Franci

Today I bought a mackerel and a snapper. Decided to grill both and dress the mackerel for tomorrow night, it gets very tasty. The Italian salmoriglio is with oregano but I really like rosemary with mackerel or sardines, so I used that. A little piece of sockeye for the children and some leftover risotto cakes, plus salad, cavolo nero and celtuce.

I would love some of that butifarra :-) We had lamb and quince stew, some cavolo nero and celeriac purée on the side

Maybe this is not really elegant but going back to the olive oil pastry. These were my favorite cookies growing up. With real grape jam and walnuts (not the american concord jam!). In my part of the world cookies were 90% almonds and very little fat (and often lard or olive oil). I don't know, maybe I'm reaching a life crisis. My years in the South of France personally help me to get rid of any fat phobia I might have had in the past, now I cut off all grains and I'm trying to limit my sugar. American books are full of these options but more American in taste, I wish I can adapt to more familiar flavors for me. Overall, American sweets are very sweet for me. I don't know if this could be helpful, but for now I'm looking forward to Alice Medrich new book very curious to this and this also love to look at Aran Goyoaga beautiful blog

You can even make a quick terrine by using sauté foie slices, in that case you don't even need to devein. Of course it's going to have a more pronounced flavor.Mm84321, a dish to die for. Foie gras is my greatest weakness.

That looks great! We had beef heart on skewers and roasted sprouts, plus I made an artichokes salad...worst artichokes ever, bought at TJ's

I used to have this old Bosch stand mixer with food processor and discs. The grating disc was absolutely brilliant to grate cheese, bread or nut flours. Now I have a magimix. The grating disc is not sold in the US, so I bought one in Europe. The design of the Bosch and the Magimix is different. I realized only later that the problem with the Magimix is there is a gap between the disc and the bowl, so while the nuts are grating, pieces will fall from the sides. I have to sift...the sifted flour is perfect, but the rest which I have to process with the blade is not as good. Now, I don't want to go out and buy another expensive tool and sometimes it's not worth the effort, prices of flours are almost the same as the nuts if you buy on line, but still I would like to have the option to be able to make my nuts flours. I had one of those hand cheese grated long time ago and I used to make almond flour one year, never again! Too much effort. Maybe one of those hand cranked graters that you can fix to the table...that works well for the task and doesn't cost a lot? Andie, maybe?

Same as I described here

How can I post my lazy 5 minutes risotto in the pressure cooker after mm?

If you try, Nancy (and Rotuts, of course), let me know what you think. It was really a pleasant discovery for me

Not blanched, just stir fried in the wok with oil, chili peppers and garlic. Stir fry on high until the wilt slightly, add a little bit of water, lower and steam cover for a couple of minutes. I tried with outer greener leaves (the one people usually discard), inner paler and I like much better the outer leaves because they are more flavorful. Definitely one of my best recent discoveries. I keep the hearts for shaving in salads or saute' whole.

I don't have a good memory of the last tropezienne I ate...I cannot tolerate whipped cream very well, so I like a lot your lemon version. I'm sure you mentioned it before, in what consists your advanced pastry cream. For the cookies, GF stands for gluten free but I should say grain free, since I used arrowroot, tapioca and coconut flour. It's interesting baking with these ingredients.

Oh, I like this tropezienne much more than the traditional. I made some simple GF cookies

Prawncrackers, so good to see you here! I love your dinner. We overdosed on Shelsky's smoked bluefish And our preferred way to eat Bruxelles sprouts

Too bad I'm still thinking at these prices. Here It's 30 euros a kg

I didn't take a picture of dinner, I was too busy enjoying the company of friends. We had some short ribs on the grill and this 3 pounds mackerel, also grilled. I warmed some oil with slivered garlic, rosemary and lemon peel, then dressed the cooked cleaned fish and sprinkled with fleur de sel. Some salad, roasted beets, sauté collards.

My weekly enjoyment of liver

I peel so many peppers, daily. While I love roasted peppers and I do at such a high flame on my top broiler that the pepper don't really cook much but my children love raw peppers without the peel. A good tomato peeler works well. And if you have a dehydrator the red pepper skins make a lovely pepper powder. I don't mind the skin of cherry tomatoes, if it's thin, but I'm bothered by thick skin.

Oh, thank you! I hope you are enjoying them.I should really find the time for posting, I really miss the dinner thread! I'm with Hurray, I like fat in my stock and this beef stock has some bone marrow added just at the end, plus some radish tops Shaved Bruxelles sprout hearts salad with radishes and golden beets Despana chorizo with Bruxelles sprouts and sweet potatoes Canned sardines with sweet potatoes, shaved banana pepper from the garden and a black garlic dressing Shaved radishes, celery, red beets with lemon and oil

Can I add crackers here? I just tried the life changing crackers, while I didn't really care for this blog life changing bread regardless the 1200 answers to a post!, I really really liked these crackers. Also gluten free. I think that with some cheese, cold cuts or smoked fish are just awesome.

Jaymes, thanks for the nice words. I do make some sauces that require long time and usually keep in the freezer. Like the Southern ragu and also some ragu' alla bolognese but otherwise, my quick cooking pasta sauces are very simple, usually they take the time to boil the water and cook the pasta 1. spaghetti con i pomodorini (spaghetti with cherry tomatoes) Heat some extra virgin oil (or olive oil if you prefer) in a saute' pan, with some smashed garlic, add some chilli peppers if you like, when the garlic gets aromatic add the cherry tomatoes with the cut side facing down. Like this here Keep the temperature on the medium-medium/high, don't touch the tomatoes and as soon as they start to wilt and slightly caramelize at the bottom add the spaghetti taking them from the boiling water with tongs, don't drain. Saute' everything quickly adjusting salt if necessary and adding little of the pasta water if necessary. I never add salt later because it doesn't melt. I also don't add any cheese to this as a personal preference. I usually don't mix garlic flavored pasta with cheese. If I cooked some tomatoes with onion, I like instead to use plenty of cacioricotta (or grating hard ricotta more available in the US) 2. Pasta burro pancetta e salvia (pasta with noisette butter, pancetta and fresh sage) This is my other very easy pasta. I like to use tagliatelle/fettuccine or also smaller size pastas (like shells) or gnocchi. When the pasta is almost ready I heat the butter in a pan with pancetta cubed (or bacon) when the pancetta is cooked and lightly colored (not dry) I add the sage to wilt and wait until the butter is browning and foaming without letting it burn. Then I pour over the pasta. Usually I never drain tagliatelle, so they don't get too dry, just pick them with tongs and add to a big bowl. I also add like a tablespoon of the pasta cooking water to the pan to scape all the brown bits and add to the pasta. Serve with plenty of grana or parmigiano. 3. Mushroom sauce I do like it a lot with porcini, but here in the US they are not so easy to find. Often I use shiitake and mix dry porcini soaked. I usually saute the cut mushroom with shallots and butter and I like to add some reduced veal stock to have that really nice mouth feel. A good sprinkle of chopped parsley. I love mushrooms sauce with tagliatelle. 4. Bottarga In the US is expensive and not always good. I warm up some garlic and oil, remove the garlic, I just want to flavor the oil, and add a lot of grated bottarga. I basically warm everything up, don't want to fry the bottarga. I quickly saute' spaghetti in the sauce, adding more bottarga on the plate. 5. Pasta with a fish sauce. Something like this. Often I have a fish glaze in the freezer. Adding that in the end it's really great. When I was in Europe and fresh anchovies where easily available I would make often something looking like this. 6. I like a lot pasta with vegetables. Start with a little bit of pancetta/bacon or some crumbled sausages and add vegetables like zucchini, or squash or radicchio and you are going to have a pretty good sauce. I also like radicchio or squash with cheese like a blue cheese but the other members of my house don't like it and I never cook it. There are more but I guess the first two are our preferred.

I know everybody here loves Marcella Hazan sauce but the Southern Italian in me just cannot do it, maybe for some kind of ravioli, and topping with pecorino doesn't do it for me.

Went to check on my SV notes: Also need to say that the octopus quality was so so (unfortunately I know how very good fresh octopus tastes) and these frozen cephalopods are not always great. I had better luck with 1 kg frozen octopuses (always two line of suckers). I clean the head, remove the beak and the eyes prior to cooking but clean the skin after. I like to cut off the skin in the back of the leg but absolutely leave the suckers on. That said I prefer to cook in the PC, for 1 kg octopus no more than 20 minutes cooking with a splash of wine vinegar.

I've been gluten free for a couple of months, no intolerance of any sort, just out of self experimentation. Yesterday I baked this coffee cake with coconut flour and honey as sweetener, very good. I used chestnut honey but I can see in the future a different honey and a lot of orange or lemon zest.

Shelby, I like so much you have your wild meats and your own garden, that's so much better nutrition in my mind! Mm, that caviar...paradise! Basquecook, amazing food. Hurray, you really reminded me, I should try to make bah kut teh for my husband, he really liked very much the "clear" version in Singapore. Tonight we had a very thick slice of beef liver, roasted sweet potatoes that I browned in butter and collards.

Funny, for Italians "cheesecake", not translated, is the American cheese cake. In Italian is crostata di ricotta (or ricotta and visciole) or pastiera with wheat berries and ricotta in Naples.