Text 31231, 74 rader
Skriven 2015-09-23 15:38:44 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: AK 282
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Lilli joined us for the last couple days of my visit; she was
a pleasant and charming counterpoint to the two old bachelors.

Swisher's pantry - on a previous visit I'd complained to
him that he used La Choy and bought him a bottle of Kikkoman.
It was still there, half left. I gave a couple dishes a shot
or two of it. It's otherwise pretty well stocked with herbs
and spices old and new. There was also some cooking wine from
last time. Interesting stuff in the freezers, though, elk roast
among them, but we didn't have time to mess around with it.

We did use some somewhat superannuated meat that we found in
the back of the cold standalone - it had been vacuum sealed so
perfectly fine. There was also some meatloaf that he'd gotten
tired of and was on the verge of tossing. I dumped a bunch of
salsa brava (not so brava) on it and it tasted pretty great,
whereupon Bill decided that it was a waste not to eat it.

Things made: chicken schnitzel; chicken with sherry and porcini
sauce; breaded pork chop.
--
BBQ at Lilli's and my friend Bob's house in South Anchorage.
The word had come for kitchen helpers to show up at noon for
a 2 pm start. I figured 1 would be fine, so that's when we
showed up. Chris the meat man hadn't shown up - in fact, he
called at half past with the news that he was still at Costco.

Meanwhile, Bob and Bob Davis had cut up cheese and cruddities
for hors d'oeuvres (20 present at the event, 2 Johns and 3 each
Bobs and Chrises). My immediate task was caprese, but the
mozz and tomatoes were still at Costco, so I relaxed with a
glass of Columbia Merlot I think it was.

The provisioning party showed up around 2 with some interesting
stuff. Seven tri-tips, a bit over a hundred bucks, and a big
pork belly, about 12 lb, a bargain at $2 something a pound,
and if I'd been in charge, this would have made the bulk of
the shopping run. I wanted to kipe half the pork to cook it my
way (Lilli encouraged this), but I refrained.

What came out eventually was quite tasty, the beef cooked
variously medium-rare to medium, pleasing almost everybody (I
had part of one slice, and that was enough); the pork, cooked
according to some special recipe, had been baked in the oven
and finished on the grill - despite some of the fat having
been burned blackly away (I mourned for this), the meat was
succulent and made some excellent pulled pork. For myself, I
ate almost exclusively off the fatty discards, which were
intensely piggish and very moreish. At the end, half the meat
remained along with a huge quantity of cooking liquid that I
hope had good use made of - turned into soup stock or perhaps
dehydrated for an extremely rich pork bouillon. I should have
asked for a doggy bag!

Chris (the meat man as opposed to Chris the car man) had been
fishing at Dutch Harbor the previous day until the last minute
before his plane had taken off, and he also offered of his
catch - fresher salmon one can't get. It was silvers he caught
and grilled with a sprinkle of Tom Douglas's fish rub. Quite
delicious, though I say so who shouldn't (I never liked Tom
Douglas).

Potatoes, salad, the usual accompaniments, all of which I
eschewed, preferring instead to sample offerings from Bob's
imposing Wall of Wine, which were plentiful and mostly 
pretty wonderful.

In a particularly Cana-like move, as the party was winding
down, Bob pulled out his prized Silver Oak Alexander Valley
2002 Cabernet, which, contrary to its reputation, was not
a mass of oak and eucalyptus but in fact a pleasant, actually
rather understated and delightful wine.
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