blue_dolphin

I recently made small batches of Curried Peach Preserves and Whole-Fruit Fig and Lemon Preserves and posted about them over in the Deep Run Roots thread. Both winners, especially the peaches!

I recently made the Curried Peach Preserves and the Whole-Fruit Fig and Lemon Preserves from Deep Run Roots. In both cases, I scaled the recipes by half but I like both enough that I would be happy to have full batches on hand. Sorry about the photo, this one is from my breakfast post and I was too lazy to take more, but it gives an idea of how they look. The Curried Peach Preserves are a sub-recipe from the Fried Green Tomatoes with Curried Peach Preserves and Whipped Feta on p 458. @Steve Irby posted about making the preserves for holiday gifts and gave them a thumbs up. I concur. The peaches and sugar macerate overnight with sugar, Madras curry powder, lime and orange zest, star anise and thin slices of fresh ginger. The next day, they get cooked down and lime and orange juices and salt are added just before they go into jars. I processed mine but the recipe says they will last 6 months in the fridge. Although I made a half recipe, I accidentally used the full amount of the citrus zests and ginger. I'd do that again as I like both those flavors. The recipe says to remove the citrus zests with a vegetable peeler and I'd recommend taking the time to julienne those zest strips and it looks much prettier and gives you a little of each in every bite. I didn't think of doing that until after I put the lime zest in and was too lazy to fish it out but I wish I had. I have to try and track down some green tomatoes so I can make the whole recipe but in the meantime, the preserves were great on toasted bread smeared with goat cheese. I think they will be equally good with salmon, chicken or pork or as part of a cheese platter. Edited to add that we have a few more weeks of fresh peaches at the local farmer's market and I'm planning on making more of these for sure. I had my doubts about putting my beautiful, perfectly ripe figs into the recipe for Whole-Fruit Fig and Lemon Preserves p 178 but the finished product really captures the lovely tender texture of ripe figs into a preserve. The recipe calls for Brown Turkey figs and I used Black Mission figs as that's what's most common around here. I would double the amount of thinly sliced lemon next time as the they add a nice touch. The recipe estimates a cooking time of ~ 1 hr for the figs and mine took much longer but that's pretty much the story of my life with preserves. I tried these fig preserves for breakfast, on toast with goat cheese and I ended up needing to break up the fig as I found a whole preserved fig to be way more sweetness than I want in one bite! I think they will really shine simmered into a red wine, port or sherry vinegar sauce for duck or pork and you'll be eating those with knife and fork so it will be easy to control the size of that bite of sweetness.

I will post more over in the Deep Run Roots thread. Bottom line: I made half-sized batches of both and will likely make more. Both are winners, especially the curried peach. The figs are good, too, but a whole preserved fig is a bigger chunk of sweetness than suits my toast preferences. I think the figs will be excellent with duck or pork, in a red wine, port or sherry vinegar sauce where you're already eating with a knife and fork and can more easily take a smaller bite.

Toast with goat cheese and sampler servings of two recently made preserves: Curried Peach Preserves and Whole-Fruit Fig and Lemon Preserves, both from Deep Run Roots.

Well, @Anna N, I think that in writing up my inquiry post, I managed to enable myself as well! I haven't clicked to complete the order yet, but Bäco is in my cart. Is self-enabling a thing?

Is anyone looking at Josef Centeno's Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles? Bäco rhymes with taco, in case you were wondering . A look at the table of contents, via Amazon's Look Inside feature, intrigues me. It's also been indexed on Eat Your Books. The first chapter, "spicy | salty | pickled | preserved" is full of condiments that sound interesting. Further chapters are similarly titled by taste, flavor or mouthfeel descriptions so The author was interviewed on the last episode of KCRW's Good Food. He said he never used recipes for cooking until he started working on the book. That didn't seem so encouraging but on the other hand, it's co-authored by his wife, Betty Hallock, who was deputy food editor for the LA Times for 13 years so presumably she brought a bit more recipe/writing experience to the project. I liked the sound of the recipe for ‘Caesar’ Brussels Sprouts that was mentioned in the interview. A closer look a the recipe shows that it requires sub-recipes for "mint and rose pickled red onions" and caraway croutons. That's fairly reasonable but it makes me wonder if all the recipes will include ingredients like dried rosebuds. He does say the recipe is fine without the rosebuds and I read the introduction and he sounded reasonable about using parts of recipes. I wish that Amazon preview showed at least one full recipe so I could get a better idea of how the recipes are written. There are only a few reviews on Amazon. They're all good and most are by people who actually used the book. Is this on anyone else's radar screen? Speaking of reasonable-sounding introductions, Jeremy Fox came off as quite reasonable in the introduction to On Vegetables (book discussed by others above) sounding as if he had left the extreme fussiness of Ubuntu behind and presenting us with more basic recipes. I got the book from the library and very much enjoyed the intro but got frustrated with the recipes. Maybe it was just my mood, but every recipe I wanted to try seemed to have some odd ingredient or elaborate preparation scheme that was difficult to scale down. It is a lovely book so I'll borrow it again someday and see if my mood changes or I need to pick other recipes. I also checked out Six Seasons and decided to purchase that one although I haven't cooked from it yet. @FrogPrincesse and @Honkman, have you done much cooking from On Vegetables yet? Reporting back on the Patricia Wells book that I mentioned above. I see the value of a technique-based book that encourages the reader to start with a "master recipe" and then build skill and confidence by branching out into the many variations offered. That said, nothing really piqued my interest enough to make me want to cook from it.

No argument with that conclusion but is your DH truly a "product of the 21st Century?"

Ah, we all differ in our choice of toast doneness. Almost over done for you is almost done for me - I'd probably give it another round or two at "1"

It did take me a little while to figure out the best CSO toast settings for different breads (as it did with my old toaster) but now I've got them down and that old toaster is long gone! I usually start with a setting of 3 or 4. I've learned that if it's not cooked enough, then I only repeat on the "1" setting, otherwise I risk overdoing it. I also find the CSO does a great job resuscitating bread that's slightly stale. In that case, I give it 2-3 min of steam-bake @ 300-350°F and then switch to the toast function.

Generally, yes. If the apple cake recipe has larger chunks of apple then you might expect some gaps if you choose a bundt pan with a very intricate design.

Toast with melty gorgonzola and fresh figs Edited to add that I had this same thing for a late supper last night, with a glass of red wine and it was so good and there were still a few figs left so.....

I had a similar experience. I needed to get the steel out of the oven in a hurry. It was hot and I didn't have a handy spot to put it down so I put it on a stone-topped table out in my carport. I forgot to retrieve it and the next AM, there was rust on it.

Over on one of the IP Facebook groups, someone posted a link to this list of accessories that may be helpful. The Amazon links in that list are just straight links, not affiliate links. Edited to add that I purchased this stainless steel bowl: Tovolo Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl - 1.5 Quart and it works well for rice or grains. I often use a 1 qt pyrex bowl for the same purpose.

I agree with most of the other recommendations. I prefer all dry ingredients be specified by weight but I like the way the King Arthur Flour site lets the user toggle between volume, ounces or grams. I tend to use Eat Your Books to find ideas for leftovers, much as I've used it for odd combinations of CSA box contents.

I usually do Pappadeaux at IAH. As @kayb said, it's a chain and your previous experience suggests it's not a memorable destination for you but they have the option of sitting at the raw bar or at a table and a rotating selection of brews on tap. I've steered away from the cocktails but have found it otherwise useful for killing time.

Thanks for sharing - I love marmalade! That recipe sounds interesting, although I'm not sure I like the part about needing the screen. I used this recipe a couple of times to make marmalade and no issues with that, though it was a bit of a pain to pick out all the seeds from a batch of very seedy lemons!

I'm in suburban SoCal, hardly a low population zone, but no Amazon Fresh for me either. Not sure what exactly what drives availability. It is available for addresses ~ 10 miles to the east and also 10 miles to the northwest, both with similar demographics.

The airport outpost of Seattle's Anthony's restaurant chain in the central marketplace area at SEA is casual, not fine dining but has both table service and a raw bar. You can get a table with a view out the windows and watch the planes take off and land while enjoying a platter of oysters or a nicely cooked piece of fresh fish with a local brew. In my experience, servers are pretty good about hustling food out if you're in a rush or letting you linger if you need to kill time.

I liked the French Toast and I think it will be a fun recipe to play around with different bread and adding other flavors. I'll be interested in hearing what you think. I found that the green onions didn't really stick to the bread so I sort of spooned some of them on to the bread before turning it into the pan and did the same to the other side before I flipped it over.

I had the last Vietnamese coffee popsicle for yesterday's breakfast and the weather has cooled off nicely so I made this Crispy Salt & Pepper French Toast (recipe from Food52) The green onions in the batter add a nice crunch - kinda like a very thin layer of scallion pancake on the surface of the toast. Served with tomato chutney and Greek yogurt, tomato wedges and some link sausage that the German sausage makers at my local farmers market label "Irish Bratwurst"

I was going to ask what it meant to have a "toggle spray diverter" but figured I should look it up. I found my answer and a small chuckle in this Amazon Q&A exchange: I think I would buy from Adams Quality Plumbing but perhaps not hire them by the hour

I'm with you on the Dot. Mine lives here:

Thanks! My 6 yo neighbor gives them high marks. She says they taste like, "STRAWBERRIES!!!" I didn't do anything to concentrate the flavor or color but I noticed that the color seems to come out a bit more intense in the frozen pops than it appears in the liquid purée, though both are very red. The recipes from People's Pops really use a lot of fruit - over a pound of berries is used for the 16 fl oz of purée that makes 10 pops. Also, I'm using the lovely ripe local strawberries from Harry's Berries that I get at the farmers market. They are red, through and through - no white shoulders or cores so that may help, too.

Fig and Ricotta Cheesecake Popsicles using a recipe from Lady & Pups: I needed to dial back on the sweetened condensed milk just a bit.

The recipe I've been using for IP pork shoulder says 90 min also so that's what I've been using and hadn't thought of trying to shorten it up. Good to know that's an option if I need my pork fix in a hurry I usually get a 6-7 lb chunk and cut it into 3 pieces so they each weigh ~ 2 -2.5 lbs.