Smithy

Do you make your own mint sauce? I have, a few times, but not often enough to have a set of ingredients without looking it up. Mint, garlic, olive oil, salt? Perhaps a touch of parsley as well?

What are they made of, Kerry? And how do they taste?

With a steak like that, I'd be too hungry to think of anything but a fine sandwich no matter how much I'd already had to eat! As to @blue_dolphin's point, I'm glad not to have guests who helpfully offer to take away my treasures like leftover tri-tip. Hospitality has its limits. Oh, that ginger looks wonderful!

What a fun haul from your day's shopping! I wish I had a thrift-store-shopping buddy within easy distance. It would be more fun. Come to think of it, it would also be more expensive. Maybe it's a good thing my thrift-store buddies live far away.

@Shelby, for what it's worth I'm glad you didn't put green food coloring in that jelly. There's something revolting to me about vividly, unnaturally green jelly, like that cheap "mint jelly" that almost invariably accompanies lamb at restaurants. A green that's found in nature - for instance, from a good mint or basil jelly - now, that's another story: it can truly be a revelation. But green food color? No, thanks. Yours looks much prettier.

This is all making me want quiche. One of my favorite combinations is spinach and feta cheese, but there are some excellent alternatives being suggested here. Thanks for the tutorial, Chris. I especially like the sound of sun-dried tomatoes in a quiche.

I went on a beet kick last month and bought a small bucket of them. As an experiment I sliced some, vacuum-packed them with a bit of oil or butter and some herbs, and then sous-vided them until they felt tender. Haven't opened any of the packages yet, but I'll report back here when I do.

Welcome, winedoc! I remember reading a few years ago about some researcher's attempts to convince San Joaquin Valley wine grape growers to change their viticultural methods to compensate for the heat and minimize water loss. One idea was to train the vines into self-contained nests, almost conical, as is seen on Thera and in some parts of Egypt. Is that effort still under way? Is that the sort of project you might do?

Hello, Nauticus! It sounds like you'll fit right in. Specific cuisine? Go for it. New technology? Have at it. Our membership ranges from those who plunge with glee into a new method of cooking to those who carefully advance, one toe after another, into new waters. Either way, we welcome good discussion. What are some of the modernist elements you've begun incorporating into your cookery? If you have any questions about how the forums work, feel free to ask a host...in public, if you're bold, or by the PM (Personal Messenger) system.

Chimichurri was my first thought. I'm afraid I've just grabbed one recipe, then another and another, thought they were all good and not come up with a favorite. If you'd like I'll post one of them, but somebody else may have a true favorite they'd like to share.

I bought a few of these last year as an experiment. Like @JAZ, I found them to be pretty tasteless and useless. I wish I'd thought to try their juice in mayonnaise. Thanks for that suggestion, @Lisa Shock. The adjustment in the sugar is a good note, given the sugar content of this fruit.

I'm glad to know these freeze well. We had some for dinner last night and thought they were excellent. Bruschetta's a great idea. Hmmm, I might have to make even more. Hmm, where to get those tomatoes? (I'll book a seat next to Shelby )

ElsieD, while we're waiting for @Thanks for the Crepes to answer, I'll say that samoun, according to my copy of Delights from the Garden of Eden, has to be hollowed out to make sandwiches like that. It looks like a flaked-open pocket because it's pinched at both ends before baking. The photo in Crepe's link does look delicious. I'll be curious to hear what she has to say about the samoon she had, and whether it was flaky.

That makes me glad I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I spotted it in a New York Times article (maybe the same source of your inspiration) yesterday but opted to omit the anchovies. I left them out partly because I didn't want yet another open jar of some condiment taking up refrigerator space, but also because the article noted a "Provençal funk" from them and I thought it might not go over well in our household. Instead, I used some hot Italian sausage from our local butcher. It took the gratin in a different direction, but we liked it very much.

On further inspection I see that the Table of Contents has active hyperlinks but the index at the end does not - nor does it have page numbers. It will be interesting to see whether anything comes of that investigation.

My Kindle version of the River Cottage Preserves book has hyperlinks. I'm using a Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet.

Last weekend it was cucmber pickles and roasted beets. Yesterday is was corn: 4 dozen ears shucked, blanched, cooled then hulled. That corn is all now in the freezer. Today it's been peppers and tomatoes. Peppers are a piquant roasted mixture (with some tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs, oil and vinegar) that is vaguely related to piperade. The tomatoes are from Dorie Greenspan's version of Tomatoes Provencal. Next up: pepper mix into jars with oil (it's quite vinegary and salty); tomatoes into airtight containers, unless someone has a better suggestion. How well will these tomatoes keep if we don't use them all soon?

Almost certainly too cute for the eater's good! Irresistable!

That's a heck of a price.

I've been on a beet kick lately, and now I'm sorry I have them already cooked and peeled. They're delicious, but scooping them out and stuffing them with meat and nuts is a new idea to me, too. Thanks for the additional information on how to scoop them out, @ninagluck. I'd have had the same question if @Anna N hadn't asked first.

One other question: this is wild rabbit, right? Is that why the pressure cooker is a good thing for it? Would the meat be tough without a long slow cook (or a pressure cooker)?

I know you've talked about this in the Instant Pot topic, somewhere, but that's already in its fourth segment. Please remind us of the sequence of events for pressure frying that rabbit. You fried it first and then pressure-cooked it after, right? Did the crust stay crisp, or get soggy? What happens if you do it the other way around? This looks like a grand hunting party. I must say, the food my buddies and I used to eat was never as elaborate as what you're serving; on the other hand, there were only 3 of us, all outside, with nobody willing to stay home and cook!

I'll bet it's more lucrative for the vendors, too.

Sorry! I just reread my post and saw that I had accidentally edited the time and temperature right out of the post. I used 60C for 1 hour. The Anova app has a time-and-temperature chart for pork tenderloin according to the doneness you want, and I went for medium: for that they specify 60C/140F for 1 - 4 hours. It is probably not a coincidence that the time and temperature were exactly as @haresfur describes for a universal starting point. Thanks, haresfur.

I managed a nice bit of sous vide pork tenderloin the other day. I posted more about it here, in eG Cook-Off #73: The Fruits of Summer, since I was determined to try a riff on pork with peaches I read about here. The tenderloin had a sprig of rosemary between the two tenderloin halves, and a bit of salt and pepper on the outside. Per my Anova app, I gave it This was my first satisfactory pork sous vide result so far. The texture is nice, the pork juicy. Browned it afterward in a pan before serving. Broiled bourbon peaches weren't appreciated by my DH as an accompaniment - I thought it had promise - but the pork itself is quite nice.