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Chicken in cilantro, spinach, and mustard sauce: Saute bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, and whole cloves. Brown chicken drumsticks in the flavored oil, and then simmer with yogurt, black pepper, and cayenne. Finish with a blended sauce of ginger, green chiles, cilantro, spinach, and stone-ground mustard. Cucumber raita: Thinly-sliced cucumber, yogurt, sliced shallots, minced green chiles, shredded mint leaves, and cilantro. Garnished with cumin and smoked paprika (should be cayenne but dinner guests were chile-averse). Basadi dal: Simmer red lentils in water until tender. Fry sliced onion in ghee then add panch phoran (equal parts freshly-ground cumin, black cumin, aniseed, coriander, and fenugreek), turmeric, paprika, cayenne, cumin, and crushed tomato. My favorite dal of all time.

WaPo likes them. https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2025/10/30/arbys-steak-nuggets-review-protein/

Is anyone watching Top Chef Canada 2025 right now? I'm quite enjoying it so far. But wow, it goes by fast. They already had a double elimination challenge.

I use wilted lettuce ll the time. It's probably the most common way to use it, round here. Not so much as a salad, but more a side dish, stir fried wilted with garlic and oyster sauce. Or dropped into soup dishes to wilt in the residual heat. Pea and lettuce soup is my favourite. Ditto with fried rice.

You mean the lettuce is wilted with a hot dressing? What else do you put into it? I like wilted spinach salads with bacon, slices of boiled egg and other goodies. If you don't mean this sort of wilted lettuce, then how do you plan to do it?

It's been a few years since this thread has been updated and I can use some fresh material. Are there any new books out there for cakes? Thanks!

Well, Brussels sprouts have been done by my family for many, many years - but SOME people manage to escape eating them! 🙄

Some recent dinners. Broccoli pasta Chicken tacos Noodle bowl with napa cabbage, bok choy, spinach, cilantro, and jammy egg Tomato braised cauliflower with raisins, feta, and mint

Remembering how much I used to enjoy this salad I don't know why I haven't made it in years. It'[s on the menu now for this week!

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, plus roasted chickpeas and chopped walnuts for crunch.

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 earlier this 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!😁