2 weeks (+) in Review (continued)

After that, I made a spinach salad with cilantro avocado dressing mushrooms and hard-cooked eggs. Simple but good.







Then, to use up some of the left over tamarind chutney, I made some tofu pad thai. This was last week. Since then I have invested in some thai fish sauce, because without it, Thai and Vietnamese dishes are definitely missing something. Still this was really good, especially as partially recycled leftovers.



The leftover robiola mashed potatoes went into this shepherds pie, which also made use of the orphaned bits of vegetables that were extra from other meals (carrots, mushrooms, onion, celery) and the part of the extra broth from the vietnamese beef soup that I didn't freeze.



By this point, I had used up most of the fresh things that were in my refrigerator and had to come up with something using the nonperishables in my pantry. I went with dried pinto beans and sausage, homemade tortillas, and avocado and shredded lettuce garnish (the last of my vegetables). The pressure cooker is key to putting a meal like this together without having planned ahead for it. Otherwise, you'd have to soak the beans and boil them for hours, and who has the time or foresight for that?




Finally, after having gone to the store, I made a goat cheese turnip and sweet potato mash with turnip greens and thick diced bacon. Most of my meals make use of something that is on the verge of spoiling, or that already has spoiled [the bread that is currently keeping me up was actually baked in order to use up some failed yogurt. I always get distracted when I make yogurt. Usually I leave the oven on and kill the bacteria; this time I boiled the milk so long it practically caramelized. I imagine the bacteria didn't have enough sugar to eat, because when I woke up this morning, instead of yogurt I found a sour soupy goo. So I used it instead of milk in the bread recipe]. This dinner was no exception. We always end up with three kinds of stale fancy cheese in our fridge, because we go crazy when we got to capone's and buy more than two people could possibly eat without getting a heart attack. Luckily, even soft cheeses don't really 'spoil' in the sense that they make you sick. They just get harder and stronger tasting. You can grate cheese that is much to old for eating (I'll censor the actual age in case any of you come to dinner at my house) into your dinner to add richness or sharpness, and no one will be the wiser.

आलू हीरो

I think I'm settling into a routine now. I am now exercising, getting work done daily, and am adicted to a television program that can serve as the anchor to my weekly scheduling. Heroes was pretty good tonight, it certainly answered some persistent questions. But next week's looks totally awesome. I'll have to cook a special meal.
This week I made some indian-style potatoes with cabbage, onion, and peas, and brown butter.
I bought a bag of organic potatoes a few weeks ago at the grocery store that are starting to sprout, so I think we'll be eating a lot of potatoes for a little while. I also picked up some frozen naan at what I believe is a pakistani grocery near my house. They are prebaked, so you just reheat them in the oven or on the stove, and they actually are really good. My mom and I tried to make naan over christmas and, somehow, its one of the few things we consistently can't get right. These inspired me to change what were going to be european potatoes midway through. They were improvised, so I don't know how authentic these aloo were, but they were tasty and relatively simple to make. I was thinking of using the left overs to make samosas . . .

A (fishy) night at the oscars

So we are only have way through the oscars, but marie antoinette should totally not have one the award for costume design. Aside from being a mediocre movie, the costumes were nothing that you don't see in every other period movie ever made. On the other hand, the first thing that you noticed and were amazed by in curse of the golden flower was the amazingly elaborate and very sexy costumes and the incredible opulence of the chinese imperial court as portrayed by the film. While it was a pretty bizarre and rather frustrating movie otherwise, I think they got jipped out of this award.

So a few days ago we made mixed seafood with tomato sauce on a bed of soft polenta. I drizzled some of the afore mentioned tomatoey olive oil on top which gave it a really fresh and complex tomato flavor. We reheated some of the leftovers tonight and, strangely enough, it was even better after sitting in the fridge for a few days.

Since we were eating left overs, we indulged in making a desert tonight. David used some left over egg whites to make these chocolate cookies which we layered with fresh whipped cream. They were a perfect balance of sweet chocolate, fresh creme, and crunchy and chewy textures.

Settling In

It is always really hard to get in the swing of things at the start of the semester. This semester I have so much freedom and flexibility that it is even easier to shuffle along with the lowest acceptable daily productivity, and then assuaging the guilt by indulging in guilty pleasures. Tonight, for example, I watched three episodes of the NBC show, Heroes. I got hooked on this last semester, but have been busy or gone every monday night since January. If you haven't seen it, you should definitely check it out. It is really surprisingly creative for a major network production. But getting back to cooking and blogging is hopefully one piece of a productive routine that is already back in place. Here are the first two meals I cooked when I got back from paraguay. First was pan seared tilapia with lemon caper sauce and a watercress salad. My mother bought me some of the most phenomenal olive oil for Christmas that I used for the dressing. It has lots of rich vegetable and mineral flavors, in particular a really pronounced and delicious tomato aroma.

Then I also made our chinese new year longevity noodles. They were technically Japanese noodles. Udon noodles with Kimchee and crispy tofu. I coat the cubes of tofu in potato starch and fry them. They have lots of great textures: crispy on the outside, creamy inside, and as the broth softens the outside it gets glassy and kind of gummy. This was really delicious. I just can't seem to shake the noodle kick that I am on.

The return of the Chef

Ok, this time I promise, I'm back for real. At least until the next bought of travelling upsets my routine. After I was in chicago for christmas and new years, I had a couple weeks to get a lot of work done before my trip to Paraguay. I was in Paraguay for three weeks, where I did some cooking, but didn't take any pictures (unfortunately I had to travel without my photographer).
The food related aspect of going to paraguay is always great. To begin with, Paraguayans keep a somewhat Hobbit-like eating schedule. Breakfast is early in the morning, followed by the media mañana snack around 10am. Then comes the day's large mid-day meal around 12:00, merienda or a late afternoon snack around 5pm, and finally dinner around 9:00 or 10pm. While all these calories may be necessary for strenuous manual work in the campo, in asuncion these customs are maintained simply by a love for food--one that I certainly inherited.
When we go to paraguay, our family there always greets me with all of the comida típica that we either can't make or can only approximate in the U.S. Chief among these is chipa guazu, a sort of corn bread/souffle made from sweetcorn, eggs, onions, and cheese. It is both sweet from the corn and savory from the cheese, somehow firm and creamy at the same time. I would count it among latin america's greatest contributions to human happiness. While my sister makes some pretty phenomenal chipa guazu using illinois sweetcorn, it is a lot wetter than the corn in paraguay and you've got to add cornmeal to make the consistency right. Mbeju, on the other hand, is nearly impossible to replicate in the U.S., because the yuca starch available here is too refined to make these flat, cheesy pancakes, and they require a lot of experience and skill to get the consistency and texture just right, the sort of experience that usually only wise old ladies have. Too wet, and they are tough, too dry and they crumble into dust and taste mealy. When its just right, the starch forms a thick pancake that is crispy on the outside, but cheesy and steaming hot on the inside, with a really rich comforting flavor from the mix of animal fat, yuca starch, and strongly flavored paraguayan cheese. Since Ña. Eugenia left, the maid in my grandmother's household for probably over 3o years, good mbeju has been pretty scarce. This time, I discovered a dirty secret though, a cafe in downtown asuncion actually makes the best mbeju I've ever had in my life.

Another favorite is chipa de almidon and chipitas. These are bread made from yuca starch, cheese, fat, and anise seed. They are probably the food most associated with paraguay, and with the women that sell them from enormous baskets balanced upon their heads as they wander city streets, set up stands in public markets, or flag down the many buses that carry travelers across the country's main transport veins. Chipa is a crucial part of breakfast and merienda, and every time one of us goes to paraguay, we return with a suitcase full of chipa to appease pent-up demand. This time, david threatened to eat all of the chipa I'd brought back for my mother before I had a chance to mail it, so I ended up attempting to bake our own. We kept revising the dough with each batch that went in the oven, and by the fifth tray we got pretty close. We've been munching on these all week accompanied by cocido quemado, or tea made from yerba mate leaves, caramelized sugar, and hot milk. This was today's breakfast.
But nothing can compare to the chipa I had this time in paraguay. The sun had not yet come up when we arrived in the southern city of encarnacion, and the bus station was strewn with bleary-eyed vendors preparing for the day or taking advantage of the early morning quiet to nap on benches and lawn chairs that later would seat their customers. In the morning's darkness, the air was still cool and a woman offered boiling hot water and yerba for mate to the few travelers present. Just beyond the lights of the station, by the road, a man on a motorcycle played an endlessly looped recording which advertised the 'best chipa from coronel bogado.' Freshly baked in one of the igloo-shaped, wood-burning brick ovens or tatakua that accompany most rural households, these chipa had been swaddled in clean cotton towel and kept warm in their enormous basket nest as they were sped by motorcycle to the bus station. The man, who sat on his motorcycle drinking mate with two female companions from the bus station, might as well have advertised them as the best chipa in all of paraguay. It was outside was crisp and toasted while the center was doughy and stringy with cheese that steamed in the morning's coolness. They were perfect.

On the other hand, it is great to cook for my family in paraguay, because I always love to introduce them to new ideas and flavors that are not common in paraguay. This time we made grilled pizza, using the large built-in grills that are common in wealthier homes accustomed to holding asados. We lined the grill with left over terra cotta floor tiles which got smoking hot over the coals and produced a crispy and bubbly crust. I also showed them how to make carnitas, or mexican slow-cooked pork that is both fall-from-the-bone tender and crispy from browning in its own rendered fat. This is probably David's all-time favorite from everything I've ever cooked for him, and it was a huge hit in paraguay.
I'll try making more typical paraguayan recipes to familiarize you and the world to the comforts of paraguayan food. I feel this need more urgently after searching the internet for chipa recipes and discovering the horrible bastardizations of my homeland's culinary traditions that presumably instruct adventurous high-school spanish club members who are weary of pan de meurtos. So I'll end with a note of caution, please, if you have found this blog randomly or out of your interest in food or latin america, do not trust any of the Paraguayan recipes posted on the internet! If you really want to taste these recipes, let me know and I'll invite you over or maybe organize some culinary tourism of paraguay for you.