It's been a busy few months. I blame my aloof Aquarian ways for leaving you so poorly attended, oh blog of mine.
Let's see.
The now: the record has played to its end so I'm sitting in my apartment listening to the rain and the rattle of my bracelets against this laptop, which has scuffmarks where the two always meet.
The recent past: I unpacked two really big boxes of stuff that are the parts of my new table.
The less recent past: I moved to a new place. The new place has a gas stove that I love. Now the phrase "now you're cooking with gas" doesn't grate. The view is really nice -- not the windows of a sometimes carefree with the underwear old man. Instead, I have a pair of stomping idiots who live upstairs. But I've been keeping terrible hours with my work schedule all fakkakte, so I probably deserve their flat-footed passive aggressive rage. But the apartment really is pretty great. The neighborhood is really cool and nice. Lots of places to wander around to and eat and shop. Oh, and the view: when I wake up in the morning, I see the light settling into the Hollywood Hills. When I fall asleep, they're my twinkling nightlights. It's really soothing.
Since I last wrote, I've gotten loosey goosey with the diet, indulging now and again in some rice here and there. Some pita-binging now and again.
The other day, I invented the world's greatest/worst sandwich. Take Japanese eggplant rounds, salt, drain for 20 minutes, rinse, dry. Coat with egg white, fry in a half inch of peanut oil, drain on towels. Frying eggplant coated in egg white reduces the oil the eggplant sops up, leaving it light and crispy outside, soft inside. Slip yolk into oil, drizzle remaining egg white around it. Remove as soon as it's well set up. Take toasted pita, fill with French sheepsmilk feta, Japanese eggplant and fried egg. Drizzle it all with homemade bagna cauda (I like mine with basil). Try to go a day without wanting to do that again. So good. I'm keeping that recipe to entertain with -- it would be great for a lunch with a salad or as a warm starter for dinner, sans egg.
Oh, and I also made a pretty okay tahdig, not too long ago.
I'll try and be more attentive, oh blog of mine.
Your sandwich sounds great, and your tahdig looks perfect! I made one with some kashk-e-bedemjan last week and it didn't set right--though it was pretty tasty.
ReplyDeletetahdig is very tricky. you need to get your pot of al-dente basmati hot enough so that the water in the bottom gets to steaming point quickly. best to do this on medium-high heat without peeking under lid and letting steam out because the rice can burn if the steam releases too quickly and leaves the bottom dry. the trick to knowing when it's time to turn to low heat is to slap a droplet of water at the side of the pot off your finger tip. if it hisses up into steam instantly, lower heat and wrap your lid with a towel, drop a couple pats of butter on top and secure lid tightly again. (if the droplet bubbles a second, let it go a little longer.) i also like to test it before flipping -- stick a chopstick all the way down to the bottom. if you hear a good crunch, you're solid. if not, let it go another 30 minutes.
ReplyDeletethat's how we do. :)
That sandwich sounds awesome! Sign me up. And with egg, too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tips! The first one I made turned out pretty well--sheer luck--but then the second one wasn't great, so I'm looking forward to being a little more scientific in my approach next time.
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