JAR OF 'CREAMED CHIPPED BEEF', HEATED IT.....UNOPENED....IN A PAN OF BOILING WATER; THEN, SPREAD IT ATOP SOME TOASTERED TIP-TOP OR MERITA 'WHITE BREAD.......   THIS MORNING, I PERFORMED HIS 'TOAST TASK' WITH MICROWAVED STOUFFER'S 'CREAMED CHIPPED BEEF'......IMPROVED FROM ITS 'BOIL OR MICROWAVE IN A BAG' DAYS, AND ENHANCED WITH SOME COARSE-GROUND BLACK PEPPER....AND CRUNCHY SOURDOUGH TOAST.....AN EXAMPLE OF A MEAL THAT IS 'BETTER NOW' THAN IT WAS...OVER A HALF CENTURY AGO.....AND FAR LESS SALTY!   

I read, this morning that "Constant tracking, scanning, and optimizing can backfire. Experts are warning that too much focus on wellness might actually increase stress and harm your body over time." .....after which, I disregarded my righteous intention to have roasted rhubarb with green chilis over a nest of woven mung bean threads and organic brown rice 'eggs'.....and 'went for' a sweeter option: a yeastless pig's ear palmier, slathered with almond butter and covered with thin honey-saturated cashew kitaas.......washed down with a double expresso, hidden beneath a mound of whipped heavy cream, drizzled with Tia Maria and powdered cinnamon....