What’s for supper? Vol. 491: Days of future pastila

Happy Friday!

Feather in my cap: I just got back from physical therapy, and it was REALLY INTERESTING. I learned all about the labyrinths, crystals, and canals in my ear, and then we did a bunch of exercises and none of them made me very dizzy, so I went straight to “well, I’m imagining things, I’m just a big baby looking for attention and nothing is really wrong.” Then we did the same thing on the other side and I made the sound Curly makes when Moe sticks a drill up his nose. So now I have some other exercises to do at home, and if that doesn’t work, I can go back and learn more about . . . that curly snail thing. 

Second feather in my cap! I then dropped off a bag of clothes at the thrift store less than 24 hours after sorting and bagging the clothes and putting them in the car. And they didn’t even reject most of them! 

Black eye: I then got a ticket for checking my messages at a red light. I think there should be a law that if the officer says, “Well, I appreciate your honesty,” then he should not be allowed to write a ticket. What a world. 

Anyway, here is what we ate this week: 

SATURDAY
Leftovers and mini bagel pizzas

It was Irene’s shopping turn and she posited that people like both pizza and little round things, and she was right. 

SUNDAY
Vermonter sandwiches; raw veggies and dip

Sunday, the first thing I did when I got home was to make some more bird seed cakes. I recently organized the hutch, and I now have an entire little cubby just for wild bird supplies, which meant I could find the block of lard I bought years ago just to make bird seed cakes, and have been losing persistently ever since.

Here is my recipe (you can use shortening if you don’t have lard. Or if your hutch still needs some attention):

Jump to Recipe

Sometimes I clean out the cabinets and sweep all the snack and cracker and granola and misc. debris into the bird seed cakes, but this time, I just stuck with birdseed. I made the cakes in some small springform pans, but you can use any kind of mold you want, depending on what you’re going to do with the finished product.

Then I turned my attention to human food. I roasted a bunch of chicken breasts and fried a few pounds of bacon, and Corrie sliced a bunch of sharp cheddar cheese and green apples, and then supper was all set. 

Then, for reasons unknown, I started thinking about this pastila recipe I saw years ago. Pastila is a Russian dessert with tons of variations, but I guess the basic one is just apple pulp, sugar, and egg white, and you end up with a light, spongy, almost marshmallow-y little treat. 

First you peel, core, and cut the apples, and bake them until they are soft. 

Then you cool the apples, then puree them

Then you whip up some egg whites with sugar, then mix beaten whites with the pureed apples; then you pour it into a lined dish, reserving a little bit for later, to affix the layers together. 

Then —

SIGHHHHHHHHH

you read the rest of the recipe and discover you’re supposed to let it dry in a very low oven for

SIGHHHHHHHHHHH

six to eight hours. 

But it was really okay, because I had already cooked the chicken, and the oven was free! But, it really wasn’t okay, because I hadn’t washed the bowl thoroughly before whipping the egg whites, and they never really got stiff; and the airiness of this recipe is the entire point. But I forged ahead anyway, and let that glop bake for a good seven hours. 

So for supper, we had these nice Vermonter sandwiches: Ciabatta rolls, chicken, bacon, green apple, cheddar cheese, and honey mustard. 

I’ve been on a mission to force vegetables back into our diet, so we had raw vegetables and dip. Nice meal! 

Then it was back to the pastila mines. In the evening, I went to check on it, with low hopes, and I was not encouraged by what I found. 

At this point, you’re supposed to take it out of the pan and put it on fresh parchment paper, so you can bake/dry it some more. Then you cut it up and make stacks that are stuck together with the reserved apple puree, and then you dry it all some more.

But my pastila was so wet and gloppy, it wouldn’t even come out of the pan, much less off the parchment paper. So I put it back in the oven and told it to go to hell, and went to bed. 

MONDAY
Bibimbap with pickled vegetables

Monday, I went on a wellness rampage of sorts, making doctor appointments for the family left and right, and then I tackled supper. Pork shoulder was super cheap, so I hacked it up and slathered it in a simple little sauce, then browned it in oil. 

Then I moved it to the Instant Pot and started it cooking with some chicken broth. Here is my recipe for the meat:

Jump to Recipe

It’s just a sort of basic Asian-ish preparation for pork, and you can add sauce or not, and use it for all kinds of things. Thinking about steamed pork dumplings in the near future, oh yes I am. 

Bibimbap is supposed to have sauteed vegetables, but I do what I want, so I pickled a bunch, instead. Here is my recipe for quick-pickled vegetables:

Jump to Recipe

I did one jar of carrots and one of red onions, but I left the cucumbers plain in case anyone needed a flavor break. 

When supper got close, I moved the meat to the slow cooker and used the Instant Pot to make a bunch of rice. The meat turned out great! Very tender and lots of flavor. 

Then right before supper, I fried a bunch of eggs (fried in oil, so the edges come out nice and crisp), and put everything out, along with some baby spinach and crunchy noodles, plus hot sauce and soy sauce. I forgot the sesame seeds, but no one noticed.

Such a delicious meal, I took two pictures. I spooned lots of extra broth over mine, and wow, it was tasty. 

And that was Monday! 

TUESDAY
Pizza à l’oven door

Tuesday I remembered the bird seed cakes, which had been sitting in the freezer. They turned out great. It was rainy, but they held together fine. Nonstop chickadees, titmice, and this one especially goofy downy woodpecker, who seems especially excited about the lard. 

It was the second afternoon in a row that we got home quite late, so I zipped around throwing together two pizzas, one with black olives and one with pepperoni. Baked them for a while, then slid them off the pans to bake directly on the rack, to crisp them up a bit. Like I always do. Except this time, for some reason, I panicked, and the pizza went splat. 

After some very un-deft maneuvering, I got most of it back on the tray and baked it a bit more. OH WELL. 

 

Could be worse, right?

Anyway, it was a good opportunity to try my new oven’s cleaning function. It has a steam clean button, and directions for a deep clean function, but no actual button. So I tried steam cleaning it, and that did nothing. HOWEVER, it does definitely have an “EasyWash removable tray,” so you can pull the bottom right out, wash it in the sink, and slide it back in. Worked great! I really like this oven. The pizza was good, too, so there. 

WEDNESDAY
Cashew chicken curry with rice; naan

Wednesday, the kids were off school, and Elijah came over, so I decided to put a little extra effort into supper. I found this recipe for cashew chicken curry at Wanderlust Kitchen, and it sounded pretty swell. It looks kind of complicated, but it’s not really. All the steps are easy, and it all ends up in the same pan eventually.

You have to pound the chicken and then marinate it, then puree a few things and then heat up the puree

then you brown the chicken (and the texture of slowly sauteed pounded chicken makes it very clear why you needed to pound the chicken)

 then cut up the chicken, add some more things to the puree, and then put it all together

and then let that thing simmer. In theory, you can make this and then eat it right away, but I have never met a curry that doesn’t benefit from at least a few hours of simmering.  

It smelled so good, I couldn’t not make some fresh naan, so I made a double recipe of the King Arthur naan recipe. I do follow the recipe, except 
I use two packets of yeast because I can never ever remember how much yeast is in each packet, and someone stole my jar of yeast that’s easy to measure. A single recipe is supposed to make eight pieces, but I make a double recipe and still make it into eight pieces. I also keep a damp cloth next to the pan and wipe it out in between frying each piece, so you don’t get burnt flour stuck to your bread. Other than that, this is a great naan recipe, and I have tried a LOT, believe me. 

It just takes about a minute to cook each one in the pan. Then each one gets a brush of melted butter, and then goes into the oven to stay warm while the rest cook. Soft, gently chewy, and buttery, yum yum. 

Dang, that was a good meal. The curry tasted fairly mild at first, but it built up heat as you ate, and it was just so rich and warming. I probably could have pureed the cashews a little more finely, but they did make a nice creamy sauce even while still a bit chunky. Also I thought I had a big sack of basmati rice, but actually it was jasmine rice. That’s okay!

I did fiddle with the curry recipe a bit, because I can’t help myself. I bumped up just about all the spices, and also I ran out of coconut milk, so I added some Greek yogurt. But like I said, it was excellent. Maybe not especially lovely to look at, but tasted wonderful. 

I also spent about an hour working on an unrelated Secret Project that I’m testing out. Here is a little peek. Probably you can guess what I am making, but I shan’t say! 

And that was Wednesday. 

THURSDAY
Bagel egg and cheese sandwiches with sausage; big salad; OJ

Thursday, you’ll never believe this, but we got home really late. I quickly put together a salad, toasted a bunch of bagels, heated up some sausage patties, fried a bunch of eggs, and mixed up some orange juice, and I was so hungry I didn’t even take a picture. 

FRIDAY
Quesadillas, chips and salsa

And we have arrived! We had a little snow this morning, and it’s about dang time. I’m not exactly looking forward to the cold and ice, but it’s been unnervingly mild for November. I’m gonna go hang upside down and peck at some lard and throw things at the window. 

Try it, it’s fun!

Oh, if you are wondering what happened with the pastila, I forgot it was in the oven and then discovered it later the next day. I thought about how many, many hours it had been sitting in a very low oven, and then I ate it. It was pretty bad. 

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quick-pickled carrots and/or cucumbers for banh mi, bibimbap, ramen, tacos, etc.

An easy way to add tons of bright flavor and crunch to a meal. We pickle carrots and cucumbers most often, but you can also use radishes, red onions, daikon, or any firm vegetable. 

Ingredients

  • 6-7 medium carrots, peeled
  • 1 lb mini cucumbers (or 1 lg cucumber)

For the brine (make double if pickling both carrots and cukes)

  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup rice vinegar (other vinegars will also work; you'll just get a slightly different flavor)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 Tbsp kosher salt

Instructions

  1. Mix brine ingredients together until salt and sugar are dissolved. 

  2. Slice or julienne the vegetables. The thinner they are, the more flavor they pick up, but the more quickly they will go soft, so decide how soon you are going to eat them and cut accordingly!

    Add them to the brine so they are submerged.

  3. Cover and let sit for a few hours or overnight or longer. Refrigerate if you're going to leave them overnight or longer.

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Instant Pot Pork for Bibimbap or whatever

Ingredients

  • 4-5 lbs pork shoulder
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 Tbsp honey
  • 1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 Tbsp kosher salt
  • 2 tsp ground pepper
  • oil for cooking

Instructions

  1. Combine all the ingredients. Cut the pork into hunks and slather the mixture over it. Cover and let marinate for at least an hour, or overnight.

  2. In a heavy pot, heat up a small amount of oil and brown the pork on all sides. Do it in batches so it has plenty of room to sear.

  3. Move the browned pork into an Instant Pot or slow cooker and add 3/4 cup of water. For the instant pot, close the cover and valve and press "meat." For the slow cooker, cook for about six hours.

  4. When pork is done, you can chop or shred it. Eat as is, or add a sauce.

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birdseed cake (FOR ACTUAL BIRDS)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 1 cup shortening or lard
  • 1 cup cornmeal
  • 2 cups raw oatmeal
  • 1 cup birdseed
  • raisins, nuts, seeds, dried berries, popped popcorn, etc. optional
  • TO DETER SQUIRRELS: 2 Tbsp chili powder optional

Instructions

  1. Prepare a mold for your seed cake. A springform pan is the easiest to use, but you can use a silicone mold, or a plastic deli tub. or even form a mold out of heavy tinfoil. If the mold doesn't come apart or turn inside out, line it with tinfoil, parchment paper, or a coffee liner so you can remove in one piece.

  2. If you are planning to make a solid cake that sits on a platform or is inserted into a suet feeder, go to the next step.

    If you are planning to hang your birdseed cake by string without a feeder, or to insert it onto a feeder platform with a central prong, roll up some tinfoil or heavy paper into a rod shape and set it up in the middle, to keep a space open.

  3. In a pot, warm the shortening and peanut butter over medium-low heat, stirring until it is combined.

  4. Stir in the rest of the ingredients until they are combined, and pour the mixture into the mold. Press it into place as compactly as you can, so it will hold together.

  5. Freeze for several hours until the cake is solid. Remove from the mold and peel off any liners and center bits. Add a loop of string to use on its own, or insert the cake into a bird feeder.

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