If you have some of the above attributes but are not a geezer nor even approaching pre-geezerhood, thank God for that, press on regardless, and welcome.

Here are the three sauces we shipped home. The first is PKW's own sauce, described as Caribbean-inspired and banana-infused hot sauce.  It has lots of ingredients, which combine nicely into a hot sauce with depth, complexity and sufficient heat.  We will use this stuff and give a few bottles to valued friends as house gifts.  The Harissa Moroccan Sauce is a chunky savory sauce with finely chopped onion, tomato, pepper and garlic with oils and citrus.  It has coriander in it but not cumin or caraway (thanks) that are traditional in Tunisian harissa sauces.  This will serve well as a bracing addition or topping to meat loafs, soups and other dishes, as well as a dip for chips, et al. It's almost mild enough to eat by the spoonful.  The Runcon Heat originated in Puerto Rico and is comparatively a straight forward, tomato based, hot sauce, not unlike Tennessee Sunshine that we've used for years. Since I'm currently out of that, I'll use this.  It was  touted at the store as having some bacon notes, but I don't taste them.  Will these new sauces replace our tried and true sauces? Not likely, but the banana and the harissa sauces will become pantry staples.

Here is "weeknight" eggplant Parmigiano recipe using unsweated eggplant, a commercial marinara sauce laced with sauteed shallots and garlic, Italian sausage, but no ground beef and no mozzarella. (1.5 hours less prep time)
 
 
 

EGGPLANT PARMIGIANO II (Quickie Recipe)
See abbreviations, if needed

2          eggplants, sliced ¼ inch thick 
1C        AP flour 
2           eggs, beaten
8oz       Panko or other bread crumbs
1 C       grated Parmigiano Reggiano
2           medium spicy Italian sausage links
2T        EVOO
2          cloves garlic, pureed
2          shallots or small onion, diced
24 oz   bottle of prepared marinara sauce

FOR THE EGGPLANT: 
1.  Set up an "English Breading Station":  (three pie plates or paper plates: a, b, and c)
      a.  flour and S/P
      b.  egg wash-2 eggs
      c.  Panko and a 1/4 C of the Parmigiano Reggiano
2.  One at a time: Flour an eggplant slice, then transfer it to the egg wash plate, then coat it 
     thoroughly in the Panko plate
3.  Place all slices on a sheet pan with parchment paper.  Or on a sheet pan greased with EVOO
4.  Bake the eggplant in a preheated 400F oven for 30 minutes, turning the pieces at 15 minutes, 
     and then remove the crispy eggplant but leave the oven on

FOR THE SAUCE: 
5.  Place sausages in pan of water and BTB, cool, peel and slice into bite sized pieces
6.  In a large evaseé like pan, sauté the diced shallots and garlic in EVOO, to translucent
     and then the sausage 
7.  To the evaseé, add the marinaro sauce and  BTB, then reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes 

TO ASSEMBLE:
8.   Spread some sauce in the bottom of large buttered baking dish
9.  Layer in half of the eggplant slices
10.  Add more sauce over the eggplant
11.  Layer in remaining eggplant and some more sauce but don't drown this top layer
12.  Sprinkle with the remaining Parmagiano Reggiano 
13.  Bake at 400F until bubbling, about 15 minutes 
14.  Brown top under broiler
NOTE:  The crispy eggplant takes a little more time, but it's worth it.

So, while reading and thoroughly enjoying Momofuku, TLW found a kimchi and pork recipe there and also in the latest issue of Fine Cooking, (they read the book too).  "Let's have a couple over and make this in the wok fired on the Blue Star," said she.  Here we have the results inspired by the book and magazine recipes.  This dish is best prepared a la minute with guests watching the show. Have courage!  Do it. It takes about five minutes, if you have your mise en place.

Wok Stirred Pork and Kimchi 
For four
(See abbreviations, if needed)
1         pork tenderloin, cut in quarter inch slices and then into half inch strips
2 T       soy sauce
4 T       grapeseed oil or peanut oil
8 oz      fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and hand-brokened into quarters
8          scallions cut in 1.5 inch lengths, white and green
16        broccoli, small flowerettes (not shown in photo--after thought)
1 T       garlic, pureed
3.5 C    kimchi, drained and coarsely chopped
4 T       mirin (sweetened sake) or white wine and some sugar
1/2 t     sesame oil (for aoma--not taste)
1/4 C   beef or chicken broth
2 T       white and black sesame seeds, toasted

1.  Prep pork, toss with a tablespoon of soy sauce and set aside
2.  Prep mushrooms and veggies and have them lined up ready to pop into the wok
3.  Add 2 T of oil to the wok, heat gently and swirl carefully up the sides
4.  Heat the oil to shiny hot and then add the marinated pork (don't splash)
5.  When pork strips break free of the bottom, stir or toss until pork is whitened but still rare
6.  Scoop out the pork and hold in a clean container (not the one used to marinate)
7.  Add 2 more tablespoons of oil and when very hot, add the scallions, mushroom, garlic and broccoli, 
     in that order--about three minutes for this step 
8.  Add the kimchi, another tablespoon of soy sauce, a few drops of sesame oil and toss or stir
9.  At this point, if the whole mess looks too dry (no sauce for the rice), add some broth and BTB
10.  Serve immediately in heated bowls over rice with maybe a side of Asian Cucumbers
11.  Garnish with the toasted sesame seeds

Notice that the eyes have a pattern to them that can be lined up to cut out, 3 or 4 at a time, with a sharp paring knife making v-shaped trench cuts. 

This method leaves more pineapple on the pineapple. 

Then quarter the fruit, trim off the hard part, dice and place in containers to cool.  A $4.75 pineapple yields two nice containers of chunks that go for $4.50 each at the market. 

Waste not, want not . . .

Read the whole thing here

A Brief Salad Amusement
For a Christmas Day dinner salad we wanted something light and amusing, since the entree was Osso Buco Milanaise with Butternut Squash Soup and mashed potatoes and  parsnips--all pretty heavy stuff.  So here we have fresh tender watercress simply dressed with sugared rice wine vinegar.  On top of that is one small just-sauteed crab cake,  piped with a spicy hot raspberry wasabi mustard dressing. Nice contrasts here:  bitter watercress, sweet rice vinegar, seasoned crab cake and spicy hot creamy dressing.

I always use ring molds to shape crab cakes.  You will find 80mm and 60mm stainless steel rings molds in good kitchen supply stores.  Both sizes too big for our purposes here.  So at the hardware store, buy a length of PVC pipe with an ID of 40mm.  Take it home and cut it into rings about an inch high.  One pound of crab meat prepared as crab cakes yields four 80's or six 60's or twelve 40's. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tilapia Stuffed With Crabmeat
We had a little canned crabmeat left over from Thanksgiving and an unfinished container of tabbouleh, both of which we got at Costco.  Though vacuum sealed, the crabmeat had to be used soon. Tabbouleh is a tasty low fat Middle Eastern spread made with bulgur wheat and finely diced tomato, onion, cilantro, mint and lemon in EVOO. It goes great at room temperature on taco chips, crackers or bread points.   So what to do?  Make a fish dish.

Tilapia is a major food fish, farm raised. It is fine textured and low fat, a bit more so than flounder. Cheaper too.  So we seasoned the crabmeat with a few ingredients from our crab cake recipe and layered it onto one tilapia fillet and topped it with another and tied them off, as shown. The fillets were seasoned with S/P and EVOO.  I then dumped the tabbouleh into a buttered dish, plopped the tied fish fillets on top and baked the whole mess in a 400F oven for about 30 minutes.   The fillets were 3 inches thick stuffed and tied.  So, using the ten minutes an inch rule, 30 minutes was right on.

How'd it come out?  The tabbouleh got a little too crispy in the baking process and lost the individual tastes present when served uncooked.  But it was OK. The crabmeat did not come through, as distinct from the talapia, as I had hoped.  Recipes abound for crab stuffed sole with the crabmeat usually fattened up with cream or mayo, which I didn't do.  Since the cost of the lump crabmeat is greater than fish, there are better uses for it. Why not do crab cakes one day and fillet of tender sweet fish the next? 

But we're talking leftovers here.  We agreed that it was a nice dish and an interesting use of tabbouleh, but we would not brag about it at the bazaar in Marrakash.

This is a Cook's Cookbook
Would you believe that over 3200 cookbooks will be published this year, up from 2800 last year?  If there is any hidden meaning in that, it escapes me (recession, home vs restaurant, etc...., bah).  One of these cookbooks--forthcoming--looks promising. 

A young fellow named David Chang is a "hot chef" these days according to the foodie media. An early review of his forthcoming cookbook caught my attention because a) he's grounded in French technique, b) combines Asian with American, c) likes pork, d) hasn't dumbed down his recipes for a book contract and e) is a restaurant chef versed in that world's grueling work and not a TV star where line cooks do the mise off camera. (His penchant for profanity might  save him from TV fame.) 

He's cooked in Japan and in NYC where he opened his first restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar. Since, Momofuku Ssäm Bar and Momofuku Ko both high end restaurants have opened, with rave reviews.  Chang and his cookbook, of course named Momofuku,  got a nice enough review in the Wall Street Journal to prompt me to order it.  It's due out next week. 

So wait, there's more... 
------------------------------------------
Got the book today, here's the photo (new camera: Canon G-11). At second glance:  well edited, good photography on coffee table grade paper, heavy on commentary regarding the art of cooking and the trauma of making it pay, with recipes at the margin--all very well written and nicely presented.  Awful introduction. Contents are organized by Chang's restaurants:  Noodle Bar, Ssäm Bar and Ko. 

This is a French Laundry type cookbook that takes the reader into the head of another innovative chef  and his crew.  In the book at least, these concepts drive Chang: 

• "Serve food with integrity at an affordable price.  That is, undersell, over deliver. 
• ...do not subscribe to the idea that there's one set of blueprints that everyone should follow.
• . . . you take it, cook it, make it delicious . . . elevate it, honor it, lavish it with care and attention.
• when you start to cook on autopilot, when you stop paying attention to details--not to mention big things like seasoning--no amount of press will make up for it. What is the point of cooking at all if you're not gonna do it right?" 

This cookbook is an important addition to the literature and it's a fun read.

PS:  A reader asked where "Momofuku" came from?  Chang says that one of the most important events in the history of food was the invention of instant ramen by "Momofuku Ando."  Best read the book for the origins of  Ssäm and Ko.

In school we were instructed to look for a trace of browning around the edge of the cookie. Corriher says the same thing.  Reichl says 'until golden.'  I'm now convinced that waiting for evidence of browning results in an over baked cookie:  one that dries when cooled and gets hard when stored.  The 'until golden' works better for white sugar than brown sugar'd cookies. The conundrum is compounded in a convection oven, which shortens baking time by 20%, for sure, and maybe more.  Which also means that the time to take out the cookies comes sooner and passes faster. 

So . . .

I just baked a batch of Pantry Cookies and a batch of my new Nut, Coconut and Health Bar Cookies.  I took them out when they appeared set.  That is, when they were fully shaped, with a dry surface top and with edges sharply defined and not clinging to the silicone pad.  No evidence of browning.  The result:  moist, chewy cookies!

This is heavy...but a change is required on all my cookie recipes.  Got to do it.