Smithy

I haven't tried blanching the broccoli, but I agree that a bit of olive oil and then roasting is good. I do that with cauliflower and slices of ripe bell pepper too. I'll try blanching the broccoli first next time around. Thanks for the pointer.

That's an interesting distinction. The Hellman's I wrote about above came from a squeeze bottle rather than a jar. I'll have to look at the ingredient lists on both the jar and the bottle. Maybe there's a difference?

I may be speaking out of turn, since I'm not rotuts, but I took this to mean that (a) you'd have another opportunity to enjoy those fine restaurant chiles rellenos and (b) with a photo, we might collectively see the difference between the TJ's version and the restaurant version and come up with a better preparation of the TJ's product. If I'm mistaken, I hope @rotuts will clarify his meaning.

@Maison Rustique mentioned her fear that she sounded like a broken record in the Dinner topic. I'll second that, for myself, in the Lunch topic. But I'm going to go right ahead and celebrate this seasonal joy anyway. Rotisserie chicken, a delectable slice doled out from my final-of-the-season farmers' market tomato, pickle, lettuce, all on toasted sourdough bread. All that stack made it a bit of a Dagwood sandwich, and I had to eat it carefully as it dripped over my plate, but oh what a treat! I'll be sorry when that tomato is gone.

Bumping this up because over here (including many surrounding posts) we've been discussing Duke's vs. Hellman's. I tried them side-by-side today, since I was finishing one jar and opening one of the other type. First, let's look at the ingredient lists. Hellman's: Duke's: Comparable, but not quite the same. (Has Hellman's always included sugar without my realizing it?) They use different acids -- Duke's two types of vinegar vs. Hellman's lemon juice concentrate -- and Duke's uses only egg yolks. Hellman's lists water as the 2nd ingredient, not the 3rd as Duke's does. Before reading the ingredient lists, I tasted them side by side two ways: first, with a little dab in a spoon and second, with a dab on a piece of chicken. To me, the Duke's tasted...cleaner, for want of a better word. There was a hint of something "off" with the Hellman's, maybe verging on rancidity. The Hellman's was older, and that might account for the flavor. Or maybe it's really the ingredients. Would I notice the difference in a sandwich, if nobody told me? Probably not. Do I have a preference? At this point, I prefer Duke's but I'll take Hellman's if I need to. Okay, who's next? Give us your tasting notes! And it doesn't just have to be Duke's vs. Hellman's.

Another BLPT sandwich, this time with C added as well. Another precious slice of my last-of-the-year farmers' market tomatoes gone. Another 2 slices of my oven-baked bacon, gone. By the time the bacon had been heated adequately atop the dressed bread and the cheese, the cheese had melted more than I'd have preferred. That was all right, though: I just let it cool slightly to solidify, and then I could pick up the whole thing. Messy. Juicy. Delicious. Filling.

@Victual Vignettes, I think you can see from the posts above that there are many, many seasoning and flavor methods in a standard braise... and I suspect that @rotuts has the right of it: grass-fed beef will behave differently than grain-finished beef. Let us know more about what you've done in the past, and maybe post some photos of the beef you're working with now.

I think you're using the right equipment. The Staub Dutch Oven has good thermal mass, and that's what you want although I don't think it has to be Staub. I've had good results with other brands of heavy cooking equipment, and even with glass Pyrex baking dishes and aluminum foil in a pinch. My basic procedure for beef short ribs is: rinse the ribs, pat them dry, and coat with the seasoning (rub) of your choice; brown on stovetop in fat of your choice (I generally use olive oil); add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan, and come up maybe a quarter of the way, no more than halfway, up the side of the ribs; cover and put into a low oven temperature (225F to 275F); walk away and leave them for 1.5 - 2 hours, then check; you're looking for the meat to be tender enough to remove the bones; remove the meat from the juice, let it cool enough to remove the bones, and set it aside; defat the sauce; make gravy from the sauce if you wish (here's where I would add wine); reduce sauce to the thickness you want; reheat the rib meat in the sauce; serve and enjoy. I haven't cooked short ribs since December 2023, but this post shows the steps and the results. The pan used isn't an enameled cast iron because I didn't have one available, but it was the biggest Dutch oven that I had, and it worked well despite its light weight. Some notes: @Margaret Pilgrim, in this post, recommended a French Laundry - inspired recipe with video. She cautioned that the volume is very loud, so be prepared to turn it down. This is considerably more elaborate than what I do, and probably orders of magnitude more flavorful. In an eGCI lab on braising, long long ago, some people reported having good success with stovetop braising so they can monitor the progress of the braise and be sure that the liquid is at the lowest possible simmer. It's never worked as well for me, whether I used an electric stove / oven or gas stove / oven, so I've always stuck with oven braising for best tenderness. YMMV. For all the detailed experiments and discussion on the braising seminar, search the eGCI for "braising" or "The Truth About Braising". It was a week-long seminar, followed by Q&A, and it's where I first learned about braising and fell in love with the method. The introduction is here. Some people found that browning beforehand helped; others didn't. Some found that the braising liquid mattered; some didn't. So my method listed above works for me but isn't the do-all and be-all. See my first note about Margaret's method! Finally: I've never tried braising grass-fed beef ribs, and don't know what the marbling is like. If that meat is very lean, you may have to adjust methods. I've listed what I do with grocery-store ribs. Maybe someone else can help with the grass-fed aspect. My guess, based on your "stringy and not very flavorful" results, is that you're overcooking them and maybe not seasoning them properly at the outset.

I had to look up ajvar. Grilled red peppers and eggplant sounds like a good combination that I've seen under other names. Do you make your own? If so, is the Serious Eats link I put in here close to what you do?

@AlaMoi, opening the oven multiple times for misting may result in more heat loss than you'd want. Another option to consider is placing a pan on another shelf and letting it preheat; when you put the dough in, throw either a cup of water or several ice cubes into the preheated pan. I don't remember whether the water or the ice cubes worked better for me, but they helped with oven spring.

This was originally going to be a fattoush: toasted bread broken up, laid as the bed for torn lettuce, tomato, hard boiled egg, with my current batch of dressing. But I wanted hummus on that tiast, so kept the bread whole. Open-faced toasted sandwich with hummus, salad atop it. This tomato is from the very last of the excellent locally-grown tomatoes I can get here for the season. I'll be sorry to see it go, but I'll celebrate it while I can. It turns out that the hummus plays very well with the salad dressing. I've added some hummus to the mix. It looks too goopy to honor with a photo, but that doesn't stop its being delicious!

The guiding idea for this tabbouli is from Balaboosta (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), written by Einat Admony, a restaurateur / writer / cook in Manhattan. Her proportions are 1 c bulgur (before soaking), 1 c each cilantro and parsley, and 1/4 c mint, with the tomatoes, onions and dressings thrown in. That said, she herself writes in the book: Last night I was busily using as much of the herbs as I had available, and flying by the seat of my pants -- that is, no cookbook. And to @rotuts' point, I like the bulgur for its texture and ability to absorb and show off the tangy dressing. So I suppose you could say my version is from Northern Minnesota.

Oh, the La Chamba pot! I look forward to reading more about it! And the salsa: chile and peanut may be marvelous!

So many beautiful dinners and spreads show up on this topic! But then, here I am: I needed to use the herbs before they went off, and by the time I'd finished making tabbouli I wasn't very hungry. I post this to show that non-fancy dinners are also welcome here. Tabbouli in Tostitos Scoops, sometimes supplemented with hummus (yesterday's culinary achievement). Not fancy, but delicious and filling. And the dishwasher is now taking care of yesterday's and today's dishes.

Thanks for the link. I'd forgotten about that website, but I shouldn't have. There are some good recipes and writing in there.