faux Afgan:
spice crusted rack of lamb (cardamom, coriander, clove, cumin)
kadu (pumpkin stewed in sweet tomato sauce with mint yogurt)
rice with carrot, raisin, pistachio, saffron
house bitter cocktail

There aren't many recipes for Afgan food on the internet. Can anyone suggest a resource?

There doesn't seem to be much available via Amazon, either, but here's a link to the three books they do list:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=se...p;x=17&y=21

There is also the possibility of finding Afghani recipes in more generalized Middle Eastern Cookbooks. I like Paula Wolfert's books and also Claudia Roden's. I have an old one of Claudia Roden's *A Book of Middle Eastern Food* that has good recipes, and she discusses the different ways the same dishes are cooked in different countries. Wolfert does that as well in her *The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean.* Ana Sortun's book *Spices* is primarily Turkish, but hey, it's just next door to Afghanistan.

Gyuu-niku no sansho ni: thinly sliced beef and mountain ash leaves, simmered in sake, soy sauce, and mirin
Ichijiku no gomadare sarada: figs on watercress with sesame dressing
Kinpira ninjin: julienned carrots stir-fried with dried red pepper, then simmered in sake, soy sauce, sugar, and mirin
Miso soup with fresh wakame seaweed and fu (wheat gluten)
Homemade rice-bran pickles
Steamed rice

Wild Turkey rye Manhattans

Freezer and Pantry Raid

My basement flooded due to an overactive washing machine this morning. I had to stick around to wait for the emergency cleanup crew. My wife had to take the car so I was on my own and, despite her offers of getting me some food, I figured it was a perfect time to clean out long-term food storage.

Shrimp and Bacon Sandwich with Tabasco-Tomato-Lime Mayo

Sautéed shrimp marinated in lime juice, garlic, fresh sage, clam juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, cascbobel, anaheim, and chipotle chiles
Smoked tomato confit, milled, then mixed with mayo, lime juice, salt, pepper, and plenty of Tabasco
Oven roasted, crispy bacon
Buttered and toasted hot dog buns

Pumpkin ale


Necessity is the mother of invention, and this one is going into the rotation. Holy sherpa was this an amazingly good sandwich. Intensely aromatic and flavorful with different interpretations of "spiciness" racing through my mouth, a gentle reminder of ocean, a waft of herbage, and the interplay of acid and cream throughout with smoke coming off the bacon and tomatoes in a delightful flirtation. I should open a roadside stand...

Pork chops from Stillman's Farm with a pan sauce with apple cider, a touch of maple syrup, mustard, and tarragon. Served over polenta with a side of green beans almondine.

Pan-fried trout, shaved brussels sprouts, topped with spicy blended mixture of capers and the scraps from shaving the sprouts.

Pan-cooked Eco-Friendly pork rib chops with pan-reduction sauce
Savory quince compote
Golden cauliflower puree
Fresh lima beans with bacon

2005 Dom. Nicolas Rossignol Bourgogne

Roasted tomato soup w rice
Salad of pea shoots, avocado and wasabi mustard greens
Half a Grimes Golden Apple
Half a cocoa-dusted brownie
Apple Cinnamon tea


The soup is a fairly new annual tradition: a way to acknowledge the waning days of produce that lingers after the end of summer.

I picked up several pounds of seconds on bright orange tomatoes from Tree & Leaf, cut them in half and roasted them w slivers of garlic slipped in among the seeds before seasoning them and brushing the tops w olive oil last night.

In the morning, I roasted and skinned a couple of red peppers to sauté w a chopped onions, more garlic, fresh thyme, pimenton and a pinch of saffron. Slipped the tomato skins off, but was casual about removing all the seeds since I didn't want a smooth purée. Poured all the juice into the pot along w the flesh and let it all simmer w chicken broth.

When I got home, I cooked a couple of spoonfuls of rice in additional broth before ladling in soup.

Haven't been cooking as much as I would like lately, but I did throw together some enchiladas and lasagna.

The former had lots of cheese and even more cilantro, which I really enjoyed. I just wish I liked corn tortillas more--maybe it's because I've never had them homemade?

The lasagna was really good--the sauce had ground beef, Italian sausage (sweet--next time, I'll use spicy), onions, carrots, garlic, oregano, basil, crushed red pepper, and crushed tomatoes. Very tasty. I just layered it with noodles, a ricotta/parm/spinach filling, and some shredded mozzarella. As with most tomato-based pasta dishes, I thought it tasted better leftover, when the flavors had a little more time to mingle.

Interesting. I don't recall knowing anyone who disliked corn tortillas. Do you also dislike tortilla chips? I ask because the very distinctive flavor of lime-treated corn is the same in both, even though the chips have been fried after being baked as tortillas. If you like chips but not tortillas, I am guessing that perhaps you have never had really fresh tortillas. The ones sold in packages in grocery stores are often stale and/or slightly sour, which happens to tortillas that are over the hill.

A suggestion: if you are willing to put this to a test, go out to a Latin market and buy a bag of Maseca or Quaker Masa Harina. It's fairly cheap. Make sure that it hasn't been sitting on the shelf for a year--that's why I suggest buying it in a Latin market, or a market in an area where there is a high concentration of Latinos, where there will be a regular turnover of product. Take a cup of masa harina and add just enough water to make a fairly soft dough that doesn't crumble. Roll a ball of dough about the size of a golf ball between your hands. Sandwich the golf ball between two layers of thick plastic--like a freezer bag that you have cut open. Then roll it into a thin disc with a rolling pin. Heat a very lightly oiled or non-stick cast iron skillet or griddle until it is hot. Peel the top layer of plastic off of the disc, plop it onto the skillet dough side down and then peel the remaining layer of plastic off. Cook on one side until the edges start looking dry, then turn it with a spatula and let it cook for a few minutes on the other side until it no longer has any rawness. Don't let it get brown--a few brown specks are okay, but adjust the heat down if it seems too hot to cook without burning. Wrap the tortilla in a clean tea towel for a few moments to allow it to steam. Spread a little bit of butter on it, roll it up and eat it. Then you will know whether you dislike corn tortillas or not.

Last night we had our first fire of the season in the wood-stove, and I responded to a request: "Let's just have some soup for dinner."

Italian-style beans and greens soup with roasted tomatoes and eggplants. This was a true "whatever I've got in the house" kind of dish. I used vacuum-packed cooked favas that I'd gotten at Trader Joe's. Roasted and pureed some soft "seconds" tomatoes from Toigo, and the pulp from some roasted little pale purple eggplants that I hadn't done anything with from the week before. A couple of shredded collard leaves, some Parmesan cheese rinds. Typical aromatics--carrot, celery, leek, onion, garlic both raw and roasted. Fresh herbs. Red pepper. Fennel pollen. Porcini powder. A can of chicken broth (gotta make some chicken stock soon!), water and some dry vermouth. Cooked for about an hour. During the last twenty minutes I added a little bit of orzo and paper thin slices of yellow and green zucchini. Served with grated Reggiano and garlic toast.

Dessert: Italian plum crisp with creme fraiche

2006 Colosi Rosso

Funny, I've been thinking about Italian prune plums all week, ever since I chose two pints of raspberries and some rhubarb instead.
* * *

Baked macaroni and cheese (Dan, take note)
Salad of baby mustard greens, sorrel, mint leaves, raspberries and toasted pine nuts


Recipes in The New Spanish Table caught my eye (vinaigrette made w cinnamon). Sautéed last week's cache of honey mushrooms and Royal Trumpets, then threw in minced garlic, dousing all w white wine before tossing the lot into a bowl of ham from a smoked hock and thick shreds of bacon.

Caramelized a small, chopped onion before adding yet more garlic and a handful of Sun Gold tomatoes. Then, lots of heavy cream w a bit of chicken broth (no stock either, here). Cooked down.

Into the bowl all went w penne and various cheeses in house before transferring contents to pan. Topped mostly w Parm, but also some aged Gouda. Very hot oven for not very long. Perfect for Project Runway.

Buttermilk marinated fried Eco-Friendly chicken
Mixed greens (collard and turnip) with ham hock
Roasted garlic mashed potatoes

2006 Dom. du Tariquet Cotes de Gascogne

Comfort food:

Bacon wrapped meatloaf
Bourbon mashed sweet potatoes

Chikuzenni: bamboo shoot, carrot, pork thigh meat, shiitake, gobou (burdock root), and konnyaku (devil's tongue jelly), simmered with dashi, soy sauce, and a bit of sugar, topped with blanched pea pods at serving time. Chikuzenni is usually made with chicken, but I used pork because Azami has chicken issues.
Leftover miso soup with fresh seaweed and shiitake
Homemade carrot and cucumber rice-bran pickles
Steamed rice

Puffy baked apple pancakes lots of cinnamon and some fresh whipped cream
Pan fried sausages

later that night, homemade baked char siu bao using some really terrific Cibola Farms pork shoulder

Last night:
Eggplant casserole with three cheeses
I made marinara sauce with the remainder of the Toigo tomato seconds. Roasted the last of the red pepper seconds (noticing a theme here?) Salted and broiled an eggplant second. I made ricotta with some first quality whole milk from the Dupont market, and layered it with the eggplant, peppers, marinara sauce, and some mozzarella di bufala and Reggiano parmesan. Out of the oven, it was garnished with the last of last week's basil.

Garlic toast

2003 Corte Majoli Valpolicella Ripasso

Hanbaagu* spaghetti: meat patty cooked in a tomatoey gravy, then served over spaghetti.
Cajun Kamikazes

*Not to be confused with hanbaagaa, the sandwich.

I've been doing a bit of "cooking therapy" this weekend. I made a chili with lots of vegetables, including mushrooms, zucchini, bell peppers and tomatoes. A fantastic loaf of challah bread turned into a decadent bread pudding.
Click to view attachment

Again, I feel compelled to ask about international delivery options. That looks fantastic, monavano.

Last night's dinner:

Satoimo to ebi no agedango: deep-fried shrimp and taro root dumplings
Hourenso no ohitashi: parcooked spinach, steeped in a dashi/soy sauce stock and served with katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
Steamed rice
Miso soup with cotton tofu and fresh wakame seaweed
Rice-bran cucumber pickles

Last night:
Baby romaine and heirloom tomato salad with blue cheese dressing
Applewood-smoke grilled, herb-brined pork chops
South Carolina mustard bbq sauce
Fresh lima beans with ham hock
Cheese grits

Spiced wine-poached seckel pears

2006 Rosenblum Paso Robles zinfandel

Grilled Cibola buffalo flank steak with rosemary and garlic, broccoli sauteed with butter and fleur de sel, mac and cheese

For dessert, used up various brown bananas and made banana muffins with a generous fistful of Valrhona 61% disks thrown into the batter

Over the past week or so...

Pan seared scallops with smoky tomato lime mayo
Spicy couscous

Greasy burgers with smoked cheddar on butter toasted buns with shaved red onions and special sauce
Salt crusted fingerling potato "fries" with butter and sour cream

Banana smoothie

Herb crusted tilapia
Mushrooms florentine

Lots of pumpkin ale

A perfect omelet with butter and truffle salt - creamily runny in the middle and folded beautifully
Roasted bacon
Biscuits with apple, onion, and sage (guess how good these made my kitchen smell!)

...

Grease, cheese, mayo, butter, salt crust, sour cream, eggs, bacon...?

I think the healthiest thing I've eaten in the past week has been the pumpkin ale.

Tonight:

Mediterranean mezze for a table-ful of mostly vegetarian college students

Oven-baked ratatouille
Baba ghanouj made with charcoal roasted eggplant
Hummous
Marinated fresh borlotti beans
Feta cheese with zaatar
Chile-marinated olives
Sliced tomatoes with mozzarella di bufala and basil
Spiced carrot puree with dukkah
Cucumbers in Total yogurt
Flat bread toasted with olive oil and zaatar

Just for us: Merguez (lamb) meatballs with minted yogurt

Italian plum crisp with vanilla creme fraiche

2007 Cono Sur Viognier
Otter Creek Oktoberfest

Last night:

Smoothie with banana, strawberry, mango, orange juice, a little coconut sorbet, and a little chocolate sorbet.

YUM!

Japanese-style mabo doufu (spicy tofu)
Steamed rice
Homemade cucumber and carrot pickles

Oven-baked cauliflower in cheese sauce
Haricots verts with lemon
Mixed green salad with lemon vinaigrette
Apple tart with streusel topping
B&J's vanilla ice cream

Beef tataki
Satoimo no tsuya ni -- taro root simmered in a dashi, soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake stock. It's supposed to be served with slivered yuzu peel, but I used sudachi peel.
Ichijiku no gomadare sarada -- fig and watercress salad with white sesame/miso/vinegar/soy sauce dressing
Miso soup with wakame seaweed and cotton tofu
Homemade carrot and cucumber pickles
Steamed rice

Vegetable soup (fennel broth based) with the last of the garden tomatoes.
Fried green tomatoes
pain de campagne and Robusto cheese
cocktail of apple brandy, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, simple syrup, whiskey barrel bitters

I don't believe I've ever had fried green tomatoes. I dipped the slices in egg/milk, then cornmeal/flour/pepper, then fried them, then sprinkled with coarse salt. Some of the picked-green tomatoes had started to ripen just a bit; these tasted insipid and were mealy textured. "Big deal", I thought, "just another way for frugal people to use less-than-stellar produce." Then I fried slices of very firm and still utterly green tomato, and what a difference - tart and tangy and delicious piping hot right out of the skillet. Makes me wish I hadn't gotten rid of the tomato plants so soon.

Isn't it wonderful to make something that so many people take for granted that you've never had before? I tried my first fried green tomato a couple of years ago when I made a point of picking up a couple unripe tomatoes at the market to see what the fuss was all about.

* * *
Lamb tagine w okra and quince

Paula Wolfert recommends eating this w a good dense bread instead of couscous or rice, so I thawed a thick slice of onion rye. Cracked a fresh walnut and ate a Seckel pear for dessert.

It was my wife's birthday, so all her favorite foods:

PERFECT mashed potatoes. This was my first time with a food mill. Amazing. Great texture, and no peeling required!!!
PERFECT chicken parmesan. Used prosecco as the leavening in the batter and my awesome smoky tomato sauce.
PERFECT chocolate lava cake with vanilla foam. Seriously delicious in all its triteness.

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Note the congealed cheese on the bottom of the pan. Icky goodness.

I found it best to use the firmest green tomatoes you can find, and slice them thick so that they maintain a nice, meaty texture. Can you eleborate on your fennel and tomato soup? I made a similar soup last year, but found that I lost the fennel taste somewhere.

My basic quick soup is recipe is: defrost a jar of whatever is in the freezer (chicken stock, beef broth made from seconds, beef stock - whatever). Cook in olive oil until soft thick sliced onion, sliced carrot, sliced celery; add the liquid; from there go in any direction, like adding fennel or mushrooms or cabbage or corn and peas or potatoes or white beans; season as appropriate (fresh herbs, sherry, vermouth, bitters, garlic). Sometimes I soak dried mushrooms in some water, wring them out, and add the water to the pot. That's especially good in winter.

This time I had a big jar of fennel broth in the freezer, left over from a dinner party earlier this year. Not sure I remember how I made it, but probably I started with the veg stock recipe from Fields of Greens and added a lot of fennel. (That's a good recipe, by the way.) Knowing me, I bet I added a lot of mushrooms, too, for umami. Come to think of it, I was playing around with fennel in various forms trying to create something new, so I bet I had a lot of fennel scraps to put in the broth.

This soup had just onion, carrots, celery, a bit of potato, and tomatoes, with the dried mushroom water and fennel broth, and thyme, parsley, and sherry. The fennel taste was noticeable but mild.

Bet you could punch up the flavor with some fennel seed. I do that a lot - dried mushrooms with fresh, tomato paste with tomato. Doubling up/layering flavors seems to add some depth to a dish.

Hope that helps.

To really punch up the fennel/anise flavor, in addition to fennel seed, add a shot of Pernod or some other anise-flavored liquor.

Kabocha, pork, shiitake and aburaage takikomi gohan.

Porcupine and Zora--thanks for your insight. I'm away right now, but am really looking forward to getting back into my kitchen and making these soups now that the brisk weather is here

Potato Leek Soup (Julia Child's recipe) and salad with red peppers and poppyseed dressing.

Pinto beans with salt pork and roasted hatch chiles
White Rice
Homemade corn tortillas
Baked spinach and eggs

The entire, lengthy story of the chiles: I was in NM near the end of the harvest. On my fourth day passing a chile vendor in a parking lot near my motel, finally someone was there. I bought a large bag of already roasted red hot chiles (which, to me, seemed dehydrated--rather than what I would consider roasted if I were doing it at home) and a bag of medium hot red chile powder. (I'd already bought a bag of medium hot green hatch chile powder elsewhere.) I wanted green chiles. I figured roasted either would produce the same as the red, which I didn't want, or something that required refrigeration/freezing. I still had 10 days until I'd be home. So...I bought half a bushel of raw hot hatch chiles. Mostly they were green, but some were red or red-green, and they got redder over time. They gave them to me in a big plastic bag, which I figured was going to be trouble. By the next day, I realized that I'd have some rotten peppers if I didn't work to prevent it, so I bought a corn husk covered laundry basket (walmart was out of bushel baskets for the season) and laid the peppers in that. I pulled the defective/rotting/broken ones out and kept them in the plastic until I figured out what to do.

I carried the laundry basket in my car for a week, periodically culling bad chiles. Then I got to Fort Worth, where I was staying with a friend. I used her oven to roast the chiles. It took 6 hours to roast, stem, seed, package and freeze half a bushel of peppers . I chopped and roasted the defective ones and salvaged what I could of them. The "good" chiles yielded one gallon freezer ziplock (with 6-8 saran-wrapped packets inside) of red/red-green and one of green. The defective ones yielded about a tennis ball-sized lump of pieces in a sandwich bag. I froze these overnight and packed them in my coolers* in the morning. I added a couple of cold beverage cans from the fridge to keep the one pack cold and my friend offered up a sad box of ancient spinach to add an ice pack to the other one. Fortunately, the next two motel nights, my rooms had a mini-fridge. The mini-freezers were just big enough to fit the (fairly) flat gallon ziplocks and sad lump of defective chiles. I packed them in ice from motel ice machines for travel during the day. They made it home just fine and are now in my freezer. The tennis ball-sized lump of chiles went into last night's beans, and the improbable spinach baked up just fine with milk and cream cheese as a nest for eggs.


*I was planning early in the trip to drive from Austin to west Texas with a friend who runs a small cafe in the middle of the oil fields. We planned to buy groceries to take back, so I brought a big cooler and two small ones. We packed the coolers with food from Central Market and bags of ice (they give the slivered stuff away free) and drove it back out to the grocery store wasteland of west Texas.

Pot roasted pig's head, from Fergus Henderson's Beyond Nose to Tail
Lacinato kale
Pan roasted fingerling potatoes

Ice cream.

Pork Belly Confit with tea scented lentils and Seckel pear salad. The earthy flavor of the lentils and the sweetness of the pears really cuts through the fat. Bonus is that I now have 2 quarts of rendered lard from the pork belly.

Chicken andouille sausages
Garlic bread
Twice-baked potatoes with proscuitto and smoked cheddar
Acorn squash with soy-maple-ginger glaze

Arrived home at 6 tonight from Wilmington, NC after a week-long road trip to Asheville, Savannah, Pawley's Island, SC and Southport, NC. I put together a meal from a combination of what was in the fridge and farm stand purchases I'd gotten along the way:

Fritatta with yellow and green zucchini, poblano chile, South Carolina tomato and Spanish sheepmilk cheese
Baked fresh-dug SC sweet potatoes with NC farmstead butter
Roasted cauliflower
Otter Creek Oktoberfest

Other goodies from the road:
Green peanuts (to be brined and roasted)
Roasted peanuts
Boiled peanuts
Deep-fried peanuts (the best! eat them shell and all)
Country ham slices
Bacon
Corn
Sourwood honey
Maurice's BBQ Hot Pepper Sauce (I thought that Maurice's SC Mustard BBQ sauce was too sweet, although their 'que and hushpuppies were terrific. I prefer the SC mustard bbq sauce that I made from the recipe I got from Scott Johnston.)
Stone ground white grits
A really odd-looking yellow and green long-necked winter squash, varietal name unknown to the farm-stand owner.

Leftovers of a recipe that was in the Washington Post a few weeks ago for Subanik. Made and ate it last night with all chicken, since tenderloin is a bit pricey and we weren't sure how we'd like the recipe. The chicken was good, but I could see it needed another flavor. Tonite I added eggplant, and it was wonderful.

farfalle with kasha and onions, from mark bittman's wednesday recipe.

i'm a one-stop shopper, so when i couldn't find chicken fat in whole foods i decided to substitute olive oil for sauteeing the onions, an option he suggests, pointing out that it just won't be the same. i doubt it was. the dish was easy to make and okay while watching a tobe hooper movie (eaten alive?) about a lunatic running a decrepit bayou hotel that not too many characters (including a hooker) were able to check out of, with a big croc screaming feed me the whole time from the swamp that comes right up to the front porch. i don't want to give anything away, but an anti-hero who lost the bottom half of one of his legs to the almost mythic reptile (i know it's not a foreleg, because that would make him a horse), is eventually totally devoured, and the prosthesis floats to the top of the scummy water.

the bottom line, i am willing to eat my groats, but without childhood memories to dredge up, i can think of lots of better ways to cook my bowties.

Not sure you can get schmaltz anywhere around these parts.

Next time, consider picking up inexpensive thighs. Make sure there are carrots, onions and a celery stalk at home.

Fry the thighs skin side down in a hot cast iron skillet for 5-10 minutes until you render enough fat. Meanwhile, put on a pot of water (or chicken broth), cut up the usual vegetables, throw in parsley if you've got it and/or a teaspoon of tomato paste if you'd like. Season w salt. Simmer the thighs as you prepare, eat and wash up after dinner. Got yourself a quick broth or stock for meals later in the week.

thanks for the information. I knew rendering the fat from chicken was an option, but i didn't want to bother with it. next time i really need chicken fat i will follow your advice.

Recipe?

I don't really have a recipe, the only measuring was for the lentils (1 cup) and the liquid (about 1 1/2 cups chicken broth and 1/2 cup red wine). I brought the liquid to a boil, took it off the heat and dumped in about 3 tablespoons of loose leaf tea (for this I used orange pekoe – and if you want a smokey flavor lapsang souchong also works really well). I let that steep for about 10 minutes. While the tea was brewing in the broth, I softened a half a finely minced onion and a finely minced celery stalk in lard (hey I have two quarts of the stuff). Then added the lentils, and strained the broth into the legumes. I cooked it for about 40 minutes until the lentils were soft.

When you get a whole chicken, there is a walnut-sized lump of fat just inside the opening of the cavity that usually gets pulled out and discarded before cooking. Save up a few of them in the freezer, and then render them with some chicken skin and some onion, and you'll have schmaltz with gribines (cracklings) to make really traditional kasha mit varnishkes (buckwheat groats with bowties). Or schmaltz to slather on fresh rye with caraway seeds. That's real old country snacking.

I grew up eating kasha (usually without bowties). If my mother didn't have any schmaltz in the house, she would brown the kasha in butter before adding chicken broth--not kosher, obviously, but tasty nonetheless. Unfortunately, I can't make it because my husband and daughter do not like the taste of kasha, and I don't love it enough to make it just for myself.

Pork tenderloin sandwiches (w/lettuce and tomato) on English muffins (Thomas')
Cole Slaw (from Canales Deli@Eastern Market)
Potato chips (Utz)