Pho Mekong House of Noodles, Utica, NY

A trip to Utica was in order.  Lunch is always fun on a trip, and a search of trip advisor and yelp led us to Pho Mekong, 601 John Street, Utica, NY.

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   This Vietnamese restaurant is a hole in the wall in an unexpected location.  We were greeted immediately by a hostess/waitress.  She promptly brought tea and water.  The tea was hot and floral and delicious.

A request for something with shrimp led to the suggestion of Pho Xao, (S47),

which is shrimp and vegetables (bok choi, peppers, broccoli, onions, mushrooms) over steamed rice noodles in a delicious brown sauce.  It was surprisingly easy to eat most of it, bringing only a bit home.

A Vietnamese chicken curry soup (V41) with vermicelli included chicken, broccoli, mushrooms, with mung beansprouts and basil on the side.  The chicken parts included skin, so it was not a favorite.  The soup flavor was excellent - a mild, slightly sweet curry.

We will be going back to Utica in a week or two and may try something else here or may try another restaurant.  Check back. . .

Braised Red Potato - America's Test Kitchen recipe

America's Test Kitchen made a braised red potato recipe.  We have beautiful red potatoes this year, so this seemed like a good one to try.  The name of the potato is Sangre.  They are larger than we expected.

You can find the original recipe at:  http://www.kcet.org/living/food/the-public-kitchen/weekend-recipe-braised-red-potatoes.html

Braised Red Potatoes with Lemon and Chives
Serves 4 to 6

1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes, unpeeled, halved
2 cups water
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 garlic cloves, peeled
3 sprigs fresh thyme
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives

Of course, I made substitutions - green onion for chives - parsley for thyme.

The halved red potatoes were placed face down in a pan with water, butter, cloves of garlic, parsley, salt, and boiled until the water boiled away and the potatoes began to brown.  

After they are browned, add the mashed garlic, lemon juice, green onion, pepper.

ATK recommends a non-stick pan, but since I don't believe in them, I had to use my stainless steel pot.  They began sticking in the end and I did not let them brown as much as one might hope.

They were very creamy -  not what we expected.  And delicious!

Wickson Crab Apple

While most professional cider apples date to the 19th century or earlier, Wickson was developed in California in the early twentieth. Albert Etter, a prolific and reputedly eccentric breeder, developed several strawberries and apples, many of which were lost after his death.

  

The majority of web sites and other publications list Newtown Pippin and Esopus Spitzenburg as the parents of Wickson, however Greenmantle Nursery, which rescued Etter's original orchard, rather lists two little known crabs, Newton and Spitzenberg.

In any event, Wickson is a very acid and incredibly sweet little apple, too small to be commercially successful, but dandy for artisanal cider making.  Rowan Jacobsen, in Apples of Uncommon Character, recommends Wickson in his "Slow Roasted Baby Apples" recipe, but most folks are content to drink them.

There are a few apples on our Wickson Crabapple tree.  When one fell off, it gave an opportunity to check it out.

It seems kind of large for a crabapple to me.

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It's still not ready, but it is fun to see.

Isn't it pretty inside?

It was very bitter - one reason it is chosen for a cider apple.

Maybe next year will be a better one for apples.

Dabinett Apple

Dabinett is one of the few apples that can make a good single variety cider.

Discovered by William Dabinett in a hedgerow in Middle Lambrook, Somerset, in the early twentieth century.  Middle Lambrook lies between East Lambrook and West Lambrook, and sits on the north bank of Lambrook Brook.  Dabinett (the tree) is reputed to be the offspring of Chisel Jersey, another quality Somerset apple.

The apple is a moderate bittersweet, held in high regard  in the UK and the US  both as a single varietal and as a great blending apple.  

This one is beginning to exhibit water-core damage.

To Prick or Not to Prick

D brought in some beautiful baking potatoes.  These Goldrush potatoes bake up fluffy and are a golden color.

There is always a question of whether to prick the potatoes with a fork before baking.  Some folk say don't prick them - you want the steam held inside.  Others say to prick them to keep them from exploding.  

The question will be answered today.

What is the temperature for a "done" baked potato?  Around 210 degrees.  Was my potato around 210?  I took it out and stuck the thermometer in.  POP!  The potato exploded like a balloon.  I jumped back.  The potato skin landed on the floor.

Lots of the potato landed on the counter.  I scooped some of it up.

I guess we will take it out for the chickens to enjoy.

Notice how clean the skin is.  

That's because the inside is all over the counter and the floor.

Fortunately, I cooked an extra potato, so no one had to go hungry.

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Now you know.

It is a good idea to prick potatoes before baking.

Redfield Apple

2014

2014 was not a good year for fruit trees.  D was keeping an eye on the one plum on one tree.  It's no longer there.  His Redfield trees have one apple.  Here it is - picked before our resident deer population could discover it.

An unusual, red fleshed apple, developed in the late 1930's from a cross between the famously outsized WolfRiver apple and Niedzwetzkyana, an endangered apple from Kyrgyzstan.  Niedzwetzkyana is the ancestor of most, if not all, of the red fleshed apples now domesticated.

Redfield is used for cooking and cider, producing a blood-red cider of high flavor which, while normally blended, is used by West Country Cider to make an excellent single variety cider.  The jelly is also well regarded.

Redfield  sports red flowers and bronze colored leaves, a striking addition to any orchard.

Alas, it ripens in late October (and today is mid-September), so it's not ready to eat yet.

I wonder if the red increases as it ripens.



We had lots of mulberries.  (We left them for the birds.)  There were quite a few cherries, but each one had its own worm.  The beach plums have never fruited.  The birds got the elderberries.  One side of one apple tree (named Lazarus) has a few apples.  That's it.  Sad.

Tough year for apples.

2015 update

All the trees near the road have fruited.  The ones down the hill did not - we did get a 29º night in May.   The guess is that the cold air descended farther down the hill.

This is a young tree, so we are glad there aren't too many apples to stress the branches.

Isn't it lovely?

The inside is also lovely.

It is supposed to make a red cider.

We'll let you know - there are only a handful this year, though.

Summer Pasta

The joy of summer is fresh tomato sauce.

Cut up a few Cherokee Purple tomatoes.
Mince garlic - I used Georgian Fire.
Chop lots of basil and parsley.
Add freshly ground black pepper and a splash of olive oil.
Serve at room temperature over hot buttered/oiled pasta.
Serve with cheddar cheese.
And in this case, we added pitted Calamata olives.

Yum.  

Perfect for a warm summer day.

This is our fourth "batch".  Can't beat it!

No Knead Bread from King Arthur Flour

We went to the Oxford Farmers' Market on Saturday.  Now that we have our first Cherokee Purple tomatoes, it was time for Tomato, Cheddar, and Mayo sandwiches on good bread.  There was an artisan bread baker who had lovely ciabatta bread for sale at $5/loaf.  It was nice to learn that my bread is better!!!  So it was time to get baking.  This time I used the recipe from King Arthur Flour.

After a two-hour initial rise, I left the dough in the refrigerator in a covered plastic tub overnight.

The next morning I shaped half of the dough.

Baked in a 550 oven, turned down to 425 half-way.

The internal temperature was 200, so it was done, but I think it could have stayed a bit longer or at a bit higher temperature.

The crumb was not the big holey type I was expecting.

 Perhaps it needed less or more rising time???

It was delicious, and there is still dough in the refrigerator to make more!