blue_dolphin

Tortilla is still the more common term around here. Depending on the store, I see an increasing amount of shelf space devoted to "wraps" of various flavors and colors and made from different types of flours with a significant number of "gluten-free" options. They are often made by tortilla companies but the wraps are often packaged in smaller packages at higher prices: Annals of Price Discrimination: A Wrap’s Just a Tortilla That Costs More

From what people share in online baking forums, including this one, it is more common to pull favorite component recipes from different sources than to find a single cake recipe with cake, filling, frosting, toppings and glazes that perfectly suit individual tastes. So go ahead and dig into all those reference books you’ve collected and assemble your masterpiece!

Thank the good lord!

You could order yams (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) from an on-line source.

So many windy days here, too. There was an article in the LA Times a week or so ago, Why it’s been so warm and windy in Southern California this winter, that said that there had been at least 20 Santa Ana wind events this season, with each lasting 2-3 days, equating to 40 - 60 days of wind. I believe we've had 2 additional events since the article. I find it unsettling, even in my house - can't imagine having days upon days of it in an RV!

I have Zoe's Ghana Kitchen and it does not have a recipe for Mbahal which is a Senegalese dish. The Mbahal recipe in last month's Bon Appétit does sound good, even if you question its authenticity!

This recipe for yakgwa looks kinda similar but doesn’t have pumpkin. This one has pumpkin seeds as a decoration. Another recipe here (scroll down) This blog post tells about the different types but no recipe.

My favorite is Max Halley's Sandwich Book. Runner up is A Super Upsetting Book About Sandwiches. In the grilled cheese category: The Great Grilled Cheese Book: Grown-Up Recipes for a Childhood Classic

I'm not familiar with Hotel Room Service cookbooks. Most hotels offer room service items off their restaurant menus and there are all sorts of hotel restaurants. What are your favorite Hotel Room Service cookbooks? That might also help us understand what you mean by "best"? Most complete? Easiest recipes? Most thoroughly illustrated with photographs?

Coconut curry shrimp and sugar snap peas over brown basmati rice I was in the mood 🙃 I had some coconut curry that I bought from ZEF BBQ so all I had to do was cook the rice and toss this together. Itch scratched!

Thanks a bunch for resurrecting this thread. Just read back through it - so many good ideas! Please consider snapping some “before” photos for the kitchen reno thread you’ll be sharing with us…..you will be sharing, right? Please and pretty please 🙃

I agree. I've cooked quite a bit from it and have more recipes on my list. And it’s a treat just to read!

Thanks for sharing this, @Kerala! A while back, I made the prawn version that appears in the Dishoom cookbook and thought it was delicious. I need to make it again soon and will review this again before I do.

I order it from Fishing Vessel St. Jude in Seattle. Not cheap but good stuff and I like supporting a small family-owned business.

Smoked tuna salad and avocado on a TJ's Taiwanese Green Onion pancake.

Grains for Every Season: Broccoli, Tuna and Wheat Berry Gratin p 236 Josh McFadden is from the midwest and clearly has an affection for tuna casseroles. There was a deconstructed green bean casserole and a summer squash "Tuna Melt" casserole in Six Seasons and here we have his take on a broccoli version. Takes me back to the meatless Fridays of my childhood where something like made regular appearances and a canned "cream of" soup was surely involved. This one is better with a garlicky cheese sauce and the addition of some chewy wheat berries that make it a complete meal. I used smoked tuna for some extra flavor, skipped the optional Garlic-Chile Crunch but otherwise followed the recipe in a scaled-down version. Not sure I need to make this again but it was a satisfying meal.

Yes! And the raisins are plumped in warm water with a squeeze of lemon juice so they add a nice sweet/tart punch. I thought I might want to add some feta or something but it's quite good as is.

Grains for Every Season: Grated Carrot Salad with Peanuts, Raisins and Wheat Berries p 231 Good combination of flavors, textures and colors. I made this according to the recipe except substituting pistachios in for the peanuts.

Grains for Every Season: Buckwheat Scones, Your Way p 85. I made a half recipe of these - 6 scones. They are very light and delicious and the size is just right. This recipe uses buckwheat, whole wheat and all purpose flours. It suggests making them "your way" by adding any combination of candied ginger, dried fruit, chocolate, toasted nuts and/or fresh or frozen fruit and includes recipes for vanilla, Meyer lemon, maple, or chocolate frostings or a nut glaze. Given today's date, I chose the mix-ins that I'd use to make Irish soda bread: caraway seeds and dried currants that I plumped in Irish whiskey. I considered making a whiskey glaze but ended up just brushing the tops with cream and a sprinkle of turbinado sugar, another of the topping options. @tikidoc's cream scone recipe is my go-to. Just cream, no butter, just mix, shape and bake without the chilling step here. I may try just subbing the buckwheat and whole wheat flours into that recipe but this one is awfully good, too!

I hope you like them! Kind of amazing that they can ship them over here and still sell for such a low price. There's excess of plastic in the packaging - I've been saving the flat sheets for when I want to separate pancakes or waffles in the freezer - but otherwise, I think they're pretty great. I had one the other day folded over avocado and kimchi - yum!

Grains for Every Season: (not) Chanterelles and Wilted Kale Quiche in Whole Wheat Flaky Pastry Dough p 255 Never will I ever be able to afford a full pound of chanterelles to put in quiche so I used regular old creminis and seasoned them with TJ's Umami blend in lieu of salt. I don't have a 10-inch tart pan so used a 10-inch deep-dish pie pan, which the recipe specifically said not to use. I can see why as the filling was so deep that it took forever to set up, hence the top being more browned than the recipe intended. The pie crust was interesting. I have never blind baked a crust at such a low temp (325°F) or for such a long time (recipe says 30 min with weights + 20 empty, mine took an hour). I've got the other half of the dough in the freezer and may use my regular time and temp to see if this is necessary. It is indeed nice and flaky with the edges puffing up quite bit. I added an egg wash as I always do with a quiche as it helps prevent leaks and is easy to do since you're already beating up a bunch of eggs. I've noted enough changes that you can see I can't really rate the book recipe but I found the process interesting and the quiche was fine but not one of my best. A pound of chanterelles might take it over the top but that's not happening in my world!

Not at all new, but I just grated up a block of gruyère and some Parm with the Mouli Julienne that was one of my first kitchen purchases 40 years ago. Like this

My TJ's has always had the dry pasta shelves stocked rather than bare but the number of varieties has been way down. They just spread out what they’ve got! Haven’t seen spaghetti, linguine or fettuccine in quite a long time until my last visit when they had some multi-color spaghetti. Still no plain stuff.

Sally Schmidt passed away on March 5 at 90. Her cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is due out on April 5. ‘All that mattered’: Farm-to-table pioneer, founder of The French Laundry in Yountville leaves culinary legacy

Two ZEF-tover breakfasts, made with leftovers from Saturday's take-out from ZEF BBQ. I ate all the crawfish from the Viet-Cajun boil right away, of course. Yesterday, I tossed the leftover sausage, potatoes and corn into this frittata with some onions, spinach and arugula. This morning, I heated one of the Portuguese sweet breads and enjoyed it along with the miso-honey butter and smoked pineapple jam that came along with it. The bread, on its own, was not my favorite but it was pretty stellar slathered with that butter and jam. Nice Cara Cara orange from the farmers market.