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House guest cooked dinner the other night - this was leftovers for breakfast. Pork loin on a bed of onions and home-grown sorrel, and a delicious cranberry chutney with apple and pineapple. The actual dinner also included bulgur wheat, roasted chickpeas, and chopped walnuts.

Frittata with tomatoes, potatoes, scallions, feta, and lots of dill.

Had some cauliflower left around, so I wok-ed it with smoked bacon, red peppers, green onions, soy sauce, ZheJiang vinegar and fermented black beans. The taste reminded me of HuNan food, but I would not dare call it HuNanese. Bacon was cooked first to release the fat, cauliflower went in second with the black beans, and the rest afterwards.

I had a bunch of egg yolks in search of a purpose so made a big bowl of baked custard from Ottolenghi. Well, it's more burnt custard really, due to the unusual way of making it (here, from last year). After eating a few spoonfuls I decided such a large quantity was far too dangerous to be within walking distance of, and was wondering what to do with it. A burnt custard tart seemed a reasonable solution... Because I was winging it, there wasn't quite enough of the mix to fill level with the rim for a clean, perfectly flat surface; a good excuse to make even more next time.

Grilled beef salad (yam neua): Marinated strip steaks with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, and sugar, and then grilled over charcoal. Rested, sliced against the grain, and served with Boston lettuce, sliced cucumber, sliced shallots, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, and crushed dry-roasted peanuts. Dressing was cilantro, serrano chile, garlic, lemon juice, palm sugar, white pepper, and fish sauce, whizzed up in the blender. No pictures of the final product and no leftovers.

Do this 3 times.. or just water

Shiitake Mushroom Frittata with Pecorino Romano based on a CI recipe - frittata started on the stove and finished in the oven and made with eggs, shiitake, milk, scallions, sherry vinegar and pecorino

Civet cat aren't cats, for a start. Also most of the kopi luwak sold in Indonesia is fake.

I've never had or made it, but it sounds like my kind of dish. So I'm interested in the discussion. Thanks.

Glad it worked out!

I couldn't find a topic or discussion on this, so I thought I'd start one. I discovered ribollita in 1982 in an article in the long defunct Cuisine magazine. Over the years I've had successful versions, failures, and some that were just good nutrition and little more. The latest version was made by frying smoked pancetta in olive oil, adding a dried chile mixture that use, veggies, chicken stock, and pureed canned tomatoes. Discovered that there were no white beans of any type en casa, so canned garbanzos saved the day. Quite good, actually. After preparing the soup, I layered it in a large vessel with a locally made Italian bread that was staled in the Breville. The mess was refrigerated over night, and the result was a soup that's eaten with a fork. Instead of being reboiled, I frid the veggies and bread in olive oil, making sure the bread got crisped during the process. Serve with fresh grated Reg or Pec, it made a wonderful and filling meal. I will be making Refrito Ribollita again. So, how do you make your version? What little tricks do you use? Any veggies that you especially like or avoid?

...and in another fun little bit of analysis, cat-scat coffee gets detailed scrutiny. https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/10/fermentation-is-key-to-coffee-beans-gleaned-from-civet-feces/

I see they ship! Now I just have to make room in the pantry. 🙂

indeed. its been done by my family for over 70 years .

Yes, you can!😁

Doubled the vanilla and added no extra liquid. Turned out wonderfully well. Light, fluffy, moist. Almost souffle like. Great flavor. Might try the other suggestions next time. Thanks for all the help!

I cook green beans similarly, except tossed with fermented black beans and garlic, maybe with a splash of rice vinegar and chicken stock, and finished with sesame oil. Riff on a Fuchsia Dunlop recipe for bell peppers.

I've on occasion used cumin instead of coriander in my carrot soup a couple of posts back. It certainly works, but I just prefer coriander. My taste buds.

er??

Today's A.Word.A.Day: opsomania PRONUNCIATION: (op-so-MAY-nee-uh) MEANING: noun: An excessive longing for a particular food. ETYMOLOGY: From Greek opson (delicacies) + - mania (excessive enthusiasm). Earliest documented use: 1857.

Aware I run the risk of coming across as someone go just likes everything, but I had tried to track these down for awhile and was really impressed with them. Just outstanding. I’m usually more of a mackerel/trout person but I just ate these straight from the tin

I sauté over very high heat with a neutral oil, going for lots of color on the beans without letting them loose all their crunch. Let them sit a while between tosses so color can develop. Toss in the pan with salt and pepper, or (usually) sriracha. Optionally a little mango chutney. Fast, easy, super tasty. If you don't have a good hood (I don't) it's also smoky.

I know the knife mavens here will be tempted to snark about the "In further news, water proven wet!" aspect of it, but the whole food science movement over the past couple of decades has revolved around empirically examining things everybody "knows." In this case, the paper documents/validates the longstanding assertion that using a sharper knife is the way to keep onion-cutting from irritating your eyes. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2512779122

I believe so. It might just have some weatherproofing you don't need.

took some of that ' neither here , nor there ' Brie added Tj's medjool dates quite nice .