I was hankering for spag bol the other day and didn't
order it because the menu description admitted to the
dreaded courgettes ... so I stumbled into a coq au vin
blanc that was the only bad, really bad dish, that I've
had in France this millennium.
You'd've done better with the dreaded courgettes... speaking of which, I
Assuming that the spag Bol was any decent, I'd have done
much better with the courgettes.
Indeed.
Which I might have been able to pick out and shove
to the side, constructing a small monument of protest.
recently made a spicy ratatouille, which Richard declared Michael-hot...
Actually, Michael prefers his ratatouille on the mild
side and with not so much rat in it (nor zucchini). I'd
eat a spicy version but would have to classify it in my
head as something other than ratatouille.
You could just think of it as a vegetable medley... I'm sure my version
isn't particularly authentic, even before I added the chilies... :)
I think there's a pretty standard level of spicing
for the dish, and (as with most Mediterranean stuff),
it's pretty mild.
For some reason, this reminds me of a Singapore food
blog I used to read, which in an effort to be erudite,
used the term cacophany where the author meant symphony.
I noted this a while back in the notes. Sadly, or not so
sadly, the blog has gone dormant.
I'd added some roasted Hatch chilies (which I'd put up for later, and
dug out of the freezer) to the batch... apparently 3 (the amount in the baggie) was about triple the amount I should have used... ;) Tasty,
but it made his tongue hurt, and mine tingle... :)
And Hatch chiles are not normally that hot.
When I bought them at Wegmans, the store was selling a milder version
and a hotter version... the ones that they roasted were the hotter
ones... I bought a package of the roasted chilies and then divided them
up into baggies to freeze portions, then put the baggies into a plastic container to help preserve them... This was the first use I'd made of them... the three I used were of a good size, and still had the seeds
and membranes in them....
Most of the Hatch chiles I've encountered are pretty
mild - none approaching what I'd be inclined to call
a hot pepper. I'm sure there's a variety, especially
with people breeding for heat, but to me a proper
Hatch (or any kind of Numex) is likely to be milder
than, say, a serrano.
And so it does. Those recipes were mostly silly
filler anyway but on the short side, so they could
be appended to long posts.
Ah. One just notices the oddities, ya know.. ;)
As my hands are variable in size, and I've always hated
this keyboard, more frequent typos are likely to be the
rule as my eyesight and proofreading deprove. I of course
typed in several recipes and used the same identifying tag
for them all, and the a and s keys are next to each other.
That's about what I'd surmised.... but had to make sure... ;) And I
later saw that Ruth Haffly also picked up on it... :)
Bah.
Ummm.... I think this is more a case of taste buds differ... some people like cilantro, some people think it tastes soapy; some people like
stevia, others taste the bitter component... and so forth... ;)
Funny thing is that I'm seeing more defense of blue cheese
than zucchini.
Zucchini is rather bland.... one can take it or leave it, usually... but people do tend to be more polarized over such as blue cheese... :)
Zucchini have a pronounced and distinctive off flavor
that reminds me of unspeakable badness and putrefaction.
It's as though the bitterness of bitter melon had been
corrupted into something not bitter but more objectionable.
Not that much cheese but plenty of butter and other dairy
stuff at this picnic. But with prudence coupled with a
diminishment of that old bugaboo lactose intolerance, I
used a minimum of pills. Good thing, as I'm currently on
the east coast and on my way to Australia before I get to
the west coast, where my pill supply resides (yeah, if
worse came to worst, Costco might get a visit).
Or BJ's depending on where you were.... you certainly are being rather
I'm a Costco member, not a BJ's member.
peripatetic.... Is Lilli part of all/most of these trips...?
About half, used to be more, but she is getting a bit more
fragine, so we have to be careful about overextending her.
She after all is in her 70s and has had at least two
different cancers.
Yep. Following her example I made some jam out of some
not-very-good mirabelle plums from the Tulle amrket.
This went quite well with salvage French toast made
for Lilli.
I'm sure that it was well appreciated, too... :)
The plum flavor was okay, but it was the starchy texture
(almost like American fruit) that was improved by cooking.
What I made was between a compote and a jam, so there was
a bit of fluid that could be used with the French toast.
Sounds quite nice and tasty... :)
It was better than throwing them away.
Statler & Waldorf
categories: booze
servings: 1
2 oz El Dorado 3-year rum
1/2 lemon
3/4 oz simple syrup
1/4 oz Bigallet Viriana China-China Amer
seasonal fruit such as ruby red grapefruit or blackberries
2 sprigs mint
Combine rum, lemon, syrup, bitters, a few pieces of
fruit, and 1 sprig of mint into a shaker and muddle.
Add ice, shake and double-strain into a rocks glass
with one large ice cube. Garnish with a mint sprig.
Benjamin Schiller via Chris LaMorte, Chicago Tribune 3/24/2016
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