blue_dolphin

An adaptation of the Corn Polenta with Eggplant Sauce from Ottolenghi's Plenty. I'm sure the polenta in the recipe made from fresh sweet corn would have been lovely but I was wanting something a little more sturdy and channeling fond memories of the grits from Deep Run Roots so I cooked up a batch of the Foolproof Grits from that cookbook and put them into the oven for a bit as in the "pimped grits" recipes, then topped them with the eggplant sauce. I thought it needed a little acid, so I added a few drops of sherry vinegar. When we get more local corn, I may try the book version. For today's June Gloom weather, this hit the spot!

This brings to mind Farley Mowat and his book, Never Cry Wolf. I seem to recall a lot of mice and berries were in the wolf diet so I'd also be interested in your interpretation!

Those beet and beet greens look beautiful, @Shelby! My very favorite thing is the little beet plants that get pulled up to thin the rows with little grape-sized (or smaller) beets. You can sauté the greens in butter with the little beets attached and they are so good!

I'd say it's like halfway decent day-old brioche that got put into a plastic bag. It's something I'd use for toast or French toast but I wouldn't serve it on its own as I would do with a perfect fresh-baked version. To me, the charm of a fresh brioche is the textural contrast between the delicate, but still slightly crispy/chewy crust and the buttery, soft interior. Once you put it in a plastic bag, the crust gets soft so that's lost. The crumb is finer and more even than my dream brioche. It's rich and buttery but not quite as buttery as an all-butter version. Overall, more manufactured than hand-crafted.

Thank you for taking the time to share this, @paulraphael - I gotta try that PX vinegar! That Columela is the sherry vinegar I usually use. For a while, my local Total Wine was selling the L'Estornell grenache vinegar at a good price (6-7 bucks, I think) but sadly, they don't carry it anymore so I will have to turn to Amazon to get my fix. It's really a lovely red wine vinegar.

Another new-to-me item - Trader Joe's Sliced French Brioche I think it's been around for a while but I didn't notice it. Since it's made in France, it's not exactly a fresh-baked loaf but I figure I can keep this in the freezer and pull out a slice or two to make brioche french toast for an occasional treat. I toasted one of the end slices and enjoyed it with butter and a sprinkle of toast dope. Very nice. It's $3.99 for the loaf.

Thanks for that update, @lindag. I prefer the stainless steel but the price of this one (~ $20) vs the stainless (~ $35) makes having an extra inner pot a more reasonable proposition.

In my limited experience, it can be tricky getting the eggs done just the way you want with this sort of dish, and that's assuming you know the yolk preferences of all the guests. Using room temp vs refrigerator temp eggs can make a difference of a couple min in the oven. If you strain the eggs briefly in a fine mesh strainer, you can eliminate some of the loose white (esp in older eggs) so the remainder will cook more quickly. You could also try using the Julia Child 10-sec/in the shell/ pre-boil that she promoted for poaching. That may give the white a little head start on cooking. This probably isn't helpful for you, but I had some success with flatbread/egg things in the Cuisi steam oven (see here).

I love that mango jicama slaw, too!

I committed the error of stopping at Trader Joe's just BEFORE lunch and am now eating the evidence: Sorry for the out of focus photo.

Rice salad with nuts & sour cherries from Ottolenghi's Plenty More and yogurt flatbread from Plenty. I added some fresh sweet cherries to the dried sour cherries called for in the recipe and enjoyed the combination. The flatbreads were very quick and easy and I look forward to trying them with different additions.

Pear Crostini from Plenty p 278. Very nice with a glass of wine. I was so tempted to make some of these with gorgonzola instead of goat cheese but with the ground pine nut/garlic/oil mixture that gets baked onto the toast, goat cheese is really the right choice. The pears get a dip in a lemon juice/sugar/olive oil mix to help the grill marks along. I substituted tarragon for the specified chervil. My copy of Plenty says to slice the bread 1.5 inches thick. Wrong - it's supposed to be 1.5 cm. So annoying that no one caught these incorrect unit translations.

Red Pepper and Baked Egg Galette from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem I'm sure this would have been better if I'd used the specified "best quality, all-butter" puff pastry instead of Pepperidge Farm frozen stuff but hey, it puffed so I'm not complaining

Mmmmm! I love the combination of pear and cardamom!

Leftover cauliflower cake (from Ottolenghi's Plenty More) with tomato chutney

I got an email from DARTO saying they will have a 50% off sale next Wed, June 7. It's for 10 hours only, beginning @ 10AM. It also said that delivery won't begin until August 14. They didn't spell out the shipping charges so I don't know if the current free shipping will be in effect or not.

Stuffed peppers with fondant rutabaga and goat cheese from Ottolenghi's Plenty More. There's a tossed salad version of the carrot salad with lemon tahini dressing from Julia Turshen's Small Victories on the side. These stuffed peppers are seriously good! The little cubes of rutabaga get cooked low and slow in a bathtub of butter 'til they are tender and caramelized before being tucked into the peppers with capers, garlic, Parmesan and goat cheese.

Yes, that TJ's stuff is still in cans. I bought one not long ago because I like the small size and snap cap for baking. Edited to add: the fact that it's alarmingly similar in size and color to the can of Rumford Baking Powder does give me pause ! I've got a big ol' box from Smart & Final in the laundry room for cleaning the oven, etc.

Amazon link: Boston Cocktails: Drunk & Told

Here's a non-chicken breakfast. From yesterday. I wasn't going to post it because it's not particularly attractive but it was very good. Leftover from a dinner out, pasta with squid ink and seafood sauce. I ate the shrimp and scallops that accompanied this in the first go round but saved the little roasted tomato for a centerpiece .

Overall, I give it a thumbs up. The texture is light, not too heavy. Yesterday, I thought it was a bit bland but I had another slice today for breakfast with a few oil-cured black olives alongside and they provided the little punch of flavor I was missing. The flavors are not super strong and could be enhanced by adding something like some cayenne, chipotle or smoked paprika, sliced kalamatas or spicy sausage crumbles or by serving a vinegar-y cucumber salad alongside. The flavors melded nicely overnight and it was quite tasty, even at room temp. I think it was better than while still warm out of the oven so it would be a good make-ahead brunch or picnic dish. I had half a head of cauliflower in the fridge, so I made a 1/2 recipe and baked it in a 6-inch springform pan.

I tried them last year and was not impressed. Maybe it was just a bad batch but I found them a bit mealy in texture.

Thank you! I'll give this a try.

@sartoric - that looks amazing as usual! Is the lime pickle homemade or purchased? If homemade, do you have a recipe you can share?

Wine nibbles - Fried Olives with Greek Yogurt and Spicy Pepper Sauce from Ottolenghi's Plenty More