Dinner developments

1. Yesterday I worked on notes for the previous night's dinner.
2. I thought more about how my cooking is, indeed, my major yoga: I began reading "The Power of Now." Realizing that when I am cooking I am most present in the "now" I continue to entertain the thought that it is my meditative work - I have set aside the time, I am calmest, it has a beginning, middle, end, it is present, it is other oriented, it has many positive qualities, I am able to write relatively objectively about it, it is a focus.
   
3. I cooked a dinner for us of New England fish chowder - see below.
1. We celebrated in a very subdued way the Feast of the Three Kings - we turned on all the Christmas lights for the last time. We will degreen and detree this weekend.
   
4. I thought a lot about the meaning of memory, due to Karl's work on literature as the carrier of memory for the human species.
5. I spent an hour or more on the phone talking with Andy about his trips to Oregon and then his emergency visit to California.
1. In Bend, Ore. Andy was with Michael Cahall and the Cahall family, Lorna and Dick, and their nearly lost son, Sean. From his reports and earlier reports via Karl it was an awful time.
2. In a place he described as "near Burbank" Andy had gone to help out when his first love interest, Claude, had died, to help Claude's current companion / lover / (note: for future discussion, my own inability to keep the language "straight", e.g., I can never remember how to refer to two people who are of the same gender in a committed relationship), Mitch. Mitch, whom Andy described in very pejorative, had called Andy after Claude's death, to ask for his help in dealing with the preparations for burial, etc. Andy immediately flew out to California, Mitch picked him up as the airport and took him back to his house. There Andy tried to help by going through Claudes computer files and other papers and finding the documents necessary so that funeral arrangements could be made. As this was going forward, Mitch heard from his mother that her husband had just died in an accident from a broken neck. In the additional chaos that followed, Mitch lost it, beginning to accuse Andy in somewhat paranoid sounding terms of being "the Devil." After some pretty crazy sounding goings on, including making sure that Mitch's two children, who were living with Mitch and Claude, were still safe, Andy left the house, spent the night at a hotel on the airport, and then returned to Annapolis.
1. I let Andy tell me about all of this because, it seemed to me the right thing to do and also to be a natural way for me to begin to explore my difficulties in being open to gay people, to explore how to be more humane to more people.
6. I saw in the paper that the Washington Antique Show was opening and thought that I should go in to talk to people there about selling the art work for the IFC. Nancy and I will go in about lunch time today. I need to call Clark to see what he thinks.
7. For dinner last night I made the following New England fish chowder:

• New England Fish Chowder
  
  
  mal, 01.06.2005: I used this, modified as shown in italics, for dinner this evening. Nancy made a very good salad to go with it.
  

  Jasper White notes, "To me, this is the most authentic and most important recipe in this book (50 Chowders, One-Pot Meals...). It is the gold standard for chowder; a hearty main course with deep flavors, luxurious texture, and generous chunks of fish, onion, and potato. New England fish chowder is easy to make, uses simple ingredients, and doesn't require you to be fussy or exact. After making this chowder a few times you'll begin to understand the Zen of chowder."

  4 ounces meaty salt pork, rind removed and cut into 1/3-inch dice 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  - use 4-8 oz "grav rocks" as i've named it, i.e., rockfish fillets prepared as for gravlax; I would also try home made grav lax, as it has worked well in other preps I've done as a substitute for ham.
  2 medium onions (14 ounces), cut into 3/4-inch dice
  6 to 8 springs fresh summer savory or thyme, leaves removed and chopped (1 tablespoon)
  - lacking these, I used 1 short teaspoon of thyme dried
  2 dried bay leaves
  2 pounds Yukon Gold, Maine, PEI or other all-purpose potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/3-inch thick
  - hmm; I cut the potatoes in ~3/4 in. cubes
  5 cups fish stock: used Japanese dried bonito flakes, two packs, to make plenty of fish stock; a little smoky but I think made helped make up for not using salt port
  Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper: did not add salt as the salted grav rocks was very salty
  3 pounds skinless haddock or cod fillets, preferably over 1-inch thick, pinbones removed
  - used about 1 - 1 1/2 pounds rockfish fillet, skin removed; difficult to remove pinbones so warned of their presence; proved not too obtrusive in the end
  1 1/2 cups heavy cream (or up to 2 cups if desired)
  - only had about 1/2 cup; added about 1 c. light cream, about 1/4 c. leftover crema mexicana, a sour cream; was plenty rich
  2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
  2 tablespoons minced fresh chives: not available, can be lived without
• Heat a 4 to 6-quart heavy pot over low heat and add the diced salt pork. Using the grav rocks, sliced thin, heat with planty fo butteer and olive oil - 2-4 tablespoons. I also used the skin; I would omit the skin in a future instance as it is hard to get crispy enough to matter and has too fishy a taste. Follow the next instructions to cook fish until crispy. Once it has rendered a few tablespoons of fat, increase the heat to medium and cook until the pork is a crisp golden brown. Use the slotted spoon to transfer the cracklings to a small ovenproof dish, leaving the fat in the pot, and reserve until later.
• Add the butter, onions, savory, or thyme, and bay leaves to the pot and sautè, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for about 8 minutes, until the onions are softened but not browned.
• Add the potatoes and stock. If the stock doesn't cover the potatoes, add just enough water to cover them. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil, cover and cook the potatoes vigorously for about 10 minutes, until they are soft on the outside but still firm in the center. If the stock hasn't thickened lightly, smash a few of the potato slices against the sides of the pot and cook for a minute or two longer to release their starch. Reduce the heat to low and season assertively with salt and pepper (you want to almost over-season the chowder at this point to avoid having to stir it much once the fish is added). Add the fish fillets and cook over low heat for 5 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat and allow the chowder to sit for 10 minutes (the fish will finish cooking during this time).
• Gently stir in the cream and taste for salt and pepper. If you are not serving the chowder within the hour, let it cool a bit, then refrigerate; cover the chowder after it has chilled completely. Otherwise, let it sit for up to an hour at room temperature, allowing the flavors to meld.
• When ready to serve, reheat the chowder over low heat; don't let it boil. Warm the cracklings in a low oven (200*F - 95*C) for a few minutes. I reheated fish cracklings in a skillet with yet more butter; this worked fine.
• Use a slotted spoon to mound the chunks of fish, the onions and potatoes in the center of large soup plates or shallow bowls, and ladle the creamy broth around. Scatter the cracklings over the individual servings and finish each with a sprinkling of chopped parsley and minced chives. It was rather pretty and very tasty with plenty of leftover stew for another day.