blue_dolphin

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.

Wow, I had no idea there were so many kinds. I'd love to try the Indian, Mexican and Indonesian varieties! I don't have any bay trees, though I'd like to get a bay laurel.

It was fine. I suspect it wouldn’t keep as long as an intact head so I’ll try to use up the rest promptly.

Buckwheat Salad w/Plums, Cauliflower, Mustard Dressing + Arugula from Pulp. Picked up a bag of 4-color cauliflower florets at TJ's the other day and figured this salad would be a good place for them. Nothing earth-shaking about this but it's a tasty, pretty, satisfying summer salad.

Perhaps a lack of these?

Earlier this year, Eat Your Books announced they had linked up with ckbk so that users could search both their own book collections and the books that ckbk offers, with direct links to the ckbk recipes. Both services offered some sort of discount to the subscribers of the other service. I decided to try a year's worth of ckbk (@ $29.99) and thought I'd share my early observations, mostly how it compares with my own collection. Initially, ckbk had not appealed to me. I have plenty of cookbooks and like using them. I enjoy reading the books, getting to "know" the author through stories and header notes and found the idea of being taken direct to a digital recipe less appealing than using my books. I feel the same way about randomly searching the internet for recipes, though I do it sometimes. I was quite curious to see what overlap existed between my cookbook collection and the ckbk offerings. At present, I have 513 cookbooks, 125 of them are Kindle e-books, the others are hard copies. ckbk offers 751 books, 462 have been indexed on EYB. The remaining 284 haven't been indexed on EYB yet so it would be necessary to search for their recipes directly on ckbk. Interestingly, only 17 of my 513 cookbooks are on ckbk. This tells me that ckbk isn't going to replace my own collection any time soon. On the other hand, with so little overlap, my ckbk subscription is mostly providing access to books I don't own. This is at least in part because the ckbk selection skews towards UK publications and my own collection has more US authors. I thought ckbk might be a good way to sample new cookbooks that I was considering purchasing but I don't think that will be the case. Of the 462 ckbk books that are indexed on EYB, only 21 of them were published between 2021 - 2023. On the other hand, ckbk does offer access to a number of older and out-of-print books. Sometimes you can find OOP books for a song, other times they can be hard to track down. ckbk has apps for mobile devices. I've only played around with it a bit on my iPad. As with the browser interface, all the recipes are imported into a standard format. Photos appear in a small-ish "thumbnail" that can be expanded with a click. It seems adequate enough for accessing recipes while cooking but I'm not sure it offers any advantage to just using a browser. For example, there's no way to increase the font size within the ckbk app, you need to use device settings or access ckbk via a browser and use browser tools to zoom in or out. While ckbk has MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf, (though none of her other books), the ckbk interface, either web or app, isn't where I want to read it. Neither are designed for the best reading experience IMO. The browser interface for ckbk has a "print" button that could be a convenient way to get a copy I could mark up while cooking but the formatting on the recipes I tried printing was awful with a narrow column of text printed down the middle of 6 pages for one recipe and even shorter recipes broken up over multiple pages. I'm very familiar with EYB's search functions and ckbk seems awkward to me so clearly, I need to play around with ckbk a lot more to get familiar with it. Any ckbk users have any tips or experiences to share?

Pan Sushi Dynamite, a recipe in Sheldon Simeon's Cook Real Hawai’i, might be a similar concept. It doesn’t appeal to me enough to make it (though I’d try a taste if prepared for me) but was a very, very popular recipe when the online cookbook group I participate in cooked from the book.

Is this Kitchen Aid attachment for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer or a Kitchen Aid food processor? I have one of each. Ditto that here. Same, though I have this series of microplanes.

Along the lines of @Alex's query above, what is the texture you are going for? (I'm not rewording 🙃) If you were to use a box grater, which size hole would you choose for this purpose? Sometimes I want parm as fine as a dusting of snow, sometimes I want thin shavings, sometimes thicker shreds.

Charred Carrots with Apple Brown-Butter Vinaigrette from the apple chapter in Deep Run Roots p 498. The tart vinaigrette and earthy pine nuts make a nice contrast to the sweet carrots and apples. I served this on a bed of arugula and added some goat cheese so I could call it lunch.

If you've been having rainy weather, that beautiful sunny food your prepared must have brightened things up, @BonVivant! Rainy here today but oyster fest continued with the grand finale - Thai-style oysters Rockefeller from Cook Like a Local. These guys are topped with a mix of blanched and chopped kale, diced onion, shallot, garlic, jalapeño, ginger, coconut milk, green curry paste, cream cheese and lime juice and baked 'til the topping is bubbly. Very flavorful!

Grilled peaches and green beans from Ottolenghi's Flavour. Excellent combo of flavors and textures. The grilled peaches and beans are tossed with mint, lemon juice, almonds, goat cheese and a drizzle of honey. It's supposed to be a side but I served it over polenta.

I know you love oysters and was thinking of you when I was making them!

Thanks for that suggestion, @rotuts! I do have a pair of those cut resistant gloves and a rule that I must wear it when using the mandolin, even if I don’t think I’ll be coming close to the blade. It’s a fine idea to extend that rule to oyster shucking!

Oyster Fest! The other day, I was looking to see where I might have neglected this book. The oyster chapter popped out because local Pacific oysters were an alternate selection for my fish share this week so I signed on and got my oysters yesterday. I've only ever had oysters in restaurants so figuring out how to shuck them is a learning experience. These guys, farmed off of Santa Barbara, are pretty big. Definitely 2-or 3-biters, at least for me. First up was the most minimal. Oysters on the Half Shell with Mignonette-Marinated Orange p 112. Just a sliver of an icy cold orange supreme and a teaspoon of its mignonette marinade is added to the oyster and its liquor. The marinade is orange juice, rice vinegar, lemon juice, grated shallot, tarragon and black pepper. Quite nice but would be better with a smaller oyster. I also made the Apple and Scallion Oyster Ceviche p 115. The cure starts with charred scallions and finely chopped cilantro stems and adds both lemon and lime juice and zest, garlic, hot sauce and diced, crisp apple. In the header notes, Vivian suggests small to medium oysters or cutting larger ones in half. I guess I should have done that but since it was just me, I could fork one up, take a bite, slurp half of the cure, then repeat. Very good. Finally, I made the Roasted Oysters with Brown-Butter Hot Sauce and Bacon p 116 with the most added flavors. This was excellent with tender oysters in a bath of browned butter, hot sauce, lemon juice and zest, topped with parsley and crispy bacon. Had some crusty toasts with this one.

I do have a Sprouts near me and I do go often. It's only about a mile away so I can easily walk there for a bit of functional exercise. Never seen any markdowns like that but I usually just pop in, get what I need and leave. I'll have to spend a little more time looking around! My Aldi opened mid-pandemic and was very understocked for a long time. Like the freezer cases were only ~ 1/4 full and lots of empty space on shelves. They are better now. Maybe they were figuring out the market? Produce quality is very hit or miss and they don't offer a very wide selection of organics. I've bought a few things that seemed to go bad very quickly so I rarely take a chance on it. I still go for the cheap mayo, heavy cream for baking, fake Triscuits, lemon and lime cookie thins and the brioche buns that must be loaded with preservatives because they keep forever at room temp.

I don't need a second fridge either, but I agree that's it's a pretty nice luxury, especially these days when the fridges don't last like they used to and delivery times are all over the place! In my case, it could be quite functional as well. Not sure what I'll get with a new side-by-side, but in the one I have now, the freezer shelves are only about 12 inches wide and the fridge side about 17 inches so putting trays of anything in to freeze or chill is always a challenge. The new one isn't big, more or less apartment-sized but the shelves are 24-25 inches wide so I can see making use of for baking, etc. Reporting back to say that I transferred all the fridge stuff and it fits fine, though there was quite a bit of culling involved in the transfer Things aren't terribly well organized and the produce bins are very petite. While I'm not a big fan of the side-by-side, having many small shelves allows for easy organization so I need to get some bins or tubs. That process warmed up the fridge quite a bit so I'm going to give it some time before I tackle the freezer. Maybe I'll run to Target for some plastic bins while I wait for it to catch up.

The delivery guy said it would take about 6 hrs for the temps to stabilize so I haven't put anything in yet. It's been holding -5 to -7Ï in the freezer and 35°F in the fridge for a while now so I think I'll put some ice cube trays in the freezer and start moving fridge stuff in. Given what I tossed, I believe the fridge part will handle most of what's left. I didn't lose anything from the freezer so that's going to be more of a crunch and I'll probably have to toss some stuff. The new fridge just has one shelf so I need to get some little tubs or shoe boxes to organize things. They would have removed the old fridge but since the freezer never warmed up and the fridge is still maintaining 50°F which is OK for fruits and veg in the short term, I didn't take them up on it. Lord only knows what's behind there but once it's emptied, I'll be able to wiggle it out and see!

It was a first for me, too. Seems like most deliveries I get are way late. Then they say that I need to pay them an extra $45 for some little plumbing connection that I could get for 75 cents but it's so late that all the stores are closed so I have no choice but to pay up. Then the new dishwasher leaks all over the floor anyway!

Good news - the fridge has arrived, is plugged in and is humming along with a Spot in the fridge and one in the freezer. Last night, they sent me a delivery window of 8AM - Noon. A little after 7, I heard a truck pull up out in front. Thought it was probably my neighbors construction delivery so I paid no attention. I was bustling about, emptying the closet, mopping the dusty floor in there, moving furniture so there was a clear path, etc. when the doorbell rang. That was indeed my fridge truck, an hour early - good thing I'd changed out of my PJs and brushed my teeth!

Excellent idea. Not that it would have helped me here as the freezer temps have remained within an acceptable range (based on the min-max display on the little Thermoworks Spot that lives in there) though a fridge alarm might have helpfully woken me up in the middle of the night and provided me a bit more time for online fridge shopping!

Yes, I've certainly been thinking of your ordeal. Thankfully, I didn't have to resort to bribery....yet! And, I'm very, very lucky that I can afford to replace it and was able to find one I could get delivered on short notice!

Well, I failed to heed my own advice and my fridge is giving up the ghost. It was hovering around 40°F yesterday. Freezer was at -1°F, a few degrees above normal. I thought I might not have closed the fridge door properly and hoped that a nice long overnight with no opening it would give it time to recover. Alas, it was 50°F this morning and the freezer up to 1°F. Went to Lowes and bought a small, but full-sized one that will be delivered tomorrow. It will fit into what used to be a laundry closet, right around the corner from the kitchen and could eventually become a garage fridge. A previous owner built the kitchen cabinets very closely around the now dying fridge. It's a side-by-side with panels that match the cabinets and I'm going to need a bit of time to figure out what to replace it with. My preference is no ice maker and that ruled out anything available quickly. While I was at Lowes, I bought a cooler and stopped for ice on the way home. I put enough dry ice into the freezer to keep everything in frozen. Now I need to start the fridge clean out, toss anything perishable and use the cooler for stuff like fruit, veg, cheese, mustard, pickles, jams, etc. that I'd still eat. Shouldn't be anything stinky yet but I'm not really looking forward to it! And even if it doesn't stink now, it surely will by the time the trash gets picked up on Friday!