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Post in Food in the time of a pandemic
Smithy posted a post in a topic,
I also requested sourdough starter, which is available for free, since I threw mine away in a fit of pique a year or so ago.
The soup and salad kit was quite generous.
I looked at those soups and that salad kit and thought, "we won't get through all this in one night!" We didn't. No worries! It was all good. I was especially impressed by the quality of the lettuce. We usually buy romaine hearts, and had just opened a package earlier in the day. This romaine was leagues better than our grocery store pick!
Instructions are included. Heating soup is not difficult, nor is making a salad. That was the point of last night's selections, since Friday night is our news-junkie TV watching night. I didn't do the bread any favors, alas, the Cuisinart Steam Oven's steam simply made good crusty bread tough. Flavor was good, though. I'll post the actual dinner in the Dinner topic.
Tonight: Laab Moo. Despite over a decade of reading about Laab here and deciding twice or thrice to try it, I never have. Tonight is the night.

Post in Dinner 2020
liamsaunt posted a post in a topic,

Post in Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
pjm333 posted a post in a topic,

Post in Dinner 2020
liamsaunt posted a post in a topic,
The main course was malfatti con pomodoro. The sauce was really great. I am glad I doubled the recipe for later use. I should have doubled the malfatti too. When I brought the plates to the table, my nephew asked me if I thought I was feeding a bunch of 98 year old ladies 😆 Frankly it was more than enough food for everyone except him. I only ate four, myself.
I am not sure how similar my version is to the one the chef made, because once I found out that all participants were being emailed a video of the class, I left to eat 🙂 Quarantine has my family on a weird food schedule. Pre-quarantine, we ate dinner at 8:30-9PM. Now, people get antsy if dinner is not on the table by 6PM at the very latest.

Post in Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
shain posted a post in a topic,
A bit under proofed, it seems.

Post in Drinks! 2018
Craig E posted a post in a topic,
The goofy concept here: only ingredients with doubled letters allowed. I used apple brandy, Cappelletti, Green Chartreuse, Kirschwasser, apple bitters, and a cherry.
Stirred of course.


Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)
gfron1 posted a topic in Restaurant Life,
Over the course of these upcoming months I'd like to share...
•Investor recruitment and terms
•Staff recruitment, pay and training
•Facility identification, renovation and equipping
•Operational budget preparation
•Marketing
•Adjustment of my philosophy and practices from a one-man show in a remote community to a multi-person operation in a major city
I would love to have questions and requests guide my posts. I expect to post once per week but knowing how my mind likes to dart around I wouldn't be surprised if I post more frequently. In the meantime, I'm off to Orlando for a dinner I'm cooking this weekend in support of my cookbook. I hope y'all enjoy!
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Post in Lunch 2020
blue_dolphin posted a post in a topic,
David Lebovitz recently shared this recipe for Cassoulet Toast on his blog. It's from Susan Spungen's new cookbook, Open Kitchen: Inspired Food for Casual Gatherings. Luckily, there was no actual gathering here because I nibbled away half of the confit duck leg meant for 4 servings while I was taking the meat off the bones.

Post in Dinner 2020
KennethT posted a post in a topic,

Post in Food in the time of a pandemic
liamsaunt posted a post in a topic,
We ate the haddock tonight. My 21 year old nephew is in quarantine with me and I made him cook dinner under my supervision. I assigned my niece and nephew cleaning chores when they moved in but he begged off cleaning due to asthma, so now he is my sous chef instead haha. He used the haddock to make moqueca, using a recipe I chose from Milk Street, the New Rules. It was delicious.
Oh, he refused to eat it of course. He had burgers instead, which he also cooked.

Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns - Bake-Off XVI
Kerry Beal posted a topic in Pastry & Baking,
Let's start with a quick and dirty cinnamon bun idea - one created by Amy Rosen and documented here on her blog. Doesn't get any faster than this.
The Cinnamon Bun Topic is a long standing eG topic - running several pages.
Monkey Bread, Not Using Refridgerated Rolls another source of good information.
eG recipeGullet recipes for Cinnamon Buns here and here.
Here is a not very good picture of my favorite sticky bun - and the dough that I generally use for cinnamon buns as well. It's Cook's Illustrated from 2004. It starts with a caramel in the bottom of the pan, a nice rich brioche like dough, then a filling in the rolls, then another sticky mixture gets applied to the top after baking. It doesn't get any stickier than this.
So let's get baking (now that it's officially diet time of year) and see what we can do with any basic or variation on a nice cinnamon bun, sticky roll, monkey bread...
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Post in Cook-Off 59: Cured, Brined, Smoked and Salted Fish
David Ross posted a post in a topic,
As you can see, the unwanted parts of a Halibut don't come cheap-
My Fishmonger told me these cheeks came from Halibut in the 30-50lb., range. (You've probably seen photos of fishermen posing beside a 400lb. Halibut. It makes for a nice memory of a vacation, but those behemoths aren't prized for tender meat)-
I used the same basic brine for the Halibut Cheeks that I used for the Smoked Trout with a few changes-
10 cups water
1/4 cup Kosher salt
1/3 cup honey (substituted for the brown sugar)
1 tbsp. peppercorns
2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1/2 onion, chopped (not used for the Trout)
2-3 stalks fresh parsley (not used for the Trout)
The Halibut Cheeks were left in the brine overnight. (The Trout was brined for 7 hours). After brining, I let the Halibut Cheeks rest at room temperature, uncovered, for about 4 hours to form a "pellicle," drying out the flesh and allowing for more smoke absorption.
The Halibut Cheeks laying on the "screen" on top of the smoker rack-
The Halibut Cheeks into the smoker-
I cold-smoked the Halibut Cheeks for 2 hours using Alderwood. Alder is the wood we traditionally use in the Northwest to smoke and cook salmon. It gives a mild, herbal-woodsy tone to fish without overpowering it with an acrid smoke taste. At this point the Halibut Cheeks weren't cooked, so I had to find a delicate dish that I thought would bring out the smoke flavor and relate to my roots in the Northwest.
Seasoned with a very light sprinkle of salt and pepper, I sauteed the Cheeks in butter and olive oil. The Halibut was paired with a Spring Pea Risotto with Bacon and Morels. What can be better than Smoked Halibut and a Creamy Risotto?

Post in Mezcal
FrogPrincesse posted a post in a topic,

The Bread Topic (2016–)
DianaM posted a topic in Pastry & Baking,
I've been trying to settle on a formula for a nice, basic, no frills sourdough which my friends (with zero interest in whole grains) can enjoy, and I think I've found my winner in a country white (10% w/g spelt) with 80% hydration. Mild, mild sourness despite the 12 hour cold proof. I want to try holding back some of the water to see if I can achieve better loft, but otherwise, I am happy with the formula.
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Post in The Bread Topic (2016–)
ptw1953 posted a post in a topic,

Post in Drinks! 2018
blue_dolphin posted a post in a topic,
Today's guest was Alexandre Gabriel, founder of Pierre Ferrand, Citadelle & Plantation, who prepared a Daiquiri with Plantation Stiggins Fancy Pineapple Rum.
Limes from my tree
Also from the book, I've recently enjoyed the Yellow Cocktail, which is indeed very yellow:
A Brooklyn:
And more than one Rosemary Gimlets:

Post in Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pastrypastmidnight posted a post in a topic,
All the cakes:
Chocolate cake, raspberry compote, hazelnut daquoise, praliné buttercream, dark chocolate buttercream, raspberry chocolate macarons, hazelnut dragées and brittle
Devil’s Food cake, peanut butter buttercream, sponge toffee bits, homemade pb cups, chocolate ganache, chopped chocolate and peanuts
Grapefruit cardamom chiffon cake, grapefruit glaze, candied zest and segments
Salted Caramel and Chocolate Gateau St. Honoré
And all the bread and pastry:
Kouign-Amann
No-knead bread
Every conceivable braid style of challah
Garlic Naan
Asiago Bagels
Croissants
Cinnamon Crunch bagels
My belly and freezer are full

Enchiladas--Cook-Off 46
David Ross posted a topic in Mexico: Cooking & Baking,
We spent the last Cook-Off perfecting french fries, delightful yet leaning toward the one-dimensional. This time we're shifting gears and making the multi-dimensional Mexican dish, enchiladas.
The variations on enchiladas are endless-there doesn't seem to be one "definitive," classic, enchilada recipe. They can be filled with beef, pork, chicken, smoked duck, smoked turkey or steamed octopus. An enchilada might be slathered with melted cheese, sprinkled with queso fresco, or have no cheese at all. It seems as though the only thing that enchiladas have in common is that all versions are wrapped in some type of tortilla.
There are lots of possibilities for saucing an enchilada, everything from what one finds in a can on the supermarket shelf to homemade salsas using dried chilies. And of course, the variety of dried chilies to use for the sauce -- from mild to devil hot -- is also endless.
In her definitive Art of Mexican Cooking, Diana Kennedy describes the two methods for making enchiladas. In one, you lightly fry the tortilla before dipping it into sauce; the process is reversed in the other. For both versions, you then fill the sauced and fried tortilla and roll it up.
Kennedy's enchiladas placeras are sauced with a garlic, serrano, and tomato salsa and then filled with shredded beef; her enchiladas de Santa Clara uses an ancho and garlic sauce and an egg and cheese filling (and sounds delicious). Enchiladas benefit from corny, lardy homemade tortillas but also can mask mediocre ones to good effect, and they are an excellent way to showcase a perfect salsa.
The previous main enchilada topic can be found here. You can also find topics on making tortillas at home here and a pictorial topic on Making Mexican at home is here.
I've eaten hundreds of enchiladas in restaurants, but I was never able to duplicate that "restaurant-quality" enchilada flavor at home. My tortillas were either mushy or were too cold and broke when I rolled them with the filling. I also didn't want to serve my enchiladas with the requisite mushy beans and marginal "Spanish rice." What would be a unique side dish for Enchiladas? And what tortilla recipes would best stand up to the abuse of enchilada manufacture?
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Liziqi (李子柒)
liuzhou posted a topic in Food Media & Arts,
Here is her latest, posted today. This is what all my neighbours are doing right now in preparation for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year to the Lantern Festival 15 days later), although few are doing it as elegantly as she does!
Everything she posts is worth watching if you have any interest in food.
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Post in Dinner 2020
Shelby posted a post in a topic,

Post in Breakfast 2020!
Ann_T posted a post in a topic,
Ham, Cheddar and Chive Biscuits.
And Moe had scrambled egg and biscuits for breakfast.

Post in Cocktail Challenge: Tequila and French Vermouth
Craig E posted a post in a topic,
Barcelonnette
2 oz blanco tequila (I use El Mayor) 3/4 oz dry vermouth (Dolin) 1/4 oz Amere Sauvage 1/4 oz honey syrup rinse Herbsaint (or absinthe) Serve in a coupe with a grapefruit twist.
My first go had an ounce of vermouth which was maybe too much, a barspoon of honey syrup which was definitely too little, and fennel bitters instead of the pastis rinse. This is a better balance. The Amere Sauvage, a "savage" gentian Alpine liqueur, is by far the most aggressive flavor but all of the others counter it well, each in its own way. (I would guess Suze would be a sub more likely to have on hand, but I'm unsure about whether/how the proportion would be adjusted for that.) I was thinking about vegetal herbaceous flavors that could be drawn out of the starter ingredients.
Thanks for the fun challenge!

Post in The Food Saver/Vacuum Sealer Topic, 2011 to Present
daveb posted a post in a topic,
This works Gooder. Much gooder. It's mine and I use it for larger events, food truck and catering. Don't use it much now that I have a chamber sealer but it is more portable and more robust than the chamber sealer. With a little gaming I've been able to seal a bag full of water (not frozen). It and other models like it are probably the best bang for the buck for sealers.
Now that I've have a chamber sealer (Vacmaster VP112) I would not be without one. Many sizes and types of bags available. Easy squeezy. It's worth the price difference for me but maybe not for everyone.