ludja

There are some things that I only make one season of the year. Usually this is driven by the availability of seasonal and when possible, local, ingredients at their cheapest and best but it also has to do with the flavors that I wait for and associate with a particular time of year. (I love BLT’s but my anticipation for them is only re-stoked each year as I wait for the best tomatoes!) Some dishes work with frozen, canned or out of season produce but others just don't. Please share of few of your top choices for dishes that you save for each season! I thought of this after seeing this thread on stuffed peppers. I make my sauce from fresh tomatoes for version of this dish so I typically make them in late summer and early fall. Spring: Spring salmon salad with asparagus, fava beans and spring onions Artichoke Tart Strawberry shortcake with cream biscuits (later spring; here in CA) Pineapple Sorbet Summer: Grilled chicken (ok, I have a long grilling season here, but this is when I’m grilling chicken very often.) Ratatouille Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches Fresh cherries served with triple crème cheese blackberry cobbler or raspberry and peach cobbler Fall: Stuffed peppers and tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes (early fall) Fig tart (early fall) Winter: Sauerbraten (the recent thread here reminded me of this) Turkey in Red Mole Sauce Grapefruit sorbet garnished with pomegranates

Sounds like an interesting variation, Henry dV. Stuffed peppers are something I look forward to making and eating in Aug-Oct; abundant and good quality peppers and tomatoes then. So for me, they are really a seasonal dish. If I made ithem another time of year I would definately used canned tomatoes to make the sauce.

If you have time and transportation, consider Allen and Son's Barbeque outside of Chapel Hill. One of the few places that still bbq's over wood. A friend was recently back in Chapel Hill and said the bbq was as excellent as ever. (He brought a cooler of it back out west.) I would suggest the platter with slaw and hushpuppies or a couple of bbq sandwiches--lovely pork and slaw on a soft bun. I'm not as familiar with bbq places in Durham so hopefully others will chime in if they think there are options in Durham.

Well, I love mayo with room temperature cooked chicken and turkey but that doesn't help with the lower calorie aspect... How about mustard and plain yogurt? I might add in a little mayo in there for texture and flavor. Lemon and black pepper might also be nice. Anyway, some type of mustardy type sauce might work. Please report back on successful combinations and good luck with retooling some of your eating habits! Besides thinking of "dipping sauces" you could use the chicken in nice composed salads on top of greens or not. The same dressing/sauce/vinaigrette can be use to dress everything in the salad so that cuts down on calories on a separate sauce for the chicken and get additional vegetables easily into the action!

This is a wonderful menu; chocolate and pears are a nice combination! How did your wife like the meal? You should be having some fun this week coming up with ingredients for her. Have you decided on them yet? edited to add: I'm not a pro on posting photos, but since you have already loaded the photos into imagegullet it should be simple The way to easily do this is in the section of the post where you want the photos, click on the "IMG" tool listed above the message (other tools are "B" for bolding, "I" for italicization, etc). You will be prompted for the URL to your jpg photo loaded into image gullet. I'm less familiar on sizing issues but you should be able to make your images a little bit larger in whatever photo/image processing program you use. If you've surpassed the 24 hr window for editing your original post with the jpg links in them you can just place them in a new post.

I'm picky about how fruit is incoporated into a savory dish but I might lean more towards used an uncooked fruit salsa to garnish the fish with after it's cooked. One combination is mango, lime, cilantro and chile; I'd consider something similar with pineapple as well. (I need the lime, cilantro and chile as a counterpoint to the sweetness of the fruit; maybe a little grated red onion as well.) Another idea would be think of Sicilian or Greek flavors--a salsa of oranges, black olives, lemon and olive. I've had some nice fish entrees garnished with olives as well. They add a lot of flavor so you don't need many of them. Chopped olives incorpated into a compound butter are wonderful; another lower fat option would be an olive and tomato-type salsa. I could probably eat simply broiled fish with chimichurri sauce every week. Bright, intense flavors mean that you don't need lots of sauce if you're trying to minimize calories. I think a preserved lemon would be nice as well. Maybe just chopped up and served as is or maybe a component of another type of salsa/sauce. I think preserved lemon and tomato would be great. For some reason I'm also thinking of Greek preparations and flavors. I am not so familiar to make suggestions but this may be another avenue to explore. The packet idea might also work nicelly with adding some sliced potatoes, lemon, oregano and little olive oil. The added "fat" in the olive oil then does double duty in flavoring the fish and potatoes.

Carolyn Tillie's comments from her Discovering San Francisco thread on a recent lunch at Canteen

Any comment on your accomodations, Jerry_A? We're looking at options right now so it would be great to hear your feedback. The city is pretty compact and has good public transportation so I think it is difficult to go too wrong with respect to location and access to good food. Nevertheless, if you were going back which areas would you choose to stay in? Thanks in advance!

click

I haven't made a taste comparision side by side by making your own mascarpone cheese is definately cheaper and it tastes great. I use a recipe that Luchetti gives in "Star's Desserts". And yes, on the salad dressings; I can't remember the last time I bought a bottled dressing.

Thanks for the wonderful report, Jerry_A! I have alot of questions and comments but thank you first for mentioning some of the places you had"belegte broetchen" or open face sandwiches... Meinl am Graben, Trzesniewski and Duran. My mom has brought back some Zotter Chocolates and you can actually order them from the linked website. The variety of flavors are quite interesting. So far I've had a few 70% dark chocolate bars: "Weisser Mohn mit Zimt" (white poppyseed with cinnamon) "Sweet Chestnut" "Pumpkin Seeds with Marzipan" Gruener Veltliner Wine with Pepper"

^I've heard good things from a friend regarding Jaffrey's "World Vegetarian" cookbook. Not a big surprise that it is good given Jaffrey's trackrecord but the friend said he was really cooking out of it a lot! I picked up an interesting book at a library booksale yesterday: Cuisines of Europe by Tony Schmaeling (1985). Despite the fact it covers so many countries which might lead one to expect less in some ways, it seems to have a really interesting collection of traditional recipes. I'm relatively familiar with dishes from Germany,Austria, Switzerland and Hungary and have quite a few cookbooks from each country but there were unique dishes that I'd not seen in other books. The author grew up in Poland and then became a restauranteur in Australia. The book is out of print and I did not see any Amazon reviews although there are used copies available.

I've been trying to think of a non-shellfish appetizer in case you were interested in that. (I can never have too much crab, oysters or shrimp though and people have already given some great suggestions in that area.) This uses New Orleans ingredients but is not a classic dish-- mushrooms stuffed with a tasso filling? This could perhaps be served on some mixed greens dressed with a vinaigrette as a first course salad. Stuffed vegetables are very popular in New Orleans (mirlitons (or chayote) stuffed with shrimp, for example and tasso is smoked pork/ham from LA.) You should be able to mail order tasso or may be able to find a suitable substitute in Seattle. New Orleans has many famous egg dishes as well. They are typically served at brunch but you may be able to get some ideas for a first course variant by looking at famous New Orleans egg dishes. Another great New Orlean's 'foodstuff" is the olive salad served on muffuletta sandwiches. Maybe you could make a deconstructed muffuletta first course. Bruschetta with white bean puree and topped with a mufuletta topping; heavier on the ratio of olive salad to that of meats and cheese to make it a bit lighter. Deconstructed further you could make a muffuletta antipasta platter--olive salad, mortadella, ham, salami, provolone and mozzarella cheese. These could be self serve from a large platter or plated up individually with some dressed greens and some crostini. The crispy fried chicken livers that Mayhaw Man suggested would be great over a green salad or blackeyed-pea salad dressed with vinagrette. Deglaze the pan used to cook the livers and add that to the vinaigrette as well. Adding some spice to the flour used to dredge the livers would add a kick. edited to add: Another ingredient to think about for using in a first course is catfish-grilled, broiled or fried. Serve on garlicky white beans with a topping of remoulade sauce or olive salad? Or a small, crispy serving of catfish on top of a non-mayo vinegar type slaw. Serve with a dollap of spicy remoulade sauce. There are lots of directions one could pursue. All this discussion of remoulade makes me think of a simple fisrt course of steamed asparagus or artichokes with a remoulade-inspired sauce.

I dont think I've ever had a quince before. I'd like to hear some nice uses, as there are a couple hanging on the tree still. In the house, I found the smell of the fruit odd - up close lovely tart and fruity like passionfruit, but when just passing by, it smelled like the cat had made a statement. ... ← Well, I'm a catlover but I don't think I recall them smelling that way! There are, I think, some quince bushes that are more ornamental in nature. (I can't tell you more than that.) So, perhaps there are different kinds. The quince I've bought look are about the size of large apples. The one key think to know about quinces is that they can not be eaten raw. Their flavor and texture are completely transformed upon cooking. Anyway, here is a nice discussion we had on quince awhile back: click A apples and quince are a classic combination so one "infro" recipe may be to make an apple and quince pie or tart. (maybe with apples: quince 2:1)

Good review; thanks for sharing your thoughts. They do add a few different twists in there but because I have a decent collection of Southern cookbooks the twists are not a negative for me. For many of the recipes I have alternate versiions. Also, although sometimes anachronistic tweaks can bother me, there is just something about their approach and the overall book that makes it still work for me. Partly, it's because I'm a little familiar with some of the more traditional versions and partley some of their tweaks sound interesting without being over the top. I like most of Fowler's books and do have New Southern Cooking. My feeling for that book is "medium" although I am happy to have it as part of my collection. I think your point on the types of recipes in The Lee Bros. Cookbook is also a good one; a mix of "high" and "low or Sunday versions vs during the week fare as they sometimes mention. If I was going to recommned one Southern cookbook for someone to start off with right now it might be the Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock book. Lovely photos, explanations and background and a great selection of dishes. For similar reasons, I agree with your endorsement of The Lee Bros Cookbook, but I appreciate having a background in the more traditional ways. Bill Neal's books were what started my interest in Southern Cooking and they are treasured by me. I'd recommend them to anyone interested in Southern cooking especially those with an interest in classical dishes. (There are no photos and a more unique selection of dishes which is why I might not recommend them as a first Southern cookbook depending on the person.)

Some great ideas; thanks! This recipe can be simple enough for every day or else dressed up for a more elaborate meal: poached salmon salad. Serve it with some nice buttered bread for a light meal. Poach salmon (full treatment, court boulliion with some wine, etc; for a weekday if I don't have some white wine open I'll use some lemon juice, onion, carrot and parsley.) While the salmon is cooking, par boil some spring vegetables--asparagus, peas and green onions; let cool to room temp. Make a vinaigrette--wine vinegar, olive oil, shallots, s&p; finely chopped cucumber is a nice addition. Dress some salad greens with half of the vinaigrette; use other half to dress vegetables and toss together with greens. Break salmon into pieces and serve on top. This is adapted from a recipe by Paul Bertolli in Chez Panisse Cooking. You can very the vegetables used in the salad depending on the season and can use salmon that has been poached the day before so it can be very quick. (It also makes a beautiful first course for a more elegant meal; I've used it at Easter a few times.)

Hi Jerry_A! Anything interesting to report back from your trip? I"m gearing up my plans for a trip to Vienna this summer and was looking over this thread. Hope your dining in Vienna went well!

^Thanks, hzrt8w... I thought so but I wasn't completely sure. It's off the main topic, but are pork bits a standard ingredient in turnip cake? From the packages of taro cake shown above I guess I should be able to buy pre-made turnip cake at a Chinese market. Also, does anyone have the Cantonese word that would work to use when ordering in a dim sum place? Thanks in advance....

My sister who developed pretty severe intolerance to cow's milk as an adult--she studiously avoids any product with even some powdered milk in it to avoid symptons--does fine with goat milk. This has been a blessing in terms of being able to still enjoy goat and sheep cheeses and sheep's milk ricotta.

I can't remember if my 'regular' supermarket out here carries it but Trader Joes does. I typically just use it making cajeta (delicious) as docsconz mentioned but maybe I should try tasting it more on it's own. (Pretty cute story, StanSherman!)

^ooh.. That brings up the whole category of Bavarian Creams which can be used in Charlotte Russe as suzilightning just mentioned but which are also nice on their own or served with some fruit or fruit sauce. Rum, vanilla, chocolate, mocha, or any number of fruit Bavarian Creams with pureed fruit folded in (bananas or berries or peaches or apricots...)

Taro and turnip cakes are just that - cakes/goh. They are not ingredients to be cooked into another dish. It accompanies other dishes - as part of dim sum or as a snack. There are so many flavours in these cakes : doong goo, lap cheung, har mai, some even put in oyster sauce and cooking wine. If you try to "stir-fry it in with other ingredients, it would just crumble. ← Sorry for an ignorant question--but I like getting turnip cake as a dim sum dish. It's usually served in squares or rectangles and seems to be slightlly browned; a little crispy on the top and bottom. I think there is usually little bits of pork in it. I usually eat it with a combination of soy sauce and hot chile paste. Is this one of the cakes you mention above, if so, which one? (Sometimes it's not brought to our table for dim sum and I have to ask for it so it would be handy to know the Chinese name. Thanks, in advance!) Also, should I be able to buy it such that all I need to do at home is slice and pan sear?

Lower calories... I think some people get used to lower fat milk too at some point and then may find 'regular" milk very rich. You guys go through the milk with your boys! Although I drank milk with all meals when I was growing up I never put it down like some of my male friends when they were kids and teenagers.

I once asked for pork belly at a Whole Foods and the guys working behind the counter (I guess I won't call them butchers) had no idea what I was talking about. They gave me a phone number to call back and speak with their boss if I wanted to. edited to add: Sorry you lost your butcher and good luck with your search; it may be a ways off but you should be able to find something with Atlanta at your disposal. This scene is being played out in so many places across the U.S. My parent's are down to one German butcher where they live in central CT; down from 6 or 7 in the 70's. But I guess this is a another thread topic...

Is it this one in Tempe? click Have you ever been?