Jump to content

Our Picks

Top content from across the community, hand-picked by us.

Post in Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Chocolate raspberry thumbprint cookies decorated with a drizzle of melted TJ's Ruby Cacao wafers

 
    • Delicious
    • Like

Post in Breakfast 2019
Classic Dan Dan noodles

from Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice
 
    • Delicious
    • Like

Post in eG Cook-Off #81: The Avocado - Finding new popularity in the kitchen
Back in this post, @Katie Meadow said the use of fish sauce in this NYT recipe for Citrus Salad With Peanuts and Avocado made her wobbly.  @Smithy's friend reported the fish sauce being a bit much.  With those advance inputs, I give you this Citrus Salad with Peanuts & Avocado:

I used Red Boat fish sauce and it's quite salty so I reduced it by half.  Tasting the dressing before tossing, I bumped up the rice vinegar a bit and had to omit the cilantro because I am out.
Citrus and avocado are all at their peak at the local farmers market and that may have contributed to my positive response, but I like the salad and the little hit of umami that the fish sauce adds. 
 
    • Delicious
    • Like

Post in Food Funnies
Seen in the medical center cafeteria today - 
 
    • Haha
    • Like

Post in Chinese Vegetables Illustrated
This turned up in one market today.
 

 
Artemesia japonica.
 
鸡肉菜/雞肉菜 (Mand: jī ròu cài; Cant: gai1 juk6 coi3), literally and inexplicably "chicken meat vegetable"'.
 
This is closely related to the plant in the previous post, but is sold as a leaf vegetable for stir frying or using in hot pots. It is bitter, which may be why this site rates it as only 1/5 edible. I guess they don't like bitter. Folks around here do, including me. I'd give it 3/5.
 
    • Like

Post in Gary Danko
We didn’t take a picture of the risotto because it was too good. I was angry at myself when the table next to me asked to take a picture because they’d forgotten. 
  I had the Dungeness crab salad from the appetizer menu. It was good. Not great. My husband had the tuna from the seafood menu:
 
 
    • Like

Post in eG Cook-Off #81: The Avocado - Finding new popularity in the kitchen
Avocado stuffed with confit Ahi tuna, capers, pine nuts and preserved lemon. 

The greens were lightly dressed with a lemon vinaigrette made with some of the olive oil used to confit the tuna
    • Delicious
    • Like

Mussels
I am going to make mussels tonight for an app. I am looking for some different flavors. I was thinking maybe ginger, jalapeno, lemongrass, garlic. Does anyone have some tried and true mussel recipes that they really like?
  • 78 replies

Post in Great hard-to-find condiments
Are you interested in spices, too, or just prepared sauces?
 
You may want to explore things available on other continents for things that may be harder to find in the US. Don't know if you can get this but good in an hot salty Indian fashion
 
    • Like

Post in What Tea Are You Drinking Today? (Part 3)
Today I'm trying a chinese matcha.  The other day I saw this , and decided to take the plunge... I figured that I can bake pretty green stuff with it if it doesn't turn out to  all that delicious on its own.  Anyway, it is actually pretty tasty.  I'm in no way an expert in matcha... that is the one variety of tea I've had the least experience with... largely because it is usually so crazy expensive, and I don't have all the gizmos that you use to make it in the traditional way.  So I find that a half teaspoon of this, with 175F water poured over it, then poured back and forth between two mugs until vaguely frothy makes a nicely vegetal and pretty green beverage.  God knows how long a pound of it will last me, and how well it keeps... but I'm happier experimenting at this price point, rather than dropping $20 on a 1 or 2 oz tin.  
    • Like

Post in Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Member EmmMax made this riff on King Cake for Fat Tuesday. From the post: "My kids loved the sprinkles, me not so much 😂"
    • Like

Post in Dinner 2019
pan bagnat
 
    • Delicious
    • Like

Post in eG Cook-Off #81: The Avocado - Finding new popularity in the kitchen
Well, the pickled avocado experiment begins.  I'm starting with a recipe from Food Network.  The avocados in the market were really small today and pretty hard.  But I figured for pickling I wanted them hard rather than ripe so they won't turn into mush during pickling.  I'll let them sit in the fridge for at least a day then figure out the recipe from that point forward.  I originally thought of pairing pickled avocado with raw in a sort of tuna poke bowl, but this afternoon I shifted a bit to using raw and pickled avocado with salmon in maybe a grilled or poached dish.  I doubled the recipes and because I couldn't find whole coriander seeds, I substituted mustard seeds since I have fresh cilantro in the pickle brine.  
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. mustard seeds, (substituted for coriander seeds)
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
2 avocados, peeled, I cut them into small cubes, (the recipe calls for cutting the avocado in slices)
fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 jalapeno, I sliced the jalapeno into thin rings, (the recipe calls for cutting the jalenpeno into matchsticks)
zest of 1 lime
 
 
    • Like

Our avocados have a bit of growing to do. There will be plenty though, this is a small section of the tree.

 
I’m really looking forward to the ideas this cook off will provide.
Love the baked arancini @blue_dolphin, toasting the crumbs is brilliant. 
 
I used to think bacon and avocado was a heavenly match, nowadays I go avocado and chicken sandwiches with mayo on soft white bread. Or this, at a cafe in Kyogle, smashed avocado, feta cheese and herbs with toasted bread.
 
 
    • Delicious
    • Like

Post in Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Papanshi - Romanian doughnuts with sour cream and black cherry preserve. 
 
    • Delicious
    • Like

Post in Lunch 2019
Lunch today was excellent in every respect except the food.
 
I had arranged to meet a recent acquaintance to discuss some potential  professional cooperation. She chose the restaurant. We spent an hour talking, not so much about business, but everything else besides - language, food, Chinese politics, visiting Japan, cameras, internet issues, family ...
 
The place was supposedly Hong Kong food. Very little on the menu was Hong Kong cuisine, and the dishes which were recognisably HK by name were odd in execution.
 
I had been there several years ago and it was good. Disappointing. Also, disappointing for my friend, who had also been before and enjoyed it.
 
I had a bowl of wonton noodles, a Hong Hong classic. They were a disaster. Insipid soup. Three shrimp wontons (if shrimp wontons are meant to have the texture boiled golf balls - they were almost inedible). The noodles were apparently rejects from the cheapest, nastiest instant noodle brand.
 
Her dish was no better, but she liked the milk tea.
 
The meal cost ¥58 (around $8.70 USD) . Not a huge amount, but I'm sure the ingredients couldn't have cost more than about ¥3 ($0.45) . When I asked for the bill, I was curtly told to go to the cash desk at the other side of the fairly large restaurant,  while two wait staff stood nearby gossiping about other staff members, unaware that I could understand them. So wonderful service, too.
 
No doubt they think they will be redeemed by offering this nonsense on their menu.
 

The Chinese says "Light Bulb Milk Tea"
 
No, we didn't order it.
 
    • Sad
    • Confused

OK, I have a report and questions on my first attempt at stuffed, deep-fried avocados! We had them tonight.
 
Inefficient cooks like me will know, from @Dejah's recipe here, that it's best to allow time for the multiple steps in the process. I poached the chicken breast yesterday, and did it delicately enough that I have several fine slices of perfectly-done, not-dry chicken breast for sandwiches. I shredded and/or chopped roughly 1/3 of that breast for the avocado stuffing. The seasonings weren't quite the same as Dejah's. I used shredded cheese (Monterey Jack and San Joaquin Hanford Jack), a combination of oregano, smoked paprika and chili powder, a bit of pepper vinegar, and a touch of mayonnaise for binding. That was yesterday's project. It was difficult to keep my mitts off the stuffing; it would have made a great sandwich spread.
 
Today came the slicing, scooping, peeling and stuffing. I had worried about losing a lot of avocado flesh during the peeling stage, but I'd worried for naught: these avocados were ripe enough to peel easily, but not so ripe that they were falling apart. They held together well.
 

 
    • Delicious
    • Thanks
    • Like

Post in "Zuni Cafe" Cookbook by Judy Rogers
With asparagus on hand from the soup I posted about yesterday, I took Judy's suggestion to substitute slivered raw asparagus for fava beans in the Crostini with Fava-Egg Salad & Smoked Trout from Zuni Café Cookbook p 125.

This is in the section on crostini ideas and I like the way it's written in a short paragraph, telling you to boil one egg for every three crostini. After that, you mash the warm egg with lemon zest-infused olive oil (p 285 in the book) and thinly sliced asparagus and spread it on crostini (here, made from a whole grain rosemary baguette) and top simply with smoked trout and black pepper.
I liked this best with a drop or two of lemon juice squeezed on to the trout, although a couple of capers in the mix would do the same thing.
I had this for breakfast but it would have been a perfect accompaniment to turn yesterday's asparagus soup into a meal. 
    • Like

Post in Hot chocolate--hot cocoa what's the best?
I make hot chocolate by making a ganache that I keep in the fridge in pre-portioned cubes and then add hot water. I developed the concept years ago when I worked at a high end cafe and saw some ideas here on eG. I use good couverture, the reason is that it's smoother and the cocoa particles tend to be smaller due to longer conching. I find that this improves the sediment and mouth-feel issues immensely. I also add a small amount of my house-made chocolate extract to boost flavor a little, cream inhibits flavor a little bit.
 
Good additions to the drink once it's made include:
a twist of orange peel
a sprinkling of cinnamon
a small dab of toast dope
a teaspoon of liqueur or non-alcoholic Italian syrup: nut flavor, cherry flavor, orange flavor, strawberry flavor, coffee flavor, etc.
a little coffee
a tiny pinch of red chile powder
a sprig of fresh mint
 
The ganache needs to be refrigerated, so, shipping could be a dicey situation -especially if there's a warm spell. I'd ship in an insulated package with frozen cold packs in it. And, I would give stern instructions that it should be refrigerated immediately upon arrival. In most instances, I would prefer to hand-deliver the finished product as a gift, or just ship some of the chocolate and the recipe.

Post in Dinner 2019
Spaghetti and meatballs
 
    • Delicious
    • Like

Post in Dinner 2019
Either a very late lunch or a very early dinner.
Either way it was really good.

I forgot how good Sablefish (Black Cod) is.  I went in hoping to find some halibut but came home with Sablefish.
 

 
Large flakes and so moist and buttery. 
    • Delicious
    • Like

Post in Wok burner advice needed
I use a small square ALPS Mountaineering collapsible aluminum table. The legs fold and the tabletop rolls up, and the whole thing fits in a bag. They're good for camping and tailgating or wherever you might need a popup table. It's a good height for wokking while standing. I also use it with my konro. Not at the same time, of course... but as you can see, there's ample room even on the small one. 
 
 
 
We go enough places with enough stuff that having an extra table like this is extremely useful. They make a slightly larger size for not much more money, as well as giant picnic table type things. I could see any or all of them being useful for a catering operation, or for cooks like me who want a big backyard kitchen, but can't have everything out all the time. There are many other styles of packable table on the market. This one is fine, but it's not super heavy duty. Check out these reviews to see what the competition looks like.
    • Like

Post in What did you buy at the liquor store today? (2016 - )
Im not a big fan of distilled spirits.
 
but some time ago , I made a fews Negroni's ,
 
to get them off my mind.  seemed every other post back then was Negroni this , Negroni that.
 
I did have 1/2 bottle of Bombay Blue Sapphire left over .   I knew it would speak to me in time.
 
thanks to @Quadriga , I realize that Ice is part of a ' mixed '  drink.
 
there is a show from ITV , GB,  called Endeavour.   it is a fine show and Ive enjoyed it
 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2701582/
 
Morse is the younger Inspector Morse.  late in Season 5 , Morse
 

 
goes  over to Chief Superintendent Bright's house.  He is invited in and CSB makes him a drink :  Gin , Ice , and freshly squeezed lime.
 
" its the fresh squeezed lime that makes the drink '    says CSB
 
I tried it and liked it.  I like tart
 
so today , I restocked :
 

 
or better
 

 
they were sampling bourbon and malt whiskey.  couldn't say no.   I dislike bourbon.  seems sweet to me.
 
the Lagavulin was 10 bucks cheaper than before , as they bought a very large lot at a discount.
 
anyway , the little juicer on the L came from Crate and Barrel .
 
and I had to try the Blue Sapphire East  for my Gin and Lime.
 
https://www.bombaysapphire.com/products/bombay-sapphire-east/
 
guess they saw me coming.
    • Like

Post in Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Passion Fruit Panna Cotta 
    • Like

Post in Reviewing NYC Pizza
A hidden gem, up in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx...
 

 
Louis & Ernie's
    • Like

×
×
  • Create New...