Danville, Virginia Tour of Main Street.

I started this post several days ago and finally finished today. Last weekend, when I was in Danville, I decided to take a little tour of Main Street. I was taking Mama Hawthorne out for a spin and wanted to go down Millionaire's Row and shoot the houses. Unfortunately, all pictures were shot from the confines of Mama Hawthorne's car. The architecture is quite interesting. Please enjoy my Tour of Danville. Oh, and Mama Hawthorne, feel free to correct me anywhere or add any information.

Hee. What A Sign.

I simply must post this link: Check this out. It's Marilyn's blog. And that sign is just too funny. I told her she should send it in to Leno.

Thursday Night Dinner. G Is For Gyoza. R Is For Rangoon. W Is For Wonton Wrappers. Another triple play.

I spent the better part of the afternoon, oh, OK, all afternoon,
preparing dinner items.
And ... IT.WAS.GOOD.
Very good.

My secret ingredient is WONTON.

ALLEZ CUISINE!!!!!!

I got out my wontons from the fridge and, unfortunately, to my chagrin, they were gray.

Had to toss them.

But, not to worry.

W is for WONTON WRAPPER.

So, let's make some wontons.

2 cups flour
1 egg
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt



Mix the egg and water together and pour into a well in the sifted
flour and salt.

Gather up the messy mass and knead it.

Until it's nice and smooth.

Roll it out paper thin.

My granite counter tops are great for pastry.

Slice into squares.

Flour and stack.
Cover and refrigerate.



When I said paper thin, I meant paper thin.




I decided to make pot stickers among other things.
Here are my filler ingredients.

Ground pork, Tamari soy sauce, sesame oil, cabbage (Normally, I would use green, but only had red in the fridge.), green onions, cooked shrimp, carrots, water chestnuts, ginger, and garlic.

I like the purple.

Mr. H. bought this nifty little gadget that did my carrot up quite nicely.
Ooh, I like ORANGE!

I mixed the pork, chopped shrimp, sliced green onions, chopped cabbage, minced garlic, minced water chestnuts, and pressed ginger root.

Plopped a bit of the filling in the middle of the wonton and sealed it.

Here are all my wontons in a thin layer of hot oil.

Brown on one side, turn 'em over, and add water and cover so they can steam.

And here are my delicious pot stickers with 2 dipping sauces, which I'll get to later.
Oh, and G is for GYOZA.

Close up of pot stickers.

Now, on to the sauces.

Basic sauce for wontons:
3 TB tamari soy
1 tsp. hot sweet mustard
2 tsp. rice vinegar

I made up this sauce this afternoon.
It was Mr. Hawthorne's favorite.

About 1/4 cup soy sauce
2 TB sourwood honey (The real deal- You probably won't be able to find it unless you know an honest-to-God beekeeper in the Blue Ridge Mountains.)
1 TB orange marmalade
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 TB toasted sesame seeds
1 chunk squeezed ginger joos

And here's my delicious sauce for the pot stickers.

Next, CRAB CAKES.

Backfin crabmeat, banana pepper from my garden, celery, egg, mayo, Lea & Perrins, Panko breads crumbs, and Captain's Wafers from the Elizabeth City restaurant I went to the other day.

Gee, my mother's maiden name is Lea.
I wonder if we're related to the Lea & Perrins people.

Oh, golly.

Now, please do not use this information to gain access to my personal accounts.
Oh God. You know my dog's name too.
I'm totally compromised now.
Anybody can hack into any of my accounts now.
I am screwed.

Note to self: Self, change all passwords to all accounts ASAP.

I whisked the egg, added maybe 2 TB mayo and 1 or 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce.

Added the minced celery and banana pepper.

Added in some crushed Captain's Wafers.
You could use Ritz.
Then, just barely mixed in the crabmeat.
DO NOT OVERMIX.
You want chunks of crab.
Overmixing screws up the nice crabmeat.

Here's my method.
Scoop into biscuit cutter and press with back of spoon.
Notice I sprinkled the wax-paper-covered pan with panko bread crumbs before making the cakes.

Sprinkle the tops with more panko.

Saute in a combo of butter and oil.

Now, one of Mr. H.'s favorite sauces:
On the right is my leftover chicken consomme I made the other day.
(You could use veggie broth.)
On the left is Bertolli Extra Light Olive Oil.
Top middle is Gray Poupon Dijon.

I mixed 4 TB mustard with 4 TB consomme, then whisked in 6-8 TB olive oil.
Bottom is the Dijon emulsion.

Next up, CRAB RANGOON.
R is for RANGOON.

I have back fin crabmeat, cream cheese, Montrachet Chevre cheese, shredded Monteray Jack cheese, Tabasco, soy sauce, and green onions.

Mix all ingredients except for crab meat.

Carefully add in crab meat.
Remember: Never overwork the crab meat.

Place scoop of crabmeat on wonton.

Crimp moistened edges together.

Heat oil.
You know the oil is ready when bubbles come rapidly out of
a wooden spoon end.

Brown all around.

Drain on paper towels.

And here's my spread.
At approximately 8 o'clock and above are my two dipping sauces for the wontons at 12 o'clock.
Then, going clockwise, I have lemon and lime slices, my mustard emulsion, and at 7 o'clock , 3 crab cakes.
At the very bottom are my Crab Rangoons.

This was a delicious meal.
Mr. Hawthorne loved it.
And Middle and Daughter Hawthornes came home tonight and loved it too.

Oh, this was good, I tell you.
Very good.

Oh, BTW, I've changed my mother's maiden name, gotten rid of Dixie, and now have a new dog.
You will NOT, I tell you, NOT, access my accounts.

Good Eats Tonight.

Yesterday, when Mr. H, and I were on our way to EZ-City, I was reading my local newspaper, The Coastland Crimes, uhh ... I mean Times. The Coastland Times.
I found a recipe in the newspaper from Meridian 42 Restaurant

for Shrimp and Cornmeal Custard Tart with Herb Salad and Old Bay Oil.

Click, Mama-, Sister-Hawthornes, to enlarge.
I read the recipe and it sounded pretty good to me.

I decided to cook it tonight.

Here are the ingredients for the pastry crust:
1 cup flour
3 ounces cream cheese
2 TB butter
1 TB sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 TB milk

I processed it in my processor, being careful not to over-process.
Then I wrapped it in plastic wrap and refrigerated the dough.

An hour or so later, I rolled the dough out, and cut into rounds,
and filled my assorted ramekins.

Ain't deez purty?

Next up, the sauce:

1/4 red onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 medium tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped
salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 TB Old Bay
1 TB tomato paste

I smashed my garlic, sliced my red onion, and chopped my mater.

Heated one TB olive oil then added the onion, garlic, and tomato
and sauteed until tender - about 5 minutes.

Here's a bit of salt, 1 tsp. black pepper, and 1 TB Old Bay Seasoning, which I thought was going to be WAY much, but it was good.

Added the salt, pepper, and Old Bay to the mix.
Love the Old Bay Action.

Then added 1 TB tomato paste.

Cooked for about 3 minutes over low heat.

Then, I added 1/2 cup olive oil and cooked over low heat for 15 minutes.

Here's what it looks like after 15 minutes.

Then I cooled the mixture and pureed it in my processor.

I went out to the garden and cut some arugula, chives, basil, and parsley.

Chopped the herbs and poured some mixed greens into a bowl.

Prepared a dressing:
sherry
white wine
cider vinegar
olive oil
salt
pepper

Everything for the salad right here.

Whisking up the dressing.

I added the herbs to the mixed greens, along with slices of cucumber,
then poured in the dressing.

Now, for my custard preparation:

1/2 cup flour
3 TB yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk

Sift dry ingredients.

Pour in the whupped aigs.

Pour in the melk.
Whisk and set aside.

Now, I've peeled my shrimp.
Mr. H. deveined them because I was lazy and didn't want to.

Added the shrimpies to the tarties.

Then, I poured the custard in the ramekins on top of the shrimp.

Baked them for about 30 minutes, 375 degrees, convection oven.
Puffed up and bee-yoo-tee-full.

Salad with sherry, wine,vinegar.
Shrimp in a cornmeal custard with tomato/garlic/onion puree.

Mr. Hawthorne really liked this.
He said to take the shrimp tails off next time.
NEXT TIME!
He wants me to make it again.
He asked, before eating, about the ingredients.
I mentioned the 1 TB sugar that went into the crust.
He was expecting it to be super sweet.
Yeah, with one TB sugar.
But he found it delightfully not too sweet, just with a hint of sweetness,

He told me, "This is a very simple dish. You should put it in your repertoire."

Simple, my freakin' ass.
I started this at 3 PM this afternoon and finally ate at 7:30.
OK.
It was simple.
But, there's more to it than just throwing crap together.

Why doesn't he understand the effort involved?