blue_dolphin

@AlaMoi, what time should we be there? I can bring some nice sparkling wine!

I cooked quite a bit from Korean American when it was the book of the month in the cookbook group I participate in. I was pretty happy with most recipes I tried. Eric's got a bit of a sweet tooth so I kind of watched out for that. The only thing I didn't particularly care for was the winter squash risotto with chewy rice cakes which tasted fine but I just don't care for chewy rice cakes in my risotto. Most of the recipes are pretty easy and don't take a ton of time. The salt & pepper ribs with fresh mint sauce are great. If you make the Crispy Yangnyeom Chickpeas with Caramelized Honey for a cocktail snack (which you should) make sure to have plenty of scallions to eat with them. I liked the kimchi-braised short ribs with pappardelle and the curried chicken cutlets with cabbage. The caramelized-kimchi baked potatoes adapted very well to little bite-sized spuds. When I made the gochujang chocolate lava cakes, I doubled the gochujang because others in the group found it got lost. With doubled, it was just detectable and I was happy with the result. If you search for "Korean American" and my name, you'll find the rest. I have The Korean Vegan Cookbook but haven't touched it so I'll be watching to see if you end up cooking anything from it.

Thanks! Her site is very good but it’s not updated and has a lot of dead links so I figured it was best to share all of them!

More Pad Thai. I'm on a roll. This one from Simple Thai Food by Leela Punyaratabandhu. Her recipe in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 blog posts is available online.

@Shel_B, just for the sake of comparison, you might be interested in checking out the Basque Cheesecake recipe on this site. She goes into quite a bit of detail on the ingredients and process and her recipes are generally very reliable and include measurements by weight and volume. She uses a hand mixer for this one. It's for an 8" pan, so in-between @shain's recipe (that 6" size is very appealing to me) and the one you have.

That's a REALLY big cheesecake! Do you need that size to feed a crowd? If so, then as long as you heed @Smithy's caution on overmixing, you could certainly give your plan it a try. Me? I'd always prefer making 2 smaller ones over a really big one.

Yesterday I made the Royal Tuna Tartare from Kris Yenbamroong's cookbook, Night + Market and it's very fun. Like ceviche and poke ran off to Thailand for a little fling. I couldn't find the recipe online but if anyone wants the proportions, just say so and I'll paraphrase it. You fry up some wonton wrappers and top them with a mix of raw tuna, cut in 1/4" pieces, shallot, lime, lemongrass, bird's eye chiles, makrut lime leaves, Seasoned Fried Peanuts (also from the book) and the ingredient that gave me pause - grated coconut, toasted in a dry pan with sugar. I was worried I was ruining everything but it adds a crunchy little hit of toasty sweetness that's just perfect. The flavors aren't all blended together, it's like a bunch of little flavor explosions in each bite, and all kinds of textures, too. This would be equally at home over rice like poke, scooped up with tortilla chips like ceviche or spooned into an avocado as I did with the leftovers:

I tried one TJ frozen pizza when I was staying at my mom's house. It was edible but not something I'd buy at home. Their refrigerated pizza dough blobs aren't bad for a semi quick pizza. You do need to ball up the dough, cover and let it rest and relax for an hour or 2 (2 is better) before shaping as it's pretty cold and angry right from the fridge.

I like them, too. The other one is the Tarte d'Alsace with Ham, Onions, and Gruyere. I wouldn’t call them pizza, but they’re very nice. I bake them in the CSO on a pizza screen for the best bottom crust crispness. Now, I'm going to have to go get one! They've had a some other varieties, one with Brie and tomatoes and I think there was one with Gorgonzola, pumpkin and tomato.. I didn’t care for them as much.

And any flavors contributed by the meat will be diluted in that large volume of braising liquid.

I may or may not be conducting my own Pad Thai cook-off here in the breakfast thread. Today, I made Melissa Clark's recipe from Dinner Changing the Game. I used tofu instead of shrimp, reduced the noodles from 4 oz to 3 and upped the sugar snap pea from 2 oz to 3 so I had equal parts veg and noodle.

Shrimp Pad Thai from Night+Market

Eric Kim's gochujang buttered noodles from NYT Cooking with the addition of sugar snap peas: I was wide awake around 1 AM and I really, really wanted to get up and make this but I managed to wait. The sun was barely detectable on a June gloomy morning but the noodles brightened my day nicely!

I like and use them both. For the sizes I have, the sides of the sauté pan are higher, 4 cm vs 3 cm for the paella pan. Much easier to slosh stuff over the sides of the paella. I bought the paella pans because they easily fit in my little Cuisinart CSO that can’t accommodate the long handles of the sauté pans when I want to finish something in the oven. Edited to add that I have the smaller pans: 20 and 25 cm. The 27 cm paella is the same 4 cm height as the sauté pan and that big honking 35 cm paella is 4.5 cm high.

I picked up a tin of that Trader Joe's lightly smoked salmon the other day and used it to make a salmon salad sandwich. It's nice stuff!

Right now, I have my regular scale on the counter all the time but I keep the small one in its little case in the cupboard so the integrated unit seems like it might be handy. Obviously, I could just be daring and keep the little one out on the counter with no case to protect it but my birthday is coming up so why not buy myself a new toy 🙃?

I haven't ordered that dual scale yet but I probably will soon. Last week, when the battery died on mine, I realized how dependent I am on it. I couldn't find the battery at a few local places and could have driven around to a few more but I ended up just ordering from Amazon so I was without a scale for ~2 days. I managed to make a fine batch of flatbreads using measuring cups and eyeballing the size of the individual breads instead of weighing but I felt quite handicapped so I think a back-up is in order!

Yes to the fuel prices, though that's about equal for gas and diesel, which is currently running a little less than regular gas in my area. And yes to traffic and congestion, especially around urban areas. But as @Smithy mentions, if you're open to boondocking, there are BLM lands in absolutely stunning areas. Check out Josh Jackson's Instagram account @forgottenlandscalifornia for a sampling of BLM camping areas throughout the state:

If I understand correctly, you are happy with your chicken, beef and pork braises but have never been happy with turkey thighs. Sounds like it could be the turkey, but just in case… Maybe describe those failed time/temp adjustments in more detail so people don’t suggest something you’ve already done.

Turnip tortilla from Tenderheart On a bed of arugula with a drizzle of TJ's Green Dragon hot sauce

Thanks for taking the time to share your photos and thoughts, @ElsieD. I'm glad it was enjoyable overall. Everything sounds delicious but does look like a lot of food! When I looked at the menu, in addition to thinking how many plates and sets of cutlery would be needed, I was wondering if you'd have everything in one dinner or split it up over two evenings or a dinner and a brunch. I suppose it would be hard to do that without knowing which things might be best to pair together. Still, seems like a fun treat!

@ElsieD, I think I missed your thoughts on how this dinner worked out. Any chance you can point me to it?

@Kim Shook, I suspect you can find similar inexpensive ones if you search for "dorm room rice cooker" or "college dorm rice cooker" or something like that.

I suspect you'll get some great suggestions from the rice cooker devotées in the group, but I'll I don't have one so I'll tell you what I do. Do you have an Instant Pot? If not, I think a 3 qt Instant Pot might be an option for you. I cook rice using the pot-in-pot method. I have the 6 qt model, which offers more flexibility in the size of bowls that I can put inside but the smaller 3 qt model would be find if you really need something small. I cook the rice right in the bowl I'm going to serve it in. Sometimes I make just one serving. The timing depends on the type of rice but I get good results with jasmine, basmati, short grained sushi rice and medium grain brown rice.

The other day, I made Rancho Gordo cicerchia beans with shiitake and brown beech mushrooms over polenta for breakfast. On Wednesday, I tossed the leftover beans and mushrooms with pasta. Yesterday, I picked up my weekly fish share - rock crab claws - so I made the Butter Garlic Crab from Dishoom and stuffed it in a toasted brioche bun. The recipe cooks plenty of garlic in butter, adds ginger, green onion and diced green chiles, then the crab and finishes with lime juice, dill and cilantro. I liked that it was flavorful but still let the crab be the star.