Smithy

i'm not usually much of a breakfast eater, but a friend offered to buy me breakfast this morning because I was driving us to a late morning event. So off we went to At Sara's Table at Chester Creek Cafe in Duluth, MN. For a full perusal of their offerings I recommend visiting their website. The main thing to know is that they focus on good food, locally grown where possible, organically grown (ditto), prepared to order. A sign near the entrance notes that "Good food takes time to prepare". That said, I think our plates were delivered about 15 minutes after we ordered. Here's a small selection of shots from their menus...and I do mean "small" selection because there's a lot to peruse. You can always skip down if you don't want to read them. "Peanut butter mocha" below brought me up short, but hey -- I didn't have to try it! Here is the section from which I ordered: I ordered the Florentine Eggs Benedict, and I'm glad I did. Normally those things called English Muffins make me flinch -- I don't like their flavor or texture -- but these had been grilled and crisped in such a way that they supported the stacked food and absorbed the sauces when cut and dredged through the sauces and egg yolk. This is how it arrived at the table: Look at the beautiful shape of those poached eggs! And I missed the fact when I ordered that the greens were both spinach and basil in a pesto form. The first bite informed me. It was inspired, I tell you. The sauce photo isn't quite as crisp as the as-plated photo, but I want you to see how it all blended together for dredging. My friend ordered eggs over easy and one of the locally-produced sausages, but I forgot to take a picture of his plate. We both had their house coffee (mocha java) without extras. The place has books all over ("available for adoption for a small fee!") and a relaxed vibe, though customers aren't encouraged to linger when the line is as long as it was today. I don't go out to eat often these days, but I think I'll have to make a point of visiting Sara's more often than once every 5 years.

@rotuts, I'm sorry but I'm not tracking your point #2. I realize I'm not @gfweb (nor do I object to Twang) but I'm curious what you're getting at here. Please explain?

I don't notice this difference with freshly opened jars, though I haven't tried comparing freshly opened jars side by side. What I have noticed, and it probably goes to the same point, is that Duke's sets up if I keep the jar past its recommended date. I know this from having stocked up on it once, some years back. When I got around to opening the final jar, perhaps a year (but not two) old), the contents hadn't dried out but had jelled or congealed in a way that it had surface cracks. Most peculiar. I couldn't taste the difference, but texture was different. I've never seen a jar of Hellman's do that, but I don't think I've ever opened a jar of Hellman's that I'd kept around that long.

I like it. I've been able to find it in Duluth from time to time at a reduced price also, but I notice that all the mayonnaise brands seem to be going up. I think Duke's and Hellman's are comparable flavors. i'll be interested to see what you think!

I think you might want this topic?

Did you make the varza murata salad? Can you say what goes into it that makes it different from German sauerkraut?

Blue corn masa?

Is that a layer of fat at the top? Did you have / use more fat than usual for this - for instance, more skin? If so, I'd be inclined to skim off the fat layer, keep it separate for flavor experiments (it might make fine schmaltz) and then save the lower layer in cubes as usual. If not, well, I'd still do a taste test for both layers before remixing.

Thanks for the compliment! I feel your pain...all that work and your fine gardening, and then having it be wiped out by the storms! I'm glad the nearby Amish community has tomatoes for you.

I got my last major haul of tomatoes and eggplants last weekend from my neighboring farmer. Today I faced facts: I wasn't going to get through all those tomatoes or eggplants before they went off. Time to get going on preservation. It just about killed me, though: those beautiful slicer tomatoes! I had too many, and I have some green ones as well waiting for me to fry them, so I had to slice them, roast them, and save them for later. (I kept out two fine-looking slicers, seen in the photo above, for the last-gasp-of-summer sandwiches: BLPT, or simply tomato and cheese. Believe me, I've been eating a lot of those!) The sliced tomatoes got the same treatment I wrote about here: scattered salt, a bit of white pepper, finely sliced shallot, and EVOO, then roasted at around 425 - 450F until a lot of the juices had been cooked out. It will all go into a container and placed in the freezer. It's cooling now. I may not have cooked the slices as much as in past attempts, but I want to see what happens if the slices aren't dried quite so thoroughly. I also bought 3 generous pints of cherry tomatoes from her, and today realized that I can't use them all before they go off. I saved some -- they're wonderful for snacks -- and roasted the rest more or less per @ElainaA's recipe for Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce. Finally, most of the Asian eggplants I bought from the same farmer became Preserved Eggplant per a recipe from Joshua McFadden's Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). For more discussion about this recipe, see here.

I decided to try some of my precious remaining Asian eggplants in his recipe for Preserved Eggplant. It's an easy recipe: peel the eggplant to the degree you can be bothered; slice; toss with salt; allow to drain; press to drain more; press to drain even more. (His steps are more elaborate, but this is the gist.) Eventually, blot the eggplant and toss with red wine vinegar, then load all into sterilized jars with smashed garlic, enough olive oil to cover, and a sprig of rosemary if you have it. Cap. Stick in the refrigerator. Wait at least a week to try it, but use it all within a month. I worry a little bit about having raw garlic in that anaerobic environment. Sure, there's vinegar. Sure, the garlic was peeled shortly before loading into the jar. Still. Is botulism likely under these circumstances and timelines? I remember having the same misgivings about a recipe from @FoodMan for Stuffed Chiles in Oil. I made the recipe, kept the chiles around, ate some, and eventually threw them away because I was afraid of poisoning myself or my darling. Nobody got sick, and I had been assured that it wouldn't happen, but my internal Food Police took away all the fun.

@blue_dolphin, my first thought was that you were so painstaking as to coil all those bits of pasta. It appears, from the TJ's website, that black pepper barilotti pasta comes coiled as in the photo. (Whew!) How was the texture? I can imagine something that thick becoming gummy.

I rarely buy frozen vegetables, but spinach is one I buy occasionally. I've never bought these brands, but I have to wonder whether Green Giant or Pict Sweet are necessarily safer.

The hits just keep on coming. Sno-Pack Organic Frozen Spinach and Del Mar Organic Frozen Chopped Spinach are both being recalled for Listeria contamination. Both products have been dsitributed nationwide in the United States. For details, see this article.

Can you elaborate on this, please? I see from the Red Boat web site that 40 degrees indicates the quantity of Nitrogen, which they say correlates to umami flavor. However, "degree" is not usually a quantity measurement in my book, except for angular measurements including latitude and longitude. When I search on "degrees of Nitrogen" I get information about freezing and boiling points, which isn't helpful in this case.

Last night's dinner was a chicken and cauliflower delight, based on this Melissa Clark recipe: Cauliflower Shawarma with Spicy Tahini. The spices are a blend of cumin, paprika, turmeric, coriander, salt and pepper, whisked into olive oil. Cut up cauliflower and red onion, toss them all with the spice mix. In my case I did the same with 4 chicken thighs. Roast all on a sheet pan at around 425F until done. Meanwhile, mix up some spicy tahini sauce, and cut up cucumbers and tomatoes for garnish. If I'd had any cilantro I'd have added that, but I'm out. Delicious. I said over here in the chicken topic that I'd be doing this soon. I'm glad I did it last night.

Something they said (I am NOT going back through the video) suggested that the flavor was good but the meat itself was too tough, or there wasn't enough of it, or something like that. As I recall they said it might make great broth because of its flavor. Would you say that's the main culinary usage for the silkies? With the meat as a side benefit so as not to waste it?

Fair enough about the title. In the video the speaker did say something more like 'every chicken breed we could get' which isn't the same thing as the title. What was the nonsense about silkies?

Grilled Eggplant with Tomatoes, Torn Croutons, and Lots of Herbs This doesn't look at all like the photo in the cookbook. A principal reason is that I'm not a food stylist. You're seeing what I plopped into my bowl, rather than the entire platter they show in the book. However, two other reasons are easily spotted: in their photo, the eggplants aren't cut into bite-sized pieces; and I forgot to have a lot of fresh herbs on hand to add! Still, this recipe is a winner even in my inept hands. Today is the first day of truly fall-ish weather up here and I was too cold to grill after an afternoon doing yardwork, so I followed his instructions for oven roasting the eggplant. The instructions worked perfectly. I've asked my local farmer to save me some more of these little eggplants, as well as more tomatoes. This recipe is another keeper.

Overall, I think your proposed procedure sounds well worth trying, and I'm going to try it myself with this wonderful-looking recipe. However, I have a question that may also occur to @tirgoddess: granted, the chicken will have been cooked, but it also will have been chilled. How would you suggest warming the chicken before putting it in that "very, very hot pan"? Allow to come up to room temperature? Put the sous vide package into a warm water bath before the final prep stage? Of course, this all assumes that @tirgoddess has access to sous vide equipment. In case that isn't true, I hope others will weigh in on non-sous-vide techniques. Edited to add: in reviewing the topic, I see @AlaMoi had a non-sous-vide suggestion above. Sorry, didn't mean to ignore that post!

After months -- maybe a year or more? -- of not making hummus or tabbouli due to a mental burnout, I got back to it yesterday and today. The impetus for the hummus was a half-can of cooked chickpeas sitting in the refrigerator. I hadn't frozen them and was afraid that they'd start going off as had a bunch of other stuff in the refrigerator. I was too lazy to dig out a food processor or blender, so tried mashing them by hand. With a fork. And then stirring in tahini, water, and lemon juice with some salt until I thought I had it about right. I am AMAZED at how much those little devils swelled up; what began as a cup or less of cooked chickpeas became more than a pint of hummus. And no, it isn't as smooth as if I'd used a food processor, but it's just fine. The tabbouli -- well, I confess to having bought several bunches of parsley and cilantro and keeping it too long. This time, I used it before it could go off. The mint came from my garden. I could thin that hummus even more, but I'm pretty happy with it as it is. And I'm happy scooping it all with Tostitos Scoops. It's late afternoon. This may be dinner as well as lunch.

I will never again forget the smell of rotting potatoes.* I've spent the last week looking around and sniffing and trying to work out the source and location of that foul odor. WHAT had the dog or cat brought in? Where was it hiding? Just now I finally recognized the stench, found the culprits and put them outside. On the plus side: a lot of the surrounding household is now washed or scrubbed. *(Alas, I have smelled this before, so "never again" may not apply here.)

@liuzhou (or @KennethT) that roast goose skin looks lacquered and yet collapsed, as though the interior meat had disappeared after the skin was lacquered. You both have experience with that style of goose cookery and seem to like it. Can you describe it in more detail?

Well. It's only taken me about 6 years since I first bought this book to try a recipe from it, but today was the day after yesterday's farmers' market score. I cooked the Rainbow Chard with Garlic and Jalapenos, although the chile I used was a red thing whose name I can't remember. My result looks nothing like what they show, because of the way I sliced things and because I served it over rice instead of over crusty bread, but the dish is delicious! It's an easy dish to cook: it takes as much time to chop and slice everything as it does to actually cook it. The recipe says that the dish is best if allowed to sit a couple of hours for the flavors to meld, but I was too impatient. I'm glad I only used one of the chiles I bought yesterday; this has just the right amount of heat for me. Right after I mixed the rice and vegetables and took a taste, I realized it needed crunch to suit me. I added slivered almonds. The recipe is a keeper. It's easy for me to forget about Kindle cookbooks because I can't trip over them, but I'll keep this one out and available for a while.

I hadn't visited the local farmers' market this summer until yesterday; its location isn't convenient for me. Yesterday, I decided to detour that way in hopes of scoring tomatoes. It's been unseasonably warm this year, and my visit paid off...in spades. I found the tomatoes I wanted. While I was at it, I picked up rainbow chard, Asian eggplants, 2 types of garlic, and some chiles that were thrown in for good measure. I've forgotten the chile variety, but my friend said they're on the hot side...not Scotch Bonnet or Ghost Pepper level, but assertive. The garlic varieties are Chesnok Red (upper right) and German Extra Hardy. While I was there, I established that the market will be open for the rest of the month. A new (to me) vendor offers beef and chicken. I didn't buy any yesterday -- really, I'm out of freezer space! -- but will probably buy a couple of chickens later this month. As @blue_dolphin has noted elsewhere, the farmers deserve our support when we can afford to support them. I didn't ask what variety of chickens they raise.