P I C N I C

Friday night me and Martha went out to a Chinese restaurant and ate some very good Sichuan cooking. Well, on Saturday we decided to cook a similar meal for ourselves and we made BBQ short ribs, a simple ginger pickled napa cabbage, two dipping sauces, and salad rolls with mint, basil, and romaine. For breakfast the next day we heated up the ribs, added a pile of cilantro, and threw together a little smorgasbord.

Then we went on a little picnic to Billy Goat Hill park. This reminded me of when I was 16 and went on picnics with Beth-Marie and Justin.

Lunch today was polenta, scallops, and grapefruit. I sauteed onions in a pot with olive oil and then added the dry polenta and roasting it by turning up the heat all the way. It began to smell sweet like pop corn. Perhaps some enzymes were deconstructing starch chains?

These are potato cubes that I fried up a few days ago. I boiled Russet’s until fully cooked then let them cool. Slicing away all the rounded edges, leaving only little rectangular cubes, resulted in quite a lot of scraps for mashed potatoes. I fried them on 5 sides only, as it already seemed like an excessive amount of turning. The crispy outer crust was really good, like a french fry. The inside was not fluffy though, but waxy. Perhaps the boiling did this? as Russets are supposed to be dry and fluffy.

The red sauce is a buttery chipotle ketchup.

I just got my Polyscience immersion heater in the mail and eagerly cooked up some ham. It came out really, really good and I’m excited for this method. I smoked it with madrone outside for 4 hours. Then I vacuum sealed it with a marinade of salt, orange slices, and honey. I let it cook in the waterbath for 6 hours at 125˚, then I raised the temperature to 155˚ for another 6 hours overnight. I cooled it this morning in the bag. The ham is very tender and juicy, with a nice fresh orange juice aroma.

The scientific nature of the cooking, combined with the plastics, has some people nervous, and it’s not my normal style, but I’m very excited about the prospects for the method in the food cart. What are your thoughts?