Knifeworthy

This was a meal worth buying a knife for.

Today I had a craving for butternut pumpkin. I bought one, and then realized that there was no way in hell that I could cut that thing with the blunt knife in the kitchen here. Hence, new knife.

Here you see roasted fennel and butternut, and pasta with a simple bechamel (or mornay, I guess) of roux, soymilk, water, nutritional yeast, fake parmesan, salt and pepper. (Clearly I am still a fan of the fennel + butternut + bechamel combination.)

Emergency pho

Pho is the answer to a tough day.

The local supermarket is, shall we say, a bit inadequate. Here is pho made with ramen noodles, mushrooms and broccoli, and my usual recipe for the broth.
Did you know this product existed?
Me neither. (As I'm sure you can guess, canned bean sprouts have a very soft texture, and they really don't work very well in pho.)

No wood pulp!

In case you can't make it out, the first sentence of the second paragraph reads: Light buns are made with oat fiber, and no wood pulp!

Roughing it in Westhampton

There's no camera, and no internet, and not much in the way of kitchen tools here at the beach. But I made sure to pack my spices and my copy of 660 Curries, and so we're eating well. Here's a crappy snapshot (taken with my computer's camera) of last night's dinner: Eggplant and Okra with Fenugreek and Mustard (left) and Chana Saag (right). I also made Malabar Parantha, which ended up kind of like a cross between naan and paratha.
All three recipes are from 660 Curries (though I made a few changes to the Chana Saag (no ginger or onion paste on hand, and I used diced turnips and turnip greens rather than spinach)). I had to roll the bread out using a jar!

Here's a bonus non-food shot of the view from the balcony:

Postcard from Long Island

I had to vigorously refuse a ride to the grocery store today. The grocery store is a five minute walk away.

The kitchen here is not often (never?) used for cooking. The one knife is dull, and the pots and pans were dusty. If you ever find yourself in this situation, and you're tired and hungry, I recommend Japanese curry mix. You throw a random assortment of veggies in a pot with some water, bring to a boil and then simmer until they're cooked. (Today's mixture: onions, sweet potato, green beans, broccoli, zucchini, chickpeas). Then take it off the heat, and stir in the curry cubes. Done!
For the full experience, eat on a glass table with white faux bois legs while reading Star magazine.

Paper plates and smoked salt

After a strenuous day of watching the movers pack our stuff, we retreated to the couch for a dinner of ramen noodles followed by ice cream. The ice cream was burnt caramel flavoured No Moo from Herrells, and it was just okay.

Actually, I didn't really like it much at all -- although it smelled good, the flavour was pretty weak. That is, until I added some smoked salt. I thought it might be good, but I was amazed at how it punched up the flavour.
Oh Japanese smoked salt, is there anything you don't improve?

Last days in the Noho kitchen

For dinner tonight we had something I've been meaning to try for at least a year, ever since I borrowed Greg Malouf and Lucy Malouf's book Artichoke to Za'atar from the library: Portobello Mushrooms Baked Between Vine Leaves.
You wrap the mushrooms up in the grape leaves like a parcel, and the leaves keep all the tasty juices in as the mushrooms bake/steam. (Apparently Elizabeth David also has a recipe like this: she recommends grape leaves as a way of improving the flavour of cultivated mushrooms (or as this link puts it, providing them 'a tasty bosky pedigree').) This worked out very nice -- I cooked it for a bit longer than the recipe suggests because it seems to be written with smaller mushrooms in mind. I had expected to discard the baked grape leaves, but they tasted good (almost like kale chips).

We also had okra cooked in a style I learned from 660 Curries: the okra is blistered on a hot pan and then removed, then you cook your spices (in this case, cumin seeds and chile flakes) and onions, then add the okra back to the pan with some tomato and water, cover and simmer until the okra is tender.

In the background of this photo you can make out an office chair. We sold all our other chairs!