New Recipe Number 31: Clove-scented Gratin of Sunchokes and Yukon Gold Potatoes - My harvest box from Spud had some sunchokes in it, and this is what I decided to do with them. It turned out okay. I committed the cardinal gratin sin of using a not-fatty-enough cream (10% instead of 36%). Also, I think gratin de pomme de terre might be like risotto in that the good old-fashioned plain version is the best. The cloveyness of this recipe was a nice addition. I didn't use Yukon Gold potatoes, I used something better: Fraser Valley yellow-fleshed. I've got more sunchokes coming tonight, but I think I'll try something different this time.
New Recipe Number 32: Trout with shrimp sauce - This is a bit of a recipe-in-progess, since I haven't decided which is the best way to make the sauce. I've tried making a shrimpy roux (butter, flour and shrimp) and then adding the milk, wine, and salt, and I've tried making a Bechamel base first and then adding the shrimp later, with the wine and salt, and I'm not sure which is better. But regardless, trout fillets, fried in butter, with some sort of a shrimp sauce, and a squeeze of lemon (I can't eat fish without lemon, sauce or no sauce) is yummy.
New Recipe Number 33: Lamb curry - On Saturday evening, after rushing back into town to pick up my race pack before the race pack pickup closed at six, Tobias decided, out of the blue, that he needed to make a curry. By the time we'd gone to Thrifty's for lamb, and the Oak Bay liquor store for Riesling (we got the Selbach, which girlsongrapes.com rated the "Friendliest"), and returned home, it was nearly 8 o'clock. So I fed Sahsez an avocado sandwich (her favourite meal), put both kids to bed, and Tobias set to work.
When dinner still wasn't ready at nine, I started to stress. We were catching the 7:20am bus downtown for the 10k the next morning and, since my nights are broken up by M'hijo's feedings, I had hoped to be abed by 9:30pm. But damn, that curry smelled good, so I opened up the wine, and just said to myself "Okay, I am going to do the race tired. It's not the end of the world. I'll just pretend I'm a glamorous, late-dinner-eating type of person. Maybe I'll take a siesta tomorrow. During the baby shower. Or maybe afterward. While I'm making dinner. Okay, so I can't fit siesta into my schedule. I'll just drink a lot of coffee. It'll be fine."
At ten PM, we finally sat down to an absolutely delicious curry and a nice, refreshing, well-matched wine.
Tobias was inspired to make curry by a conversation he'd had the previous night with the cabbie who drove him home after several hours of drinking and nibbling at Canoe. The cabbie was a former cook who told Tobias that, first of all, there are no decent Indian restaurants in Victoria, so don't even bother, and second of all, there are just four important components to a curry, and once you've realized this, you can make a great curry yourself.
My friend Saskatchewan once said something to the effect of "I'm glad I don't understand this cuisine well enough to not enjoy this meal." She was talking about a middle eastern meal, if I remember correctly. In my case, this applies to Indian food, since I think Spice Jammer and Da Tandoor are just fine, even though I'd rather eat at Trimurti, and probably Farheen would say even Trimurti is not all that good. The point is, it's good enough for me, and I'm glad.
As for the four components, they are garlic, ginger, tomatoes, and onions. No mention of spices at all! Isn't that funny? I wouldn't have guessed that. So Tobias wanted to put the theory to the test, but he's not really the throw-it-all-in-the-pan-and-see-how-it-turns-out type of cook so he followed a Madhur Jaffrey recipe, from Taste of India. He says he wishes he hadn't used sweet onions, but whatever, it tasted like heaven to me.
When I get a chance to get down to the halal butcher, I'm going to try this: goat, ghee, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, onions, and that's it. I'll let you know how that turns out.
New Recipe Number 34: Obi Wonton Kenobi Soup - From the title, it's obvious that this is a Podleski recipe. It's from Crazy Plates. Sahsez was excited about making wontons, but I knew going into it that she would be excited for long enough to make about 12 wontons, and I would make the other 40 or so. Guess what? I was right. Still, she enjoyed making those twelve, and came up with some interesting ways of sealing the wrappers that, surprisingly, didn't fall apart during the cooking.
It took forever, but it was totally worth it! Totally as good as Chinatown.
Number 71: Creamy Stuffed Figs - I got these from a wonderful blog called The Weekly Dish. Whenever I get my act together (maybe when M'hijo starts preschool) I am going to do a little weekly menu like the Culinary Bookworm does. It's so neat, and so were the figs. 
