Eat, Eat, My Child!

My favourite way of cooking salmon. You can pick at it for hours.

Face it, it is just TOO FUCKING HOT to cook a hella lot. Salads and roast beast is the rule at Casa de Los Gatos this summer. Last summer it was cool and rainy and we ate stews and tasty curries throughout. This year, I'd rather die than broil my tits over a hot stove. Tough luck, housemates.

So, salmon. Nature's bounty. I never did like fish, but I have to eat it for health reasons, so my whole life has been spent in an effort to make the fucking thing palatable, OK? So, try it. Nu? What can you lose?

1-2 lb salmon filet	1 bunch lemon thyme
2 medium shallots	1 bunch chives
2 lemons	1 handful lemon verbena leaves (optional)
salt to taste	white pepper to taste
handful of flat Italian parsley

This is so easy, it's ridiculous. It's mostly prep, and takes 40 minutes max. Even YOUR Lazy Ass can do it, so get right on it.

What you WILL need, however, is a Cuisinart food processor. I've had mine for over 20 years, and in this house, EVERYTHING is made from scratch, so you know that poor fucker gets a hella lot of use. So break down and get yourself one, it'll pay you back a thousandfold.

Wash the herbs and strip all the leaves off. Dry them on a paper towel.

Peel the lemons carefully (use a zester, if you have one, otherwise a vegetable peeler is fine. Just avoid the thick white pith, which is very bitter), and set half the peel aside in the freezer.

Roughly chop half the chives, the remaining lemon peel, and the shallots, and put in the food processor with the remaining herbs, 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (preferably one with a green and fruity aroma), and half the lemon juice. Blend to a smooth paste, adding more lemon juice and olive oil as needed. If using lemongrass, cut into thirds, then halve lengthwise, and make a bed of the lemongrass halves for the fish. Slice or snip the remaining chives for garnish.

Place the fish skin-side down in a greased nonreactive (glass or ceramic) baking dish. Add salt and pepper and rub into the fish. Scrape the herb paste onto the fish and pat it into a smooth layer.

Heat the oven to 250 and roast the fish for 20-35 minutes. (Roasting time depends on the thickness of your filet and the efficiency of your stove.) The salmon retains its rich red raw colour, so use a fork to test for doneness. The fish is done when a cream-colored layer of fat is deposited below the skin, and the flesh flakes easily.

The tenderness of the fish has to be experienced to be believed. Go, try it, you'll be glad you did.

At La Casa, this is usually served with brown rice and a salad of baby carrots, butter and romaine lettuces, halved cherry tomatoes, diced red and yellow peppers, cucumbers and avocado. Because it's too fucking hot to cook.

Works fine with tender greens lightly sauteed in butter or olive oil, with, say, pine nuts and crushed red pepper.

Hot Cross Buns, like you didn't know

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Spicy Fish Noodle Soup

This recipe is my adaptation of the famous national dish of Burma, mohinga. I am not so shameless as to call my recipe "Burmese-inspired," or "Asian inspired." This is some plain good eating, spicy-hot, made with foods that are available and seasonal, and it's kind of like mohinga.

This dish takes less time to cook than to prep. Just a few notes from the cook:

1. If at all possible, buy your spices whole, and roast and grind them at home. The difference in freshness is enormous.
2. Use a small coffee-grinder to grind your spices. Do not use it for anything else.
3. Dry-roast spices before grinding in a flat-bottomed skillet, preferably cast-iron.
4. Catfish is the preferred fish for this recipe, but any firm white fish will do.
5. You can use bean threads, rice sticks, or Chinese wheat noodles. If you can't find any of those, use any kind of pasta, preferably spaghetti.

Ingredients:

1 lb catfish filets	1 lb large prawns with shell
2 large yellow onions	2-4 large cloves garlic
10-20 hot Thai chilies to taste	1 can coconut milk
1 2" piece ginger	white pepper to taste
salt to taste	2 Tbsp coriander seed
2 Tbsp fennel seed	1 Tbsp cumin seed
2 Tbsp hot red chili powder	1 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp blachan	1 quart chicken or fish stock
2-3 small zucchinis or pattypan squash, ~1 lb	4 oz asparagus beans or any other robust green bean
4 oz snow peas	4 oz arugula or bok choy or any other leafy green
4 Tbsp oil, preferably peanut oil	Optional: raw baby greens

Pour the stock into a saucepan or stockpot, and place on a back burner on a low flame. Keep this simmering till everything is cooked and assembled.

Peel and devein the shrimp, saving the shells. Toss shrimps with white pepper and salt to taste. Halve onions lengthwise, then slice into thin lengthwise slices. Peel the ginger thoroughly (the peel imparts a bitter taste), slice three 1/4" coins from it lengthwise, and toss them into the stock to infuse. Mince the remaining ginger fine. Mince the garlic. Thinly slice the chillies. Put some in the stock and place the remainder on the table to serve with dinner. Dice the squash about 1/2". Slice the beans and remaining vegetables into 1" pieces. Cut the fish into 1" pieces.

Heat a skillet and dry roast the coriander seed, stirring gently. Add fennel seed, stir till it begins to change colour, add cumin seed, stir, and when the cumin releases its distinctive fragrance, turn off and set aside to cool. When cool, grind to a powder.

Pour half the spice powder on the fish, add half the turmeric and chili, and salt to taste and toss gently till the fish is coated with the spices.

Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a medium sized skillet, over medium heat. When the oil is shimmering gently, add 1 tsp of the garlic, stir till golden brown, add shrimp shells, stir till pink, then add up to 2 cups water. Turn the heat down if necessary and let cook, stirring occasionally and adding water, until the water is cooked down to about 3/4 cup. Strain into the stock pot and toss the shells.

Heat 1 Tbsp of the remaining oil in the same skillet till shimmering. Add the remaining garlic, stir gently, add 1 tsp of the chopped ginger, stir, then add the prawns. Stir till pink, then add snow peas, leafy greens, salt to taste, stir and remove from heat. The residual heat and the heat of the stock will cook the vegetables to doneness.

Heat the remaining oil in a large saucepan or skillet. Add the onions and stir till browned. Add remaining ginger, stir, add blachan and any remaining spice powders and OPEN THE WINDOWS AND TURN ON THE VENTILATORS! Spoon off about 6 Tbsp of the coconut milk into the pan and stir, lowering the heat if needed. You should have a thin sauce. If not, add more coconut milk, stock from the simmering stock pot on the back burner, and a little water if needed. Add squash and beans and cook for about five minutes or until almost done, adding liquid as needed. Add the fish and let cook for a minute or two, then stir gently. Add more stock as needed to keep from sticking. Add any remaining coconut milk to the stock pot and stir well.

Cook the noodles as directed on the package. Assemble bowls for individual diners, placing raw greens, if using, at the bottom of each bowl, where they will be cooked by the heat of the cooked ingredients. Top with cooked prawns, followed by noodles, followed by fish curry. Pour boiling stock into each bowl and garnish with desired herbs and extra chillies!

Traditionally, mohinga is eaten with fried stuff like chickpea fritters, and eu char kway, the Chinese fried bread, deep-fried shallots, hard-boiled eggs — all those things your doctor tells you you shouldn't be eating. This is why I adapted the recipe.

So? Make and eat shamelessly, only, na?

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Food! Part II

Five servings of vegetables and fruits means five of each, childrens! What, you will ask, is a serving. Good question. No one seems to know. However, eating five different fruits per day is a good start.

Most Americans are reasonable about eating fruit. It's their vegetables they have problems with. My theory? They don't know how to cook the goddamn things. No, srsly. Because left to themselves, most Americans will happily eat that stuff raw.

No, no, no. Raw veges are good for you, but cooked veges are good, too. And you can't eat *every*thing raw, yaknow? I've had too many people try to feed me raw cauliflower and broccoli. You know, don't you, that cooking that stuff rids it of some of the compounds that make your stomach hurt?

I'd throw in a few fart jokes at this point, being a coarse type, but these recipes are really appreciated by teh ladees, who do not care for coarse behaviour. But srsly. Most vegetables have adapted to defend themselves against those who want to eat them by having some unpleasant compounds that can cause various problems. Cooking them (well and sensibly) reduces these compounds and makes it possible to eat them safely with maximum health benefits.

For example, dried red beans should be soaked for at least eight hours before you try to cook them because they contain a compound called phytohemagglutanin, which can disrupt cell metabolism. Soaking and cooking the little suckers renders them harmless. Cooking bell peppers till they're soft also removes their propensity to make you burp while simultaneously ripping your stomach out through your ear. Finally, we're not ruminants, goddammit. We only have the one stomach to digest our food with, and it does not care for the brassica family in teh raw form.

Therefore, a wonderful broccoli recipe.

Broccoli Sauteed with Pine Nuts

2 bunches broccoli
4 Tablespoons pine nuts
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 sweet onion (optional)

Wash the broccoli and trim into bite-size florets and cut the stalks into fine dice (excepting the woody parts which should be discarded). If using onion, peel and thinly slice lengthwise into "angel wings."

Heat olive oil in a skillet till hot, but not smoking. (If using onion, add now and let cook till golden brown and fragrant.) Toast pine nuts, stirring constantly, until golden brown. Add broccoli stems, stir, and cover for about five minutes at low heat. Add florets, stir, add a splash of chicken stock or white wine to keep from sticking, if needed, and cover for about five minutes more. Serve sprinkled with fresh chopped herbs from the garden.

Voila! Tasty, fresh, nutritious, bright-green vegetables that don't require melted Velveeta to be edible.


Sauted Cabbage with Aniseed

1 medium cabbage
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon ginger
2 teaspoons aniseed
salt and pepper to taste

Core and halve cabbage and shred fine. Peel ginger and mince.

Heat oil in a skillet till hot and shimmering. Add aniseed, stir for 1 minute, add cabbage, stir till wilted and well-coated with oil. Cover and let cook over low heat for approximately 5 minutes. Remove lid, stir, add water or chicken stock to prevent sticking and burning. Season with salt and pepper to taste, cover, and turn off the heat.

Ginger is a digestive aid, as is aniseed. Herbs, spices, flavoured oils and the like go a long way to making vegetables taste delicious. These two recipes are dry sautees. If you like your vegetables with a little sauce, try cooking them the Asian way.




Stir-fried Bok Choy

2 bunches bok choy
1 Tablespoon light (or thin) soy sauce
1 Teaspoon cornstarch
3 Tablespoons chicken stock
2 teaspoons ginger
2-3 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons dried preserved black beans
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Cook's notes: Dried preserved black beans used in Asian cooking are not the same as the black or turtle beans used in South American cooking. The Asian black beans are fermented and OOH, they smell funky! You can substitute Lee Kum Kee black bean sauce or black bean paste for these. I prefer to buy the whole beans in a bag at the local Chinese market because there's nothing in them but beans and salt. Lee Kum Kee products are made in Singapore and Malaysia, and generally higher food quality standards are enforced there, but still.

You can substitute almost any choy for this recipe (except the triangular-leafed "water-spinach," which requires different treatment).


Soak black beans in hot water to cover for 20 minutes. Strain and mince fine.

Finely mince garlic and ginger. Mix soy sauce, chicken stock, and cornstarch well.

Cut the choy. The stalks should be in one-inch pieces and the leaves should be quartered lengthwise, then shredded fine.

Heat a wok till smoking hot, then add oil. Swirl it around the wok so it coats all sides. When the oil is smoking, add ginger, black beans, and garlic and stir for a minute or two till fragrant. If you like hot food, now is the time to add a little crushed red chilli. Add vegetables, stir to coat thoroughly, then cover for about five minutes. Stir again, add cornstarch mixture. When the cornstarch mixture is bubbling, remove from heat and serve.

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Caturday!

ICHC

That's right, folks, it's that time of week again. Enough with the politics, it's the weekend and despite more medical and legal appointments in the coming week, we're determined to have a good time at La Casa de Los Gatos. Of course, the majority of the inhabitants define "a good time" as "Continuous Napping Interrupted by Brief Sorties Upon Teh Kibble or Teh Litterbox," but hey. There's a daisy chain of three snoring cats (I know. Who ever thought cats snored? But they do. Tiny little wheezes. Gzzzz-blort.) at the foot of the bed, and the Bandicoot is spooning Gustav at my elbow upon what used to be Gojira's Pillow.

I plan to make them watch a good movie tonight. They assure me that they can watch with their eyes shut. Apparently, their ears are alternate viewing stations.

It's a grim, grimy, gray day here up on the hill and the fog is enveloping the old homestead. A thick cloud of fog, and one can hardly see the hills beyond, where a new raptor has made a nest high in a pine. I want to put out food for the squirrels, but my neighbour's not too thrilled with the idea, mainly because they do damage to her edible garden. Ah, well-a-day, what looks had I, both from old and young!

Perhaps today, I'll make soup! Kitties have very sharp hearing, and one way to get those lazy fuckers out of bed is to vacuum (Flee! Flee! or FLEA, as the case may be). The other is to make soup, and turn on the ventilator fan for the stove. Out they'll go, as quick as can be, and won't return till The Damned Thing has been shut off.

I ought to be a better human. I ought not to cast them out in the cold and the damp. Goodness knows, Bandicoot has a cold (again! He's allergic to his litter!), and Gustav has feline herpes (it causes tearing, which can then lead to bacterial infection). And Gojira, for a purported Russian Blue, is terribly allergic to cold and wet weather. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. It's more a case of being the only girl cat in a rambunctious household full of boy cats, who are very dirty and grubby, as a rule. She has Standards to Uphold. Which require constant licking, cleaning, and grooming. And she's not about to get her fine, princessly pink tongue all filthy from grooming mud out of her precious coat.

But there you are. I am not a better human, just an injured, handicapped human who wants to get the house clean (no mean feat when you can't get up and down steps easily). And I want them, and all those charming little balls of cat fur, OUT of the house. At least until I'm done cleaning, when they'll just rush in with muddy feet, covered from head to foot with pine needles, bugs, plant detritus, the occasional redwood cone, mud, bog, stench, and loose sand, and make me new Knittin' Kittens all over again. Cats are clean, someone said. I'd like to see that twit come visit with this lot.

Bandicute

We once had to cut dessicated baby slugs out of Bandicoot's ample bellyful of white dreadlocks. He likes to lie in the mud and lure the poor little things in, doubtless with promises of moist warmth. Then he promptly transfers himself to a warmer drier surface and the poor little slugs, wrapped around with furry white tendrils, asphyxiate, or suffocate, or dessicate, or whatever it is slugs do, and it's time for gloves, scissors, towels, and restraints.

Have I mentioned he doesn't like having his fur trimmed? Have I mentioned he weighs nearly 20 lb? Have I mentioned that he's as strong as an ox? Or stronger than me, anyway. And he kicks like a mule. And we can't trim his nails because he depends on them to climb trees and deface the redwood deck, two of the great joys of his life. Also to gouge from my body quantities of skin, hair, and subcutaneous cells, leaving bleeding tracks in his wake.

Nevertheless, soup it is. One with chicken and chorizo and potatoes; one Alubias de Tolosa, even though I don't really have the right kind of beans (hey, I'm sorry, I'm so not paying $5/lb for beans, unless they're gold-plated). Simmering, home-made stock, turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, peppers, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, and here and there a little pinch of herbs and spices and hot chilli peppers to warm the innards. Depression food. Coldweather food. Bon appetit, all, and a wonderful weekend.

And here, for your enjoyment, a little kitteh who can tell you all about teh food.



Om, nom, nom, nom, nom.

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Food: Chicken in Orange Juice with Couscous

Time for some Middle Eastern food because it's good, warming, fragrant, spicy, and very tasty, all of which we need this winter as we cleanse the remnants of evil right out of our house and planet.

This recipe is utterly delicious. It's Lebanese, I believe, but I tweaked it quite a bit for health and to reduce the cloying sweetness of the original recipe.

2 small (or 1 large) yellow onion (approx. 12 oz)
3 small cloves garlic
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/4 cup golden raisins
6 oranges
1/2 cup dried apricots
2 tsp Baharat *
3 allspice berries
Black pepper and salt to taste
1 chicken cut in 12-16 pieces
1 Tbsp fish sauce
2 Tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp. pomegranate molasses or unsweetened pomegranate juice

Chop the onions. Mince the garlic fine. Halve the apricots. Zest and juice the oranges. Pour enough of the orange juice over the raisins to cover and set aside for about 20 minutes. Thinly slice the zest from 1/2 an orange. Toast the allspice berries in a skillet till lightly browned. When cool, grind to a powder.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining orange juice with the fish sauce, pomegranate molasses or juice, baharat. Add chickpeas and apricots and let stand while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Toss with salt, pepper, garlic, allspice powder, and paprika. Heat the oil and fry the chicken in batches, ~3 minutes each side. Drain on paper towels. Add onion to the oil (not to exceed 2 Tbsp, so pour off any extra fat), and cook over medium heat, stirring gently, till golden. Return chicken to the pan with all remaining ingredients and simmer at medium heat until the chicken is cooked through and very moist. If the sauce is thin, remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside while you cook down the sauce. Re-add the chicken, just heat through, and serve with 7-vegetable Couscous. Recipe follows.

Cook's Notes:

• You need roughly 6 heavy juicy oranges for 1.5 cups of juice.
• You can zest the oranges with a zester or a vegetable peeler.
• If you use a vegetable peeler, be careful to only remove the orange skin, not any of the white, fibrous part underneath. The white part is extremely bitter.
• Zest may be wrapped in clean Saranwrap and stored in the freezer.
• Although you can use canned chickpeas, dried chickpeas are much more nutritious. Soak them overnight and cook at a very low heat without salt for about 2 hours.
• * Baharat is available from Middle-Eastern grocery stores or online from Zamouri Spices.

7-Vegetable Couscous

3 Tbsp olive oil
2 large leeks
4 large cloves garlic
1/2 cup raisins
1-2 cups peeled butternut squash
1 rutabaga or turnip
1 bulb fennel
2-3 carrots
1-2 cups peeled plum tomatoes
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup cilantro
1.5 cups couscous (10 oz)
2.5 cups chicken stock
1 tsp ground ginger
1-3 tsp cayenne pepper
2-3 tsp Seven Spice Mix *
3 dried red chillies
1 Tbsp rose petals *

Cut off the green part of the leeks and soak the rest to remove any dirt. Rinse and mince fine. Chop garlic. Thaw frozen peas. Cube the remaining vegetables in 1/2" chunks. Seed and dice the tomatoes, and coarsely chop the cilantro. Soak the raisins in a little sherry or other flavourful liquid. Snip the tops off the dried chillies and remove the seeds if you don't like too much heat. Grind rose petals to a fine powder in a coffee grinder.

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over low heat. When hot (but not smoking), add leeks and garlic. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, stiring occasionally. The leeks should be very tender, but not browned. Add the stock, all the veges (except tomatoes, peas, and cilantro), salt, pepper, dried chillies, and bring to a boil uncovered over medium high heat. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer about 8 minutes until vegetables are crisp-tender. Add tomatoes, peas, cilantro, remaining spices, ground rose petals, and couscous, remove from heat and let stand about 10 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Cook's notes:

• Rose petals and 7-Spice Mix are available from Zamouri's spices, see previous recipe.
• In summer, substitute summer squashes and vegetables for the winter veges in this recipe.
• You can use canned tomatoes.
• Grind spices in a coffee-grinder that you reserve for spices only. The mixture of coffee oils and spice oils could have unpleasant consequences.
• I find that I sometimes need to add more liquid than called for in this recipe. If you find the couscous a little dry and sticky add BOILING chicken stock or water ONLY in small amounts. Do not add cold liquid.
• Use Moghrabieh (Lebanese couscous) for best results. It is larger and irregular. If you cannot find Moghrabieh, use Israeli couscous.
• Use Dundicut or Tientsin dried red chillies for the best results. Both available at Penzey's.

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Food: Brussels Sprouts

For people who hate them. No, really. I successfully converted my partner who's always hated brussels sprouts with a recipe like this:


Brussels Sprouts with Caramelized Onions
1 lb Brussels sprouts
1 large yellow or white onion
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup white wine
2 Tbsp good olive oil or any vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste

Wash sprouts, removing any browned or yellowing leaves. Cut them in quarters, toss with a pinch of salt, and set aside. Peel the onion, cut in half, then cut into "angel's wings," slicing from top end to root end in thin slices.

In a skillet large enough to hold all the sprouts, AND with a lid, heat the oil. When almost smoking, toss in the onions, stir till coated with oil, then cover and turn the heat down to medium and cook for about fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally. When the onions have turned a rich, dark color add salt and pepper to taste, and the wine. Scrape up any stuck bits, add the brussels sprouts, stir to coat, and add the chicken stock. Cover and cook for a few minutes till the sprouts are mostly cooked (stick a fork in them to check). Uncover and cook for a few minutes till the juices are reduced.

Cook's notes:

• If the onions begin sticking to the pan, moisten them with a little wine.

• Don't use a nonstick pan; any metal saute pan or skillet is preferable.

• Don't use extra-virgin olive oil, it has too low of a smoking point and the heat destroys most of its anticarcinogenic nutrients. Any good olive oil, vege oil, or canola oil is fine. Corn oil, on the other hand, is not.

The sweetness of the onions balances the bitterness of the sprouts very well. Only a tiny quantity of salt is needed to bring out the flavours.

Enjoy!

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Food

Recently we encouraged Bri to come visit armed with Chicago-style deep-dish pizza from our favourite pizza place. They have a number called "Teh Good Health Pizza" which is made with a whole-wheat crust, sauteed spinach, low-fat mozzarella, and all that.

Brian refuses to believe that anything vaguely resembling a pizza has anything to do with good health. This is what he sent us today:

"They call it "Chicago-style pizza" because it's like Al Capone is pumping cholesterol bullets into your heart." - Dean Moses

Humph. Home-made pizza at La Casa de Los Gatos this week, with sauteed chicken and spinach with garlic, pine nuts, onions, bell peppers, mozzarella, chillies (it's our weakness), and lots of home-grown tomatoes.

Also fish, chicken, Split Tummies (eggplant), seasonal greens sauteed in oil with garlic, ginger, chicken stock.

Here's the recipe for the fish.

Marinated Broiled Fish

2 fillets catfish
1 tsp. turmeric powder
1-2 tsp. red chilli powder
1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
1 lemon
2-6 fresh green/red chillies
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger

Cook's Notes:This recipe removes the muddy taste that distinguishes catfish and leaves you with delicious, spicy, fragrant, delicate yet slightly crunchy fillets. This is a very simple yet deeply satisfying way of cooking fish. Total prep time is less than half an hour. Cooking time is approximately 15 minutes (at the most). If you like chillies as much as we do, let them broil right along with the fish. If you're not wild about the heat, seed the chillies before adding them to the fish. Serve with rice, white or brown, a sauteed green vegetable, and a simple dal (beans or lentils cooked with spices).

Slice the tops off the chillies and slice lengthwise into strips. Peel ginger and slice thin. Zest and juice lemon.

In a glass or ceramic (or other nonreactive) bowl, place the fish fillets, dust with ground spices, and gently rub the spices into the fish. Place sliced ginger and chillies under, on, and around the fish. Pour soy sauce and lemon juice over the fish. Sprinkle with half the lemon zest, cover with a plate or plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 1 day.

When ready to cook, preheat broiler (up to 20 minutes). Place fish on foil and broil 4-8 minutes per side (depending on the thickness of the fish and the heat your broiler generates). Sprinkle with remaining lemon zest and serve.

Some people prefer to remove the ginger and chillies before broiling.

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Food: Recipe For Lizzy

Don't know if you like okra, but it's a wonderful source of nutritional goodness. High in Vitamins A, various Bs, C, E, K, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, manganese and with selenium, zinc, copper, and iron, but no sodium. Also low in fat. And a wonderful summer treat.

Most folks who don't like okra say it's slimy. Cooking technique makes all the difference. To make non-slimy okra, use this recipe.

Okra with tomatoes

1 lb. okra
2-3 ripe tomatoes
1/2 tsp. black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp. kalonji
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. red chilli powder, or to taste
salt to taste
2 Tbsp. vegetable or canola oil

Wash okra and spread on a towel, or several paper towels, and let dry thoroughly before cooking (should probably do this 1-2 hours before). When okra is dry, use a dry knife and a dry cutting board to remove the tails and tips of the okra. Slit lengthwise in quarters from about 1/2 inch below the top to the tail. This will cause the okra to open like a flower when cooking.

In a dry container, toss the okra with salt, turmeric, and chilli powder to taste.

Chop the tomatoes roughly and set aside.

Heat oil (make sure you use a wok or skillet with a lid!) until smoking, then add spice seeds and cover for about 2 minutes. The seeds will pop. Carefully lift the cover so that it faces away from you (to protect yourself from overenthusiastic flying spice seeds). Toss in the okra, stir to mix the spice seeds, turn the heat down to low and stir occasionally to keep the okra from burning. When the okra turns bright green, add tomatoes. Stir and cover for about two minutes, then remove the lid and stir and let cook till okra and tomatoes are soft and collapsed, about 15 minutes. The tomatoes should form a very tiny quantity of sauce, but the okra will not be slimy.

If you don't like okra, I'll just have to post you something else. Black mustard seed and kalonji are both available from any Indian grocery store or online at Dean and DeLuca or Penzey's spices.

Cook's notes: Frying spices can be wonderfully aromatic but also irritating to the nose, so have the fan on.

Once you put the spices in, turn the heat down to medium while they fry.

Use Indian red chilli powder, not the Western style chilli powder, which often contains cumin and other spices.

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Food: Recipe For AreToo

Lizzy's great pix of AreToo

If you haven't yet met AreToo, the delightful not-so-little droid resides over at 922 Cats. Check out his portly jabot-ed form and decide if this recipe is right for him:

Split Tummies

Ingredients

1/4 cup pine nuts
2 Tbsp olive oil (regular, not extra-virgin)
8 oz ground lamb
1 white onion, ~6 oz
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch ground cloves
Pinch grated nutmeg
2 tsp tomato paste
Big handful flat-leaf Italian parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
8 small Italian eggplants
3-4 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 red and 1 green bell pepper
1 or more jalapeno chillies to taste
Pinch of sugar
2 Roma tomatoes

Cut the onion into two unequal pieces, one approximately 2 oz or less. Peel, and finely mince the smaller piece. Chop the remaining piece. Finely mince the garlic, jalapenos, and parsley. Skin, seed, and dice tomatoes.

In a dry skillet, toast the cumin seeds. Remove from stove when browned and fragrant. Set aside to cool, then grind in a clean coffee-grinder (preferably one reserved for grinding spices exclusively). Clean skillet, return to heat and toast the pine nuts, stirring and tossing constantly to avoid burning. Remove from stove and let cool. Return skillet to pan and brown the meat until it is no longer pink. Remove from heat. Drain off excess fat in the pan, then add a little olive oil (just enough to cook the minced onion, approximately 1/2 Tbsp). Add minced onion, stirring till it becomes transparent and smells cooked. Add the meat, stir well, add 1/2 tsp. cumin powder, stir. Add cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, stir to mix, and add a little water, if needed, to keep from sticking. Mix in half the jalapeno, half the tomato paste, half the diced tomatoes, the pine nuts, and quarter of the parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir till well mixed and set aside.

Using a vegetable or potato peeler, peel three or four strips of skin from the eggplant so that it has a striped appearance. Soak in salted water to cover, with a plate on top so they stay submerged. Let soak 30 min, then drain and pat dry with paper towels or kitchen towels.

Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a large flat skillet medium high and when the oil is hot, but not smoking, add the eggplants, cover, and cook for about 10 minutes, turn, and cook 10 minutes more. The eggplant should be a rich brown. Remove from heat and drain on paper towels.

Clean skillet, add remaining oil and chopped onion, stir for about two minutes or till golden and opaque. Add garlic, bay leaf, remaining jalapeno, stir well, then add bell peppers. Cook uncovered approximately five minutes, stirring, until vegetables are soft. Add half the diced tomatoes and stir. Dissolve remaining tomato paste and sugar in half a cup of hot water, add to skillet and cook till vegetables make a sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Slit eggplants to make a cavity and stuff with approximately 2 Tbsp meat mixture.

Preheat oven 375F. Place eggplants in a baking dish in a single layer, pour vegetable sauce over, and bake approximately 45 minutes. Serve, garnished with parsley.

No, AreToo, you mayn't have any. You probably wouldn't like it anyway. Have some FancyFeast instead.

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Food: Dead Chicken Parts

This is for BustedKnuckles, that Ornery Bastard.


Grilled Spicy Chicken

Ingredients:

8 chicken thighs
~2 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 Tbsp coarse-ground black peppercorns

Toast coriander seeds in a dry pan, stirring to keep from getting burned. When the seeds turn golden-brown and start smelling toasted, turn off the stove, let cool, then grind in a clean coffee-grinder to a powder.

Place chicken thighs in a bowl. Add salt, pepper, 1 Tbsp. coriander powder, and cayenne pepper or hot red chilli powder (the Indian not the New Mexican) and rub spices into chicken. Let sit half-hour to one hour. Grill. Eat.

It's fucking good. And it's too fucking hot to really cook anyway. Serve with salad and rice or bread.

Please don't shave the cat.

Cook's Notes: Save any leftover coriander powder. You'll want to make this recipe again. You can always substitute lemon juice for the salt, but add it after grilling. Zest the lemon, slicing the zest as fine as you can, and garnish chicken with it to serve. Simplest recipe in the world and good eats, too.

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Entertainment: For Ms. Manitoba

From ICHC

We have it on good authority that poutine is the national dish of Canada (Eastern Canada, says Ms. M, but we have friends in Vancouver who swear by it too).

Canadian visitors! We urge you to weigh in on the issue. Is poutine restricted to Eastern Canada? Or might those of us who long to visit Vancouver again luck out and get to taste it?

Come to think of it &mdash do we want to taste it?

Knight's Canadian Info Collection describes poutine at length. Checkidout!

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Recipe: Cauliflower sabzi

Gordon, over at Alternate Brain, has discovered Bhangra music and wants to inflict it on you.

For your accompanying pleasure, please ingest this with a healthy serving of Basmati brown rice.

2 small cauliflowers
1 lb Yukon Gold or Yellow Finn potatoes
1 tsp. black mustard seeds
1 tsp. kalonji (available at any Indian grocery store or online from Penzeys as charnushka)
2 dried red chilli peppers
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. red chilli powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Cut cauliflower into bite-size florets (use the non-woody parts of the stalk, too). Cube potatoes in bite-size pieces. Wash vegetables separately and drain thoroughly. Toss potatoes with a little salt and let sit for a few minutes. Drain and toss with half the turmeric and red chilli powder. Toss cauliflower with salt, remaining turmeric and red chilli powder and ground cumin.

Heat oil till smoking, add dried red chillies, stir, add spice seeds and cover till you hear the seeds pop. Add potatoes, stir, lower heat and cover for approximately five minutes. Stir, and if potatoes are beginning to turn opaque, add cauliflower and stir, cover for approximately ten minutes more. Stir a couple of times to ensure nothing burns or sticks. After ten minutes, check for doneness, and if not entirely tender, add a little water and cook covered for about five minutes more or until done. Taste and adjust salt if needed. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot with rice or chapatis or any other kind of flat bread.

Cook's notes: For best results, dry-roast cumin seeds and grind to powder in a small, clean coffee-grinder.

Omit salt if you don't use it. Increase cilantro and add thinly sliced green onion and a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice.

Kind of fond of bhangra music at Teh House of Teh Cats. In fact, mi casa also loves qawwali music. Try that for size, Gordon!

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Taxpayer Alert: This is Ridiculous!

This story is just one of those that make you go WTF??? Are these people fucking kidding?

Here's the dealio, peoples. Remember back when a slaughterhouse in Chino got busted for processing sick "downer" cows &mdash cows so sick they couldn't even stand up &mdash into ground beef that was then sent to schools and other institutions as well as commercial outlets? Approximately 143 million pounds of ground beef was recalled for possible contamination. Some fifty million pounds of that beef had been distributed to school lunch programs. Kudos to Democratic Rep Rosa DeLauro for putting pressure on the USDA to reveal which districts were affected.

The US Department of Agriculture has billed the Westland/Hallmark Company, that was the source of the contaminated meat, $67 million for expenses associated with the recall. Replacement of the contaminated meat could cost an additional $50 million.

Here's the most important part of the article:

If the plant can't pay — which is likely — taxpayers will pick up the bill, officials said.

WHAT??? Excuse the fuck out of me? Are you people out of your fucking minds?

The government refuses to adequately fund and staff the agencies responsible for our food supply. The government then (big whoopdeedoo fucking surprise!) has to pay millions of dollars to clean up the contaminated food that results from this stupid fucking policy. Now the government wants to charge us, the contaminated victims of its incredible stupidity, to cover the cost of the mess.

Here's a suggestion, USDA: Sue Dick and George and their families &mdash they're worth multiple millions &mdash for their negligence in allowing the food supply to be contaminated in the first place. Use THAT money to pay the costs of the recall.

We need our goddamn tax dollars to pay for all the other problems this Misadministration, and its gang of thugs, have inflicted upon us.

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Consumer Alert: Food Contamination

Oh, no! Not mozzarella!

Raw Story is reporting that Japan and South Korea have suspended mozzarella imports temporarily after reports surfaced claiming that some of the cheese was made with contaminated milk. the European Union has asked Italy for safety assurances by Wednesday at the latest.

Italy responded with the statement that follows:

"Checks have been made on 132 producers and only in nine cases traces of dioxin have been found," Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told reporters, saying international alarm over the mozzarella was "totally exaggerated and unjustified."

Italian health officials claim the dioxin contamination apparently resulted from a garbage crisis earlier this year in Naples and the surrounding Campania region.

According to the article:

With landfills and dumping sites in the area full, locals burned piles of garbage in the streets and in open fields. Health officials say industrial waste was also set ablaze, spreading fumes that in some cases contained dioxin.

"The presence of dioxin is not due to the garbage itself but to the fact that substances containing dioxin have been burned and the fallout from the smoke brought some dioxin to the ground," Health Ministry undersecretary Gianpaolo Patta said.

Disposing of the garbage that the human population generates each year is becoming an insoluble problem. With a continent-sized mess of plastic in the ocean, and airborne contaminants from burning of garbage, we're poisoning our water, our earth, our air, and our food chain. For what it's worth, the Italian governmental sources are claiming that only one per cent of the mozzarella di bufala has been found to be contaminated. Hopefully it will all be consumed by those responsible for lowering clean air standards.

Dioxins result from some forms of combustion and can also come from industry, including paper and pulp production, and businesses that use chlorine.

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Dinner At La Casa de Los Gatos

This week:

Chile Colorado
Pinto Beans and Black Beans with Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cumin
Mexican Rice

Roast Escolar with Asparagus

Plum-Sauce Roast Cod
Asparagus with Bean Sauce

Lamb Pizzetta with Chard and Pine Nuts

Pictures will follow.

Spring is finally here, and we're determined to enjoy all the good bounty of Mother Earth and Mother Nature that we've been missing out on. The gatos seem to like the proposed menu. They usually try to get away with a little people food.

Does anyone want recipes? We'll post them after we've cooked and photographed, if there's a demand.

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Consumer Alert: Contaminated Food

If you bought crispy battered fish fillets in the 11.4 oz pack from Gorton's, be aware that there is a possibility the fish, or the batter used, is contaminated. Gorton's has issued a recall. Specifics: Gorton's 6 Crispy Battered Fish Fillets, 11.4 ounces; UPC Code No. 44400157770; date code 7289G1; use-by date April 2009.

So far, the fish has been distributed in:

• Alabama
• Delaware
• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas.

If you bought the fish, contact Gorton's at 1-800-896-9479 or at http://www.gortons.com/. And, that Gorton's fisherman? He's an actor, dude. Real fisherman don't look half as good after spending most of their lives out in all kinds weather baking their skin to the approximate texture of scrap leather.

This is yet another reason why one should never ever buy prepackaged or processed foods.

Sure, it takes a little work to make your own, but which would you rather be, tired or poisoned?

Here's a recipe for fish that you can make and eat all week. Why? Because we can't write about politics or even read about it any more. We need a break. So do you.

So get yourself some fish and experiment.

Marinated broiled fish

4 fillets catfish
1 thumb ginger
1 lemon
1-2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder or to taste

Wash the lemon, zest it (peel off the yellow portion of the skin) and juice it. Peel the ginger and slice very thinly lengthwise. Pour half the powdered turmeric and red chilli in a ceramic or glass (nonreactive) bowl, add fish, sprinkle with remaining spice powder.

Add soy sauce and lemon juice, ginger slices, and lemon zest over. Gently turn the fillets over. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Broil approximately 5 min per side till done. Serve garnished with green onions and/or cilantro.

Cook's notes:

1. This recipe is perfect for catfish because it removes the muddy smell like magic, leaving tender, flaky fish. Substitute any firm white fish. Very low fat. Adjust soy sauce to taste.

2. Do not use Mexican chile powder. Use Indian red chili powder available in most Asian or Indian stores or through spice purveyors (like Dean & Deluca or Penzey's) online.

3. If you don't own a zester, peel the lemon with a vegetable peeler and slice into shreds. Do not use white part of skin.

4. The marinated fish keeps two to three days. The broiled fish keeps about five. You can marinate the fish and cook individual portions for up to three days. The longer the fish sits in the marinade the more "cooked" it gets by the acid lemon juice.

5. Optional: you can discard the ginger before or after broiling the fish, or eat it. If you prefer, juice only half the lemon, and cut the remaining half into slices to be squeezed over the fish when served.

This recipe is hella betta for you than any crispy battered prepackaged gunk. It takes approximately 30 minutes to prep and 10-15 minutes to cook and serve. If you put a cup or two of brown rice to cook right before you start on the fish, the rice will be cooked a few minutes before the fish is done. Add some saucy asparagus in black beans, and you're set. Fast, tasty, healthy, and no chance of "pills" appearing in your dinner.

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Food: Asparagus

It's in season now and we made some for dinner at La Casa de Los Gatos. It was so fabulous, we're putting aside our pain to send y'all the recipe.

Asparagus Stir-Fry

2 oz sausage (Aidell's jalapeno, or hot Italian, or substitute ground chicken or pork)
2 bunches asparagus
2 Tbsp fermented black beans
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
3 green onions
4 cloves garlic
1/2 thumb ginger
Crushed red chilli flakes to taste
Chilli garlic sauce
2 Tbsp canola or vegetable oil

Soak black beans in hot water for about ten minutes, then drain, rinse, and chop fine. If using sausage, dice small. Snap off woody end of asparagus and wash well, then slice diagonally into 1" pieces, keeping tender heads separate from stalks. Trim and tail green onions and thinly slice, keeping green and white parts separate. Peel ginger and slice into fine shreds. Mince garlic.

Heat wok till smoking, add oil, swirl around to coat. When oil starts smoking, toss in the white part of the green onions, stir, then add garlic and stir. When garlic releases its fragrance, add ginger and crushed red chilli flakes,and stir. Add black beans and stir about 1-2 minutes.

Add diced sausage and stir approximately 2-3 minutes till lightly browned. Mix cornstarch with about 2 Tbsp chicken stock to a smooth paste. Add asparagus stalks to wok and stir thoroughly till coated. Cover with a lid for approximately 2 minutes. Add chilli sauce, stir well to coat, add chicken stock, stir, cover again 4 minutes. Add asparagus tips and stir till thoroughly coated with sauces and condiments. Cover for about 1 minute.

Stir cornstarch till mixed, add to wok, stir well till vegetables take on a slight glaze, and turn off heat. Add green part of green onion, stir, and serve.

Cook's notes:

1. Substitute ground chicken, turkey, or pork for sausage. You might need to add a little more spice &mdash increase the chillies for instance &mdash or salt. Substitute lemon juice and zest for salt as needed. Stir till no longer pink.

2. Substitute broad bean sauce or yellow bean paste for fermented black beans, if you cannot find them. If using bean sauce or paste, add right before adding asparagus

3. This recipe uses low-fat low-sodium chicken stock. If you use water, you might need to increase spices and add lemon or lime juice and zest to add taste.

4. Any kind of chilli garlic sauce will do. Omit it altogether, if you prefer, in which case, add a little palm sugar or brown or turbinado sugar to the wok right before adding the asparagus.

5. Lee Kum Kee brand from Singapore is your best bet when buying bean paste or chilli garlic sauce.

6. If the cornstarch is too thick, thin it carefully and gently with small amounts of cold water or room-temperature chicken stock.

It was delicious, served over plain brown Basmati rice. Hopefully, there's enough left for tomorrow.

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Recipe: Chicken Soup Cure

This'll fix ya!

Chicken Soup Cure

Ingredients:

1 stewing hen
2 bunches green onions
2 cups Basmati brown rice
1 small cabbage
6-10 cloves garlic
4-20 hot chilli peppers
1 thumb ginger
4 red and 4 green bell peppers
6 celery stalks
6 carrots
2 large yellow onions
Olive oil cooking spray or 2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 bunch parsley
salt to taste

Wash chicken, removing giblets (save for another use), pin feathers, excessive fat. Place in a pasta pot (the kind that comes with a removable strainer) if you have one, cover with plenty of cold water. Halve one unpeeled onion and add to the chicken, together with 2 stalks celery, the parsley stalks, or half the bunch if you just can't be bothered to separate leaves and stalks, 1 bunch of the green onions.

Peel the ginger, removing any woody bits or eyes, and slice thinly lengthwise OR hit it with the flat of your knife to bruise it. If it cracks or breaks into chunks, you have achieved success and will soon be granted the blessing of ginger. Add to the chicken together with 2 chillies. If you can take the heat and like spice, you can remove the chilli stems, otherwise leave them intact.

Bring the pot to a full, rolling boil, then turn the heat down to the barest simmer and let simmer for approximately 45 minutes or until chicken is done and vegetables are very tender.

Remove chicken and vegetables from the pot (see why a pasta pot with strainer is perfect?) and let cool.

Dice all the remaining raw vegetables, shred the cabbage, slice the green onion (separate the white and green parts)and mince the chillies. Smash the garlic cloves with the flat of your knife (this makes them easy to peel and also releases the powerful antibacterial and antifungal, allicin. You must use it soon after smashing, as allicin degrades fairly rapidly.)

Heat the oil in a skillet large enough to contain all the vegetables except the cabbage. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the onions and let cook at medium heat till golden and fragrant. Add garlic (you might want to smash it right before adding it) and white part of green onion, and stir till the garlic releases its powerful fragrance. Add the carrots, celery, bell peppers, chilli peppers, stir for a minute or two, then cover and "sweat" the vegetables for about 10-20 minutes. They should release some liquid, in which they will cook, caramelizing their natural sugars.

Scrape the skillet into the chicken stock. Remove meat from the bones, discarding fat and skin (or you could donate the skin to Mike Huckabee, I hear he likes it), discard or reuse the cooked vegetables and either save the bones for stock or discard them. Wash the rice thoroughly and add. Let the soup simmer for about 40 minutes (Basmati brown rice cooks to perfection in approximately 30 minutes), then add the shredded cabbage, stir, garnish with finely minced parsley and sliced green part of green onion, and eat!

Cook's notes:

1. The older the chicken, the tastier the soup!
2. To reduce the heat of chillies, remove the seeds before mincing.
3. You might want to reserve some of the bell peppers to garnish the soup with. Raw peppers are sweet, and if you dice them tiny, they lurk like glistening jewels within your soup, bringing a little cheer to the sickbed.
4. We specify varying quantities of garlic and chillies, recognizing that not everyone shares our obsession with these ingredients.
5. Ginger is excellent for catarrh, sore throats, and upset stomachs.
6. All the vegetables used in this soup are high in Vitamin C.
7. You might find, if you have a cold, that everything tastes a little bland. This soup should fix that. Add salt sparingly, and add a little fresh lemon juice to bring out the flavours.

Feel better!

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Food: Winter Recipes for Sandy

And anyone else who wants to use them. These recipes are perfect for cold weather. They're also good for people who have diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels, or just people who want to eat healthy, nutritious, tasty food. They're relatively low in meat and high in fiber.

Chicken Vegetable Stew

This stew can be frozen. You can freeze the broth separately from the chicken and veges, or freeze it together.

Ingredients
2 stewing hens, quartered	4 stalks celery
2 parsnips	4 cloves garlic
4 sprigs dill	10 cups water
2 onions	4 carrots
1 lg tomato	4 sprigs parsley
4 whole cloves	salt and pepper to taste

Omit the salt, if you prefer. I don't add any, although I sometimes substitute a dash of fish sauce.

Stewing hens (older hens) have much more flavour. They're usually also cheaper. You can have your butcher cut them into quarters, or, if you're good with poultry, you can do it yourself. Wash the chicken, remove any large pieces of fat, and set aside.

Peel and halve the onions, if you plan to use them in the final stew. If you plan to discard the vegetables used for making broth, do not peel the onions, just cut them in half lengthwise. Cut the celery, parsnips, tomato, and carrots in large chunks. Place the vegetables in a large pot (you might need two pots) with the chicken, cover with water, and bring to a boil. If the water does not cover the chicken, add more. Reduce the heat and simmer partially covered for about an hour, skimming off any foam. Simmer uncovered for another hour. If the water level drops at any time, add more water so that the chicken remains covered.

This soup is good to make when you have chores to do around the house. Once it comes to a boil, you reduce the heat, set a one-hour timer (your microwave oven should have one) and do your chores. When the timer goes off, remove the lid from the soup, give it a stir, set another one-hour timer and go back to your chores.

Turn off the heat and remove the chicken from the soup pot(s). Set it aside to cool on a plate or in a bowl. When cool, remove and discard the chicken skin and shred the meat. Discard any bones or save them to reuse for stock. When the soup has cooled, strain it and discard or set aside the vegetables. Skim off fat. You might want to refrigerate the soup briefly to cool it enough for the fat to separate, or use a fat skimmer if you have one.

I put the cooked vegetables back into the pot. You can discard them if you wish, or add them to another stew or refrigerate them for future use. Now prep and add the following vegetables to the chicken broth. If you prefer, you can freeze half the broth for later use and add only half the quantity of vegetables shown.


Vegetables:

4 carrots	4 parsnips
4 stalks celery	2 lg leeks
1 bunch parsley	Remaining dill
2 cups pasta or rice	2 lemons

Cut carrots and celery into 1-inch pieces. Cut parsnips and leek in thick slices. Chop parsley and dill. Juice and zest the lemons.

Return the broth to the soup pot(s), add the rice (if using brown), raw veges and cook for approximately 45 minutes at medium heat until the veges are tender. If using white rice or pasta, add it now. White rice should cook in about 10-15 minutes. If using pasta, regulate the cooking time according to package directions. Lower the heat and stir in chopped herbs and the chicken. Taste and season as needed, adding a little lemon juice and zest for tang, and serve. Keeps frozen for approximately 2 weeks.

To make this soup deliciously reusable, save in individual-portion containers. When you reheat it, add fresh chopped herbs, or lemon juice, or zest, or a pinch or two of crushed red chilli flakes for a little zing.


Ham and Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

1/4 lb salt pork	1 small smoked ham hock
2 Tbsp olive oil	4 cloves garlic
2 lg onion	2 green bell pepper
4 ribs celery	2 red bell peppers
1 cup barley	1 cup green split peas
1 tsp dried thyme	3-4 lb winter vegetables
4 cups chicken broth	2 boiling potatoes (~3/4 lb)
~2 Tbsp red-wine vinegar	1 cup scallion for garnish

Freshen the salt pork by covering it with cold water and simmering gently for about 5 minutes. Remove from stove, drain, and discard rind. Cut the pork in 1/4-inch dice.

Chop the onions, bell peppers, and celery finely. Dice the potatoes. Mince the garlic and scallions.

Assemble 3-4 lb of any combination of these vegetables:

Carrots, cabbage, parsnips, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi. Chop them into bite-size pieces, saving the broccoli florets separately.

Place the salt pork in a skillet and render over medium heat until the cracklings are golden, then drain and place on paper towels. Pour off and discard most of the fat, add the oil, heat till nearly smoking, and saute the onion till fragrant, add garlic, stir for a minute, add the bell pepper and celery and stir over medium heat until the veges are soft. Add thyme and ground black pepper to taste and stir for approximately 15 seconds.

Transfer to a large soup pot. Add barley and split peas, stir to mix, add broth and the ham hock and water or broth to cover if needed, reduce heat to low and cook for about 3 hours until the barley and peas are done. Remove the ham hock from the mixture and turn off the heat. Skim off any fat. When the ham hock is cool, remove the meat and discard the skin, fat and bones. Shred the meat and set aside.

Place the soup pot on the heat at medium, add the potatoes, and stir for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped vegetables and water or broth, depending on how rich and how liquid you want the soup to be, and simmer for approximately 20 minutes at low heat or until the vegetables are tender. Add vinegar (or lemon juice) and bring to a simmer, and serve, garnished with cracklings and scallions.

This soup has a higher fat content and you might prefer to substitute pork stew meat or beef stew and leave out the salt pork altogether. For a richer soup, substitute broth for water. If using stew meat, cut bite-size, removing as much fat as possible, and add it after the barley and peas have cooked. Let cook for about ten to 20 minutes at a simmer before adding the vegetables. Reduce the amount of liquid for a very thick stew.

This soup usually gets devoured too quickly to experiment with freezing. It's great for cold weather. If you want to freeze it, reserve the cabbage, broccoli florets, and scallions in separate containers in the refrigerator and add them when heating individual portions of soup.

Split Pea Soup

This soup freezes well.

Ingredients

3 cups green split peas	3 onions
5 garlic cloves	6 lg carrots
6 celery stalks	2 Tbsp olive oil
15 cups water or chicken broth	2 meaty ham hocks
2 bay leaves	1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste	2 tsp crushed red chilli pepper

Dice the onions. Crush the garlic. Peel and dice the carrots. Slice the celery, including the leaves. Rinse and drain the split peas.

In a flat skillet, heat the oil at medium and saute the bay leaves for a few seconds, add the onions till fragrant, add the garlic and stir till it is brown in spots and the onions are dark golden, add celery, stir, add carrots and saute until lightly browned.

Transfer to one or more soup pots, scraping up any browned bits. Add peas and water and ham hocks, and bring to a boil. Skim off any scum on top. Reduce heat to low and simmer for approximately 3 hrs.

Remove ham hocks, let cool, strip off meat and discard fat and bone. Shred meat and return to soup. Add thyme and pepper to taste, and simmer for approximately one hour, stirring to keep from sticking.

Remove bay leaves and serve.


Steak Soup

This soup can also be frozen in individual serving containers.

Ingredients

1 lb beef steak or stew meat	2 large onions
4 large carrots	5 celery stalks
2 lbs fresh or canned tomatoes	3 qts beef stock
2 small winter or kabocha squash	2 sweet potatoes
2 cups dried red kidney beans	2 green bell peppers
2-6 jalapenos	2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste	2-4 large cloves garlic
4 black peppercorns	2 bay leaves
4 cloves

Soak beans overnight, or at least 5 hours, in plenty of cold water. Chop all the vegetables (except peppers and celery) bite-sized. Wash the beans, cover with 8 cups of cold water, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for at least 2 hours or until tender, adding warm water if needed. Mince the garlic, celery, and bell peppers. If using jalapenos, wash and slit lengthwise up to the stalk. Do not slice all the way through. Place cloves, slightly crushed peppercorns, and bay leaves in a cheesecloth or muslin bag and tie tightly. Slice meat into small bite-sized pieces.

Heat oil at medium heat, add onion, stir till golden and fragrant, add garlic, stir for a minute, add celery, and peppers and stir till softened and slightly browned, add remaining veges (except tomatoes), stir till partly cooked, add meat, stir to mix, then add stock, dry spices, and tomatoes and cook covered, for about 30 minutes at a simmer. Add beans and their liquid, stir, and simmer for a further 30 minutes or until all the vegetables are thoroughly cooked. Discard the bag of dried spices and serve hot plain or over rice and garnished with fresh herbs.

Dried beans are preferable to canned, which lose much of their nutrients in the canning process. However, red kidney beans contain a toxin and must be thoroughly leached before consumption. To leach the toxin, soak them for at least 5 hours in plenty of cold water, wash them in running water and cook in fresh cold water to cover for at least two hours.

To increase the digestibility of any pea, bean, or legume, add a pinch or two of epazote, a Mexican herb, to the soup.

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Health: Keeping The Food Supply Clean

Lauren Neergard, a science writer for AP, reports that a single bout of food-borne illness, such as caused by E. coli, Yersinia enterocolitica, Salmonella enteritidis, the Shigella group of bacteria, or Campylobacter jejuni, can cause a multitude of ailments decades later.

In interviews with The Associated Press, [scientists] attribute high blood pressure [and] kidney damage [and possible] failure striking 10 to 20 years later in people who survived severe E. coli infection as children, arthritis after a bout of salmonella or shigella, and a mysterious paralysis that can attack people who just had mild symptoms of campylobacter.

"Folks often assume once you're over the acute illness, that's it, you're back to normal and that's the end of it," said Dr. Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The long-term consequences are "an important but relatively poorly documented, poorly studied area of foodborne illness."

Some 76 million food poisonings occur each year in the United States. However, because no one tracks the occurrence of ailments that might result from food-borne illnesses, it is not possible to speculate how many people suffer these illnesses or symptoms in later years.

This should give us all pause for thought. More than 30 million pounds of ground beef were recalled last year for contamination.

Donna Rosenbaum, of the consumer advocacy group STOP (Safe Tables Our Priority) says that her group hears regularly from people with health complaints that they suspect or have been told are related to food poisoning years earlier. She cites a woman who survived severe E. coli at 8 and had her colon removed in her 20s. Some develop diabetes after food poisoning inflames the pancreas.

In response to this widespread yet poorly tracked problem, STOP is creating a national registry of food-poisoning survivors with long-term health problems. Hopefully, their medical histories will provide scientists with useful information and spur much-needed research.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), foodborne illnesses cause 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths a year. However, the CDC does not track health issues of survivors of food-borne illnesses.

The University of Utah, which has tracked children with E. coli for years, has found that some 10 percent of E. coli sufferers develop a life-threatening complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, where their kidneys and other organs fail.

Dr. Andrew Pavia, the university's pediatric infectious diseases chief, states that one or two decades after a bout of E. coli, between 30 and 50 percent of HUS survivors will have kidney-related problem, including high blood pressure.

Although he stressed that not everyone who has had a bout of food-borne illness will have complications, and one-third to one-half of roughly ten per cent is really not that many, we'll bet that those words will not console the unlucky.

Essentially, he's saying if E. coli didn't damage your kidneys the first time around, you're not going to have kidney-related problems later. Great. We didn't even know that E. coli could damage the kidneys.

What about the other food-borne illnesses? After all, although the ground beef recalls were enormous and apparently all caused by discovery of E. coli bacteria, there are people who avoid eating red meat, or ground beef. What are their odds?

If you cook or eat poultry, you could be exposed to campylobacter. The CDC tells us that Campylobacter jejuni is

"the most commonly reported bacterial cause of foodborne infection in the United States."

One-tenth of one per cent of others JUST LIKE YOU will get Guillain-Barré syndrome about a month afterwards. In Guillain-Barré, your immune system attacks your nervous system, and the resulting paralysis will put you on a ventilator for assistance with the simple human task of breathing. Oh, yeah, and that could happen even if it was a relatively mild food-poisoning. You could also end up getting reactive arthritis. Reactive arthritis, unlike your regular flavour, includes conjunctivitis and possibly simultaneous inflammation in other organs such as the mouth, skin, kidneys, heart, and lungs, as well as your joints. It can lead to chronic arthritis.

In a cheery aside, the CDC goes on to inform us that

" ... an increasing proportion of human infections caused by C. jejuni are resistant to antimicrobial therapy. Mishandling of raw poultry and consumption of undercooked poultry are the major risk factors for human campylobacteriosis."

Reactive arthritis may also affect you six months or more after you experience a bout of salmonella, shigellosis, or yersiniosis. Fortunately for you (and the inhabitants of Casa de Los Gatos), yersiniosis is far more common abroad than in the U.S. No figures were given on how many of us can expect a more intimate relationship with these various bacteria; however, the same advice was given for all - wash your hands thoroughly. So this is Montezuma's revenge?

Severe E. coli can cause blood clots all over the body, which could damage other organs, says Dr. Pavia. HUS apparently can also cause pancreatitis, which might increase your risk of diabetes.

Well, that was exciting morning reading. Now we know why we have to work really hard to tighten controls on the nation's food supply. It's that, or a ghastly disease or diseases requiring hideously expensive medical care. So what if no one gets out alive? We want, at least, to enjoy the goddamned ride.

Incidentally, this entire article seemed like one long admonition for home-cooking and against restaurants. Oh, yeah, and against "rare" poultry. Cook the damn thing till all the fat leaks out of it and the skin caramelizes, dammit. Sheesh.

Caveat: Yersiniosis is spread by undercooked or contaminated pork, especially pork chitlins. Thorough handwashing, as always, and thorough cooking. Sheesh again.

Stumble It!