blue_dolphin

I didn't patrol through to see if you'd found a good solution but Darto is having free shipping from now through Dec 22. The 27 paella is $60, so significantly more expensive than that 10.25" Lodge pan (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) that's currently unavailable on Amazon (I purchased it @ $15.11 about 2 yrs ago) and on the Lodge site

With my zero level of experience eating sauerkraut, I was still a bit wary of whether or not mine was on track. I decided to follow @Maison Rustique's recommendation and bought a jar of the Trader Joe's stuff. I did a side by side taste test and they taste very similar. The TJ's version lists garlic in the ingredients and I can taste it but it's not overwhelming. I'm sure this would be a good sub in Vivian's recipes if you happen live in Trader Joe's land and don't want to make your own kraut.

The "brown" flavors go well with the roasted garlic in the Herbdacous so you make a good point. Also, my whining about frying mess and blender washing should be taken with a grain of salt. My kitchen drain is clogged so I've been hauling dishes out to the garage to wash in the laundry sink out there. Then the water heater in the garage started leaking so I've also had to heat water on the stove and haul THAT out to the garage, too. Cold water just doesn't cut it when washing greasy dishes. My 2-week wait for a plumber should be over tomorrow. Fingers crossed that he can fix at least one of those things!

This is 40 Fettuccine from This Will Make It Taste Good p 223 In my book, it's only worth frying things if they are going to end up crispy and that's not the case here so while it's a nice pasta dish, it could have been quicker, easier and probably just as good. Half the "golden brown" fried zucchini goes in the blender with the Herbdacious where it dulls both the color and flavor of that brilliant green sauce and unnecessarily uses a blender. The other half of the fried zucchini gets tossed in at the end. 1/4" slices of zucchini fried to golden brown are pretty soft so there's not much textural contrast with the pasta. I love the Herbdacious and think its a perfect for a veggie pasta dish but I'll try steaming a mix of colorful veg and adding a squeeze of lemon juice to accent the bright flavors.

My kraut experience is pretty much nil. Ditto rotting cabbage. I didn't open or sniff my kraut until the 2 week point when it smelled pickle-y but not rotten. I did happen upon this site that discussed a lot of kraut issues without going off into the phases of the moon after the first frost. You'll have to scroll down to get to the odor part: Maybe asking over in the Sauerkraut topic might get more expert responses?

@Anna N I like the naan/LGD/cheese/tomato combo but can't say the same about your cabbage report 🤢! I was looking at the book to see if Vivian specified a brand for the small dried shrimp for the furki. I missed any specifications in the recipe but spied them in the accompanying photo: At first glance, reading sideways, I thought they were called "Dried Shrimpkins" and thought that was terribly cute! 🙃

More Can-do Kraut here with the Avocado Toast on Coronation Day p 76 This is pan-fried toast topped with avocado (prettily sliced and fanned in the book photo, scooped out of the shell and mashed in mine) and a small pile-o-kraut. I thought this would be lacking compared to kimichi-avocado toast, but it was pretty good. Because I liked the combo of cheese & kraut in yesterday's omelet, I shaved some Jarlesberg to melt on to the toast before I mushed on the avocado. Perhaps not necessary, but good.

So far, the Herbdacious purée of roasted garlic and fresh herbs is the only thing I used a blender for. It does make for a silky smooth result but there's no reason why you couldn't make it more like a pesto with a mortar & pestle. Per Vivian on p 222, adjacent to a dressing recipe where she recommends using a food processor or blender: That makes it sound fairly optional.

I am beyond impressed with the citrus graphic on the label and the coordinating jar lid! Today I used the Can-Do Kraut in the Krautcakes with Fried Apples & Dijon from This Will Make It Taste Good p 79. Drained kraut mixed with a bit of pancake-type batter, fried up and topped with Dijon mustard and apple slices sautéed with ginger, butter, brown sugar and lemon juice. These would make a great side for grilled sausages or roast pork or chicken. I wish I'd spread them out more to get more lacy, crispy bits but they were still quite good. f you use a 1/4 cup measure for these, you'll probably end up with 8 rather than the 6 that the recipe indicates.

For the first use of the Can-Do Kraut, I elected the Breakfast of Compromisers p 75. It's a Swiss cheese & kraut omelet with a sprinkle of poppy seeds. I used 2 eggs instead of 3 and Jarlesberg instead of Swiss. Reading the recipe, I thought there should be some shreds of pastrami or something in there but was plenty tasty as is. A kraut omelet wasn't really on my radar screen but I'd make it again. Assuming I suffer no ill effects!

It does not

Except for the kumquats, I've always cut the fruit in quarters. Makes it much easier to pack the jars full and Vivian's recipes all call for X # of quarters, so easier on both ends! I agree the lemon pie sounds really good and that margarita sounds pretty great, too. Especially the mezcal version. Ahhh, the kraut! If we count the day I made it as day 1, then mine reaches the 2-week point today. Vivian says after 2 weeks, "... this magical fairy has likely done all it will do..." and it should go into the fridge. Smells like something between a cucumber and pickle. The liquid looks a bit cloudy, but that was kinda the case in the beginning, too. The Krautcakes with Fried Apples and Dijon on p 79 were what pushed me over the edge into making this. Now I just need to work up my courage to taste it. Maybe the avocado toast? I like kimchi on avocado toast. How much worse could this be? Here it was at the beginning, as posted upthread: And today: Edited to add that while Vivian says this should sit where it's roughly 70°F, after putting this up, we had a heat wave. It was more like 80°F during the day in my kitchen so I moved it out to the garage which actually gets hotter but there's a small but non-functioning freezer. I put it in there, hoping the insulation would moderate the temp. The last week, on the other hand has been unseasonably chilly and it's currently around 50°F in the garage so maybe this got a hot start and cold finish? I read over in the sauerkraut thread that mushy-ness was attributed to warm fermentation temps. I braved a small bite of this and it doesn't seem mushy. Very salty, a bit pickle-y. Not as crisp as fresh cabbage but not mushy either.

I'm planing on trying whatever I can find so I wouldn't hesitate to throw in some clementines. In the past, I've made salt preserved lemons (regular Eureka, Meyer and Pink Lemonade), limes, kumquats and oranges, but all separate batches, not combined into one. I found all the lemons and limes to be pretty interchangeable. The oranges were distinctly different and the kumquats were great. In addition to grapefruit, I'm hoping to add tangelos, tangerines, limequats and mandarinquats to the mix. I've usually used quart jars but might need to move to something bigger this time!

That looks verbatim from DRR. Very easy!

I have a bag of that shape pasta that I purchased at Eataly for more than your "expensive" price. This one. Not sure what I paid in the store but the online price of $5.90/500g converts to € 5.02 I do like it.

Yep, that one is in the corn chapter in DRR. I've made it. Though maybe the version in the book is different from yours as it's very easy and not at all labor intensive. That said, I didn't think that roasting under a chicken for 45 minutes was the best use for beautiful fresh corn so I've not repeated it.

I don’t recommend that method. I think I mentioned on it in one of the IP threads here but you can also scroll down to the first few comments on that Serious Eats recipe to read my experience. There was so much liquid after releasing pressure that it took forever to reduce using the sauté function. No time saving in the end. Edited to add a link to my comments here: As you can see from the photos, the texture is very jammy. That's not a bad thing but I still don’t think the recipe is a big timesaver.

Finally got around to the Herbdacious from This Will Make It Taste Good p 204. This is very reminiscent of a pesto except that instead basil as the primary note with a bite of fresh garlic, this one uses a lot of mellow, roasted garlic and a mix of fresh herbs with lemon juice and zest to brighten it up. Garlic, poaching in olive oil: I needed to add a bit more than 2/3 cup of oil to cover the garlic Before: And after a blitz in the blender: This stuff is very, very green! On the "No Brainer" page next to this recipe, Vivian's first suggestion is to mix it with mayo for a BLT or BLP, which she says is a bacon, lettuce and peach sandwich. Peach, you say??? I've got just a few from the last of the season a the farmer's market so I had to try. The last package of bacon stashed in my freezer was from Broadbent, thick and very smoky, not necessarily my first choice for sandwiches but a good choice with the sweet peaches and flavorful Herbdacious mayo. I'm looking forward to trying this in a few other recipes from the book but will probably stash a good bit in the freezer.

That was my thought as well, though the Zuni croutons are only brushed with olive oil to crisp, rather than cooking in drippings. The simplicity of warm roasted chicken, toasty, rustic bread and fresh greens makes them relatives, for sure!

Tonight's dinner was the Roast Chicken Toast from This Will Make It Taste Good p 20. I've been giving this recipe the side-eye since I got the book. The very idea of roasting a chicken leg quarter on a bread "pillow" with the intention of consuming said bread seemed extremely naughty to even think about, let alone actually cook and eat! Eventually, my conscience was worn down and I decided to try it. As soon as the chicken is cool enough to handle, you pull the meat off the bones, toss it with some LGD, hot sauce and arugula, crispy chicken skin at your discretion, pile it atop the aforementioned naughty toast and dive it. The flavors are excellent. The warm chicken picked up the herb flavors nicely but I found the slab-o-toast awkward to eat as it was VERY crunchy on the bottom. 50 minutes in a 400°F oven will do that but my choice of bread could have contributed, too. I would have preferred croutons. In the end, I cut the toast up into squares, which was much easier to eat. I'll also say that when I removed the cooked chicken, the bread was brown and crispy on the bottom but rather pale and soggy on top. The top did crisp up nicely when it went back into the oven, per the recipe, while the chicken cooled. Because this was good, I'm inclined to try this again but maybe roast chicken thighs on their own, remove from the pan, toss fresh bread croutons in the drippings and let them toast while the meat cools a bit.

They appeal to those who subscribe to the "one well, good; two wells better" school of thought.

Oh, I think Vivian would love to know as she encourages playing around with the recipe. Your comment above basically paraphrases her header notes for the recipe!

I don't think it's a fault at all. And I don't think the taste buds get either the credit or the blame. It's possible that you have some special taste buds but your average person's taste buds are pretty much limited to the sweet, salt, sour, bitter and umami. A lot of the mint flavor comes us through the olfactory receptors which can detect an enormous range of compounds. I'd say you're just better at sensing the mint flavor compounds than many of the rest of us are. I can taste the mint in LGD but more as a fresh, cooling taste, nothing that comes close to MINT, MINT, MINT range. You're way better at sensing it, maybe perceiving mint compounds that I don't even have receptors for - you're just especially good at mint! 💚🍃💚

Eat Your Books tells me that my cookbooks have 120 recipes that call for both mint and anchovies. Quite a few are green sauce/salsa verde type things somewhat similar to LGD. Of those mint-anchovy green sauces, only LGD also has olives. There are 10 other mint-anchovy-olive dishes but they're a mix of salads, a soup, pizza, black olive tapenade, lamb stuffing, etc rather than sauces.

Oh, I don't doubt you for a minute and am impressed at your willingness to give it a try. I've been enjoying how easy it is to add a punch of flavor to different things with a spoonful of LGD but if that flavor isn't one that appeals, it's not all that helpful, no matter how easy it is!