deensiebat

Ha! Bad fusion cooking! Bad!

Had a final cooking date with my visiting Basque friend, and learned how to make Marmitako: Long-cooked potatoes and peppers, finished with fresh tuna. Homely looking, but totally delicious.

I just use a general all-purpose flour. The picture is of a cooked one -- I took them out when they were just barely beginning to color. You can let them get a little darker (I usually do, but this time impatience won out). Let me know how the recipe works for you! They disappeared pretty quickly last night. Now I'm wishing I had stashed some in our freezer....

I baked a batch of ruggelach for our annual latkesplash party:

I helped a friend decipher her grandmother's loose recipe for Floating Islands:

Recovering from Thanksgiving with some relatively healthy Turkish red lentil soup:

Went the sweet route with an apple ricotta coffee cake: Asked the internet what kind of brunchy thing we could make with leftover ricotta, and came up with that great recipe. Ah, internet. What did we do before you came along?

After a spate of Indian recipes that ended up tasting pretty Anglo, I had great success with this version of shahi paneer:

That jungle cake is beyond adorable. I baked an old favorite from the Babbo Cookbook to bring to an Italian dinner party: Olive Oil Rosemary Cake.

Aw thanks. So many photos here knock me out. Or, more accurately, make my stomach grumble. We have terrible light in the kitchen -- in the whole house, actually -- so I always take food outside for pictures. Not sure what I'm going to do now that it gets dark at 5.... And yes, the porrusalda was lovely. I have a Basque friend in town through the end of the year, and I'm looking to get as many cooking tips as possible while he's around.

My favorite gingersnaps, as part of a "you'll get through this breakup" care package for a friend:

Rediscovered some simple charms with porrusalda - Basque potato-leek soup. It was the first course of a full-on Basque spread including Bacalao a la Vizcaina and custard-filled Basque tart for dessert. Sadly no photos of those.

It's hard to follow those luscious peaches and that holy-crap-amazing meal of Percy's, but I recently made some kolaches: Filled with homemade apricot and strawberry jams, and a cottage cheese/cream cheese filling. Highly recommended.

Gnocchi with brussels sprouts and walnuts: Boiled and pan-fried gnocchi, tossed with roasted brussels sprouts, toasted walnuts, and grated cheese. My new favorite pantry meal.

King Arthur Flour's Magic in the Middle peanut butter filled chocolate cookies:

I think the missing helpful step is a short cooking. When I make grape juice (from Concords), I simmer the grapes for about ten minutes. They start to split and give up their juice as they cook (I help the process along with a potato masher). You can then easily run the split grapes through a food mill, and strain through cheesecloth (which takes foooooorever).

I agree -- there are definitely piney notes. But I like them! I once found a recipe for an "Indian" cocktail called The Agra which we made with Kaffir limes. It featured limes, fresh pomegranate, gin, mint, sugar, and ginger ale. Very delicious. I think it also makes a good mocktail, for non-drinkers (not that any of them are reading this thread) -- it's got a very interesting flavor combo.

I've never had uni either. But oh do I want it now...

I want to try to make fish amok (after those tasty photos), and was looking for a light vegetable dish to accompany, and serve as a counterpoint to the rich coconut sauce. Any recommendations? Any particular Asian greens (and treatment)? Or are such things not eaten in Cambodia?

Piedmontese nut cake with wine-poached pears - an adaptation of a hazelnut cake with Marsala, except with almonds and Madeira instead. Maybe no longer Piedmontese, but quite delicious. Hello, fall!

Brought dinner to friends with a new baby, and made the traditional quiche (in this case, swiss chard and goat cheese ).

Pam, I followed your lovely tutorial and made kreplach: We made half with chicken, half with faux chicken. Delicious. My friend tasted the filling after we ground it, and declared that it tasted like Jewish.

The egg shot isn't exciting, especially compared to those recent delicious runny yolks and cloudy nests. But the combination is pretty good: rice fried with achiote, cilantro, tomato and tons of garlic, topped with fried egg, lime and hot sauce. Details here:

Turned a pile of Italian Prune Plums into a plum custard tart:

Turned loads of spinach: into Spanikopita: Brought it to a potluck, where it quickly disappeared.