Smithy

What a lovely send-off. Thank you for that link, @SLB!

In the United States we have a lot of "convenience foods" packaged in the grocery store freezers. They're ready to take home and cook, either in a conventional oven or in a microwave oven. Some packages also include instructions for cooking in a "toaster oven" which is considerably smaller than a conventional oven. I've never seen any come with steam oven instructions, but since I don't buy these things my casual survey may have missed a new option. I think steam ovens are still relatively rare for the home cook in this country, although this topic will show that they're catching on! Is this the sort of thing you mean? You'd have to work out a cost-effective way of producing them, and I hope you'd also find a reusable package. The waste from these is one reason I don't buy them. (Another is that I tend to cook from scratch, as do the other participants in this topic so far.)

IMBC, perhaps?

I think it's pretty funny, and I am the most casual of gardeners, so it doesn't take much gardening knowledge to appreciate it. Ah, those Blenheims! The last time I managed to lay my hands on some - I spent most of the summer in the San Joaquin Valley that year - I got a load of those lovely fruits. If you haven't tried making semifreddo with them, I recommend giving it a try. I got the idea from a Fine Cooking magazine, issue 124. Here's a link to their current article about it, complete with video: How to Make Semifreddo. In rereading the recipe I see they say not to use fresh apricots. I don't recall minding the "icy texture" one bit when I used the puree.

Wow, that's a lot of produce! Are you indicating that that was a Sunday leftovers haul? Next question: any idea what type of apricots those are in the bottom photo? Whether or not you know the variety, please describe them. They look soft, juicy and fragile - like the type I grew up with in California, and unlike what I see in grocery stores. I'm fantasizing here - but if you burst my fantasy bubble, I'll survive.

Welcome!

I hear you with regard to smoke in the house! Anything smoky or grease-spatteringly messy happens outside around here. In my (limited) experience, soot like that suggests that the burners aren't burning cleanly. Is there any way to clean the burners - say, make sure the ports are clear? I'm not sure I'd know how to do it with our gas grill, but we have a lot of tinkerers on the forum (@dcarch, are you listening?) who may be able to help. Another possibility is to use a pan that you don't mind getting and leaving sooty for the season. We have one dedicated to outdoor work that hangs on the outside wall. A variation on that would be to put a griddle atop the burners and let it be the one to get sooty, then put the pan atop the griddle. The pan shouldn't get smoky then. I don't think the heat transfer would be as good with that setup, though.

@JoNorvelleWalker, that steak really does look delightful. How thick was it? How did you cook it?

Further to the egg question: @JAZ's Instant Pot Obsession cookbook has a recipe for soft-boiled eggs. This may be closer to what you want? It says to use refrigerator-temperature eggs, put them on a basket above 1 cup of water (remember, you're steaming, not boiling them) and: The ice bath is just for about 30 seconds, so you can handle the eggs. The book also has a recipe for potato salad in which you cook the eggs and the potatoes together in the IP. 2" size red potatoes, quartered, share the steamer basket with the eggs. Put 1 cup water in the pot; select Steam / High; cook 4 minutes and then quick release. Again there's an ice bath for the eggs. I hope this all helps. Let us know what you do, and how it comes out! I may go make some potato salad myself on this fine sunny day.

I haven't tried it myself, so I'm just giving you book-learning. Maybe someone with experience will post, but time's a-wasting for your day's potato salad. The Instant Pot cookbook that I mentioned just before your post says this about potatoes: Potatoes, large russet / quartered, for mashing: 4 minutes at High pressure; Natural release for 8 minutes, then quick release. Potatoes, red / whole if less than 1.5 inch across; halved if larger: 4 minutes on High pressure; quick release. I'd guess that the red potato treatment is closer to what you want for potato salad. For hard-cooked eggs she uses Steam, High pressure, quick release and then right into an ice water bath. This is for eggs right out of the refrigerator, but note that she isn't doing it on Low pressure so it isn't the same technique and I don't know how it would compare to what you're after. I'll dig around some of my electronic books and look for other information, in case nobody with experience posts here!

They're beautiful! Thanks!

Wow, congratulations! Those bowls look great, and the price is wonderful. I don't recall even seeing them in the shop. I'd love to see a side view if you're so inclined. Please tell more about it being "organized for chaos". What happens when the doors finally open? Is it a mob scene as reported for Black Friday post-Thanksgiving sales in shopping malls and Walmart, or are people more polite? Was there time to browse and go back to something you'd seen earlier, or did you have to grab fast?

Last night we tried the Chicken Thighs with Salami and Fennel recipe from JAZ's Ultimate Instant Pot® Cookbook for Two. This is a very nice flavor combination. I tend to be leery of fennel because of its association with anise, but the sweetness of the bulb comes through and the licorice flavor doesn't. I need to use this vegetable more.

That should be somebody's tagline. (Maybe I'll change or augment mine!) If nothing else, it characterizes a great meal!

I just went through the "I hate lamb!!" drama again, followed by the discovery that the protestor doesn't really hate lamb. Thanks for another delicious treatment!

What seasonings do you use with that curry?

Yes, it does. In small doses it just adds a nice depth to the flavor, without being obvious. The first time I tried using it, I used it exclusively to saute some vegetables, and the smokiness was overwhelming. I liked last night's lighter touch better.

We bought massive pork steaks a few weeks ago ... big enough that one steak would serve two people with leftovers. In a moment of laziness, I purchased a bag of chopped broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, and then wondered what to do with it. The lot came together in two roasting pans tonight. The vegetables were chopped more finely and tossed with olive oil and mesquite-smoked olive oil, then roasted in the oven. Near the end, they were mixed with jarred roasted red peppers and returned to the oven. The finishing touch was to toss them with balsamic vinegar. In the meantime, the single giant pork steak was breaded and put into a roasting pan, thence the oven. I've written elsewhere that my darling thinks there is one, and only one, way to do pork steaks. "Why mess with perfection?" he exclaims. I've caved. There will be no experiments on this cut of meat! (Well, we do both like the results...I just don't like the constraint of doing the same thing every time.) The plating looked better before we started eating. I remembered the picture after we started eating. The pork steak and breading were predictably good. I'm really more pleased with the vegetables, because they were an experiment that turned out well.

Diana Kennedy, currently aged 96(!) has donated her collection of notes, slides, recipes, scrapbooks, books, and so on to the University of Texas at San Antonio. Rather than entrust the documents to mail or messenger service, she made the 800-mile drive with two or three others, including Tejal Rao. Rao wrote a delightful article about the woman and the trip for The New York Times, here: Road Tripping with Diana Kennedy. I hope it isn't behind a paywall. She sounds like quite a character. Rather than focus on some of her funnier quips, though, I'll quote this bit that shows what she's accomplished, and why she's so driven:

That's an amazing video. Not only is the machinery beautiful, but as pastrygirl and teonzo point out there must be quite a learning curve to learning to handle the material. I was especially interested in and surprised by the early stage on the slab, where the maker grabbed a cooling batch, lifted it, poured the inner contents back onto the slab and then set the outer skin onto it to remelt. It looked for all the world like he was pouring the stuff out of a cellophane bag, but then the entire "bag" (outer skin) went back into the mix! I also think the splash guard made of dominos is cool.

I tried Kumatos once. I've seen them a lot in grocery stores. They were a very dark reddish purple, as cdh described. I was unimpressed. I strongly prefer bright acidity in tomatoes. Campari tomatoes I like a lot. The Kumatos were blah. Now, if I were to see some Cherokee Purples or other heirloom dark tomatoes at a farmers' market, I'd try them again.

I made a batch of bread yesterday using @Ann_T' instructions for baking bread with a new sourdough starter. The starter in question was the starter above. It showed a bit more activity yesterday than it does now, but not nearly as much as in the first photo shown above, so I used yeast to help it along. The flour was a combination of King Arthur bread flour and the special Barrio Blend flour mix I bought last spring in Tucson. I really like this flour blend a lot. Whether it was the sourdough starter, the flour, or a combination of the two I don't know, but the flavor is excellent. What I'm not happy about is the shape. This dough was more slack than I've have expected at 75% hydration. I made the biga on Thursday night and the dough on Friday morning, then baked Friday evening. I can think of several possibilities of where I went wrong with regard to making a nice, round, well-puffed boule. I used the stretch-and-fold method, but maybe I needed to knead it a lot before I started that process. (Does anyone do that? It seems to me that doing more kneading than necessary to get a good mix would be unnecessary.) Maybe I needed to work it more during the shaping. @Anna N once posted a link to a video showing how to get a really tight skin on the boule, and I still don't seem to have the technique. (Actually, my dough didn't look very different from what's shown in that video, but I'll bet his puffed up more!) Or maybe my oven wasn't hot enough (preheated to 450F for at least an hour; baking stones on bottom and top shelves; bread went onto the middle rack, not on a stone). Maybe I needed more steam. Maybe it's all of the above, or something I haven't even considered. I only used half the batch yesterday; the rest is holding, and presumably doing a slow ferment, in the outside refrigerator until tomorrow. What should I try with that half?

I need some starter feedback. I've been following the rye starter instruction here on @Ann_T's blog. It started out as easily as advertised. The second feeding, or maybe it was the third, took off like a rocket. "Oh my," I exclaimed, "this is easy!" I don't remember, actually, whether the photo above is from when I fed it with all-purpose flour, in anticipation of converting the starter, or when I was still using all rye. I do know that the photo was taken less than 12 hours after feeding. The rubber band marks the initial level after feeding. A day or so after that, with regular feedings of all--purpose flour, the starter lost its oomph. I've tried refreshing it again with rye, and it still doesn't have much go. This is it after 12 hours or so: There is a little bit of bubbling, and the smell is fine, but it isn't doing much. I've made a batch of bread with it and a boost of yeast, but that's another post. Here are my questions: What might I have done wrong? It's been sitting in the same place, and all the flours are organic. Should I bother trying to revive it, or simply start over? Starting over doesn't take much material or time, but I'm puzzled about its behavior. If I should try to get it going, what should I do?

Lamb shoulder steaks were last night's dinner. I wrote back here about the sous vide treatment they originally had: packed with my Greek-style marinade, air expelled; 125F for 1:30. Last night I rewarmed them (still in the bag) at 120F for around an hour and a half, then threw them on the hottest grill I could manage to get a bit of sear. It was good, but we both thought it needed a bit warmer treatment at first. Some of the meat was perfectly done, but the fat wasn't rendered quite as much as we'd have liked and some connective tissues were still all too connective. My darling flinches at the very thought of lamb, so I don't know whether I'll try this again - but if I do, I'll try 130 or 135F. The bread, incidentally, shows butter here but also went to good use soaking up the juices. I defatted them but didn't take any steps to concentrate them. There is no picture.

The workshop has begun! Follow the fun here.