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I've never heard of pressure cooking the curry base so I'm very curious about it. How do you think it compares with being simmered traditionally? Most videos I watch making Indian curries (from India) don't cook the curry base very long - probably around the same time as your pressure cooking it. Do you think the result is superior? If so, in what way?

Ckn Cacciatore

I'd love to try this - quite the different take on coq au vin. I cannot find frozen pearl onions anywhere around here. Even the fresh ones only show up in canning season. I'll have to try harder to find them.

I am probably the crappiest photographer on this forum, but I have cooked and I am sharing. Pressure-cooked curry base (onions-garlic-tomato purree, ground: corriander seed+jeera seed+chilies+couple of fenugreek seeds, kasoori methi leaves+soy sauce, 25 minutes under pressure), chicken breast and frozen green beans added covered (not pressurized) for 15 minutes, squeeze of lemon, ginger matchsticks at the end. Works perfect when you feel like you want Indian food, but Indian is not in your town.

Seems to be pistachios from Iran that are the culprit.

I decided to learn about two things at the same time : 1 ) the new Barilla bronze die pasta , that @weinoo mentioned in the ' War in Italy ' thread https://www.barilla.com/en-us/products/pasta/al-bronzo#products I thought this might be a ' premium ' pasta , thus not available at my MarketBasket , but it was . I chose the penne as that fit w my second project . Unfortunately , no Bronzo Linguini . Im familiar w the bronze die features. The second project , now linked to the penne is finally making Marcella's tomato sauce. It came up in a review of a book by @blue_dolphin . Im not a red sauce fan that much. It required in my favorite ' stuffed ' pasta dishes ( lasagna , stuffed shells , canneloni al forno ) as one of the layers but on solo pasta I have other favorite sauces. mise : note the can opener lower L . facilitated by @Smithy, I finally got to use it , as i purchased it for the specific 28 oz can , which can be difficult to open manually . But mostly for fun. I give it a 4 tar rating if you have difficulty opening such cans. hard at work it is . the sauce . I use reed onions as I feel pigments are worth including if you have a choice. the various Rx's indicate different amounts of onion. simmering away , what i find vital w red sauce , is ' Protection ' in initially , then later. RS adheres to everything : your stove top , the vent , the ceiling , the walls , the floor , etc the screen is very useful. I tasted the sauce and it was delicious. I let it rest in the refrig overnight . the onion flavor became more pronounced. it was mellow , and sweet . no harsh flavors . depending on your taste for this sort of onion flavor , keep that in mind when you decided how much onion to use, I took out 1/2 of the cooked onion , and stick blended the sauce. Why not ? [ F.D. : when i make this again , Ill stick blend w the pot in a deep sink. RedSauce is the devil herself , wanting to stick to everything. ] iPhone *** burp *** I chose an ancient cooking technique , not wanting to stir up any grand Nonas , just w not that much water : a medium saucier. as the timing for this pasta needed checking from time to time . the package suggest 13 min al dente to 15 min. I went to 15. heating up the sauce from the refrigerator : see: angry RS in the past Ive used a base of spinach // hot freshly cooked rice as a texture feature , so : fresh spinach w a little EVOO // ring of Campare ( standard here often , as I have both ) hot rice , then the cooked penne that has been mixed w sauce in a second pan ! some Tj's parmesean-ish and window green onions. how it ' eats ' I liked this pasta , the sauce did stick to it , as that's a feature of ' Bronzo ' the pasta needed at least a minute more cooking and a little longer to rest in its sauce, and a little more sauce . over all , very tasty . next time , a little less onion in the sauce . BTW Stop&Shop has the Bronzo line on sale this week : buy one get one free . Ill take a peak . MB has it @ $2.5o a bag. My thinking is Barilla it trying to get this brand established , at an attractive price point . Ill pick up a few bags. sadly , no Bronzo Linguini . if you like pasta , and see the Bronzo in your market travels , try it out before the price goes up !

Very interesting - I never would have thought of turning a rotisserie chicken into coq au vin!

It's been a busy "killing small things" week, here on our little acreage. Not my favorite part of the exercise, as I've said before, but more or less inevitable when you decide to raise your own meat. We kicked things off by culling 11 male quail who were, as the Brits say, "surplus to requirements." We've also been picking away at our surplus roosters, and have so far culled 9 of the... 14 or so?... that are currently mature and badgering the hens. We have a couple more clutches that hatched out at intervals of a few weeks, so we'll be doing this all through the autumn. The 9 that we've harvested to date totaled 13.9kg/30.6 lbs, with the biggest (a barred rock, from our "barnyard mix" eggs) checking in at 2129g/4.7 lbs, and the smallest (one of the ones I showed in the photos above, with the green-black plumage and blond head feathers) at just 927g, or less than an ounce over 2 lbs. They were the same age, and the little guy had definitely hit sexual maturity, so it was just a question of either breed size/speed of growth or a combination thereof. Most have hit a relative "sweet spot" of 1600-1650g, or 3 1/2(ish) pounds. The big barred rock, dubbed "Spot" by the grandkids, will be the (ahem) "guest of honour" at today's Thanksgiving meal. Yesterday it was the rabbits' turn, and we harvested a batch of 8 which yielded just over 30 pounds, dressed weight. So they're averaging between 3 1/2 and 4 lbs, slightly larger than the chickens. I'm still keeping track of our income, expenses and yields from the critters. The first half of the year is when we do best in terms of actual money coming in to defray our expenses, and then the second half of the year is when we get most of the harvest. Part of what we'll be focusing on between now and year-end is deciding how to value our eggs, meat, etc for "accounting" purposes (in the personal sense, not in the tax sense, because we aren't selling enough to consider this a business). With quail eggs, for example, it's easy enough to work out their equivalent in chicken eggs at a ratio of 3:1 or 4:1. But for the ones we eat in-house, so to speak (as opposed to selling them for incubation or others' consumption), should I count them at the quantity we were habitually buying (a dozen every 5 days or so, barring Christmas baking season), or the actual quantity we're consuming? Because I use a lot more eggs when they're just adding up constantly, and I feel obligated to get through them. So that kind of thing is a tough call. The chickens are easier, of course, because we'll be able to sell hen's eggs more consistently once our flock starts producing properly (we have a number of hens just arriving at laying age, but only 2 or 3 currently laying for us; we currently get 2 eggs most days). Of course the days are getting shorter, and they lay less in winter, so we probably won't be hitting full stride with them until spring. The quail, otoh, are currently giving us 12-14/day and that will triple over the next few weeks as more of the females hit maturity. As for the chickens when considered as meat, there I have something else to consider: do I price their value at the supermarket $$ for whole chicken, or for the value of individual parts when I break them down into breasts, thighs, etc? So those are all things I need to talk through with my GF. In the final analysis, it's not about making or "losing" money at the end of the year. It's having a good enough grasp of our costs to calculate what we're out of pocket, respectively, for the rabbit meat/chicken/quail/eggs/garden produce, and then work backwards from that to how much each category cost us per kg of food produced. If that's at or below supermarket pricing, great! We've come out ahead. If it's above supermarket pricing, it tells us how much of a premium we've paid for the privilege of growing our own and having a measure of control over the process. I think we'll come out okay on most things, though we're for-sure "in the red" on our mushroom-growing kits over the past couple of years, and the garden certainly hasn't carried its weight this year (because reasons). Overall, for the first time, I have some reasonable degree of confidence that we're not in fact losing ground financially on this (compared to just aggressive/frugal grocery shopping).

It seems like it would work if the peppers were packed pretty tightly.

@FrogPrincesse Here's recipe. I divert a bit from it. I caramelize the pearl onions (I use a bag of frozen ones) by adding them earlier with bacon. I sometimes debone and skin the chicken as the skin gets icky, though it adds flavor. I put the wine in before adding the broth so I can cook off the alcohol. I put the dish together an hour or two ahead of mealtime; letting the chicken sit in the sauce, heat off. Just needs a slight re-warm. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/30-minute-coq-au-vin-3362586

Yeah, I missed posting that one and this one yesterday (was processing a batch of rabbits, and didn't finish until late). https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/various-pistachio-containing-products-recalled-due-salmonella-5

After more than miserable lunch, I'm happy to say that dinner was a delight. Stir fried bullfrog with garlic, onion, chilli (green and red), perilla and bamboo shoot. Served with rice. Not a dish for cartilogenophobiacs, among whose ranks I'm not!

Are all the Pistachio trees in the world infected? The recalls for pistachios just keep coming and coming. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/aoun-brand-pistachio-heart-recalled-due-salmonella?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

I was gifted a few bagged salad kits, so had one last night with added tomatoes and cheddar for a quick supper so I could watch the Celtics on TV for the first time this (pre)season. Salad was OK (smoke flavoring was a bit too) but the Celtics were dynamite!

Lunch today was undoubtedly the worst thing I’ve ever tried to eat in 30 years in China; maybe in my life. Advertised as “Spicy crispy duck wraps”, I had two delivered, the minimum order. What ever they were they certainly weren’t crispy, didn’t taste of duck and were so greasy the very thin wrap stuck to the paper they came in. Flabby undercooked skin, insipid duck meat and dripping in tasteless grease. And by the time I separated the wrap and the paper, weren’t even wrapped. Utterly disgusting. Here is what was advertised and then what was delivered. I took one bit of the first and immediately binned the lot! Disgraceful, inedible crap.

How do you make coq au vin in 30 minutes? Is this an instant pot version?

Short Ribs Braised with Mushrooms, Pearl Onions, and Bacon from “Simple to Spectacular” by Vongerichten - the short ribs are braised in a mixture of red wine, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and parsley. When it was braising you separately prepare the add-ins - crisped up bacon, sautéed button mushrooms and cooked pearl onions until lightly brown. Once the ribs are braised you strain out the vegetables and reheat the ribs with the bacon, mushrooms and pearl onions. Served with mashed potatoes and blanched snap peas finished with some toasted sesame oil

Because it is quite well established that microwaving plastics releases larger amounts of microplastics

First attempt at Boulets à la Liégeoise

Code requires make up air for fans exhausting 400 CFM or more. If you don't supply it with proper make up, air will be sucked from somewhere, often down the flue of a furnace or water heater, especially in tighter buildings. Don't pretend you'll open a window when you run it, because you won't. Even if you do, other people won't, because they won't know they should. Ideally, make up air is fed into the HVAC, so it can conditioned before being put into the house.

Thanks rotus, but that method probably wouldn't always work for me because usually my microwave is otherwise occupied when I'm finishing dinner. As I said, we were having pasta tonight, noodles, so I gave the pre-soak method a try. I soaked them in the pan that I was going to be cooking them in for 90 minutes in salted water. Turned the burner to high and brought it to a boil. It immediately foamed up. So I turned it to medium and cooked them for 2 minutes. I turned the burner off for 2 minutes and removed them with a spider. They were perfect. I need to add that the only pasta that I can get here are local brands that are certainly not Gourmet pasta. So for it to work so well with mediocre pasta it should do great with the more pricey element. Thanks @Pete Fred.

I suspect you’re OK. With 1 lb of eggplant that’s had most of the moisture pressed out, plus 1/2 cup of vinegar, it should be acidic enough to be very inhospitable to Clostridium botulinum, especially at refrigerator temps. I know that C. botulinum can multiply at low temperatures but from what I’ve read, it’s primarily the types found in fish and seafood that manage to grow at low temps and the soil types don’t do so well. But you know your own risk tolerance and there’s no reason to eat anything that feels risky to you. When in doubt….

I got my last major haul of tomatoes and eggplants last weekend from my neighboring farmer. Today I faced facts: I wasn't going to get through all those tomatoes or eggplants before they went off. Time to get going on preservation. It just about killed me, though: those beautiful slicer tomatoes! I had too many, and I have some green ones as well waiting for me to fry them, so I had to slice them, roast them, and save them for later. (I kept out two fine-looking slicers, seen in the photo above, for the last-gasp-of-summer sandwiches: BLPT, or simply tomato and cheese. Believe me, I've been eating a lot of those!) The sliced tomatoes got the same treatment I wrote about here: scattered salt, a bit of white pepper, finely sliced shallot, and EVOO, then roasted at around 425 - 450F until a lot of the juices had been cooked out. It will all go into a container and placed in the freezer. It's cooling now. I may not have cooked the slices as much as in past attempts, but I want to see what happens if the slices aren't dried quite so thoroughly. I also bought 3 generous pints of cherry tomatoes from her, and today realized that I can't use them all before they go off. I saved some -- they're wonderful for snacks -- and roasted the rest more or less per @ElainaA's recipe for Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce. Finally, most of the Asian eggplants I bought from the same farmer became Preserved Eggplant per a recipe from Joshua McFadden's Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). For more discussion about this recipe, see here.

A neighbor that cooks? Most certainly!