blue_dolphin

Dry ice isn’t without hazards. It doesn’t melt, at least at atmospheric pressure, it sublimates: solid -> gas. In a properly vented dewer, all should be well, but don't think of putting dry ice into anything like a glass jar and think you’ll seal it up once the solid CO2 is no longer visible because as it warms, the gas can move out of solution and BOOM!

Looks like the Cloverdale bacon is 3 lbs for $18.99 or $6.33/lb and the Farmers Pride is 5 lbs for $22.99 or $4.60/lb. I haven’t checked recently but have seen prices in that ballpark over the last couple years.

Yikes! That would scare me away, too! My local farmers market has big heads of cauliflower for $4 - 5. Higher than in previous years but they are big and very fresh. The garlic and citrus seem more within reason. I usually get 4/$1 lemons at the farmers market, though they are huge. Limes have pretty much gone out of season locally so I'm hoarding what's left on my tree but when in season, they were also 4/$1 for big juicy limes. I paid more than the pictured price (3/$1) for organic garlic yesterday, though the stuff in the picture looks to be Chinese or another import as the roots have been scooped out. I paid $1.79 for 3 heads of California organic garlic. I don't buy much meat so I don't have a point of reference there, though I do enjoy snooping through the markets with you!

Not everyone's cup of tea but dolphins (or at least one @blue_dolphin 🙃) apparently like fish tacos for breakfast. Edited to add even dolphins can have sensitive stomachs so I deferred this meal to around 9 AM. From Melissa Clark's Dinner: Changing the Game with a red cabbage, lime and jalapeño slaw, rockfish from the fish delivery I picked up the other day and a yogurt/garlic/lime crema.

Yesterday's lunch was Crispy Black Bean Butterfish from Cook Real Hawai'i I've always used fermented black beans in a stir fry prep where everything comes together in the wok so this method of making a the sauce separately, frying the fish and blanching the baby bok choy was interesting. I used rockfish instead of the butterfish (black cod) specified in the recipe so it was a bit less luxurious but still good.

I admit to being mesmerized by this video showing the making of 7 Eleven's SPAM Musubi in Hawaii. https://www.instagram.com/p/CreOxmjNAqN/ (click link to watch) 2000 lbs of rice/day and can after can of SPAM!

I'll add that the nicest breading I've gotten on fish is with Vivian Howard's rice-crusted catfish recipe from her book Deep Run Roots. She submerges the fish in buttermilk for a hour to overnight in the fridge. Her breading is 1/2 cup long grain rice, ground in a spice mill to the texture of coarse cornmeal, plus 1/2 cup cornmeal, seasoned with salt, cayenne and paprika. After draining and dredging the fish and knocking off the excess, she puts the filets on a rack in the fridge for at least an hour. She contends that the ground rice behaves differently from rice flour. Maybe does something similar to the potato flakes you are using. I dunno but the result is shatteringly crisp and not heavy at all.

You might want to check out @Dave the Cook's method for a batter using rice flour along with your KA all purpose substitute. There's a fairly long discussion that starts around here and continues on an off for some time.

They do make cake pans with removable bottoms (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) though I suspect leaking could be an issue with thinner batters. When I was shopping for an angel food cake pan, not long ago, I saw some that came with 2 bottoms, one with the center tube for an angel food or tube cake and one regular flat bottom. I didn’t buy one but it sounded like a good idea.

What kind of collars? And how will you prepare them? The fish place that I signed up with for a weekly pick-up has had ahi tuna collars available as an add-on item but I haven't taken the bait yet 😉

Welcome! If you’ve been hanging around here for any length of time, you know there are a number of eG members who either have a celiac diagnosis or cook for family members who do so it’s a good place to ask questions.

The Kindle version of Ali Slagle's I Dream of Dinner (so You Don't Have To): Low-Effort, High-Reward Recipes (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is currently $2.99. I've found this to be a great little idea book, when I'm casting about for something to eat. It received a nomination for a 2023 James Beard award in the General Cookbook category.

Any candied citrus peel I’ve made can be either stored in syrup or dried and sugared. The video does not name a lemon variety. All the recipe links are for citron and look like Etrog. I’d say the key to the best flavor would be to used freshly picked fruit as the aromatics in the peels dissipate over time.

Double Shallot Egg Salad from Smitten Kitchen Keepers Part of the shallot is diced and quick-pickled in red wine vinegar and the rest is fried for a crispy topping. Fun to try. Not sure I need to make again unless I need some fancy-looking egg salad.

Have you looked into recipes for κίτρο γλυκό or candied citron? In some recipes, the zest is left on, but very many remove it. Like this one, this one, this one, Edited to add this lemon version, which is not what you had as some of the pulp is left on the pith but it gives an example of using additional flavors - honey, vanilla - that sound good.

Acquisitions over the last few months to feed my addiction. I bought The Big Book of King Cake (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) after listening to an episode of Evan Kleiman's Good Food podcast/radio show that included an interview with author Matt Haines about this book, which came out in 2021 and the more recent children's storybook, The Little Book of King Cake (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). You can listen to the interview at this link. This isn't a cookbook - just one recipe, I think - and big enough to be a coffee table book so it would be a nice gift for someone who's a fan of this culture. It arrived just before Mardi Gras and I've enjoyed dipping into it to read a section and look at the photos. And Amazon's "Look Inside" feature offers enough of a sample to read about a few of the classic New Orleans bakery king cakes. The next two, Parsi and Masa are both 2022 releases. There's a topic on cooking from Parsi here: Cooking from "Parsi: From Persia to Bombay: Recipes & Tales from the Ancient Culture". Gabrielle Hamilton's Prune came out in 2014. I borrowed it from the library a few times but hadn't pulled the trigger to buy it. All three of these were on Now Serving's "shopworn" list and offered at a discount. Pulp is the only 2023 book that I had on my pre-order list. Its focus is on fruits, specifically those grown in the US midwest and it joins Ruffage (vegetables) and Grist (grains & legumes) in Abra Berens' trilogy of cookbooks. For each fruit, she offers several prep methods (raw, roasted, grilled, poached, stewed, baked, preserved) with both a sweet and savory recipe for each method. Instead of condiments, as in Ruffage and Grist, there's a "Baker's Toolkit" up front with recipes for breads, batters, doughs, crusts, toppings, etc. that are used later in the book. I'm looking forward to playing with this one as the fruits come into season. Chef/restauranteur Peter Hoffman's memoir, What's Good?: A Memoir in Fourteen Ingredients came out in 2021, over a decade after his restaurant, Savoy, closed in 2011. I think there's a recipe or two in each ingredient chapter but this is essentially a memoir rather than a cookbook. Looks like it will be fun to read a chapter or so at a time. Next up is the smallest book, James Read's Of Cabbages & Kimchi: A Practical Guide to the World of Fermented Food and I admit to buying it almost entirely because I was captivated by Marija Tiurina's fanciful illustrations. These photos of the dust jacket will give you an idea of them: The author is former journalist turned founder of Kim Kong Kimchi in the UK. After an introduction, there are chapters for sauerkraut, kimchi, soy sauce, hot sauce, vinegar, kefir, kvass, tepache & ginger beer, kombucha and yogurt. Each chapter begins with some entertainingly written background info, followed by recipes for making each ferment, troubleshooting and recipes for using the finished products. No photos, just the drawings. The print is relatively small. I don't find this problematic but I know others may. Here's an inside photo to give a sense of the print size: Here’s a link to an author interview that I enjoyed. I ordered this book from Blackwell's. Amazon has a kindle version in the UK but not in the US or Canada at this time. And the last book in my shelfie is Gordon Shepherd's Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It Matters is another oldie, from 2011, for a little science-y reading.

Interesting that the two articles are by the same author!

Growing up, veal was very much a celebratory meal in our family. My brother always chose it for his birthday meal. It was a big treat whenever we had it. Since it was expensive, my mom kept an eye out for it on sale and hoarded it in the freezer to have enough for everyone. She treated it like gold, carefully trimming off every tiny bit of sinew and pounding it very thin in a schnitzel-like prep. The result was always excellent, but as @Duvel mentioned, it's very mild and pork could work equally well. Returning to meat eating after 30+ vegetarian years, I haven't tried to recreate it. I'm happy with the memories.

I think it's still apt in the sense that eating veal remains controversial, though I believe husbandry has been improved. This NYT article, Veal Farmers Adopt More Humane Methods, is almost 10 years old but I believe this comment is still apt:

Egg, sausage & pepper jack sandwich on a toasted Aldi ciabatta roll

5 or fewer. A single nineteen cent banana would be enough for an entry.

Another tuna taco. This time, I used planned-over Kimchi Poke from Cook Real Hawai'i (as seen in yesterday's breakfast) to make the Wok-Fried Poke from the same book. Sheldon says this was a way to use up leftovers after a party the night before until Sam Choy elevated it into a speciality at his restaurants. It's a nice preparation, only seared in a hot, hot pan for less than half a minute so each cube is cooked on the outside but still raw in the middle. My version is not elevated at all, just stuffed into a tortilla with a kimchi slaw made with red cabbage and radish. Avocado might have elevated it but I was out!

Eric Kim's Gochujang Buttered Noodles with sugar snap peas Nothing like starting off the morning with 3 cloves of garlic!

Thanks for reminding me of that one! I remember reading it and was tempted but never actually broke down and bought the saltines. She was even more fussy than that: Here's the recipe for anyone interested: Fried Saltines With Cheddar and Onion

I always assume everyone around here makes everything from scratch and I'm the only lazy one doctoring up my jar of mayo from Aldi!