Ikura (Salmon Roe) Appetizer

Contains:  Seafood, dairy, potentially with wheat (gluten).  Is: Quick and easy, no cooking.

Can be made gluten and wheat-free by choosing the appropriate cracker.

Ikura is the Japanese word for salmon roe, a great find at sushi bars, where hereabouts it can be often found as sashimi, wrapped ether in seaweed with a rice underlayer, or in a small cup of hollowed out cucumber.  Sometimes it is served as a topping to a sushi roll. Once, I even ordered it as the seafood ingredient in a hand roll, with cucumber.   Salmon roe is sold preserved without the need for cooking.  (As are the other two types mentioned here.)

As far as crackers go – use a cracker without too much intrinsic taste, or any aftertaste.  One doesn’t want to mute out the taste of these fish eggs, after all!  None of those (faux) cheese-flavored crackers are a good notion.  I’ve yet to meet a cheese-flavored cracker to date that tasted truly as real cheese,  anyway.   Rice crackers would work for those people needing to be gluten and/or wheat free.

Cooking free!

INGREDIENTS:

• Crackers – I used Triscuits, Garden Herb flavor.  
• Cream cheese – regular, .Philadelphia brand s great, but lately I’ve discovered that Cabot’s brand is also good. 
• Salmon eggs.  (You could also use flying fish roe eggs, or even the too-pricey caviar sturgeon fish roe.)  
• Bits of fresh dill, for a nudge of extra flavor, and for aesthetics.  

METHOD: 

• Lay out the crackers. 
• Smudge the cream cheese as you desire on each cracker.
• Drop on some salmon eggs. 
• Artfully arrange dill for taste and appearance.

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Braised Whole Rabbit, with Apple, Onion, Tomato

Contains:  Nightshades.  Is: An unexpected meat.

When shopping back down in Connecticut just prior to Christmas Eve, in my searching for foods for the Feast of the Seven Fishes, I found a rabbit.  In a semi-splurgy mood, I took it home with me.

I’ve had rabbit before.  My parents would occasionally cook it, and there was one memorable occasion in Spain years ago, more of which at the end of the recipe.

Rabbit can be a very lean meat, so one has to take care in how it is to cook.  Low and slow is the direction I took.  Added fat can help it – strips of bacon laid over the meat, perhaps?  But I didn’t have bacon.  Braising liquids, especially of an acidic nature?  Yes, this I could do, and did.

This was a whole rabbit.  It even came with some of the innards. Two kidneys, a liver, and, for some unknown reason, two hearts.  For this recipe, I discarded the liver, but kept the other organs.   The brand’s name is D’Artagnan.

The rabbit with stock/broth, apples and onion. Plus some seasoning.

Prep Time:  15 minutes.
Cook Time:  2.5 hours.
Rest Time: 10 minutes.
Serves: 3.
Cuisine:  Not specified.
Leftovers:  Why not?

The canned tomato has now been added.

Braised Rabbit, with Apple, Onion, Tomato

INGREDIENTS:  

• One fresh or thawed rabbit, about 2.5-3.0 pounds, cleaned.  Hearts and kidneys can be retained.
• Approximately two tablespoons of Better than Boullion chicken or vegetarian stock added to water.  Low sodium is preferred but not essential.  Alternatively, any good homemade chicken or vegetable stock should work.  The amount of liquid will depend on the size of the pan – it should com up halfway or so to the top of the main parts of the rabbit.
• 1 apple, core removed.  Chopped into about 5-6 segments.  Leaving skin on is fine.
• 2 medium onions, quartered or so. 
• 28 ounce / 794 gram can of whole peeled tomatoes.
• Juice of one lime.
• 1/2 teaspoon or so of ground allspice.
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground white pepper. 
• Salt, if needed – or add at the table.  

METHOD: 

Pre-heat oven to 325 F / 165 C.

If needed to fit the rabbit into the braising pan, cut/break it into half.  Situate in pan, and if keeping add the kidneys and heart(s) into the chest cavity.  Add liquid – if using the Better than Boullion, follow the jar directions.  Otherwise just pour in homemade stock.

Add apple chunks around and in the rabbit chest cavity.

Squeeze in the lime juice, especially onto the rabbit and apple.  Add the onion chunks.  Sprinkle on the allspice and ground pepper, and any desired salt.  Since I didn’t use the reduced sodium Better than Bouillion, I figured if I needed some, I could do that while eating; your mileage may vary.

Add the can of tomatoes, sauce and all, over the top, spread around as need be.

Bake at 325 F for two and a half hours.  When ready, the leg meat should pull away from the bone.  Rest and serve.  (Roasted and salted new potatoes with rosemary or fennel seeds would make an excellent side.)

NOTES:   

Rabbt meat can be dry.  I am pleased to note that the D’Artagnan rabbit, cooked low and slow, braised with plenty of liquid and acid ingredients, is not.  For a wild rabbit, I’d suggest a a few slices of bacon atop, along with cooking for three hours before testing.  One would have little idea of the age of a truly free-range wild rabbit.

Flavor is somewhere between that of white meat / dark meat of chicken.  And at least here, the meat’s texture is not dry or grainy like standard chicken breast.  And, it is tasty.

Ah, that venture in Spain!  I was in high school when the parents  took us to Spain – Dad had business there.  We stayed in a very small and rural town near Cadiz for about ten days.  There was one restaurant in the area.  If it had a name, we never saw the signage.  It had dirt floors.  Although we had a cabin to stay in, equipped with kitchen facilities, we often went to that eatery. Since we were near the coast, the specials were usually some variety or other of seafood.  There was no printed menu.

I knew some Spanish from taking Spanish, but 1) our language classes did not include food items, and 2) I was learning Cuban-accented Spanish from a Cuban refugee, not Castellan, and 3) I can’t track languages if spoken too fast. So, I was of little use here.

The days we’d eaten there – it had been seafood every time before.  So when the manager or owner started jumping up and down with his hands waving over his head to attempt to cross the language barrier, we were confused.  I come from adventurous stock – we said, “Si, por favor!”

We were served rabbit, a portion of one large rabbit for each of the four of us.  And with a flourish, the manager/owner slid the portion of honor to my mother.

She gasped.  The head.  Staring up at her.

Mother was an adventurous eater but that was a step beyond her.  She exchanged the head with Dad for some of his other portions of rabbit.

I don’t remember how this rabbit was prepared – too many years gone past – but that it was indeed good.  (The rabbit I just cooked, though “whole” came headless, btw.)

Asian-Inspired Pork Broth Soup

Contains:  Eggs.  Is: Quick and easy, gluten-free, dairy-free.

This pork broth hadn’t been made to the level of a bone broth – no collagen, but certainly a lot of flavors mostly from the pork itself.  But most of the commercial bone broths seem to be made on the level of little to no collagen that would remotely set up in the refrigerator, anyway.

One could consider this an egg drop soup, and indeed an egg has been dropped in here.  But this is different and more simple.  And there is no thickening slurry incorporated.  (But one of course can always do so!)  This is simply an extra soup to warm one up, and would be good served aside a basic greens salad with ginger/carrot dressing.   For more people to serve:  scale up. 

Prep Time:  10 minutes.
Cook Time:  10 minutes.
Rest time:  Just enough that one does not burn oneself.
Serves: 1.
Cuisine:  Asian (Chinese or Taiwanese) Inspired.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1.5-2 cups / 350-475 mL pork broth, preferably home-made as a part of some other recipe
• A good handful or two of snow peas, broken in halves (or thirds, if large)
• 2-3 ounces / 60-85 g of shiitake or button mushrooms, broken into pieces, and if shiitake, with stems removed.
• 1 coarsely chopped green onion/scallion
• 1 whole egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice powder.
• .Salt and pepper, to taste.  (Do not oversalt! If you are using a pre-packaged broth, you might want to avoid salt all together, even if you have gone with a low sodium variety.  Extra salt can always be added at the table, with no problem in this recipe.)  

METHOD:

Make your prepping station items.  

To a lightly simmering pot of broth, add all the other ingredients except the egg.  

Simmer at a heavy simmer until the mushrooms are softened and cooked, about 5-10 minutes, stirring enough to keep an eye on this.  

Remove from the cooking element/hob, and stir in the egg, while the liquid is steaming but not boiling, and with a medium sense of incorporation.  You should have nice strands of egg white, egg yellow, and an admixture.  Serve into a bowl and enjoy.  If you need to keep some in reserve, replace the pot to the cooktop, and keep heat down close to minimal. (Or at minimal, if gas). 

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Update on Life:  I’ve simply become involved in a lot of other things than cooking – I still cook, but mostly recipes already posted here (or similar enough to not want to post again).  I have also made recipes I hoped to post, but they did not make the final cut.  (I present you, Pasta Carbonara – made properly, even with the guanciale and NO cream and NO peas – it looked great but was saltier than the Dead Sea.  I may well have a lower level of salt taste intolerance than many…?  Or it was a highly over-salted lug of guanciale?)  I also had a really good recipe I wanted to try back at the last Asian New Year with a whole fish – but I could not for the life of me find a whole fish up where I currently live!  The point of using that fish is that it fits into the symbolism of the Chinese /Taiwanese /Korean/ Vietnamese/etc. New Year, so a fillet isn’t just going to do proper service.  

Recipes planned for the future:  Ceasar’s Salad (with Anchovies), Greek-Style Lemony Chicken over Potatoes, Vegetarian Lentil-Stuffed Eggplant, Pasta Carbonara (attempt II, but with pancetta), Xinjiang Cumin Lamb, He Jia Tuan Yuan (Tofu Ball Soup), and a variety of dishes featuring cabbage, primarily from eastern European or southeast Asian cultures, some vegetarian, others not.  It also looks as though there may be a couple recipes with ground venison in the offing.  

There are also a few more homesteading posts on the docket.

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Ahi Tuna: Fish Tacos with Egg, Cabbage, Cheese

Contains:  Fish, dairy, egg.  Is:  Quick and easy, gluten-free.

Well, this is quick and easy if you make certain you’ve done all the prep work, or you prefer to dirty up two skillets.  (Or, both.)

Other types of fish steak would be as good as the ahi tuna – swordfish or halibut, for instance.

The small corn tortillas I used said “extra thin” – I’d recommend using a “regular thin” type, or doubling the tortillas as the extra thin try to fall apart.

A suggestion for layering:

Prep Time:  10-15 minutes.
Cook Time: 15 minutes.
Rest Time: for the fish – 3-4 minutes. 
Makes two tacos.
Cuisine:  Mexican-influenced.

INGREDIENTS:

• • Half pound of ahi tuna steak.  It is hard to find a smaller package, but a quarter pound will do fine.  You can cook it all and reserve half for adding to, say, a future salad.  
  • About 1/3 cup of shredded cabbage, loosely packed. 
  • 1 scallion/green onion, chopped.  
  • 1 beaten egg.
  • 2 ounces Oaxaca cheese, sliced.  (You can shred it if you don’t plan on lightly “cooking” it.)  
  • 1/4 teaspoon or so of dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
  • 1/4 teaspoon or so of ground cumin.
  • 1/4 teaspoon or so of ground alspice.
  • 1/8 teaspoon of ground black pepper.  
  • Butter or cooking oil, about a tablespoon or so.  
  • 2 soft corn taco tortillas per person (with the proviso noted in the intro, that the “extra thin” can be a bit fragile – so perhaps double-tacos may be in order for you.)  PS> If you prefer flour, that’s fine of course.
  • Garnish with chopped cilantro, perhaps a squeeze of lime or a few dashes of hot sauce.

METHOD:

Prep everything so that it is ready to go – but don’t slice the fish up just yet.

In a skillet, heat the butter or cooking oil to medium/medium high.  If butter, do not let it smoke, but this is fine if it turns into brown butter while cooking the fish.  Add the fish, and about half of the seasonings to the exposed upper side, sprinking around.  Plan on about 3-5 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the fish steak, and how well you like it done – the freshest ahi tuna does NOT need to cooked through (I cannot vouch for swordfish or halibut, though).  However, in any case, I would not cook fish to dryness…

At the time you decide to flip the fish, do so, and sprinkle the rest of the seasonings over the newly exposed side.  Cook this side again as above, 3-5 minutes.

On the other side of the skillet, toss in the cabbage and scallions while the above is cooking.

Remove the fish, set aside.  Finish cooking the greens, using a spatula to mix this around.  Set aside with the fish, and quickly lower the cooktop temperature.  If you need more oil or butter, add a drab now.  (This temperature change works well on both gas and induction; for conventional electric, you may want to have a second burner/hob ready.)

Scramble your egg as you normally prefer – if you can use the original skillet, you’ll pick up extra flavors from what has gone before.

Set that aside.  Now, heat up your taco shells in the already-buttered or oiled skillet, about 20-30 seconds a side.  This is NOT a necessary step, and if I am cooking for more than two, I won’t be doing this.  Another option (besides keeping the tortillas at room temp all along) is to have them waiting all along in in a 200 F or less oven.  If you keep them on the skillet too long, they will turn hard – and if you prefer hard taco shells, it is possible to remove these and drape them over an approximately 1 inch diameter dowel allowing them to harden into that shape.  I’ve never tried this – because I haven’t had to – so I cannot provide the timing.

Turn the cooktop burner/hob OFF.  Add the cheese slices should you wish the cheese to arrive warm and melted into your taco.  You can keep the skillet on the burner if gas or induction, otherwise I’d remove it to someplace else.  With most easy-melt cheeses this won’t take long for some level of melting to occur – but you don’t want bubbling nor burning.   If you go the non-melted style – which I wouldn’t recommend for a large batch of people – simply sprinkle over items in each taco.  ***

Be slicing the fish, then add strips down a tortilla center line.   Add in portions of all your other ingredients along and over that line, at your whim for how you’d like this to be or taste.

Eat and enjoy!

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NOTES:  Back in 2019, when I had a big party for about 15-16 of us, and the date also fell on Cinco de Mayo, I had people with various allergies, sensitivities, religious and other convictional restrictions present.  To the extent that I would not be able to produce a meal that would entirely please everyone, (maybe a meal of (corn)bread, broccoli and water would have worked??) but I certainly could provide a meal that people could assemble themselves, ignoring items they could not eat on the way.

..This recipe is being shared with Fiesta Friday,

Dining Out: Los Latinos, Holyoke Mall, Massachusetts 01040.

I ate here earlier this summer, when I renovated / got a new cell phone.  I think this place serves mostly to the Latino area population rather than to us Gringos – I was the only non-Hispanic that lunch meal.  Another clue could be the items not normally seen in a “standard” US Latino restaurant.  This place also caters highly to the take-out crowd – although I ate in place (over an hour to drive home after dealing with Xfinity) there was only one other eat-in table doing the eating-in thing.

Xfinity/Comcast is likely the only reason I will appear in Holyoke as I foresee – and before someone tells me to change my Internet Provider, the only other option where I live is satellite Internet.  It was useful, but every time it was remotely stormy at home — NO Internet.  Verizon was supposed to provide land line phone service – but other people were grandfathered in on my street – new folk like myself… for awhile, no, just get two cups and a string and call it good!  The closest Xfiniity/Comcast store is that hour away or so, at the Holyoke mall.

Another note: When I bought my rural land:  It was 1997 or 8.  Cell phones existed, but I didn’t consider learning about service back then – few did.  Would I have bought this property back then, should I have known?  Especially since I was already quite online since the late 1980s?   Quite likely.  This place will always sing to me.  It just took a lot longer than most areas to get cell service – and I still don’t get any back at the chicken coops.  WiFi at home – luv it!

Back to the food (please!)

I grew up on odd bits of meat and veggies and such.  Dad wanted to try everything, and if he were still here with me today, he’d likely have ordered this dish.  At least the section to the right.  I learned to try everything at least once (I do draw the line at endangered species, primates, puffer fish, house cats, anonymous mushrooms, live Korean baby octopi, and very likely several other items), because much came with my home and family.  Try everything served to you at least once (unless allergic).

The meal above was excellent.  To the left is alcapurias of banana – an excellent, mildly seasoned, and not sweetened dish whose main ingredient is banana.  It was listed as a side.   To the right is a dish made of pork stomach – what would be known as tripe if it came from an ungulate.  Listed as cuajito on their menu.

If I go that way again, I will try other dishes and add to this post.  The house specialty is allegedly Puerto Rican tamales (Pasteles en yoja hunta).  And, of course, not everything is organ meat.   I just see it out at restaurants so rarely that I find myself wanting to try alternative preps.  And in the case of pork stomach – this was something I’d never tasted before.  Glad I did.

If I get in the region again, I will try their Puerto Rican tamales (pastales en hoja yunta).  They also have conch and octopus on their menu, as well as standard meats.

I liked the food here a lot.  The ambiance is geared for take-out,  and if you do sit in, there’s a TV playing Latino videos – which were music videos for the most part while I was there.

Los Latinos is open for lunch and dinner.

Los Latinos, Holyoke Mall, 50 Holyoke Street, Holyoke, MA, 01040.
This mall is HUGE.  Although from I-91, there should be an easy on-off entrance.

DNA-Testing My New Cat, Bjorn

While DNA kits have been available for a few years for dogs and cats, I never saw the point in testing either Obi-Wan (Kenobi) or Serenity (Miw).  I knew what breeds both were, and Obi-Wan came with papers.  And both were old enough that preparing for health troubles that a lot of these results mark for cats at a younger age didn’t seem necessary.  And yes, a good case can be made that testing my new kitty, Bjorn, for such probably isn’t necessary, either – but being a curious sort of human (who has done her own DNA testing via 23andMe), I decided, why the heck not!  A present for him, not that he’ll appreciate it, especially not the cheek-swabbing part.

So, the kit arrived from Chewy.  I ordered the “Wisdom Panel:  Complete for Cats”, developed with veterinarians according to the packaging.  Just swab, activate online, and mail.

You do have to wait at least a half hour since your feller has eaten, or has shared his water with any other household pets.  Otherwise you may discover your cat is part albacore tuna and part turkey.  (The latter of which he may be, anyway… 🙂  Bjorn really didn’t like the procedure at all, but it only lasted a very short time, even if he disagreed.  Let the brush dry, and seal it up, send it in (register online of course).  It took three weeks to get his results, and they will keep in touch as more and more information comes in from a bundle more of cat samples, to better fine-tune your own furball’s information.

There is much less information in the cat world than there is for the dog (or human) world.  It will take more time for this to settle out.  And dogs have been bred purposefully to breeds for a lot longer than cats.

Bjorn’s results (there are no HIPPA restrictions on sharing feline or canine information without consent… Ha!)

Western

• • 63% American Domestic Cat – pretty much a designation of “mutt” or “alley” – can’t determine.
  • 16% Norwegian Forest Cat
  • 7% European Domestic Cat – “mutt” or “alley” in my book…
  • 2% Sphynx
• Persian

  • 9% Scottish Fold
  • 3% Persian

Anything listed as 5% or less, I’d take with massive grains of salt, at least until this testing develops more “legs”.  The higher the percentage, the more confidence you can have in the cat’s ancestral breeds.  So, I am discounting the Sphynx and Persian – and Wisdom Panel seems to do so, as well.  They simply just mention those two.

There are some personality traits Norwegian Forest cats seem to share, that upon doing a web scan, my (aptly named) Bjorn seems to have.

A recent review of three kits (not done by me):

He does not appear to be at risk for any of the genetic-linked diseases this kit tests for.  (They do keep his info on file, and if this company is anything like 23andMe, they will send updates as their technology and database of other cats grows.)

Not sure how all the following plays in:

He is NOT  a jumper, and when he tries anyway, he is apt to land on the floor in a face plant.  Fortunately, this keeps him off my kitchen counters.  And he is happy that I kept my old geriatric cat’s (Serenity aka Miw)’s plushie staircase to my bed.  Serenity would use them to go down so as not to jar her two-decades-old of hips – she jumped up just fne; he uses them to come up, and jumps down just fine.

He pursues and sometimes catches mice – I think he plays with them until they are “no fun” any more, at which point he simply drops and ignores them.  A surprise, since he was caught on the streets of North Carolina as a homeless cat bum.  But I don’t think he was on the streets for more than a month or three.  He’s friendly, with a few behavioral quirks.  And he’s amazingly picky (more so than any other cat I’ve had) over what type of cat food he’ll eat.  Then again, when you are on The Streets, discarded cans of catfood don’t automatically open for you!  He does like my discarded chicken and pork bones – the trash disposal problem around him has now been taken care of, since cats (and dogs) should never have bones that have been cooked. Splinters.  He didn’t seem to be interested in bones themselves, anyway – it was the connective collagen or any last drabs of muscle.

His fur is medium long to long.  This may be a legacy of his Norwegian ancestry.  So – glad I named him Bjorn.

I love this little dude!!!  When he wishes, he can be such a cuddle-bum!

Dining Out: Carm’s Restaurant, Chester, Massachusetts, 01011

At one point this building was a Mobil Service Center – definitely dating back to pre-WWII years.  Near the top of the building is a early Mobil Pegasus.  Currently, about two thirds of the building is devoted to the restaurant.  Yes, this is directly on the Historic Route 20, a route that runs from Boston to Oregon, and sounds like something I’d like to drive some day, if I can find chicken/quail/cat sitters up for the lengthy task in my absence!  Or, perhaps Bjorn would care to join me – he’s the Man of the House, fuzzy cat as he might be!

Limited outdoor dining is available in more pleasant weather.  There is no sun shield from early morning sun, but as the day goes on, the building itself will block excess brightness.  Throughout the pandemic, real flatware – no junky plasticware – was served to all but (obviously) take-out customers.  On real plates, for which I commend them.

Breakfasts I have tried and liked – sorry, I don’t photograph everything! 

Cheese Grits with Shrimp,  Bacon. Tomato.  This Southern-inspired breakfast item is both extremely filling and very, very good.  In fact, the only grits dish I’ve loved shy of my Old Kentucky Home’s grandmother’s grits.  (Which I did my best to re-create in an earlier post on this blog.)

Huevos Rancheros.  Corn tortillas, Andouille, cheddar, salsa, two eggs.  A nice but not overwhelming level of spice apparently comes from the Andouille and the salsa.  I recommend.

The breakfast sandwiches.  They have several good ones, but my favorites are the smoked salmon with egg, cream cheese and tomato.  Or the Florentine sandwich with spinach, tomato, egg, and Swiss cheese.  For the smoked salmon, I show a cross-section.  I like mine on rye toast.  But sourdough bread now appears to be an option.  (I’ll take that, too!)   The default eggs are over easy (which I prefer if I am eating on site as opposed to while on the road – the sloppiness factor!), but one can ask for them medium or hard cooked – or probably even scrambled, should you desire).

The Omelets.  (There are also “scramble” options, but I’m not as in favor of those – but I am EXTREMELY picky about my scrambled eggs and their texture… I need my large soft curds to be happy….  and nothing watery!)  At any rate, you can pick from a large variety of established omelets or create your own.  Usually andouille sausage is available. 

Oatmeal.  It’s the real stuff, and you can add a choice of fresh fruit into this.  You can get it with nuts or dried things (raisins).  And with honey (I prefer maple syrup to honey.)

Sometimes they have specials – I love it when they have their various eggs Benedict specials – Florentine or smoked salmon options are great!  Their Hollandaise is actually home made (thus, edible), with enough lemon in it to ante up the enjoyment.  Eggs Benedict is a dish not typically on their menu and appears as a very rare special.  .

I am not crazy about their home fries – if I remember, I ask not to have them, or to substitute with those (admittedly unhealthy but I like ’em anyway) tater tots.  (Note, they have discontinued the tater tots.)  The problem with the home fries is that they are bland and flavorless.  You can ask for onions to be cooked with them, but frankly, onions need to be added in advance of such preparation so that the flavor can meld with the spuds.

Breakfast choices also include pancakes, French toast, oatmeal with a bunch of additions, and… And the coffee is very good.   Maple syrup is a given (not that high fructose corn syrup stuff!)   Pancakes are served with the option of blueberry, strawberry, banana add-ins, chocolate chip or nut add-ins.  They also have Elvis-style pancakes, which would be exactly as you’d expect – and something I don’t conceive my ever ordering, even for the sake of any requests via this blog!  The French toast comes as a sandi with cheddar and ham inside – I like ham but I love sausage, so I switch the ham out for sausage.

They also cook up home made biscuits and some other breads.  Their menu item, Southern biscuits and sausage gravy, contains their homemade biscuits.  (I haven’t tried this yet.  I have to be seriously in the mood for that ratio of bread and that level of heaviness…)

Lunches – I am not often going to go for lunch, but…

My favorite is their vegetarian chili.  Absolutely perfect.  You can make it vegan by opting out of the optional cheese or sour cream toppings.

The BLT is great for take out on-the-road.

The steak sandwich (I have it on toasted rye or sourdough) is very good, although I have once run into a chewy piece.  But overall, a keeper.

The burger is very good, and I can have it on toast/grilled, instead of a bun.  I generally don’t like buns – Actually, I seriously dislike buns – the food to bread ratio doesn’t sit well with me.  But you can order just about whatever type of bread material they have that suits your fancy here.  The burger also works fine to eat on the road.  And I do have to clarify something – they actually home-bake the buns here!  This one truly tasted good! First time in my entire life I’ve actually LIKED a hamburger bun!

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Staff are friendly, and they develop a rapport with regulars.  Bathrooms are clean.  Open six days a week from 7 am to 2 pm, but probably closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and occasionally they take other pre-announced days off.   Closed Tuesdays.  Early weekday mornings there may only be a cook and a waitperson there.  They also own another restaurant in town, Chester Common Table, open Wednesdays through Sundays in the evenings.  At some point I hope to be reviewing that one, too.

As with most diners, vegetarians will fare far better than vegans.  There is a vegetarian sausage option listed for breakfast – check to see if it is also vegan, should you need this.  That lunch time vegetarian chili is also vegan (just don’t ask for cheese or sour cream as a topping…)  I believe there’s a veggie burger patty option, too.  There are a number of lunch salads, which to be honest, I have yet to try.  Then again when I am there at lunchtime, I am usually on the road doing takeout, and salads are hard to eat while driving!

They usually have a good and varied selection of site-baked muffins, pastries, brownies (this one is gluten-free), and croissants.  While I avoid sweets at breakfast, I have taken some home to eat as dessert with dinner.

Carm’s Restaurant, 241 Route 20, Chester, MA, 01011 

Hours:  Wednesday through Monday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Closed Tuesdays.

Rating, 4.25 stars.

Baked Swordfish with Tomato

Contains:  Fish, nightshades.  Is;  Paleo, pescatarian, gluten-free, quick and easy.

Since swordfish is a mercury accumulator, I don’t often partake.

I made this for lunch today – very enjoyable.  The hunk of swordfish I had was nearly two thirds of  a pound in weight; and came in at an inch of thickness.  Bringing in the fresh summer-market tomatoes was an extra.

Prep Time: 10 minutes max.
Cook Time:  20 minutes.
Rest Time:  4-5 minutes.
Serves: 1-2, depending on swordfish size and any sides.
Leftovers: Sure.  Can even chop and add to a salad.

INGREDIENTS:

• Swordfish steak, ideally about an inch thick.  (2.5 cm).  
• 1 large tomato, preferably local and in season. 
• 1/4 teaspoon or so of ground smoked paprika (hot or mild)  
• 1/4 teaspoon or so of ground sumac.  
• Salt and pepper to taste.  
• A couple teaspoons of healthy cooking oil.  I used avocado oil. 

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 400 F / 205 C.

If you wish, peal the tomato, but this is not necessary.  However, remove the part that attaches to the stem, and slice the tomato reasonably thinly.  Set aside.

Dust both sides of the swordfish steak with the seasonings listed above.

In an oven-ready skillet, add the oil and heat it to medium high on your heating element or hub of the cooktop.  When the oil sizzles with a drop of water, add the swordfish for browning.  Cook each side for 2-3 minutes.

Take the skillet and place it in the oven.  For a one-inch thick steak, setting the timer for 10-12 minutes is good.  Adjust as needed.  But when about six minutes are left, remove the skillet from the oven, and add the tomatoes atop the swordfish, and perhaps to the side.  Return to oven for the balance of the cooking time.

Remove from oven, let rest for 4-5 minutes, and serve.

I have not been around for a while,  I’ve been busy — writing.  And when I’ve made a few recipes this past spring or winter, I didn’t care for them enough to wrangle them into posts.

But I will now be around more regularly.  Various recipes are in the works, and if they actually DO work, they’ll show up here.

More discussions of changes in my life plans may occur later – I learned this past winter, for one, that I am no longer going to be capable of raising goats or sheep or alpaca here. My ankle and my knees will not sustain that.  It was a hard and disappointing thing to come to realize for certain.

But… looking towards turkeys in 2024.  I am still interested in the homesteading life.

Shared with the following link parties: 

Fiesta Friday

What’s for Dinner:  Sunday Link-Up

Braised Denver Cut Lamb Ribs, with Yakiniku or Oyster Sauce, and Cumin

Contains:  Soy, wheat, gluten, nightshades (small amount of paprika).  Is:  Dairy-free.

NOTE:  If you use oyster sauce, there are shellfish (oysters) in there.  Yakiniku sauce (I obtained this online) contains no shellfish or seafood products.  Both have the same consistency for cooking, however.  A mildly different taste, but one can substitute readily.

Yes, they are more bone than meat, but they taste good and tender to have on occasion.  I don’t “French” them – why get rid of more meat?  This is not a high-class restaurant, but good home cooking taking inspirations from around the world.  Yes, I don’t “French” ANY ribs.  But you do you.

Denver cut rib make use of the breast ribs of lamb or sheep and are analogous to short ribs from pork or beef.  I find that the Denver cut is meatier than the “regular cut” lamb breast bones, but I received those from another source.  (I do much prefer to source meats I cook at home from local, free-range farmers.  And I fear my body is falling apart too fast that I can ever live to my original goal of raising my OWN sheep and goats and alpaca for meat or woll…  For instance, my back is telling me I shouldn’t even be sitting here at my keyboard today…)

I am doing a semi- Asian take on this, because I ended up trying this recently, and I liked the way these ribs turned out.  The lamb, by the way, comes from a local farmer, and was free-ranged.  The sauce is Japanese; one can use Chinese oyster sauce instead.  The cumin is NOT east-Asian, but it wanted to join this dish.  Lamb itself is not a part of east Asian cuisine.

Prep Time:  5 minutes.
Cook Time:  3 hours.
Rest Time:  5-10 minutes.
Serves:  2.
Cuisine:  N/A.
Lefovers:  Yes.

INGREDIENTS:

• Approximately one pound of Denver cut lamb ribs Optionally, remove silverskin if your butcher has not.  Remove excess pads of fat if any.
• 3 heaping tablespoons of either Yakiniku or Oyster sauce.
• Two teaspoons of cumin seeds.  Optionally, you can lighty grind them, but not all the way into a powder.

METHOD:

Pre-heat oven to 275 F.

With the meatier side of the ribs up, slather on the sauce, spread it around.

Sprinkle the cumin atop.

Add 1/4 – 1/3 cup of water to the pan, but do not add directly over the meat, asyou don’t want to wash the seasonings away.

Bake for about three hours, or until tender.

Remove, let rest 5-10 minutes.

Serve, slicing ribs into individual ones.

Shared with the following link parties: 

Fiesta Friday

What’s for Dinner:  Sunday Link-Up

Stuffed Poblano Pepper Boats: Scallops, Shallot, Za’atar

Contains:  Shellfish, nightshades.  Is:  Paleo, gluten-free, quick and easy. 

Since poblano peppers don’t stand on their bottoms, I decided to make “boats” instead – which is actually the way I usually prepare stuffed bell peppers.  Slice them lengthwise.   I went cross-cultural and decided on a za’atar blend for the seasoning.  Chopped de-shelled and de-veined shrimp can also be used in this recipe – or pre-cooked octopus.  Vegetarians and vegans may opt for medium-textured tofu.

I decided to stuff poblano peppers for a bit more ‘zing’!

Prep Time:  15 minutes including a light sautéing of the shallots.
Cook Time:  30 minutes.
Rest Time:  Not needed.
Serves:  1 poblano per person, but do have a side.
Leftovers:  Certainly.

INGREDIENTS:  (Per Person)

• 1 large poblano pepper, stem removed, sliced once longitudinally to create two “boats”.  Remove seeds.  
• 5 or 6 large sea scallops, chopped to about 1/4 inch fragments.  
• One large peeled shallot, peeled and diced.  You can use half a medium onion instead.  
• 1 teaspoon Za’atar powder.  
• A touch of cooking oil.

METHOD:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 F.

Pan fry / sauté the shallot in the oil for maybe five minutes, or until translucent.

Allow to drain off any excess oil on a paper towel, and let cool for a few minutes.

Mix the shallots, scallops and Za’atar together.  Stuff into each half of the poblano.

Bake for 30 minutes.

As a serving option, serve with either rice, or a potato dish.

This recipe is shared with:

• What’s for Dinner?  Sunday Link-Up
• Fiesta Friday