2003-08-04 - 2:23 p.m.
Hey leggies and jecklefins!
Didja miss me? (I missed you.)
It is becoming a tradition with me to take a week off around my birthday. (For the record, this is number thirty-three.) Said week is to be spent puttering around the house, spending time with my family, and cooking. There will be one gourmet blowout for a select few, lunch with my mother, and a night of drunken indulgence with my dad. There may also be burger-and-bratwurst blowout with my in-laws.
So, that's where I was last week. No Internet, no e-mails, no work, just sleeping and playing with the Professor. Oh yeah, and cooking. Last year's birthday menu was this dandy little cold collation. I worked my butt off beforehand, but was able to spend time with my guests. This year was a little different. We were short on funds, so I was limited to what we had in the house and what about $10 in cash would get us. Answer: Chinese food. Veggies are cheap, and I usually have most of the necessary ingredients on hand. A little selective shopping, several hours of labor and one scorched wok later, I produced the following menu:
Cucumbers with ginger-vinegar dressing
Shanghai scallion pancakes
Tea-smoked chicken
Twice-cooked pork
Stir-fried vegetables
Rice (of course)
The tea-smoked chicken was particularly tasty, and fun. I coated some chicken leg quarters in a mixture of salt, black peppercorns, and cubebs (the recipe calls for Szechuan pepper but, hey, whatcha gonna do?), let them sit for a few hours, then steamed them for about an hour until they were fully cooked. Next, I lined my wok with tinfoil, put a half-cup of loose black tea* in the bottom, stuck a rack on top of that with the chicken on it, wrapped the foil around the whole business, then stuck it on the barbecue to smoke for half an hour. Very good stuff, but I've got to figure out a way to do it without burning the bajeezus out of my wok. Maybe use the small Weber grill…
Saturday night was dinner with my dad. He gave me free rein in the kitchen, so I got kinda fancy. I found fresh fennel on sale at the grocery store, so I bought some tilapia and Yukon Gold potatoes and went to town. I sliced the root thin, then made a court bouillon with water, white wine, the fennel tops, and some pepper. I poached the tilapia in that, then sliced the potatoes paper thin and pan-fried them to make a sort of galette. The fish goes on the potatoes, then the court bouillon gets reduced to make a sauce. Garnish with a leftover fennel top, and serve the raw fennel root as a side dish. Instant happiness.
Lunch with my mom was not worth mentioning. We were all very pleasant with each other, but the food sucked.
(You can tell where my priorities are…)
All in all, a good time off. A lot more than just food happened, but I'll get into that tomorrow. I'm still short on sleep, but for a whole week I didn't think about work, and that's a good thing. I feel refreshed, ready to tackle things again.
* Actually it was a mixture of black tea and Celestial Seasonings herb teas that had been in the cabinet since the Pleistocene. Nothing like a little Lemon Zinger and Mandarin Orange Spice to jazz up yer hot smoke, y'all!
