blue_dolphin

Go ahead and whizz up that persimmon stuff, @Smithy! I bought 4 hachiya persimmons for the purpose of making ice cream but the biggest one is stubbornly remaining very firm. I might have to scale things down and make a smaller batch. Over in another thread, @paulraphael recommended thyme ice cream and sage ice cream, both of which sound very appealing to me.

I like! I'm also curious about that. I'd kinda like to try them on their own but a quick perusal of my cookbooks shows several ice cream recipes pairing honey with the thyme and maple and/or pumpkin with the sage. Also roasted pineapple & sage and blackberry & sage. Sage and walnut or hazelnut sounds appealing to me, too. Edited to add: Also found quite a few recipes for lemon thyme ice cream. Some started with lemon thyme but others were actually lemon + thyme. I might start with that latter one. After getting a recommendation for it, I bashed up a batch of this Sage Pesto from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. The book gives weights of 1/4 oz for the fresh sage leaves, 2 oz for the walnuts and 1 oz for the Parmigiano-Reggiano. Judy also has you gently warm the chopped sage with a little of the olive oil and instructs to bash everything with a mortar and pestle, starting with the garlic and a pinch of salt, then adding the warmed sage leaves, then the nuts, cheese and remaining olive oil. I added the zest and juice of half a lemon. Not sure why I linked that recipe as it seems like everything I did was different 🙃 The header notes say that stuff is good as a garnish for soups, stirred into white bean purée, or polenta. Pasta, of course, with charred tomatoes or sautéed zucchini. I made some crostini topped with a walnut-ricotta sauce from David Kinch's At Home in the Kitchen and added a dollop of the sage pesto and a fried sage leaf to each:

I use the syrup to sweeten popsicles, iced tea, in cocktails or hot toddies. But you've got a lot more than I usually end up with.

I figured it was podcast fodder. He got a lot of mileage out of it, maybe more than expected.

Mine haven't shipped yet. Looking forward to those good luck BEPs!

I have the dead tree version of that book and like it a lot. Simple, reliable and tasty recipes. It's not going to take you off on uncharted culinary adventures but it's just the ticket when you need something to eat.

Wow, interesting and vivid observations, @jedovaty! My anxiety dreams tend to be travel-related mix-ups of all sorts but, thankfully, no dental crises yet! I'll have to do a cooking-time comparison with this stuff. I think I’ve been cooking it around 11-12 min. I think Pastagrammer liked 9 min or less but that seems on the crunchy side to me.

I'm very sorry about the challenges you are dealing with, especially the vision issues, but otherwise delighted that at least one thing is right with the world and ladies continue to lunch!

Hey @Kim Shook, what's up with your persimmons? I usually buy Fuyu, which can be eaten when they are still firm and crisp but at last week's farmers market, I also bought some Hachiya because I want to make some persimmon sorbet or ice cream and I've read that Hachiya are the better choice for that purpose. I bought the 4 Fuyu on the left 2 weeks ago and they've been sitting at room temp since. Two of them are starting to soften, the other 2 are still pretty hard. They'd all be fine to eat. The Hachiya's have been on the counter for one week. The two lower and smaller Hachiya's on the right are very soft, kinda like water balloons. While the farmer assured me that they'd all be ready in a week, the other 2 are just starting to soften at the bottom ends but still firm at the top and need more time. I'm not concerned about any of the black spots or marks on the skin.

I think I would like your apple stuff mixed with a sharp, grainy mustard on sausages with sauerkraut. In Deep Run Roots, Vivian Howard has a recipe for something she calls apple mustard which is kind of a kicked-up apple butter. She serves it with a charred cabbage & apple slaw and as a dip for sausage balls. I liked it a lot. The recipe is available online at this link in case you ever want to take it in that direction.

It really does!

This White Bean Spread with Rosemary and Toasted Almonds from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day is a favorite of mine. I use a generous amount of rosemary and garlic and warm them gently for quite a while before straining. The flavors infuse into the oil but no harshness.

Your wish is my command! Edited to remove photo because it's off-topic. I'll find another spot!

Roasted Apples with Calvados and Cinnamon Ice Cream from Sunday Suppers at Lucques p 361 I made a half batch of the ice cream using the Ninja Creami but otherwise followed the recipe. Small apples get cut in half, cored, then tossed with white and brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, Calvados and a vanilla bean-infused brown butter and roasted. They were to have been basted often during the roast time but I neglected to read that part. I don't believe any harm was done as they were delicious.

Loved seeing the witches on the water in @heidih's link! I DID go and buy treats yesterday afternoon. I specifically selected an assortment that included bags of Funyuns, just in case @Anna N came by 🙃. Alas, she did not, nor did anyone else. That means I have 18 snack-size bags of salty treats (per the label, 3 should be Funyuns), which is not so bad - I almost bought the 45-bag pack, just in case. And the cats were not traumatized by a single knock or doorbell ring, though it would have been a good experience for my two trainee cats. Slight disappointment as even though I didn't have a costume, my hair is currently bright orange in the front and acid green in the back (Psychedelic Sunset and Electric Lizard from Manic Panic for those interested in specifics, both glow under black lights) so I could have earned points from the kids. The day before Halloween, a lady at Trader Joe's gasped when I turned around and said, "Oh, my god - you did that to your own hair!!! I saw you earlier and thought it must be a wig! True engagement is rare in these days of masked grocery shopping!

So I had pretty much the same thought when I saw this photo ad pop up in Facebook: I wasn't familiar with the brand and it took a while before I got to the very bottom of the label and saw what it really is!

Debating whether to run to the store for treats - snack size chips, Doritos, Fritos etc are my usual - or just leave the lights off and hide. I rarely get any kids. None last year, of course. I have this much candy corn, bought for decorative purposes but I don’t think I should reach into the candle holder and hand out fistfuls of the stuff.

Mine turned out with a pleasant level of heat from the green chilies but I needed to add a LOT of lemon. I would like to try it again but will marinate the fish, which I believe is more traditional and squeeze in lots of lime, which is probably not 🙃

Please continue to report your findings. I’ve got a quart of lychee nectar that I’d like to play with. According to the label, it's 23% lychee pulp and has added sugar and pectin. Maybe I’ll just freeze some as is and see what happens.

That sounds really good. It is kind of curious that this recipe starts off with cooking down the onion & tomato instead of calling for some of the onion-tomato masala that's used in so many other recipes in the book. Edited to add: While I'm here, I might as well share my own mostly Dishoom dinner. Chole, Kachumber and Raita from Dishoom with chapati from Made in India

How many different recipes have you tried in the Ninja and have deemed less than good? I'm a complete novice when it comes to ice cream. My Ninja experiences: Limoncello ice cream from the Ninja booklet - this seemed OK at first but after a re-spin, I got those micro-butter bits. Lesson learned. The others have all been quite satisfactory: Peach ice cream from David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop White peach sorbet from Momofuku Milk Bar Pumpkin vanilla chai ice cream from a recipe on Food52 that was described as using a Jeni's base Cinnamon ice cream from Sunday Suppers at Lucques Earl Grey Ice Cream from Van Leeuwen Artisian Ice Cream Book (this flavor recommended upthread by @chefmd)

Chicken livers on toast from Dishoom. More info over here in the chicken liver love topic.

Seeing this thread prompted me to pick up some chicken livers yesterday so I could try a new-to-me version of chicken livers on toast from the breakfast section of Dishoom. The livers are first marinated in, then cooked along with a spice paste containing ginger, garlic, cumin, turmeric, deggi mirch chili powder, garam masala and yogurt. Served on grilled toast with fresh coriander leaves and lime wedges. The lime was surprising to me but an absolutely perfect complement to the rich liver. Very delicious. I highly recommend. Recipe can be found online here.

I’m guessing it’s this one: Azurmendi(eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Not much info on the Amazon listing. Kitchen Arts & Letters has a little more in their listing.

Welcome, @Dejan! I’d like to know more about Croatian dishes. I have only visited Dubrovnik and Split. What part of Croatia are you from?