To Fondly Remember Being Hungover: Congee.

There was this one time, a couple summers ago, when I might have had too much to drink on a Saturday night, and woke up on a Sunday and decided to go to yoga, but first I would stop at the Farmer's Market, you see, but SOMEHOW time had flown by (surely nothing to do with my bleary eyes or slowed down brain), and I was impossibly late for yoga, and therefore the only thing I could reasonably do was to forsake exercising for brunch at the Thai food restaurant that was fatefully by my side at the exact witching hour I should have been anchoring into my sits bones, settling into my breath and joining my thumb and first finger. Despite the fact that it was 900 degrees and muggy at 11am in the beautiful summer that DC provides us, I ordered hot congee on that hot day and realized that hangover was the best thing that ever happened to me, because, it resulted in this steaming, salty, mushy bowl of mostly colorless broken rice which enveloped my whole innards with a big, welcome, and sultry hug.

ANYWAY. I wanted to make my own damn congee. I chose a recipe that had sausage and corn. I didn't have ginger on hand, and I wish I had used chicken or vegetable stock. I poached an egg and drizzled it with soy sauce. Yolk, as it does with everything, enriched the broth. IDK, this could have used more flavor. Or maybe I should have been hungover? It was good. I'll do better next time.

PRO TIP: Put your scallions in a jar with some water and watch them grow and re-grow as you use them!

To Cook All Weekend: #MDW Edition

Before Memorial Day came around we decided there all kinds of things we wanted to make. After all, with three days to muck about, why not?

ya, fine. i bought bowls that day just for the soup.

Michael made bouillabaisse. Once upon a time, we went to Marseilles and didn't get to eat bouillabaisse because we didn't know you had to make reservations. So, it's been on the to cook list for a while. We went to the Maine Ave Fish Market (a cement pier settled into the Potomac with 5 or so huge stalls of fishmongers selling fish) and bought clams, shrimp, red snapper & monk fish (probably, one of my favorite fishes).

Maine Avenue Fish Market

Sunday, we went to a picnic with some friends. I had a need to make fried chicken. We had made it before at a class and then tried it one weekend in Boston. This instance was the best we've ever made. I think it was the boneless, skinless thighs chopped into 2-bite sized nuggets that did the trick. We used Roses Luxury's brine recipe (sort of... I forgot to boil the brine; it was 6am before coffee on a Sunday), and then used the technique from our cooking class: flour (seasoned with S&P, cayenne, paprika), buttermilk, flour then fry. And again per Roses, we drizzled the fried chicken with honey & sesame seeds. SO GOOD. Best thing we've ever made. Probably.

asparagus, shrooms & onions.

I also grilled up some veggies for the picnic. That's been a spring time go to. (Grilled on a pan, since we live in an apartment with no real grill access :(

For a Monday morning treat, Michael made buttermilk biscuits to have a fried chicken "sandwich". I had that with a side of fried chicken nuggets. I couldn't stop eating them. I drizzle almost everything with turkish honey these days.

I also made strawberry rhubarb bars & whole wheat banana bread for breakfast for the week. Speaking of honey (like 2 sentence ago)!  Instead of maple syrup in the banana bread recipe, I used honey. Other tips I learned that I should remember: don't put banana bread on the bottom rack; the bottom of the oven is too hot! and if your bananas aren't ripe enough, just go ahead and roast 'em, skin on for 10 mins.

All that + 6 movies made for a stuffed weekend.

To Make Frozen Yogurt: Mint Edition

We have a few great gelato places in DC, but there's no good spots (that I've found) to eat some frozen yogurt. Maybe those don't generally exist? Is frozen yogurt stupid? TCBY? Ugh.

Anyway, I didn't want to make the swirly kind of frozen yogurt. That's all sugary. I wanted a frozen version of the full fat, plain yogurt I eat for breakfast. When done right, that kind of yogurt brings me back to the first time I tried French plain yogurt: sour, thick, creamy, and fluffy all at once. I topped it with raspberry jam. And I sat on a balcony overlooking the lake in Annecy pretty much feeling like I'd never be that happy again. I was that happy again, but it was 14 years ago and I can see myself there, making that discovery. Profound yogurt experience.

SOOO. Back to the present and the frozen plain yogurt. I had this idea that I could make mint yogurt. Not mint chocolate chip. Not mint made from phony flavors. But, real minted frozen yogurt. When I read about the perils of freezing yogurt, lots of people said it can get too icy. And a lot of people just used mint extract. And some people put heavy cream in theirs, which is fine, but I really want to do my best to have the focus be the yogurt. So, I followed the Kitchn's recipe + 101 Cookbooks and took some tips from the Internet at large (add vodka; strain the yogurt to reduce water content) and came up with something that I think is pretttttty decent. Don't make this expecting the creaminess of ice cream or gelato. It's NOT that. But, it's something you could eat a little bit of every night as a snack and feel pretty good about.

I brought 1/2 can coconut milk to a simmer with a package of mint leaves. I pressed on the mint leaves to extract flavor. I let that set for 30 minutes off the heat. I mixed together 2 cups of full fat plain yogurt (that I had strained for 2-3 hours; not much water came out, but some did) + 1/4 cup sugar + 1 tablespoon of vodka + 1 tsp vanilla + the coconut milk minus the mint leaves + ~40 drops of mint bitters. Then, I put it in the ice cream machine until the magic happened. (I tried making it without the ice cream machine, and it was WAY too icy. It was okay to eat if I let it set out for 1/2 hour before eating...but the texture was not perfect.)

To Cook a Dream: Hot Cucumbers

One day I was just thinking: can you cook cucumbers? I mean can, duh. But should I suppose was the better word: should I cook cucumbers? I don't remember what happened after that, probably I carried on eating raw cucumbers like a big dumb idiot.

Then, I was in Austin (Texas -- more on that later) and we were enjoying a cappucinno on the patio of the cafe. I was reading Food & Wine, which turned out to be very much worth the $6 price tag I hadn't paid attention to before I got to the check out. And there they were: hot & sour cucumbers. Hot as in spicy, but also as in temperature.

They were SO delicious. Like eating spicy, warm, slightly sweet but definitely tangy pickles. I feel like onions would be a hugely welcomed addition.

I adapted the recipe from Food & Wine, but mostly just based on the things I had in my kitchen. I'll tell it to you like I did it, cause that's how I do:

2 tbsp sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 container cubed baby bellas (the mushrooms)
6 slices of pickled jalapeno
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 big ass cucumber (from TJs), cut thickly & diagonally
1/2 lemon's juice
cracked salt (as in, not salt you could shake from a shaker)
***
Heat sesame oil. Add garlic until fragrant. Add shrooms & 'penos, til the shrooms soften. Add cukes. Stir in vinegar & honey & 2 tbsp water. Stirrrr. Cover. Cook for 7 mins. Squeeze lemon juice & sprinkle salt. Devour.

I served it with brined chicken breast. The brine was simple, just salt & honey & water. Brined for 4 hours. But it was maybe the best chicken breast I ever cooked. I used this oven baked/under wax paper method, per my new habit. And I was like HELLZYA this naturally bland piece of meat is SO good.

Frankly, darlings, I was amazed at the deliciousness of this simple meal. YES, I brined for 4 hours, which maybe is not so easy for an every night meal, but eff it, it was worth it. SPOILER ALERT: I might make it Sunday to have as part of my lunch salads.