lululu

I did not select this recipe because it included hush puppies, but it is an awfully appropriate menu item for us these days. I pulled it out of my “try this” file for our first California dinner after a long weekend of house shopping in Austin (more on that later). Honestly, I never understood why anyone liked hush puppies, those dense lumps that manage to be at once dry and greasy. Turns out they are something quite different right out of the fry oil, just cool enough to eat, and stuffed with tasty additions. I’d recommend getting everything prepared so you can sear the fish and fry the hush puppies at the very last minute and eat immediately.

Arctic Char with Cucumber-Feta Relish and Jalapeño-Goat-Cheese Hush Puppies
from Bon Appetit’s September 2010 feature on restaurants, originally from Caseus Fromagerie Bistro, New Haven, Connecticut

INGREDIENTS
Relish
1 12-ounce cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
3/4 cup coarsely crumbled sheep’s-milk feta cheese (about 3 ounces) [Lacking feta, I substituted crumbled blue cheese for both the relish and the hush puppies. No complaints.]
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh Italian parsley [I chopped a little extra and threw it into the puppies batter.]
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil [I think 2 is all that's necessary.]
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
Fish
4 5- to 6-ounce arctic char fillets with skin
3 tablespoons canola oil

INSTRUCTIONS
Toss relish ingredients in medium bowl. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Relish can be made 2 hours ahead.

Sprinkle fish on both sides with salt and freshly ground pepper. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Place fish, skin side down, in skillet. Cook until skin is brown, occasionally flattening with spatula to prevent curling, about 4 minutes. Turn fish over. Cook until just opaque in center, about 1 minute. [I found this timing to be exactly right. The skin was beautifully crisp and the flesh perfectly done.]

Using slotted spoon, mound relish on plates. Top with fish, skin side up. Arrange hush puppies alongside and serve.

Hush Puppies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk [Lacking buttermilk, I used plain yogurt.]
2 tablespoons beaten egg
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped seeded jalapeño chile
4 ounces coarsely crumbled soft fresh goat cheese (about 1 cup)
Canola oil or vegetable oil (for deep-frying)

INSTRUCTIONS
Whisk first 6 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Whisk buttermilk, egg, and chile in small bowl to blend. Stir buttermilk mixture and cheese into dry ingredients.

Add enough oil to deep medium saucepan to reach 1 1/2 inches. Attach deep-fry thermometer to pan; heat oil to 320°F to 330°F over medium heat. Working in batches of 4 or 5, drop batter by tablespoonfuls into oil. Cook until golden, turning occasionally, about 4 minutes. [Mine cooked faster than this. Perhaps my oil was too hot, but they sure turned out fine.] Using slotted spoon, transfer hush puppies to paper towels.

Today’s puppy post is another excerpt from our favorite dog book, Culture Clash. I find this table, describing the differing perspectives of humans vs dogs, enormously comforting when the puppies are trying to chew on my pant leg for the thousandth time.

Sorry, guys, I just can’t not post them. All I’ve done for the last 5 days is hang out with puppies, and occasionally participate in comical conference calls (thank goodness for hands-free devices).

Izzy. She’s so tiny!

In their pen, alerted by Sous’s barking at the mailman.

I needed a way to keep them outside while giving Sous free access to the yard. This worked for approximately 20 mins before Izzy found her way over it.

They’re on a systematic search-and-destroy mission for plant life in the backyard.

They sleep in the cutest possible configurations.

The puppies are wreaking hilarious havoc on the backyard. Fortunately, it’s mostly weeds and a few flowers that someone else planted and we don’t care about. (Don’t we sound like great tenants? Someone sell us a house, pronto!) Bryan is actually happy to see them tamping down some of the random greenery that we’d have to take out ourselves when they dry up and die in a month. I’ve decided the only thing I’m holding firm on is our vegetable garden. They’ve already discovered the joys of strawberries (well, strawberry leaves) and discovered that “ramming speed” will penetrate the garden’s flimsy wire fence. All told, it’s another good reason to raise puppies in a rental house!

I have attempted to post a video in which they collaborate to take down an insolent flower stalk. They’ve shown no ill effects, so I’m assuming it wasn’t poisonous.

puppies murder a flower

These puppies are a lot easier than Sous was. It’s probably some combination of having done this before and knowing what to expect, having two who entertain each other, and getting them during a spell of nice weather, when we can enjoy long days in the backyard. Oh yeah, and having a backyard at all so we don’t have to voyage to the dirt strip behind the basement for the 16 daily eliminations. Anyway, so far they’ve been pretty fun.

We have a boy and a girl. It’s commonly recommended that your second dog be the opposite sex of your first. Apparently it raises the odds they’ll get along. Sous is reserving judgment on the whole situation for now, but I’m not sure how any creature can resist this level of cuteness. Here’s the girl (Izzy—we’re just keeping the names they came with), using the strap on a chair as a head sling during a nap:

And here’s Buster’s Match.com profile pic:

We’ve decided to foster a couple of puppies for the next 6 weeks, with the idea we’ll adopt one permanently at the end of that time. So, hey! Big news for us. Obviously we’re ready to get moving on all the life changing. Expect profuse puppy posts.

Anyway, this decision has had us pouring over our substantial collection of dog-training books. I’ve been reading up on Culture Clash, which we enjoyed so much the first time around that our copy sports large wine stains. I wanted to share this paragraph from the introduction, describing why it’s silly to think that dogs are going to behave the way you want just to please you:

My dogs’ brains are continuously and expertly checking out the behavior of humans, working out to eight decimal places the probability at any given second of cookies, walks, attention, Frisbee and endless hours of deliriously orgasmic games with the latex hedgehog. They appear devoted to me because I throw a mean Frisbee and have opposable thumbs that open cans. Not to say we don’t have a bond. We are both bonding species. But they don’t worship me. I’m not sure they have a concept of worship. Their love is also not grounds for doing whatever I say. It is, in fact, irrelevant to training. To control their behavior, I must constantly manipulate the consequences of their actions and the order and intensity of important stimuli.

In addition to being right on, as far as I’m concerned, this reminds me how similar I found dog training and managing a classroom full of 8th graders to be.

After realizing last fall that my Spanish has atrophied completely—I have removed “Spanish minor” from my resumé, no matter how technically accurate it may be—I’m listening to Pimsleur’s first three Spanish courses on iTunes to refresh my memory. Bryan and I had good luck learning basic German from them and like their approach to language teaching: few explicit rules, lots of repetitive but realistic conversation.

Maybe a little too realistic. In the first ten lessons I have been reminded how to order beer and insist that the other person pay. A favorite exchange:

“How much time do you have?”
“Eight minutes.”
“What do you want to drink?”
“Three beers.”
“Three beers in eight minutes?!”
“I like beer.”

I may have participated in this precise conversation in real life.

The New York Times issued a call a few weeks ago for essays making an ethical case for eating meat. I couldn’t think of a single ethical justification myself, so I’ve looked forward to the results. Out of thousands of submissions, the panel of judges (including Michael Pollan, Peter Singer, and others) selected six finalists—all brief, engaging, and worth a read. The winner will be selected by reader votes, and if you do vote, you can see where the entries stand among the readers so far.

[Spoiler alert.] For the sake of good survey methodology, I hope that they are varying the order in which the submissions appear when readers visit the site. The results show the first entry (“I’m about to eat meat…”) far ahead in votes, which could be due to readers only reading for and voting among the first few entries. But surely the Times knows better.

Yeah, she commandeered a shoe.

We wanted to get a Utica trip on the calendar before our Texas move, so yesterday Clare and I made a save-the-date…something. You should come! Best car-camping ever.

Hat-tip to the meme source. And this one. And this one.