redfox

Nothing but a gigantic steamed artichoke apiece, with garlic mayonnaise. And damn good, too!

Very lazy/tired tonight, and an evening of coffee + work ahead of me, too. So tonight was an exercise in very quick and simple cooking, with no effort to be anything like ethnically coherent: Simmered choy sum with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of roasted sesame oil Stewed beans and garlic tossed with mozzarella cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and parsley, accompanied by crispy flatbread-type crackers Ginger cookies for dessert It probably took me about 15 minutes of active time, if that. The beans were homemade from dried (hooray for the happy no-soak method!), but left over, so I just heated them through and then tossed them together with the other ingredients. Everything was entirely satisfying, if not the height of culinary glory, so the quality-to-work ratio was definitely to my liking.

Hot diggety! That's awesome. Where was this splendid Pathmark of coffee-syrup-havingness?

I'm from Pittsburgh, but I don't live there now. I'd love to see more about current Pgh. food offerings here -- after all, I do go home to visit every once in a while! Unfortunately, when I'm visiting we usually eat at my mother's place (not unfortunate at all) and only go out with my culinarily unadventurous other relatives (the unfortunate part). I think we have gone to the same, quite pleasant but getting monotonous, Middle Eastern place in Squirrel Hill the last six times in a row now.

I certainly have taken my trusty Moka pot and stovetop bullet steamer on many, many, many a camping trip. Survival is simply not possible without good coffee, I think.

I'm not someone who does put it on pancakes, I just thought it sounded like a nice idea. I don't think I've ever tasted it straight! I can well imagine that it's too sweet or otherwise too... something. But wouldn't coffee syrup that was made appropriately to go on pancakes be good? (Maybe I'm just crazy.)

One thing I don't like about Adega is their coffee. Yes, yes, I know it's a wine place, but they offer coffee, and they're called a cafe, and their coffee is wretched and they have no milk or cream, only coffee whitener. Grump.

Too tired to get the pictures off the camera right now, but tonight I made a really successful improvised Middle Easterny stew kind of thing by dicing an eggplant and popping it in the oven to roast for a bit while I sauteed onion in olive oil with some berbere. Eggplant, red peppers and two quarters of chopped preserved lemon into the pan, sauteed, added a bit of water, covered, let cook. Stirred in about a cup of leftover cooked beans, heated through. Wonderful spicy lemony savory vegetable-y goodness, fantastic with a crisp salad that included a bunch of crumbled fresh cheese.

I love El Golfo! Not only is the food good (and very affordable), the manager (owner?) and everyone else are really sweet and lovely. We are extra lucky in that it is a lazy tiny walk away for us. I grew up in Pittsburgh too, but didn't ever really partake particularly of fantastic Italian restaurants back then -- mainly, I'm sure, because we didn't eat out much when I was a kid, being po'. What places/neighborhoods are you thinking of, JPW? (Feel free to PM me if you want, since this is totally off topic.)

It's just a different thing, balmagowry -- like making chocolate milk with Fox's U-Bet, only coffee. Edited to add that (a) one thing you could wish for is that it taste less like ick, ick, plain MILK, which I bet your childhood treat was awfully like; and (b) I am suddenly imagining pancakes or waffles with coffee syrup and thinking it would be fantastic.

Oh man, yaki miso furikake sounds great! Was it vegetarian? (I don't even know why I'm asking, since if it was, that will just fuel my sadness at never having any while it existed.)

At New England Cheesemaking Supply, you can get as little as $7 worth of rennet. I can't imagine you could get a smaller amount at any brick-and-mortar store. You might try calling the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Co-op, though, if you're hankering to just get your hands on some in person, quickly. I don't know that they have any, but it seems possible.

I'm not from Rhode Island, but I went to school there. I love, love, love coffee milk! I failed to pick up a bottle of syrup last time I was in Providence, too. Foolish me.

A salad of cranberry beans tossed with garlic, scallions, roasted red peppers, olive oil and sherry vinegar. A "lasagne" (no noodles) with spinach, roasted eggplant, and three kinds of cheese. This last one turned out surprisingly well, and there are lots of leftovers, hooray!

And now I have made the mistake of looking at Rancho Gordo's wonderful heirloom beans and setting myself up for unfulfillable cravings. How I wish I still lived in the Bay Area! I WANT.

Please do and report back! I think it will wind up taking no more time than your quick soak + pressure cooking, and with even less fuss.

Ah, I was doing it covered, so of course less water left via evaporation.

Yeah, but you also have a higher proportion of water to beans, which probably makes a difference. I was pretty skeptical about using that little salt, myself. I love salt! But I thought the end result was pretty much ideal. I thought I probably could have gotten away with using less water than that too, by the way.

I was going to be intensely lazy and make just a simple green salad and some frozen pizza from American Flatbread, but then I read the dried beans thread and was INSPIRED. So instead we are having the same green salad, but accompanied by a lovely bowl of beautiful cranberry beans dressed with chopped scallions, parsley and lemon, and some nice crispy crackers. The beans are seriously fantastic, creamy and not at all mushy. Also, with the clever method espoused in said thread (and which Rachel has been shouting from the rooftops) it was actually no more work than heating up a pizza. Now that's saying something. Now I'm really especially eager for my preserved lemons to finish preserving, because I think they will be super great with these beans. Mm.

Insipired by Rachel's raves, I made a batch today myself, and it is lovely! I brought 4 cups of water to a boil in my smaller Le Crueset, added half a pound of picked and rinsed cranberry beans, about 3/4 t. salt, a bay leaf and a few smashed cloves of garlic. Back up to a simmer, on with the lid and into the oven -- my oven runs cold, so I set it to 300 which I think did give me an actual temperature of 250 (my thermometer is busted). But 1 hour was definitely not nearly enough time for these guys. Maybe they are old, maybe cranberries are slow cookers? BUT after about an hour and forty-five minutes, they were ready and so good! Really delicious, ideally salted, keeping their shape very well but with absolutely no unwanted crunch. Creamy and firm, both. Edited to add: And we're using your preparation with the scallions and lemon tonight, Marie Louise. Once again, eGullet saves the day.

No advice, just whining: It seems like genuinely nowhere delivers to Takoma Park. Wah! Now I will shut up and let other, cleverer and kinder people actually be helpful.

Konnyaku noodles simmered in broth, with scallions and slivered carrots. I liked them, but something was missing from my preparation, somehow. I think maybe I would like them better with a higher broth-to-noodle ratio, and with the noodles cut into shorter pieces. Crispy tofu with sambal olek, green beans, ginger, and sesame. Good, and the freshness of the tofu was noticable. Pieces of dark chocolate studded with citrus peel for dessert. This was purchased in a moment of severe weakness, at an Aveda salon, of all places. It contains essential oils of various things and the pieces of citrus peel are wonderfully chewy. It promises to provide me with "intelligent nutrition deliciously delivered through organic chocolate" and instructs me to "enjoy entire bar for personal inner calmness." The chocolate itself is good though not fantastic, and the combination of flavors and textures is definitely a success. They charge a steep premium for the inner peace, though, so I am feeling compelled to consume it in very small portions over several days. I am like Charlie of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame, only without the grandparents and with micronutrient aromatherapy.

Maybe mangosteen? God knows I would surely like to get to taste one, myself.

Mmmm. That looks great, Jason. I want! I miss noodles. Soon I will be visiting my best friend while my diabetic partner toils away at home, and I will be sure to eat many, many noodles. Also potatoes. We had a nice big frittata with asparagus, shallots, and ricotta, accompanied by a big pile of gai-lan. It was a little bit like having asparagus with a side of asparagus, but hey, that's not such a hardship.

Maple syrup is quite good with yogurt, I think.