Olive oil, poppy seed, & lemon chiffon cake w a cultured butter lemon curd & a Swiss meringue
Something that is so cozy and comforting in a February: roasted vegetables and buttermilk grits
I forget about polenta sometimes. I shouldn’t! Edits: I didn’t add any of the optional cheese to the polenta itself, but crumbled some sharp cloth-bound cheddar on top, ho ho. For the vegetables I did 1 small cauliflower, 1 medium delicata squash, 1 small red onion, a bit less salt, and then two bundles of oyster mushrooms (hmm maybe ½ a pound?) which I added to the roasting pan only for the last 15 minutes or so. I also think I doubled the oregano (and was using Rancho Gordo’s Mexican oregano; it’s so good!)
I am also still thinking about radicchio Caesar with crispy chickpeas
Salty, zesty, bitter! I skipped the breadcrumbs as I’d been eating a breadcrumby pasta earlier that week, and I’d had a great time adding crispy chickpeas to the Caesars Rhae and I made in the midcentury desert (Samin Nosrat’s dressing, sumptuous). Eric Kim’s dressing hack is brill for when you’re like, I simply do not want to spend the whisking time, but I want something so savory. Crispy chickpeas are just one can rinsed and dried well, tossed with olive oil and salt & pepper and roasted in a small sheet pan in the oven at 425 degrees F for about 20 minutes, shaking once or twice.
I don't cook with chicken all that often, but this is one of my favorite things to make when I do: tea-poached drunken chicken with soy-mirin shiitakes. I only ever make it deepest winter it seems, when it suddenly comes to mind again. It feel very wholesome, despite being entirely sepia scale to look at and containing two different kinds of cooking wine.
It's mostly this recipe by Kay Chun -- I cut the chicken into long uniform sections, so it will poach more evenly, and keep the leftovers in their poaching broth in the fridge to deepen in flavor. I've never made her accompanying cilantro-scallion oil, always instead sautéing sliced shiitake mushrooms in some neutral oil until softened and browning, then braising them briefly with a few good splashes of shoyu and mirin, and making sure to get all that sauce in the pan onto the the sliced chicken and warm brown rice.
Pairs well with stepping out onto the balcony to turn on the globe lights and smelling a neighbor's woodsmoke on the cold air.
knighthooded replied to your post
oh man that looks so good!! tea-soaked chicken huh, I don’t think I’ve come across that before but it sounds interesting 👀
I really, really like that it stains the outside this, well, tea color, while the inside stays pale. Slicing it is so satisfying.
I don’t cook with chicken all that often, but this is one of my favorite things to make when I do: tea-poached drunken chicken with soy-mirin shiitakes. I only ever make it deepest winter it seems, when it suddenly comes to mind again. It feel very wholesome, despite being entirely sepia scale to look at and containing two different kinds of cooking wine.
It’s mostly this recipe by Kay Chun – I cut the chicken into long uniform sections, so it will poach more evenly, and keep the leftovers in their poaching broth in the fridge to deepen in flavor. I’ve never made her accompanying cilantro-scallion oil, always instead sautéing sliced shiitake mushrooms in some neutral oil until softened and browning, then braising them briefly with a few good splashes of shoyu and mirin, and making sure to get all that sauce in the pan onto the the sliced chicken and warm brown rice.
Pairs well with stepping out onto the balcony to turn on the globe lights and smelling a neighbor’s woodsmoke on the cold air.
How to Scramble Eggs with Gordon Ramsay
1. he seems like a chill mofo to hang with
2. what the hell have i been eating my entire life
Would you like to know one of my silly little resolutions? It's actually blog more.
Because I think it's a good way for me to access the gratitude and joy! I've been keeping a wee diary doc each year since 2020 (AUSpicious as all hell to have started on Jan 1, 2020), where it's really just about putting a phrase to the notable and the delights (the most notable). Not every day, but like a handful of times a month. A huge amount of entries are just listing a food item and a film and a natural sensation, like a scent or a weather. Moments where I was happy. Not all of them! Sometimes it's good to acknowledge the sorrow and strangeness (negative) too. But being attentive to the lovely things is really, really nice.
This morning I am back in my own home, the sunlight was coming through my kitchen balcony doors bright and January-ivory and making the English muffin with the guava jam Jody sent me glow so beautifully, and now I'm going to go run around in the cold woods in head to toe fleece while probably listening to some movie podcast, and then buy an onion and some dill. And the rest of this year I'm going to practice an open elegant posture and turn in to bed early to read and make sure the dinner parties are every month---and bother you all here with more dumb jokes. Happy January 2 ♥
Update:
my dill & celery white bean soup turned out so good
