[Sca-cooks] Re: Storms and Cooking

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 9, 2005, at 9:17 AM, Elise Fleming wrote:

> My side of Cleveland was missed by the storm.  There's maybe an  
> inch of new
> snow in the driveway.  So, yesterday in preparation for "being  
> snowed in"
> as we thought, I made scalloped potatoes and ham with some added  
> cheddar
> cheese.  It is one of those dishes that my father used to make to  
> use up
> leftover bits of ham, sprinkling in slices of ham between layers of
> potatoes and white sauce.  I ate two plates of it and am anxiously  
> watching
> the clock until it's "officially" lunch time when I can have more.   
> Someone
> mentioned toasted cheese sandwiches so that's what I had for  
> breakfast.
> (Did you know that American process cheese will stay "good" for two  
> years
> or more in the refrigerator??!?)

Reminds me of Dublin Coddle, the Irish Menudo (well, sort of...  
regarded as good after a night at the pub) -- a layered construct of  
potatoes, onions, ham or bacon slices cut in little squares, and  
chunks of sausage (banger-type?), with salt and pepper, water, stock  
or milk added to barely cover, then slowly heated on the stove or in  
a low oven in a casserole with a cover of buttered parchment to keep  
it from drying out.

This isn't necessarily everyone's idea of cold-weather comfort food,  
but last night I discovered around 11PM that She Who Must Be Obeyed,  
who had worked late and assured me she would make arrangements to eat  
either in or near her workplace, had not in fact eaten anything, and  
was on her way home in a taxi. Luckily, I had an assortment of odds  
and ends in the freezer and fridge, and managed to produce a large  
bowl of wonton noodle soup with yu toy in just about fifteen minutes,  
which, if not a world record for such a dish, is pretty darned  
respectable, I think. I had made a couple of hundred little Cantonese- 
type pork-and-shrimp wontons and frozen them last week for situations  
like this, and had bags of "fried" (actually they're more oil- 
blanched) Cantonese egg vermicelli, also in the freezer, so I was  
able to get about a gallon of salted water boiling pretty quickly (we  
have very good, and very hot, tap water, so I had a head start),  
poach the wontons, remove them from the water with a slotted spoon,  
blanch some yu toy stems and leaves (this is a broccoli variant with  
long stems, tiny florets, and large leaves that resembles broccoli- 
rabe, but with no bitterness) in the same pot, remove and reserve  
them, then finally cook the noodles, again, in the same water.  
Remember, these were single servings, so the water didn't become  
unduly funkified. Noodles at the bottom, arranged greenfood on top,  
then the wontons (about 12-16; these are pretty much bite-sized) on  
top, then topped off the bowl with hot chicken broth I had heated in  
the microwave. I was just pouring the broth into the bowl when I  
heard the key in the front door. Worked out nicely.

Adamantius


"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04