Abra

Beautiful crust, and a beautiful pot in which to bake it. Thanks for sharing your cassoulet adventure with us!

I can't resist this thread, since I'm an Actual Tourist Who Loves Granville Island. In fact, we're coming up next week (see my Dining Friends post) and we're staying at the Granville Island Hotel, as we did a couple of years ago, the last time we had a chance to come up to Vancouver. I'm totally in sympathy with the frustrations of local shoppers, but I can tell you that, as a tourist, the ability to wander out of the hotel in the morning and into the market to assemble breakfast from various stalls is the closest we can get to being in Europe. We take the train up from Seattle, so we have no parking problems, and even the slight funkiness and lack of gentrification adds to the character of GI, for us. The buskers? Even when pretty terrible? That's part of the experience too. Speaking totally as a tourist, that is.

Last night I made the Oven Roasted Eggs, which look gorgeous and the Herb Jam with Olives and Lemon, which is the least photogenic dish imagineable, although it's utterly delicious You can see it in the background, looking, well, green. As to the eggs, I think if you have a wood fire going for 5 hours they would be a great treat. However, for running the oven for 5 hours just for these eggs, we didn't think they were "special" enough. They had a faintly smoky, nutty flavor, but in a blindfolded test, I'm pretty sure they would be just identified as hard boiled eggs. If I had some other slow cooked dish in the oven all day, though, I'd stick some eggs in too, because they look fabulous.

Hi Nathan - I did slightly undercook the vegetables, but not too much, because I wanted them to caramelize and release their juices before they got into the pastry, so it wouldn't get soggy. The mustard was quite subtle, and mostly helped the bottom of the galette stay unsogged, but I liked the bit of flavor it added with the Cab. Same thing with the olives. They were there as a accent for the wine, primarily, as is the little extra Stilton. The melted-in Stilton served as an internal sauce, pulling the whole thing together. I probably used about 2 teaspoons per galette, so you can see that it wasn't a lot, but it provided a richness that was set off by the buttery crust really nicely. Let us know what you do, and how it turns out.

Sure, dockhl, you can see them upthread. Thanks for the compliments, Blue Heron. I have to admit, I think they're the bestest.

I'm glad to see that someone else loves his pressure cooker as much as I love mine. I'm not sure how I lived without it all those years. I'm going to be especially interested in the meats you use for the cassoulet. I can't find any of the traditional sausages, unless I buy them online, and I never know what to sub. Same problem with feijoada. Certain meats seem to be necesary but unobtainable.

Those are beautiful! Did you turn them as they baked, to achieve that round shape? Or is that a camera-angle illusion?

Great pictures, Ptipois. What's a wai?

I think it looks delicious, and I love the word floofy!

On the True Potato Confessions front, let me admit to a childhood love for cold, baked potato with honey and salt. I don't have it often now, but it's still good. Marlena, thank you so much for this great peek into your international kitchen. At first I too couldn't imagine a blog without pictures, but your word paintings are so vivid that I forgot to miss photos. And your enthusiasm for food is so contagious!

Wonderful and inspirational blog, Helen. I'll be trying some of your beautiful recipes for sure. Feel better soon!

I'd be willing to take exams if I could have some of those mochi! I'm puzzling over the sugar in the sukiyaki. Can you estimate how much sugar you ended up using?

I find it hilarious that a bread that takes more than 48 hours is billed as "no time!" Nonetheless, it looks good, and easy to make. Thanks, Jack.

Thank you for that chicken recipe - it looks scrumptious! I can hardly wait for some grapes that don't come from Chile, so I can try it. I have the simplest possible question. I always mentally pronounce your name in German (mar-lay-na) but it occurs that you might say mar-lee-na. Having a hard-to-pronounce name myself, I always like to get other peoples' names right. What say you?

Wow, Helen, this blog is a veritable treasure trove of Japanese home cooking! That an looks to be a total labor of love - so many steps, most of them demanding. My hat is off to you, especially now that I see your kitchen! I never imagined a stove in a corner like that. It's incredible how much beautiful food you produce in that tiny space. I want that congee right now. Like Marlena, I wouldn't be able to find any of those herbs here, so I'm happy to see some substitutes. And how nice to see your shishito peppers in the tempura. I got my CSA farmer grow some for me this past sumemr, but I didn't think to tempura them. And what a nice-looking husband you have. I think men look their best in front of a sink!

Sorry, that was sloppy terminology. It's more of a shrimp puree or mousse, like this It's Vietnamese, and I love it. I don't have any pandan extract, have never used it, but I know where to get it. Next time I'm over there I'll give it a whirl.

Marlena, blackberry season is always in August, and then it depends on the weather whether it's July/August, or August/September. Come on out and our great local group will show you a good time! Me too I first made bagels from that Sunset book. Those were the days before I'd ever had a wood oven baked bagel a la Montreal, so my standards were lower. But it was really fun, and I was inordinately proud of myself. I've recently acquired the Breadbaker's Apprentice, so I should try his and see how they compare.

Oh - I forgot to ask about the hartshorn. I was amazed to see your reference to it, as I thought it was only in general use in Scandinavian baking. The Japanese use it too?

Well, you know that shrimp paste on sugar cane? That's really delicious. I'm interested in the pandan bread, too. Do you think you make it with pandan extract? By infusing the leaves? Or what?

Wow, Marlena, you said two of the most eGulletish things I've ever seen on eGullet! That you wish you had TWO MOUTHS, and that you'd gotten a little pocket prosciutto for travel! I think you get the eG crown for those gems. Hey, if you have blackberry passion, you need to visit me too. Blackberries are a weed around here. This past summer I had a new garden helper, and I had to tell him to quit whacking all my blackberries because "around here they're a crop, not a pest!"

Thank you for those takoyaki! I never have a good plan for the octopus head, and I have an aebleskiver pan, which I think would work fine. The ten-kasu might be a problem, but I've never looked for it specifically. Now I will. Really, I didn't mean that you have to make anpan, just that I love it. I've never made it myself, only had the bought version. However, if you should happen to make it, I'll be glued to the screen. What am I saying, I'm already glued to your blog! Do the Japanese do anything with quince? I have a big bowlful that need to be transformed in some new way.

Hey, maybe you could also do them in an aebleskiver pan? That way they'd get some oil, but not so much. I'm another deepfry-ophobic, although those bitterballen and the olieballen might force me to get over that.

Ptipois, comme c'est aimable - je l'apprecie beaucoup! Those raisins look soft, as if they'd maybe been soaked a little, maybe in a bit of cinnamon water? In any case, it corresponds exactly with the "only a little cinnamon" injunction given by my friend. Evidently, many Thais detest cinnamon and refuse to eat it at all, which I find startling, since I never heard of anyone before who rejects cinnamon. I'll bake some bread today or tomorrow and post a picture, so you can have a virtual piece. I did get some of that fluffy pork, but for Austin's sake, I won't put it on his piece. Yum, I love toast with nam prik pow. Actually, I love anything with nam prik pow, even just a spoon.

Helen, why would people avoid the free sweet potatoes? Why does he give them away, anyway? It's completely endearing and incomprehensible, to me. As soon as you said an, thought an pan. I know it's really junk food, at least the version I can get here, but it's so yummy.

Just for blog-integration points, I have to say that the dried persimmon in Helenjp's blog (I love those things!) made me think how they would be great in Christmas pudding instead of citron, which I loathe and detest. Mac and cheese for dinner, sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Now there's unmitigated comfort food!