The Week of New Stuff

Well, hello all you folks out there in the Sunday Salon, Foodies Read, and elsewhere in the cosmos!  It's been an interesting week!  Wanting to get over various skin issues, I got into a bit of fasting, beginning with  a few intermittent ones and then a 3 day water fast.  This book, Eat, Fast, Feast, was an excellent guide, and very helpful.  Skin things are a bit better and a few more fasts may even finish the job!

Then, there was gardening with a new and very fascinating (the history, uses and medical benefits of) plant, a vine called Sachi Inchi, aka Peruvian peanut.  It's going great guns, climbing on the front fence and fruiting already! With a most unusual shape, having 4-7 points.  The idea is to wait until it dries before harvesting.  Meanwhile, being a mite impatient, I ordered a bag of the nuts to try.  I mean you want to know what you're getting into, right?  Whether it's worth all the trouble.  I liked the (what can I say) nutty taste and thought they would be an excellent boost to my cooking and eating as they're a complete protein.  So, it's all good.  

Also currently in the garden, are abiu, grapefruit, guavas, passionfruit and lemons, various herbs, and an overload of shishito peppers.  I've pickled them, made a salsa, and stir fried them for multiple meals.  Now what?  A friend just told me he smoked a bunch of peppers and made a sauce.  Well, I could get a smoker, I suppose?  But nope, I found a great new recipe for salsa that will keep a long time, and picked a pound of peppers.   Also ongoing this weekend, drying mac nuts in the dehydrator.

Now to my intriguing kitchen counter creature.  Fermenting soybeans!  Bubbling away and overflowing onto the counter when I caught it, mopped up and put a high ended plate underneath.  Yes, and before you ask, not natto.  I'm hoping for something a bit less slimy and even tasty:).  Because we added salt, garlic, onion, oregano and cumin.  That's why.  The main question now is how long do I let it go?  Maybe it will tell me by letting up with all the fizzing. I'll keep you posted.

Then, there's always food!  Despite fasting, I do enjoy trying new things and of course, eating!  This meal branched out from a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe, to be found in his book Flavor, Miso Butter Onions (or Shallots).  Can one improve upon Yotam?  Perhaps, when adding a nice piece of steak, black ramen, and a beet salad on the side.  Especially as it started out delicious!  With that fabulous sauce on things.  

Another great meal began with my bringing home a spaghetti squash and deciding not to do the usual red sauce thing.  Instead, I followed the excellent directions to first cut the squash crosswise instead of lengthwise, for actually the longest strands, as they grow in a spiral around the seedy core.  This from a recipe in another favorite cookbook, Milk Street Vegetables, by Christopher Kimball.  Spaghetti Squash with Lemon, Cream and Herbs.  Wow! Another wonderful sauce!  Beautifully added to (if I do say so) by pieces of smoked sashimi salmon. 

Currently reading Table for Two, by Amor Towles.  A writer I have enjoyed in the past.  He wrote A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility.  And The President's Hat, byAntoine Laurain.

That's it for today, and my week, or all I have time for.  I'm linked with Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz and the Foodies Read Challenge for October, hosted by Heather.