Franci
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Posts posted by Franci
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Hi expert gardeners. After a very unsuccessful attempt at gardening in Brooklyn with a garden with less than ideal sun exposure, here we are trying again in Florida.
Suggestions along the way would be great.
This is what we have. I am attaching some photos and a map my DH wrote. Sunlight you see in the first 2 photos is at noon.
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13 hours ago, heidih said:
@Franci How do you do your crispy tofu? Looks pretty good.
This is pretty much how we do tofu 90% of the time. Preheat the oven at 375/400F. Firm or extra firm tofu, blotted with paper but not pressed, cut in cubes, put in a tray and sprinkle with a starch about 40-50 g for a block (potato starch, tapioca, whatever you have around), salt, any spice you prefer (we do the mala spice mix from flybyjin, Korean pepper used for kimchi, sesame seeds, poppy seeds), shake well the tray, so that every side of the tofu cubes are covered and then spray oo drizzle with oil (I use the chocolate gun, it’s very handy for this) and shake again. Transfer on a baking tray with parchment and cook about 20 minutes, flip the tofu and cook about 18-20 longer. You need to find your temperature, oven function and time, so it puffs slightly, stay crunchy outside but not dry.
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Happy Birthday @Shelby!!! We are a year apart
Today Chinese roasted pork, bai tsai, rice and crispy tofu
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Last couple dinners. Picanha on Thurday. Yesterday it was my husband birthday so we lobsters on the grill
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2 hours ago, weinoo said:
First - @Franci - this sofrito is pretty good (have we discussed this one before?) when you don't want to bother really making sofrito.
I’ve not tried yet the sofrito from Matriz. I’ll keep my eyes open if I see it in stores.
Btw, we have only one supermarket on the island, it’s a Winn-Dixie, I don’t like the place much, quality is not great to me but I swear, so many ingredients I don’t know from South America. Too bad I am not particularly interested into it. I am sure I could find dishes I like but it requires a lot of investigation that I am not willing to do at the moment.
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4 hours ago, ambra said:
I'd love a portion too! 😋
Me of your great looking baccalà mantecato. It’s a lifetime I don’t eat it! So good. I never seen stoccafisso in the US, baccalà of good quality only a couple of times. But if I think of baccalà at El Corte Ingles 😅 in Lisbon...
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Apparently I need to increase my portions, that’s what the growing teenager told me
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4 hours ago, weinoo said:
Husbands are easy.
That’s exactly what he says! I am the difficult one. Btw, he should get his own account because he is always using mine to snack and read the dinner thread 😂
So, second time cooking the mahi-mahi roes. This time it looks like I did a good job, I got thumbs up. Very simple: sprayed with some extra virgin olive oil, salt for a couple hours, then cooked on the cast iron grill, cut, more oil, parsley and salt. Same for the mahi-mahi. Salad and some broccoli on the side.
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Interesting this guy talking about stages of the roes
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Today’s fish is mahi-mahi. I have roe as well. Not an expert cooking roe. I cooked shad roe a couple of times, sautéed in butter and eaten on toast. I cooked this time with shiitake and escarole first. In a clean pan sautéed some of the fillets and two roes, dredged in flour before, the membrane was too tough for my liking. I didn’t think pan was too hot but maybe it was...suggestions? I have two more
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4 hours ago, weinoo said:
What a great husband!
You know you made his day 😃😁
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First time ever the husband did bbq ribs on the Weber. Side of collard greens and sauté watercress
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Tonight I baked the rose fish from yesterday with some cherry tomatoes and potatoes, side of bai tzai, sauté cremini mushrooms and xialong bao from TJ’s for the kids. Yesterday, I baked that huge barrel fish head and cooked the fillet for the kids. Simple salad on the side. The meat from the head was a lot but not that much, leftovers were finished at lunch today.
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30 minutes ago, KennethT said:
I haven't made it, ever, as I never have access to fish heads without the rest of the fish attached. This looks like it would be pretty good as it seems like it has all the right ingredients but I've never tried it.
https://www.nyonyacooking.com/recipes/fish-head-curry~HyPIdPjvf5-Q
🙏 saving the link
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18 minutes ago, KennethT said:
@FranciI was going to suggest fish head curry! It would be enough for 20 people!
🤣 20 people. Do you have a link to a recipe bwt? Plenty of recipes on line but if you have a trusty source, better.
5 minutes ago, robirdstx said:
The cooked meat from the head might make great fish cakes!Good idea! Curious to see how much meat we can get from the head. I will report back!
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11 minutes ago, MokaPot said:
@Franci, seems like there's some meat in/on the barrel fish head. Is it sinewy? Can you slice it or scrape it and eat it raw? (Looks very fresh.)
the head has tons of meat but I would use the fillet if I wanted to eat raw. The fish was caught this morning. My husband calls at noon to know when the boat is back and by 1-1:15 he is at the pier. Some of today’s catches
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8 minutes ago, Smithy said:
@Franci, that is an astonishing fish head in the top part of the photo. Do you know what sort of fish it came from?
Yes, it’s a barrel fish! Almost 2 kgs of head 😊. The fillet you see below is from that fish. The kids, really enjoyed how I cooked the barrel fish last week, when we tried for the first time.
I don’t know what I would do with the head. Honestly, another time, I will look for the ingredients for making a fish head curry or a south East Asian soup (any recommendation, anybody by any chance?) but I don’t have now. I am just thinking of roasting it in the oven.
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Today my husband sent me an innocent photo with the option of the fishes of the day. And me, the red one looks like a scorpion fish 😋 and he came back with this 👀
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Two dinners, today I fried some shrimps (btw is a recipe from All under heaven for fried fish but LOVING it for shrimps too) so, since frying, I made some French fries too, octopus and some salad. Yesterday the husband decided to go with a “fiorentina”
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I also multiple shop, before more than now. I used to live on the same block of Whole Foods when it first opened in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, totally different place that my current WH, offering all Brooklyn products. Now that I am in Miami and Covidtimes, the last 3 times I was sooooo disappointed with the WH. It’s ok only if I am looking for certain brands of packaged stuff I don’t find in other stores. Publix, I went 2 times and left, don’t like the place at all, I found it very mediocre and with high prices given the quality. We have a local chain that is called Milam’s market and honestly, likely the vegetables are not to the level of the good times of Whole Foods but I have found vegetables to be kind of poor in Florida compared to NY, but I like the place. My neighborhood is pretty international and I think they do a decent job carrying stuff to fill the needs of the different international groups. I miss my Brooklyn Korean veg guy for cheap shopping or my farmers market for fancy stuff. Another local supermarket here is Fresh Market and the fresh stuff I find it mediocre too but they have good quality of the package stuff, or better, I can fill some holes. Di Martino pasta for ex., some more interesting condiments, the crackers flavor I cannot find elsewhere. And good or bad I LOVE Trader Joe’s for some stuff. I have friends asking me, what do you buy there? There are some items that are dirty cheap in Trader Joe’s and are hard to find elsewhere. Love their sardines under oil, love their hazelnut, they sell gruyere and comte and parmigiano stravecchio to very decent prices, love the pork pot stickers and xialongbao and few other items I always buy. So I truly believe as other have mentioned it all very depends from many factors.
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Yesterday night another super simple dinner. Short ribs on the Weber, salad, shaved fennel
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Today’s fish. 2 runners and 1 Spanish mackerel. $12
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@Duvel that looks great! Btw, I am not sure tonight potatoes get to the levels of your potatoes of a couple days ago but the kids said they were pretty good 😃
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Comparing fishes here. Yellow tail vs yellow jack...the first more delicate and whiter meat. The unanimous winner is yellow jack. Tomorrow for lunch the barrel fish filet.
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Gardening: (2016– )
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
We are going to build brick raised beds of approximately one foot. Given the current level of the soil, plus the raised bed with could achieve a depth of 20 inches. On the longer side there are a lot of roots but since we are not going to plant fruit trees but only vegetables, I don’t think should be an issue, right? We were thinking of buying soil and plants from this coop
So far we made a list and trying to fill the spaces. We want to have trellis so the vegetable can grow above the fence.
Ah, another big problem. Here there are iguanas everywhere!