Boston Organics delivery, and some food

[magid]

Large box, one-third fruit.

• a large head of red leaf lettuce
  
• a bunch of spinach
  
• a small head of cauliflower
  
• two large-ish baby bok choi
  
• a bunch of broccoli
  
• a pint of grape tomatoes
  
• a medium zucchini
  
• an acorn squash
  
• four yellow onions
  
• four parsnips
  
• two rutabagas
  
• a pineapple
  
• two lemons
  
• a grapefruit
  
• four oranges
  
• three tangelos

And a dozen eggs.

Today's work food riffed off the classic PBJ on white bread, but everything had a twist: six grain and pumpkin seed bread, cashew-macadamia butter, and homemade cranberry chutney. Yum. Of course, I can eat pints of cranberry chutney straight...

Dinner tonight was stir fry, the ultimate in tons of prep, little cooking. Originally I'd wanted to use tofu, but Trader Joe's didn't have a hechshered brand (neither did Russo's), so ground turkey it was.

I added corn starch and Szechuan spicy sauce to the turkey and mashed them together, to marinate while I chopped things. This time I even did it all in advance and in separate bowls!
Bowl 1: a sliced onion, three smashed cloves of starting-to-sprout garlic, and the white parts of four scallions
Bowl 2: a small knob of ginger, julienned (Squee time: ginger I dug out of a planter in the kitchen minutes before! Can't get much more local than that!)
Bowl 3: sliced shiitake mushrooms
Bowl 4: sliced white mushrooms
Bowl 5: eight fresh water chestnuts, sliced (totally worth the annoyance factor; they're so much nicer fresh), and the green parts of the scallions
Bowl 6: stalks of baby yu toy
Bowl 7: leaves of baby yu toy
I'd originally planned to put in baby bok choi, but I ran out of steam for veggie slicing, not to mention convenient places to put bowls.
I heated up the wok, added oil and the first bowl, then went to fan the smoke detector (this new one is definitely sensitive...). When I got it to shut up, I turned on the fan over the stove, opened the door to the porch, and went on adding the bowls of stuff in the order listed, giving time for each thing to cook before the next, with the meat added after all the mushrooms. Towards the end, I drizzled some hot pepper oil over it (I couldn't find the open toasted sesame oil), and some soy sauce.

Not really authentic (I should've been taking stuff out given the quantities), but good, if you like really spicy food.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

That's a nice bounty this week. I like the twisted PB&J -- very yummy sounding.

The stir-fry prep is impressive. A good stir-fry of that caliber would certainly hit the spot. Hmm, but I had it ingrained in me long ago to watch the salt soy sauce (yes, specifically soy sauce) pre-fast.

The ginger is the most exciting part of this entry. Very cool! Congratulations.

I thought of you earlier today, when I read of chocolate bubble wrap (http://www.delessiomarket.com/Chocolates%20Page.htm). I doubt the bakery has supervision for kashrut, but wow, isn't that an awesome idea? It would be fun to try to make some.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'd decided to make this stir fry days ago, so I knew I had to have a bunch of time for veggie prep. I never did minor fasts growing up; why soy sauce more than salt in general? (It's low-sodium soy sauce, if that makes it any better.)

Thanks! I'd almost forgotten I still had some ginger in dirt, so I almost wimped and put ginger powder in instead. Not nearly as nice.

And chocolate bubble wrap? Is so wrong. Very cool, but wrong. I mean, you package something up, and it gets chocolate traces all over it from the wrapping!

[(Anonymous)]

Soy sauce specifically because a certain young someone doused a certain dish with soy sauce at a certain pre-fast seudah. (I originally mistyped, and the previous sentence until I corrected it began with "Spy sauce specifically." Hmmm.)

In reality, based upon science and not endearing childhood memories, I imagine it's any sodium, though with regular soy sauce it might be true that one is getting more sodium than is obvious. It probably doesn't apply that much to food eaten early the night before a minor fast commencing after a long non-summer night, unless you have medical issues, or, perhaps you eat a bowl of salt.

How much ginger did you yield compared to the size of the piece of root you had originally planted?

It didn't occur to me to actually use the chocolate bubble wrap to package something. (Why did my link not work properly? It had in the preview.) I had gotten the idea that it would be a fun texture to eat. You know how the same chocolate can appear to taste different from shape to shape? And, while it probably wouldn't pop quite the same, it could still be fun to play with it.

Though, now I'm imagining, if indeed used as you described, what if it were used to package . . . chocolate? Something wrapped in chocolate wrapping paper? Chocolate wrapping paper wrapping yet more chocolate?

For irony, have the chocolate bubble wrap package squooshy clear plastic candy bars. Or, go for the truly absurd, and use the chocolate bubble wrap to wrap plastic bubble wrap; that's what I first pictured when I read the first part of your description, for whatever reason.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Soy sauce: yeah, a lot of it would've been a bad idea. A little of it over a large amount of other stuff, not so bad. (And as for spy sauce, I remember typing spy milk... :-) And I think it'll be fine, even though I didn't drink lots of water last night (and happened to wake up 10 minutes after the fast started, so no last-minute drink). I'm lucky (?) to be someone who fasts fairly well (barring the possibility of some crankiness and less focus than usual).

I'm not sure about the ginger, because I've planted a couple of rhizomes over the years, and usually appreciated them for foliage, never getting around to harvesting. I might replant all that's dormant now and go from there (in which case, I'll likely have a better idea of comparative volumes).

Ah, textured chocolate. I wonder if it would be similar to the British chocolate bar Aero, which has little air pockets in it... I bet it would be fun to experiment with different ways of popping the bubbles orally (Would it make a sound? I mean, the chocolate isn't likely under tension the way the plastic is.).

Chocolate in chocolate sounds yummy (sort of like the inverse of potato borekas/knishes/pierogies, with the starch in starch-iness). It comes down to flexibility for actually doing it, and my impression is that chocolate isn't able to do that. (Though I read of all sorts of culinary accomplishments I can't do, so why not this?). And I like the chocolate bubble wrap over plastic bubble wrap better than the over plastic candy bars :-)

(Not sure why the link didn't work.)

[(Anonymous)]

The spy milk could report back to you on what the other the perishables do after you close the refrigerator door.

What was the rhizome foliage like? Well, you obviously got some growth of root to harvest. So cool.

I'm not familiar with the chocolate bar you mention, but I see that we are thinking similarly about how enjoyable the texture could be. I couldn't imagine a way for the chocolate bubble to make a sound; that's much of what I had meant when I wrote about it not popping quite the same, though you addressed it with more clarity, also alluding with your mention of tension to the resistance felt in attempting to pop and to the release of the tension being felt as well as heard.

Chocolate directly in chocolate akin to the starch dishes you list made me think first of your breadmaking, of a chocolate-filled chocolate bread, though that combines starch and chocolate. More purely chocolate-in-chocolate (rather than one component being only chocolate-flavored), I then realized, would be chocolates (the "box of chocolates" kind) with a softer chocolate filling, such as a truffle. But, hmmm, soft chocolate skin with chocolate truffle filling yielding a nice chocolate blintz? Yum. (And now I want a kasha knish.)

For the wrapping-chocolate-with-chocolate idea that had been inspired by your description, I had been picturing two separate items rather than two joined components, but I had been picturing them as made of the same exact kind of chocolate, and, one being closely wrapped by the other, ending up fairly indiscernable, not only getting the chocolate smudges you had mentioned on each other, but basically becoming one in an unappealing manner.

Chocolate can be made quite pliable, but I don't recall quite how it is done. Corn syrup comes to mind.

What I would do myself would be to get a clean sheet of bubble wrap, one with very firm bubbles, and lay it on a cookie tray. Then I'd melt chocolate as I would for making any molded chocolates, but instead of filling molds, I would slowly pour the melted chocolate over the wrap on the sheet, attempting to get the plastic bubbles coated while not allowing the level of the flat part below to rise up completely. I'd stick it in the freezer and later unmold by carefully inverting the chilled chocolate onto another tray covered with waxed paper and peeling off the plastic.

While from underneath the final product would be more of an impression, like the photo shows of the product the bakery makes, at least from on top the displacement and the difference between the thick bar and the thin films would cause a respectable attempt at a copy of the surface of bubble wrap. It wouldn't be pliable, but it could be fun.

Oh! I just thought of something! After creating the above, I could take the inverted wrap on the tray, fill the bubbles with a filling, and then seal the bubbles with a little remaining melted chocolate. After some time back in the freezer, this could yield chocolate bubble wrap with bubbles that, when popped, would emit not sound/air but rather oozy filling.

I liked the chocolate bubble wrap wrapping the plastic bubble wrap best from all of the scenarios in that comment best too. It's total absurdity.

[magid.livejournal.com]

*grin* My agent provocateur, making sure the broccoli and jam play nice (not to mention keeping an eye on the little man who turns the light on :-).

Ginger foliage is long, tapered leaves, like this. The part we eat is the rhizome, out of which can grow both leaves and actual roots. The only reason I planted some was that a couple of pieces I'd bought that came in a tray with plastic over it started sprouting before I used it, so I put them in dirt as an experiment.

OK, now you've got me wanting a kasha knish. Or almost any other kind of knish, actually, but kasha would be particularly nice.

I've made chocolate dough with chocolate swirl, but to keep it from being too much of the same, I added ginger into one or the other (ginger and chocolate pretty much always being wonderful together).

I know that the chocolate truffle centers are dipped into is tempered so that it solidifies properly. Corn syrup sounds... well, ugh. Too sweet, for one thing (plus I've been trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup, which I know isn't the same thing, but is starting to evince the same reaction in me.).

The sheet of filled chocolates sounds yummy. I could imagine filling the indents with different fillings in a particular order, perhaps growing in intensity, or traveling the fruit spectrum, or something. If you used mint, though, it would have to be last; the flavor lasts so long in the mouth. Sort of like a refined version of a Sky Bar.

I want chocolate now, and I don't think there's any in the house. Dang.

[(Anonymous)]

Hee! I've begun picturing Muppet food characters. Was there a Muppet sketch like this?

Thanks for the pointer to the photo. The root is actually a different part from the rhizome? Thanks for teaching me. Would "ginger root" be a misnomer, then?

I adore kasha knishes.

I totally agree about ginger and chocolate together. I've greatly enjoyed the delicious synergy of ginger and chocolate ice creams together and find it hard to understand why I've never come across actual ginger-chocolate ice cream.

I'm glad you like my idea. I hadn't thought of different varieties of fillings. I like your suggestions. I had only pictured some vague white filling, but now I think I'd like the fruit flavors. Lemon and orange and maybe strawberry or cherry would be nice, and corresponding yellow, orange, and pink colors would go well with the brown of the chocolate in an appealing 70s sort of way. (This has me picturing candy buttons, too.)

I like the ideas of growth of intensity and traveling a flavor spectrum. I'm not sure I understand, though, how the fillings would be ordered and how a flavor would be last; how are the beginning and end and the route from one to the other indicated?

I read once of a pea soup that was assembled for serving in layers from well-chilled to piping hot, and served with instructions for how to properly consume the dish so as to experience the traversing of the range.

I know what you mean about mint. And though mint goes well with chocolate, it doesn't seem to fit in with any of the other categories of flavors that go well with chocolate.

I'm not familiar with Sky Bars.

You know, that ginger spread of yours might be a good filling.

Sorry I caused you to want chocolate when none was available. I hope you have gotten/will get some for Purim. (I still want a kasha knish.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I don't remember a Muppet sketch like this, but I know there were food puppets on Sesame Street. I particularly remember one Guy Smiley game show "This Is Your Life" for a loaf of bread :-).

I don't know enough botany to classify roots v. rhizomes. I think the rhizomes are the equivalent of tubers (like potatoes) in other root plants. I think that ginger leaves are used in some kinds of Asian cooking, so "ginger root" might be to distinguish them (or to distinguish the fresh from the powdered).

I wasn't thinking too clearly about how the fillings would be ordered, more like if one is eating (far too many of :-) them, then the end of one flavor would meld into the next, so it would be good to have complimentary flavors. In any direction, actually, if you're making a plane of chocolate. If it's more like a ribbon, it's more like a number line progression than two dimensional.

With the mint, there could be a variety of mint permutations (peppermint, spearmint, and so on; there's a ton of mint varieties out there, including chocolate mint, and I think pineapple mint, even).

Sky Bars, which I first found in a vending machine at college, in a building now torn down to make a new student center. I never knew which flavor was in which piece, so it was an adventure every time.

The ginger spread is great, but unless these are small bubbles, probably too intense as is for a filling. Hrm. I like really dark chocolate with ginger, but if it were dairy, the milchigs might tone down the heat so most people would like it. *ponder*

Still chocolate-free, but now back to wanting real food :-).
I hope you get many kasha knishes, as well as whatever other Purim goodies!

[(Anonymous)]

The Muppet food characters that I've been picturing very well may have been on Sesame Street.

Okay, so, is it weird that I found the phrase "plane of chocolate" exciting?

And the ordering of fillings makes for yummy graph theory.

Good point, there are many varieties of mint. I cannot stand spearmint, though.

Adventures in Sky Bars could be a book title.

Mmmm, now I'm picturing shiny dark chocolates filled with ginger spread, in a shape I vaguely remember from one of the molds I used to use, long ago.

I wish I knew where the knishes of my childhood were obtained and whether the source still exists.

[magid.livejournal.com]

is it weird that I found the phrase "plane of chocolate" exciting?
No, definitely not, but then, I'm an addict, too.

I bet someone extremely clever could come up with really interesting graphs that would taste interestingly different if one followed different paths through the chocolate...

I haven't found a kind of mint I dislike, though there are some uses I don't find appealing.

Adventures in Sky Bars sounds like an adult (for alcohol content) spinoff of those books by Philip Reeve (definitely worth reading if you read science fiction). Or maybe a 40s style comic book.

Chocolate-dipped rounds of crystallized ginger is pretty wonderful too.

Are the knishes of Brookline even close?

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, I wouldn't've thought of a comic book. That's a neat idea.

Knishes of Brookline could be another title. No, I don't think they are even close.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Knishes of Brookline would work better if there were more than just two knish venues. And I wish there would be the kind of kasha ones you like.

I haven't checked out the new kosher area in Newton (somewhere on Comm Ave), but there's a butcher there who makes sandwiches at least. I wonder if they also make knishes...

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for your lovely knish wish.