Franci

Nice meals everybody! So nice to see these asparagus dishes. I'm looking forward to find in the markets the local fatty white asparagus. I haven't post in a while. Yesterday I tried another dish from Odd bits...better hurry up before it gets too warm for braised meats. We had the veal breast in red wine sauce. It was nice but a little too sugary for my taste and I already cut the sugar. Maybe I should start an obb bits thread Another dish I made recently and it was a revelation was the pomelo sweetbreads from Ms Glaze blog, no more soaking overnight and pressing for me. Delish and to go along a sicilian frittedda (peas and fava frozen)

Puntarelle are a typical roman salad here. I make it often, I peel the single tips and in Rome they sell a special tool to slice them, which I don't have, so I julienne and dump into iced water to curle. Then the classic dressing is anchovies mashed, chopped garlic, little white wine vinegar and good evoo. Dress them at list one hour in advance. But you can cook them too, braising starting again with garlic and anchovies. Or I often use them mixed with other bitter greens.

Hi! I've already cooked quite a bit from Obb bits, infact all the notes in Eatyourbooks regarding the book seems to be mine here If anybody is interested in starting a "cooking with Odd Bits" would be nice. I'm also cooking from Fifth Quarter and Nose to tail so I wouldn't mind an "odd bits" including other books. So far I made -Lamb neck with quinces twice -Peruvian heart kekabs twice -Morrocan style braised heart -Heart salad -Tamarind glazed ribs -Spiced lamb shanks with gingered lentils -tongue with salsa verde (but that is a classic in my house) -Rillons -rillons endive and apples I think she did a great job. Very well written, well tested recipes. I'm a fan.

Scottyboy, wow, your kitchen looks fabulous already, looking forward to see it when it's done. What did you do with those fine ingredients? Patrickamory, I could have your tagine, right now, for breakfast! Yesterday night I made black quinoa and rice, with shredded duck confit legs and crispy skin, dressed with scallion and ginger oil. Well, I liked it much more than Ad hoc at home quinoa salad. I have leftover for tonight and I'm thinking of frying up differently. Then I had a radis noir and thought to do a quick pickle with vietnamese fish sauce dressing. It worked really well. And no picture for caramelized shrimps pork belly

Happens. Very likely, if I cooked it in my Staub even in the oven, it would have produced more steam and the skin would have come out softer. I used kikkoman regular ( ok, maybe that was it!) and Pearl River brand dark soy. I'll try again, we love pork belly Please, if you do, I really care on your opinion.

Here, I am. I think I took your recommendation of not diluiting the braising liquid too strickly. I should have tasted it. The pork ended up being a little salty. My mistake. I decided to cook in the oven in a pyrex loaf pan, covered with parchment and foil at 140 C for 3 1/2 hours (it was 1/2 a kg). I covered with liquid almost to the top and turned twice. The skin was still a little chewy, not as tender as I expected, although I was very careful and spent a decent time at browning it in the pan prior to braising. The other fact is that I really found Sunflower's recipe produced really a pork belly with no greasiness and it didn't rest overnight, I only pressed it for a couple hours and defatted the cooking liquid. So far it has been my all favourite pork belly recipe (no Heston's Blumenthal or Thomas Keller...), very, very good.

Lovely. I still have all the chopped up bones of jamon de bellota in the freezer. I'm afraid it is too powerful for this stock. What do you guys think? Just my comfort food. Like it very much. mm84321, do you do the "standard" preparation for sweetbread? Tonight, I tried Frogprincess gallettes for my son and mom, who are not very keen on meat. I usually follow a recipe from jj Vongerichten which has eggs, so first time I made gallettes with no eggs and I found they are a little more difficult than normal crepes, but a little bit I got the hang of them. They enjoyed them with ham. Then we had an onglet (no picture) and some fried artichokes with a mint chutney I made also Prawncrackers Dong Po Pork, for tomorrow, but when my husband saw it, he wanted to try it We ended up eating too much

MMmhhh, I truly didn't want to sound offending and if I did I apologize. I didn't say that the pasta looked dry (not at all) but the mussels yes, a bit. Since 99% of the recipes call for steaming the mussels in advance, I was offering an alternative cooking method which in my opinion gives a much better result. If you or anybody else want to try, I'm curious to know your opinion.

mm84321, really liked you last meals. David Ross, very clean looking your bone marrows. Look great. Patrickamory, I'm not a big beans eater but I envy you Kalustyan's very much. Xilimmns, I like your picture and the risotto looks cooked just right for me. Soba, did open the mussels on the stove and then took the mollusks out? Or did you open them by hand, collect the mussels and water and then cook? To me the mussels look a little dry. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but spaghetti with mussels is a specialty of my hometown and it tastes so much better to cook the raw mussels (no shell) with their water then opening them with shell on the stove. I remember though, when I lived in the States, that mussels (and clams) had less water than back home. If you try, let me know what you think. Tonight we had stuffed lamb's hearts from Nose to Tail. I like it.

Tonight I made Ottolenghi's vine leaf, herbs and yogurt pie, very nice flavour. I got a couple pieces of vine leaves a little unpleasant because tougher but very good otherwise

Jamie Oliver does the most delicious scallop crudo with pomegranates at his fifteen restaurant. Something like sliced, raw scallop with a drop of fantod olive oil, pomegranate seeds, dried coconut and crisp ginger with a little yuzu juice. It is stunning... It sounds great! Oh, I'm missing London so much... Dcarch, that's really cool! Tonight we had 6 speciale de Claire I found small plaices at 3.90 euro a kg and bought 7 of them and filleted. Breaded and panfried with some artichokes and beets on the side. Beets were actually very nice, I can buy roasted in a wood oven

Kouign Aman, you are referring to the "coratella", the lamb offals, I guess. It is a very traditional Roman dish. My mom looked at it very suspiciously, like she didn't even want to try it and then almost surprised she said it was very good I'm slowly converting her to offals. I enjoyed watching . I did a little bit of search since in my area we cook lamb offals differently. Frogprincess, from your dish I see, I'm Italian and you are French sausage on the side. I'm sure it was really good. Tonight I made the duck confit and quinoa salad from Ad hoc at Home and since it's Carnival, we had chiacchiere! Only make once a year because they are highly addictive

Hi Prawncrackers! I was really undecided between your recipe and Sunflower's and then decided that I like to make my life more complicated and tried Sunflower's Color was much lighter than yours and she makes a separate sauce. It was really, really good, we finished 1kg pork belly in 4 people and half (if I also include my one years old daughter). Picture doesn't do justice. Any thought on this different method?

Scottyboy, frozen foie? Torchon? Paul, I never had grits but your dish made me really want to try. Next time I come to the States. Amkr, welcome. Patrickamory, thanks I'll save the recipe. We love vietnamese and oxtail. Tonight we had Dong Po Pork. The photo is bad, looking forward to have a camera again but the dish was delicious. Not a traditional pairing but I still had a little bit of red cabbage from Christmas in the freezer and went very well together. Plus some rice and glazed carrots.

Mrs Sheepish, really wonderful meal! I like really every dish. I didn't comment before but want to say that I really enjoyed very much your blog. Tonight we had something that maybe Sheepish would like. Coratella di abbacchio con i carciofi= milk lamb offals with artichockes. In the mix lungs, heart, sweetbreads and liver. Not very traditional but I served it with polenta taragna (no cheese in it, though)

I'm organizing a little my files and since I made these this week, I decided to post. The recipe comes from Odd bits. I cooked the ribs on a grill on a roasting tin, covered, for 2 hours, then glazed. I think they are very nice. I tried the recipe from Mark Bittman and it really didn't work for me.

Yes, also as Shalmanese, I use it to cook rice, couscous

Remouillage. I always do it too. First I make a chicken stock, in a big pot, then I transfer the bones to a tiny pressure cooker I have and barely cover with water, some scallions and ginger. As you noticed this stock is more gelatinous but also milkier and less flavourful. I usually keep it for soups, especially vegetable soups where I would cut the stock with water because otherwise too intense and I don't want a strong chicken flavour. Also good to freeze in cubes to add to sauteing vegetables or meat.

Tagliatelle is a favourite in this house. Soba, I like the fact the you use the grated cheese rather than shredded cheese so typical for Americans. I just think the texture of the cheese changes otherwise. My parents also adopted, out of laziness, a zester and I don't like it. Tonight I made a baciocca, traditional ligurian potatoes and onion gratin with polenta and wheat flour. Salad and some prosciutto. My husband would not touch it (he doesn't eat anything that looks like a cake to him), so again fried red mullets for him and a quick pastina in fish stock for the children

Thanks Jon, I also read what you wrote with a lot of interest! I tried to cook foie gras two more times and I'm here to report. Both recipes come from this little book. 1. a torchon of foie gras poached in a spiced wine After simmering wine with spices and sugar, out of the stove the foie is dropped into the hot liquid and left to cook for 1 hour. I found impossible to tight again right after poaching, so I trasferred in the fridge for a couple hours before retightening. I cut it open after 24 hours but for sure the foie needs at least 2 days. 2. Then I tried to steam it. After the foie is deveined and properly seasoned (here there was only salt, pepper, 4 epice and port), it was left to rest overnight in the fridge. S. Reynaud says to wrap in cling film and steam. I feel very uncomfortable at cooking in plastic, so I wrapped in cheesecloth and steamed for 18 minutes. He says 15 minutes of 500 g foie. Well, my was 680 grams and I set the timer for 18 minutes. I totally forgot I had the foie gras steaming, so I left in the steamer for 10 minutes longer , I was already hitting the head on the wall but I checked the internal temperature and it was 48 C and the foie resting was still releasing some blood. I transferred as it was in the fridge and after an hour I rerolled the foie tight. Also this foie is pretty good, I agree with S. Reynaud when he says that the steamed foie keeps his taste "brut". Since I steamed in a dish, I could collect all the fat (I lost almost 50%), which is much more delicate than the fat from panfrying the foie. Also this was quite nice. So far the salt foie is the winner for me. No waste, very little fuss.

Anna, can I come over for dinner? Everything looks lovely. Soda, I have a soft spot for scallops. Dcarch, beautiful, as always. Yesterday night my husband was expecting marrow bones, which instead where soaking, so he was a little dissappointed he didn't find them for dinner. Thought I wasn't thinking of him, just on Valentine's day My non Valentine's dinner: lamb ribs with tamarind glaze And salad of fennel, tarragon (I had to use it for the previous day), pomegranate seeds, and sumac. Recipe from Ottolenghi's which paired very well with the lamb. Picture from files finocchio melagrana ott di Francesca Spalluto, su Flickr

Yes, it's tarragon. The sauce is shallots cooked in oil, a pinch of flour, a glass of white wine. Reduce. Add some cooking stock, Madeira and pouring cream reduce until nappant. Adjust seasoning. In the plate I added cornichons, capers and tarragon. Comes from Ripailles

Tonight we had veal tongue with Madera sauce. Not bad but I like it so much better with salsa verde!

In the States I could get them from German stores and I know that are used also for norwegian sweets. Are you still in Denmark? In German they are called Oblaten, don't know in Danish. I heard about substituting with rice paper but doesn't feel right to me. Or if you have a church closeby...you could ask where they get their ostie...

Tonight we had tiny red mullets, they were the size of my thumb. I fried half in a mix of corn meal and breadcrumbs with thyme and half with flour, served on a bed of rocket. Red mullets really go well with corn meal coating. As side also the loved puntarelle with anchovy sauce ando to keep my son happy, some scallion pancakes. I always find them highly addictive