blue_dolphin

I'll take one of each, please!

It certainly can be silly. With one exception, I thought this year's reviews were pretty good.

I borrowed Ducksoup from my library a few weeks ago. One of the first comments to hit my eyeballs after I'd read through the introduction and started flipping through the recipes got an eye-roll from me. It was something like, "We recommend always using fresh pasta because it's just better." Sorry, I don't agree. It can be lovely but I actually prefer good dried pasta in many dishes. It kind of put me off the book, though I did copy out the lime pickle recipe and will give it a try one of these days. If anyone else is looking for a review of the book, there's one here, quite favorable, from round 1 of Food52's Piglet.

This is the English Pea Toast from Six Seasons p 82, topped with an uncalled for egg. The header notes say this is the perfect showcase for early-season peas and I agree. When you're shelling the peas, pop a few in your mouth and if they taste starchy at all, then move on to a different recipe. You want those sweet early peas that are delicious all on their own. I didn't have high expectations for this - raw peas and thinly sliced spring onions mixed with mint, lemon juice and olive oil on toasted bread spread with a mild cheese - the recipe calls for fresh sheep cheese, forage blanc, mild goat cheese or ricotta - I used Silver Goat chèvre and topped with a sprinkle of Parmigiano-Reggiano. It's proposed as a appetizer and I had visions of cold, hard little peas rolling all over the place and figured if I was going to need a knife and fork, I might as well add an egg and make it a meal. I did make one toast without the egg and it's actually quite good, I'd say more than the sum of its parts. Though it's not finger food, unless you want to chase down a bunch of peas rolling around on your floor. Adding the egg turns it into a nice breakfast or brunch.

True confessions here. I do love my CSO! So much that I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I bought a back-up. I saw people talking about electronics going out on the Breville ovens and I started to get worried it might happen to my CSO, my most frequently used small appliance. Since Cuisinart isn't exactly promoting the heck out of them, I was afraid I might not be able to replace it if something happened. A couple of weeks ago, I saw an Amazon warehouse "used" CSO for $199 so I bit the bullet and ordered. Since it was a return, I put it through its paces and it seems to work just fine. Now, I can't decide whether to use the new one (it's so shiny !) or keep on with the old one. Either way, my anxiety levels have been reduced without resorting to medication or even more expensive therapy !

Pasta Carbonara with English Peas from Six Seasons p 87. As written except that I didn't have the optional pea tendrils. I'm not a fan of adding peas to pasta carbonara or to any long pasta. They slide away from the pasta in the pan and from my fork on the plate. It was fine but I won't do it again.

I shared a lovely ladies lunch with friends yesterday. We went to the Lakeside Restaurant located in the Los Encinos State Historic Park in Encino. After a bit of a slog in freeway traffic, we relaxed at an outdoor table where we could watch the ducks and geese paddle around on a pond that's fed by a natural spring. Kind of a little oasis in the busy San Fernando Valley. Poor photos due in part to the dappled sunshine filtering through the trees and partly to my own ineptitude I had the Short Rib Panini with a house salad. Half of the panini was dinner. The lady to my left ordered the beet & pear salad with shrimp: The lady to my right ordered a steak burrito with fresh fruit: Not pictured was a vegetarian flatbread ordered by the lady across the table from me because this lady draws the line at getting up and walking around the table to take pictures of other people's food . A good time was had by all.

Replying to myself to report that I tried the recipe I mentioned above and in my inexperienced hands, it resulted in a rather unevenly browned bird. Satisfactory, but it would have been easier and less messy to just put it into the CSO. The charred lemon was a nice touch.

After roasting, my Savoy cabbage was pretty tender except for the thickest parts of the ribs. I'll have to try it with a green cabbage one of these days to compare. I made the English Pea & Pickled Carrot Salsa Verde from Six Seasons p 85 to serve as a side dish. As someone who doesn't love cooked carrots, I found the use of the pickled carrots p 58 to be a refreshing change to the same-old peas & carrots vegetable side dish. I've used the Six Seasons standard brine p 57 on several vegetables now - carrots, turnips, spring onions and fresh chiles. For my taste, it's a bit sweet and lacking in acid. I will adjust that in the future but the carrots were still a nice contrast in this dish. The header notes for the pea & carrot dish encourage you to try other pickled vegetables - " the more types, the merrier," so I added some sliced peperoncini and felt they provided a needed punch to the dish. "Salsa Verde" implies something rather different to me but while this wasn't exactly earthshaking, I thought it was a fun springtime change-up to a standard side dish.

I agree with your comments. I know I was NOT impatient and my farro was certainly not cooked in the time given. I think the toasting process gave it a nice flavor but made it much longer to cook. After sitting overnight, it was very nice. Of course, at that point, it was also assisted by a crispy fried egg and plenty of samba oelek . And yes, it did seemed to require multiple cooking segments that didn't seem all that more effective at adding flavor compared with just throwing everything into the pot from the beginning!

I've never cooked a Cornish hen and I suspect many others are in that situation so it might be fun for your class. I picked up one recently to make a recipe for Brick Hens with Charred Lemon from Smitten Kitchen Every Day. Simple spatchcocked bird pan roasted under a weight. The given cooking time is 15 min or less so very quick. My bird is thawing and will experience this treatment later today.

I also love an Aperol spritz - such a great warm weather sipper! I will have to try @Craig E's suggestion and add an olive to my usual garnish, which is an orange wedge that I squeeze into the drink. I can imagine it would add just a bit of salt balance to the mix. I suspect you've already found the thread on Suze and other gentian liqueurs. I've been using Salers for White Negronis and the like. Just recently acquired a bottle of Suze. I'll have to try both of them in a spritz and see what I think.

Thanks, guys! I'll be interested to hear what you think if you try it. I roasted the Savoy cabbage wedges in the CSO and turned them a couple of times as the parts closest to the top element browned fairly quickly. For an Easter brunch, I made the Swiss Chard Leek, Herb and Ricotta Crostata from Six Seasons p 302. Leeks and colorful chard stems being sautéed: Out of the oven: Sliced: This is the same walnut pastry called for in the Onion and Pancetta Tart that I made earlier. I reduced the sugar from 5T to 1T, similar to what I did last time. I debated baking this in a tart pan so I could blind bake the crust but I figured I'd go with the recipe for the first time. Indeed, the bottom crust isn't as nicely crisp and brown in the very center. It's not bad, and the crisp upper crust kind of makes up for it, but next time, I'll try a tart or pie pan version. The filling is a bunch of chard, a couple of leeks, ricotta cheese, fresh parsley, dill, cilantro and mint, lemon zest, grated Parmesan and a couple of eggs. Aside from using an egg wash on the crust, I followed the recipe as written. My finished crostata came out at ~ 11" diameter. I make quiche a lot and never really measure anything. Here, I was measuring everything and felt like I generated a ton of dirty dishes but it was nice for a change.

@JAZ, I've never seen "burn" but I have had the overheat or "ovht" message pop up a number of times. It's happened only when using the sauté function and I was either searing a piece of meat or browning a small amount of onions or veg. Every time it happened, it seamed reasonable to me that there might be a hot spot that could have triggered the warning. Generally, I hit cancel, stir things around in an attempt to even out the heat in the pan and then restart. I think there have been some occasions when I just stirred things around and the message went away without me pushing any buttons but I'm afraid I didn't keep any records. I've never gotten that message when I had a full pot and I've never been unable to resume the sauté function in short order.

Cauliflower is in season now at my local farmers market here in So Cal. I usually pay $4.00 for a nice big head of organic cauliflower, over 4 lbs with some leaves. Yellow and purple are usually the same price but slightly smaller heads. Romanesco is usually $1 more per head.

Thanks for mentioning that 8-inch pan. I could use a new one in that size. I'm happy with the Tramontana brand that I recently got in the 12" size, but the T-fal is ten bucks cheaper for the 8". Currently on Amazon.com, the T-fal E93802 Professional Total Nonstick, 8-Inch is listing at $14.00, one of its lower prices according to camelcamelcamel.com:

In the circumstances you described, I'd probably bring a bottle of wine. It's kind of the standard hostess gift around here and I've never thought it conveyed any message that the gathering might be lacking in quantity or quality. Who knows, they could have a severe nut allergy

Leftovers here as well. Yesterday's Comforting Cabbage, Onion and Farro Soup from Six Seasons becomes today's breakfast. The already thick soup absorbed most of the broth overnight so instead of adding more, I just topped it with a crispy fried egg, green onions and a nice big spoonful of Sambal Oelek

Well, I'm sorry that you're going to step away for a while. I finally picked up the Kindle edition of the book when it was on sale. May I ask what three recipes you liked enough to want to perfect them? I don't think using Costco rotisserie chicken in a salad recipe instead of roasting the chicken per the recipe would detract from the result in any way. Sounds like good idea to me! Unfortunately, I'm out of black mustard seeds but I'll put that salad on my list to try.

I'm another fan of the "set and forget" convenience of an electric pressure cooker. I appreciate that a stove that you can easily set as you describe would be a big help with a stovetop pressure cooker. Others have posted about using a stovetop pressure cooker with an induction cooktop with similar ease. I have gas burners with no discrete settings so it's always listen, listen, listen, fiddle, fiddle, fiddle. Listen, listen, come back 10 min later and fiddle some more. And there's still the highly variable time to get up to pressure, depending on the volume and starting temp of the contents. So for me, the set and forget convenience is very much worth the small amount of additional clean up time (maybe 1-3 min at most) and learning how best to use the little silicone mitts to grip and pour from the pot on the occasions that's needed. I do a lot of pot-in-pot cooking so that's not a regular issue. Different strokes ...

I have a bottle in the pantry. So far, I've used it to pep up some soups, like a cream of celery where I wanted a little heat and tartness but didn't want to turn it a murky brown by adding a red sauce. I liked it there but haven't used it on its own.

We'll be moving on from cabbage season but there was still a head of Savoy in the fridge, enough to try a couple more Six Seasons recipes. Roasted Cabbage with Walnuts, Parmigiano and Saba from Six Seasons p 333. The great flavor and texture exceeded my expectations for such an easy recipe - quarter a cabbage, rub with butter, roast, toss with saba and sprinkle the topping on. That topping (toasted walnuts, breadcrumbs, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese) is very similar to what's used in the Six Seasons asparagus salad that I made the other day but the dishes couldn't be more different. The crisp asparagus salad was bright, fresh and sharp with a bit of heat from the dried chile flakes while this warm, tender cabbage dish gets some garlic that added to the earthy, roasted flavors. The rest of the cabbage went into the Comforting Cabbage, Onion and Farro Soup from Six Seasons p 337. @liamsaunt posted about this upthread and gave it a thumbs up. This was fine, but didn't knock my socks off. Pan-roasting the farro before adding gives it a nice toasty flavor and the vinegar and lemon juice balance out the sweetness of the cabbage and onions. I added quite a bit of extra liquid but it's still more of a stew than a soup. I suspect the Savoy cabbage gives off less liquid than a regular green cabbage. I may add more to the leftovers and see if I like it better that way. Or maybe it's just not wintery enough here. I'll go have a popsicle for dessert

@FrogPrincesse mentioned them in this post, earlier in this thread.

I don't think you will regret that decision. It's a lovely book. Even if you don't try the recipes, the time one can spend pouring over the photos and reading the stories makes it worthwhile. Thank you so much @Hassouni, for sharing your suggestions and experiences. Your photos look amazing!

This is a version of the Pasta alla Gricia with Slivered Sugar Snap Peas from Six Seasons p 123 where I used slivered asparagus instead of snap peas. I sliced the asparagus very thinly on a sharp angle, as recommended for the Raw Asparagus Salad recipe I posted above and tossed it in with the pasta for just the last minute so they were tender but still crisp and contrasted nicely with the slightly chewy pasta. Topped the pasta with garlic-rosemary breadcrumbs instead of cheese.