blue_dolphin

One view, found here:

Thanks a bunch for sharing this! I just listened to the first 4 episodes and am saving the final episode for later. I didn’t search to see if an audio book with Fuchsia reading is in the works but, if so, it will be a delight to listen to. I tend to race along when reading and this is writing that deserves to be savored. Her pace and pauses allow for that beautifully. Edited to add - oops…just noticed your quoted message from Fuchsia confirming the audio book!

Fried duck egg with cherry tomatoes and Kenji's Stir-Fried New Potatoes with Hot and Numbing Spices from

I only soak really big beans like Royal Coronas or Christmas Limas as it seems to help them cook more evenly and still remain intact. If you know you're making a purée, the only advantage is a shorter cooking time - less energy used, less heating up the kitchen. Pressure cooking is another option, either in a stovetop pressure cooker or an electric multi-cooker like an Instant Pot. Lots of people swear by them for beans.

Maybe clickbait to get readers to click over to Seitsema's piece.

Thanks for tidbit of apple info. One of the growers who sells at our farmers market regularly brings Mutsus. I like them but didn’t realize they had another name.

I hope I’m right! It's unpleasant to see well-meaning people respond thoughtfully to a comment only to be told, “Ha ha, just kidding and most everyone got the joke!” Carry on with your alerts for those of us too obtuse to catch the humor!

I'll assume this is irony as well!

I'm glad that worked out! In my experience, brands of orzo can vary a fair bit in size so recipes that measure it by volume can end up with different amounts. I weighed a cup of 2 different brands and one weighed 5 oz and the other 8 oz. I've also seen cooking times ranging from 5 - 12 min. Add that to variations in the geometry of a pan, how tightly the lid fits, the exact oven temp and I can see why reviewers report different outcomes!

I haven’t had it either but yes, that is my understanding.

It started out quite a dark brown from the soy sauce so not sure I’ll see a change but I’ll watch for it!

In my search to replace my rapidly disintegrating iSi silicone spatulas, I ordered one of these Rose Levy Berenbaum reduction spatulas. (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Not exactly an iSi replacement but it could come in handy. It's long and narrow. The leading edges are nice and thin and it's graduated to provide a rough measure to note when reducing liquids. Unlike the photo on Amazon, mine doesn't have white lettering, and I don't recall seeing that when I ordered it, though it's been quite a while. Amazon reviewers report the same. Just as glad, as I'd be worried about it chipping off. The graduations appear on both sides of the spatula. Edited to add that I used to put a mark on a wooden chopstick for this purpose though I sometimes missed that there was already a mark on it and wasn't sure which one was correct!

Set up a batch of pickled shiso leaves today. It's a fairly common Korean preparation, though I believe it's more commonly made with green leaves. I chose this recipe in part because it uses red shiso and also because it makes a reasonable amount. The ingredients are pretty standard, although some use salt sprinkled between the leaves, others use fish sauce. This one and many others use soy sauce. Should be ready to try tomorrow. Shiso leaves in the salad spinner. These are from my plant. And with the brine spread in between the leaves. These went into the fridge and I'll see how they are tomorrow.

Yeah. That's what I was expecting but looks like Chase let it through with the old number. At least I can stop carrying around a big wad of cash everywhere! I used the self check-out at the grocery store and must have looked like such a goof because I couldn't figure out where to put in the cash!

Just got my shipping confirmation. Not that I'm lacking for beans, but I was a little worried because my credit card was compromised recently so my card was cancelled and I just got the replacement yesterday. I immediately updated my billing info but the charge for this shipment had already gone through and I was afraid it would be rejected. Seems like it went through OK. Phew!

Scrambled smoky duck eggs on sourdough from Ottolenghi's Plenty. The eggs are scrambled with green onions, garlic, tomato and chipotle chile and served on toasted sourdough, topped with cilantro with sour cream on the side. Personally, I'd just put the eggs on the plate with the toast on the side.

Sounds like an interesting place to shop but ... no limes???

In a similar vein, on our hottest day of the year thus far, I prepared a peach & bourbon milkshake for my dinner. from Julia Turshen's Small Victories.

Avocado & kimchi toast with a fried egg That's a drizzle of kimchi mayo on there. This is from a recipe in Julia Turshen's Small Victories.

Yes. For this, I cook the spaghetti in a skillet so it doesn’t need a ton of water and boils quickly. A little before it’s done, toss in the sugar snaps and in the last 30 sec, the peppers go in. Then I dump into a strainer sitting in a serving bowl. Pasta and veg go back into the skillet and get tossed with the pesto and a little pasta water. When it’s all good, I dump the water from the bowl into the sink and put everything into the now-warm bowl. True. Always looks better with similar shapes. Uncut sugar snaps and thicker pepper pieces work with penne or rotini but as you said, they all taste the same!

Made a quick lunch of pasta with sugar snap peas and red bell pepper tossed with a spoonful of Trader Joe's jarred Lemon Pesto (see @OlyveOyl's photo of the jar in her post here) and sliced basil leaves. I thought the TJ's lemon pesto was fine and might be a useful pantry ingredient. Some freshly grated zest and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice would punch it up but then I might was well make my own and the whole point was convenience. It delivered that and I look forward to playing around with it in other applications. TJ's used to sell a refrigerated Lemon Artichoke Pesto that I really liked but it disappeared ages ago. I fashioned a good copycat version and this reminds me that I should make a batch of that.

Goat cheese and roasted grape tartine from Diana Henry's Simple.

Last night, I made a batch of shiso leaf pesto. I considered a number of recipes. There's one in Modernist Pizza that uses black garlic, which I liked the sound of, and firm tofu instead of cheese, which seemed boring. I decided on this one that uses miso, pistachios and toasted sesame oil and am quite pleased with the result. It's got that zing I expect in a fresh herb pesto. The other ingredients help with that but the shiso is still the star of the show. Here's the pesto: For its maiden voyage, I tried it on some pasta with steamed sugar snaps, red bell pepper and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds: This was good. Unfortunately, the vibrant color gets sort of lost. I'd like to try a cold noodle version of this with raw veg and I think it will be quite nice on fish.

NOTE: what I'm sharing here isn't Japanese cooking so I'm a little reluctant to post in this topic but it has the single best discussion of shiso that I could find on eG, already spans into fusion sorts of dishes and is certainly worth a look if anyone else is looking to cook with this ingredient. Thanks to a friend, I've got lots of red shiso to play around with after last week's brush with tropical storm Hillary did a number on one of her plants. She grows it in big pots with shishito peppers. That's my friend cutting back one of the shiso plants last year when it was shading the shishitos too much. Gotta love that alliteration! Last year, prompted by mentions from @cdh and @haresfur, I tried a couple of recipes for shrub-ish like things: shiso vinegar from Andrea Nguyen's blog and Aka Shiso Juice from Just One Cookbook. The former uses somewhat more shiso and a good bit more vinegar. My friend used the vinegar to pickle ginger and I used both of them mostly as shrubs, adding a splash to sparkling water or a G&T to subbing it into a various cocktails that use both tart and sweet ingredients like this Shiso-rita version of a margarita A shiso-Champagne cocktail: And who knows what this was but it certainly looked pretty: From this years shiso harvest, I made about 5 liters of Andrea Nguyen's shiso vinegar and plan to bottle it up for holiday gifts. Last year, I used Trader Joe's Rice Vinegar, which is currently unavailable while they look for a new supplier so I subbed in another brand and this years tastes a more vinegar-y. I'll let it mellow a bit and decide if I want to make adjustments. I haven't tried the recipe that @helenjp shared here, Red Shiso Drink but will try a batch of that to compare as it uses less vinegar. I still have quite a bit to play with. This little arrangement of small stems is decorative and convenient for garnishes or adding to salads: I've got more big stems in a tub out in the carport, plus my own, much smaller plant growing in a pot. And my friend will have another harvest later in the year.

Grilled fruit (apricot, peach, plum) with fresh grapes and pistachios over plain Green yogurt. TJ's frozen, ready-to-bake mini croissant. Those croissants aren't bad. Only 160 calories which is reasonable compared to some of those bakery monsters and I can easily bake just one in the CSO. The box says "ready-to-bake" but the result is much nicer if you let them sit out at room temp for a couple of hours to thaw and proof a little.