blue_dolphin

Cashew celery with kale and teriyaki tofu from Tenderheart by Hetty Lui McKinnon

Crispy chickpeas and lamb with greens and garlicky yogurt from Dining In by Alison Roman. Flatbread from Andy Baraghani’s The Cook You Want To Be.

Years ago, I went to Hong Kong at New Year’s time with a friend of mine who was born in Shanghai but grew up there. It was a wonderfully festive time to be there. The restaurants were packed with even bigger than usual family groups. Everyone seemed to be relaxed and in a good mood. A lot of places were closed the first few days but gradually started opening up again, though everyone seemed to be in party mode, coming into the office late, sharing food gifts, etc. The timing of the trip was because a friend of my friend was a travel agent who was arranging travel for her high school class reunion. They chose that time as many classmates who still lived in Hong Kong had time off and it was a good time to visit for those who had moved away. My friend and I were able to take advantage of the group rates for airfare and hotel but otherwise did our own thing: she mostly visited with family and friends, I mostly used my book of walking tours to wander about on my own, meeting up for afternoon tea or dinner with whatever group of her family and friends were passing through. My friend was also a coworker and I happened to be her boss or, as I described it, her talent manager. Whenever she introduced me as her boss, I was embarrassingly catered to as some sort of esteemed person! I wouldn’t otherwise have picked that time of year but it ended up being very enjoyable trip.

Not a restaurant, but if you happened to be in Santa Monica on a Wednesday or Saturday, a walk through the downtown farmers markets might be interesting. Wednesday is bigger but both have quite a wide range of produce all year and the farmers are usually happy to answer questions. Both run from 8 AM - 1 PM on Arizona between 2nd & 4th Streets. There are a number of public parking structures in the area at reasonable cost.

Potato and onion varenyky (from a local small business), garlic and herb labne, roasted and marinated beets and pickled onions all on a bed of arugula.

A belated Valentine’s post. Cheese thumbprints (from Deep Run Roots) filled with pomegranate and jalapeño jelly.

I haven’t tried these but I quite like the Trader Joe’s version. The flavor is a little like a cross between salt-preserved lemon and olive! My Walmart neighborhood market has surprised me with black garlic and a wide range of ingredients I didn’t expect to find there.

Where will you be staying?

The video promises a roasted chicken stock in one hour and I believe it delivers exactly that. Shredding up the meat from a pre-cooked chicken to increase the surface area and allow for a shorter cooking time sounds smart if a 60 min stock is the goal. I generally simmer to reduce a stock to concentrate the flavor. I think he has a fair point that doing so will drive off some of the volatile flavor molecules along with the water but I see no data to back that up.

Salmon burger with cabbage and radish slaw I spread the bun and dressed the slaw with the cilantro-based Green Sauce from Good Things by Samin Nosrat. I tried a brief baking soda brine that Nik Sharma touted to reduce albumin leakage and improve the texture of salmon cooked on high heat and it lived up to that. He uses 2T baking soda/quart of cold water for 15 min. I rinsed off the brine, patted the fish dry and seasoned it before starting skin-side down in a very hot pan. very little albumin leakage, most of those bright spots are highlights.

And it’s not like you can reduce the salt by just removing the skin because they’re injected throughout with brine!

Costco loses money on every one of those birds. There is nowhere near me where I can get even one whole chicken for five bucks, let alone two! I like your method though!

If you discarded the carcass, you discarded most of the gelatin. Read the first comment on the video:

Chris Young says he used the whole thing - skin, meat and bones. How about you?

That sounds quite similar to the curry chicken salad I make. I use my friend’s masala mixture and always toast it before adding to the mayo. I add halved red grapes and chunks of green apple.

I made this again with roasted, marinated beets, garlic and herb labne, and smoked sablefish from my weekly fish share.

I have my personal “classic” tuna salad and egg salad, both just like my mom used to make. I rarely make chicken salad but when I do, it’s always something different, no “classic” there. Restaurants in my area commonly offer a range of salads that can be “upgraded” with the addition of sliced, grilled chicken, steak or salmon. That’s not what comes to my mind when I think of “chicken salad” but I guess they are.

When all else fails….read the directions!

I put this over in the dinner topic but might as well add it here as well. 2008 Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel blend: 74% Zinfandel, 21% Petite Sirah, 5% Carignane Excellent! Still tons of fruit even at this age. Very dry, just the right touch of tannin and a really long finish.

Anchovy Lamb Chops with Capers and Garlic from Melissa Clark’s Dinner Changing the Game, with boiled new potatoes dressed with Pancetta Vinaigrette from Six Seasons, spooned over baby kale. The lamb recipe calls for lamb shoulder chops which I haven’t cooked before but lamb shoulder was on sale for $5.99/lb and I needed some to make the lamb ragu in Six Seasons of Pasta so I had the butcher cut me a few chops so I could try it out. Melissa says the key to shoulder chops is to cook them either fast and furious or low and slow. This was the fast and furious version and 3 min/side in a screaming hot pan gave a nice crust and a pink, medium rare interior and a loud smoke detector! That was a big chop, 15 oz before cooking, so I have leftovers to play around with. All washed down with a nice zin…

The crust can puff up like a balloon, either the whole thing or in pockets. When you add the filling, those sections will crack, the custard will run out and accumulate under the crust. Docking should prevent that but can also leave tiny holes behind that can let the custard leak through, something I like to avoid but do go ahead if that’s your preference.

Yes, you want to be able to use the parchment paper to lift out the weights.

It was quite nice. The recipe follows Jeni’s Splended Ice Cream’s standard recipe and is credited to her. I made a fennel and black pepper ice cream in the past but most of the fennel flavor came from the fennel seeds. No seeds in this one, just the stems so the flavor is more subtle but the lemon zest and vanilla complement it nicely. Coincidentally, a friend of mine just made a roasted fennel ice cream for a plated dessert and said she roasted it until it was quite charred around the edges. Sounds interesting!

I prefer to pre-bake before filling to minimize the soggy bottom issue. I don’t dock the crust. I do use pie weights - same dried beans and popcorn I’ve been using for 20 years or more! I put parchment paper in first, then beans. I bake at 400°F until the crust is just starting to turn brown. If you note any holes or cracks in the crust before baking, press them back together with moistened fingers. If you note holes or cracks after the pre-bake, you can patch them up with small slices of whatever cheese you are using. Pop it back in the oven for a minute so the cheese melts and seals the cracks.

I made the Fruit & nut biscotti with orange & fennel from Baking & the Meaning of Life by Helen Goh because I was looking for a little cookie to go with the fennel stalk ice cream with lemon and vanilla bean that I made from Cooking with Scraps by Lindsay-Jean Hard The biscotti dough is pressed into a pan instead of shaping into a loaf for the first bake. The fruit is dried apricots, blueberries, and I subbed in dried cherries for the currants in the recipe. Nuts are almond and pistachio. I made a half batch, baked in a 1/8 sheet pan. I used . Helen said not to skip the dip in white chocolate and she was right - they’re not particularly sweet so it’s a nice touch. Should be a fun recipe to play around with different fruit and nut combos. I’m thinking a tropical version with mango, papaya, pineapple, coconut and macadamia nuts would be fun.