blue_dolphin

These are the plum, yogurt and tarragon pops from the people's pops cookbook made with Dapple Dandy pluots from the farmers market. After unmolding, I dipped some tarragon leaves into the tarragon-infused simple syrup used in the pops and stuck them on. If they turn black and look ugly, I'll have to peel them off.

A cooler morning today so Instant Pot polenta with slow roasted tomato sauce and parmesan cheese: There was going to be an egg on it but I decided this was sufficient.

@Franci, welcome to the CSO club - and congrats on getting a great price! One thing to consider if you decide on this route... ...is to keep an eye on the little drip drawer/tray that slides in underneath the oven to catch condensed steam. I've noticed that long cook times + steam, particularly at lower temps, can result in enough condensation to overflow the tray. No disaster occurs, it just leaks water out on to the counter but it can be a slip hazard if it drips on to the floor or ruin a nearby cookbook, so best to be aware.

Emeril Lagasse has a new six-episode series, Eat the World, streaming on Amazon. I watched the first few episodes and generally enjoyed it. In each episode, Emeril and a guest chef travel to different country and explore some facet of its cuisine. For example, Emeril travels with Marcus Samuelsson to Sweden for an episode on New Nordic cuisine. José Andrés exuberantly leads Emeril on an exploration of modernist cuisine in Spain including visits to Ferran Adrià's El Bulli Lab and Albert Adrià's Enigma and Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese food accompanies Emeril to South Korea. Oddly, Mario Batali shows up for an old buddy boondoggle episode on Xiaolongbao in Shanghai. That was the weakest of the episodes I watched. It still had some goofy appeal but I kept wondering if another guest chef or location had fallen through. For an out-sized personality, Emeril manages to keep the focus on the topic and seems to sincerely convey his interest and curiosity, playing the host role without taking over the spotlight entirely. Production values are high, with artful landscapes and city views and colorful market visits to provide background and gorgeous "beauty shots" of the food, all of which were stunning on my big TV. Each episode runs 30 minutes and is either fast-paced or rushed (particularly the cooking segments), depending on your perspective. I'm going to have to re-watch parts of the New Nordic episode to get a better sense of the dishes. My preference would be to expand the cooking segments to a full 30 min as I'm sure they must have the footage but that's surely an old-person's perspective - I could also do without the background music ! It's not horrible but I found it distracting at times and I didn't think it added a lot. Maybe I just need to dial down the subwoofer . Has anyone else watched? What did you think?

Welcome! There are active, ongoing threads for just about anything you might cook up so please dive in and share. Here are a few: Breakfast Lunch Drinks Dinner Snacking Sweets Candies and confections

A variation on the roasted plum pops from the people's pops cookbook. I previously made a batch with just Dapple Dandy pluots. This time, I roasted three varieties of plum/plumcot/pluot and layered them in the molds. The dark pink is the Dapple Dandy, widely marketed as "Dinosaur Egg." In the middle, we have Summer Punch, which has crimson skin with light orange flesh and the bright gold color is from the green-skinned Emerald Beaut that has super sweet golden flesh. In all cases, I puréed the roasted fruit with the skins and stopped before it was completely smooth for a bit of texture.

More beans on toast. Rancho Gordo Alubia Blanca beans tossed with @ElainaA's slow roasted tomato sauce with basil on toasted ciabatta. A sprinkle of cheese and lightly broiled. When I first bought these beans, their full name, Alubia Blanca de San José Iturbide, delighted me - such a big long name for such a little bean! The label has been shortened but the name still makes me smile! Edited to add: that slow roasted tomato sauce always makes me smile!

Wow, what a grand finale that dinner at Raymonds was! Thank you for taking us along, I enjoyed it all.

What a way to go!

Here's a "Summer Punch" plumcot and an "Emerald Beaut" pluot from the farmers market, brushed with a mix of ginger infused simple syrup and lemon juice, ready for the oven: The Emerald Beaut sort of fell apart during the last few minutes of broiling but still made it on to the plate: toasted multigrain bread, goat cheese and broiled fruit:

@savvysearch, I don't soak candied fruit for fruitcake, assuming it's relatively soft and pliable. If it's very hard and dried out, I would steam it to soften.

That looks really good, @Anna N! I got everything out the other day to make a flatbread with figs and blue cheese, a little prosciutto, maybe a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and handful of baby arugula to finish. Mmmmm. Then I started eating the figs and the cheese and prosciutto. And then the figs were all gone. I will have to try again.

Yes, indeed. My local Total Wine stocks it but @ $37.49 vs $29.99 at TJ's. BevMo is $39.99 and they don't tend to stock it at my local outlet. I see Hi-Time is offering a Sipsmith V.J.O.P. ("Very Junipery Over Proof") @ $51.99, the regular Sipsmith at $33.99 and a Sipsmith Sloe gin @ $45.99.

These are Pear Dark & Stormy pops - I made Dark & Stormy pops last year and thought they would be nice with the fruit base. I cooked and puréed the pear and added Goslings Black Seal rum (bought the 151 proof by mistake - yikes!), ginger beer, lime juice and some ginger-infused simple syrup. Made myself a Dark & Stormy cocktail to sip while I tasted the mixture to adjust the flavors . I had some thin strips of candied lime peel at the ready to represent the lime garnish but I forgot to add them as I was keen to finish my cocktail. A lesson there, I think.

Yes, although if an egg happened to explode, it could make for an annoying mess to clean out of the oven!

I was wondering about the 2/3 dust jacket and how that came to be. I noticed how the acorn and cattail embossing on the covers peek up above the dust jacket and your name stands out above it on the spine. The dust jacket photo is beautiful but the cover is very elegant by itself and I thought perhaps the 2/3 jacket was chosen to draw attention to it. We should probably start another thread for discussion of the book, since this is your thread about bringing it to being but I must say that the book is a feast for the eyes, like a piece of art. It does a beautiful job of communicating your passions for foraging sustainably and cooking with great imagination and exuberance. What a wonderful tribute to the whole community that enabled you to become the chef you are and make your restaurant the special place it was! Congrats!

I remember trying to decide what would be most similar to the "perforated pan" that the oven the linked manual came with and trying various steamer inserts that I had around. If I recall, I put the eggs on this steamer rack and placed it on the oven rack, no pan.

Eggs fresh from the fridge, 21 min on steam at 210 F. Posted here:

My copy just arrived. It's a beautiful, beautiful book. I can't wait to sit down and spend some time with it.

I think going with natural pressure release is probably key as that gives several more minutes at a high temp and pressure and that's all that's needed.

@Shelby, I'll try natural release next time. I suspect that bit of extra time will do the trick. @rotuts, I did chill them and they peeled OK. It probably doesn't show up in the picture, but the centers of the yolks were fairly liquid - maybe "pourable gel" would be correct. Even though I like them a little more cooked, they are nice deep gold colored yolks, aren't they ? I put the yolks in a custard cup, covered with foil and put them back in the IP for 2 min and they are now easier to mush up for my egg salad.

@rotuts breakfast post made me want some egg salad and I decided I should give the IP another try. Four farmers market large eggs, straight from the fridge. 1.5 cups of water in the IP. Eggs sitting on trivet. 5 min high pressure, quick release, chill in ice water: I prefer the yolks more cooked than this for "hard boiled" I may try one more time, but I can make great hard cooked eggs by steaming them on the stove top or in the Cuisi steam oven so perhaps I should be happy with those methods. I don't really need to cook everything in the IP !

Looks like another beautiful day! Since St. Pierre et Miquelon is a French colony, is there any sort of passport control when you get on/off the ferry?

Consider trying steam-bake instead of steam broil for your asparagus so they'll get heat from both top and bottom. I was happy with texture and flavor I got from asparagus cooked that way. Generally ~ 10 min steam-bake @ 425 F, no preheat for skinny spears, a bit longer for fat ones. I was going for good roasted flavor, there was some browning but I wasn't specifically looking for a lot of char, so it may not be what you want. I was impressed that I was able to get a nice roast on the skinny spears without turning them into jerky ! edited to add: you can see the "color" or lack thereof on skinny spears in this post

My local Total Wine only carries the regular Small Hand tonic syrup. I've used it with great success for the frozen G&T's that @rustwood mentioned - they are very refreshing! I'll keep an eye out for the other Small Hand tonic Have you tried it?