blue_dolphin

Yesterday, I had a ham & cheese croissant that I picked up at Roan Mills. I was too hungry to pose it for a photo. Today, I have balsamic roasted onions with sage on toast with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano

Instead of potato & green peas, Vivian Howard's Deep Run Roots has a recipe for Rutabaga and Black-Eyed Pea Samosas with a Cilantro Buttermilk Sauce that I've been wanting to try. Could be good for a New Year's project. I'm lacking both rutabaga and the spring roll wrappers she uses. Obtaining both would require visits to 2 stores and that's not happening. I can probably sub in another root and maybe use phyllo for the wrapper then bake instead of deep frying. Let's see what happens....

Via Amazon’s Look Inside feature, I was able to see some photos from the book, including a nori/rice sandwich with what looked like a vegetable filling. I’m disappointed to hear they don’t explain how to do it. Maybe assemble the two nori/rice rafts close to each other on a piece of plastic wrap, top one with the filling then use the plastic wrap as a tool to bring them together, as one might close a book? Could work if the rice was firmly pressed. Trying to pick it up and take a bite would be another matter entirely 🤣 I found the grilled cheese on apple slices intriguing. Could you actually get melty cheese before the apples cook to mush? Too bad it’s $10.99 now. I've been having trouble sleeping and assembling such sandwiches in my head could be good therapy...or at least kill some time!

I dunno if it's taking the caramelization step too far or using too much of the onions but I found the dip using them in Vivian Howard's recent book to be unpleasantly sweet, in much the way that you describe. It calls for 2/3 cup of caramelized onions to make 2 cups of dip. Given my 4 lbs of onions reduced to 1.5 cups, that's a lot. At first, I blamed the sweetness on the balsamic vinegar that Vivian adds to the onions (along with garlic and Worcestershire) before adding them to the dip. So I made it again, using sherry vinegar instead because I've used that in other dip recipes. Still too sweet. I could try again and just dial back the onions but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

Reem Assil’s za’atar egg salad sandwiches from this Guardian article, 'Cooking as therapy': California's top chefs on the recipes that got them through 2020, that @Anna N shared yesterday. Edited to add that the recipe calls for 2T za'atar for 4 eggs. I thought 1T seemed like enough. It also calls for 1 t salt. The za'atar I used (Penzy's) lists salt as it's last ingredient so I left it out and just added a pinch to taste at the end.

Thanks, @Anna N, for sharing this. I've been reading so many wrenching restaurant stories these days that I almost didn't click on this topic at all because I thought it might lead to more tales of financial struggles, heartbreak and loss. Instead, it was actually a delightful read. In the case of each chef, there was a dish that seemed to be the focus of the interview but the recipe shared was always for something else! I'd love to have seen the recipes for Sarah Kirnon's jerk chicken, Alice Water's tomato confit and Reem Assil's maqluba and spice mix. I was hoping for a chicken stock recipe from Gilbert Pilgram but his margarita recipe is a pure delight! The last sentence, about never, ever having more than 3 is undoubtedly wise advice, but it's the paragraph before it that I want to copy out and remember: I know! I'm going to put a few eggs on to cook so I can try it!

Ah, I missed that about the sugar. My onions are certainly on the juicy side and I keep them in the freezer, they're not low moisture preservation candidates!

I suspect both of those things help. I think the challenge of using an oven is uneven browning and part of that is likely due to less frequent stirring. Most of my baking dishes are either glass or ceramic and I suspect that helps. And the larger pieces of onion can end up with browned edges here and there without turning entirely into crispy critters so you're right that helps, too.

I've mentioned making caramelized onions in the oven before and promised @Anna N to share my method. @shain nudged me in that direction with his post earlier. On one hand, they are certainly caramelized onions, but with the addition of sage and balsamic vinegar, they may not be everyone's caramelized onions. I riff off a recipe in Deborah Madison's Savory Way for Roasted Onions with Sage which shares similarities to what @shain does. It calls for: 2 lbs red or yellow onions, cut into rounds ~ 1/2 inch (I usually go with ~ 1/4" slices and halve or quarter the onions before slicing to avoid long stringy bits. salt (I usually go with a generous pinch, < 1t) 2-4 T olive oil a dozen fresh sage leaves (or a lot more, depending...) 1 t ground pepper 2 T balsamic vinegar (@shain uses some brown sugar which I imagine would have a similar effect on browning) Everything gets tossed together, then Madison roasts the onions @ 375°F, covered for ~ 30 min and then for an additional 30 min or more I tend to give them 45 min - an hour covered and another hour or more uncovered, stirring every 15 min or so. Here are today's onions ready for the oven: After ~ 1 hr covered and ready to go back into the oven uncovered: After 15 min, uncovered. Below is about an hour later (1 hr covered, 1 hr 15 min uncovered) and they would be nice roasted onions at this point About 45 minutes after the photo above (1 hr covered, 2 hrs uncovered) And where I stopped, half an hour later (1 hr covered, 2.5 hrs uncovered). For a truly caramelized onion, I'd have let them go further, but I wanted something in between roasted and completely caramelized. I started with ~ 4 lbs of yellow onions and ended up with around a pound, an amount that fit handily in a 1 qt zip-lock. These make delicious crostini, topped with shaved Parmesan. I also like them tossed with roasted cauliflower and parsley, with or without pasta and/or garbanzo beans.

I have sliced onions for making caramelized onions both ways but have never done a side-by-side comparison with the same batch of onions, cooked in the same way. In This Will Make It Taste Good, Vivian Howard's recipe for caramelized onions specifies cutting the onions in half through their stem ends, then slicing the onions thinly, "from root to stem rather than cutting the onion across its belly," and says, "This is actually important because slicing it the other way makes the path to silky onions a longer one." Seems to me that if they are cut thinly, it shouldn't make a ton of difference in cook time. With all the stirring, the segments separate pretty well either way. In a couple of recipes, Deborah Madison says to cut them cross-wise, into rings or to first quarter them and then slice cross-wise. A Serious Eats article that considers a lot of variables doesn't say boo about the slicing orientation, though the accompanying photo shows them cut root to stem.

A few recent breakfasts Green eggs and ... no ham... but roasted potatoes and broccoli. Vivian Howard's This Will Make It Taste Good has a recipe for Asparagus Bathed in Green Butter. I made extra of that Little Green Dress compound butter, used some to scramble the eggs and tossed the roasted potatoes and broccoli with more. I was hoping the eggs would be greener rather than this baby puke color but everything tasted good. Little Green Dress salmon salad (inspired by @Anna N's swap in this recipe) on Wasa crackers A mushroom hand pie from a local bakery: Breakfast of champions - Christmas cookies and a mug of black coffee. In truth, I've had this for breakfast more than once lately 🙃 Spinach, mushroom, onion and country ham omelet with some of the Neal's Yard Red Leicester cheese that was part of the Whole Food's 12 Days of Cheese special That brings us to today, when I used leftover omelet filling from above and more Red Leicester to make a cheese toastie

A raspberry/white chocolate hot drink might be nice. I'd want Chambord in mine 🙃

Exactly! And I can make it in less than the 2 hr soak time!

Indeed, if you desire a narrow-bottomed loaf shaped like a bell pepper, this is your pot! I have a 3 qt Lodge that I like for baking no-knead bread and would recommend it highly over the smaller pot. It's also got a much larger base for searing and offers half-again more capacity. It's a work horse. The little one is very cute and quite handy for small cooks.

As mentioned, I have an LC tomato that's pretty much the same size as this green pepper. I find the small size quite handy for things like cooking 1/2 lb of dried beans or braising a small-ish piece of meat, serving 2 or maybe 3 at the most. Not long ago, I used it for a half-batch of the beef cheek barbacoa from Josef Centeno's Amá with about 1.5 lbs of beef cheeks. Perfect size to cover that amount of meat in liquid for a braise. But most people don't braise miniature amounts of stuff like that. They want to serve more people and maybe have leftovers. The bottom surface is probably ~ 6-inches across at the base so you can't really sear anything big at all. It's a handly little pot for someone like me but I wouldn't embark on a braising binge over it. It's certainly a cute little serving dish so that's a good idea. It would only bake very small loaves of bread and in the ice bucket application pictured, it could probably hold 1 glass, surrounded by ice. Maybe 2 or 3 shot glasses in a bed of crushed ice.

I enjoyed this LA Times article about a San Diego photographer who turned his studio kitchen into a small bakery during the pandemic. With no street-level storefront and wanting to avoid customers crowding into the elevator to pick up bread, Izola Bakery lowers the still-warm bread to the street in baskets. San Diego bakery’s warm bread is coming right down, by basket

I use it where a cover is useful to manage evaporation. A braise is generally defined as being first seared, then cooked in a covered pot. If I cook dried beans in an uncovered pot, I need to add liquid more frequently than I can remember so I find a lid handy.

I went over and picked up a piece of the Enraptured Blanc this morning around 8 AM. They didn't have a ton of it in the case where they've been displaying these specials. Three 1 lb wheels and about an equivalent weight in cut wedges. I chose a half wheel, about 1/2 lb and skedaddled.

I have a red tomato-shaped Le Creuset pot of about the same size that I also received as a gift. I use it for beans, braises, casseroles, etc. same as any enameled cast iron. I've found it quite handy to have a smaller-sized baker.

This may be too close to juicing and I know you said you weren't into that, but when I was doing breakfast smoothies, cooked beets were a regular. With a fistful of raw cranberries for tartness, a few other berries for flavor. Whatever else you like. At the other end of the beverage spectrum, Lindsay Jean Hard's book, Cooking with Scraps makes a very pretty tequila infused with beet peels and trimmings. It picks up an earthy flavor and a bit of sweetness from the beets and is quite sippable as is. The book uses it in a beet peel margarita Another almost alarmingly colored beet dish is the Bright-pink pasta from Anna Jones in A Modern Cook's Year. You sauté grated beets and capers in olive oil, then add drained pasta and some of it's starchy water to bring it all together. A sprinkle of dill, squeeze of lemon and maybe some goat cheese or feta and you're done. Finally, there a good recipe for Puréed beets with yogurt & za'atar from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem. I cut the date syrup back by half and like to swirl the beet and yogurt mixtures in the serving bowl rather than mixing to a uniform pink. Beet salads that I really like are the Carrot and Beet Slaw with Pistachios and Raisins from Josh McFadden's Six Seasons, the Christmas Lima Beans & Quinoa with Beets & Avocado from Rancho Gordo's Heirloom Beans and Beets with Lentils and Yuzu from Ottolenghi's Plenty More. The beans or lentils make the last two suitable as a vegetarian main dish salads.

Once they get sizzling, I cover the pan for ~ 45 min, stirring occasionally. Then remove the lid and stir more frequently for another half hour or 45 min. That timing is going to depend on how many onions you use, how wet they are and the size and shape of your pan. In my kitchen ~ 4 lbs of onions in a 12-inch cast iron skillet will go from here: Through here, where I've removed the lid and have been stirring a bit: To here, where I have about 1.5 cups of nicely caramelized onions:

@CanadianHomeChef has a nice temp chart that suggests 275 deg F for caramelized onions. I’ve had good results with that temp.

Soups for sure. The Turnip Soup with Turnip Greens in Deborah Madison's Greens Restaurant Cookbook is easy and excellent. I've made it with an abundance of CSA radishes, too. If you add a snip of beet root, it will come out a pretty pink, otherwise beige. Not sure if you have Vivian Howard's Deep Run Roots but it has good chapters on beets and rutabagas. The bacon-roasted rutabagas that she serves with pork tenderloin is really good as are the basic stewed rutabaga. I enjoyed the rutabaga relish, too. I haven't tried the Duck, Date & Rutabaga Potpie with Duck-Fat Biscuit Crust but it sounds excellent. In the beet chapter, the roasted beet salad with orange segments and pecans nestled on a buttermilk blue cheese dressing is a favorite of mine. The beet tzatziki that goes with the grilled lamb kebabs is delicious and goes with other things as well. In Indian-ish, Priya Krishna has a really good Mustard Seed and Curry Leaf Carrot Salad. If you julienne the carrots instead of grating them, this salad will keep in the fridge and add a fresh crunch to plates for a week, kinda along the same lines as the sort of carrot/daikon quick pickle that @MokaPot mentioned but with a different flavor profile. In general, Indian cookbooks are a good resource for pickle-y/salad-ish/chutney sorts of things to make and I find that root vegetables can often be interchanged or combined. I liked the Beetroot and Green Chili Pickle that I made from Mowgli Street Food and can imagine it working with other vegetables as well.

Done!

Two pounds of Georgia pecans from the friend I made the quiche for last week. They are fresher than anything I usually see in the stores around here.