FrogPrincesse

Maybe they want to make sure that people don't use these weird jarred sausages for a different purpose inadvertently? Also odd to see the Trader Joe's label - they wouldn't dare offer this product in their US stores! Worth noting that in France people usually serve these sausages in baguettes, rather than buns, and with Dijon mustard. And that would be with a saucisse de Francfort, which is of course is different from the American version of a Frankfurter.

Looking for a cocktail to bring to a Cinco de Mayo party hosted by the cookbook club I am a member of, I spotted this intriguing cocktail with mezcal and Benedictine which seemed like a good way to celebrate this Franco-Mexican event . It was in one of the books we were cooking from, Oaxaca (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). Lovely long, refreshing drink where the mezcal comes through and the Benedictine adds some interesting base notes. I also liked the fact that it is pretty diluted but still packed full of flavor. I need to play with Benedictine more often, it's great with tropical flavors (in a ying and yang sort of way).

Reading the exchange below in the Dinner thread made me think it'd be fun to start a thread about "American" food in France. As in, American food viewed through the lens of the French. It reminded me of this little series by David Lebovitz where he reviews the "American" offerings at Picard, the French frozen food store (here is their current line up). Being a French native living in the US, I find it silly, entertaining, and horrifying as well. You have to wonder what goes through the head of the people conceiving or consuming these products which are both familiar and strange (a version of hachis parmentier with pulled pork and mashed sweet potatoes representing American cuisine? ok...). I am sure things have evolved since the unfortunate days of the Indiana Café which, 30 years or so ago, introduced Parisians to "tex-mex" cuisine. Or have they? (a quick google search revealed that Indiana Café is alive and well with 10+ different locations, serving nachos and burgers...).

Another question. When baking in a metal pan (regular, not a non-stick), is this a bad idea to cut in the pan? It leaves marks obviously; I don’t care so much about the esthetics, I just want to make sure it doesn’t affect their longevity etc. I make recipes for parties that call for a 1/2 sheet plan and it would be challenging to take the pie out before cutting, hence the question. I am considering lining them with parchment but wanted to hear other people’s thoughts.

Still waiting with bated breath. 😉 I understand that there are plenty of recipes using parmesan rinds. My question was whether the moldy taste was normal. I don’t want to inadvertently contaminate a batch of sauce!

This (new to me) guacasalsa is pretty good. It's a green salsa-spiked guacamole. My favorite salsa at Trader Joe's remains the roasted tomatillo salsa.

For the main course for Mother's Day, I picked another dish from the book, the duck braised in Banyuls which I had last made a while back but not documented here. It's more involved than the asparagus dish but all the steps are easy. The most complicated step is probably finding the wine, which is more or less the French equivalent of port (but less sweet and more subtle, less heavy). Luckily a local wine shop happened to have it. It started with duck legs from Mary's (I picked large ones as recommended in the book). They get sprinkled with thyme leaves, orange zest, black pepper and go in the fridge for a few hours (overnight preferably). The next day you dice some onions, carrots, fennel. Meanwhile the duck gets sprinkled with salt and sauteed until brown and crispy. It's set aside, and the vegetables (+thyme sprigs, bay leaf) are cooked in a couple of spoonfuls of the duck fat. The pot is deglazed with balsamic and the Banyuls wine. The liquid is boiled, reduced by half, and then stock is added (I used duck stock because I happened to have some in my freezer from a previous cooking project). The duck legs are added back, and off they go to the 325F for 2.5 hours. The next day, the sauce is defatted (you are also supposed to remove the vegetables but I always leave them in), reduced as needed, and the duck is browned in a 400F oven. In the book she serves it with a turnip-parsnip gratin. I went with a traditional gratin dauphinois (Les Halles / Bourdain style) and served it with a bottle of rustic mourvedre. Everyone seemed happy. Going into the oven After 2.5 hours in the oven Plated

I had never seen anything like it either. And I loved the philosophy of not wanting to let anything go into waste, and transforming it into delicious jams! There are so many types of fruit in Hawaii that aren't available commercially, it makes for some very unique jams for sure.

Next up was the tropical botanical garden in Onomea Bay. Now Hawaii has some pretty fantastic botanical gardens, but this one takes the cake so to speak. The garden started as a 17-acre plot of land that was purchased in the 1970s by a family that slowly transformed it into their own version of the garden of Eden, preserving the natural beauty as much as possible, and creating trails with a machete through the (already beautiful and lush) existing vegetation to reveal a tiered waterfall, and adding an insane collection of orchids and other tropical plants to the mix (everything grows in Hawaii!). The trails eventually lead to a rugged beach of black rocks which is beautiful in its own right. I could have spent countless hours there exploring and marveling at all the plants. So much beauty! Afterwards, we stopped at Papa’aloa Country Store and Cafe for a late lunch based on the recommendation of our friends. I liked the little store that was selling a lot of local food items, but our lunch of kalua pork tacos was quite underwhelming, and my lilikoi lychee drink a poor choice unless you love sugar and artificial flavors. The ginger beer was a bit better. On the way home we drove down to Laupahoehoe Point, a village located at the end of a ravine that was tragically obliterated during a tsunami in 1946. That place is beautiful but has a very eerie vibe to it. They decided to not reconstruct the village after the tsunami, unlike Hilo, which was rebuilt post tsunami. One more stop at Rebecca’s to restock on produce, and we were back home. That night we weren’t very hungry and were happy to snack on leftover poke and fruit.

Day 3 (Thursday) We started the day with a nourishing breakfast of (island) eggs & bacon, supplemented by POG (which tends to be very sweet; we liked Sun Tropics a little better than the classic Meadow Gold, although they are very similar) and toast with lilikoi (passion fruit) butter from Liko Lehua (which is located in Hilo). We also had fresh papaya and apple bananas which are more aromatic and creamy than the (Cavendish) bananas we get on the mainland. We decided to go see ‘Akaka Falls that day, which are located north of Hilo and an hour drive from where we were staying at. I didn’t take pictures of the falls but they are spectacular, 300+ foot falls. The trails around the falls are very lush and beautiful, although they were partially closed for renovations during our visit. One of the native fish (o’opu, a type of goby) is apparently able to climb up these very steep and tall falls by using a little suction cup on their bellies, which is quite a feat! After our visit, we drove back to the charming little village of Honomu. On our way, we passed a goat farm, Honomu Goat Dairy, which was unfortunately closed that day. In Honomu, we spent some time with a very friendly blind cat who needed a lot of attention, in a store that had a beautiful selection of vintage glass objects, and finally at Mr Ed’s Bakery which I had never had a chance to visit before, although it’s been in business since 2000. I wasn’t so much interested in the breads; it was the collection of homemade jam that wowed me. As a home jam maker myself, I couldn’t help but marvel at the huge selection of jams (over 150 varieties) made in small batches using the local fruit (you can read more about it here – essentially, he uses whatever fruit his neighbors bring him and isn’t afraid to experiment!). We were handed lots of samples and left with a few jars: the poha berry mentioned in the article, longan for my daughter, and mango lilikoi for my husband. I would have bought more if I didn’t already have a pantry full of jams at home! The creativity of this was inspiring (this is only part of the collection!). 😊

Excellent! I have made a very large portion of the recipes in the book, and have never been disappointed. It is in my top 5 of most used cookbooks.

Here is the regular sourdough from Wildwood Flour bakery (I really like the crusty exterior) And here is their pain au chocolat. It shatters as you touch it, exactly the way it should! Super flaky interior.

I keep going back to this great book and am never disappointed. For Mother's Day, I made this simple appetizer of prosciutto and grilled asparagus with whole grain mustard. She says to use pencil-thin asparagus; mine were slightly larger, so I peeled them to make sure they would be tender. They are dressed with olive oil, salt, pepper and grilled for a few minutes, served on top of prosciutto (I used a locally-made wild boar prosciutto from Angel's Salumi which was ultra delicious), with a mixture of crème fraiche and whole grain mustard drizzled on top. By far the easiest recipe I have seen in the book!

The other bakery I really like is Wildwood Flour in PB. In my book, they win for best sourdough (the plain sourdough and the roasted garlic (pictured) are my favorites) and pain au chocolat. The only issue is that the word is starting to get out and the lines are getting longer, plus they are only open Friday - Sunday and run out of goods quickly. They mill their own flour that they use in the sourdough breads and I feel it really makes a difference, taste-wise.

And here are the baguettes in question. Top notch!

Here is a nice article (and video) about Wayfarer, an artisan bakery in Bird Rock, La Jolla. They make my favorite baguettes (and English muffins) in San Diego! https://www.eater.com/24150455/eater-video-the-experts-wayfarer-bread-san-diego Note: the bakery opens at 8:30 (not 7:30 as indicated in the article)

Mine got caramelized and they were delicious, as intended.

I used to have an OXO garlic press and gave it away. That thing was super annoying to clean and it would clog after a clove or two, which would defeat the purpose (ease of use / speed). I find it much faster to process with a knife (trim the root end, smash gently on a cutting board with the flat of a knife to release the clove (and any frustrations I may have), collect all the peeled cloves and then mince as desired). You are going to need a knife to remove the peel anyway, so why not also use it to mince the garlic... that way you can also control the size of the mince (the press tends to transform everything into mush). Speaking of Gilroy, my local Northgate market sells Gilroy garlic. Nice stuff, just bought some the other day. $1.29 for 3 (small) heads.

I know we have a few investors on eG...

I like goat meat. I had had it in curries and other dishes in restaurants before. I find the flavor of the meat to be a bit milder than lamb. I would do this again with goat for sure. I like lamb a lot as well, they are just different and it's nice to have variety. Also, as an extra plus, my daughter who doesn't eat lamb (because they are babies (she doesn't eat veal either)) is ok with goat.

More prep pictures. It just fits in the 6-quart instant pot. Before the long bath. And after. Yield was only ~500 grams of meat (the shoulder weighed 1.3 kg). And here is the finished dish.

I cooked goat for the first time this week. I am making birria this weekend for cinco de mayo, and wanted to make sure I liked the meat before committing to a large amount for the birria. So I bought 1/2 "shoulder" from a middle eastern shop - here is what it looked like. The meat is from Australia according to the package (Thomas Farms). I have lots of cookbooks but not too many have recipes using goat meat. Eat Your Books tells me I have > 23,000 recipes, but only 13 using goat (that is 0.06%)! I picked a recipe from Hugh Acheson's The chef and the slow cooker that I borrowed from the library, goat & garlic with couscous. It's a northern African-inspired stew with lots of garlic, sweet onions (I used cipollini onions), carrots, tomato, coriander seeds, lemon, and bay leaves. I seared the meat on both sides in a cast iron pot, cooked the garlic and transferred to the instant pot together with the other ingredients and the broth, and cooked it in slow cook mode. I found out that the lowest setting isn't equivalent to a slow cook, it's lower and closer to a warming setting. Anyway, it cooked for 5 hours at that low setting, then increased it to medium and cooked for an additional 11 hours. The meat was very tender at the end, pretty much falling apart. I let it cool and separated the meat from the sauce, removed all the bones. The next day, I reduced the sauce and added honey to it, added the meat back and served the stew on top of couscous with a generous sprinkle of fresh oregano. I found the flavors on the milder side so having the fresh oregano on top was key. I would probably use more of everything next time (more garlic, more coriander seeds, etc).

From last night, kalbi ribs (from Siesel's, my local butcher shop) with mizuna greens (from Specialty Produce). From a couple of days ago, sushi grade Mt Cook salmon (bought at Catalina Offshore) with red sorrel butter; papillotte carrots with cumin, thyme, butter, and dry vermouth.

My pleasure!

Day 2 (Wednesday) The day started with a leisurely morning as we were tired and needed the extra sleep. The house we were staying at is on a ranch near Honakaa, surrounded by pastures. We got a friendly visit by a mamma wild pig and her babies, and my daughter managed to capture this video. She couldn't get too close as she is very protective of her babies and will charge anybody who may be a threat. On another day, a curious mongoose came to observe us from outside a window but she left before I could take a snap. At some point I mustered the energy to investigate the kitchen equipment – it wasn’t that complicated, but there is always a learning curve. I made coffee and thankfully the owner had made us cashew milk using his fancy Chefwave nut milk maker, so I didn’t have to figure that out while still half asleep. Nice machine by the way. We finally go out of the house in the afternoon, and drove about 30 minutes west to the Waipi’o valley lookout to enjoy the views. It was fairly cloudy, but the good thing with the weather in Hawaii is that it never stays cloudy for very long. The valley down below has been closed to non-residents for quite some time now due to the land erosion and unstable road conditions in that area. I hope to visit it some day. Next we headed to the Honoka’a Country Market. It is a small store right outside of town which is packed full of local products, anything from bread (we grabbed a loaf of the turmeric bread fruit sourdough from Sundog bakery), chocolate from Honokaa chocolate company (we got a couple of bars), alcohol, and meat. The meat was very reasonably priced (about $15/lb) and looked great, so we got a few ribeye steaks for dinner. We decided to eat there and had a simple lunch of trip tip sandwiches for some, homemade quiche for others, while a friendly goat was observing us. We liked the little library they had there, so we had reading material while we were enjoying our lunch. Our next stop was Rebecca’s Farm Fresh market which is one of our favorite shops. This is really the place from produce, as everything is freshly picked and comes from the local farms. She also sells eggs and meats but we didn’t find out until later as it is in a fridge that is tucked in the back of the store. She also makes various little pastries, coconut rice steamed in banana leaves, etc. I find that place incredibly inspiring because I love cooking with seasonal produce and everything they have is top notch. We made a point to come almost every day to get more vegetables and fresh fruit. 😊 Lastly, we headed to Malama Market which is a supermarket. We got breakfast items and poke. This is a smaller supermarket so they sell poke that is prepackaged (larger supermarkets have giant poke counters). They have different varieties. We tried the octopus on a previous trip and weren’t fans (too chewy), so now I just stick with the ahi. This time I got the limu which is a type of seaweed. We said hello to a friendly kitty before heading back to the house. So for dinner that night, we started with snacks – limu poke with very tasty sesame garlic crackers from ‘Ulu & Kalo bakery, and a Big Wave golden ale from Kona Brewing (tasting notes: malty, lemon hay – 3.25/5). Then I turned my attention to the steaks. I used a coffee rub from Aloha Spice Company and cooked the steaks on a stove in a cast iron pan. I had forgotten to buy butter so I made do with the vegan “milkadamia” buttery spread that was in the fridge as a finishing touch (delicious stuff by the way). For the veggies, we had local bok choy (delish) with scallions, soy + a touch of local sauerkraut as my source of ginger/garlic and for an extra punch of flavor.