p.s. The masoor dahl recipe @80. Masoor lentils or dahl can be found in health food stores as “pink lentils,” although they’re more salmon in color.

Zen Carrot Salad
Grated carrots, grated very fine. (Small holes on the side of the grater.) Grate as many carrots as possible until you get bored or you’ve exercised your arm muscles as much as you want.

Something green to mix in (chopped up parsley, green onions, dill, whatever). I go heavy on the greens especially if it’s something that doesn’t have much taste, like parsley.

Grated lemon peel, 1/4 tsp/large grated carrot.

Cider vinegar, salt, freshly grated black pepper. And a few drops of toasted sesame oil. Mix throughly. The balance of tastes should be between the sweetness of the carrots, the spicyness of the pepper, the sour vinegar (which also contributes some sweetness so please don’t use wine vinegar), the slight bitterness of the lemon peel augmented by the sesame oil.

Keeps well in fridge.

Other people on the site are sending recipes and counseling eating as a way of taking care of yourself. My own suggestion is to take lots and lots of naps.

Major props to Lucy’s 271, everybody!

I started a couple of days prior by making some chorizo to go into the discada. Took several of the sausage recipes from Bruce Aidell’s excellent Complete Sausage Book, so good it could easily live on the fiction shelves. In particular, I laid out the recipes for chorizo, basque chorizo, linguica, chourico, and El Paso sausage in a table to compare them, and then threw something together that borrowed from all of them.

Mine approximated this:
the wide end of a picnic shoulder, 3 or 4 lbs
2 T raisin vinegar
dash balsamic vinegar
2 T hot Hungarian paprika
1 T smoked Spanish paprika
handful of Chinese sliced dried garlic (Babelfish informs me chorizo translates as garlic sausage)
1 T freshly cracked black pepper
5 t sea salt
1 t marjoram
1/2 t coriander
1 t cumin
1 t cayenne
1 T New Mexico red chili powder
1 c dark beer (homebrewed brown red ale)
1 T orange blossum honey
handful dried red/green bell pepper
2 T sour cherry syrup (from Penguen sour cherry preserves, wow!)
1 T Vietnamese spiced wine
dash Lebanese 7-spice powder
dash Herb de Provence
dash Cuban Gold seasoning
dash instant coffee
dash Bufalo Chipotle sauce

Cut the pork shoulder into strips, put in bowl with other ingredients, ran through meat grinder, mixed seasonings into ground meat. Let refrigerate for a day and a half. Made up thick crepinettes on Hole E Smokes silicone mats, smoked in GrillDome over pecan wood.

Took narrow end of picnic shoulder, rubbed with Elder Ward’s rub, smoked overnight after taking chorizo out of smoker.

For the discada, took half a pound of bacon, fried then moved the strips to the edge of the discada as they got crisp.

Next fried the chorizo in the bacon grease, pushed it to the edge.

Next fried a big yellow onion, and a green pepper, coarsely cut onto the discada, pushed it toward the sides.

Added a cup of canned diced tomatoes, fried briefly.

Added a cup of dark beer, maybe a quarted cup each of Maggi, Worchestershire sauce, and Bufalo chipotle sauce, stirred it all together. Reduced heat, let simmer until veggies soft.

Made 4 batches over the course of the day as new diners showed up. It was a big hit, really stole the show from the excellent tortilla soup and tamales the other cooks put together.

Excellent comfort food, offered here for the virual wake for Jane’s mom. Peace.

I started a couple of days prior by making some chorizo to go into the discada. Took several of the sausage recipes from Bruce Aidell’s excellent Complete Sausage Book, so good it could easily live on the fiction shelves. In particular, I laid out the recipes for chorizo, basque chorizo, linguica, chourico, and El Paso sausage in a table to compare them, and then threw something together that borrowed from all of them.

Mine approximated this:
the wide end of a picnic shoulder, 3 or 4 lbs
2 T raisin vinegar
dash balsamic vinegar
2 T hot Hungarian paprika
1 T smoked Spanish paprika
handful of Chinese sliced dried garlic (Babelfish informs me chorizo translates as garlic sausage)
1 T freshly cracked black pepper
5 t sea salt
1 t marjoram
1/2 t coriander
1 t cumin
1 t cayenne
1 T New Mexico red chili powder
1 c dark beer (homebrewed brown red ale)
1 T orange blossum honey
handful dried red/green bell pepper
2 T sour cherry syrup (from Penguen sour cherry preserves, wow!)
1 T Vietnamese spiced wine
dash Lebanese 7-spice powder
dash Herb de Provence
dash Cuban Gold seasoning
dash instant coffee
dash Bufalo Chipotle sauce

Cut the pork shoulder into strips, put in bowl with other ingredients, ran through meat grinder, mixed seasonings into ground meat. Let refrigerate for a day and a half. Made up thick crepinettes on Hole E Smokes silicone mats, smoked in GrillDome over pecan wood.

Took narrow end of picnic shoulder, rubbed with Elder Ward’s rub, smoked overnight after taking chorizo out of smoker.

For the discada, took half a pound of bacon, fried then moved the strips to the edge of the discada as they got crisp.

Next fried the chorizo in the bacon grease, pushed it to the edge.

Next fried a big yellow onion, and a green pepper, coarsely cut onto the discada, pushed it toward the sides.

Added a cup of canned diced tomatoes, fried briefly.

Added a cup of dark beer, maybe a quarted cup each of Maggi, Worchestershire sauce, and Bufalo chipotle sauce, stirred it all together. Reduced heat, let simmer until veggies soft.

Made 4 batches over the course of the day as new diners showed up. It was a big hit, really stole the show from the excellent tortilla soup and tamales the other cooks put together.

Excellent comfort food, offered here for the virtual wake for Jane’s mom. Peace.

I was so pleased and honored to see that you planned to prepare my recipe. I’d forgotten to write that inspiration came from my mom’s birth-month (April= blooming cherry blossoms) and my grandaughter’s name–she’s part Vietnamese and Sioux; her name, Aiyana Mai, means “Ever Blooming Cherry Blossom.” I also add more olive oil if it seems dry–and sometimes serve it surrounded by roasted quail or cornish game hens.

If I were in your neighborhood I would probably bring over a roasted turkey breast because you have to have something to “cut on” when things are tough, and those roast turkey breasts serve about a dozen people easily.

But since we’re talking family comfort food, I guess I’d have to post my dad’s tabbouli recipe. My dad makes tabbouli whenever there’s trouble – or a celebration, too.

Tabouli
An approximation of what I do. When assembling the salad, tip a small bit into your palm with the mixing spoon, then pop into your mouth. Slightly more sanitary. Taste, taste, taste!

Note: You may make this ahead of time for several hours or overnight, but do not add salt or olive oil until just before serving.

1/2 cup bulghur wheat (fine grind is best, medium works okay)
2 bunches parsley (I prefer flat leaf texture but curly is fine)
1 bunch green onion
Tomatoes – at least 2 cups chopped
Fresh mint. 5 or 6 stalks at least
2 to 3 lemons (to taste!)
Olive oil
Salt
Cucumbers (optional)
Romaine lettuce leaves (garnish & scoopers, optional)
Fresh grape leaves (scoopers – optional)

Soak the bulghur wheat in at least three times its volume of cold water. Fine grind only needs a half hour of soaking. Medium grind needs longer. Bulghur wheat has already been parboiled before cracking or grinding, so it doesn’t need further cooking to be edible in tabbouli. Drain bulghur.

Chop the parsley leaves, green onions, mint, tomatoes and cucumbers. Some Lebanese add white onion but I find the taste too harsh. Chop the parsley quite fine, using a knife. I tried a food processor and found that it makes parsley too fine and gloppy. The tomatoes must be cut up into quite small dice.

Mix veggies and bulghur together. Douse with strained lemon juice. If you are not ready to serve immediately, then cover and hold in a cool place. Do NOT add salt and olive oil until immediately before serving.

You may garnish with more diced tomatoes and/or diced cucumber, and stick lettuce or grape leaves around the sides of the bowl. Lebanese like to use leaves to scoop up the salad, popping leaf and salad into mouth.

So consider this a virtual pot of tabouli for our virtual FDL potluck. I’m hoping I get to see the gang one day. Jane, be well and be comforted in your grief.

You can also try another, different blend to make on your own from Indian cooking expert Madhur Jaffrey, too, if you can locate her book “World of the East Vegetarian Cooking”. Think she has a couple blends in that particular cookbook. (Now that’s a cookbook that will pass as a travelogue! a trip around the middle and far east!)