Cooking, or Lack Thereof, Roundup
Plus David Chang and Hate Watching
It feels as though we haven’t been cooking much of late. In reality, that’s not true as we’ve been eating at home every night and we rarely order out, although I did weaken over the weekend when I wasn’t feeling well and got Peking Garden. Egg rolls and sizzling rice soup = comfort food for me. I guess we’ve been doing a lot of throw together cooking or weird award show appetizer cooking.
Ernie has mastered the Cynthia quesadilla. Corn tortilla, cast iron pan, no oil, just enough cheese to glue it together along with some greens, folded over, cooked long enough to let some of the cheese to creep out and get crispy. Oh, and beautifully ripe lightly salted avocado on the side.
A baked chicken wing attempt for some awards show. Not entirely successful as it was overdone but there are possibilities there. Please ignore the french fries. I’m going to try it again and then I’ll share the recipe.
Below is last night’s dinner, which was ridiculously good and stupidly simple. We were going to have saurkraut but my stomach decided against it (I’ve had a nasty flare of my stomach issues). We had some bratwurst from Aldi, some Russets and some bagged kale pieces. So, sheet pan, 400 degrees, bratwurst and cut up Russets (tossed with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper) go on and cook for 40 minutes. Add the kale (tucked in under the brats and potatoes as much as you can) and cook another ten minutes. Ernie had his with mustard, I used some of the comeback sauce we’d made recently. It was so simple and so good. It just hit all the points. Salt, fat, acid, heat, right?
If you were advertising something, say refrigerators, would you use this image? If we buy their refrigerator, do we become dead eyed zombie cooks?
I don’t know why I keep trying to like David Chang. Maybe because one of the times I made his bo ssam for a house concert it was incredible (the other time it was too salty, probably the Diamond/Morton kosher salt disparity). I tried watching his latest show but it quickly became a hate watch. Hate watching always makes me feel guilty, it can’t speak well of my character. It’s a live show with guests, mostly male, eating a dinner he makes for them. A writer who has a cooking substack I like absolutely nailed my feelings about it. Do read.
In another episode of the series, Chang cooks for Seth Rogan and Ike Barinholtz using what can only be described as an immoral amount of caviar. When Rogan asks how much a giant tub like that would cost, Chang demurs saying that it probably costs as much as tuition at state college. It's not cute, even if it’s the Netflix overlords who are footing the bill.
Stir The Pot by Michelle Albanes-Davis
OMG, I almost forgot to tell you. Tubi (free!) now has Australian Masterchef Professional available for streaming. The hosts are…wait for it….Marco-Pierre White and Matt Preston! Oh lord, I am weak with pleasure and can do nothing but chortle through it.
That’s all I have for cooking notes today. The next couple of week are busy…out of town, then kidney stent replacement for Ernie, various other appointments and before too long, the HOUSE CONCERT!
And finally, every morning, as I pause to open the bedroom door, this picture of my Mom is right at eye level. It makes me smile inside every time.
Onward.
Love,
Cynthia