NJ SPICE

I’ve been out and about, but also cooking at home. Here’s a sampling of some of my recent favorites. The soup dumplings were part of a review dinner I just enjoyed at Shanghai Bun in Princeton Junction (they were packed, and almost entirely with Asians). Look for that review in the Packet Time Off issue of Oct. 9-11.

I picked up some tomatillo jam , which turned out to be a great find, at the Griggstown Farm Market recently, They had extra tomatillos since some of the CSA members didn’t take theirs (too exotic? too much trouble to wash?), so one of their chefs made a lovely, not too sweet “jam” that I’ve dolloped on all sorts of things. Here you see it on a buffalo burger (with pepper jack cheese, too), and on a good pork chop that I pan seared and finished in a hot oven.  That is also a pre-marinated Griggstown poussin in another photo, I didn’t think to take a photo until I’d devoured much of it. I always roast those on top of potatoes, and they are invariably tender and juicy.

The split pea soup was the result of a visit to Heavenly Ham in Mercer Mall where I picked up one of their frozen ham bones (only $6.99!). These have a lot of extra meat on them; I even have more ham in the freezer for winter soup.

The bockwurst and mashed potatoes is a “mash-up” meal. Bockwurst from the Amish Market in Kingston, and the mashed potatoes with gravy was a deli case surprise I found at Whole Earth Center one night. The mashies had some caramelized onion in them, and that vegetarian gravy was as savory as any meat gravy you could make. A delicious dinner!

And kudos to North End Bistro for their fantastic fried calamari with zucchini and a very tasty burger. The sweet potato fries were also excellent!