Shrimp San Pedro

Thursday May 15

After a hard, HARD day, some soothing shrimp seemed appealing to Holt's appetite. We got the recipe from the Southwest Tastes cookbook by Ellen Brown, which attributed it to the White Dove restaurant in Tucson. But it's strangely similar to this New Orleans recipe of the same name. Who had it first, we do not claim to know nor are we responsible for correcting attributions on this blog.

As usual, we changed the recipe. There's no reason to cook lovely shrimp and then leave them out to get rubbery. First of all we had some lovely tender asparagus, so we boiled up the smallest ones (cut on the diagonal), while sautéing scallion, then the scallions WITH their greens, and we used Israeli arrak rather than Pernod (it's what we had).
We added the arrak, flambéed it (who could resist?). Then removed to a plate. Added the cream, pink and green pepper corns, then sour cream. Then we tossed the shrimps and asparagus back in.
And we didn't serve it on pasta, because a pound of shrimp is all the two of us need.

Not-so-solid Food

Holt was going in for what is delicately called "a procedure" tomorrow (something like :oscopy), so he couldn't have any solid food. So he had to content himself with the (life-saving) hot chicken broth Barbara cooked up on Sunday, and some peach jello.

Barbara had a hamburger with fried onions, and hoped that the savory smell of meat wouldn't drive Holt mad. It didn't, but we didn't linger over the meal either.

Big-ass T-bone and Redskins

Tuesday May 13

Sounds like a hip-hop act, right? Well, it's only because we had one steak cut an inch and a half thick. We grilled it, with no added sauces beside a sprinkle of salt, and it was toothsome.

The potatoes were new baby redskins, just boiled until tender and anointed with sour cream and a sprinkle of fresh garden chives. Have we mentioned that when the forces of political correctness were making Miami University change the name of its football team, the Redskins, we put in the idea that they should simply change the mascot from an Indian to a potato. But they didn't go for it, and now it's the Redhawks. The poofters.

Wild Boar Ravioli with Porcini Sauce

Monday May 12

This was our fifth, and last, variation on the wild boar loin that we started on last Saturday. It was made out of the cup or two of leftovers of Boar IV, Tuesday's combined stew.

We took the stew, including its potatoes, carrots, and juices, threw it in the Robo-Coupe, and chopped it up until it was fairly smooth. That made the filling for the ravioli, which we made in our usual fashion, as here.

The sauce was based on the one here. The marsala is the key ingredient, and we use veal broth cubes. Then we threw in whatever extra chopped boar didn't make it into the ravioli. That made the sauce thick, and more boar-y (not boar-ing).

And come to think of it, porcini means "little pigs" anyway, so we had wild pig ravioli with piggy sauce. I think this, and the original long-simmered stew, are the best boar recipes we got out of this experience.

Chicken Fajitas

Sunday May 11

This afternoon CET, our public TV station, went beyond its "all hits of the 50s and 60s" policy and broadcast the Metropolitan Opera production of Tan Dun's The First Emperor. We had listened to it on the radio and didn't like it much, but the splendor of the production, the beautifully mannered acting, and the overtones of Peking Opera made it a richer musical experience. Barbara stayed home to watch it, and also to make Holt some chicken broth for Wednesday (see above).

We've been falling down on saving chicken bones for broth, so we deliberately deboned a couple of split chicken breasts, put all the bones in the broth, froze one set of deboned breasts, and made the other into chicken fajitas.

The fajita recipe was totally off the cuff. We sliced the chicken breasts into strips, marinating them in oil and lemon juice (should be lime, but we're out of limes). We also sliced up a bunch of onions and red peppers. Then we fried them in oil, on high heat, in this order: onion, peppers, chicken. If you want a real recipe, this is the closest:

We had them with sour cream and yesterday's tomatillo salsa and guacamole, and they were yummy.

Mexican Appetizers and Fresh Corn and Poblano Casserole

Saturday May 10

I guess today was Cinco de Mayo x 2, because we found fresh tomatillos, poblanos, and avocados at 5 for $1 at Findlay Market today. There was also fresh bicolor corn, and though it comes from Florida, we couldn't resist. All it needed was a basket of corn chips, and we were throwing our sombreros into the air, firing our pistoles, and yelling "arriba" like a bad Mexican stereotype.

And soft-shelled crabs, which we had instantly for lunch on a bed of watercress.

The avocados were actually pretty good, with almost no wastage, so we made a batch of guacamole in Holt's traditional fashion: smash as many avocadoes as you have with lots of coriander leaves from the garden, cumin, a hit of garlic, and lime juice.

We usually do tomatillos as a salsa cruda, but this time there was a good recipe for a roasted version in the most recent Food & Wine. It concentrated the tomatillo flavor, and gave it a nice smoky overtone. We'll make this again.

We had these appetizers, with chips and white wine, out on the patio, looking out onto the garden where the first roses and irises are blooming together. Spring is nice here, on the three days that it doesn't rain.

We've done the main course recipe, which comes from new Joy, before.

Should have bought more corns, because this time we only had two cobs' worth of corn to the same proportions of the rest of the ingredients; I prefer the version with more corn, which also ends up deeper, and thus creamier, in our little casserole.

Penne alla Saffi Salmone

Friday May 9

This may be the last word in the race between Pasta alla Saffi and Pasta al Salmone for Most Popular Pasta in Holt and Barbara's House. That is, we made a combination of both, simply substituting slivered TJ's nova scotia lox bits for the usual ham in Saffi, minus of course, the cheese--otherwise it would have exploded as every Italian knows. Pasta al salmone with aspargus? Pasta alla Saffi minus ham plus lox? Yoou be the judge. It was pretty damn good.

Tom came over for dinner, so we added an extra treat and ended the meal with biscotti and wine.