Chili night !

Well, the weather is getting chilly and so a good old fashioned hot and spicy chili con carne is one of the best things to get the chill out if your bones. I followed Jamie Olliver's recipe (the one from his American book), but without the coffee this time. Just didn't get around it. It was still quite good. Remembered to add extra chili pepper flakes bc it gets less spicy as it cooks. Tried cooking the red beans "from scratch" but I should have probably used a pressure cooker, since they never got soft. Ended up using the tinned ones and it was just fine.
A new addition to chili night was nachos ! Yummi !!

Indian inspired

It has been a while since we've had indian-like food ! These are the staples: potato and green peas baked samosas adapted from Julie Sahni's excellent book but made with brick (filo dough), the coconut milk vegetarian curry from the Joy of Cooking and tandoori chicken marinated overnight in Patak's original sauce (mixed with yogurt, ginger and lemon).And rice of course, cooked in the broth from the chicken whose parts were used for the tandoori.

The whole evening was a bit of a blur, the cooking was done in time thanks to the invaluable help of L. and M. Didn't always get everything that was going on at the other end of the table, but it was apparently quite funny !  And this week just whizzed by and I am writing this only on friday and so now I don't remember any memorable quotes. Have to do more of that live blogging, and have to remember the pictures ! The somosas were all gone by the time I took out my camera.

Guests of honor: lovely couple from Chicago
Soundrack: bollywood and the new pornographers

Japanese inspired

Konnichiwa !  こんにちは
Tonight's dinner has been inspired by our special guest from Osaka who innocently brought some seaweed as a present, not knowing that she would then volunteer to help me cook and teach me how to make onigiri for everyone. I could eat rice every day and onigiri reminded me of my two, too short, trips to Japan in the last two years. An easy snack in the train station or at the wonderful supermarkets in the basement of the department stores.

So the idea was to make yakisoba and onigiri. The yakisoba recipe I had gotten from my Wagamama book, and then I did a quick shopping run on a velib to rue st anne at the Kioko supermarket. It turns out that I got the wrong kind of noodles for yakisoba, and I had the wrong kind of soy sauce and seaweed too ! as our guest pointed out. In addition, contrary to my beliefs, onigiri are not made with sushi rice, which is cooked with sugar and rice vinegar, but just with regular japanese rice cooked in water and a bit of salt. Once the rice is ready one must work quickly and make the onigiri while it is still warm (hah ! that is way they have onigiri-shaping boxes ! It takes a real kitchen hero to make them by hand !). This reminded me a lot of when I used to live in Oregon and tried to cook italian meals with the few ingredients available out there... in the end an approximation will be good enough for your local guests who have never tasted the real thing. But C was just lovely about it and she put together a wonderful meal, that it may not have been the real yakisoba but was truly appreciated by the monday night crowd.

yaki udon

Japanese rice, made in Italy !  

Onigiri !!!

Special dessert straight from Osaka

and a new tablecloth !

Dinner topics included the superbowl playoffs of course, looking forward to Greenbay Packers vs Chicago Bears next sunday, and we found out that "The Packers are the only non-profit, community-owned franchise in American professional sports major leagues." (as confirmed by wikipedia) and JC was distraught over the loss of the Boston Patriots to the NY Jets.

Somehow then we veered off to the link between dinosaurs and chickens.... I forget how we got there.

And finally some quotes:

A further counsel bear in mind: 

If that thy roof be made of glass, 

It shows small wit to pick up stones 

To pelt the people as they pass.

Don Quixote 1605

Miguel de Cervantes 1547-1616 

Source.

A's brother apparently said:

there was a man from Kass

whose balls were made out of brass

when he rubbed them together

they played stormy weather

and lightning shot out of his ass

JH response:

oh would I were where I would be

there would I be where I am not

for where I am would I not be

and where I would be I cannot

don't bogart that bottle JC !

which leads to the evening's soundtrack:

easy rider soundtrack 

steppenwolf

and traditional japanese music from deezer

conundrum:

brother and sisters I have none

see that man his father he's my father's son

I don't want to dive into the abyss I just want to catch the bus

(something about Rimbaud)

Totally off topic: 

On a beautiful Paris sunny sunday, during a long walk, I ran into El Nopal, Tacos & Burritos, near the canal St Martin.