Dude, where's my weekend?
One of these days, laurashapiro is going to regret volunteering to be my culinary guinea pig. Fortunately, although there was some coughing and eye watering and we had to open a window, last night was not that time. I had a bottle of Szechuan peppercorns that I bought when I had $10 left on a gift card at Williams Sonoma after Christmas (Penzey's has them cheaper, and probably better, but hey), and the aid of the almighty Google, and these things happen.
Salt and Pepper Shrimp with Asian-Style Slaw
I picked and chose from several different recipes to come up with this one. Szechuan peppercorns have a perfume-y, almost citrus-y aroma and a slightly tongue-numbing kick that doesn't taste even remotely like black peppercorns, though I'm sure you could use them instead for a more familiarly peppery version.
Makes 4 servings unless you're feeling greedy for shrimp. Which we totally were.
For the slaw:
* 3 cups shredded cabbage, preferably napa cabbage
* 1 medium red or orange bell pepper, sliced into fine matchsticks
* 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
* 1/2 tablespoon sugar
* 2 tablespoons soy sauce
* 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
For the shrimp:
* 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 3/4 teaspoon ground Szechuan peppercorns, made by toasting ~1 teaspoon whole Szechuan peppercorns in a dry skillet until fragrant and grinding in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 jalapeno pepper, sliced into thin rings
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/4 cup sliced scallions, green parts only
To make the slaw:
Mix the lime juice, sugar, soy sauce, and sesame oil in a bowl, then add the cabbage and bell pepper and toss to combine well. If you're using regular green cabbage instead of napa cabbage, making the slaw at least 20 minutes before serving gives the cabbage some time to macerate in the dressing and lose its raw flavor without losing its crunch.
To make the shrimp:
Pat the shrimp completely dry and toss with the cornstarch. Combine the Szechuan pepper and salt in a small bowl. Have all of the ingredients ready before you begin cooking the shrimp.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and let them cook for about a minute, then turn them. The cooked sides of the shrimp should have a golden coating from the cornstarch. Continue cooking, turning occasionally, until the shrimp are just cooked through. Remove them to a plate and set aside. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan with the garlic, jalapeno slices, and salt and pepper mixture. Stir fry for about 45 seconds, until the garlic is fragrant or you are dying from the Szechuan peppercorn fumes, whichever comes first. Add the shrimp back to the pan and stir-fry them briefly with the seasonings. Remove from heat. Add the scallions at this point, letting them wilt, or sprinkle them raw on the finished dish. If you are not coughing by now, you might be a cyborg.
Serve the shrimp with a mound of cooked rice and a little pile of slaw.
I kid about the coughing! A little. I also recommend making this with the kitchen fan ON.
Now that I know how delicious Szechuan peppercorns are, I see some ma po tofu in my future. Also, possibly, this.
* * * * *
Babylon 5 1.09 - "Deathwalker"
When it comes to Babylon 5, there is one thing I'm sure of: you do not want to get on Na'Toth's bad side, or she will kick the crap out of you five ways to Sunday. Exhibit B: the Deathwalker.
It is becoming increasingly apparent to me that it's not just the Narn and the Centauri, or Earth and the Minbari; the whole galaxy has been roiled by conflict, and the wounds are still fresh. It's interesting, though, with this many players, how many shades of alliance and enmity there are between individual peoples. Basically, everybody agrees that Jha'dur is a monster; but for most of the members of the Advisory Council, she was their monster, in one form or another, for some period of time. That's what has assured her survival so far; that's what she's counting on to continue to ensure her survival, because she's convinced that none of them will, in the end, balk at the cost of her medical treatment, or at her crimes, if it means immortality. And she's right, which is why the Vorlons step in. The Council vote was an illustration of something I'm glad the show treated as a problem, and that I hope continues to come up as a problem: the Centauri, Narn, Minbari, and Earth delegations each have a vote, while the entire League of Non-Aligned Worlds has one vote. In this case, the vote was on putting a criminal on trial, and the Centauri, Narn, and Minbari had all been complicit in the crimes to one degree or another, so the results were essentially fixed. That's a problematic power structure, and fragile; it seems like the other thing the Vorlons did, by stepping in, was keep the station's diplomatic mission from disintegrating.
So the Wind Swords sheltered Jha'dur; one assumes they did not do so without getting something in return. And they know about the holes in Sinclair's mind. Innnnnnteresting. And the Centauri and the Narn, even if they did not actively participate in atrocities, were not moved to go out of their way to stop them when it was not to their direct benefit. That strikes me as a very typical, and real, diplomatic problem.
The B plot with Talia, Kosh, and the VCR had me saying, "What? Wait, WHAT?" up until the very end, at which point I got a little shiver down my spine, so well done, show. Talia thought she was reading the VCR, but the VCR was really recording her. If life is a chess game, then the Vorlon seem to be at least three plays ahead even on their worst days. Kosh's insurance policy, the way he captured Talia's fears so that he can use them against her if he feels he needs to, the concrete manifestation of his distrust in psychics, was Byzantine and subtle and a strong contrast to the way the Vorlon ship came out of nowhere to destroy Jha'dur, using direct action to save them all from their own worst impulses, but both actions indicate people who take the long view and aren't afraid to intervene when they deem it necessary.
Babylon 5 1.10 - "Believers"
Oh, Dr. Franklin. The writers tried really hard to graft a personality onto him here, again, but he's not just barren and inhospitable soil; I think someone actually salted the earth. How bad is it? I understood quite well what the writers were trying to accomplish, portraying the parents' faith and Franklin's frustration and desire to help as equally sincere, and doomed to clash. However, I'm not sure the murdering parents should have come out of it looking so relatively good, and Franklin like such an enormous ass, so that was interesting. (As a side effect, Sinclair--SINCLAIR, PEOPLE!--came out of it looking judicious and sensitive to the concerns of the people he's responsible for and I kind of wanted to clap for him. At this point, I think I can enjoy Sinclair as a piece of performance art, while Franklin is just boring.)
That said, I am delighted--really, truly delighted--that the show took such a morally sticky situation and eschewed easy answers. The parents' faith was treated as the important guiding principle in their lives, and Franklin's scientific zeal, while more accessible and understandable, ended up veering into an area that was quite close to fanaticism in its own right, when it became tangled with his own ego and his desire to prove the merits of his own belief system. He became so involved that he ignored his own advice to get the parents on his side; instead, by performing the surgery without their consent, he destroyed the parents' ability to accept their son back into the family, and they gave the boy the only ending that would bring them all together again. (I am still not sure that should have seemed like such a fitting move at that point, but it did.) I also liked that dying didn't make the boy stupid, and that he saw through Franklin's ruse with the "egg," and was indulging Franklin's sentimentality.
The parents' petitions to the three ambassadors was revealing: the Narn won't get involved if it's not in their interest, more or less; the Centauri won't get involved if it's expensive; the Minbari won't adjudicate between different belief systems, and Delenn cites interference with Minbari religion in the past as a justification. Ambassador Kosh apparently just likes cryptic sayings. Sinclair, in taking the position that he would not order Franklin to go against the parents' instructions for treatment, had a very good point: Babylon 5 can't be a neutral ground if the station commander is willing to privilege one belief system over another; he can't say who's right, and it's another version of Delenn's argument.
I will admit that Franklin, caught up in his own righteousness and overconfident of his ability to persuade the parents, telling Hernandez that he'll bet her a steak dinner, and that he'll import the steak, and then the cut to Sinclair, in his office, asking Franklin, "Why do you want to import a steak?" made me laugh.
I'm not sure Ivanova's mission even merits the term "B-plot," since it was such a minor part of the episode, especially since the epic (and no doubt expensive) space battle took place entirely offscreen, but it did establish that she gets antsy stuck on the station, and that she's a capable combat pilot.
* * * * *
I am so glad it's Friday. And that I have Girl Scout cookies. Although why, oh why, couldn't the extra day be a weekend day? I totally vote for leap weekend.
In the meantime, Garfield Minus Garfield is sublime. Oh, Jon Arbuckle, please seek professional help. (It's also, I think, an interesting case for fair use. The removal of Garfield is certainly transformative, but through subtraction, which seems somehow less active to me. Hm.)
Also, as seen all over, How to Be a Fandom Jerk in Just a Few Easy Steps. Hey, some of those look familiar!
Salt and Pepper Shrimp with Asian-Style Slaw
I picked and chose from several different recipes to come up with this one. Szechuan peppercorns have a perfume-y, almost citrus-y aroma and a slightly tongue-numbing kick that doesn't taste even remotely like black peppercorns, though I'm sure you could use them instead for a more familiarly peppery version.
Makes 4 servings unless you're feeling greedy for shrimp. Which we totally were.
For the slaw:
* 3 cups shredded cabbage, preferably napa cabbage
* 1 medium red or orange bell pepper, sliced into fine matchsticks
* 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
* 1/2 tablespoon sugar
* 2 tablespoons soy sauce
* 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
For the shrimp:
* 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 3/4 teaspoon ground Szechuan peppercorns, made by toasting ~1 teaspoon whole Szechuan peppercorns in a dry skillet until fragrant and grinding in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 jalapeno pepper, sliced into thin rings
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/4 cup sliced scallions, green parts only
To make the slaw:
Mix the lime juice, sugar, soy sauce, and sesame oil in a bowl, then add the cabbage and bell pepper and toss to combine well. If you're using regular green cabbage instead of napa cabbage, making the slaw at least 20 minutes before serving gives the cabbage some time to macerate in the dressing and lose its raw flavor without losing its crunch.
To make the shrimp:
Pat the shrimp completely dry and toss with the cornstarch. Combine the Szechuan pepper and salt in a small bowl. Have all of the ingredients ready before you begin cooking the shrimp.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and let them cook for about a minute, then turn them. The cooked sides of the shrimp should have a golden coating from the cornstarch. Continue cooking, turning occasionally, until the shrimp are just cooked through. Remove them to a plate and set aside. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan with the garlic, jalapeno slices, and salt and pepper mixture. Stir fry for about 45 seconds, until the garlic is fragrant or you are dying from the Szechuan peppercorn fumes, whichever comes first. Add the shrimp back to the pan and stir-fry them briefly with the seasonings. Remove from heat. Add the scallions at this point, letting them wilt, or sprinkle them raw on the finished dish. If you are not coughing by now, you might be a cyborg.
Serve the shrimp with a mound of cooked rice and a little pile of slaw.
I kid about the coughing! A little. I also recommend making this with the kitchen fan ON.
Now that I know how delicious Szechuan peppercorns are, I see some ma po tofu in my future. Also, possibly, this.
* * * * *
Babylon 5 1.09 - "Deathwalker"
When it comes to Babylon 5, there is one thing I'm sure of: you do not want to get on Na'Toth's bad side, or she will kick the crap out of you five ways to Sunday. Exhibit B: the Deathwalker.
It is becoming increasingly apparent to me that it's not just the Narn and the Centauri, or Earth and the Minbari; the whole galaxy has been roiled by conflict, and the wounds are still fresh. It's interesting, though, with this many players, how many shades of alliance and enmity there are between individual peoples. Basically, everybody agrees that Jha'dur is a monster; but for most of the members of the Advisory Council, she was their monster, in one form or another, for some period of time. That's what has assured her survival so far; that's what she's counting on to continue to ensure her survival, because she's convinced that none of them will, in the end, balk at the cost of her medical treatment, or at her crimes, if it means immortality. And she's right, which is why the Vorlons step in. The Council vote was an illustration of something I'm glad the show treated as a problem, and that I hope continues to come up as a problem: the Centauri, Narn, Minbari, and Earth delegations each have a vote, while the entire League of Non-Aligned Worlds has one vote. In this case, the vote was on putting a criminal on trial, and the Centauri, Narn, and Minbari had all been complicit in the crimes to one degree or another, so the results were essentially fixed. That's a problematic power structure, and fragile; it seems like the other thing the Vorlons did, by stepping in, was keep the station's diplomatic mission from disintegrating.
So the Wind Swords sheltered Jha'dur; one assumes they did not do so without getting something in return. And they know about the holes in Sinclair's mind. Innnnnnteresting. And the Centauri and the Narn, even if they did not actively participate in atrocities, were not moved to go out of their way to stop them when it was not to their direct benefit. That strikes me as a very typical, and real, diplomatic problem.
The B plot with Talia, Kosh, and the VCR had me saying, "What? Wait, WHAT?" up until the very end, at which point I got a little shiver down my spine, so well done, show. Talia thought she was reading the VCR, but the VCR was really recording her. If life is a chess game, then the Vorlon seem to be at least three plays ahead even on their worst days. Kosh's insurance policy, the way he captured Talia's fears so that he can use them against her if he feels he needs to, the concrete manifestation of his distrust in psychics, was Byzantine and subtle and a strong contrast to the way the Vorlon ship came out of nowhere to destroy Jha'dur, using direct action to save them all from their own worst impulses, but both actions indicate people who take the long view and aren't afraid to intervene when they deem it necessary.
Babylon 5 1.10 - "Believers"
Oh, Dr. Franklin. The writers tried really hard to graft a personality onto him here, again, but he's not just barren and inhospitable soil; I think someone actually salted the earth. How bad is it? I understood quite well what the writers were trying to accomplish, portraying the parents' faith and Franklin's frustration and desire to help as equally sincere, and doomed to clash. However, I'm not sure the murdering parents should have come out of it looking so relatively good, and Franklin like such an enormous ass, so that was interesting. (As a side effect, Sinclair--SINCLAIR, PEOPLE!--came out of it looking judicious and sensitive to the concerns of the people he's responsible for and I kind of wanted to clap for him. At this point, I think I can enjoy Sinclair as a piece of performance art, while Franklin is just boring.)
That said, I am delighted--really, truly delighted--that the show took such a morally sticky situation and eschewed easy answers. The parents' faith was treated as the important guiding principle in their lives, and Franklin's scientific zeal, while more accessible and understandable, ended up veering into an area that was quite close to fanaticism in its own right, when it became tangled with his own ego and his desire to prove the merits of his own belief system. He became so involved that he ignored his own advice to get the parents on his side; instead, by performing the surgery without their consent, he destroyed the parents' ability to accept their son back into the family, and they gave the boy the only ending that would bring them all together again. (I am still not sure that should have seemed like such a fitting move at that point, but it did.) I also liked that dying didn't make the boy stupid, and that he saw through Franklin's ruse with the "egg," and was indulging Franklin's sentimentality.
The parents' petitions to the three ambassadors was revealing: the Narn won't get involved if it's not in their interest, more or less; the Centauri won't get involved if it's expensive; the Minbari won't adjudicate between different belief systems, and Delenn cites interference with Minbari religion in the past as a justification. Ambassador Kosh apparently just likes cryptic sayings. Sinclair, in taking the position that he would not order Franklin to go against the parents' instructions for treatment, had a very good point: Babylon 5 can't be a neutral ground if the station commander is willing to privilege one belief system over another; he can't say who's right, and it's another version of Delenn's argument.
I will admit that Franklin, caught up in his own righteousness and overconfident of his ability to persuade the parents, telling Hernandez that he'll bet her a steak dinner, and that he'll import the steak, and then the cut to Sinclair, in his office, asking Franklin, "Why do you want to import a steak?" made me laugh.
I'm not sure Ivanova's mission even merits the term "B-plot," since it was such a minor part of the episode, especially since the epic (and no doubt expensive) space battle took place entirely offscreen, but it did establish that she gets antsy stuck on the station, and that she's a capable combat pilot.
* * * * *
I am so glad it's Friday. And that I have Girl Scout cookies. Although why, oh why, couldn't the extra day be a weekend day? I totally vote for leap weekend.
In the meantime, Garfield Minus Garfield is sublime. Oh, Jon Arbuckle, please seek professional help. (It's also, I think, an interesting case for fair use. The removal of Garfield is certainly transformative, but through subtraction, which seems somehow less active to me. Hm.)
Also, as seen all over, How to Be a Fandom Jerk in Just a Few Easy Steps. Hey, some of those look familiar!