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Friday: more fake parm
Sep. 30th, 2022 12:29 pmI walked with M.
No phone call today; today’s conversational partner is busy. I am somewhat sad, but looking forward to next week’s chat.
The eggplant is gone, so that’s not gonna happen again today.
However, there are three ears of corn left and R. is game to try my weirdo not-really-esquites thing.
This time, based on some additional research, I _boiled_ the corn. With epazote. Because I had some issues yesterday. Corn has sorbitol in it (that’s how it is sweet, apparently). Also, I had it with leek greens and green garlic, both of which cause issues. As do cashews. As does nutritional yeast.
A lot of popular dishes / restaurant food / cookery is pretty bullshit, because it focuses exclusively on flavor, and does not pay so much attention to how you feel after you eat something. The original dish _does_ have cilantro in it, which can help with the gas, and fortunately, my swap with parsley did preserve a carminative in the dish. However, because I grilled the corn (sorta) instead of boiling it, I _lost_ the value of boiling the corn with epazote. _Which I have_. In vast quantity, because I use it when I cook beans.
I went looking to try to understand how epazote or, really, any carminatives work and I have to say that I am not yet succeeding. I can’t tell if that’s because we don’t really understand how these things work, or if it’s a more global issue like, a lot of people don’t realize that carminatives are a thing (I mean, outside chemistry things like lactaid, beano, etc.).
After I boiled the corn and took the kernels off, I looked at those cobs, and the boiling water with the epazote in it, and thought, you know, I should put the cobs back in, then cook the beans in the water after the beans are done soaking. And then I said, why wait. I put the beans in with the cobs, added more epazote, and honestly, we are fully into experimental territory here. I have sieves. It’ll be fine.
Anyway. Today’s corn salad (many thinks to inspiration from elotas and esquites, but give them all the credit and put all the blame on me):
Corn, boiled with epazote (3 ears, about a tablespoon of epazote)
Some mayo (kewpie, currently) (maybe 2 Tbsps or so)
Chardonnay vinegar (I am sooooo sorry about this, but I used my last aging half a lime, and I had a small bottle of this so I used it. I need acid) (maybe 2 Tbsps again)
Powdered chile (this is from that processor all the aging dry whole chiles experiments, so it is labeled various, but think of it as chile powder and you will be fine) (I put some in, and then I put more in. You do you)
Several stalks of parsley chopped fine (leaves and stalks, so chopped really fine, and also didn’t put anything woody in there)
Mix
Things that are missing!
No jalapeno. Still don’t have any
The cheese! I did not put the parmesan, real or fake in, because R. is game to try this. I made the batch without, so people can add at serving whichever they want/can have. I made more fake parm from cashews (run through a coffee grinder, but this time I got out a sieve and did a good job) and nutritional yeast (1/3 cup cashews, 2 Tbsp nooch for the batch, did NOT use the whole batch!). No salt in mine this time anywhere (other than I suppose the mayo). I wanted to know if I shoveled yesterday’s batch in so fast purely because of salt and the answer is definitely no.
The glutamic hit from the nooch and cashew is somewhat less without the salt, which is a relief, honestly.
I may get the corn and fruit share again next year, just so I can once again have esquites, corn and tomato stew, corn pudding, etc. It’s been an amazing month or so learning that I actually _do like_ corn.
Next up: pizza! The dough is rising and almost ready to come out so I can put toppings on it while the oven preheats.
No phone call today; today’s conversational partner is busy. I am somewhat sad, but looking forward to next week’s chat.
The eggplant is gone, so that’s not gonna happen again today.
However, there are three ears of corn left and R. is game to try my weirdo not-really-esquites thing.
This time, based on some additional research, I _boiled_ the corn. With epazote. Because I had some issues yesterday. Corn has sorbitol in it (that’s how it is sweet, apparently). Also, I had it with leek greens and green garlic, both of which cause issues. As do cashews. As does nutritional yeast.
A lot of popular dishes / restaurant food / cookery is pretty bullshit, because it focuses exclusively on flavor, and does not pay so much attention to how you feel after you eat something. The original dish _does_ have cilantro in it, which can help with the gas, and fortunately, my swap with parsley did preserve a carminative in the dish. However, because I grilled the corn (sorta) instead of boiling it, I _lost_ the value of boiling the corn with epazote. _Which I have_. In vast quantity, because I use it when I cook beans.
I went looking to try to understand how epazote or, really, any carminatives work and I have to say that I am not yet succeeding. I can’t tell if that’s because we don’t really understand how these things work, or if it’s a more global issue like, a lot of people don’t realize that carminatives are a thing (I mean, outside chemistry things like lactaid, beano, etc.).
After I boiled the corn and took the kernels off, I looked at those cobs, and the boiling water with the epazote in it, and thought, you know, I should put the cobs back in, then cook the beans in the water after the beans are done soaking. And then I said, why wait. I put the beans in with the cobs, added more epazote, and honestly, we are fully into experimental territory here. I have sieves. It’ll be fine.
Anyway. Today’s corn salad (many thinks to inspiration from elotas and esquites, but give them all the credit and put all the blame on me):
Corn, boiled with epazote (3 ears, about a tablespoon of epazote)
Some mayo (kewpie, currently) (maybe 2 Tbsps or so)
Chardonnay vinegar (I am sooooo sorry about this, but I used my last aging half a lime, and I had a small bottle of this so I used it. I need acid) (maybe 2 Tbsps again)
Powdered chile (this is from that processor all the aging dry whole chiles experiments, so it is labeled various, but think of it as chile powder and you will be fine) (I put some in, and then I put more in. You do you)
Several stalks of parsley chopped fine (leaves and stalks, so chopped really fine, and also didn’t put anything woody in there)
Mix
Things that are missing!
No jalapeno. Still don’t have any
The cheese! I did not put the parmesan, real or fake in, because R. is game to try this. I made the batch without, so people can add at serving whichever they want/can have. I made more fake parm from cashews (run through a coffee grinder, but this time I got out a sieve and did a good job) and nutritional yeast (1/3 cup cashews, 2 Tbsp nooch for the batch, did NOT use the whole batch!). No salt in mine this time anywhere (other than I suppose the mayo). I wanted to know if I shoveled yesterday’s batch in so fast purely because of salt and the answer is definitely no.
The glutamic hit from the nooch and cashew is somewhat less without the salt, which is a relief, honestly.
I may get the corn and fruit share again next year, just so I can once again have esquites, corn and tomato stew, corn pudding, etc. It’s been an amazing month or so learning that I actually _do like_ corn.
Next up: pizza! The dough is rising and almost ready to come out so I can put toppings on it while the oven preheats.