blue_dolphin

Are short-handled, often flat-bottomed spoons of this general type never used for soup in China? If it’s not a soup spoon, does it have a different name? I’ve been served soup in both Chinese and Japanese restaurants in the US with chopsticks only or with both chopsticks and one of these spoons. I’m pretty sure I saw them in restaurants in China as well but it’s been a while and I don’t remember exactly. Some of my Chinese colleagues often used this style of spoon, usually metal instead of porcelain, along with chopsticks for soups they'd brought for lunch.

My favorite sort of dining out - excellent choices, too!

I feel Anna's absence here very often. Not just in this topic though it very much belongs to her and Kerry. I also miss her when I submit a post about a new cookbook and realize it won’t initiate an entertaining discussion with Anna. When I was lucky, I might enable her into getting the book, too, and the discussion could continue even longer! I miss her reactions to my sometimes offbeat breakfast choices and admit to baiting her a little by including beans in something she would otherwise love and waiting for her witty response. Curious how much I miss someone I never met!

I’ve never seen fig honey either. Maybe the figs are sweet enough as is. Or because figs are generally pollinated by wasps so the bees take their business elsewhere.

Thanks! Nothing like a little pig fat and cream to smooth out the swordfish! I get a weekly fish share from a local community supported fishery group. They’ve started a side business to convert their fish scraps into fertilizer. I’m thinking sausage could be more lucrative 🙃 I’ll see what they think!

Sounds delicious! Is the swordfish sausage homemade? I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that, but nor have I specifically looked for it!

I think it would be but you’d run the risk of it coming out like a sorbet and you were clear that you didn’t want anything like that.

Two new-to-me olive oils from Katz Farm. For the Meyer lemon olive oil, they actually milled locally grown lemons along with the olives. The flavor is lovely. The other one was made from olives harvested in January, quite late. They say they’ve done this in the past for restaurant clients who wanted a milder olive oil for some recipes. The idea of paying a premium for a less flavorful product seems counterintuitive. If I want a milder olive oil flavor in an aioli or dressing, I use part EVOO and part neutral oil like avocado or sunflower. But they had a special if you bought both and I’m always curious. I’d say it tastes rich but without the bite of their regular oils.

Leftover Trader Joe's Tarte d'Alsace, reheated and topped with a fried egg

Well, I use the same mix for popsicles and sorbets. If you’re confident that your slushie machine would turn that into a sorbet, regardless of the dial setting, then perhaps popsicles aren’t a good starting point for your needs. Edited to add - maybe start with something as water-like as possible if that’s the texture you’re aiming for. Maybe a strong cup of tea or coffee, sweetened to your taste?

Recipes for popsicles and sorbets are pretty similar. In both cases, steps are usually taken to lessen the icy texture and make it more smooth at serving temp. You might want to do the opposite - leave out or reduce any alcohol, etc. Will you be using a cryostat or a freezing microtome to do the shaving? Are you wanting little frozen curls? Something more crumbly? Or something else?

A modified recipe for cheese on toast with spring onion, honey and Urfa butter from Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage In the book, it’s called Giant Cheese on Toast and is made with a whole loaf of focaccia or sourdough, sliced in half horizontally so it’s kind of like a cheesy bread pizza. I went with something more modest in scale 🙃

How much $$$ was it for how much feta?

One recipe, two lunches. Triple citrus tomato salad (or soup) from Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage. I made the salad version of this recipe first with some pretty heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market. The tomatoes marinate in a mix of lemon, lime and tangerine juices while you prepare the garnish which consists of crispy ginger, garlic, and chilies and the oil they’re fried in plus a sprinkle of fresh chives. The juices left in the plate were so slurpable that decided to try the soup version. It’s not as stunning as a colorful array of heirloom tomatoes but it’s just the ticket if you’ve got tomatoes that are too ripe to slice nicely. The soup gets a dollop of yogurt before adding the crispy, fried garnish and its oil which is just as delicious here as on the salad. I chilled the soup to just below room temp, not icy cold but the recipe says it can also be served warm. A nice alternative to gazpacho. Edited to add that both lunches were accompanied by an ear of corn on the cob. .

I think most people also think primarily of sweet galettes, though I have quite a few savory galette recipes in my cookbook collection. In the book's intro, Rebecca has this to say about what she’s calling a galette: