Yesterday (Saturday) I decided to go out for a fresh walk outside, to meet friendly locals and have some fresh new experiences.
On my walk I met a polite man who said, "Morning," after I had stopped to admire some beautiful birdsong emanating from a flowering tree on a street. One of my favorite experiences in this life is waking up to morning sunlight with the sound of sweet birdsong -- to me this is one of the things that feels like "Heaven on Earth."
I found myself wandering to a local free-range animal farm, where I fed a sweet, docile goat with black fur with a nearby scrap of what looked to be organic carrot-top greens. She was surrounded by a parade of free-range hens, roosters, another goat, some turkeys...this motley crew swarmed towards me when I approached, probably expecting some food. They were all extremely well domesticated, and seemed to co-habit the space with each other extremely peacefully.
I wandered a bit more, not knowing where to go, but I decided to take the most beautiful path that I hadn't explored previously, and found myself in a new neighborhood that looped back to a familiar area and one of my favorite little nature paths. This new neighborhood had houses I would love to be in some day or visit, and looked to be in an extremely wealthy area.
It was a beautiful spring early afternoon walk around nature and civilization, on the path back I ran into a couple, said hi to the woman, she was a little out of breath but trailing along after her partner -- it reminded me of the brightest moments of going on nature hikes with a group.
On the way back, I also said hi to some cool neighbors - one was this adorable man walking with his boo and their baby. The whole family was adorable.
I was famished when I went back, and made the meal described as above in the title -- it reminded me of this German restaurant in Maine...Schulte & Herr ...everything tasted pure and high-quality, and very fresh, and there was a delicious balance between taste, flavors, texture. And the meal was interesting. I could actually serve it in a restaurant, with some added adjustments here and there, and consistency. Obviously, it wasn't as good as Schulte & Herr's, but man was it close. I think part of it was 1) the Farm-To-Table sensibility and 2) the seafood and 3) the potatoes and pickled garnishes.
My adjustments would include:
Adding lemon wedges and herbs, like parsley
Or a Korean kick to it - Braised Mackerel Stew w/ Radish (hyperlink for Maangchi's version), or one of my favorite Korean comfort food dishes of all time, Korean camping kimchi mackerel stew - it's hearty and filling, especially with chunks of potato. I also like to add green onion for garnish and flavor.
For the spicy savory rice, I fried some chopped onion and colorful bell peppers in a bit of oil and added this spice paste I found (it wasn't gochujang, the closest thing I'd liken it to is chili paste used to make jjamppong, a spicy, savory Chinese-Korean seafood broth noodle dish) to create a light chili oil flavor, then added in rice and stir-fried till warm.
For potato cheese balls, I boiled the Idaho potatoes until tender in salted water, pressed them through a fine mesh sieve to create a silky-smooth mash -- then added freshly chopped green onions from the garden (they taste a bit more pungent, and flavorful than regular store-bought green onions, it's so wonderful!), some shredded cheese, freshly chopped garlic and onion. I shaped them into balls and popped them in the air fryer -- they came out gooey and cheesy and paired absolutely wonderfully with the minced garlic and air-fried mackerel fillet. Perhaps if I wanted to make it more like Schulte & Herr's, I would have made more of a hash brown kind of situation.
For the mackerel fillet, it was already pre-cut, so all I did was sprinkle a bit of sea salt over the top and popped it into the air-fryer and pressed the fish button. I loved it so much! All I did was press a "fish" button and it literally came out perfectly cooked. Amazing. It was like a cartoon from a 1950's kitchen.
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