Salmon and potatoes for dinner Thursday

• Salmon from Copper River with an orange marinade and a salsa from Legal Sea Foods Cookbook.
• Potatoes to die for: sliced with sliced onions, layered in a casserole with plenty of salt and black pepper, slices of butter over the top. A cup of beer (I used Corona) and into a 400 degree oven for 40 min. Then, with 10 min. to go, add over a half cup of heavy cream. Becomes creamy and delicious. From Richard Olney's Simple French Food.
  

Dinner of Basque dogfish, mixed greens / asparagus

Ross brought me a couple fillets of dogfish / sand shark from his adventure at Assateague this past weekend - high winds, high tides on Friday, moderating through the weekend.

• I found several - not many, but several - recipes online. I then checked Davidson's North Atlantic Seafood. He had a couple and the Basque one caught my fancy, with the ingredients in that recipe not far from what I had in the house. Plenty of garlic, some chopped herbs and hot peppers, in plenty of olive oil, gently cooked atop the stove. I lacked the earthenware pot called for but, cooked in a nice stainless steel skillet with plenty of oil I doubt it was far off the Basque dish. I had a selection of fresh herbs which I chopped together - parsley, oregano - and added a thin sliced chopped shallot, plus the garlic called for and spread over the fish fillets in the already garlic flavored oil. Before serving, crack a good serving of black pepper over. Served simply on a plate with the scented olive oil poured over - delicious.
• Greens and asparagus. Finished allotments of asparagus, chard. Cut the asparagus in two inch lengths. Separated chard stems and parboiled them until tender in salted water with a little half and half added to keep the color - it worked! Chopped chard leaves. Stir-fried in oil in lightly smoking wok: first, a garlic clove minced, a chopped, deseeded jalapeno. Then, in order, for a minute or so each (as needed, ) 3 chopped scallions, asparagus stems except for the tips, the chard greens, the asparagus tips, the chard stems. Then add the sauce and stir until sauce thickens and nearly disappears. (Sauce: 2 tb. mirin, 1 tb. soy sauce, a little lime juice or rice vinegar (2 tsp))
• Nancy made a wonderful salad from arugula fresh from the farm, strawberries from the local CSA, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper.
  

Luigi goes to the farm

Luigi and I had a wonderful first day last Saturday at Clagett Farm. Luigi is a black standard poodle who loves to run free and bark. Only a little more than two years old he is often still a puppy. But there are times when he suddenly appears very adult - and surprises us with some behavior we've only suspected.

After gathering our veggies we went down one of the farm roads on Clagett's land and spotted three or four cows / cattle, with a calf, in a field. When I pointed them out to Luigi, he showed considerable interest. I parked near a place where several barns or cattle sheds stood. We looked briefly into that field, but Luigi appeared to be getting too excited so, to keep from disturbing the bigger animals and the calf, we walked into another open field, away from them.

My wife usually walks Luigi. I brought him with me just to get him out in the open air. My wife has described what she calls his "herding" behavior. She says that when Luigi has been around groups of dogs, as he is often at the doggy park at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis, on occasion he has tried to "herd" them, circling and barking. The other dogs, of course, not being sheep, pretty much ignore him.

At Clagett, we went into the next field and over the hill. There we spotted, in the distance in yet another field a herd of 20 or 30 or more cattle. At first I wanted to divert Luigi from seeing them, but as we walked through the grass he soon noticed the herd. He looked and looked. Then he bounded across the field in their direction in his amazing light footed gazelle gait. When they spotted him, to my amazement and amusement, they gathered themselves together and rumbled or lumbered over in our direction, toward the fence at the bottom where the hills came together. I was a little concerned about Luigi's ability to maintain some decorum - he likes to bark, a lot. But no, he seemed to know they didn't need his barking. I soon saw quite a number of calves as well as the grown cows. I also spotted a couple of goats. Finally, the herd had gathered under a big shade tree in the hollow of the hills by their watering trough. Luigi and I approached but kept some distance - then Luigi started barking. Several of the calves drew back, startled. The more mature adults nodded their heads at Luigi and looked almost happy - "Ah", they seemed to be thinking, "a herder. Don't be afraid, little ones, he's just a puppy, too. But he knows we're a herd, we know he's a herder, and we're all just doing what we're supposed to be doing." It was as though there was some deep psychic exchange going on, some mutual intuition of innate instinct that drew these animals together in a bond outside my own experience.

As I was a little less confident than the cattle seemed to be, I soon had Luigi follow me up the hill and back to the car. But, running back and forth on the green hills, having herded a real herd for the first time in his life, under the beautiful puffy clouds and ice blue sky, I knew we would have to come back many more times.

Now, when I say "farm", Luigi looks at me with that look that says, "When are we going back? Today? Today? Please!"

Dinner and a show, 49 West

George Watson joined us last night for soup and salad and then we went for jazz to 49 West.

Dinner:

• A lovely fish soup, based on a recipe from somewhere for a haddock soup: chicken stock and white wine, leeks, haddock fillet, some cream. My rendering: a quart fish stock from bonito flakes, 1 or 2 cups white wine, leeks stir-fried in wok plus a garlic scallion, all simmered for 20 min. or more; then added a cup of heavy cream, a cup of coconut milk, several grinds of black pepper, 5 tbsp. of Thai fish sauce; add in 2 medium fillets of smoked catfish to heat through and a cup or two of chopped arugula; at serving, 1/2 - 1 cup chopped basil and mint. Amazingly good soup. It's worth noting that a day and two days later we enjoyed this soup as leftovers. Perhaps even better than fresh cooked. But note that fish was not reheated to boiling, only to quite hot - and quite delicious.
  
• An update from the pasta smoked fish and asparagus salad from the day before: add some freshly stir-fried garlic and asparagus, along with also stir-fried smoked shad, toss in the previous left-over salad into the wok and briefly blend together. Add 1/2 cup dill sour cream dressing from another meal and mix. Serve over fresh salad greens - could have used a little dressing for the greens. It was all delicious.

At 49 West it was Joe Byrd's 72 birthday. Playing with him was a wonderful youngish (July 22, 1955 in Elizabeth, NJ) jazz guitarist, Joshua Breakstone.

Friday Dinner & Rain & Wind

Big tree limb from locust tree came down in Ausherman's driveway next door yesterday.

Trying to get Ruly and Charlie Boyle together to go sailing this morning.

Dinner last night was too late but also too good. From Peterson's Fish & Shellfish:

• Laotian Catfish Soup - excellent, excellent & wonderful soup: used lemon zest as I was out of lemon grass
  
• Grilled fish salad - I used smoked salmon, pasta - very good
  

Mac fixed! Lots of Rain today + wind; dinner last night

Mac fixed! Between a new battery and discovering damaged power cord (and getting replacement part) my mac seems now fully able to charge a battery and keep a charge and I have a backup battery - the old one. It probably drains fast, but the new one has about 1/3 more capacity- and its new!

Dinner:

• Smoked / Grilled Mako shark steak, using a recipe from James Peterson's Fish & Shellfish. Not one of the fish that Peterson recommended for the recipe I made but fortunately it worked anyhow. The shark was luscious, amazing.
  
• Used dried corn, dry lemon grass stalks, fresh dill for smoke.
• Also smoke fillets of catfish and shad.
  
• Khun tom's Pumpkin Soup from Jackum Brown's Vegetarian Thai.
• Nancy made a salad.
  

New wok & New Battery; Dinner

My new wok arrived from the Wok Shop in San Francisco. It is a 14" carbon steel flat-bottomed wok with two wood handles. I seasoned it using the oven method. I found that cleaning it was more effective scouring with a "green pad" than with steel wool, though this may be because the steel wool was too fine. At any rate, it looked nice and golden after it's fourth cooking in the oven, as the instructions suggest.

My new 4800 mAh battery arrived also and I began using it. It did hold a charge overnight, but it seems to lose charge very rapidly. Instructions suggest resetting the PMU, which I plan to do today. It is done by depressing the little button on the back between the video out and the telephone ports and then rebooting.

To initiate the wok's career, I cooked two dishes and Nancy added a tossed green salad.

• Orange Asparagus Stir-Fry Pasta w. Shrimp (tofu) - Serves 4
  
  # 1 pound Mostaccioli, Ziti or other medium pasta shape, uncooked (1/2 lb)
  # 2 tsp. vegetable oil, divided
  # 12 oz. frozen small shrimp, thawed (or use 1/2 lb tofu)
  # 3 medium carrots, thinly sliced on diagonal
  # 1 bunch scallions, sliced
  # 1 pound asparagus, cut diagonally into 2-inch lengths
  # 1 cup fresh orange juice (used frozen, reconstituted with only 1 can water)
  # Salt and pepper to taste
  ## ADDED: some nuts would add flavor, texture: several recipes suggest slivered almonts, pecans, and I think also of pine nuts, all lightly toasted in the wok - used pecans in this instance.
  ## AND: 1 1/2 tablespoons oriental sesame oil - forgot to add; next time.
  
  - Prepare pasta according to package directions.
  - While pasta is cooking, warm 1 teaspoon vegetable oil over high heat in a large non-stick wok or skillet.
  - Stir-fry the shrimp until firm, opaque and lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside. (Stir fry cubes of tofu in oil until golden: drain.)
  - Add the remaining teaspoon of vegetable oil to the pan and stir-fry the carrots for 2 minutes.
  - Add the asparagus and scallions and stir-fry for another 3 to 4 minutes, until asparagus is tender-crisp.
  
  When pasta is done, drain it well. Add pasta, shrimp (tofu) and orange juice to skillet and toss until hot, about 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and transfer to a serving bowl. Serve immediately. (Scatter toasted nuts over dish.)
  
• Broccoli Pad Nahm Man Hoi (Stir-fry w. Oyster Sauce)
  
  A Recipe of Kasma Loha-unchit; Recipe Copyright © 1998 Kasma Loha-unchit.
  
  This recipe is similar to another featured recipe, Stir-fried Asparagus, Oyster Mushrooms and Shrimp in Garlic Sauce (Naw-mai Farang Pad Nahm Man Hoi). Compare the two to see how adaptable a Thai recipe is. In fact almost any vegetable can be stir-fried with Oyster Sauce. Be sure to use Thai oyster sauce, not Chinese. You can order it online from one of the online markets found on the website: look for the "Mae Krua" brand.
• Ingredients
  * 2 medium-size stalks of broccoli
  * 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  * 2-3 sliced shallots, or 1/2 cup sliced onion (optional)
  * 2 Tbs. peanut oil for stir-frying
  * 2 -3 Tbs. Thai oyster sauce
  * 2-3 tsp. fish sauce (nahm bplah), to taste
  * 2-3 dashes of ground white pepper
  
  Cut the broccoli into small bite-size pieces. Use the bottom stem also, after peeling off the tough, fibrous outer skin. Prepare the garlic and shallots or onion (if using). Also, I blanched the broccoli for a minute or so - was not enough as the broccoli was a little more chewy than needed.
  
  Heat a wok over high heat until its surface is hot. Swirl in the oil to coat evenly. When the oil is hot, add the chopped garlic, followed a few seconds later with the sliced shallots or onion (if using). Sauté 10-15 seconds to flavor the oil, then toss in the broccoli. Stir-fry about a minute. If your stove is very hot, add 2-3 Tbs. of water as needed to help steam the vegetable so that it doesn't burn.
  
  Sprinkle in the oyster sauce and stir-fry another minute. Then season to taste with fish sauce. Continue to stir-fry until the broccoli turns vibrant green and is crisply cooked. Sprinkle liberally with white pepper, stir well and transfer to a serving dish. Serve warm along with other dishes with steamed rice.
  
  Recipe is Copyright © 1998 Kasma Loha-unchit.
  
  

And for dinner, mushrooms + spinach, fried potatoes, smoked salmon

Without going into details:

Potatoes were leftovers from "camp" potatoes recently, fried in butter in non-stick skillet until crispy and brown. Served with fresh ground black pepper, fleurs du sel, chopped tb of parsley.

Mushrooms were small portabellos and white cut in half or quarters, stir-fried in oil with garlic and shallots, then sauced with saki, tamarind, fish sauce and cooked, then sauce cooked down, all removed while quick stir of fresh spinach, then all heated together with a couple of tb of chopped cilantro.

Salmon left from smoking a few days ago.

Very tasty, nice and easy meal after evening yoga class that worked the shoulders, straight spine, etc. carefully in adho mukha svanasana, adho mukha vrksasana, sirsasana, and sarvangasana.

Lunch of Veggie Pad Thai Tofu: Thai Basil Research

Was researching about Thai basil. Began to learn that there are several, at least three, different varieties or species: lemon, holy, another.

Ran across several recipes for pad thai, in various spellings, with various "main" ingredients: shrimp, chicken, beef, vegetarian, tofu. Made up a tofu version for lunch, including eggs which some veggie versions omit. I also used fish sauce instead of just soy sauce, and yellow bean paste in lieu of suggested fermented tofu. It was very tasty. Had to force myself to leave some for Nancy, which she has now enjoyed for her lunch.

Thai Basils: The notes are from scattered references and don't seem to be consistent and therefore not authoritative. As the taste "is the thing," though, I am finding in cooking with these that, short of an overweening need for "authenticity," most seem to work well interchangeably. Just note that varieties will vary quite a bit.

Thai Basil, Thai Sweet Basil, Asian Basil, Anise/Licorice Basil, anise basil, cinnamon basil (bai horapa, hora-pa, Bai horapha, Ho Ra Pha, HORAPHA, Hun Que): Ocimum citriodorum ‘Thai’. Also common in the cuisines of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Used in curries and with steamed mussels. It releases its aroma and flavor only when cooked. Leaves have strong anise smell. Siam Queen (Ocimum thyrsiflora) is good variety for growing. Another is, Thai Basil 'Queenette' (Ocimum basilicum.) OR Thai Basil 'Horapha Rau Que' (Ocimum thyrsiflora)

Holy Basil, hot basil (bai gka-prow, Bai gaprow, Bai Grapow, Bai Krapow, Bai Ka Phrao, KAPHRAO): Green Leaf & Red Leaf. Narrower and often times reddish-purple leaves. Two types: a pale green or white type, and a red type, with purple reddish tinged leaves. Peppery is perhaps the best way to describe this type of basil. Holy basil has a clove-like taste. Popular basil for Thai cooking. The Thai equivalent of sweet basil, which can be used as a substitute if you cannot get holy basil. "Hindus believe that basil is sacred and they like to plant it in religious sanctuaries. " This variety tastes rather like cloves, and is just as pungent. The leaves release their full flavour only when cooked.

Lemon Basil, Hoary Basil (bai maeng-lak, BAI MAENG LAK, Bai Mangrak, bai menglah, Maeng-Lak): Hoary Basil is an annual herbaceous plant with slightly hairy and pale green leaves. It can be eaten either raw or cooked, and used as a flavoring. It is sometimes called lemon-scented basil but definitely has a peppery taste when chewed. Fast growing plant. Has a lemony flavour with tiny leaves and is usually sprinkled over salads or used in soups. Young leaves are used in Oriental dishes. Lemon basil has a real citrus-like aroma and flavor. The leaves have a smell redolent of citrus. Usually eaten raw as an accompaniment to curry.

Now, off to yoga.

Karl; Pentecost; Melissa Cook Wedding, Sunday dinner

And Karl called this morning, with information about Witte's visit, etc. I need to contact Moog at USNA for possible talk either there or at St. John's. Also, contact SJC about a possible talk in Great Hall or some other low-key venue for interested persons. Finally, I need to send him our approved and sealed itinerary for travel to Paris, so that he can have Angel complete our hotel requirements.

Today was the feast of Pentecost, the Whitsunday of my childhood. It was a high feast day at St. Mark's today, with an extra musician, a gifted trumpeter. There were three baptisms, including the child of a gay couple. And Paul preached a dynamite sermon on what would be sufficient per the Johannine gospel for the day. Afterwards we attended the Pub Lunch honoring Dorothea Hahn's (?) time with us, her departure soon, her graduation from VTS next week, and her ordination to the diaconate a week ago yesterday, Saturday. Also honored new members of St. Mark's, someone's birthday, and other assorted honorings.

After, we came back to Annapolis and then went to the open house at Don and Hollis Lamb-Minor at 107 Northwest St. Saw Phoebe there, whom I must contact. Then, back home, Mike Cahall and Charlie Boyle showed up to work respectively on their boats. Charley and I came up with a scheme to get Ruly Know down to the boat by the end of this week, perhaps out next week to watch the Blue Angels fighter aircraft precision flying team perform next week for the Naval Academy graduation.

We went to Melissa's wedding yesterday. It was held at the ____-____ Mansion on Enterprise Road in PG County. It was quite wonderful. Food at luncheon and cakes were outstanding.

We did not eat dinner last night after the good meal in the afternoon. I ate popcorn instead.

Tonight I made the eggplant with tofu, dried tomatoes, zucchini, and red peppers from the Grace Young Breath of a Wok. Again, simple preparation, very tasty. A little elaborate, though, on the ingredient side for the average cook. Along with, we had leftover greens from a few nights ago, served at room temperature with a vinaigrette.

Thai Smoked Fish Soup & Seussical

Went to St. Mark's last night to see the Player's production of the musical Seussical. Was less than overwhelmed because of inability to hear a lot of the dialog.

For dinner, light, I made a simple soup using both cured smoked salmon from earlier as well as the very salty smoked bluefish. Turned out excellent. Starteed my mods by adding two crushed lemongrass stems to the fish broth. Recipe from Fish & Shellfish Grilled and Smoked. Instead of the specified juice of one lemon and one lime, I used 3-4 tbs. of tamarind pulp. The can of Light Coconut Milk from Trader Joe's had a very off taste after I added it - buy no more! - and I was afraid I had ruined the soup. But the addition of 1 - 1/2 tb of palm sugar helped and when I added not only cilantro but Thai basil, the latter especially, completely brought it together and the final soup was excellent.

Meals this week...

• Last night:
• two kinds of smoked salmon, using different cures from Manikowski: Fish, Grilled and Smoked; using feed corn as well as wood to generate smoke. As Manikowski insists, the smoke is mild and sweet, not the potentially acrid and bitter smoke some woods can produce. Though when I heated some corn on the stove as a test earlier, it seemed to me that by the time it was fully incinerated it had gotten some nastiness about it.
  
• smoked olives - same reference; wonderful
  
• campfire potatoes: roasted in foil over coals - same ref.; very good
  
• Zydeco catfish "wellington": smoked calzone-like stuffed dough packets with fish, cheese, veggies - large and tasty. Also from Manikowski.
  

Mother's Day - Karl called. Saturday night dinner...

Karl called just past 8 a.m. to wish Nancy a happy Mother's Day. He told of cold weather in Germany just as we did about the past several cold nights here.

Gorgeous morning, cool and blustery, clear and sunny. A very high tide came up over the shelf on the dock.

Last night I cooked another Chinese and Greek meal from various sources, still learning from Grace Young's Breath of the Wok.

• Soup: combined 2 cups leftover veggie avgolemono with 1 1/2 cups leftover fried fish soup from Dancing Shrimp. Cut up the fish in the latter soup and add it just before serving. The lemon and spiciness go well together - leading, soon, to my invention of Southeast Asian fish avgolemono. Which is to say, it was outstanding.
• Having prepped all the ingredients, I then put two pieces of salmon fillet onto a plate, drizzled with soy sauce, then sprinkled over salt and fresh ground white pepper. Cut a lemon in half: squeeze juice of 1/2 over fish, then slice remainder into four pieces and lay over fish. Also scatter two scallions cut up and sliced over fish, along with 4 slices of ginger. Put all in a wok set up as a steamer and steam for about 10 minutes until cooked. Serve in dish it was steamed in, sprinkling a little toasted sesame oil over the fish. Serve with steamed white rice.
• As a dish along with the salmon, while it steams, stir fry of asparagus, gingko nuts and wolfberries. Lacking all but the asparagus, I cut up enough fresh strawberries to make up about 1/2 cup, dressing them with a little sugar and some juice from a jar of maraschino cherries. I also ground a little anise to give the hint of that flavor suggested in Bruce Cost's description of wolfberries and sprinkle the ground anise over the sweetned berries. Lightly brown 1/2 cup or so of pine nuts in a skillet and let cool to substitute for the gingko nuts. Peel the bottoms of perfectly fresh asparagus, then cut off ends and cut spears in two inch lengths. Stir fry with a little oil and salt until beginning to show brown spots, then add more salt, continuing to stir fry. After a couple minutes add the strawberries and the pine nuts and a sprinkle of sugar - not enough to make it overtly sweet.
• A very nice meal, with a Paarl Chardonnay.
  

Recent Cooking, Wok-wise & Greek Easter

From Breath of a Wok:
Spinach stir-fried
Mushrooms stir-fried
Stir-fry Chinese eggplant
Smoked fish, eggs

From Dancing Shrimp:
Hot and Sour Fried Fish Soup - I used catfish, which was delicate and delicious: using matzoh meal as it was still the week of Passover, dredge the fish and then stir fry in wok...

From several Greek sources:
Psoros savori - I need to check spelling: fried fish in a vinegar and red wine, onion sauce, kept overnight