transmission
heirloom tomatoes and comforting food for tough weeks
Life has felt really hectic lately, even though I’m not really doing much more than usual. I assume it’s related to the stress of having to find a new place to live. So Jeff and I have kind of needed the reminder that it’s okay to do things that don’t accomplish something, that don’t cross anything off the to-do list. On Saturday we were on the other side of the water and decided to go to Strange Fellows for lunch and a beer. I was sad to learn that Top Rope, the birria taco truck that’s usually there on the weekends, is moving to the island soon, but glad to have found out before I’d already unknowingly eaten my last taco. Both the beef and the oyster mushroom version are really good, and I like cheese enough that I’ve never tried the vegan version, but I’m glad to know it exists. I hope I’m able to get back there once more before they leave so I can try the elotes.
Jason went home to Chicago on Monday, and I’m glad to say that all the locals involved survived our first Malört experience, unpleasant though it was. The flavour is difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t tasted it: the best I can say is that it was medicinally bitter in a way that felt inescapable. The chaser I chose worked fairly well— a clear apple-pear brandy called Obstwasser, which I was happy to have a non-cooking use for at last. We made up for the suffering with a satisfying takeout dinner of sushi from Mr Sushi for some and tater tots & chicken sandwiches from Cream Pony for others, with a mix of donuts to share afterwards. I liked the chocolate mint cake donut which was one of the two flavours of the month, but if you only get one, make sure it’s the jam-filled.
I got several pounds of heirloom tomatoes from Brennen & David’s farm— beautiful ripe Cherokee Purples, Black Krims, and Old Germans. I used half of them for a big batch of tomato sauce using the pasta alla pomarola recipe in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. I love a plain pomodoro with just a little garlic oil and basil, but I also love the fullness of this one with the addition of onions and enough olive oil to make it nicely fatty and give it a rich orange colour. I’ve made this in the past, but since the recipe uses plum tomatoes and heirlooms tend to be juicier, I had to let this reduce for longer than the specified time. So I turned the temperature down at the end of the first twenty-five minutes and returned to my computer to write, and then got so caught up in it that I accidentally left the sauce on the stove for upwards 90 minutes. But sometimes it all works out, because it was the perfect texture and flavour by then. Thanks, hyperfixation!
With the other half of the tomatoes, I made another batch of the roasted tomato soup I made last week, this time making use of the fresh tomato version (obviously) instead of the canned version in Smitten Kitchen Every Day. Again this turned out a bit thinner due to the increased liquid content from these tomato varietals— I probably could have reduced the broth down to three cups— but the flavour didn’t suffer for it at all, and the house smelled amazing while these were roasting. I deglazed the baking sheet with a splash of red wine to make sure to get as much of the caramelized juices as possible. I also didn’t futz around with the food processor, instead putting everything into the pot with the broth and blending it with the hand blender.
I’ve still been slacking with my sourdough starters, so I picked up a $2 loaf of squishy whole wheat sandwich bread, which always makes me really nostalgic. This is the bread I remember having most often at home in my youth, the kind my brother and I would use to make grilled cheese sandwiches as an after-school snack (with a side of dill pickle) when we were teens. Anyway, I was in a terrible mood and mad at everything when I got home and this incredibly comforting meal helped a lot, especially because I’d made the soup the day before and just had to heat it up while making the grilled cheese. I saw a post a little while back that said something like ‘if you feel like you hate everyone, it’s time to eat something, and if you feel like you hate yourself, it’s time to go to bed’. Obviously it’s not foolproof, but it is a good place to start.
Due to the fact that I keep forgetting to get groceries other than eggs and bananas and bread, I found myself in need of a pantry meal for dinner midweek. I remembered this great pasta, also in Smitten Kitchen Every Day: a lemony olive oil & pecorino base with the addition of capers & parsley, some garlic-rosemary breadcrumbs to put on top of the noodles, and to finish, a crispy fried egg. If you time everything right, it’s ready in about twenty minutes and is both filling and delicious. It’s taken me a little while to perfect the technique for these eggs, and the trick is not to be afraid of the high temperature. The edges of the egg get bubbly and crisp, and spooning a little of the hot cooking oil over the whites will cook them without needing to flip and risk overcooking or breaking the yolk. There’s a reason ‘put an egg on it’ is so well-utilized that it’s become a meme: because it’s fucking good.
I’d taken out Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar to make chocolate chip cookies for the umpteenth time, when Jeff, eating a spoonful of peanut butter out of the jar, suggested peanut butter instead. The book has recipes for a variety of treats involving peanut butter: peanut butter oatmeal, peanut butter chocolate chip, peanut butter sandwich cookies, chocolate peanut butter, classic crisscrosses, and blondies. I chose the blondies, both for the fact that I could get them in the oven quickly, and that I had the brilliant idea of swapping the chopped roasted peanut garnish for the top with peanut M&Ms. Of course this makes them no longer vegan, but it does make them incredible. I baked these in a round pan which is probably a crime in some places, but I don’t have a square metal baking dish and brownies & cakes just don’t cook as nicely in pyrex.
On the Sunday when Jeff goes down to Washington to work on his dad’s trailer, I tend to eat like a bachelor, either subsisting on sandwiches or foraging through the pantry for something quick and just a little terrible. I made a pretty decent instant ramen dinner, though, using mostly leftovers. I stirred a bunch of last week’s curried peanut sauce, some chili crisp, a splash of soy sauce, and a little oat milk into the broth, which made for a soup base a little like the spicy sesame ramen I like to make in the colder months. To serve with the noodles and broth I had cubes of fried tofu (also from the curried peanut sauce bowl), seaweed, and frozen corn heated in the microwave. I was going to add black garlic as well but forgot about it until everything else was ready and didn’t want the soup to get cold while I chopped it up. Not quite as amazing as the sesame ramen, but not bad at all.
Media:
This isn’t food-related, but now that October’s here, I’ve been feeling in the mood for some seasonally-appropriate movies (the link is to a list of my faves). I’m kind of a baby about horror, but there are certain types of Halloween-y movies I can get behind, ones that are only mildly scary, or creepy but also a little silly, and I do so love a good sci-fi thriller with lots of great practical effects, like Alien or The Thing. The other night I watched Re-Animator for the first time, which features Jeffrey Combs as the most unsettling man you have ever seen. The movie is full of wonderful tropes and everything is incredibly damp and slimy which is just what I want from horror and sci-fi, honestly. So it was a very satisfying viewing experience. If you have recommendations for me that match the type of movies on the list linked above, please let me know!
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 donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats (or moving costs 😓) are much appreciated. Have a great long weekend, if you have one to look forward to, and if you don’t, don’t work too hard. And here’s a weirdly prescient thing to feel depressed about.