Oct 18, 2020

Menu: Week of 10/18/20

Spring cleaning is obviously a must, but autumn cleaning is somehow more satisfying, maybe because it feels like a bonus round of virtuosity. Over the past 10 days, I have been doing a clear out and deep clean, room by room, cupboard by cupboard, of our apartment, not because it is needed (I have done this several times already during lock down), but because my eyes hurt from too much computer time, and my soul hurts from taking in too much disgusting domestic news. This takes my mind off of things and I have a result to show when I have finished a room. Also, we all have way too much stuff.

For reasons known only to them, the builders who built the apartment in which we live in Manhattan finished the kitchen with deep, deep shelves. They are lovely in terms of holding LOTS of stuff, not so great in allowing one to visually keep a handle on what one actually has. Yesterday was devoted to the kitchen deep clean and, though I am pretty efficient and keep track of what comes in and what goes out of the pantry, I did make a few pleasant discoveries, mostly that I have a lot more half bags of dried fruit and beans of various varieties than I thought. The only bad news was that my jar of molasses had somehow sprung a leak at the very back of one of the aforementioned deep shelves, requiring vigorous cleaning and a bit of straining and swearing on my part.

I also –- not happy with my last reorganization efforts in May -- removed all of my spices from their shelves and checked each of them to see which had since lost smell and flavor and needed to go. This was admittedly a much more agreeable task than pantry cleaning because I got to travel in my imagination to the various places from where the spices originally came, remember the trips where I had purchased some of them, and think of the people who had so kindly brought others of them back for me from their trips. Rather than keeping them in their assorted labelled jars, amber bottles, and scrunched up paper bags that gave my spice cabinet an air of Ali Baba wonder each time I opened it, I decided to decant them all into clear, matching containers. Despite a very ruthless and hefty clear-out, it does appear that I may need professional help in dealing with a spice addiction. That being said, I do use them all on a pretty regular basis. Those that I don’t use quite as often, such as rose petals and dried lily buds, stayed in the packaging in which I purchased them and might not be replaced once their allotted time is up, though both L. and I are quite fond of lily buds rehydrated in soy and sugar and served with rice or in congee such as last week’s delicious version.

Last but not least, my general compulsiveness means that I keep a freezer list on my fridge door where I add or cross off incoming and outgoing. Still, I went the extra mile and double checked that nothing had gotten past me, and that nothing had been taking up freezer real estate for too long. The only item meeting both criteria was a package of gorgeous andouille sausage from the specialty butcher, which will be making an appearance on Friday.

All this to basically say that this general kitchen deep clean has led to a rather a freezer/pantry-centric menu this week in order to further divest (not necessarily a bad thing), but let’s not tell L. my motivation or he will write off an entire week’s worth of potentially delicious meals as “leftovers”, something to which he is morally opposed.

P.S. For those eagle-eyed subscribers who will email me after looking at the image above: the first container is bamboo salt, I have two kinds of bay leaf (leaf and powder), three kinds of cardamon (pod, powder and seed), nipitella is a Tuscan herb that tastes like a cross between mint and oregano and works wonderfully with mushrooms, artichokes and pork, the nubbly things to the bottom right that look as though I perform witchcraft during my down time are dried limes, the three chili powders are from three different countries and therefore different flavor palates and, no, I don't really need five kinds of curry powder but take pleasure in them and use them differently. 😁

This Week's CSA box contained:

Herbs: a few sprigs of flowering Japanese chives, a bunch each of lavender, sage and coriander, and a small bunch each of mint and flowering mint

Greens: a big bunch of gorgeous arugula, a head of red kale

Alliums: a handful of shallots, a head of garlic, a red onion

Vegetables: 2 orange carrots, 2 red peppers, 10 Adirondack blue potatoes, ranging in size from a large pebble, all the way up to a golf ball, a head of broccoli, 5 small heirloom tomatoes, a large green cabbage, a huge head of celery, 2 plump cucumbers, a punnet of Brussels sprouts, a punnet of Habanero peppers, a preternaturally large red beet, and a kohlrabi

Fruit: 5 tiny golden apples

Remainders: An enormous Kabocha squash, ¼ of a small daikon root

So, with the addition of the above remainders and both a head of lettuce of some kind mid-week and an avocado, the contents of this week's box (minus the Habaneros which went straight in the freezer because I am drowning in them) will be transformed into:

Sunday “Pantry Roulette”; fridge, freezer, and pantry item dinner]

Arugula Salad with Lemon Dressing

Beef and Pumpkin Chili

Steamed Purple Potatoes

Monday [Wildcard; a more complex or fiddly dish than usual to test my culinary skills]

Baked Tomato Salad with Garlic and Herbs

Crispy Skinned Chicken with Warm Spices

Skillet Braised Celery and Brussels Sprouts with Dijon Mustard-Cream Sauce

Yellow Rice

Tuesday [Pasta]

Green Salad

Bucatini Bolognese