linger
hearty salads (really) & soups, and my new favourite mushroom
Why is January such an ordeal? It seems to go on forever, while simultaneously feeling like the holidays just ended. The weather is horrible, either because you’re being battered by unreasonable cold, or because something Weird is happening that makes you feel deeply unsettled about the climate (it hasn’t rained significantly here in long enough that I hear the Kill Bill sirens in my head when the sun rises), or perhaps both if you live in Louisiana. Human beings were not meant to exist in our full capacity when it’s below zero and nothing grows except moss and mold, nor were we meant to wake up in the dark and come home in the dark and pretend we still want to go to the gym and do our laundry after that. What can you do but keep going? I’ve clawed my way through thirty-nine Januaries, I will not let the fortieth one take me down.
My brother Ken turned thirty this past week, so the family and some of his friends got together for dinner at the Earls in PoCo. As far as local chains go, Earls is one of the nicer and more reliable options, because they actually change items on their menu somewhat regularly, and care about good service. Is it weird that a place that has really good skinny fries also has a really good oshi sushi appetizer? Maybe, but I will be eating both regardless.
Over the weekend Jeff and I had to do a Costco run, and I was looking forward to one of the benefits of going there: the humble Costco hot dog. However, the place was nightmarishly busy and the thought of getting into the crowded lineup at the food counter after our shopping was done was more than I could bear, so we drove back to the North Shore and went to Wildeye Brewing for a beer and some lunch instead. It was cold out and therefore a good day for a dark beer (their smoked porter is amazing), and we shared a plate of nachos which went surprisingly well with it. These nachos have chimichurri, which is a sauce I love and don’t get enough opportunities to eat. At the late great Main Street diner Slickity Jim’s, I got the short rib eggs benny more often than not— not because I care that much about ribs, but because of the chimichurri that went on it.
Last time I got green beans in my produce box, less than 24 hours later more than half of them had become unusable slime. I’m not sure what happened, but I was determined not to let them suffer the same fate this time, so I made a niçoise-type salad based on this pared-down recipe. Cook the beans first: toss in salted boiling water for about 2 minutes, just until they turn bright green. If you pull them out with tongs or a kitchen spider, you can use the same water to cook the potatoes. I overdid mine a little; I think next time I might chop them the size I want them to be and cook for less time rather than cooking whole and cutting them afterwards. I used tarragon dijon for the dressing here which was really nice, and some chopped lettuce (I did not have arugula) as a base for crunch. This is a very filling salad just on its own, but I also made garlic bread to go on the side, since we had fresh sourdough and bread keeps my spirit vibrant.
A package of halloumi kept getting pushed to the back of the fridge drawer where I would forget about it, and recently I pulled it back to the front and realised I had the ingredients to make this cauliflower halloumi salad, which I’ve made before and really liked. Everything comes together easily while the cauliflower is roasting. If you don’t have preserved lemon for the dressing (I keep forgetting to make more), you can use regular lemon juice, up the amount of honey a little, and add some briny element to the dressing or the salad. Or just be okay with the fact that it will be a bit more acidic. I didn’t mind that mine was, because the cheese is quite salty.
The real key is that the halloumi shouldn’t go into the pan until everything else is ready to go— ideally you want the cheese to be crisp on the outside and soft on the inside when you eat it. This is a very fragile state for it to be in, and the interior will get a bit squeaky like cheese curds as it cools, but the crispy outside will remain, so it won’t be the end of the world if you can’t time things exactly right. In my endeavour to make sure the cheese was perfect, I sadly forgot the avocado. We only missed it a little bit.
I got some packages of seafood mushrooms for $1 each at Donald’s recently. If you haven’t had this variety, they’re similar to enoki but larger, more like a shimeji (aka white beech) mushroom, and are so named because they have a flavour that’s lightly reminiscent of seafood. They have a great chewy texture, too. We made a really good white pizza with the first package: a base of olive oil, grated garlic, and thyme, then the mushrooms and mozza, and green onion to finish. I don’t want to disrespect the other pizza we made that night (hot capocollo with pineapple), because it was good, but the mushroom one was absolutely restaurant quality.
The other package of mushrooms fulfilled its destiny in a lazy but delicious ramen. I made the soup base like I usually do (based on this recipe) and then just cooked a few broccoli florets and the mushrooms in the wok. Tofu puffs meant I didn’t need to fry tofu, and for some reason I didn’t feel like egg, so this was one of the faster ramens I’ve made. Last time I was at T&T I was excited to try out some of their house brand instant noodles, because they are not expensive and they don’t come with little flavour packets I rarely need. Anyway, you can get these in a few different noodle sizes and we opted for one kind of in the middle, because thick noodles can be a pain to eat in soup but the ones in the instant ramen packs we normally get are super thin. The quality isn’t markedly better than any other instant noodle, but I did enjoy the change (and the less waste since they aren’t packaged individually) so I’ll probably buy them again.
Other recent dishes include the instant pot French onion soup I mentioned in my last newsletter, which turned out really good— Jeff said it was the best that he can remember it tasting, and I can’t think of anything I did differently except use mushroom broth instead of beef. Maybe we just like mushroom broth better. The recipe I used is in a book, but this one is pretty similar.
I made this squash and red lentil chili, a perennial favourite because I always run out of things to make with squash, and because the cocoa and cinnamon give this a really deep and interesting flavour. I usually make this on the stove. The one time I tried it using the instant pot’s slow cook method the lentils were still hard as rocks, and I ended up pressure cooking it all, enraged because I could have just done that from the start and saved myself several hours. However, I also often forget that there isn’t really enough liquid to properly cook the lentils on the stove in a reasonable amount of time, even adding 1-2 cups of water as I do, so if do you choose to do it on the stovetop, I recommend soaking the lentils for a couple of hours beforehand.
We’ve also had more fruit around than we seem to know what to do with, so some of it has been making its way into baked goods. Jeff made his usual banana bread, because the rule is that if you’re going to put new bananas into the freezer bag, you have to take some of the old bananas out (we have way too many freezer bananas). And I made this blueberry muffin loaf again, and it was just as good as the first time. Believe what Deb says in the recipe about the sugar that goes on top— yes, it’s going to seem like a lot, and yes, you do need all of it.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so any donations are greatly appreciated. Anyway, here’s the mood for this week. Stay strong, my friends.