So you have some apricots

The family got some apricots from some very nice neighbors who have had the tree for years and only this summer decided to produce fruit.  Lots of fruit.  Way too much to use; they've been giving it away like crazy [ed. many inappropriate similes considered and rejected].

But they're not exactly the tastiest in the world.  I mean, they're good.  They're just not omgwtf wonderful.  And did I mention there are lots of them?

So, we cook.

Apricots, apricots, searching...  No, we're not going to make a jam or a desert or anything overly sweet.  Just not my thing.  And we're not doing pork.  Mainly because I can't find any in the house.

But wait.  Let's think about traditional pairings.  I mean, I'm pretty sure apricots are used all over south asia and the great middle east, right?  (Wikipedia says yes and much, much more.)  Ok, so let's think about, say, Iran.  Maybe Turkey.  What would compliment a mild pear-like fruit...

Pistachios.  Just stay with me here; this is about the point where my brother declared that either the proposed dish or I were "weird".

We have a high-sugar, medium-flavor fruit.  We need it to shine.  Something rich with a nutty yet still slightly sweet taste?  Perfect.  Plus the oils are delicious; otherwise almonds would do the trick.

So let's do this thing.

Combine in a food processor:

• 18 or so apricots, cored
• About a ramekin of shelled pistachios, washed several times if salted

Whir together.  10 1-second pulses are fine; you don't need to feel obligated to pulverize the pistachios.  You definitely want to get rid of some of the excess salt though.

In the meantime, start heating a decent sized sauce pan with a bit of oil (olive is fine).  Also, start thawing some chicken if need be.

Once the oil is hottish, add the seeds of three cardamom pods, maybe four or five cloves, and a very small number of cumin seeds, in that order, waiting for each to become fragrant before adding the next.

[Tangent, not required for the recipe at all: this is actually an entire idea based on a decidedly non-French style of cooking.  We're toasting spices, not aromatics.  The aromatics come in later and are left either stewed or nearly raw.  It's just a different way of flavoring things and if you're serious about making food that resembles anything from persian to indian and even further east into parts of China, get this technique down.  Through lots and lots of experimentation.]

Once your spices are toasted, add the apricot slurry.  Reduce heat and add:

• White or rice vinegar
• Sugar (if needed; if the apricots were quite sweet omit this)

Slice your chicken (two decently sized breasts or so) in thin strips then add that.  Let that cook while the sauce reduces and caramelizes a bit.

After half an hour or so, add a sliced onion and a medium to large tomato cut into about 16 parts.

And walk away for awhile for the whole thing to simmer down so the sauce can permeate the chicken and reduce further.

Serve with rice and some sort of salad, possibly with pita.

Avocado/tangerine salad

Simple as can be.

Chop:

• 1 avocado
• 2 tangerines
• A decent amount of goat cheese
• Two handfuls of almonds

Combine that with spinach.  Dress with:

• Sesame oil
• White wine vinegar (rice wine vinegar would work here too)
• Ground ginger
• Garlic powder

And that's it.  The flavors blend extremely well what with the sweet from the tangerines and almonds, the sour goat cheese, and the various spices (plus whatever it is that avocado has).  The textures work well varying from the crunchy almonds down to the almost melty cheese and avocado.

In a large enough batch this could be a meal.

Pad thai

I've done this a few times now. It isn't what you get from a Thai restaurant. Apparently it's also even closer to the real thing than what you can get in this country.

I based this largely on several readings of this extensive post. It's really good. And then I ignored much of the advice and came up with the following.

So, two parts: sauce and assembly.

Sauce

• 1/2 cup fish sauce, more or less. The stuff is salty so take that into account.
• 1/2ish cup -- maybe more -- rice wine vinegar. This was basically because tamarind paste is hard to find; I'm sure it's better done the right way.
• Pure cane sugar -- more than expected
• Sriracha (plenty)
• Garlic-chili paste (also plenty)
• Water to take salt down and get a sauce that will reduce properly under very high heat

Let that all combine for some hours on low heat. You can even keep it for some weeks. Fish sauce is an amazing preservative.

Prep

As per suggestion, I've decided that woking up one serving at a time is the best way to go. Not only does it let you customize to the taste of your fellow eaters, it just comes out better.

But first, noodles. I've used pho. Soaked in hot tap water for less than about five minutes. Make sure these are ready to go.

Take your choice of proteins. I like chicken for this; beef is too aggressive, I hate shrimp, and I don't much care for tofu. If you're going to use shrimp, be sure to add it later than you would the chicken (which goes in first).

Slice your chicken, preferably breast for this (trust me, you won't miss the fat), quite thin. This is rather important, as you really don't want any single serving to be in the wok for more than, say, 90 to 120 seconds.

Crush some peanuts, preferably unsalted. The easy way: put a bunch of peanutes in a ziploc bag and either use a rolling pin to roll them into near pulp or, say, a cast iron pan. Either works.

Dice some green onion.

Chiffonade some basil, preferably Thai or purple, but we've talked about those before.

Wash some bean sprouts. More than you think.

If desired, let about an egg per serving come to room temp. I also hate egg, so I don't add this myself, but it's not only traditional, it's almost required to be "real" pad thai.

Assembly

Heat peanut oil, plenty, in a wok. Toss in any non-seafood with a small ladel-full of the sauce. Cook that nearly through as quickly as possible.

Add noddles and bean sprouts.

If using egg, push everything in the wok to one side save some of the sauce and basically scramble the egg very quickly on the bottom of the wok.

Add shrimp here and make damn sure the heat is high enough to cook quickly.

Add peanuts.

Add more sauce, probably a few ladels if your heat is high enough.

Finish with basil, green onion, etc.

Serve with lime slices and more peanuts for maximum effect.

Mmm. Realish pad thai.

On a bit of a more traditional note

(I swear I'll be back to stir fry very shortly.  But I was just going through records and this stood out.  And besides, it's one of those lovely Colorado spring days that feels like fall already.)

So it's Boston.  It's Christmas.  It's cold.  And there are only the two of you, and frankly you're both studying like crazy most of the time.  What do a Norwegian/Dutch atheist and a vaguely Germanic agnostic do under such circumstances?

Well, make Christmas dinner, of course.  On the menu:

• Game hens
• Roasted root vegetables
• Candied walnuts
• Fruit salad

It just makes sense, right?

Syrup

This is going to form the basis for the walnuts and the dressing for the salad.  And it takes awhile, so start it first.

In a small saucepan combine:

• A cup or so of apple cider
• One cinnamon stick
• Ground nutmeg, but not too much
• Ground clove, but again not too much as this might actually numb your mouth
• Ground allspice
• About 3/4 inch freshly grated ginger

Bring that all to a simmer and then turn it way down.  Reduce to at least half if not a bit further.  This could take a few hours but won't require constant attention by any stretch of the imagination.

Salad dressing

Combine the majority of the reduced syrup with olive oil (probably straining the syrup).  Let that cool.

Walnuts

Toss the rest of the syrup with a generous amount of walnuts.  It coats amazingly well, so just keep the nuts coming until you think you're just about to spread it too thin.  Serve this as an appetizer and/or with the main meal.

Root vegetables

I chopped up about eight medium potatoes and three leeks into roughly similar sizes and vastly different shapes.  I could see adding carrot or sweet potato (which I can't stand and would never use but each to their own).

Combine chunked up roots with generous olive oil, salt, and pepper in a roasting pan.  A larger roasting pan than you think you'll need.

Toss that in a 500 degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour; you want to get that nice slightly shriveled thing going.

Hens

In the meantime, prep your hens.  Usual poultry stuff; take out the spine and the sweetmeats and all that.

In a food processor, grind up thyme, rosemary, and oregano.  Preferably fresh on all.  Add a touch of olive oil just to make it easier to work with.

Slather both hens, inside and out, with the mixture.

When the roots are ready, place the hens on top and use whatever is left of the herb mixture to cover some of the root veggies.  Cover the roasting pan and return to the oven (reducing the heat a bit; 350 should be fine.  Keep probing the hens until a breast hits 170 or so (and remember that since game hens are so small they won't coast for as long).  I'm guessing this took 45 minutes.

Salad

Hunk up three nectarines and an apple (fuji? granny smith?  something to offset the flavor and add crunch).  Toss that with spinach, add the dressing, toss again, and dinner is ready as soon as the meat is.  (Originally the walnuts were going in here too but they were so good on their own that we just started munching on them right away.)

This generously served two as a feast and could easily scale.  Game hens are one of those interesting items that fluctuate in price so dramatically I don't even know whether to be suspicious.  But it was a lovely and relatively low cost meal and really quite nicely eaten by candle light on the floor in the living room.