What am I thinking?

There have been days recently when I did not eat a raw tomato. What's up with that? The window for these things is small. They are delicious. I have not eaten enough ensalata caprese, nor enough BLTs. When it is chilly December, I am going to regret this.

I generally like to eat tomatoes until I am almost (never quite, though) sick of them. Then, when they go away I can happily eat other things until I get that hankering in June (although I avoid them until mid-July). I have, however, been eating a fair amount of freshly made simple tomato sauce (San Marzano tomatoes, sliced garlic, EVOO, pinch of salt, finished with julienned basil), and that is good. Especially when the San Marzanos are from the garden.

Which brings me to this recommendation. Too late for this year, I know, but think about it for next year: plant a lot of San Marzano tomatoes. These are the best saucing tomatoes out there. The vines are abundant, and the flavor and texture is outstanding.

Tonight we will make a caprese from our black tomatoes (a good slicer).

Roast Pig Adventure...We Pause for Technical Difficulties.

Part Two will have to wait until tomorrow. When I went to download my pictures, I found that the camera's battery was extremely low. Recharge. Downloading tomorrow, then Part Two.

I could tell you amusing anecdotes about my cat, but no one besides the cat's owner cares about amusing anecdotes about a cat. Someone ought to tell Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll that. I assume he is still writing. I gave up on that rag years ago.

Amusing

One of my old posts that continually generates comments is the one with my oxtail soup recipe. I am quite clear that what I am posting is an Alpine oxtail soup recipe, but, as we know, the Englisch are not so smart. They keep commenting that I am getting it wrong, that it need not be so complex, that I don't know anything because oxtail soup is an Englisch dish (as if no one thought of eating that part of the cow before the Englisch got to it), etc.

Let me spell something out for my dear Englisch readers:

When you say that a dish need not be complicated, you should examine your cuisine (if we dare call it that) first. Trust me when I say that, yes, yes, indeed, it does need to be that complicated, unless you are satisfied with Englisch food!

One of these mornings...

I am going to make biscuits and gravy (a dish I have never actually had, but I have heard descriptions of it, and it sounds nice) in the Northern California style: fresh, small-farmed ingredients, homemade sausage, etc.

The trouble is: I am not a baker, and within the area of baking, biscuits are my weakest area. I tend to overwork them, which yields a little hockey puck.

But just having biscuits, sausage and sausage gravy just doesn't sound like a proper breakfast. There should be something sweet, but not too heavy, to go along with all this. I would like to think along the lines of a meyer lemon curd, but I don't think I want to put that on the biscuits that will be drizzled with gravy. However, adding another bread product strikes me as gross...so I am forced to think of little meyer lemon pots de creme with fresh, local berries (you can tell I am planning a bit far ahead here), but is this getting to be too much? Perhaps if I just served mimosas that would do the trick.

Hmmm. I am beginning to understand why I don't go for big breakfasts. All of that work without the benefit of a martini? I suppose one could have a martini at six in the morning, but that sort of thing was never my style. Martinis shouldn't be served too often before five in the afternoon.

So, why am I thinking of fancy breakfasts now? Probably because of my general dissatisfaction with commercial breakfast sausage. I taste these things and think, "well, it's OK, but it could be much better, really." And to spend all that time making sausage and not give it the right setting seems wrong.

Hard Cider

They have some Hard Cider from Vermont at Trader Joe's, so we picked up a six pack. The stuff is really good: crisp, refreshing, sort of like Martinelli's, but not as sickly sweet, more thirst quenching, and with a much better flavor. At 5% it barely counts as hard, but it is enough to give it structure. Good stuff.

Vegetable Soup.

I have to produce one for an event tomorrow. I hate vegetable broths, which is why I have NEVER seen soup as a viable Friday in Lent option. However, duty calls, and I have to think of something edible. I am thinking of building a vegetable stock of standard aromatics with leaks, then using that to make a mushroom/potato bisque, and serving it with rustic French bread croutons and thyme-infused EVOO and drizzled with creme fraiche.

East Indian Catholic Recipes.

Someone found the site looking for the above phrase. Unfortunately I don't really have a treasure trove of any Indian recipes. I cook a few, but they are not spectacular, and I know nothing of the food of Goa, which is probably pretty good, since I can only imagine the combination of Portuguese and East Indian cuisines. I like Indian food, but it is probably my weakest area, foodwise.

So, sorry.

Now, if you want to move over a bit further East, to Thailand and Indonesia, then we can talk. I love to cook Southeast Asian food. And if you have some good Vietnamese recipes to offer, well, then I am all ears. I know a little bit, but would like to know more.

I suppose I should focus on Phillipino food, since we live in such a Phillipino area (with a great market full of all sorts of goodies that are just screaming for experimentation). Anyone recommend a good cookbook?

First BLT (and second and third...)

This week I had the first BLT of the season. It was magnificent. In fact, it was so magnificent, that I had to make it again the next day. I have started to do something that I highly recommend (besides using dry-farmed tomatoes, which you really should try if you get the chance. Amazing things), which is to toast the bread by lightly frying it in the bacon grease. WOW! It takes the BLT to a whole new level.

But remember, if you eat one today, you need to do an alternative penance!

Hungry?

I hate the things alive, but I would try it.

Radishes...

Alicia is looking for uses for radishes. This is a good questions. I generally eat them just straight (they make a great accompaniment to chilled Austrian Gruner Veltliner wine), or slice them into thin rounds to go in salad. Also, finely diced, they make a good addition to a taco.

I have had them, again, thinly sliced, as an interesting and pleasing pizza topping. They are good as a garnish to shrimp cocktail. The thin slices might also be fried in a tempura and served with similarly prepared fried slices of lemon (paper thin rounds, zest, pith and pulp) and deep fried anchovy stuffed green olives. At that point, you might as well add some deep fried calamari. Yum!

You could do a pasta with radish slices and thin strips of rare beefsteak and fresh tomatoes. Garnish with California Dried Jack cheese.

If anyone else has any radish ideas, please post them in the comments!