blue_dolphin

Made Eric Kim's Chamomile Tea Cake With Strawberry Icing from NYT Cooking. Baked in 3 mini loaf pans and put 2 in the freezer. The fragrance of the chamomile infusing into the melted butter and the hot milk was intoxicating. The taste of the cake didn't quite live up to the anticipation that fragrance built up but it's still a very tasty cake.

Following @Duvel's Parisian bistro lunches, @BonVivant's asparagus extravaganza and @Kim Shook's gorgeous benedicts, I give you a bowl of pasta made from scraps 🙃 Leek top cacio e pepe:

Another pumpernickel bagel. This time, I tried the Triple Lemon Cheese schmear recipe from Cathy Barrow's bagel book. It's got lemon zest, lemon juice and salt-preserved lemon. It's was great with the bagel but would also be excellent on little tea sandwiches with watercress, cucumber or radish. Too bad I blew out the photo as it's very pretty with flecks of fresh parsley and the little cubes of preserved lemon.

Olive oil braised leeks and snap peas with feta and dill from Diana Henry's Simple. Deviled eggs, Campari tomatoes and toasted whole grain baguette Not sure if it shows up but the eggs are colored with turmeric for a little Easter touch 🐣

If the disks look nice and shiny in the photos then I don't think you need to worry about them being dull. A lot of them seem to be unused and in the original boxes. Make sure to get one with 5 disks so you get the fine one that Dave pictured above. I bought mine for my first undergrad apartment kitchen so it has been in regular use for decades. Some of the disks are less than shiny but I don't have any issues with them being too dull to crank out tons of cheese or carrots. I will say that the older, all metal ones like my mom had have a much smaller space for loading veg or cheese. One might think the all-metal construction would be sturdier than the plastic but the small hopper is a negative. The plastic type like I have came in orange (as Dave and I have), beige (like @weinoo got) and white I believe they perform equally. There was a newer white plastic model with a less angular, more curved shape that I heard was a lot less stable. I think it also had only 3 disks. I'd avoid that.

Yesterday, friends dropped off these nice young leeks from their garden: All but three went into this Tom Colicchio recipe for baked eggs with braised leeks and mushrooms. Toasted whole grain baguette slices, Campari tomatoes, fresh squeezed tangerine juice, black coffee and a glass of bubbles. Happy Easter! The recipe calls for an astonishing amount of heavy cream which I reduced but could easily have reduced further. Still, it was delicious. Decadently so. The recipe says to feel free to add other ingredients so I diced a little country ham and added it to the leeks as they cooked. I also added about double the given amount of mushrooms. Oh, and I don't have the best of luck with baked eggs so I dropped a poached egg on top after it came out of the oven.

I have all three of those appliances. Since I got the Instant Pot, the (non-Zo) rice cooker has lived in the garage. It's unlikely to break out there but if it does, I will not replace it. I am very happy with IP rice while others here are not. Key for me is being able to cook small amounts with the pot-in-pot method. In fact, pot-in-pot is the only way I cook rice in the IP. And it does a very good job with brown rice and other grains.

Not to worry, the recipe is right where you remember it:

If you are looking for a strong caramel flavor, I'm not sure baking dulce de leche into a cake is the best single flavoring agent. People do use dulce de leche in all sorts of cakes though. Often mixed with other milks and poured over the top like in the common Tres Leches or Quatro Leches Cakes. Or incorporated in a filling or frosting. These links should take you to a list of cake recipes that use it in different ways. Some aren't what I'd call "a normal sort of cake mix" but should give you some ideas to run with. Cakes Cupcakes/small cakes I must say that Sour Cream Dulce de Leche Swirl Cake recipe sounds really good! I'll also recommend Dulce de Leche: Recipes, Stories, & Sweet Traditions (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) as a cookbook that's delightful to read with all sorts of recipes using dulce de leche, including cakes.

It's generally considered that a list of ingredients can't be copyrighted so it's OK to share that. The text of recipe instructions can be subject to copyrights but paraphrasing, as you've done here is OK. Is this the recipe you are using? A malt loaf is kind of an odd bird as it treads the line between cake and bread. Some recipes, like this one by Prue Leith doesn't even include yeast. I'm not familiar enough with it to offer much help except to say that that checking the temps of everything (water, proofing space, oven and baked loaf) is surely a good idea. And sinking is often a sign of underbaking.

I cook them in a skillet, too. I use a cast iron skillet with a little oil heated to hot but not more than a wisp of smoke. Cook them on the first side until they are translucent all the way across - they usually start to bubble up at this point. Then flip and cook the other side. Sometimes I flip back to the first side if I want it more cooked. Next time I'll make note of how long it takes. One thing to note is that TJ's sells both Korean and Taiwanese-style pancakes and the Korean ones don't get flaky. This is the same breakfast I had yesterday. Pumpernickel bagel (yesterday's was fresh baked, today's repeat was frozen, then resurrected via steam-bake in the CSO) with peanut butter. Just barely visible behind the bagel is a prune....or dried plum as they are called these days. I ate 3. They add kind of a PB& J vibe. No, I do not usually serve PB prettily on the plate like that but I had to use a spatula to get the dregs today. Bringing the jar to the table is one thing but adding a spatula is too much. And I eat my bagels by tearing off a piece and anointing each one individually.

Thanks! This recipe calls for 106 g pumpernickel flour (I used rye) + 320 g high-gluten flour for 6 bagels. My bread flour was a bit lower in gluten than the Sir Lancelot she recommends so I added a little vital wheat gluten to make up for that. I'll try the malt syrup in the water next time. I was reading over various bagel recipes before I boiled these and decided to throw in the baking soda at the last minute. Aside from a lot of bubbles when I put it in, there was no dramatic effect!

I wanted to cook more from these books before responding but I've done a little so I might as well share my thoughts thus far. Bagels, Schmears and a Nice Piece of Fish - As @Vapre says, Cathy Barrow is an engaging a writer. The book is full of family memories, stories and photos which I didn't expect but make it a fun read. I've made 2 batches of bagels and have been quite pleased with the results. The rest of the book would be pretty useful for pulling together a bagel platter or buffet spread even if you decide to buy the bagels instead of making your own. I reviewed about a dozen bagel recipes from other cookbooks and I believe this one does a good job at distilling the bagel recipe down to the basics, retaining the important use of barley malt and an overnight, refrigerated rise, both of which are key to good flavor. Most of the other recipes include additional steps (use of sponges or preferments, bulk rises, manual kneading, additional RT rises, Stella Parks uses a tangzhong and mixes her dough in a food processor, Vetri uses bagel boards, etc.) which may or may not add value but this is a solid start and her clear timing schedule makes it easy to have bagels ready when you want. The first section of the book breaks down the ingredients and process and is followed by recipes for basic New York bagels and several variations, including bagel dogs and a bialy recipe. It's well worth referring back to that first section the first few times through. The book also includes her tips for freezing - within 4 hrs and reheating plus recipes for bagel chips bagel croutons should any happen to go stale. The schmears section starts with recipes for making your own cultured cream cheese or making a "master schmear" by adding a little sour cream or creme fraiche and lemon juice to commercial cream cheese and is followed by a number of savory and sweet schmears that range from standard to fairly unique. I've made the scallion cheese and lox cheese and I'll be trying the one with salt preserved lemon, the hot honey & marcona almond and the dried apricot, coconut and thyme versions. The third section has recipes for making home cured or smoked fish and a range of salads/spreads, pickles. That's followed by a sandwich section and a couple of salads that use bagels. Korean American - There's quite a generous excerpt from the book, including several recipes, available via Amazon's "Look Inside" feature which give a good sense of the book so I won't say too much here. I bought this one because I enjoy Eric Kim's writing so I knew I'd enjoy reading it and that has certainly been the case. Eric worked on the book with his mom after moving back home to Atlanta during the pandemic. Lots of sweet family and personal stories that revolve around food and plenty of "Korean mom" tips tucked here and there in the recipes. The 9 recipes I've cooked from the book make me think of what my Korean friend's kids would eat on their own- that's because I started with simple toasts and easy breakfast dishes, as I usually do when dipping into a new book. This link should take you to my posts. There are lots of more sophisticated recipes in the book and I look forward to cooking more of them. I wouldn't recommend this to someone whose focus is solely on the recipes and gets annoyed by extraneous writing in cookbooks. The recipes here are well written, interesting, beautifully photographed and as personal as the stories but the writing is the star, for me.

Another batch of bagels from Bagels, Schmears and a Nice Piece of Fish. These are my best approximation of pumpernickel in that I used stone ground rye flour from a local mill instead of one specifically labeled "pumpernickel." Taste is good. I added some baking soda to the water used for boiling to see what what would happen. I think they are a little less glossy than the last batch but there's still a crisp crust and chewy interior. If I really want to make that comparison, I should do it within the same batch.

That all sounds pretty amazing! Though I must say the old school Catholics of my upbringing would certainly look askance at the appearance of prosciutto and chorizo on Good Friday 🙃

This one is the Whole Wheat Focaccia from Grains for Every Season. It's quite good but I think the recipe is over-scaled. I baked one quarter-sheet and one half-sheet from a recipe that was supposed to make just a half-sheet pan. And the 1210 g of flour is a lot for my mixer to handle. The recipe from Ottolenghi was my go-to for a long time very reliable and I've had good success subbing in various whole grain flours but I think the overnight fridge rise gives this one a bit more flavor. The recipe from Dessert Person makes a very airy focaccia that I like but all the big bubbles make it a bit less useful for sandwiches. And the amount of olive is excessive, particular if you want to make sandwiches. The recipe in Breaking Breads is excellent also. He bakes the breads freeform on a baking stone or steel so you can make whatever size you like.

Salmon sandwich on homemade focaccia with kimchi mayo. Messy but good.

I tried it and probably posted my results here but I routinely steam eggs on the stove top. When you get a new toy, you like to see what it can do! Plus, it could come in handy some day.....like when you're remodeling your kitchen and using the CSO to cook out in the garage 🙃 And yes, it's amazing for leftovers. Takes a little longer than the MW but the results are orders of magnitude better.

I go to the local market pretty much every week but obviously don't post about it all that often. Here's today's haul: Going clockwise from the eggs in the middle, we have beets, avocados, cilantro, parsley, mint, mizen, dill, dandelion greens and red romaine. The basket of citrus contains Eureka and Meyer lemons, pink grapefruit and Cara Cara oranges. A local sausage seller was offering these German-style pork roasts. I was very tempted but resisted.

Trader Joe's Taiwanese Green Onion Pancakes make another breakfast appearance, this time with some smoked salmon & scallion cream cheese, capers, Campari tomatoes and freshly squeezed tangerine juice (fruit from a friend's tree) Still in love with how crisp and flaky those pancakes are!

Sorry for not responding earlier. So far, I've just been reading and haven't cooked anything from the book yet so I've been reluctant to comment. That said, I think it's a very good book, with a lot of useful information. As someone who already owns a good selection of Asian cookbooks, I probably don't need to own it but it's so big, I'd never get through it on a library loan and I can see referring back to it from time to time, as I do with his other book, so I don't regret the purchase. As usual, Kenji has quite a lot to say about pretty much everything from buying a wok and pantry ingredients to knife skills, to the actual recipes and cooking so it's quite a comprehensive book. I happen to enjoy his writing so I've been enjoying reading. As with his Food Lab, a lot of the information I found useful is in the background materials rather than part of individual recipes so I think a person who wants to open the book to a recipe and start cooking is kind of missing the boat on this sort of book. The photos are utilitarian and tend to be small and simple. I think they serve the purpose of the book, the process photos are clear enough to see what's going on but the finished dishes aren't displayed in the highly styled glamour spreads that appear in many recent cookbooks. I'm happy to see the actual dish, cooked per the recipe rather than one where a food stylist decided to arrange a dish with ingredients that are not cut, mixed or cooked according to the recipe ....or even stuff that doesn't even appear in the recipe... for the sake of a photo.

Worth the time and effort compared to what? Ice cream recipes from other books? I find his recipes to be straightforward and not overly fussy so they don't require a lot more time and effort than other recipes I've made.

I've made several of his ice cream recipes, both from his blog and his book. They work well and I enjoyed them. I've never done a side-by-side sweetness level comparison with his recipes and Haagen Daz

Basically an over easy but I use an egg ring like McD's uses for the McMuffins so the egg is contained. Crack into the ring, when partially set, use corner of spatula to break yolk so it spreads out. Then remove ring, flip and finish cooking. It got smooshed a bit when I cut the waffle. Edited to add this photo, where you can see the round shape of the cooked egg before it got smooshed: The rings I have are ~ 3 inches in diameter. 3.5 might be better. And my rings are individual instead of 12 hooked together like at McD's 🙃

I forgot to mention this for the Kringle fans but the last few times I've been in TJ's, the raspberry version has been for sale. Personally, I'm not a Kringle fan - too sweet and insufficient crisp/crunch factor. Maybe the raspberry has some nice tartness? I dunno. I've bought them for gatherings and they are popular with a lot of people so I figured I'd mention in case anyone needs a quick addition to their Easter brunch buffet.