Yellow gold 'tates

There is no baking going on in this house till we get a new oven and cooking this week with out a way to bake has been a trial, but has caused me to dig out a few gadgets I don't normaly use. One of them happens to be the "Fat Daddy Frier" I hijacked from the Mom. Filled with a half gallon of corn oil and heated to a nice 375 I figured we could move through a few spuds. Hopefully as last month I had picked up a bag of yellow gold potatoes from costco. These sweet, juicy, delightful, taters are tiny but really a good choice for frying, fortunately as I have twenty pounds of potatoes.

Buying in bulk is a great idea, while actually using it all seems to be a feat! I made potato salad, and thought about making tater soup till I remembered I don't really like it with out bacon and sour cream and you have to prebake the tubers... so that is out for now though I could toss a few on the grill...

Fry daddy! Filled with boiling oil, ready to remove skin! I pulled out the danger-lin and sliced up a few yellow golds. I tried about 6 different slices from the mandolin, three slices of varying thickness and a few off the shredder. I eventually sliced a few things by hand and tried out my spiral cutter thing "as seen on tv". The spirals I cut appart as they would have stuck together. I was only really limited to the size of my tater.

My favorites where the thinest slice they came out like a tender kettle chip. Tossed with a pinch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper made me wonder why kettle chips are still in business. Then I looked the mess I had made making roast beef aju and fried potatoes.

There was a place in the what is now know as the pearl. biwa, mima, bisu, kapow, I can't remember the name right now, gone for so many years like all the restaurants except for the one that is there now. biwa I am pretty sure it was called had a "taco" that was actually a bit more like a wrap really, served with long skinny fries, well done and crispy with a lightly chewy center, but crisp with a snap almost like a good hebrew national. Golden and sweet crisp with a beautiful piece of tuna. Simple and one of my favorite easy meals in the area. Had the potatoes I used been a little bit bigger I am pretty sure they would have been very close to what I made..

Garlic and Saphires

I just finished a beautiful memoir by Ruth Reichl. I \ hate girls with curly hair who want to have straight hair. Don't they understand what its like to have straight hair? it's nothing, no curl no defiance, just once in awhile some rogue wave from drying it too quick

This curly haired wonder winds up as The New York Times Critic".  She wears full costumes, wigs and assumes an identity to visit restaurants in new york. She visits many but actually attempts to be truthful. Oddly she chooses a batch of half people to become. with her donning of a wig she becomes some sorrowful woman with out family or a miss marriage, it seemed with all her studies in character she never chose a strong or happy person, just lonely and alone.

A few wigs later and a trillion meals of delight tucked in she writes this book. "Oh, I am so skinny and have curly hair, but I eat in all the super fab places!" I'd want to kick her rich ass if she didn't write about stuff I liked.

I love her book for being an easy read, yet I hate it for being less than complex. She writes about restaurants eons in the making yet makes me feel I as if I am visiting some fast food mexi-fresh joint with each report, with clean table clothes and truffles.

I enjoyed her book, an least honest read on fine dining.  Memoirs that held to the idea of food for enjoyment and understood when getting a shitty table a and a bitch of a server,  your meal just might be ruined.

The book had a handful of recipes and The bacon carbonara is specifically fatty delightfulness.



Can you go wrong with bacon ?


Spag-carb a la Reichel, as translated by me..

start a pot of water and drink a glass of white wine while you dig up your ingredients:
how ever much pasta you need, preferably spaghetti,
as much bacon as can might want
a clove or two of garlic
two eggs ( unless you are cooking for one)
pepper
hard cheese

Take 8 0r 12 rashers of bacon , chop well and saute until the fat is just beginning to go soft and add a clove or two of garlic, don't over cook or slice the bacon too thickly or you won't make the mix we are searching for. it has taken me a few times to get it right.

While the bacon is cooking, remove shells from your eggs and put them into your serving dish, where you should beat those eggs until they are uniformly bright yellow and seasoned with a few grinds of pepper.

When the pasta is cooked drain and toss with the eggs, the heat from the noodles will cook the egg mix. Add bacon, and most of the fat. I did not mix all the fat in with my pasta, though I am sure I am going to die of heart failure anyway. Add cheese, and a little more cheese, mix and eat..

Cheese, egg, pasta and bacon, go get em fatty!