All Activity

The water on top of the table is actually necessary - the heat from the wok is so hot that it would warp and damage the stainless steel table, not to mention burn anyone near it. So a small stream of water constantly flows into the "bucket" and overflows onto the table to keep the table cool.

You forgot to mention the morels!

Asparagus and Fava Bean Soup

love the counter-top drainage system they have.

Saturday night we had dinner at the top rated Italian restaurant in town, La Cucina Sul Mare. We could only get a reservation at 5:30 (a lot of the restaurants close at 8PM in this town). It was absolutely packed when we arrived. We ordered four oysters rockefeller to start (one each). And an order of the warm bruschetta at my nephew's request. Unfortunately this was a soggy and not warm. My nephew took a picture of his linguini with giant meatball and said to share it with you. He said it was very bland. It's rare for him not to finish a meatball, but he left about half of this plate behind. I ordered the swordfish piccata, minus the shrimp garnish. This was also bland, and oddly lacking in lemon flavor. I think these purple flowers must be the official garnish of Falmouth-they were on all the plates yesterday too. Sister had the linguini with clams. She said it was...bland! Husband ordered a special of swordfish with clams and sausage. It came in a tomato sauce that was not mentioned when the server described the dish. Note the ubiquitous purple flower. No dessert, as once again the portions were massive and much food went uneaten. My sister and nephew returned home yesterday, so it's just my husband and me for the rest of the week. Here's the kitchen at the house. It has nice views of the water. The beach on a gray Cape Cod spring day After trudging along the cold and windy beach all morning, we decided the next best thing to do was to go to town and find some ice cream. That's what you do if you are from New England 🙂 Ben and Bill's Chocolate Emporium looked promising. I am sure we will try most of the options in town before the week is out. The options I thought the lobster flavor was probably vanilla with chocolate lobsters in it or something, so I walked down the case to check the sign for it... Um.....OK. I got mint chocolate chip, which was nice and minty but had too many chocolate chunks for my personal taste. I just ate around most of them. All the fish markets in town are closed on Sundays, so we had to eat out again. We chose Estia, a Greek place. We started with calamari, which was large enough for about six people. What we managed to eat was tender and well seasoned. I had the shrimp saganaki for my entree. I think there were 12 large shrimp in there and about three cups of rice. It was tasty but much too much food. Husband ordered the shrimp and swordfish skewers, which also came with grilled vegetables and fries. And both entrees also came with huge salads! Next time we go out I think we are going to just share something.

@Dejah For me, it depends on how old the water spinach is (when it was harvested). When I grew my own, I could pick it relatively young and just stir fry it with garlic and a splash of stock. I'd still separate the tougher stalks from the leafy parts and cook the stalks first then toss in the stems and the stock. If it's older and more woody, you can separate the stalks from the leaves, then blanch in some water with salt and a bit of baking soda which will help them keep their green color. Remove to a cold water bath to stop cooking then drain. Then stir fry. The blanching time depends on how tough the stems are. Hope this helps. You can also check out this video but I'm not a fan of splitting the stems like he does as you don't see it that way in SE Asia. They're usually just cut into 3-4" lengths.

I don't think I have ever cooked water spinach. Sometimes my CSA box gives me greens (pea shoots come to mind) that get stringy when you cook them up, and I do find it frustrating. After having to struggle through eating big clumps of them in various soup bowls and stir fries I now usually end up mincing them really fine or blitzing them into a pesto or something. If anyone has better ideas for this type of green I would also be very interested!

Trying to work my way through the freezer and pantry--especially the "emergency" stuff. And improve my eating habits as a household of one. I defrosted a couple of chicken thighs and pulled out some old pantry items. Had some grape tomatoes on their last legs. I did not intend to put quite so much of the seasoning blend on this but my hands got out of control when I was sprinkling it over. It worked out fine because this turned out to be very tasty. I had never used canned potatoes before and wasn't sure how they would be. I remember buying them thinking they'd be good to keep on hand for emergencies--add a can of veggies and some stock and instant soup. But had not used them and they were expired so needed to get off the shelf and used or into the trash. I wouldn't want them on a regular basis, but roasted as I did this, I couldn't really tell they were canned. I thought I had a photo of it after being cooked, but apparently not.

I have that in my pantry as well as this (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) and Organic Karashi Mustard. I've not tried them yet but certainly will soon. Nonetheless, I'd like to work on my own creation as well.

We both got another round of Covid vaccinations the other day; and we both had more side effects than usual. Just a general malaise, headache, body aches, etc. So... Chicken noodle soup, from scratch.

That's putting it mildly and as I remember, it's practically all year long.

I'm having a good week in the fruit department. Not only did my second favourite fruit, mangosteens turn up but today I got the first of the season's 杨梅 (yáng méi) Chinese bayberries (Myrica rubra), my favourite. I first mentioned them back in this post. Happy mouth!

I'm pretty sure I have that book somewhere...I do remember, and this is quite some time ago, that when driving past Gilroy at harvest time (be it heading north or south), the air was perfumed mightily. As far as garlic presses go, just a waste of space in a drawer. Nothing that a sharp knife or a microplane can't handle.

I mix this... According to the directions. It works great. Buy here (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).

I haven't tried it but some people lacto-ferment mustard. That might help give you what you are after.

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/161694-china-food-myths/?do=findComment&comment=2285288

Earlier this evening, I made a small batch of hot Chinese mustard. I checked some recipes online and put together an equal measur of Coleman's mustard and hot water, salt, white pepper, rice vinegar, and a touch of toasted sesame oil. I wanted a more complex mustard and more than just heat. After letting the concoction rest a bit, I tasted it and found that for what I want I'm on the right track, but quite a bit more fiddling with the ingredients and their proportions is in order. If anyone has any ideas or experience with an interesting recipe, I'm listening.

Turkish inspired dinner with borek - phyllo dough filled with spinach, onion and feta. Topped with a mixture of egg, oil and milk and some sesame and nigella seeds.

Thank you! 1kg is a much better trial size!

Has anyone used their APO to ferment cured meats? Im 100% sure it would work great, im just not sure on the settings to achieve lets say, 85F and 85% RH. I can't seem to find info on RH with the APO, but my common sense tells me 85% on the steam function would be 85% RH, but where im not sure is what mode would work better for this is SV mode or oven mode? Anyone know what settings are better to achieve 85F and 85% RH? For example, proof mode for proofing dough for bread making used oven mode with 10-100% on the steam function. I ordered a hygrometer to do some testing. It can handle 158F but im not sure its waterproof, so i will be starting at 10% steam to see what that means in RH, and go from there.

Home cured bacon sandwich with avocado and bruschetta style tomatoes

I'm thinking you wanted to know more detail than what Vermont Creamery includes in this little cartoon, but it's as @pastrygirl said: pasteurize the fresh, fluid milk -> add live bacterial culture -> ferment -> churn into butter.

I think you wouldn't be surprised to find out most large American butter producers don't like to do it because it slows things down unlike adding a couple % extra butterfat for a 'European' butter which is pretty trivial. Vermont Creamery started doing it the slow way back in 1998 so they didn't have to change anything. Thankfully cultured butter isn't as hard to find as it used to be! https://www.vermontcreamery.com/collections/cultured-butter 86% Vermont Creamery butter (I used to see it retailed more but now it seems to be going more to restaurants) I can get it locally at Farmshop, if I ask because they use it in the bakery. https://www.murrayscheese.com/dp/vermont-creamery-lightly-salted-chef-roll

That is correct. In case it's not clear, the bacterial cultures are specific to each application. I'd be interested in hearing more about this. From a manufacturing perspective, (to the extent that fluid milk is manufactured, and most of it is), it runs contrary to everything I thought I understood about the dairy industry.

Cultured with live bacteria like buttermilk, yogurt, and sour cream are. Instead of churning cream straight into butter, they make creme fraiche first, then turn that into butter.