pear/ginger/lemon/bourbon

i know it's officially been fall for awhile now, but somehow late october is when fall starts seeming real to me. i think partly that's because in texas it's generally ridiculous-hot until then. here in portland, it's been pretty cool for awhile, but over the last couple of weeks the trees have started getting really colorful and the smell of woodsmoke is in the air. that's how you know.

fall has always been my favorite season. in texas, it means you lived through another summer (no small feat). in portland, it means scarves, boots, and brisk walks where you crunch through leaves and can see your breath. then when you get home, you can drink this to warm up!

this drink has a wealth of classic fall flavor - the sweet pear, spicy ginger, and, uh, lemony lemon combine with bourbon to make the perfect pick-me-up après-hike. or après-thrift-shopping. or après-whatever-you-like-to-do-on-a-saturday.

plus, you can make a batch ahead of time and then if people drop by unexpectedly, you can nonchalantly be like, "oh, would you like a fancy cocktail? i just whipped this up, no biggie." and they will be all, "wow, you are the fanciest!" and you will smile demurely and pass the cheese straws.

anyway. ginger:
you definitely want some fresh ginger for this. i use a spoon to scrape the papery skin off and then just slice it up (probably not with the spoon, unless it is one of those weird grapefruit ones). it doesn't really matter how thick they are, but think coins, rather than chunks.

i leave the skin on the pear and slice it from the top, also into coins. but you can totes slice it into wedges or whatever. i just think the extra surface area of the coins makes it easier to get it infused into the bourbon (yeah, that's where this is going). but follow your bliss.

then just put the pear and ginger into a thingy, add some strips of lemon rind (you can use a vegetable peeler or knife - just avoid the white pith part) smash them a few times with a wooden spoon to get the oils and whatever started, and add some bourbon.

i ended up using about a cup or so of bourbon, one small pear, maybe an inch and a half or two inches of a thinnish ginger root, and about 1/4 or 1/3 of a lemon's rind. then just cover it and let it sit for awhile. it doesn't have to be too long, but i would leave it for at least a few hours. overnight would be good as well.

then you can strain it, put some in a glass, maybe add some lemon juice if you aren't a fan of the sweetz, top it off with ginger ale or (preferably) ginger beer (it's stronger and much more gingery) and ice, and add a sliver of pear if you want to feel super-fancy. you could also use rye or another kind of whiskey or maybe even dark rum. hooray for fall!

*ingredients* for a number of drinks (4? 6? it depends on how much bourbon you want in yours)

1 small ripe pear

1 1/2-2 inches of ginger root, cut in coins

peel from 1/4-1/3 lemon

1 cup (+/-) bourbon

ginger ale/ginger beer

lemon juice, to taste

chicken stock from your freezer

the problem with weekends is that they end. that feeling you get on a sunday evening - the sunday malaise, ennui, melancholia - whatever you want to call it, it is pretty much the worst. i envy those who can enter their week with a bright and chipper soul, but that is just not me.

however, as with all good things, etc ...

aside from actually roasting a chicken, there are few things that ease you into the week better than a languid afternoon making chicken stock and then turning the stock into a delicious soup. the cooking stock gets your house all warm and good-smelling and cozyface. it's like a hug made of bits of things you ate weeks ago.

wow, does that sound unappetizing. but really, making your own stock is simple and thrifty and it makes you feel all frugal and homesteady, like you are laura ingalls wilder or someone in a willa cather book. basically, you stick trimmings of things and things that would otherwise go bad into a freezer bag and then when it is full, you make stock!

this also works to satisfy the kid in you who used to go out in the woods and make elaborate and inedible concoctions of various (no doubt poisonous) berries and leaves. oh, did you not do that? well you should have. it was fun.

you can also buy things for it. i usually have to buy carrots and sometimes celery specifically for stock-making, for instance, because otherwise we don't usually have them around. and depending on what's in your freezer, you may want to add extra onion or garlic or something. as far as what you should save day to day, you don't want to use too many cruciferous things like cabbage, cauliflower, etc. you could probably use a small amount of trimmings from one, but otherwise it might make it sort of sulfur-y and gross. and that's not what you want.

the things that i usually use are: carrots, celery, onion, garlic, parsley stems, scallion tops, leek tops and chicken bones. i always save the bones when we eat chicken. if you want to start from scratch on this, just buy whatever parts are cheapest - you can sometimes get things like chicken necks and backs (i know, gross) for super-cheap at the butcher's. whenever i cut up onions, i save the tops and the layer underneath the papery outer skin - it's usually tough and hard to separate from the papery layer, so it's easier to just save it for stock.

generally, i cut a medium onion into eighths or so, let it cook a little in the biggest pot i have, then add the things that have been in the freezer. then i fill the pot almost all the way with water and turn it up high. i add perhaps a teaspoon or so of whole black peppercorns and whatever other seasonings are at hand - thyme, marjoram, that mix called "poultry seasoning" and herbes de provence are all good options (and you can mix and match these as well). once it comes to a boil, turn the heat down to pretty low - you want to just let it simmer for a few hours. you can basically cook it as long as you want - i let it go until the carrots are pretty soft - maybe two or three hours or so.

while it simmers, you can definitely do whatever else you need to do on a sunday afternoon, like mope, wash dishes, dress up your cats, or watch the wonder years on netflix instant. just stir it every half hour or so and skim any weird stuff off the top. it is dead simple.

then strain it into another pot and let it cook down for awhile on medium-high. this is not strictly necessary, but i like to make a ton of stock at once and then freeze it for the future. cooking it down ensures that there's less of it to freeze. so once it reduces by 1/3 to 1/2 or so (this is somewhat dictated by your freezer space), let it cool and then ladle it into a muffin tin (or two). place this in the freezer overnight (this is also predicated on your ability to make a flat area in your freezer). if you want to make soup right then, save some out. obviously.

then just let the muffin tin sit out for a few minutes and use a butter knife or similarly flat thing to edge the stock-muffins out. put these in a freezer bag and then you'll have easily accessible stock in a form that enables you to use as much as you need at a time. you could also use ice trays or something like that, but i find that the muffin tin-sized ones are really convenient.

aww, li'l chicken stock muffins. presh! they are all ready to help you make risotto, soups, and whatever else would benefit from some rich homemade flavor.

*ingredients* (for a large pot of stock that reduces to about one and a half muffin tin's worth)

1 onion, plus any trimmings

2-3 carrots, cut in 3" lengths (our dogs love to eat these after i strain them out of the stock)

1-2 celery stalks

chicken bones (variable - whatever you have in the freezer - i usually use at least a pound and probably more like 2)

~ 1/2 bunch parsley - stems only or stems and leaves

5+ cloves garlic

other vegetable trimmings and leftovers - leeks, carrot ends, onion and scallion ends, etc are all good

herbs like thyme, marjoram, bay leaves - fresh or dried

peppercorns

simple cozy brown bread

so it's officially fall now. grey days may still be slightly outnumbered by sunnyish ones, but the ratio is definitely heading toward portland's traditional parade of grey from october to may.

which is fine by me, actually. when it's grey and chilly out, there is nothing better than making yeasty brown bread. it fills the house with delicious smells and the joy of eating fresh homemade bread cannot be overstated.

this is a versatile little loaf, too. sometimes i make it with part rye flour, sometimes i use more molasses, sometimes i add some oats for part of the flour. i also like to set a little bit of dough aside in the fridge and add it to the next batch, like an ersatz sourdough starter.

the best thing about the bread, though, is that it is as simple as the proverbial pie (which, come on, is not that easy). you can let it rise for as little as 20 minutes, but i usually give it at least an hour or so. you could also mix it up the night before, leave it in the fridge for awhile, and let it warm up and rise for an hour or two the next afternoon and then bake it. whatever you want!

i got the initial recipe from the guardian. i've fiddled around with it a bit, but the recipe as is is plenty delicious. i do appreciate that english recipes tend to use weights for measurements - it makes it roughly 100% easier to switch things with no ill effects.

first, you bloom the yeast in warm water and molasses. i use one whole packet of that yellow-packaged active dry yeast. in the original recipe, it says that the water should be "at blood heat," which, while vaguely creepy, is probably about the temperature you want - lukewarmish. it also calls for black treacle, which is not something i normally come across here. so i used some blackstrap molasses (the strong molasses) and, because i like those really dark sort of sweet breads, i usually use at least a tablespoon or so instead of the meager teaspoon called for originally.

just mix 1/2 cup of warm water, the packet of yeast and the molasses and let it sit for 10 minutes or so. the yeast gets all excited and froths up, so don't mix them in something too small.

while you're waiting for the yeast to do its weird thing, mix up the rest of the ingredients - 1 pound of flour (either all whole wheat or part wheat and part other flour, like rye - experiment!) and a teaspoon (or a little more) of salt. i did one of those online conversion things that said that 1 pound of wheat flour is about 3 3/4 cups, but you'd really be better off just getting a scale. it's much easier and better for switching up flours, since it's more exact. but otherwise, i think you could go with a little under 4 cups of flour and be fine.

once the yeast has foamed nicely, add that mixture and another cup of warm water to the flour and salt. get it all mixed nicely and pour/scrape (it will be pretty wet, for bread dough) it into a greased loaf pan. i like to line the pan with some parchment paper - it makes it easier to get the finished loaf out. then let it sit for awhile in some warm place. the original recipe says just 20 minutes, but i think it should go for at least an hour.

this is also the point at which you could save a little knob of dough for the next batch. i don't know if it really makes a difference in the taste, but the idea appeals to me and i usually do this. i keep it in the fridge in an old olive jar and have used it 2 weeks after it was made with no ill effects. just add it to the new loaf when you stir the water and yeast mixture into the flour and salt.

it rises pretty well over the course of an hour, but this isn't one of those super-rising loaves. it's meant to be a more dense, thick-textured one, like the knobby wool sweater of breads. hmm, that doesn't sound as complimentary as it was meant to. but that's the kind of bread i want on chilly fall days.

preheat the oven to 450 and bake the bread for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 400 and let it bake for another 45 minutes + (it should sound sort of hollow when you tap the bottom of the pan). let it cool in the pan for a bit and then set it on a rack to cool fully. you can also take it out of the pan about 5-10 minutes early and set it back in the oven - it gets the crust crispy. but it is also kind of a hassle. so.

they always tell you not to cut warm bread because it something something ... whatever, i am not physically able to resist cutting warm bread. after you make homemade bread, it's an imperative. i mean, don't cut it straight out of the oven, sure, but i rarely wait more than 20 minutes or so before following the siren song of malty, yeasty goodness.

this bread's as good with tea and jam as it is with pimento cheese, salty butter and crisp radishes, or cream cheese, smoked salmon, and capers. in short, it is good with everything. when toasted and well-buttered, it makes a particularly fine accompaniment to soup.

i think i know what we're having for dinner...

*ingredients*

1 packet yeast (the original recipe has a measurement for fresh yeast, if you want to go that route)

1 1/2 cups water, divided

1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses (or you could use wuss molasses, if you like)

1 lb (450 grams, or ~ 3 3/4 cups) whole wheat flour (or mix of flours)

1 teaspoon or 2 salt

you are in a beautiful place.

this was done in chalk on one of the post things lining the area along the river where i've been spending my lunch hours. i love random happy graffiti.

what i don't love is how little free time i feel like i have these days. it's been wildly difficult to do anything that requires thought in the evenings, after working and riding the bus and whatnot. writing and photographing whole blog posts often seems beyond me. so to try to do a little something in the time that i have, i started a daily tumblr that will just have one or a couple of pictures and maybe a description, but no real recipes. so if you want to, you could look at it.

it's at livingawesomelydaily.tumblr.com.

i'm definitely still going to have whole things here, but i'm striving for once a week or so at this point.

fish sauce drumsticks

mmm, these drumsticks are pretty great, i have to say. i've made them three times in the last couple of weeks, which is really saying something because generally the only thing i make that frequently is bean & cheese tacos (the house go-to for quick simple dinners).

they were inspired by the fish sauce chicken wings at pok pok, which is a pretty well-known thai place here in portland. people go nuts for those things, which is justifiable, because they are delicious. i wanted to try to do a similar thing but with drumsticks and without deep frying. this is because drumsticks are a little meatier and less pointless than chicken wings and because i am afraid of deep frying.

drumsticks are pretty cheap, too, even when you buy cuddled-to-death free range ones. for these pictures, i used the toaster oven because it was hot at the time. i have to really recommend that you use a regular oven though - it does a much better job crisping the skin.

so roast some drumsticks at 400 for about 40 minutes. i salt and pepper them a little bit first.

while that's going on, you can make the delicioso glaze/sauce.

this was what i used for the first batch. it was great, but i subsequently used brown sugar instead and i think that was better. brown sugar has molasses in it, which seems to caramelize better and add a little bitter note that is really good. i also added a tablespoon of honey in a subsequent batch and that's also something you should do.

first, chop up a couple of cloves of garlic. this is going to be fried in a little olive oil and will add some crunch at the end, so you don't want to totally mince it up all tiny. just get it into smallish chunks, like this (i should have put a quarter or something in there as scale. this is a large plate):

fry the garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil - i set the heat on medium and let the oil get hot, add the garlic, and stir pretty much continuously until it gets nice and golden. you have to get it out of there pretty quickly after that to make sure it doesn't burn. i just use a spatula or spoon, but if you have a tiny sieve or something it might work better. you can save the oil for some other use - it will be nicely garlicky.

set the crispy garlic and the oil aside and you can use the same pan to make the glaze. it consists of 1/2 a lime's worth of zest and juice, another couple of cloves of garlic, either minced very fine or (preferably) grated on a microplane, about 1/3 cup of fish sauce, 1/4 - 1/3 cup brown sugar, a tablespoon of honey, and a teaspoon or more of sriracha and some chili flakes, if you're so inclined. cook this all together on medium heat, stirring often. it will start to boil pretty rapidly and get all caramelly. let it cook down a bit and get thick - maybe 6 or 7 minutes.

if you happen to be lucky enough to have a thermometer that isn't broken and half-filled with water, that's the best way to determine whether your chicken is done. otherwise, do the usual clear-juices-not-pink thing and hope you don't get food poisoning! good luck!

once the drumsticks are pretty much done and the skin is all nice and crispy, toss them in a large bowl with the glaze and the fried garlic bits (or you could pour the glaze on the pan and try to roll them around in it. this doesn't really work as well, though). then place them back in the pan and cook them a bit more so the glaze bakes in nicely - maybe another 10 minutes or so. i find that it's hard to seriously overcook drumsticks - they generally will stay pretty moist.

finally, sprinkle those puppies with some chopped cilantro and have at it. we've had them with salad, with rice and roasted broccoli, and on their own. each time they were delicious, but i think the rice and roasted broccoli were the best accompaniment, not least because you can roast the broccoli at the same time as the drumsticks.

this picture makes them look a little anemic, but when you are smart enough to roast them in a real oven they get really deeply caramelized, which is better. trust me.

*ingredients*

~ 1 lb chicken drumsticks (6 or so)

1/2 a lime's worth of zest and juice

3-4 cloves of garlic

1/3 cup of fish sauce

1/4 - 1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon (or so) honey (optional, but wonderfully sticky)

a teaspoon or more of sriracha and some chili flakes (optional)

cilantro (optional)

broiled tuna steaks with rice & greens

aww, that tuna looks like a heart! which makes sense, because i heart this dish (get it?! heart, like i used the word heart instead of love because the heart is the symbolic place in our bodies where love resides, even though it's now pretty well accepted that the brain is actually where we process all of our emotions... heart! i'm just as glad the tuna didn't look like a brain, anyway).

still. this was really tasty and quick and easy. it's just tuna steaks that hang around in an asian-inspired sauce for a little while, then get broiled. or you could grill them. then you eat them sliced over a stir-fried bed of rice, spinach, garlic and lettuce (what? lettuce? yes!).

i feel like buying fish is fraught with difficulty these days. if it isn't dire warnings about how mercury is going to kill us, it's terrible sad puppy eyes from vincent chase reminding us about how we are eating all his friends. it's rough, i tell you. luckily, there are people at aquariums who know about these things and tell you what is okay to eat.

of course, i was a little suspicious of aquarium people telling me what kind of fish to eat. how do i know they aren't telling me to eat some super-endangered one so that the ones in the aquarium are the only ones left in the world so they can charge even more outrageous prices to see them and their terrifying conger eel buddies? seriously guys, aquarium tickets are like $30 these days.

answer: there is no way to know. just trust them. or don't. i always feel like fish are super-smug, anyway. maybe they need to be taken down a peg. but if you don't want your conscience to pang you when some little kid in the future is like, "what's a fish?" then you should probably look into that stuff.

so once this tuna got the go-ahead from those charlatans people doing god's work, i rinsed it, dried it off and slathered it with a delicious concoction of mayonnaise, tamari (like soy sauce), fish sauce, rooster sauce (aka sriracha), lime, ginger, and garlic. so. good. and the mayonnaise helps it stay moist and tender even under the heat of the broiler.

just dollop about 1/4 - 1/3 cup mayonnaise into a small bowl. add a good tablespoon (or more, to taste) of tamari, perhaps a teaspoon of fish sauce, a little less than that of sriracha (or by all means more, if you like the spicy), the zest from a lime and juice from half of it, 2-3 cloves of minced or microplaned garlic, and about a teaspoon of grated ginger. it's nice because you can use the microplane for all three of those last things. efficient!

i doused the tuna well, flopping it around so that it got all covered. i only needed perhaps 1/2 of the sauce for this part. then i let the fish sit in the fridge for an hour or so before topping it with a little more sauce and sticking it in the toaster oven to broil. it took 15 minutes in our toaster oven, but basically just broil it until it is as done as you like it. i have to admit, i am one of those philistines who likes it fairly well done - like still pink in the middle, but much more cooked than that bare sear everyone else seems to enjoy so much. you should just go with your heart on this one.

you can eat this with pretty much anything (delicious sandwiches with some napa cabbage slaw come to mind), but we had it with some leftover brown rice with spinach and lettuce sort of stir-fried with it. it's also particularly good if you drizzle a little bit of the leftover sauce and some lime juice over it at the end.

while the fish was cooking, i heated a little bit of oil in a large skillet and added a large minced clove of garlic. after 30 seconds or so, i added about 3/4 cup of frozen spinach and let that cook for a few minutes. once it was unfrozen, i added a chopped heart of romaine lettuce (isn't it amazing how this is coming back around to hearts? i should save this for valentimes).

romaine is great for this because the leafier part gets all silky and the stemmier part stays crunchy. just let that cook for a couple of minutes, then add maybe a cup or so of cooked rice and a tablespoon or less of tamari and a little fish sauce. this is a super-quick and easy side that would also be good as a lunch if you add some scrambled egg to it.

basically, this is a very tasty dinner that comes together in less than 15 minutes. as long as it's okay to eat some tuna once in awhile, we'll be having this again.

*ingredients*

2 tuna steaks

1/4 -1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

1 teaspoon fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon sriracha

zest of 1 lime

juice from 1/2 lime

3 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon + fresh-grated ginger

1 cup cooked rice

1 clove garlic

3/4 cup frozen spinach (or comparable fresh spinach, of course)

1 heart of romaine

fish sauce and tamari to taste

beer-braised chicken, escarole, grapefruit, olives

wow, y'all, having a real-people job is tiring. i am totally not trying to complain, because i'm getting great experience in a field in which i want to practice, but man. once you add on the bus rides, i am suddenly gone for at least 45 hours a week. this has had a deleterious effect on the number of walkies the dogs get, as well as on my dinner-cooking.

the other day, however, i got off the bus for a brief 20 minute shopping expedition (so brief because that was the amount of time before another bus came). i wanted to make a quick and easy thing with some chicken thighs. they're great because they are more flavorful and less prone to drying out than are chicken breasts. also they're usually cheaper. so, bonus (especially since we always use humanely-raised chicken, which is more expensive but Worth It).

i decided to make a dish i think of as vaguely french - chicken sort of braised (in beer!) with oil-cured black olives, citrus, and greens. this time i used boneless, skinless chicken thighs, but it's great with regular ones. it just takes longer to cook. also sometimes instead of greens i use fennel and little potatoes. the citrus can be lemon or orange or something as well.

actually, i thought it was going to be orange in this dish, but what i remembered as an orange in our fridge turned out to be a grapefruit. luckily, it turned out to be more of a happy accident than a mistake, as the escarole and grapefruit really got along well. so well, in fact, that they are going to the movies this weekend and didn't even invite me. that grapefruit is such a friend-poacher.

who wouldn't love escarole, though? it shares a family line (chicory!) with things like endive, radicchio, and the chicory that so delightfully flavors new orleans-style coffee. like those other lovelies, it has a bit of a bitter edge that lets you know it means business. it's no baby spinach you're dealing with here.

but where cousin endive is a little buttoned-down and staid (all those leaves folded tightly together into a little bullet), escarole is frizzly and wild, letting its leaves go where they may with little regard for propriety. it's great in soups or as salad with maybe a hard-boiled egg vinaigrette and it's fantastic in this dish.

prep for this is really easy, as one would expect of any good weeknight dinner. just cut off the bottom stem thingy of the escarole and cut the leaves into about 1 inch lengths, moving up from the end.

the rest of the ingredients can be dispatched almost as simply. slice two cloves (or more) of garlic thinly and one medium shallot slightly less thinly. chop up some italian parsley. i actually leave the olives whole, but you could pit them if you want to be particularly fancy. use a microplane or similar to zest your citrus. i used the zest from about half of the grapefruit, as it's strong. if you use lemon, just chop it into eighths or something and don't bother zesting it first.

the citrus flesh (if you aren't using lemon) is the only part of this that could be a little fiddly. i like to cut the sections into supremes because i don't care for the membrane things around the meat part, especially when using grapefruit. if you want to just make thin slices going from pole to pole, however, i don't think it would be the end of the world. if you want to try your hand at supreming, here's a video. once you get the hang of it, it really doesn't take long.

once everything's cut up, heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil on medium-high heat in a pan large enough to hold all of the chicken thighs in one layer. once the oil's shimmery, add the chicken (put a little salt and pepper on it first). don't move it for a couple of minutes, then check a piece to see if it's browned. you're basically just trying to sear it, not cook it through at this point. flip once and brown on the other side. once both sides are brown, set the pieces of chicken on a plate to wait.

turn the burner down to medium-low (i think it was at about 5 on our dumb electric stove) and heat a little more olive oil if necessary. add the shallot, let it cook for 30 seconds or so, then add the garlic and let them both go for another 30 seconds. then add the escarole. as with so many greens, it'll look like a ridiculous amount when you put it in, but it wilts down a great deal as it cooks.

after about a minute or three (or whenever it starts looking a bit dry), add about half a bottle of beer. i used anchor steam, because that's what was in the fridge. i think any good normal beer would work. you probably don't want a stout or a miller chill, but anything in between would probably be good. i also sometimes make this with a dry white wine or some dry vermouth and chicken stock. so you have options, if you don't want to use beer. but the beer was really good in it.

then add the chicken back (i usually cut it into large chunks before this, so it cooks faster), as well as the olives and parsley, the zest, and the grapefruit. turn the heat down to lowish and let it cook partly covered for half an hour or so until the chicken is done. i usually just take a piece out and cut into it to check, but you could also use a thermometer to make really sure. taste the broth and add salt and pepper, if necessary.

this is good as a sort of stew, if you have lots of crusty bread to dip in the amazing sauce that forms when all of those bold flavors mix and mingle and get friendly-like. it would also be great on pasta or some little boiled potatoes. or rice. or quinoa.

basically, it's versatile, tasty and pretty quick. not too bad for a wednesday night dinner.

*the chicken in the picture above is a classic example of how you should do as i say, not as i do. i totally didn't sear the chicken first (although i usually do) and it was not as good. definitely go for the browning step. also you don't get a sense of how saucy this is because i had to take a picture before it was done. stupid early-setting sun.

*ingredients*

~ 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or more, if you are using regular chicken thighs)

1 head escarole

1 citrus fruit (grapefruit, orange, lemon)

2 cloves garlic

1 medium shallot

10 + oil-cured black olives (usually available in the fancy-olive section of the supermarket)

1/4 or 1/3 cup chopped italian parsley

1/2 a beer or similar amount of wine, stock, etc.

salt and pepper to taste