Shel_B

Indeed it is. I was watching a cooking show recently where the instructor was using minimal ingredients and suggested that "poverty cooking" was a great way to learn technique and hone one's skills.

Isn't surimi generally made with wild caught pollock?

Way cool If I had the space, I'd grab it.

I made another batch of mustard yesterday using this recipe from Serious Eats as a jumping off point. If you've been following this thread, you'll know I made the SE recipe a while back and liked it. Nonetheless, the world is filled with mustard recipe options and I want to continue experimenting. What I made yesterday was a modification of the SE recipe, the point of which was to see how small changes would affect the result. The intent of the modification(s) was to tone down the intensity of the mustard slightly as a couple of people thought it was "too hot." I could see their point even though I was fine with it. The changes were simple. Instead of 3/4 cup of brown mustard seed I used 1/2 cup brown and 1/4 cup yellow. I also substituted brown rice vinegar for the white wine vinegar in the original recipe. The yellow mustard seed was a good choice, but I'm not so sure about the brown rice vinegar. It seemed to mute the brightness of the mustard somewhat. As this will be an ongoing experiment, I'll revert back to the original vinegar with the next batch. I also want to experiment with different mustard seeds and different styles of mustard. Dijon will be next.

Thick Veggie Stew with Caramelized Sweet Potato and Smoked Pancetta Sauce

Cacio e Pepe Polenta: Bob's Red Mill corn meal cooked with the addition of Kampot black pepper, 12-month aged Pecorino Romano, and a small pat of unsalted Kerry Gold butter, accompanied by some strong Himalayan black tea. I don't have my glasses handy this morning so I hope the image looks OK.

Pasta Saragolla Rigatoncini for lunch today (link). This was the first time I made this pasta, and "I'll be back." While not as heavily wheat-flavored as the whole wheat pastas I've had, it has a deeper, more earthy flavor than a standard pasta, such as a typical Rustichella d'Abruzzo. I made a variation on a broccoli sauce that I've made before. I cooked up some small-diced smoked pancetta in a small amount of Calabrian chili oil, including some ground peppers, and a bit of a friend's Rancho Milagro EVOO, locally grown in a nearby town. A very fresh and flavorful bottling. The pasta was cooked in the water used to cook the broccoli. The dish was topped with a one year old Pecorino Romano. A little bonus was that the pancetta pieces would work themselves into the pasta tubes, adding a little surprise with the bite. And since the broccoli was not completely smooth, sometimes a piece of broccoli would find its way inside as well. This is a great pasta, but not for everyone or for even most dishes. But when everything comes together, this pasta and the simple, quick meal it made, is a delight.

In the past, I've enjoyed whole wheat pasta in certain dishes. This pasta, I understand, is a little milder than the whole wheat pasta I've used in the past, and I'm looking forward to giving it try this weekend or soon after. There's a dish already chosen, so it's just a matter of scheduling the time at the stove. Has anyone tried this pasta?

The second is a nicer image, IMO, although the spacing of the buns around the dip could be improved slightly. In any case, seems like a tasty meal.

Dinner tonight, and leftovers for tomorrow, is Summer Squash, Peppers, and Broken Spaghetti Soup cooked in a light, homemade chicken stock. There were a couple of squash in the fridge heading for retirement age, likewise a couple of small Bell peppers ... so, soup time. I added some Bionaturae organic whole wheat spaghetti broken into manageably-sized pieces and seasoned the dish with a couple of types of dried pepper flakes and a few turns of fresh ground white pepper. A simple meal for a couple-three days that came together in about 20 minutes.

One more like this and you'll have hit the Groan Trifecta ...

In general, I dislike the plastic clamshells for any and all of the reasons mentioned. Our recycling center does a good job with plastics, but the reality is that much is still not properly recycled and ends up in the waste stream or being shipped elsewhere. However, there is one situation I've encountered where I prefer the clamshell packaging, and that's with Costco's rotisserie chicken. I don't like the new, more efficient, reduced waste bag in which the chicken is now packaged and sold. It's messier to remove the chicken and I have to come up with another way to store it. And, the last time I was at Costco, every new bag that I touched was greasy on its outside, to the point where I just didn't buy a chicken. I buy the rotisserie chicken for convenience, and the new packaging reduces that convenience for me substantially.

That's reasonably close to what I do, although after all these years I kind of wing it when making the sauce. Depends on what's handy, the type and amount of PB, and my mood. I tend to add Szechuan pepper to the sauce. Sometimes soaking the covered jar in hot water will help free any stubborn PB in the jar. You could also add hot water to the recipe. I've never used the technique with a plastic container, only glass. I eschew plastic almost universally in my kitchen ... almost <sigh> can't get away from it completely. Anyway, experiment and have fun. FWIW, this morning I got a couple-three extra loads of laundry out of an "empty" laundry detergent jug.

@Tropicalsenior I've been making a variation of this for several years: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IvVnEs7ML7c

TJ's Potato Tots, cooked crispy outside with a soft interior in the Breville oven, The tots are lightly dressed with Marie Sharp's Green Habanero & Nopales hot sauce. Peet's coffee ...

Your information is appreciated. I didn't know just how the coils were heated. From what you're saying, it's how the heat is transferred to the pan that effects the final efficiency. If the metal sheathing upon which the pan rests is of a design or of a material that transfers heat more effectivly, the hob overall would be more efficient. And if heat transfer through the sheathing could be improved by design or material, then less electricity would be needed to heat the pan to a certain point. I'm just trying to see if I understand how the heating coils wrk. Do I have the concept correct?

OK, I get what you're saying. I have a question, though. I recall reading somewhere that coil burnes with thinner coils were more efficient than the, at the time, older, wider coils> Is there some/amy truth to that? Would more, narrower windins make for quicker heating of the pan? Is there any design that makes for more efficient use of the electicity that's being consumed, such as (just guessing) thinner coils that heat up quicker?

There are many choices here from a variety of sources. I'm starting to learn about the differences in burner design and hoping I can find some that are more efficient and less expensive to operate.

"Kaledo" Verde: got a jump on lunch and made a version of Caldo Verde this morning, which I'll enjoy later in the day. Leek, onion, Yukon Golds with skin, and a big bunch of kale, including diced stems, simmered in my poblano-infused vegetable broth and enhanced with a bit of Aleppo and Gochugaru pepper. I've gotta stop using my phone for pics, but it's so convenient ...

Yesterday I experienced something quite strange: the burner that I most frequently use wouldn't boil water. I was making some spaghetti in a skillet, and it seemed that the water wasn't quite coming to a boil. Later on, I tested my observation by using plain water in the skillet and taking the temp with the Thermopen. The water never got above 210-deg F, and took a very long time to even reach that sub-par temp. I did some checking and learned that the heating elements can degrade and wear out. I never knew that. So, I took the rarely-if-ever-used element from a back burner and swapped it for the poorly performing front burner, and I was amazed at the difference. The element heated very quickly by comparison, and got the water up to temperature faster than any time in recent memory. So, a cautionary tale: electric burners degrade and one might do well to check and replace them every now and then. Additional comment: I was cooking some onions in a Le Creuset earler this morning, and had the heat set to medium, where it's usually been. Surprise! The new burner was strong enough that I had to turn down the heat to prevent scorching.

This is one of many food-conserving and thrifty tricks I learned from my parents and grandparents: making a salad dressing from the dregs of a mayonnaise jar. I was pleasantly surprised to see it turn up in a You Tube video. Maybe you'll find it useful, perhaps it'll give you some ideas or motivate you to post some similar tricks you use. https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-old-empty-mayo-jar-dressing-trick.html And here's the short You Tube version in case you're the impatient type: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/987oZ1MM5w0

I made Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce ... Yesterday, while reviewing some sauce recipes, I realized that I'd never made Hazan's well-known, simple tomato sauce. Since all the ingredients were handy (hard to imagine them not) I gave it a try. Of the various tomatoes on hand, I chose Bianco DiNapoli whole peeled tomatoes. I wanted to use tomatoes packed in a thicker sauce, and the Biancos are packed in a pureé-like sauce which is much thicker than the Argo Sarnese-Nocerino San Marzanos that were also in the cupboard. I slightly modified the recipe by adding a nice-sized pinch of of a mixture of Turkish Aleppo pepper and Calabrian pepper sauteéd in the butter before adding the tomatoes and onion. While the recipe calls for a cooking time of about 45 minutes, increasing the time to cook the sauce down further was the choice I made. Apart from evaporation reducing the sauce, it left a bit of fond on the sides of the pot which I scrapped back down into the sauce while it cooked. The resultant sauce was somewhat darker colored and rustic-textured. I had the sauce for lunch today with fusilli pasta. I saved the onions from last nights cooking, cut them unto strips approximating the length of the pasta, and added them back into the sauce when it was reheated with the fusilli. I also added a very small amount of roasted garlic. This was very good ... Yummy!

Potato Vegetable Soup for lunch. I cooked up a couple of Yukon Gold potatoes (skin on) in a homemade veggie stock enhanced with a Reggiano rind, a small minced garlic clove, and and a seeded and crumbled Chile de Arbol. Broke up the spuds to make a nice thick soup and added diced zucchini, yellow squash, some leek, and some frozen, assorted veggies, including broccoli florets, carrot, green beans, and corn.

A Very Simple Dinner To my homemade vegetable stock I added some finely diced vegetables: leek, carrot, zucchini, yellow squash, orange bell pepper, bok choy, a small handful of frozen, mixed veggies, and a few scoops of leftover basmati rice along with some Korean pepper flakes.