Quarantine Cuisine, from Bass Richard H.

I regret to say that I did more experimenting when the lockdown started, and I didn’t photograph anything. I roasted a whole duck. I tried making doro wat, the fiery Ethiopian chicken stew, twice, using two different recipes. (Fortunately, I’d bought berbere spice at Kalyustan’s just before this whole mess started.) I modified a soup recipe I’d found that used broccoli stems as its base. I roasted a whole rabbit for our birthday*.

I did record the latest experiment. While shopping at my local Foodtown, I found whole beef hearts on sale. I had purchased sliced beef heart a couple of weeks previously and used them to make chili (along with regular beef, turkey, and bacon), but a whole heart made such a striking picture that I had to buy it and make something with it. The “something” turned out to be stew: I cut the heart into small pieces and simmered it with onions, garlic, poblano peppers, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, and fava beans (which went in because they were on the edge of going bad, and who wants to waste food?) Some instant beef broth was involved. The result was quite satisfying.

• 

• 

Which dish was my favorite? Hard to say. It’s probably a tie between the duck and the beef heart stew. Broccoli-stem soup is good but kind of lightweight, and rabbit suffers from too many small bones*. The doro wat was also really good; now I have to try segu wat (same basic recipe but with beef).

I’ll keep you posted on new culinary explorations.

—Richard Haas

*Richard and his wife, Christie Robbins, share the same birthday! (No birthday-forgetting in this marriage!)—Ed.