July 24, 2022

Grilled Brown Sugar Skirt Steak

This 3-ingredient rub is pure magic on grilled skirt steak

https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/07/20/grilled-brown-sugar-skirt-steak-recipe/

https://archive.ph/8JUYR



Summer is the laziest season in the kitchen for me. I don’t know if it’s the heat or my kid being out of school that makes me so unmotivated, but I have absolutely zero desire to cook. Even chopping ingredients feels onerous. In an ideal world, I’d be eating a bottomless bowl of cut-up watermelon for my meals. But in the real world, dinner still has to be made. Motivated by this laziness – yes, I am aware that’s an oxymoron – I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking of dishes that require minimum effort and deliver maximum flavor.

Which brings me to this brown sugar grilled skirt steak recipe. Besides the meat, it contains just three ingredients: salt, pepper and brown sugar. I bet you have them in your kitchen at this moment. The preparation is so simple it’s embarrassing. Were it not extremely delicious, I wouldn’t have even bothered sharing it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were to roll your eyes upon reading the recipe, but before you discount it, know that it’s become our family’s favorite grilling recipe and one that’s requested whenever we host a cookout. I use skirt steak below because it’s more affordable, and its thinness means it cooks fast. If skirt is unavailable, other similar steak cuts, such as flank (sometimes labelled as “bavette”) or hanger sub in nicely.



The process couldn’t be easier: Mix together the seasoning ingredients, then sprinkle them all over the steak, rubbing the mixture into the meat so it adheres. If you plan ahead, you can refrigerate the meat for a few hours and up to overnight, and be rewarded with deeper flavor. Otherwise, just set the steak aside to take the chill off and let the seasoning permeate the meat.

Then, throw the meat on the grill and watch the magic happen. The high heat will caramelize the sugar and the sweet-salty combination complements the floral notes of black pepper. Additionally, the sugars and proteins in the meat undergo the Maillard reaction. As my colleague Becky Krystal wrote, “In Maillard, sugars … interact with the amino acids of proteins, creating a cascade of new flavors and aroma compounds, with several hundred possibilities.” It’s truly mind-blowing that so few ingredients deliver such depth of flavor.

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July 23, 2022

Jonathan Haidt: The Case Against Social Media

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at NYU and author of The Coddling of the American Mind, The Righteous Mind, and The Happiness Hypothesis.

EPISODE LINKS:

Jonathan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonHaidt

Jonathan's Website: https://jonathanhaidt.com

Documents & Articles:

1. Social Media and Political Dysfunction: A Collaborative Review:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vVAtMCQnz8WVxtSNQev_e1cGmY9rnY96ecYuAj6C548/edit

2. Teen Mental Health Testimony:

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Haidt%20Testimony.pdf

3. The Atlantic article:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/

Books:

1. The Coddling of the American Mind (book): https://amzn.to/3MW4HqL

2. The Righteous Mind (book): https://amzn.to/3to0tkj

3. The Happiness Hypothesis (book): https://amzn.to/3Mb1xP2



Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid: It's not just a phase.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216587213

July 22, 2022

Liz Truss storms ahead of Rishi Sunak in Tory leadership candidate race, poll suggests

The battle to become the next Conservative leader has been whittled down to just two candidates

https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/liz-truss-storms-ahead-rishi-24557430



Liz Truss has taken a big lead among Conservative Party members who decide who will become the next Prime Minister, a fresh poll has suggested. The former Leeds schoolgirl has built a 24-point lead over her rival Rishi Sunak in the first poll from YouGov since the final pairing was revealed.

When it comes to headline voting intention, Ms Truss scored 62%, with Mr Sunak at just 38%, according to the YouGov poll. The pair are the last ones standing in the leadership contest, after Penny Mordaunt was eliminated from the race yesterday (July 20).

Whoever comes out on top will replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader - and eventually become PM - after he announced his intention to step down from the position on July 7. The final decision will be voted on by Tory members of more than three months, with the result set to be announced on September 5. Earlier in the week, YouGov's data predicted that Ms Truss would beat Mr Sunak in a then-hypothetical vote. Now with the vote becoming a reality, the latest YouGov poll confirms that prediction.

At the moment, 31% of the Conservative membership have said that they intend to vote for Mr Sunak, while 49% expressed an intention to vote for Ms Truss. A further 15% currently don’t know how they will vote, while 6% currently told YouGov they will abstain. This gives the Foreign Secretary a 24-point lead over the former Chancellor.

https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1550148777733914626
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July 22, 2022

NYT: A Hidden New Threat to U.S. Elections

Some Republican-led counties are refusing to certify election results — a move that could throw American democracy into chaos if it becomes widespread.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/22/us/politics/county-election-certify.html

https://archive.ph/lmo0M



It’s been more than nine weeks since the Pennsylvania primary. The election is still not certified. The reason: Three counties — Berks, Fayette and Lancaster — are refusing to process absentee ballots that were received in a timely manner and are otherwise valid, except the voter did not write a date on the declaration printed on the ballot’s return envelope. The Pennsylvania attorney general has argued in court amid a lawsuit against those three counties that the state will not certify results unless they “include every ballot lawfully cast in that election” (emphasis theirs).

The standoff in Pennsylvania is the latest attempt by conservative-leaning counties to disrupt, delay or otherwise meddle with the process of statewide election certification, a normally ceremonial administrative procedure that became a target of Donald Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 contest. It’s happened in other states, too. Earlier this year, Otero County, a rural conservative area in southern New Mexico, refused to certify its primary election, citing conspiracy theories about voting machines, though no county commissioner produced evidence to legitimize their concerns.

Eventually, under threat of legal action from the state’s attorney general and an order from the State Supreme Court, the commissioners relented and certified the county’s roughly 7,300 votes. Pro-democracy groups saw Otero County’s refusal to certify the results as a warning of potentially grave future crises, and expressed worries about how a state might be able to certify a presidential election under similar circumstances.

The showdown in Pennsylvania is most likely less severe. The number of undated ballots is quite small, and if they had to, state officials could certify the election without counting those ballots, disenfranchising a small number of voters but preserving the ability to certify and send presidential electors to Congress (or elect a governor, senator or local official from the area). For now, the attorney general’s argument is to simply force the counting of every legal ballot.

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July 22, 2022

Caramelized-Scallion Sauce Will Never Go Viral (But It Should) + Caramelized-Scallion Noodles

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/magazine/caramelized-scallion-sauce-viral-chinese-barbecue.html

https://archive.ph/2qoK1



I went viral once. With each tweet, share and like, my brainchild rocketed further and further across the internet. It was giddy-making. I sat up a little taller in my office cubicle. I felt electric, and I found myself wondering — no fantasizing — “What if I ... become ... an influencer?” Of course, it had almost nothing to do with me. I’d written a recipe for a Cantonese ginger-scallion sauce, channeling the spirit of a million nameless cooks working at Chinese barbecue shops who make the one sauce that’s not meant to go on barbecue. That’s not a slight; that’s a hint at its deliciousness — you don’t need much of a sauce to make sweet-glazed strips of roasted pork tasty. But for the white poached chicken hanging next to them? You want something that brings the fireworks. Ginger-scallion sauce is oniony but warm with ginger; it tastes green and fresh and smells like the first minute at the stove with a stir-fry, the moment the aromatics hit the hot oil and tell you something good is happening. The internet apparently needed it.

The flavor brings me back to my childhood — those immigrant-kid summers spent going to work with my parents in Chinatown and sitting in their shop, bored out of my mind but happy to see them for more than the hour before bedtime when they got home. Lunchtime would mean going to one of those Chinese barbecue shops; lunchtime meant ginger-scallion sauce. When I went to college, my mother got a waiter at my favorite restaurant to pack her pints of the stuff. She mailed them to me wrapped in a million layers of Bubble Wrap. My education was fueled by white rice with a spoonful of ginger-scallion sauce.



Eventually I had to learn to make it myself. It’s simple but thrillingly dangerous: You mince a whole lot of scallions and ginger, salt them mercilessly and pour on a potful of lava-hot oil; it roars and steams and emerges with just enough of its raw edge taken off. I’ve been making this sauce for 20 years, but a few months ago, I thought to make its opposite. If the beauty of ginger-scallion sauce is in a white-hot flash to keep it fresh-tasting, what would happen if, instead, you slow-cooked it? I left the ginger out, concentrating only on the scallions. I minced them so fine they were more like a purée, then bubbled them long and lovingly in an oil bath. I cooked out the scallions’ moisture to condense their flavor but also to soften it, browning them to bring out their mild, herbal sweetness. It’s a pure, warm, oniony taste that I knew instantly would be beautiful as a dressing for noodles. I added back some fresh scallions to give two layers of their flavor, but you can certainly skip that part if you prefer it to just be a mellow, undulating bass line.

I like to top my caramelized-scallion-dressed noodles with a soft-boiled egg, some strips of chicken or ham, greens with a dark drizzle of oyster sauce umami. But you can put almost anything in your bowl. Leftover bits of steak? Crisp bacon? Sautéed mushrooms or braised tofu? Yes. I’ve also used it to dress plain boiled cauliflower, dribbled it on scrambled eggs, smeared it on a just-cooked fillet of slow-baked salmon. It would be killer mixed with a little mayo for a roast beef sandwich. Like its cousin, this sauce makes a meal of anything. My one regret is that caramelized-scallion sauce, cooked for as long as it is, only truly comes to life as a camouflage-colored muck. It’s utterly un-Instagrammable. It will never go viral. But it has a permanent home in my fridge.

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The key here is the scallion dressing for the noodles and the bit of oyster sauce you drizzle on for depth and umami. Feel free to substitute in any meats, fish, tofu or vegetables you like for the toppings; this is just a template for any number of quick, delicious meals.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019309-caramelized-scallion-noodles

https://archive.ph/LibGr

YIELD 2 servings

TIME 20 minutes

July 22, 2022

'A Dark, Dark Man' Review: Murder and Corruption in Kazakhstan

This exceptionally grim police procedural recalls films like Bong Joon Ho’s “Memories of Murder” and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/movies/a-dark-dark-man-review.html

https://archive.ph/Qb7tj



“A Dark, Dark Man” is set in a stretch of Kazakhstan where few people seem to live, yet corruption pervades every corner. When this police procedural, directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov (“Yellow Cat”), premiered in 2019, it was a regular feature film. Its distributor has carved it into three episodes for streaming purposes. That’s unfortunate, because its pacing and visual style — much of the action unfolds in long shot — are clearly designed for big-screen immersion. Its methods and themes also recall such acclaimed art-house titles as Bruno Dumont’s “Humanité,” Bong Joon Ho’s “Memories of Murder” and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” even if it stands in those pictures’ shadows.



For its first third, “A Dark, Dark Man” issues grim revelations with breathtaking rapidity. Poukuar (Teoman Khos), a gullible local, is coerced by a mysterious man into providing evidence that will be used to frame him for the rape and murder of an orphan boy. (We later learn that the boy is the fourth such victim.) Bekzat (Daniyar Alshinov), the detective antihero, arrives at the scene to investigate what now looks like an open-and-shut case.

In this district, suspects have a tendency to be found dead before trials. Bekzat can’t stage Poukuar’s suicide so easily, though, after a journalist, Ariana (Dinara Baktybayeva), turns up to accompany Bekzat on the investigation. She might even push him to pursue the lurking serial killer in earnest.

The mystery aspect is handled obliquely. The film is more of a mood piece, and much of its pitch-black humor derives from the contrast between the barren landscape and the sheer number of horrors it contains. (When Bekzat and Ariana arrive in a village, an old woman greets him: “You killed my son. Two years ago. During questioning.”) Only the closing moments seem less nervy.

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A Dark, Dark Man

Not rated. In Kazakh and Russian, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes. Watch on MHz Choice.

July 22, 2022

Billionaire's Son Drops $12 Million, Scrambles Race to Face Ron Johnson

For months, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes led the race and collected several prominent Democratic endorsements. But in the last quarter, the dynamics changed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/billionaires-son-alex-lasry-drops-dollar12-million-scrambles-democratic-race-to-face-ron-johnson



For months, Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes looked like a runaway candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination in the state, which would pit him against Sen. Ron Johnson (R) in November. A progressive star who’d already won a statewide election, Barnes has racked up endorsements from Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (SC), Sen. Cory Booker (NJ), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA) and more since announcing his candidacy in July 2021.

He’s the state’s first Black lieutenant governor, would be the state’s first Black senator, and could be one of the youngest members of the Senate—all factors that traditionally drive excitement for candidates among Democrats. Although he originally entered an already buzzing field of Senate hopefuls, he had the benefit of name recognition and popularity among the state-party’s base.

But as the Aug. 9 primary creeps closer, Barnes’ Democratic primary opponents are increasingly on his tail, none more than Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry—and his money. Lasry, who is the son of billionaire and Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, had been running for months before Barnes hopped in the race. He’d positioned himself as being focused on the economy and a pro-labor candidate. Yet even around the turn of the new year, he was trailing Barnes by double digits.

A Data for Progress poll in December had Barnes at 39 percent of the vote share and Lasry at 16 percent. A February Marquette poll showed Barnes at 23 percent while Lasry was at 13 percent. But in the last three months, Lasry’s been on a spending blitz. Last quarter alone he pumped $6.5 million of his own money toward his campaign, bringing his total self-lending to $12.3 million, which has afforded him a monsoon of advertising and paid communications at a vital time in the race.

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July 22, 2022

Fox News Host Suggests Joe Biden's COVID Is 'Karma'

Jones suggested Biden’s COVID diagnosis was cosmic retribution for the president “pretending” to have cancer earlier this week: “That’s karma, man!”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-johnny-joey-jones-suggests-joe-bidens-covid-is-karma



Fox News contributor Johnny “Joey” Jones reacted to President Joe Biden’s COVID diagnosis on Thursday by saying it could be “karma” over the president’s recent claim that he had cancer.

“You don’t want to fool with that. You don’t want to put into the universe something like that,” Jones added while co-hosting Fox News roundtable show Outnumbered.

The White House announced on Thursday morning that Biden was experiencing “very mild symptoms” after testing positive for the virus. While the president has been fully vaccinated and double boosted, he also is 79 years old and has a history of brain aneurysms and heart disease, placing him at some risk. He was prescribed Paxlovid, an anti-viral medication approved for treating COVID-19.

At the same time, the president has attempted to reassure the public that he is fine and should make a speedy recovery. After the White House noted that he would work remotely while recovering, the president shared a photo of himself at a desk with the caption: “Folks, I’m doing great.”

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1550153237021564943
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July 21, 2022

Dunk Fried Dough Into This Silky Thai Pandan Custard

London chef John Chantarasak shares this Thai street food classic. And, yes, you can totally have it for breakfast.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/dough-stick-pandan-custard-recipe



There’s treating yourself, and then there’s eating deep-fried dough—a spot of indulgence that need not be limited to carnivals and night markets. In fact, many Thai families enjoy pa thong ko, or x-shaped dough sticks, first thing in the morning, alongside a strong black coffee or Thai milk tea.

John Chantarasak, the chef behind London’s upcoming AngloThai, features a recipe for pa thong ko in his new cookbook, Kin Thai, a collection of modern Thai recipes that go beyond the Western repertoire. A half Thai, half British chef, Chantarasak champions the idea that you don’t have to use Thai ingredients to express Thai flavors.

One can rely on local ingredients, he argues, to achieve a combination of the four s’s: sweet, salty, sour, and spicy. Cooking from the UK, Chantasarak might replicate the heat of a chile, for example, with wild horseradish or mustard seed. To achieve the sourness of tamarind, he’ll opt for rhubarb or sea buckthorn.

Chantarasak served pa thong ko on the menu at Som Saa, which, at its inception, took the form of a pop-up at an old railway arch in London Fields. Climpson’s Arch, which roasted coffee in the daytime, gave way to a streamlined brunch menu, consisting of congee and the famed dough sticks with pandan custard.

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July 21, 2022

Has Draghi's Fall Broken Western Unity on Ukraine?

Draghi’s resignation will likely fundamentally change Italy’s stance on the war and posture toward Russia.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/has-draghi%E2%80%99s-fall-broken-western-unity-ukraine-203755



Mario Draghi’s resignation as Italy’s prime minister might seem like a minor event on the global stage. After all, Draghi will most likely lead a caretaker government through September until parliamentary elections are held. Moreover, leading figures on the Italian Right—which is expected to triumph in the forthcoming election—have expressed support for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on February 24. A closer look at the Italian political scene, however, shows that Italy’s position on the Russo-Ukrainian War is likely to change significantly because of Draghi’s resignation. A change in Italy’s posture towards the war will be a serious blow to the West’s unified position in support of Ukraine.

Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, was sworn in as Italy’s prime minister in February 2021 to lead a government of national unity. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year later, Draghi took a firm stance in favor of Ukraine and against Russia. Italy contributed to the reinforcement of NATO’s eastern flank, provided aid to Ukraine, and supported harsh sanctions against Russia even though Italy has historically had a robust trading relationship with Russia and is highly dependent on Russian oil and gas. The best indicator of Italy’s importance in the Western response to the Russo-Ukrainian War was Draghi’s visit to Kyiv in June alongside French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Draghi’s resignation will likely fundamentally change Italy’s stance on the war and posture toward Russia. Current polling suggests that the Right is likely to triumph in the September elections. Leaders of Italy’s major right-wing parties have a history of support for Vladimir Putin. The League party’s Matteo Salvini has worn a t-shirt with Putin’s face on it and has called him “one of the best men in government in the world.” Georgia Meloni, head of the Brothers of Italy, has lauded Putin as a defender of “European values” and “Christian identity.” And, of course, Silvio Berlusconi has long been one of Putin’s best friends and supporters in Western European politics.

Even if a coalition of right-wing parties does not win outright in September, Italy’s position on the Russo-Ukrainian War is still likely to change. Historically, the Italian public has had a pro-Russian current and is divided on who is to blame for the war in Ukraine. Italy’s media has given Kremlin-friendly voices lots of airtime to defend Russia’s actions since February. Notably, the left-populist Five Star Movement ruptured recently over the Draghi government’s decision to send military aid to Ukraine.

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