Category: COOKING

Perspective… and Pizza

gordsellar0 Comments

A while ago I mentioned being in the “home stretch” on the book I’m writing. A bunch of people were very encouraging when I said that, which, well, encouraged me. (Thanks, everyone.) Thing is, I still am in that home stretch, pretty close to where I was at the time I made that comment, in fact. I’m kind of stuck there. Not writing-stuck: I would be done the draft if it wasn’t for the exigencies of life. A recurrent, won’t-go-away ear infection has been gnawing on our son, and I developed bronchitis (seemingly the same damned bug), just as a …

Continue Reading

Things I’ve Recently Learned in the Kitchen

gordsellar0 Comments

So, the last few days have been a whirlwind of cooking, and I’ve learned a few interesting things. Let’s see: 1. When you make pesto, grind the nuts first. Then add the leaves, then the cheese. Oil and butter come later, along with salt. Nuts first allows the leaves to be ground up dry, which gets you a better grind. (I didn’t make the pesto, Mrs. Jiwaku did. It turned out really good!) 2. With homemade pesto, substitutions are the name of the game. If you’re unable to use pine nuts–say, because your spouse is allergic to them–other nuts are …

Continue Reading

Easy Recipes to Blow Your Mind, #1: Omija Bacon

gordsellar3 Comments

A post in response to the request of a friend. Omija is an interesting berry: its Latin nomenclature is Schisandra chinensis, the latter portion of the name being a hint that it is native to Asia–particularly Northeast Asia. Back in Korea, I first experienced the stuff as tea, but got curious about what it would do to a beer. The one experiment I managed before leaving, I didn’t add enough berries, so it was nice, but a very restrained effect. But I had some berries left over, and decided on a very different experiment: adding them to so bacon cure. …

Continue Reading

Culinary Madness…

gordsellar4 Comments

I’m too busy for a proper post, but I thought I’d update on last time with more pictures of all the nice stuff we’ve been cooking up here in Saigon. The nice thing about having a fair amount of time, and about food being relatively inexpensive, is that you can experiment with cooking. Mrs. Jiwaku’s been mostly baking, while I’ve mostly been making new foods… well, new to me, I mean. The range is pretty wide. Here’s a look at (almost) everything we’ve done so far: It’s not a complete log — I’ve made a lot of pasta, especially with …

Continue Reading

The Stuff I’ve Been Doing of Late

gordsellar2 Comments

This is just a quick update for those wondering why I haven’t posted anything in a while. There’s snaps of food I’ve cooked, a rare recording of the current state of my sax playing as of right now (and a discussion of an online course in jazz improvisation I’m taking with Gary Burton, yes, that Gary Burton), and a little discussion of my writing.

Continue Reading

Can You Make Risotto with a Southeast-Asian-Twang?

gordsellar4 Comments

Apparently yes. I was dealing with some stuff so I wasn’t so into it, but other people who tried it liked it… I suppose that’s encouraging, this being my first risotto. (It was a bit too salty, though.) I basically followed Felicity Cloake’s advice, though: I had to use arborio rice–the other stuff wasn’t available. I forgot to get white cooking wine, so I just used red, which gave the risotto a pinkish color (deepened by the red bell pepper I threw in later). I ended up using a mix of cheddar and pecorino cheeses, again beause that’s what we …

Continue Reading

The Day I Made a Gumbo…

gordsellar0 Comments

… was today. My first gumbo, too. Vegetarian and gluten-free, because I was cooking for the house. Apparently a success. The gumbo itself is sort of a mishmash of recipes I saw online. I found such an incredible amount of diversity among the recipes that finally I decided, there is no such thing as a definitive gumbo recipe. Gumbo is conceptual: stew, with chunks. Herbs, spicy if you like that. Slow cooked. Okra and smoked sausage are nice, but not absolutely required. (The latter I’m omitting only because this meal is to be en famille.) Often served with rice. Beans …

Continue Reading

Bacon #4

gordsellar3 Comments

When I am insanely busy — and these days, with me at the office until midnight getting various things done, I am — one thing I can do that takes very little time or attention, but which still results in Neat Stuff in the end, is curing meat. I’m now on my 4th pork belly as far as my bacon-making adventures are concerned, and about to make a departure. To recap the last three bacons: Oversalted savory bacon. This was not usable for much besides throwing in a piece or two into a soup, for seasoning and meat flavor (in …

Continue Reading

Getting Pickled

gordsellar2 Comments

So, lately, I’ve had a few experimental fermentations going on. One of them is a simple revisiting of the sauerkaraut I made last year. It’s a much smaller batch, and made with non-iodized salt, but with one difference: Yeah, I used red cabbage. I salted it in exactly the way I had the white cabbage, but to my surprise, the cabbage didn’t sweat as much, and there wasn’t much brine. Probably it’s because I used only one small head of red cabbage, not two very large heads of green cabbage. In any case, the problem was easy to solve: I …

Continue Reading

What’s Cooking?

gordsellar0 Comments

The food in my neighborhood is stunning in its badness. Perhaps I was spoiled by my first few years in Korea, down in Jeollabukdo — they had, and still have, the best food in the country. But even by Seoul standards, the food options in my neighborhood are pretty poor pickings, and what is available is mostly quite bad. Worse, all the little, dependable places run by underpaid women but which provided standard, decent foods have shut down.  Aside from places to get snacks (there are a couple of okay ones) I know of about five restaurants in Yeokgok that …

Continue Reading