blue_dolphin

Spinach, mushroom and cheese quesadilla with Rancho Gordo mantequilla beans topped off with Red Weapons

Crispy smashed potatoes with fried leberkaese topped with an egg. Mustard and tomatoes on the side.

I had to close my eyes!

Nice looking partial set of Lady Frances silverplate listed on eBay It is a very pretty pattern.

A riff on the recipe for Swordfish with Asparagus and Little Beans from I Dream of Dinner. The recipe is available online at this link. I have banned myself from buying asparagus unless it's at the farmers market so I used green beans, without thinking that turned it into Swordfish with Beans and Beans 🙃. No matter, the little beans are RG's alubia blanca, a bean that just loves the lemony dressing in this dish. The green beans were tender-crisp and contrasted nicely with the creamy alubia blancas. This is a great, quick dish and would work with all sorts of green veg like broccoli, sugar snaps, etc and proteins like shrimp or even seared scallops.

Before I go to read the Björn Frantzén book I was just enabled to download, I'm going to use @Anna N's comment as a very appropriate segue to share my thoughts on Extra Good Things (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), the lastest cookbook churned out by the Ottolenghi machine. It's not at all fine dining like the Frantzén book but it's a great little idea book to choose parts of a dish to adapt into something else. This is the second Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (OTK) book and like the first one, Shelf Love, lists Noor Murad as the first author. Both books are slim paperbacks rather than almost oversized hardback tomes. I really love the earlier books, Ottolenghi, Jerusalem, NOPI, Plenty and Plenty More. Not as crazy about the next two, Simple and Flavour, though both have some good recipes. After those two, I boycotted Shelf Love because it seemed like the books were being pushed out too fast and duplicating recipes already in Ottolenghi's columns in The Guardian or NYT. I was going to skip Extra Good Things as well but saw a few dishes mentioned in an online cooking group that sounded interesting so I decided to look into it. Having spent some time with it, it think the recipes are good but it really shines in calling out the "Extra Good Things," that give the book its name. Each recipe in the book highlights an Extra Good Thing (a pickle, sauce, crispy topping, infused oil, or basic dessert techniques), uses it in the recipe and offers a few suggestions for other applications or uses. What really sells me on the concept though, are the pull-outs in the front and back of the book. Amazon's "Look Inside" feature has a sampling of recipes but doesn't show the pull-outs and I think they make the book so I'm showing them below. The one in front, lists the Extra Good Things that can turn toast or rice or baked potatoes or roasted vegetables into a meal. I don't know if these photos are going to be readable but they'll at least give you the general idea. Looks like everything goes with Roast Veggies 🙃 The pull-out in the back is the sort of "recipe type" listing that has become quite common in recent cookbooks. Not quite as interesting to me as the first pull-out but I think it will still be handy as I find the similar listing in I Dream of Dinner useful as well. In fact, I consider both of these to be good "idea" books. I may not cook the exact recipe but browsing through these listings can give me ideas and help me figure what I'm in the mood for. So far, I made the sweet potato wedges with goma dare and crispy tofu (posted here in the lunch topic) and plan to use some of the leftover sesame-based goma dare sauce, the crispy tofu bits and the Aleppo pepper-infused olive oil to top a soup as they worked together very well. I also made the broccolini with peanut gochujang dressing but turned it into a meal by adding noodles and shrimp (posted here in the breakfast topic) and I've got a few others marked to try. There's a black lime focaccia with smoky chipotle oil that I have to make because I really can't imagine the flavors.

Two of my friends arrived in Shkador yesterday so I sent them a link to this topic as I believe they are flexible in their plans. Not sure if they will check it out but I so rarely see Albanian tourism featured anywhere that I found it very interesting.

Swordfish Steak with Crispy Capers from Alison Roman's Dining In, Smashed Potatoes with Roasted-Seaweed Sour Cream Dip from Korean American and rounding out the plate are some green beans I tossed on the baking tray with the spuds and seasoned with Magic Gochugaru Dust from the Korean American charred cauliflower recipe.

Dang. They look so cute but I've resisted so far. Your comment makes it that much more difficult!

I was wondering about this and just the other day, I spotted a note in I Dream of Dinner (it's on p 96) that says that fresh chiles keep for up to a year in the freezer. She says to just grate or chop from frozen. I need to try that with some of the chiles that aren't in every store like the skinny red ones where I just use a few slices.

@Ann_T, if I could choose anywere to have breakfast, it would be with you and Moe! Another chilly AM here so I went with Kenji's 15 minute Pantry Tomato Soup. Nothing earth shattering but it's good and so quick. Too lazy to make a grilled cheese so I made a toastie with some of the Snowdonia Ruby Mist Cheddar with port and brandy.

If you want more detail, let me know and I can paraphrase it.

Sweet potato wedges with goma dare and crispy tofu from Ottolenghi's Extra Good Things. Oh my, this is really good. The crispy tofu is the "Extra Good Thing" about this recipe and is what intrigued me. This is not tofu that purports to have an crispy exterior. These are crispy/crunchy/salty tofu bits. Extra firm tofu is grated on the largest holes of a box grater, tossed with cornstarch, Aleppo pepper, salt and a little olive oil, and spread on a parchment-lined baking sheet. It gets baked for 30 min, tossed with a bit of soy sauce and returned to the oven to re-crisp. Supposedly these crispy bits keep for several days. The recipe is efficiently written as the sweet potatoes then go into the oven to roast on the shelf below the tofu. While that happens, you make an Aleppo chili-infused olive oil with sweet smoked paprika and sesame oil and mix up the goma dare, described as a Japanese sesame-based condiment used as a dip or dressing. Ground, toasted sesame seeds, get mixed with Kewpie mayo (I used regular mayo), soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and a little maple syrup That stuff is delicious but the combination of roasted sweet potato wedges, topped with the goma dare, a drizzle of the chili oil and a sprinkle of the crispy tofu is a winner.

One of my friends packed the gifts for our holiday gift exchange in these (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) 5-gallon Gardzen Grow Bags which look similar to the Root Pouch pots. I thought it was a great idea instead of gift bags and wrapping paper and plan to order a few more to play with.

Yeah, I was looking at the Balvenie offerings at another liquor shop and my eyeballs were very confused at the price of this one @ $6,499.99

Hmmm. Sounds good. Currently out of stock at my local Total Wine but I will keep an eye out for it...

Kinda chilly here this morning so my first step was to turn on the oven and then to decide what to put in it. Hmmmm. The sweet potato wedges with goma dare and crispy tofu from Ottolenghi's Extra Good Things sounds very good but the almost instant gratification of these little Gochujang Chocolate Lava Cakes from Korean American with a mug of black coffee lured me in. The recipe makes 4 cakes in 6 oz ramekins. I made a half recipe and put it into these little guys that hold a little over 3 oz. Perfect size for me. Topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of gochugaru. Other people who made this said they couldn't taste the gochjang so I doubled it and it's just barely detectable which I think is what you want here.

I always think of peperonata as something to make with a bounty of summer produce. I like the recipe in Six Seasons. Found it online here.

I was all set to cancel when the price went up but then I got the email and thought, "Oh, it's not as bad as I thought ...." I dunno.

Another Korean American riff. This time it's the recipe for Salt and Pepper Pork Chops with Vinegared Scallions made with swordfish instead of pork chop. Also, charred cauliflower and broccolini with gochugaru dust from the same book and brown rice.

The beef cheek pie with a big old marrow bone sticking up like a chimney that I posted about over here was a marvelous treat. I'm glad I had the whole thing to myself and didn't have to fight anyone for the marrow!

A bit of a riff on the recipe for Charred Cauliflower with Magic Gochugaru Dust in Korean American. Recipe available online at this link. I roasted the cauliflower instead of broiling, threw a handful of green beans on to the tray with it and put an egg on top. The gochugaru dust has salt, gochugaru, smoked paprika, garlic powder and a little dark brown sugar. Quite good. If I make it again, I will dial back on the salt so I can get more heat and flavor without oversalting, at least for my taste.

I’d love to hear how the books compare and even more love to hear that you have returned to work, assuming, of course, that it is your choice to do so.

Do you have Niloufer Ichaporia King's My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) and if so, how do the books compare?

Not to worry, it’s in the TJ's Hall of Fame: https://www.traderjoes.com/home/discover/stories/product-hall-of-fame