Smithy

I'm sorry to hear that. I'll bet your staff are even sorrier. At any rate, congratulations!

I haven't been back through the entire topic yet, but I think by "they won't keep" she was referring to disintegration, not the growth of nasty bugs. She noted in this post that Moroccans don't refrigerate their preserved lemons and her first book doesn't mention it either (this for the traditional recipe) but that people started coming to her cooking classes with strange-smelling samples and decided after that to recommend refrigeration in order to keep lawsuits at bay. Have you found anything to suggest that vile things could grow in your 7-days lemons without their being noticeably 'off' in flavor or odor? Put another way: are there bacteria that could grow in that environment without being noticeable? It's too acidic and salty for botulism.

We've seen them loose in bins at all or most of our grocery stops in the past months, along the southwestern tier of states. I have been surprised, however, at the increasing prevalence of packaged "fresh" green beans - sometimes trimmed, sometimes not. If they haven't been trimmed I wonder why they're packaged at all, but IMO the trimmed packaged beans often look a bit slimy. The packages aren't much use to us either way.

Nice recipe, Jason. I'm still hunting for good ways to treat cauliflower, and this looks promising. Can you clarify the microwave goal for the cauliflower? At what point does it go past 'tender' into 'too soft' territory, and how do you gauge it?

It does look delicious! Do you have a name for that pepper salad?

This topic on Preserved Lemons has extensive discussion on how to preserve lemons and what to do with them. Paula participated in it, along with Suvir Saran. For what it's worth, I ignore the advice not to use the pulp. I find that in small amounts it adds a pleaantly salty/lemony note to the sauce. It can be overdone, though: like anchovy paste, a little makes a pleasant mystery enhancement, but enough to identify the flavor is probably too much.

How hot does an air popper (for air popped popcorn) get? If it gets hot enough to pop popcorn, would it get hot enough to toast seeds and nuts - and would it also provide the agitation needed to get even toasting? In case the air popper is an American thing, here are a couple of examples (chosen at random because I've no experience with them): Presto 04821 Orville Reddenbacher's Hot Air Popper Cuisinart CPM-100 EasyPop Hot Air Popcorn Maker Incidentally, here's a popcorn popper with a stirring mechanism that might inspire you, if air agitation isn't practical: West Bend Stir Crazy Electric Popcorn Popper You've selected an interesting project. I probably wouldn't buy a dedicated toaster/grinder for reasons others have mentioned already, but that says more about my demographic than about its potential market niche: if it were inexpensive enough I'd buy it as a toy, but probably give it away after the novelty wore off. As I think about a hot air popper, I confess I'm tempted to scour the thrift stores for one to test the nut-toasting idea!

Welcome, Galamba! That's a pretty good introduction. I see you've already started a topic discussing your main purpose for being here If you need any help with the forums, feel free to PM a host, or go ask in the Moderation and Policy Discussion forum. Your location makes me think of one of life's fine beverages. Do you enjoy the occasional glass of port wine? What sorts of food do you enjoy preparing for yourself?

Welcome, stonypaul! Come on in and start learning and sharing your experiences. If you need help finding something or understanding how the forums work, feel free to ask a host by PM (Personal Messenger), or publicly in the Moderation and Policy Discussion forum. I see you've already started a topic (or two) asking for advice, and people are answering. That's great. You may also find this topic useful:

Your jail slaw really is excellent. I had never heard of turmeric in a slaw dressing before you mentioned it, but it's a very nice touch.

Thank you for taking us along on this trip; it's been a joy for many of us. You said the Pork Cecina had a flavored paste on it. Do you remember anything about the flavor? Was it hot? That red color looks like it could be paprika, for instance - but it might also be some much hotter peppery concoction. It looks tasty.

@kayb, are you putting the disks onto something like a baking stone or griddle? I find that I need the heat retention of something solid like that to get my pitas to puff.

That hard boiled duck egg has an interesting contrast in texture. Did you do something to accentuate the differences between the yolk and the white? It looks as though the white was soft enough to carve smoothly but the yolk was set enough to be craggy and jagged. I'm admiring your toast, by the way. I do love a good olive bread.

I'm plenty able to get around at present, but can see the value for people who can't. What's bothered me most has been the waste inherent in the packaging. I'm glad to read that some of the companies are working on that aspect.

Excellent! Er...will they need to change wording, given your impending move, to things like "is the founder and former owner of the Curious Kumquat"...? Or is it commonly accepted that writers' circumstances change between the manuscript and publication?

Kerry needs a count so she can decide whether the draw is worth pursuing. i suggest, in the interest of brevity, that attendees with no further questions PM Kerry with their answer to this question. She can keep a running tally in an edited post on this topic.

Our kitchen has snap-together tile flooring that is grouted (like standard tile) but floats above the original flooring. In our case it was mostly because the floor was too uneven to accommodate regular tiles without budge-busting work to level things up, but I think it's a bit softer on the feet than standard tiles. You can see it in the top photo of this post. I bought it at one of our do-it-yourself hardware stores. I'm pretty sure the brand name is SnapStone.

This is beautiful! My issue of Saveur hasn't caught up to me yet; thank you, @blue_dolphin for the link to the salad dressing. I have the preserved lemons already; just need to get the crème fraîche ingredients when we shop tomorrow. Everyone posts such gorgeous photos! I always get hungry when I read these topics.

Coming up soon at our home: dinner salad with smoked tuna, or maybe smoked tuna salad sandwiches. Thanks, @shain. I've seen this trick before but had forgotten about it.

I too am skeptical of the Puck oven. For more information. please see here: Wolfgang Puck's Pressure Oven.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I'll try a pan next and report back. @kbjesq yes, I am trying a steamy oven to the extent that I can without putting out(!) the gas flame with the steam blast. Maybe the ice cube trick will work, or maybe I can find another location for the hot pan to which to introduce water, so the steam is less likely to blow out the flame.

It may be (probably is) the same density, but the volume - and hence the weight - goes up as the cube of the radius. Let's use spheres for easy comparison. Suppose you have one ping pong ball of radius 1.0" and another of radius 1.1". The 1.1" diameter ping pong ball has a 10% greater radius (20% greater diameter), but a 33% greater volume. I just weighed the eggs in my refrigerator. Their size differences were barely visible - nothing like the 20% diameter difference in the example above. Their weights ranged from 60 to 70 grams, however: a 16% variation. Does that matter for most baking in single-sized batches? Probably not - certainly not for the sort of thing I do. On a commercial scale, however, that weight discrepancy could easily be magnified, as noted by earlier posters.

This looks good. More descriptions, please! Is that a stew in a small cylinder? What's on the banana leaves? I'm afraid that for me, 'amok' refers to a frequent state of affairs in my kitchen. In this case does 'fish amok' refer to the seasonings, the means of cooking, both, or something else altogether?

I need help getting a better rise in this loaf. This is my sourdough rosemary bread: It looks pretty good from the top, but the side view shows that it's er, a bit vertically challenged. We're both delighted with the flavor and crumb. He's delighted with the crust, which is not the shatteringly crisp crust revered by others. It came out of the oven with a floury pattern that vanished with the butter I brushed over it to soften the crust for him. I've accepted the crust, but I'd like more rise. This bread is made with half whole wheat and half bread flour, 77% hydration, and my standard sourdough starter. There is slightly under 9% olive oil and slightly over 3% salt, both added after autolysis. The dough stretches, folds and proofs nicely, but tends to spread when I release it from its banneton. In past batches I have suspected overproofing, but this time I'm sure that didn't happen. The somewhat-flat loaf doesn't get much oven spring when it goes into the oven. The oven is about as hot as I can get it, and according to the oven thermometer hotter than necessary (450F, which is much too hot in my home oven.) I'm preheating it to let the baking stone stabilize at high temperature. I spritz with water after the loaf goes in, and have added water to a hot pan as past loaves went in. The oven has a tendency to go out with the steam, though, so with this loaf I put a pan of water in with the loaf. As I see it, the tendency to spread and the lack of oven spring are both issues. Should I: Increase the oven temperature still further and/or preheat longer? Put that pan of water in during the preheat step so the bread goes into a steamy oven? Forget about the banneton and shape it more tightly by hand? (A batard, perhaps?) Use a bread pan? Reduce the hydration? Reduce the oil? (Does the oil tend to relax the dough?) Change something else about this formula? ...or just resign myself to having a tasty but flattish loaf? Comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.

I need help getting a better rise in this loaf. This is my sourdough rosemary bread: It looks pretty good from the top, but the side view shows that it's er, a bit vertically challenged. We're both delighted with the flavor and crumb. He's delighted with the crust, which is not the shatteringly crisp crust revered by others. It came out of the oven with a floury pattern that vanished with the butter I brushed over it to soften the crust for him. I've accepted the crust, but I'd like more rise. This bread is made with half whole wheat and half bread flour, 77% hydration, and my standard sourdough starter. There is slightly under 9% olive oil and slightly over 3% salt, both added after autolysis. The dough stretches, folds and proofs nicely, but tends to spread when I release it from its banneton. In past batches I have suspected overproofing, but this time I'm sure that didn't happen. The somewhat-flat loaf doesn't get much oven spring when it goes into the oven. The oven is about as hot as I can get it, and according to the oven thermometer hotter than necessary (450F, which is much too hot in my home oven.) I'm preheating it to let the baking stone stabilize at high temperature. I spritz with water after the loaf goes in, and have added water to a hot pan as past loaves went in. The oven has a tendency to go out with the steam, though, so with this loaf I put a pan of water in with the loaf. As I see it, the tendency to spread and the lack of oven spring are both issues. Should I: Increase the oven temperature still further and/or preheat longer? Put that pan of water in during the preheat step so the bread goes into a steamy oven? Forget about the banneton and shape it more tightly by hand? (A batard, perhaps?) Use a bread pan? Reduce the hydration? Reduce the oil? (Does the oil tend to relax the dough?) Change something else about this formula? ...or just resign myself to having a tasty but flattish loaf? Comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.