High Noon

 

CoVid has got me watching movies for the n^th time these days. 

Tonight, it was “High Noon”.  I first watched this movie, just short of 70 years ago, the spring of 1952 in Los Gatos; I was 14.

It was a coming of age experience for me.  I watched it twice, back-to-back.  I fell madly in love with Katy Jurado, [who got billing ahead of Grace Kelley see poster bottom].  She was a woman who would fight for her man, which seemed like a good test in those fifties, couple’s rules.  On the other hand, it was Grace Kelley who ran back from the train and shot one of her hubby’s foes.

I didn’t like the quip in this movie poster, “… too proud to run!”.  It wasn’t pride, at all, that I observed, but character.  He had a job to do, and he was going to do it.  It’s like going in the Army or being on the football team: you sign up and you’ve got to meet your obligations.  There’s no backing out on technicalities, or lack of support.  A man must do what a man must do – that was my 14-year-old lesson.  The movie ingrained this in me at that time, and I have followed that dictum ever since.

It’s a cultural, male burden, at least in my WASP background; I can’t speak for other cultures or societies.

It hasn’t particularly served me well.

I did not fail to note, even at 14, that older Gary Cooper had romances with both Katy Jurado, and Grace Kelly  He was a stud.

Chinese WOK cooking

 

I’ve been using a WOK for twenty years now, ever since I retired into a bachelor life in Monte Rio.  Ten years ago, I bought a second 0ne, exactly the same (at Whole Foods).  This allowed me to WOK-cook two nights in a row without having to clean up [bachelor mode].

I’ve focused more, in recent years, on home-grown vegetables and herbs, and followers of me know that I have a totally organic garden.  So, now with the Pandemic keeping me away from restaurants, I often fall back on my WOK skills to create an entertaining meal quickly, and from items on hand.

Two things came together tonight, prompting me to write this discourse.  I had a friend stopping by downstairs to do their laundry.  She complained about pains and ill health, after switching from a meat-based diet to a Vegan one.  I offered to share my planned dinner of tiny lamb chops [see Safeway-1]

with a massive 

stir-fry vegetable

 side [see Safeway-2]. 

I use a big scoop

 of Classico Basil Pesto, 

a lot of fresh ground pepper, copious splashes of Trecini Merlot, and a splash of Knudsen’s “Very Veggie”. 

While my friend was folding her laundry, I was turning the lamb, et al, in the WOK.  I had started earlier with some garden beets, which were now candied with red wine.  The meal came out perfectly, the lamb rare, tender, and delicious; each of the vegetables were amazingly good, fresh and chewy.

I drove my friend and her dry laundry home, and on my way back, listening to KQED on the radio, I heard

This week we sit down with Grace Young, one of the greatest culinary historians of Chinese American food to talk about her career and her mission to save Chinese restaurants in the age of Covid.

She explained wok hei.

Wok hei translated into English means 'wok thermal radiation' or, metaphorically, the 'breath of the wok'. ... In fact, creating wok hei is so tricky to get right that often it is used as a measure of a Chinese chef's skill, and these chefs often spend years trying to perfect the art.

I experienced wok hei tonight in that informally brought together meal.  It was indescribably perfect.

Peter's Winter Vegetable Soup

 

Peter’s Winter Soup

  

A colander full of Tuscan Kale leaves, cut into 1” pieces – I thought today about the fact that my Kale from last summer had not only survived the winter, but was thriving, and growing new leaves.

2.    Beans & bread – I Googled recipes and learned that most Countries toss the kitchen sink into a Winter Soup, so I started with a can of Kidney beans that had been on my shelf for years; and half a loaf of organic seeded bread that was in my airing cabinet for about a week – I crumbled that up.

3.     Root vegetables were common in the suggested recipes, so I diced a fresh packet each of onions and carrots, as well as two handfuls of just-sprouting new potatoes .

4.    For fluids, I dumped in a half a jar of “Very Veggie”, a staple for me; the last inch of a wine wine; and a half jar of Sonoma Roasted Garlic Sauce.

5.    For spice, I added half a pack of artisanal salami, diced.

6.    So far [Tues 4pm] , I have added two pints of “Osmosis” water, which brought the liquid level to the top of my copper pot.