FrogPrincesse

I got a couple unfamiliar citrus recently that I am not sure how to make the best use of: kaffir limes (the fruit, not the leaves), and a couple of yuzus. I am considering using the juice in cocktails. I read somewhere that I could zest them and freeze the zest for a later use. Any other ideas/tips? I also got three gigantic watermelon radishes (green skin, pink inside) in my CSA. I've sliced them thinly to use them in salads but barely made a dent in my supply. I've been cutting the rest in little chunks and eating them as a crunchy and refreshing snack. In the same CSA bag, I got a bunch of small Japanese white turnips that I was convinced were radishes, so I just ate them with butter. Thankfully they were extremely mild.

Balboa Park does has a few olive trees, however I don't recognize the painted curb or the hardscape.

It's time to post about my latest baking adventure with David Lebovitz. During a trip to Paris earlier this year, I went to the excellent baking supply store G. Detou and picked up a giant bag of "sucre perlé", aka beaded sugar, with the idea to make chouquettes, which are little sugar puffs. Six months later, the bag of sugar was still languishing unopened in my pantry, so I decided to give it a go. Having had success with gougères last year, I realized that chouquettes were just a sweet version of the same thing. The recipe I chose was from The Sweet Life in Paris, Chocolate Chip Chouquettes. What I like about this recipe is that it's a one-pot recipe which is extremely simple. The most involved part was making sure that the chouquettes were completely covered in pearl sugar before baking them. Also chouquettes are special to me because they remind me of my great grandmother who used to buy them on Sundays as a special treat. I had not had them in years since you never see them in bakeries here (not even French bakeries). Here they are before going into the oven. Here they are out of the oven, nicely caramelized. They are great as is, and best the day of. The next day, they make a great vehicle for ice cream, for a delicious twist on profiteroles.

Hard to say, but since this looks a lot like the produce I've been getting recently in San Diego, I am going to guess Kouign Aman.

No pictures unfortunately (soup is not that photogenic anyway), but I made several soups from the books that are worth mentioning. Yellow Tomato Gazpacho This twist on the classic gazpacho is a great summer soup. It combines yellow tomatoes and cucumber. The soup has a hint of spiciness from jalapeño peppers. A garnish of diced sweet pepper, onion, and cucumber adds crunch, together with halved red cherry tomatoes drizzled with good olive oil. Recipe available on Food and Wine magazine here. Chilled Red Pepper Soup with Sumac, Basil and Lemon Yoghurt This is another chilled soup. It's interesting to see how she develops flavors from a few simple ingredients. The onion is cooked slowly, then the peppers are added and caramelized with sugar and sumac. Water is added and the soup is simmered for a while. The soup is garnished with basil (she specifies opal but regular basil is fine too), and yoghurt mixed with lemon juice. Kabocha Squash and Fennel Soup with Crème Fraîche and Candied Pumpkin Seeds The soup is made from roasted squash and fennel bulb. The aromatics are fennel seeds, onion, thyme, chile de arbol. For the liquid she uses chicken stock and sherry. The garnish is crème fraîche and candied pumpkin seeds. I could not get the pumpkin seeds to candy properly (they were very hard and unpleasant so I ended up not using them). Even without them, the soup was very nice. I served it for Thanksgiving last year. Recipe here on Google books.

Speaking about Swiss chard and greens, there is another recipe in the book that makes good use of them. It's the Mussels and Clams with Vermouth, Cannellini Beans and Cavolo Nero. The flavor profile is Italian. Cavolo nero is black kale (also known as dinosaur kale), but this could work very well with other types of greens. The broth is deliciously flavored with onion, fennel, garlic, chile de arbol, rosemary, thyme, and my favorite part, dry vermouth (I use Noilly Prat) which adds an extra note of fennel/anise. Serve with plenty of crusty bread. Recipe here on Google books.

Very good point. I've been pronouncing Noilly Prat "NWAH-Lee praht" rather than "NWAH-yee praht" based on that "rule", and that's how I heard people say it in France. But I am not sure which one is right, it just sounds better to me that way. In France, pronunciation is often a source of confusion and a source of endless debates, so there is always a chance that there is no consensus on that there either. We should check with the French Academy which is the final authority on these very important matters.

Here is another savory tart recipe, the Swiss Chard Tart with Goat Cheese. I made it for my foodblog back in July. I used feta instead of goat cheese. It's an excellent use of chard that I often get in my CSA in the summer. In the recipe she garnishes the tart with a pine nut and currant relish before serving. Recipe here on Google books. I made it as a gratin as well instead of a tart, and it was delicious too.

Thanks Heidi. I think you would be very happy with this book, especially knowing that you live in LA. In the book, she has several recipes for savory tarts which are variations of the Alsatian tarte flambée, or Flammenküche. These are easy to put together as long as you have puff pastry in your freezer. (I realize that traditional Flammenküche does not use puff pastry, but this is a nice twist). Young Onion Tart with Cantal and Applewood-Smoked Bacon The bacon (I used home-cured bacon) is fried in a little olive oil with young onions and thyme. A mixture of crème fraîche, ricotta (I used homemade), and egg yolk are spread onto the puff pastry, then slices of Cantal cheese are added and finally the bacon mixture. This makes a great appetizer to share, or a light meal with a green salad.

For my Fooblog in July, I made this very tasty Summer Squash Gratin with Salsa Verde and Gruyère, which is a clever way to impart flavor to a vegetable that does not have much by itself. Details about the preparation in my post here. Recipe here on Google books.

Another hearty dish: the Lamb Osso Bucco. Lamb osso bucco or shank can be used. The preparation requires a little planning since the lamb needs to be marinated overnight with garlic, thyme, lemon zest, rosemary, black pepper, and olive oil. It is seared the next day, then braised in the oven with white wine, stock, and vegetables (onion, carrots, fennel). At the end, she removes the meat from the liquid and turns up the temperature to brown it. I deviated from the recipe in the final garnish and used gremolata when she calls for tapenade (my husband does not care for tapenade). Also I ran out of steam for the preparation of the accompaniments as this was just a very nice weeknight meal. She serves the lamb on top of a ragout of haricot verts and fresh shell beans, which sound lovely for what she presents as a summer recipe. However, since I made the recipe in the fall, I served it with boiled new potatoes. The meat was really spectacular. Recipe here on Google books.

A dish that seems a propos for the colder weather we are currently experiencing in San Diego: Corned Beef and Cabbage with Parsley-Mustard Sauce. Earlier in the year I made a corned brisket for Charcutepalooza. After it was fully cured, I prepared it according to the recipe in Sunday Supper at Lucques. The beef is slowly cooked with the aromatics (onions, cloves, bay leaves, thyme, chiles de arbol). Then it is removed from the broth and crisped in the oven before it is sliced. She cooks the vegetables (carrots, turnips, potatoes, cabbage) in the broth, but separately from the beef, to make sure that they are not overdone, with the potatoes cooked first. The parsley-mustard sauce, which also contains shallots and vinegar, adds a bright note to the dish and reminds me of the whole grain mustard we traditionally serve in France with pot-au-feu. Complete recipe here on Google books.

On the dinner thread a while back I talked about her phenomenal burger recipe, the Grilled Pork Burgers that I've nicknamed triple pork burgers. It's impossible to go wrong with ground pork, chorizo, and diced bacon. Also the seasoning mix of sautéed shallots and garlic, roasted cumin, thyme, parsley, and chile de arbol is especially flavorful. Then she tops the burger with Manchego cheese (which I was not familiar with before the book and now love), arugula for a touch of bitterness, and aioli (my husband decided he preferred barbecue sauce so that's what you see on the picture). They are juicy and super flavorful. The recipe is available here on Google books.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a Kabocha squash and was looking for something new to make with it, after trying David Lebovitz's excellent pie and a number of different soup recipes. I first heard about Kabocha in Sunday Suppers at Lucques. In the book, before going into the seasonal menus, she discusses her favorite ingredients for each season and explains that Kabocha is one of her favorite varieties of winter squash because it's so flavorful. I decided to make her "Pumpkin" Cake with Pecan Streusel. It is inspired by traditional pumpkin pies but she recommends using Kabocha or butternut squash (hence the quotation marks), which are less watery than pumpkin. It's a cake, so there is no crust per se. However the batter hardens at the bottom of the pan and forms a type of crust. The cake is flavored with traditional spices such as cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and also vanilla bean and honey. I will likely use vanilla extract next time as I found that the vanilla bean got lost in the mix, and prefer to reserve vanilla bean for applications where it is better showcased. My mold was a 9-inch mold instead of the 10-inch specified in the recipe, so the cake was a little thick. The topping gave a nice crunch to the cake. The recipe is currently available on Google books, here.

This wonderful book does not have a dedicated thread yet but does deserve one. One of the things I like about the book is its use of seasonal produce. Obviously I am very lucky to live in California and have access to the items that the recipes call for. Some of her favorite vendors mentioned in the book are even vendors at my local farmers' markets! (Schaner Farms for example). The book is organized by season and has a number of menus (for 6 people). I rarely prepare the whole menu but it's good to have ideas of dishes that go well together. I found that if I followed the recipes as written, including all the accompaniments, the recipes were somewhat involved but not overly difficult, and led to exceptional results. So I try to follow her recipes as is for dinner parties. However, for everyday cooking I do tend to simplify the recipes a little, meaning that I don't prepare every component of the dish or shorten the times required to marinate meats, for example. Last month I made the Grilled Duck Breasts with Roasted Grapes. The duck breasts are seasoned with juniper berries and thyme and then very simply cooked on the grill, which I had never done before and resulted in very flavorful meat and crispy skin (and also much less mess as I am used to when cooking duck breast on the stove). I used a muscovy duck breast which was quite large (about a pound) and ideal for this preparation as it stayed very moist. The grapes are roasted in the oven. In the book she serves this dish with crème fraîche and a potato-bacon gratin. This was a weeknight dinner, so I opted to skip that part to stay on the somewhat lighter side. Instead, I served it with roasted chestnuts on the side. The full recipe is available here.

This is the salt concentration in water, not taking the meat into account. For example, use 30 grams of salt per 1 liter of water.

I agree on the sauciers. I have the 2- and the 3-quart sauciers and love them. Great for sauces, risotto, stews, etc. The other All Clad pans that I use a lot are the 5- quart "casserole pan" (great to blanch vegetables or cook pasta), and the 10" fry pan. I have them in the MC2 finish which is cheaper but has thicker aluminum as others pointed out. Also you don't have to worry about maintaining the shiny exterior as opposed to the stainless line. I don't see the point of the nonstick versions. I only use nonstick for eggs, and have a cheaper T-Fal for that purpose.

+2 but about to buy a few more... Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh Beta cocktails

I could be wrong but I would imagine that alcohol should help to some extent. Both sugar and ethanol levels lower water activity, which in turn should limit microbial growth.

Nikki, It's lovely to see the Singapore Sling in its native habitat, thanks for that! Fantastic blog. I feel that a trip in Singapore is in my future. My husband has been trying to convince me to go there for a while now. It looks like there is a lot to explore!

That's it, the Joy of Mixology is now available in the database! I see that someone else has the Savoy cocktail book reserved, so that should be available soon as well.

Thanks! Last week I had a pound of dates that I was trying to find a use for. I found a recipe for a Date-Nut Torte in Ready for Desserts, not something I would usually go for. But since I had all the ingredients, I decided to give it a try. My dates were very sweet and sticky (a good thing for dates), so it was a little hard to get them not to stick together as a giant mass. I followed his advice to use a little flour which helped. These were local Medjool dates. I've been having a hard time finding anise seeds so I substituted fennel seeds. The recipe has the particularity of not containing any eggs. Here is the cake ready to be baked. After baking. The top became a little crispy which gave the torte a nice texture. The first bite hit me as incredibly sweet and rich (maybe I should have reduced the amount of sugar a little since my dates were so sweet). But then the taste really grew on me. I found they were perfect cut into small pieces and enjoyed with coffee.

I think it's actually nakji who has been travelling to Singapore quite a bit. The picture above was in one of her posts here.

Yes, it's definitely a summer drink!

Anna, I love Daiquiris! (And my favorite variation, El Floridita no. 1, which has a touch of Maraschino) What rum did you use?