All Activity

Basmati pilaf with caramelized onions and broccolini: Soak baskmati rice to lengthen the grains. Saute sliced onions, green cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon stick in ghee with sugar and salt, then remove half of the onions for garnish. Steam rice with the sauteed spices and onion. When the rice is resting, saute black mustard and cumin seeds, then add the broccolini. Toss everything together and garnish with the fried onion. Keema matar: Chop onion, garlic, and ginger in a food processor and saute until browned. Add cayenne, cumin seed, coriander seed, and turmeric, then stir with tomato puree and yogurt. Add ground lamb, salt, and garam masala, then simmer with a cup of water for a half hour or so. Finish with peas, lemon juice, chopped serrano chile, cilantro, and some Thai basil we had laying around. One of my absolute favorite keemas.

So, I don't have a band saw. One of the packages of oxtail was properly cut. For the second, I did successfully separate one piece containing most of the small parts of the tail. Unbeknownst to me, that was my last successful cut. Spice mixture from Bruce Aidells: onions, rehydrated mushrooms, lotta salt, some pepper, dried thyme and sage. Spice mixture shaken over oxtail. Oxtail broiled about 10 minutes per side (2) at 450ºF in regular oven. I was able to jimmy the big part of the connected tail so it sorta fit into a 7 quart pot, along with the smaller part, and all the individual parts of the second tail. More from Bruce Aidells: 2 cups each red wine/commercial beef stock, Brought to a boil, then turned low. I then moved the pot to the Anova steam combi oven and set the temp to 265ºF for 30 minutes and turned down to 240ºF, then after 60 more minutes, down to 225ºF. I'm going to pull it out 'round the 3 hour mark (total). Plan to refrigerate then, in a couple days, scoop off the fat.

Smithy, I'll answer the rye starter question first. I feed my mother with organic rye and bottled water. I've had this starter going since early 2019. I also spun off a "white" starter using some of the discard and maintained both of them. But since I started using this method I stopped feeding the white starter and I'm just feeding and maintaining the "mother" fed with rye. I'm going to keep feeding the Mother, occasionally, because I grew this one from scratch and I would feel bad killing her. I used "The Economic Strategy to Maintain Your Sourdough Starter" from the Culinary Exploration website. He has a video on his site that explains it better than I could. He apparently uses this "MINI STARTER" In a batch of dough that totals 750g, so I assume he using 95g of the scrapings and added around 375g to 400g of flour and depending on the hydration he is adding between 260 to 280g of water. Plus salt. This gives him one loaf. I weigh out 95g of the Mini biga and add 700 g of flour along with 490g of water for a 70%hydration and salt and that works for me. I have used it in an 800g batch, but for that batch I added a pinch of yeast for insurance. I weighed the scrapings the first time I did this and had 22g. Haven't bothered weighing again since. I just keep feeding the little jar with the scrapings again and once it has doubled or more it goes into another batch of dough or, I will put it in the fridge for one or two days before adding to the next batch of dough. In his video, he puts the jar with the scrapings into the fridge and feeds it after he pulls it out. I like my method because then I don't have to wait for it to double before using it. It is ready to go.

I haven’t tried Andie's corn starch suggestion yet. I usually freeze the leftover waffles and reheat in the CSO, which does help crisp them up. For some of the waffles, especially savory recipes like the one I made today, I’m OK with a softer, more bread-like texture as I often use them as the base for sandwiches.

When i saw @blue_dolphin's post, it thought, that's a book i could use! Into the search engine the title went which brought me to Amazon which, when I clicked on the title, told me I had purchased it two years ago. Nocw that I have re-acquainted myself with the book, i see waffles in my future. Did you ever try substituting corn starch for part of the flour as suggested by Andie? Does re-heating them crisp them up?

Today’s breakfast was the smoked salmon and dill waffles from Waffles from Morning to Midnight by Dorie Greenspan The waffle itself includes diced red onion, fresh dill and smoked salmon. Toppings are sour cream, scallions and salmon roe with a pile of arugula on the side, added by me. I wasn’t sure how much I’d like the smoked salmon IN the waffle rather than as a topping so I only made one but it was quite good. The only drawback is that it limits the flexibility of the leftover waffles. I can freeze the remaining onion and dill waffles to use as a base for lots of sandwiches but they don’t all go with smoked salmon.

@gulfporter I actually make corn ice cream using fresh corn on the cob. The recipe is from the NYT and I make it when corn is in season. I have some in the freezer now and while corn ice cream sounds odd to some people, it's delicious.

I braise in a number of LeCruset and Staub Dutch ovens. I use the 3-4 qt round ones the most and if I was cooking for 1-2 it’s probably all I’d use Staub puts a Dutch oven that size on super deep sale EVERY holiday season. I really try not to tell other folks how to spend their money, but if I was thinking about learning to braise I’d wait and snatch one when they go on sale

Corn. Some of the more upscale restaurants offer it from time to time. Never seen it in stores. It is often sold in the shape of an ear of corn, along with other offerings in shapes of oranges, lemons with matching flavors. Seems to be a niche wholesale market at least here in Guadalajara area.

Bruschetta using Craft Bakeries red sea sour bread with two toppings. The tomato topping is slow roasted tomatoes over Shahia Brand labneh balls with oil cured olives. The mushroom topping is black pearl and Italian oyster mushrooms sautéed in butter.

Fried some bacon to use in salads and sandwiches this week. Then fried some potato and onion to use with leftover smoked sausage in a frittata for supper. No photo of the finished frittata because my bad hands completely mangled it. Tasted fine just looked like a mess.

Hersheys is not what most people call chocolate.

The table pic made me imagine an eating race to decide who gets the croissant 😄

Get well soon 😊

Hershey's is gross enough with ordinary sugar. I was so disappointed when I finally got to try some. The thought of it with artificial sweeteners on top of the waxy, cocoa-less texture and taste is angrying up my blood!

Anytime I've seen butchers cutting oxtails, it has been with a band saw - both in Europe and Asia.

Sausage Stew with Potatoes - quick stew with cut up sausages, button mushrooms red bell pepper, onions, marjoram, flour and vegetable broth. Served with some boiled potatoes (finished with butter and parsley)

Miso soup from homemade dashi with daikon, Negi onion rings, soft tofu chunks, bok choy, 2 types of fish cakes.

Made with xylitol. Terrible sweetener, eat too much you get diarrhea. If your dog eats a few, he dies. Really. So is this the only non-sugar sweetener that you can make candy with?

Definitely larger. Somewhere between scallions and leeks. Flavour more pronounced. Anyway, how do you tell the size from the images posted here, when there is nothing to indicate scale?

In the Midwest, it's beef farmers . . .

Well, if the shoe fits…in the Breville, that is. i have a great Staub that fits perfectly into my steam girl.

I do most of my braising in deep baking dishes in my Breville...occasionally in a Le Creuset. I know, I know...no class on my part.😀

This is basically how it is always done here. In the Asian markets, it may already have been cut up; in the Latin markets, it's whole, cut to order.

I’m of no real help here. The place I buy oxtails cuts them to order, at the desired thickness, from frozen (or close to it) on what looks like a big band saw. But I’m thinking you might get more specific cooking suggestions if you describe how you want to use these thawed tails currently in your possession. What oxtail dishes are you especially missing that you want to use them in?