blue_dolphin

Per the instructions in the book, you separate the leaves from the lettuce and toss everything together so any lettuce would work. Seems to me the point of little gems is how cute they look when halved or quartered so that’s what I did even though the dressing doesn’t coat every leaf evenly.

A riff on the barley cakes underneath lamb chops with roasted carrots and ras el hanout apricot almond rig from Grist: No lamb chops at my farmers market vendor. The recipe just seasons them with S&P and grills or pan fries them so I subbed a couple of meaty baby back ribs that I cooked in a hot oven per Eric Kim's Salt & Pepper Ribs recipe. The barley cakes are a little bland but not bad. The given quantities would have made a thin batter, not a thick one as the recipe describes so I added more barley and less water. I think they'd be better if I'd seasoned the batter with some of the ras el hanout spice mix that went into the apricot almond relish. I used baby kale instead of spinach for the green and added more lemon juice and olive oil to dress it. A fine lunch, even if I barely followed the recipe!

Little Gems with Lemon Cream, Spring Onion, Radish and Mint p 101 The Lemon Cream p 41 is an interesting dressing, with garlic-infused heavy cream whipped into a light, airy sauce flavored with lemon. This is the only recipe in the book that calls for it and I rarely have little gem lettuces but figured I should take advantage of the opportunity and mark this one off my list. I used the torn croutons instead of breadcrumbs and forgot to add the mint. Ooops. This one is light, bright and spring-like.

Eric Kim's Gochujang Buttered Noodles from the NYT. Dead easy and quite tasty. If you try it, I recommend reducing the honey from 1 Tbsp to 1 tsp/serving. Eric does have a sweet tooth. I added sugar snap peas and red bell pepper.

Buckwheat with asparagus and radishes in a citrus vinaigrette

When I'm in Ibericaland, I always start off with a classic Pan con Tomate y Jamón

I love plain whipped cream with gingery baked stuff, maybe garnished with a few wisps of candied lemon rind or a grating of fresh lemon zest.

Pizza Beans

Either a stovetop, ridged grill pan or broiler would work but I used my handy dandy countertop Philips Avance Grill, which has its own topic here.

Charred radicchio with farro and burrata alongside orange and mustard marinated asparagus, both from Snacks for Dinner. I thought bitter radicchio + rich, creamy burrata was a curious combo but it works well with the farro and vinaigrette. Speaking of which, I was a little wary of putting two vinaigrettes on a plate together but clearly, some color was needed on the plate and it turns out they complement each other nicely. The orange, mustard and thyme marinade for the asparagus is delicious and the asparagus reportedly keeps in the fridge for 4 days, though I may eat it all today. Great do-ahead side if you've got nice, tender spring asparagus.

It works really well. You can either bake them right away or freeze some on a tray, bag them up and bake directly from frozen at a later time.

I can confirm @KennethT's Wild Fork grouper recommendation. I like that the portions are individually vacuum packed so if I want to take out just one piece for a grilled grouper sandwich, I don’t have to repackage everything else. I agree on the so-so salmon. I go to a physical Wild Fork location so I can fish 😉 through the packages but the salmon filets still tend towards tail end cuts

I just re-read it also and would really like some waffles now!

One of the items in the Sweets/Desserts section of Lukas Volger's Snacks for Dinner is titled "Dates Four Ways." I decided to test them out to find my favorite before committing a bunch of dates to the effort. At the top, we have a broiled date with olive oil drizzle, lime zest and Aleppo pepper flakes. In the second row, from left to right, we have a date stuffed with maple goat cheese (Silver Goat chèvre mixed with a little maple syrup) and topped with cacao nibs, a date stuffed with sharp Cheddar and drizzled with honey and a date stuffed with almond butter and topped with Fly By Jing chili crisp. These dates are pretty small so this looks rather silly but they're the last of the ones I bought at the farmers market. All are good enough for further exploration. The broiled one was supposed to be broiled until the skin blistered, turned and done on the other side. I wasn't seeing any obvious blistering so it got left in too long. Still, the inside was nicely chewy and the lime and pepper were a nice contrast. The maple goat cheese tasted delicious on its own. I'd happily smear it on a waffle or bagel or muffin. The tang of the goat cheese contrasts with the sweet date and the cacao nibs add a nice crunch. This wins the dessert category. If you made these with larger dates, cut in half and piped the goat cheese on with a pretty tip, these could look quite fancy. The sharp Cheddar was good with the date but the honey just blended in. I'd be tempted to skip the honey and use a few drops of aged sherry vinegar or balsamic. The nut butter and chili crisp wins the savory category. Very more-ish. Edited to add these were accompanied by a small glass of Pineau des Charentes....a small glass that I refilled once...or twice 🙃

My recommendation is to let your pantry grow according to what you want to cook rather than just trying to build a collection. What are you missing in the recipes and cookbooks you are working from? If you have a friend who cooks one of the cuisines you are interested in, ask them if you can tag along on a shopping trip. The 99 Ranch in Monterey Park is indeed overwhelming but even there, if you are looking for a specific Chinese ingredient, you should be able to get some help from either the staff or fellow shoppers, particular on a non-weekend day. And while 99 Ranch has a variety of Asian ingredients, it's probably not the best place to ask for advice on Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian or Thai recipes. Mitsuwa Marketplace will be great for Japanese, LAX-C in Thai Town is the place for that cuisine. This is not to say the ingredients are not available but your chances of good advice rise when you're at the mother ship. I agree with @BeeZee on Andrea Nguyen for Vietnamese food and would add Leela Punyaratabandhu's blog for Thai ingredients. She's the author of Simple Thai Food and Bangkok and while the blog is no longer active it can still be searched. Older, but still reliable brand recommendations can be found in Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients and Lucky Peach 101 Easy Asian Recipes. Finally, most grocery stores in So Cal can sell alcohol so you should able to find Shaoxing wine that's not salted. It's usually shelved with the alcoholic beverages rather than with cooking ingredients.

One way to ease the prep part is to make an Instant Pot risotto. I've made this asparagus risotto and the mushroom variation of this basic risotto, both from @pazzaglia on hippressurecooking.com. They're really pretty good.

375°F convection bake in the CSO. Time is 15 - 25 min, depending on size and whether being cooked fresh or from frozen. For the most even browning, I recommend pre-toasting the panko. I give them a light spritz of olive oil before going in the oven, mostly for flavor.

I love them, too. They’re one of the best reasons to make risotto! I prefer to bake them rather than fry, but either works.

Yes, I liked that. Reminded me of my dad, sitting at the table as my mom cleared and put things away. He would often comment something like, "Good bye, little pork chop but only for now, as I know I'll be seeing you again soon!"

A local bakery offers a special pastry each weekend and announces the flavor in an Instagram post on Saturday AM. Here's today's:

Buckwheat with poached egg, baby kale and lemon tahini dressing from Grist. Given the amount of baby kale I threw in there, maybe it should take first billing away from the buckwheat 🙃

I did wonder about that. Based on a taste-test, I just left the oil out entirely. I will hunt down the pistachio oil and give it a try sometime. And yes, those baby gems are lovely. For the longest time, no one at our farmers market was growing them but one of the vendors has started bringing them. They're a treat!

I found the recipe online at this link, in case you're interested.

Barley soup with parsnips, chard and lemon-parsley mojo from Grist. Thin ribbons of fresh chard are piled in the bowl and the soup is ladled in, cooking the greens. The soup itself lacks acid so the lemon-parsley mojo is absolutely necessary. I added diced, salt-preserved lemon to the mojo for a little extra oomph.

I received my copy of the book but haven't delved into it yet. I did listen to this Book Larder author interview with Tamar Adler and Sara Dickerman (author of Secrets of Great Second Meals) and made me even more enthusiastic: