blue_dolphin

I had some phyllo left from my recent asparagus experiment so I made these little Leek, Feta and Greens Spiral Pies from Smitten Kitchen Every Day to use it up. That sorry looking one in the top right of the photo was the first one so it did take me a minute to figure things out. Tasted fine though.

I'm pretty sure at least one of those legs will go in that direction!

A slightly deconstructed version of yesterday's Frijoles Puercos con Huevos from Nopalito. Instead of scrambling the eggs with the bacon & chorizo before adding the beans, I simmered the pork & beans together first, then topped with a poached egg. Since the egg is cooked separately, it's not flavored by the pork like in the recipe, but it was still good and I got a runny yolk .

It's not illegal across the whole state (individual towns and cities have amazing flexibility in setting their own ordinances) but statewide, corporations are still limited to two retail liquor licenses so it's usually not practical for a grocery chain to offer liquor sales.

Thanks for reporting back! I'm so glad it worked out for you!

My little quackers came out of the bath There was one much scrawnier than the others so I chose it as my first victim for a duck confit sandwich. I tried to brown the leg off in a skillet but the skin was very fragile so I ended up removing the skin, crisping it up and crumbling it over the warm meat as you see below. There's a thin layer of preserved lemon aioli on the bottom, some arugula and a healthy amount of Tallegio broiled to the melting point on top. Washed down with a nice pinot noir. No complaints here and I have 4 more legs to play with!

I wish I could find the my original copy but I couldn't so I was trying to reconstruct it from memory. It is quite similar to that NYT version that was recommended over in the other thread except I'm just using peanut butter instead of sesame butter. 3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter 4 tablespoons water 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce 1 tablespoon light soy sauce 2 tablespoons sesame oil 2 tablespoons Chinese rice vinegar or red wine vinegar 2 teaspoons sugar 2 teaspoons Yank Sing chili sauce (no longer available unless you come and sneak it out of my fridge I'd recommend the Laoganma brand (with the picture of a stern looking Chinese lady on the label) Spicy Chili Crisp as a substitute, but I think Sambal Oelek or any Asian chili sauce you like will work. I just throw put everything together in the blender. If mixing by hand, the 4 T of water should be hot and add it gradually to the peanut butter to loosen it before stirring in the other ingredients. Taste and adjust to your taste, adding more soy sauce, vinegar, sugar or chili sauce until you are happy with it. Toss with cooked, chilled noodles (loosen them with a little water if they are sticky) and whatever additions you like: julienne-cut cucumber, carrot, scallion, red bell pepper, thinly sliced celery, bean sprouts, shredded chicken and/or shredded egg (cooked like a thin crepe and sliced thinly)

Frijoles Puercos con Huevos from Nopalito. This is served with the Salsa Escabeche, a pickled-jalapeno and tomato salsa and Queso Fresco, both also made from recipes in the book.

Sorry for the trespass ! When I first got the recipe, remember being quite enamored of these cold noodles and preparing them when my parents came to visit. My dad literally spit them out, sputtering, "This is COLD!!!" I have since brought them to many pot-lucks and received much more favorable feedback. I do take the precaution of labeling the bowl, "Cold Peanut-Sesame Noodles," to avoid any unpleasant surprises!

Recent comments on a recipe for Cold Noodles in Sesame Sauce got me craving cold noodles so I replenished my noodle supply and fixed up a bowl. Since the recipe that prompted that discussion was entered in Recipe Gullet ~15 yrs ago and my noodles are based on a recipe shared with me by a Chinese graduate student ~ 30 years ago, I figured I'd resurrect this 10-year old cook-off to post my noodles . Sauce ingredients & noodles: That's my last jar of Yank Sing Chili Pepper Sauce that I've been hoarding since it became unavailable. Other ingredients - thinly slivered carrots, scallions and cucumber plus thinly slices of cooked egg: Finished dish: Perfect - cool, slippery noodles and crispy vegetable shreds that leave my lips and tongue tingling! Now I need to tweak my recipe to use the universally available Laoganma Spicy Chili Crisp in place of the dearly departed Yank Sing Chili Pepper Sauce.

Thanks! I went with a rosé because it was already chilled!

Inspired by @liuzhou, asparagus spears wrapped in phyllo. Rather decadent. Served with the Preserved Lemon Aioli from Shaya which is nice but I should have trusted myself and used less extra virgin olive oil. At 1:1 extra virgin olive oil:canola oil, it's a little heavy tasting. I'd say these stalks are medium sized and they were nicely cooked in the time it took the phyllo to brown. For super thin spears, you can wrap 2 or 3 together. Big thick ones could be blanched but I think there's room to cook them longer in the oven without resorting to that. I cooked these in the CSO at 350°F (mine seems to run a bit hot) on convection bake for 12 min, then turned them and baked 3 min more.

I am ever so susceptible to suggestions! A package of phyllo dough has been liberated from the bottom shelf of my freezer and is currently thawing out so I can make some of these. I've been wanting to try the Preserved Lemon Aioli in Shaya so if the mayo gods are with me, I'll have that on the side.

My favorite asparagus dish of this spring is the Raw Asparagus Salad with Breadcrumbs, Walnuts & Mint from Six Seasons. The header notes say to make this dish with the first pristine spears of spring asparagus, before you do any cooked dishes. The recipe is available online here. I like the way the asparagus spears are sliced thinly, at a sharp angle and I seem to be using that method of cutting them a lot lately. Today I made an asparagus riff on another Six Seasons recipe, Pasta alla Gricia. That recipe is also available online, at this link. He calls for 4 oz of sugar snap peas/2 oz pasta/serving. I used the same proportions, but with asparagus......and added an egg. Here's another recent asparagus/egg combination, this time on an English muffin: Lastly, asparagus quesadillas from Nopalito:

Prompted by the recent discussion of cold sesame noodles in another thread here, I stopped by 99 Ranch, the large Asian supermarket chain to replenish my noodle supply and decided to get some duck legs as a treat. They have an excellent meat dept and almost always have both whole ducks and duck legs available. Do you have a good Asian market anywhere near you?

Five little duck legs, ready for Anova swim: It's confit-to-be. Also, a haiku Following guidance from Serious Eats and the Sous Vide Duck Confit topic here on eG, I am going for 155°F (68°C) for 36 hrs.

Me, too! I was thinking of an asparagus omelet but @Anna N's post just above got me thinking noodles so linguine with asparagus, pancetta, black pepper butter and an egg. A riff on Joshua McFadden's Pasta alla Gricia from Six Seasons where he calls for 4 oz of sugar snap peas/2 oz pasta/serving. I used the same proportions, but with asparagus......and added an egg to bring some sunshine to a foggy morning.

A little more carnitas fun. I must say that having this pre-cooked meat at hand certainly facilitates a porky sandwich . I sliced up one of the post-sous vide ribs hunks from above, broiled it a bit for crispness and tucked it into a toasted roll. Sliced pork: Tossed with reduced bag jus and a little lard and broiled to crisp. Too bad you can't hear the sizzle in that photo above! Porky sandwich:

Last week, in sort of a follow-up to the Washington Post article, Evan Kleiman interviewed an Austrian chef, Bernhard Mairinger, whose Beverly Hills restaurants have closed on her Good Food Podcast. Listen at this link.

Leftovers of the Potato and Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Olives, Feta and Arugula from Six Seasons that I made the other night The book says this salad is to be served somewhere between warm and room temp so I put it in the CSO on the warming setting, 125°F to take the refrigerator chill off while I cooked the egg and chopped the arugula and tomato. Just right.

It was a choice, based on my poor decision to start the cook at 2PM, meaning 36 hrs was going to be at 2AM. I decided to go a few hrs longer rather than shorter because I'm generally more industrious in the AM than late at night but I think either would have been fine. Kenji's range for this temp was 24-36 hrs.

Sous vide pork carnitas from Serious Eats, as continued from here, using country-style pork ribs. Some of the meat after ~ 40 hrs @ 145°F: After the sous vide bath, I separated the meat into small chunks, added some beer and a little piloncillo to the bag jus and reduced it down, then tossed the meat in that reduction plus just a little lard (almost no fat had rendered into the jus) before broiling to get crispy edges on the chunks. Not bad. I probably should have used more salt but otherwise the flavor and texture are excellent. I only crisped up a portion of the meat. With the others, I'll try searing some larger chunks in a cast iron skillet instead of broiling. Served for dinner over here.

Sous vide pork carnitas from Serious Eats as described here and here. Served with freshly made corn tortillas from the Mexican supermarket, sliced avocado and sides from Nopalito: Salsa Cruda, Ensalada Repollo, Escabeche Rojo and Frijoles Pinquitos de la Olla.

Not a one. Nor anything food-related that I could see. I'm glad you asked though as it prompted me to check out the other Prime reading options and download the current issue of Food & Wine, a magazine that my library doesn't have available online.

Lovely! I'm reading and thoroughly enjoying Ed Lee's Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef's Journey to Discover America's New Melting-Pot Cuisine. If anyone here would like a little side-trip while we wait for our Hobbit to return, the first chapter in the book, "Pilgrimage for a Beignet" is available to read via Amazon's "Look Inside" feature, including his recipe for matcha beignets.