Pre-and-Post-Apocalyptic Dining

Never let it be said that, when faced with uncertainty or adversity, we don't eat well.

As the frenzy surrounding Hurricane Irene increased, Victor's mom started getting nervous.  She only lives a couple of miles from us but was getting a bit uncomfortable with the relentless hype.  We brought her over to spend the night with us.

That, of course, meant dinner!  Any excuse to cook at our house.  I was at work and picked her up on my way home.

We keep a reasonably well-stocked larder at all times and I really hadn't thought about bringing home more food to get us through the storm, but our eating habits are a bit different than an 85 year old.  I needed to gear some meals more towards her tastes, so I picked up  a few additional goodies to get us through a couple of meals.

Victor started dinner.

Stuffed peppers, baked ravioli, and homemade focaccia.  Perfect.

The focaccia was made with bread dough I had in the fridge, topped with ricotta cheese, pesto, and cappacola.

The peppers were from the garden.

Victor stuffed them with crumbled Italian sausage, celery, onion, green peppers, and bread crumbs - all sauteed in olive oil, stuffed into the halved peppers, topped with sauce, and baked at 350° for about 30 minutes.

The ravioli were layered in a pie plate with sauce and baked along side the peppers.

Very basic and simple - perfect for Mom.

I also picked up a whole chicken to roast. I figured if the power went off I could still roast it on the grill outside.

I didn't have to worry about it.  When we awoke this morning the cable was out but thanks to the weather-gods, we never lost electricity.   And I didn't have to worry about more meals for Nonna.  By 7:30am, she decided the storm had passed and she was ready to go home. After a piece of toast and a cup of coffee, Victor took her home.

And I had a lovely organic chicken just for the two of us...

I really like a simple roast chicken.  A good chicken doesn't need a lot of adulteration.  Unfortunately, good chickens have become more and more difficult to find.  Chickens are factory-farmed and - like so many foods today - bred for profit not flavor.  When you look at a supermarket chicken and see that it includes 14% to 22% "solution" you know you're getting an inferior product they are trying to flavor with stuff that shouldn't be there.

Which is why I buy organic.  The flavor comes from the bird - not additives.

I placed the bird in a pan, rubbed it with butter, and sprinkled it with salt and pepper.  Into the cavity, I placed a single lemon.  It went into a 350° oven for 35 minutes and then I placed the potatoes in and raised the temperature to 425° for another 20 minutes.

It came out great.  Crispy skin for Victor and tender juicy meat.

And the beauty of the simple preparation is the rest of the bird is going to make an outrageous traditional chicken salad, tomorrow!

And the weather tomorrow?!?  Sunny and 78°.  The perfect temperature.

And I have the day off.


The Hurricane Cocktail

Back in early 1985 Hyatt sent me to New Orleans for two weeks for a management seminar.  Rooms at the Hyatt Regency, all meals included, bar tab picked up... And non-stop seminars.  Early morning to late night.  But being the fun and adventurous young man that I was - and seminaring with equally fun and adventurous young men and women - several of us would head out to the French Quarter every night to experience the Big Easy.

The first thing I did the first day I was there was get a Hurricane at Pat O'Brien's.

It was - by far - the most vile, disgusting drink I have ever had in my life.  OMG!  It was horrible.  Sickeningly sweet and mass-produced, it was downright bad.  I didn't enjoy it, either.  I did drink the whole thing, of course - there was a lot of rum in it, after all - but it's the one and only I have ever had. (I just shivered and broke out in goosebumps at the memory!)

I've made it to New Orleans a couple more times since then - the last time was with Victor in either 1999 or 2000.  His (then) company wanted to transfer him down there and they flew us down first class, put us up at the Fairmont, wined and dined us, and otherwise tried to make it the most appealing place on the earth.

This Liberal Yankee Gay Boy From San Francisco saw one too many Ol' Miss sweatshirts and rebel flags to feel comfortable moving there.  Victor's salary would have been nice, but we still wouldn't have been able to afford a home in The Garden District.  We actually did look at real estate for grins and giggles.  Areas that were prone to flooding and areas that weren't...  weird rules and such about who would be responsible for flood damage...

We said "Thanks, but no thanks."

And...  it really is a good thing we didn't move there.  We would have been there for Katrina.  And I am reasonably confident we would have been there for Katrina.  I have always had a sneaking suspicion we would not have evacuated.  Being the slightly pig-headed idiot I can be at times, it just seems that staying and riding out a hurricane would have been something that sounded like a fun thing to do.  Yeah...  you would have seen us on TV - live from the Super Dome.

So we go from Katrina to Irene.

In case you haven't heard...  there's a hurricane moving its way up the east coast.  Mandatory evacuations from Cape May to Atlantic City.  Heading towards New York City.  We're about 75 miles from the coast.  Not enough to worry about a direct hit, but close enough that the power can go out.  That would not be fun.

Or... other than no air conditioning, maybe it would.  I have several books on the Kindle still to read, an audio book on the iPod.  Plenty of food and a gas stove.  And, as long as there's cellular, we have the iPhones and iPad to amuse us, as well.

The one thing I know we won't be doing is making a

Hurricane

Ingredients:

  • 2 oz light rum
  • 2 oz dark rum
  • 2 oz passion fruit juice
  • 1 oz orange juice
  • juice of a half a lime
  • 1 Tbsp simple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp grenadine
  • orange slice and cherry for garnish

Preparation:

  1. Squeeze juice from half a lime into shaker over ice.
  2. Pour the remaining ingredients into the cocktail shaker.
  3. Shake well.
  4. Strain into a hurricane glass.
  5. Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice.

I have my standards.  As low as they are, I have my standards...

 

 


Risotto

The minute I got home from work today, I baked a loaf of bread.  It was to go with the risotto that I decided I had to have while making my 4-minute commute.  (It can actually be as much as 5 minutes if it's snowing and I miss the light.)  I did a mental check-list and figured I had what I needed.

Actually... the only things one really needs for risotto is the rice and parmesan cheese.  Everything else is just an add-on.

Risotto is one of those dishes that really impresses - but is totally simple to prepare.  30 minutes start-to-finish and you can have a really fabulous meal on the table.

And anything can go in it!

The basic is 2 cups arbrio, carnaroli, or vialone nano rice.  The most common is arborio, but I do have a penchant for carnaroli because it is almost impossible to overcook it.  Vialone nano is slightly smaller and cooks faster and absorbs flavors better.  I actually buy all of them and will pick up whichever one strikes my fancy when I'm shopping.  They all work.

And then a cup of (usually) white wine, 7 cups of hot broth, and a cup of shredded parmesan.

The fun comes with the fillings.

Literally anything can go into risotto and I have put literally anything in them.  They can be great clean-out-the-'fridge-dishes.  And they are totally stellar with a lightly-poached or fried egg on top.  The yolk running down into the dish.....  Gastronomic heaven.

I almost always start with onions or leeks, a couple cloves of garlic, and mushrooms.  Tonight I went without garlic just because.  I also used a half-cup of marsala with a half-cup of water because  - horrors - we had no white wine in the house.  So much for my mental check-list.  I also used speck - an Italian smoked prosciutto that I had in the freezer.

Quick Risotto

  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 2 cups carnaroli rice
  • 4 oz mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 leek, chopped
  • 4 oz speck, cubed
  • 1/2 cup marsala mixed with 1/2 cup water
  • 7 cups hot chicken stock
  • 1 cup peas
  • 1/2 lb thick asparagus, cut in bite-sized pieces
  • 6 oz cooked langostino
  • 1/2 cup chopped parsley
  • 1 cup shredded parmesan
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Add butter to a large risotto pan.  Stir in leeks, mushrooms, and speck and cook, stirring often, about 3-4 minutes.  Add rice and stir well to coat rice grains with butter.  Cook about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until rice begins to get translucent.

Add marsala/water mixture and stir until liquid is almost gone.  Add hot broth one ladle at a time.  Stir continually until liquid is almost fully absorbed before adding next ladle.  Repeat untilyou have used about 3/4 of the liquid.

Add the asparagus and peas and mix in well.

Continue adding broth until rice is cooked.  I usually will use all of the broth.  Sometimes you may not need it all.

When everything is looking good, add the langostino and stir until they are heated through.

Stir in the cheese and parsley, and taste for seasoning.

This is Italian comfort-food.  Rich and creamy with an incredible flavor.  You can add and number of vegetables, change the wine, add different seafood, sausages, chicken, beef, or pork, make it completely vegetarian...  the sky's the limit.

This makes a lot - easily dinner for 4-6.  I have lots of leftovers and Victor will probably have some for lunch tomorrow and I'm planning on making risotto patties tomorrow night!

Yum!

 

 

 

 


Earthquakes and Comfort Food

The first earthquake I actually remember was March 22, 1957.  My mom was 7 months pregnant with my twin sisters, my older brother was at school, and my sister and I were playing in the back room - a room built out the back of the house on stilts.  It started swaying back and forth and we went running in to my mom, with our dog, Peanuts, barking.

That earthquake - as I just looked up - was a mere 5.3 on the Richter scale.  Small, but it caused a lot of damage.  Our house on 19th Avenue had a lot of cracks and plaster fell from ceilings and walls.  (It was all lathe and plaster.)  I remember being wide-eyed and "WHAT WAS THAT?!?" but I don't remember being scared.  Probably because my mom played it down so well.

Speaking with her about it years later, she confessed that she had been a  complete wreck inside - but couldn't let us see her fall apart.  She had to make sure that we weren't scared.  My fireman father was at the firehouse, of course, so it was up to her.  Married to a fireman and mother to - eventually - six children, it was a role she had to play often.

I think the road above is Skyline Boulevard - the west side of the lake.   Parts of it and John Muir Drive on the south side slid into the lake that March morning .  As kids we spent a lot of time riding our bikes to Lake Merced and going fishing.  After the quake, we all drove over there to see the damage.  Pop flashed his fireman's badge and we got to go in and see it all up close.  It was pretty cool growing up with a San Francisco Fireman for a father.

Another road that collapsed was El Camino del Mar.  It ran from Lands End above Sutros along the Golden Gate to Lincoln Park and then the bridge.  The section from Lands End to Lincoln Park was never repaired and Mother Nature has reclaimed most of it.  The section is now part of the GGNRA and called "The Earthquake Walk."

We lived right between the two of them.

The next good one was the1964 Alaska earthquake.  We didn't actually feel the quake in San Francisco, but, living a mere 2 blocks from the ocean, we were down there to surf the tidal wave in!  Hundreds - if not thousands - of people flocked to the beach that day.  Fortunately, we were all disappointed.  The tidal wave that destroyed Crescent City up by the Oregon border barely caused a ripple 350 miles south.  Fortunately.

I can't even begin to count the earthquakes I've felt over the years.  Most of them were "Oh.  Earthquake."  and ya keep on doing what you were doing.  The really damaging ones - like the 1989 quake - really are few and far between.

October 17, 1989.  I had received the phone call that I had been hired at San Francisco General Hospital earlier that day and was at my sister's in San Bruno getting ready to watch the World Series.  We lost power for a few days and in those pre-world wide web and cell phone days, the nation watched what was happening but we were clueless.  All we had were battery-operated radios and they were hyping things left and right.  The sky was definitely falling.  When we heard the Bay Bridge had collapsed and the Cypress freeway had collapsed, we didn't believe it.  Surprise.

So... fast-forward 22 years and here I am outside of Philadelphia when a 5.9 earthquake hits - and I don't even feel it!  Talk about cheated!  I rather like the superior nonchalant "Oh. That little thing? Did a truck drive by?"  attitude that only a native San Franciscan who has survived a score of earthquakes can pull off with perfect aplomb.

I'm bad.  I admit it.  And I was cheated!

Nonetheless, I decided we should have something "San Francisco-ish" from my childhood for dinner.  Victor and Cybil did, after-all, feel the quake.   They would need comforting.  I decided upon Hamburger and Potatoes.

My mother knew how to stretch a pound of hamburger and this was always one of my favorites... Fried potatoes in one pan, hamburger, onions, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and S&P in the other.  When both are cooked, they are combined and served.

Since we still have a few bell peppers from the garden, I added them, too.

The perfect comfort food for a stroll down Earthquake Memory Lane...

 


Skirt Steak Cuban-Style

There are so many things to cook - and I feel as if I make the same things over-and-over-and-over...

I'm in a rut.

No... I take that back - it's not a rut.  I'm ready for season-change.  I've been living in a closed-up house with air conditioning because it has been so miserable outside.  I'm ready for open windows and cool nights.  And no humidity.

The next few days are supposed to be relatively nice before the rains return on the weekend.

But it's sill officially summer, so I should be thinking officially summer-type food.

Skirt steak to the rescue.

Skirt steak used to be an inexpensive cut of beef.  Great for fajitas and great for Asian stir-fry's.   And then it got popular.

Like everything else.

We have fresh peppers still coming from the garden, so I decided they would be the focal-point.  The recipe idea was based in part by a fish I had at the Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman a few years ago.  I remember peppers and raisins and cinnamon and allspice.  I think the fish was grouper.  It was really good.

But back to the present... I just did a simple salt, pepper, garlic rub on the steak because I was going to put that fairly flavorful pepper topping on it.

Caribbean Peppers

  • 2 bell peppers, cut in thin strips
  • 1/4 cup slivered almonds
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup coconut vinegar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • pinch cinnamon
  • pinch allspice
  • pinch cloves
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Lightly saute peppers in a bit of olive oil.  Add almonds and lightly brown.  Add tomato paste and cook about 2 minutes, stirring all the while.

Add vinegar and then water, scraping pan.  Add spices and raisins and heat through.

Serve over beef, chicken, pork, or seafood...

Really simple and really flavorful.  It adds a nice touch to an otherwise uneventful plate!

 

 


Pork Tenderloin with Cherries

I had a few cherries left - maybe a cup and a half - that were close to losing their oomph.  Not being able to let things go to waste, I thought a cherry sauce on a pork tenderloin would be a fun way to use them up.

A million or so years ago I worked at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe.   I was hired as a cook at their gourmet lakeside restaurant, Hugo's Rotisserie.  Hugo's signature dish was the rotisserie duck.  Unbelievably good, it came as a classic l'orage, with a green peppercorn sauce, and a magnificent cherry sauce, among others...  I think we used Montmorencies, but I'm not really sure.  It was 1976.  The fact that I remember I lived at Take Tahoe at all is rather remarkable.

That sauce had our hand-made demi-glace, kirsch, the cherries... it was silken-smooth and studded with perfectly-halved cherries.  As it should be in a gourmet resort hotel restaurant.

I knew I wasn't about to replicate that sauce but I also knew "savory" and "cherry" went very well together.  I had several directions I could go.

I decided a bit spicy-sweet was the way to go...

Cherry Sauce

  • 1 1/2 cup cherries, pitted
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/4 cup bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 serrano chile, minced
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 small tomato, chopped
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 2 tbsp white vinegar
  • 1/4 tsp cumin
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Saute onion, garlic, and peppers in a bit of olive oil until wilted.  Add tomato paste and cook to remove raw tomato taste.  Add cumin and cook to remove raw taste.  Add tomatoes, wine, and vinegar.  mix well.

Add cherries and heat through.  Mash some cherries to release juices.

Check for seasoning and ass salt and pepper, as desired.

The flavor-profile was at the opposite end of the spectrum from Hugo's, but it worked really well.  The slightly-southwestern spices with the sweet cherries was a fun combination.  And it worked perfectly with a grilled pork tenderloin.

 

 


Sausage Pasties

Victor came into the kitchen yesterday and asked what I was making for dinner.  I replied "Pasties."   He said "Oh!  Those things that twirl..." as he started moving his index fingers in opposite directions...  Have you ever wanted to pick up a bag of flour and cover someone with it from head to toe?  And would you do it if you didn't have to clean up the mess?!?  I said PAY-stees, not PAA-stees.  I should have just said a meat pie.

On the other hand...  have you ever seen a really talented set of pasties in action?!?  Awe-inspiring.

But I digress.

I had taken some sausage out of the freezer thinking I might just do sausage and peppers and onions.  Simple enough.  But when I got home, I decided I wanted something different.

Out came the aforementioned bag of flour.

Pie Crust

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/3 cup pastry/cake flour
  • 2 sticks butter, frozen
  • pinch salt
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 cup ice water

Using a food processor, add flours, salt, and sugar. Pulse to mix.

Chop up frozen butter and add. Pulse until butter is incorporated and mixture looks grainy.

Slowly add ice water and pulse until mixed.

Turn out onto counter. Press and form mixture into two disks . Wrap in plastic and refrigerate about an hour to allow the flour to properly absorb the water and to relax the gluten.

Roll out crust and place in pie plate. Crimp edges and fill.

Pie crusts made, they went into the 'fridge

Then I made the filling.

It was a throw-together.  I used 4 links of hot Italian sausage, casings removed,  one peeled and diced potato, about a half-cup of chopped onion, 1 clove garlic, minced, a cup of peas, 1/2 cup grated asiago cheese, 4 oz cream cheese, salt and pepper.

I crumbled and cooked the sausage and added the onions, garlic, and then potatoes.  When everything was cooked, I added the peas, heated them through, and then stirred in the cheeses and then let it cool.

I used a bowl to cut out the individual pasties.  I brushed the edges with egg, filled them, folded them over and crimped with a fork.

They were brushed with egg and then went into a 425° oven for 30 minutes.

It was fun way to use otherwise ordinary ingredients.


Ground Beef. WWMD?!?

I had pulled out a package of ground beef from the freezer with no real idea of what I was going to make tonight.  This seems to be more and more of a common theme with me.  Get something out of the freezer and deal with it later.  Unfortunately, more often than not when I finally start thinking about it the mind comes up blank.  The ideas just weren't there.   So I decided to try and channel my mother.  She was queen of ground beef.  She knew a million and one ways to stretch a pound of hamburger to feed 8 people.  What Would Mommy Do?!?

I started rummaging through the cabinets and came across a single packet of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix.  A yellowed single packet of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix.  It had been around for a while.  It had to have been bought for some sort of gathering where we had Onion Dip.  When my brother was here in 2003?   Victor's mom's 75th birthday party when we had a really huge gathering?!?  (She turned 85 this past May.)

I don't really know.  I just know it wasn't really very recent.  It didn't even occur to me to throw it out.  The shelf-life has to be just short of plutonium.

So...  I started thinking back to those thrilling days of yesteryear and some of the things Mommy Dearest put onion soup mix in.  Meatloaf, for sure, but I wasn't really in a meatloaf mood.  I decided on the next best thing - meatballs!

In just a couple of minutes I had mixed up ground beef, bread crumbs, chopped celery, chopped parsley, half a package of onion soup mix, pepper, and an egg.  I scopped them onto a sheet pan and baked them off at 350° for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile I made the gravy...  I sauteed mushrooms in a bit of bacon grease (Mommy always saved her bacon grease) and when they were browned, I added a splash of Marsala.  (Mommy also cooked with Marsala a lot.)  Then added beef broth and the other half of the onion soup mix.  (My mother would have used bouillon cubes and water and the soup mix.  I never buy bouillon cubes. Ever.)  I then did a quick thickening with cornstarch and added the cooked meatballs to reheat.

Extra-wide eggs noodles and frozen peas were the perfect accompaniment.

And ya know...  it actually wasn't bad.  There were a couple of onion pieces that didn't quite rehydrate, but overall, it wasn't bad.  I don't think I'll be rushing out to replace the onion soup mix any time soon but it was fun trying to recreate a childhood recipe without having any idea whether I had ever had it before or not.  Of course, if I didn't have these, I had something pretty similar.

Thanks, Mom!


Fig-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I've had a jar of fig paste in the cupboard for ages.  I think I bought it in San Francisco at Cost Plus, but it also could have been something picked up at Wegman's.  I tend to unconsciously pick up jars of this-and-that.  And after our shopping trip today, I'm thinking the cabinets shall be falling off the wall at any moment.  Victor and I both went shopping together at Wegmans, today. I hadn't been in a while since it's now out of my way since I do Monday shopping for his mom, but I wanted to pick up a few things because lord knows, we didn't have enough cans and jars on the shelves already!   I spent a lot less that I expected to, but more than I needed to.   I brought some things down to the basement knowing I wouldn't be using them before fall...

"Hello.  My name is Tim.  I'm a food shopper."

Okay...  It's not really that bad...  Mostly.

We do have a no-regrets rule.  We buy it, we eat it.  And I will use those blocks of Guava Paste one of these days... Maybe a Guava-Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Cilantro-Jalapeño Salsa or some such thing.  And the score of Asian and Indian pastes?!?  I'm getting there as soon as the weather changes.  Hot curries and spicy soups and stews are the things of winter.

The fig paste coming off the shelves was really to make room for the new jar of Onions in Balsamic and since I had it in my hand, it was time to use it.

I was originally thinking fig paste and goat cheese as a stuffing, but the final result was:

  • 1/4 cup chopped onion
  • 1 link Italian sausage, crumbled
  • 1/2 cup fig paste
  • 1/4 cup diced fresh mozzarella cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 tbsp parsley
  • salt and pepper

I sauteed the onion, added the sausage and cooked it through.  I put it into a bowl, let it cool a bit, added the fig paste, cheese, and walnuts and a bit of salt and pepper.

I pounded chicken breasts, stuffed them, rolled them up and put into a 365° oven for 30 minutes.

While they were cooking, I sauteed some mushrooms, added a splash of Marsala and let it cook down, added a cup of chicken stock, let it cook down a bit and thickened it with a bit of cornstarch.  Instant mushroom sauce.

Whole-grain rice on the side.

The cabinets are full.  Time to start doing some serious cooking!

 

 


Brownies and Cherries

Fresh cherries + chocolate brownie mix = quick and easy dessert!

Brownies are totally easy to make from scratch but I almost always have a box in the cupboard for my lazier-than-lazy moments.

I still had a few fresh cherries left in the 'fridge, so, armed with my trusty cherry-pitter, I went to work.

We swear that we don't buy single-use gadgets and the like although the kitchen does seem to be full of them.  I bought this particular single-use gadget when I entered the San Leandro Cherry Festival Cherry Pie Contest in 2000.  I won 2nd Place!

So my good-luck cherry pitter has been living in a drawer ever since, coming out now and again to say hi...

I do love a good batch of fresh cherries.  And there really are so many different varieties that come to the market.  One of my favorites are Rainier Cherries from Washington.  The closer you are to them, the better they taste.

The cherries in the brownies were dark red cherries.

I added about 5 minutes to the box baking time to allow for the additional moisture.

They came out just fine...

 

And they cut much nicer once they cooled...


Filet of Sole

Sole is one of the lightest, most delicate of the flat fish.  And Dover Sole is the best of the best.

Sole pretty much demands a classic preparation.  Lightly floured, lightly fried, heartily eaten!

I did the classic preparation but in place of the browned pan butter I sauteed garlic in butter, added the juice of a lemon, and let it simmer.  I then strained out the garlic and added fresh parsley.

Really simple.

Of course, I say really simple as in the preparation and cooking.  The mess I made was anything but simple!

It really is a knack being able to destroy a kitchen with such a simple meal.  4 pans, a sheet pan, the pie plate holding the flour...  I think I would have sent Victor straight over the edge if I had dipped it in egg!

But chocolate brownies with fresh cherries baked into them saved me for another day - and another mess!


Tempura Scallops - and more...

Saturday.  My dinner day of surprises.

Sometimes I'll come home and cook dinner.  Other days, something wondrous and fabulous is awaiting me when I walk in the door.

Today was the latter.

As I was leaving for work this morning I pulled some scallops out of the freezer to thaw.  I didn't have a plan but I knew there were any number of things I could do with them.

Off to work I went.

When I got home, I was greeted with Victor in the kitchen with a platter of vegetables, scallops, and the deep fryer.

Three words:  Beer Battered Tempura.

Be still my heart!  I was psyched.  While I had a few ideas going through my head, tempura definitely was not one of them.  I really was psyched!

Victor is the tempura king.  It was something he had on the menu at Montserrat when he owned the restaurant on South Street and he's never lost his touch with it.  It rocks.

The batter is flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika, finely chopped parsley - and beer.  Proportions?!?  Uh... Mix the flour with the dry spices and parsley and add beer until it's the consistency of thin pancake batter.  It's roughly 1 cup flour to 1 cup beer but it's not an exact science.

The parsley really adds a nice sweetness.  It's not something I ever included when I made tempura batter.  I really like it a lot.

So...

We had carrot sticks, peppers from the garden cut into rings.  onion rings, snow peas, and the scallops.

Everything was great - but the scallops were awesome!  They were so moist and delicate they were like eating clouds.  They seriously were some of the best scallops I've ever had.  Victor floured them before dipping them in the tempura batter so it would stick better.  And just about three minutes in the oil was perfect timing.

Definite gastronomic heaven!

My job was to make some dipping sauces.  That was the easy part.

The top sauce was honey-mustard.  About a quarter-cup of honey and a heaping teaspoon of Strong Irish Mustard.  I didn't have any Chinese mustard but this stuff worked well.  The sauce on the left was a lingonberry sauce.  Lingonberry jam, soy sauce, a splash of rice wine and sambal oelek for heat.    The sauce on the right was straight-from-the-bottle Soy Vey Very Teriyaki.  All three worked well.

It was just unbelievably good.

And cherry-studded brownies just came out of the oven.

This is definitely a good day!