Simple Lines, Intertwining

Milo has another cold, so I made chicken broth today. I set some aside for him with the soft broth carrots in it- the way he likes it best- and added coconut milk and some red curry paste to the rest to make a simple tom kha gai. I shredded some of our cabbage with a little garlic, ginger, and radish, and rolled the mixture into wonton wrappers and fried them in a little oil. With a dipping sauce of sambal, tamari, nam pla, balsamic vinegar, and scallions, plus a side of habañero pickled onions, it made for a pretty good lunch- and one that did not induce a food coma after a tough night of the boy waking up a bunch from coughing.


























When I made the chicken broth I also made baked beans for dinner; borlotti beans, soaked overnight, plus lardo and bacon skin that I rendered a little to begin, and onion, garlic, herbs, cider vinegar and maple syrup simmered on the stove and then spent 6 hours in a 225˚ oven. We had them alongside eggs en cocotte that I made with a layer of leftover mashed potatoes on the bottom, then more of our cabbage that I pressure-cooked with guanciale, peppercorns, juniper berries, a little of the tom kha gai, and cider vinegar for 20 minutes until silky and gorgeous. On top of that went an egg, and crispy little lardons of bacon skin, and I put them in the oven to set.
























All in all, this was really just English pub food gussied up a little bit, but the homemage/homegrown ingredients and the slow/pressure cooking made them exceptional in flavor and texture. And the hunk of bacon skin is fast becoming my favorite piece of home-cured pork (we have four to choose from.) A few days ago, I invented my new favorite breakfast in the tradition of eggs benedict/florentine: from bottom to top, a spelt English muffin, strips of crisp guanciale, a fat slice of fried tomato degalzed with balsamic, a fried egg over easy, a big dollop of green mash, and a smaller dollop of sambal. I haven't come up with a name for it yet, but MY GOD it's delicious. How about "Eggs Obama?"