blue_dolphin

From the R-Rated Onions chapter in This Will Make It Taste Good, I made the Once-a-Week Roasted Chicken with Sweet Onion Cauliflower Purée p 60 Vivian has a number recipes in the book where the chicken is roasted on top of something else like rice, grits, bread, etc. where the chicken drippings make those things quite delicious. In this case, the lucky victim is cauliflower cut into 2"-thick steaks. Once the chicken is done, the roasted cauliflower is puréed with milk before being returned to the roasting pan which has been de-glazed with R-rated onions. My gracious that cauliflower purée is amazing. It's like the the lightest, most luxurious mousse that just happens to be a big umami bomb, too! Kinda like a rich brown gravy mousse. Not sure I should be eating chicken-fat saturated cauliflower on the regular but it's very good. The chicken itself won't replace my fave Zuni Café roast chicken but I didn't have to work around a loosely wrapped raw chicken in my fridge for days either so I give this a win.

I agree. Here's a recipe that uses a bit less, but it's in the same range.

@rotuts, I mentioned that Kōloa Kauaʻi Coffee Rum was one I wanted to try and since my bottle of Leopold Bros Coffee Liqueur was just about empty, I decided to pick up at bottle when I was over at Total Wine today. I had a taste and would certainly recommend it for sipping. The color is lighter - I'd say little or none of the caramel color that Kahlua uses - and there are a few large particulates that may be coffee bean fragments in the bottle. It is 68 proof, vs 40 proof for Kahlua and most of the others. It smells delightful, nothing chemical, artificial or off there. It is quite sweet, but not at all as as much as Kahlua. The coffee and rum flavors blend nicely. The Leopold Bros has a stronger coffee flavor but is also very sweet and the same lower proof as Kahlua. Good for cocktails but not as nice to sip. It was $32.99. I see it listed at Hi-Time Wine for $29.99 and you may find better prices. They had it stocked with the rum rather than with the other coffee liqueurs.

I have no plans but now I want a hot dog. It's been a couple years at least.

Another cherry/dairy combo: Burrata with Pickled Cherries, Sumac & Basil from Susan Spungen's book, Open Kitchen Had to try this to compare with the Dinner in French version I shared above. No opal basil so I used mint. These cherries get quite thoroughly pickled (up to a week ahead) with red wine vinegar, black peppercorns and thyme and then there's an additional hit of tartness from the sumac compared with the more gentle balsamic bath in the DiF version. There's a drizzle of olive oil here, much less rich than the browned butter in DiF. They're both delicious but this one is clearly a starter while the DiF version would also be perfect for an after dinner cheese course with port or dessert wine. Two winners and happily, I don't need to choose!

I can find no evidence that Cointreau is currently made in the US. It appears that it was for a time. This article says: Before my time 🙃

I'm cheering for Shota as well. The judges have really seemed blown away by his food quite a few times and he seems so thoughtful about what he's putting on the plate. I like Gabe, too, but he seems to over complicate things sometimes. Dawn really hobbled her team in restaurant wars by not letting her team know what she was making, then got a pass because her stuff was actually good. Not saying she should have had to go home because those other dishes were bad, but it knocked her out of my favorites.

I've just been streaming and didn't really know what time it was on here. Since tonight is the finale, I thought I'd check so I can watch live. Turns out, it's exactly the same time as you and 8 PM EDT means 5 PM PDT, which is more than a bit early for me. For some reason, Sling seems to use just a single feed instead of having a multiple feeds for the different time zones that most cable providers use. Maybe I watch with a cocktail and have Top Chef happy hour 🙃 @lindag, I agree with you on how pleasant it is to see the chefs getting along so well. By and large, they all seem to like each other and they've showed way more instances of them helping each other out, sharing ingredients, etc.

I find Kahlua on its own to be syrupy sweet so, of those two, I’d give the nod to Tia Maria. I use coffee liqueurs to sweeten my iced coffee and in cocktails rather than sipping straight so my comments may not be relevant. That said, you might check to see what other coffee liqueurs they have and consider trying something different. Currently, I’ve got a bottle of Leopold Bros Frenchpress-Style Coffee Liqueur and I like it. I have also tried Galliano Ristretto, which, like Galliano, comes in an annoyingly tall bottle. I found it to have an odd smell but quite liked the espresso flavor. St. George NOLA Coffee Liqueur has a hint of chicory flavor that I liked. Patrón XO Cafe, is detectably tequila-based. It’s been a while since I had this but I don’t recall any strong negatives. On my list to try are Mr. Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur and Koloa Kaua'i Coffee Rum.

A few Kindle bargains listed over on EYB: Fruit Cake: Recipes for the Curious Baker (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)by Jason Schreiber is $1.99. All kinds of cakes incorporating all kinds of fruit. Some interesting flavor combinations in this one. Recipes appear to be presented in a clear grid format with both cups/spoons and metric measures listed for each ingredient. Also on Amazon.ca. Vegetables Unleashed: A Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)by Jose Andres is $2.99. His most recent book. Also on Amazon.ca. An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)by Tamar Adler is $1.99. Not too many recipes in this one but it's a lovely read. Also on Amazon.ca. Seductions of Rice: A Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid is $2.99. This is an older title, originally published in 1998. No Kindle version of this one listed on Amazon.ca. A Girl and Her Pig: Recipes and Stories (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)by April Bloomfield is $1.99. Also on Amazon.ca.

Breakfast the other day was a frittata with red onion, baby kale, salami, goat cheese, red bell peppers and cherry tomatoes. This morning, the last of the leftovers became a breakfast sandwich on homemade focaccia: I puréed up some Community Organizer from This Will Make It Taste Good to slather on.

Those supposedly smart coffee scales you mention are rather expensive. Are the coffee apps and phone connections a priority for you? This one seems to meet the functional criteria, though perhaps not your aesthetic. If you're open to having more than one scale, you'll have a better selection of kitchen scales to choose from and can add a little pocket sized one to use for a few grams or less, as @weinoo mentions. I do the same. Is it really worth the significant premium to have just one scale? My concern with using one of those coffee scales as an all-purpose scale is that they're relatively small so larger bowls may interfere with reading the display. I like to weigh ingredients into my mixing bowls so it would be a problem for me, perhaps not for you. Also I want something that can go up to 5 kg, but you know what you need.

I don't want this to end so please take your time!

Fried Chicken & Caviar from Vespertine https://www.instagram.com/p/CQudgT6JA9b/

In lieu of cold running water (my tap water isn't particularly cold and here in drought-land, shouldn't be left running), I often put a bag-o-fish in an immersion circulator bath for a quick thaw. I set the Anova @ 40°F and throw in enough ice cubes to get the water temp down into that range. Sometimes I take the fish out of its packaging and put it in a new bag. Sometimes I just leave it in the original packaging. I understand the anaerobic bacteria toxin risk but it's only going to be an hour max and usually much less. I only do this if I'm going to cook the fish right away and would never recommend that anyone else ever do it.

They are my regular wine glasses, too. I purchased them in 2010, which I think is around the time they were introduced. Nice thin rim, graceful stem, good balance. Reasonable price so it's not a tragedy if someone breaks one.

Maybe you saw it in this post, which calls for a pre-baked shell?

Exactly! This recipe for leek top cacio e pepe from Lindsay-Jean Hard's book Cooking With Scraps is a favorite of mine. Photo here: I am absolutely NOT a professional either.

This TJ's Platinum Reserve 2018 Meritage Rutherford Napa Valley is excellent. I bought a test bottle last week and it passed with flying colors so I went back and picked up more yesterday. It's $14.99 here in SoCal, as is the price for all the Platinum Reserve varieties. With 4,200 cases produced, it probably won't be in stock long.

They really do taste like a cross between a cherry and plum. I get a sweet cherry taste upfront and the tarter plum on the aftertaste. The flesh is relatively firm and crisp. This is the first week for them. Not sure if they will get softer or more sweet later in the season. They are very cute little things!

Did you click on the little shaded arrow? Circled in red in the non-functional screen cap below. It took me right to the post with the recipe.

Picked up a basket of cherums at the farmers market today. These are from Murray Family Farms near Bakersfield, CA and the variety is Sweet Pixie

This LA Times headline cracked me up: More than 42,000 pounds of pistachios went missing. Tulare law enforcement cracked the case

@KennethT made me do it! I was going to try putting the softly scrambled eggs back into their shells but after realizing I have no egg cups, I went with this instead.

Lovely appreciation from Laurie Ochoa, wife of the late Jonathan Gold: Appreciation: Mark Peel, ‘the LeBron James of the grill,’ an intellectually curious chef’s chef