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Jan. 21st, 2018 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkit1) I thought episode 2x09 of The Good Place was the season finale (it helped that I also thought it was numbered 2x10), but apparently there's more, yay! Michael kind of broke my heart; I really really want him to survive and get to go to the Good Place. It also raises interesting questions about the universe, if demons can change and be redeemed. I also note that the show has started using the words "heaven" and "hell," which I'd been glad had been avoided before.
Less seriously, I could listen to Marc Evan Jackson say "I'm a naughty bitch" on an endless loop forever and ever. He got another of the episode's best lines, too: "I took the form of a 45-year-old white man for a reason. I can only fail up."
2) Season 4 of Grace & Frankie was released on Friday and I binge-watched over the weekend. It's good, very very funny, and much lighter and more sitcom-y than previous seasons. Usually I wouldn't like that, but these characters have been through so much, and I like them so much, that I'm glad to see them catch a break.
3) I've been trying to read the two-volume Building the American Republic, which its authors (Harry L. Watson--brother of the more famous John?--and Jane Dailey) and publisher (U of Chicago P) have made available for free as an e-book, citing an urgent current need for US-ians to understand their own history better. For a few years now I've felt I should correct my ignorance of American history, which I hated learning about as a kid because of the terrible, jingoistic, uncritical way it was taught. (I have vivid memories of a couple of days in 11th grade, when we were learning about the Constitution yet again, and the teacher showed us a film about the Constitutional Convention. And suddenly it was interesting--instead of some kind of sacred perfect object that fell from the sky, the Constitution was being shown as the product of clashing interests and hard bargains. It was a thing people made and it wasn't necessarily perfect. Alas, we then went back to reading from the textbook.) Anyway, I'm going to keep trying, but at the moment I'm bogged down very early, in some discussion of early modern English politics and culture that, well, aren't wrong exactly, but are so oversimplified that it hurts me. (The Elizabethan Settlement was not a tolerant religious compromise, as I would think the 200+ Catholics executed during Elizabeth's reign would demonstrate. Also the noncomformist Protestants who were suppressed and penalized in various ways.) I know some oversimplification is inevitable, but it does make me wonder what other important things are going to get that treatment.
4) Did a bit of cooking this weekend. On Saturday I made a stew of chickpeas, lamb, and roasted eggplant with pomegranate molasses, which turned out well. It was entirely improvised, because I found myself in possession of three! eggplants because they were on sale 3 for $1, and even though I'm not a huge eggplant fan I couldn't resist. This recipe is a bit vague about measurements and such, because that's how I tend to cook.
Roughly 1.5 pounds of dried chickpeas, soaked for 24 hours
1 pound meaty lamb neck on the bone, trimmed of any big pieces of fat
1 onion
About 2 tablespoons of baharat spice mix, or to taste (recipe below)
4 cloves garlic, minced
Pomegranate molasses
3 large eggplants (the big purple-black kind widely available in the US)
Olive oil
1 lemon
Brown the lamb neck in a 400 F oven for about half an hour. Put the drained chickpeas and the lamb into a slow cooker, add water to cover and some salt, and cook until the chickpeas are almost as soft as you want. (The timings on this can really vary. I've had chickpeas cook in as little as 12 hours or require 24+ in the slow cooker.)
Remove the lamb necks and let cool a bit. Take the meat off the bones, discarding any bits of fat or gristle, and return the meat to the slow cooker.
Cook the onion in a bit of olive oil over medium heat. After a few minutes of cooking, add the baharat, let cook until the onion is well softened, then add the garlic and cook another minute or so. Add all of this to the slow cooker. Add as much pomegranate molasses as you like, tasting as you go until you get a nice balance of sweet and savory. I ended up using quite a lot.
Slice the eggplants into rounds about 1.5 to 2 inches thick. Put them onto oiled baking sheets, rub some more oil on their tops, and roast in a 425 F oven, turning the slices about halfway through, until they're nicely browned and softened. This took me about 40 minutes. Let the eggplant rounds cool a little, then cut them into bite-sized pieces and add to the slow cooker. Give everything about another hour and serve with a generous squeeze of lemon. I ate mine over Israeli couscous, but I'm sure any grain would work and so would bread.
There may not seem like much lamb considering it makes a vast pot of stew, but lamb has such a strong flavor that I found it sufficient. Plus, chickpeas make a tasty broth all by themselves.
Don't skip the eggplant-roasting step. It adds a beautiful flavor and much improves the texture of the eggplant, too.
Palestinian Baharat spice mix (from Ottolenghi and Tamimi's Jerusalem: A Cookbook)
1 t black peppercorns
1 t coriander
1 small cinnamon stick, coarsely chopped
½ t whole cloves
½ t ground allspice
2 t cumin seeds
Seeds from 1 t cardamom pods
½ whole nutmeg, grated
Grind all ingredients in spice grinder into fine powder. Store airtight. Will keep 8 weeks. (I fiddled with this, as I fiddle with everything, because I'd made it before and found the sweet spices too predominant. So I used less cinnamon and nutmeg and went a bit generous with the coriander and cumin.)
Today it was unexpectedly snowy and cold, but I went shopping in the morning anyway and bought a chicken, since it seemed like the perfect kind of day to roast one. Every time I roast a chicken I am reminded of why I don't do it very often--the cooking is as simple as can be, but the cleanup's a pain. Anyway, I'm now simmering up some chicken stock in the slow cooker, to become a soup tomorrow with some of the breast meat and some kale and other veggies. And my freezer will be overflowing with leftover chicken and leftover chickpea stew, which is a good thing. A full freezer = safety and happiness.
Less seriously, I could listen to Marc Evan Jackson say "I'm a naughty bitch" on an endless loop forever and ever. He got another of the episode's best lines, too: "I took the form of a 45-year-old white man for a reason. I can only fail up."
2) Season 4 of Grace & Frankie was released on Friday and I binge-watched over the weekend. It's good, very very funny, and much lighter and more sitcom-y than previous seasons. Usually I wouldn't like that, but these characters have been through so much, and I like them so much, that I'm glad to see them catch a break.
3) I've been trying to read the two-volume Building the American Republic, which its authors (Harry L. Watson--brother of the more famous John?--and Jane Dailey) and publisher (U of Chicago P) have made available for free as an e-book, citing an urgent current need for US-ians to understand their own history better. For a few years now I've felt I should correct my ignorance of American history, which I hated learning about as a kid because of the terrible, jingoistic, uncritical way it was taught. (I have vivid memories of a couple of days in 11th grade, when we were learning about the Constitution yet again, and the teacher showed us a film about the Constitutional Convention. And suddenly it was interesting--instead of some kind of sacred perfect object that fell from the sky, the Constitution was being shown as the product of clashing interests and hard bargains. It was a thing people made and it wasn't necessarily perfect. Alas, we then went back to reading from the textbook.) Anyway, I'm going to keep trying, but at the moment I'm bogged down very early, in some discussion of early modern English politics and culture that, well, aren't wrong exactly, but are so oversimplified that it hurts me. (The Elizabethan Settlement was not a tolerant religious compromise, as I would think the 200+ Catholics executed during Elizabeth's reign would demonstrate. Also the noncomformist Protestants who were suppressed and penalized in various ways.) I know some oversimplification is inevitable, but it does make me wonder what other important things are going to get that treatment.
4) Did a bit of cooking this weekend. On Saturday I made a stew of chickpeas, lamb, and roasted eggplant with pomegranate molasses, which turned out well. It was entirely improvised, because I found myself in possession of three! eggplants because they were on sale 3 for $1, and even though I'm not a huge eggplant fan I couldn't resist. This recipe is a bit vague about measurements and such, because that's how I tend to cook.
Roughly 1.5 pounds of dried chickpeas, soaked for 24 hours
1 pound meaty lamb neck on the bone, trimmed of any big pieces of fat
1 onion
About 2 tablespoons of baharat spice mix, or to taste (recipe below)
4 cloves garlic, minced
Pomegranate molasses
3 large eggplants (the big purple-black kind widely available in the US)
Olive oil
1 lemon
Brown the lamb neck in a 400 F oven for about half an hour. Put the drained chickpeas and the lamb into a slow cooker, add water to cover and some salt, and cook until the chickpeas are almost as soft as you want. (The timings on this can really vary. I've had chickpeas cook in as little as 12 hours or require 24+ in the slow cooker.)
Remove the lamb necks and let cool a bit. Take the meat off the bones, discarding any bits of fat or gristle, and return the meat to the slow cooker.
Cook the onion in a bit of olive oil over medium heat. After a few minutes of cooking, add the baharat, let cook until the onion is well softened, then add the garlic and cook another minute or so. Add all of this to the slow cooker. Add as much pomegranate molasses as you like, tasting as you go until you get a nice balance of sweet and savory. I ended up using quite a lot.
Slice the eggplants into rounds about 1.5 to 2 inches thick. Put them onto oiled baking sheets, rub some more oil on their tops, and roast in a 425 F oven, turning the slices about halfway through, until they're nicely browned and softened. This took me about 40 minutes. Let the eggplant rounds cool a little, then cut them into bite-sized pieces and add to the slow cooker. Give everything about another hour and serve with a generous squeeze of lemon. I ate mine over Israeli couscous, but I'm sure any grain would work and so would bread.
There may not seem like much lamb considering it makes a vast pot of stew, but lamb has such a strong flavor that I found it sufficient. Plus, chickpeas make a tasty broth all by themselves.
Don't skip the eggplant-roasting step. It adds a beautiful flavor and much improves the texture of the eggplant, too.
Palestinian Baharat spice mix (from Ottolenghi and Tamimi's Jerusalem: A Cookbook)
1 t black peppercorns
1 t coriander
1 small cinnamon stick, coarsely chopped
½ t whole cloves
½ t ground allspice
2 t cumin seeds
Seeds from 1 t cardamom pods
½ whole nutmeg, grated
Grind all ingredients in spice grinder into fine powder. Store airtight. Will keep 8 weeks. (I fiddled with this, as I fiddle with everything, because I'd made it before and found the sweet spices too predominant. So I used less cinnamon and nutmeg and went a bit generous with the coriander and cumin.)
Today it was unexpectedly snowy and cold, but I went shopping in the morning anyway and bought a chicken, since it seemed like the perfect kind of day to roast one. Every time I roast a chicken I am reminded of why I don't do it very often--the cooking is as simple as can be, but the cleanup's a pain. Anyway, I'm now simmering up some chicken stock in the slow cooker, to become a soup tomorrow with some of the breast meat and some kale and other veggies. And my freezer will be overflowing with leftover chicken and leftover chickpea stew, which is a good thing. A full freezer = safety and happiness.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-22 05:32 pm (UTC)It's weird that in retrospect I also feel like my whole history classes in school always revolved around the second world war even though I know that's not true. For instance I vividly remember learing about Egypt in fifth grade and having to draw a map of the Nile. But I don't remember the lesson.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-23 01:25 am (UTC)