blue_dolphin

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't suggest checking out the recipe for home made hot chili pepper sauce from esteemed member @hzrt8w who shared so much with the group. It's the best sub I've found for Yank Sing Chili Pepper Sauce, which I love but is no longer available, outside of their restaurants, apparently due to a family feud of some sort.

In this June 14th post, @Annie_H mentions making chili crisp so perhaps she will see this and respond with a recipe and suggestions for you.

I noticed the documentary about her, Nothing Fancy is free to rent or $5.99 on Amazon Prime Video. It's possible I have some credits affecting that price but they're not showing up on any Kindle books so I dunno. Worth taking a look see if you have Amazon Prime.

"Tree Tomato," is also the original name of the Tamarillo so that's curious that the name is also used for such a mixture. Recently, at a Peruvian restaurant, I had an ice cream made from the lucuma fruit, which is in the same family as mamey and it was quite nice. ' Edited to add that this article (which has an annoying amount of ads) about a shop making Peruvian ice creams mentions mamey:

Thanks for catching my fruit confusion! Yes, it's blackberry, not blueberry. I intended to use the lite ice cream cycle for those because they fit the criteria in the manual of an ice cream low in fat. At that point, I'd never used that cycle before so I had no idea what the time would be. I'm just a newbie at this stuff! From my limited data set, I'd say the longer the cycle, the more warming but I know nothing about the speed. I wish the Ninja people would be more forthcoming about what the different cycles do but I haven't seen any description. I'd say that looks like a tamarillo, not a tamarind. I can find recipes online for tamarillo sorbet, sherbet and ice cream so I'd think it would work.

Vodkow 🤣😂🤣

The Bestia cookbook has a number of sherbet recipes and suggests layering them together for a "rainbow sherbet." I made Blackberry buttermilk, orange and lime kept them separate. Blackberry buttermilk (with 1T cassis) - Pre-spin: -5°F, post-spin: 10°F. Sorbet cycle, spin time = 2:24 Lime (with 1T Falernum) - Pre-spin: -0.5°F, post-spin: 9°F. Ice Cream cycle, spin time = 1:38 Orange (with 1T Cointreau) - Pre-spin: -0.5°F, post-spin: 15°F. Lite Ice Cream cycle, spin time = 2:28 My intent was to use the Lite Ice Cream cycle for both the blueberry blackberry buttermilk and orange as they don't have as much cream in them but I accidentally pushed sorbet when I went to spin the blackberry one last night. I spun the lime and orange today and it seems my freezer must not have been as cold.

I edited my post above with links that show the difference toasting the breadcrumbs makes.

I know you didn’t ask me, but you can bake them instead of frying if you prefer. For the best color, lightly toast the breadcrumbs first. I also spritz them with a bit of olive before baking for flavor but it’s not enough to get them evenly brown. Here's a link to a post where I was too lazy to toast the breadcrumbs and the arancini are rather pallid: Here's one where I did pre toast and you can see the look much nicer.

I hope they are successful. The smallish yield of 26 truffles and the fact that the location is a closely held secret suggests it will be some time before they really reach "commercial scale." I believe their flavor fades after they are picked so even if they become more readily available than now, enjoying them at their best may still be a treat. Sounds promising though! I don't care for black truffles at all. Like @Anna N, I avoid anything "truffle-flavored" like the plague and never order any dish that mentions truffle oil but I find the flavor of fresh white truffles pretty magical. My introduction was in Asti, near the peak of truffle season in the fall. We were finishing up a late dinner at a little neighborhood restaurant when a truffle hunter came in with a big box of truffles. He just passed through a corner of the dining room on his way into the kitchen but the aroma of the truffles was absolutely intoxicating! I hadn't splashed out for the truffle up-charge on that evening but resolved to try them at the next opportunity. This photo (poor quality iPhone photo of a computer printout) was taken a few nights later at Ristorante Il Cascinale Nuovo in Isola d'Asti. It's a bit swankier than the first place, I believe they have a Michelin star, but I had to get that truffle shaved over my pasta. I think the maître d' is smiling nervously because of how much extra truffle he shaved onto my plate for the sake of the photo!

In my opinion, yes, you should go by taste and that should be done with the mix as cold as possible so it’s as close as you can get to the temp that you’ll be enjoying the finished product at. I almost always want a bit more sweetness and more tartness at freezer temp than at room temp or warmer. I always chill down my mix in the coldest part of my fridge before that final tweak, generally using 2X simple syrup and lemon or lime juice to adjust.

That sounded good enough to eat so I made some for lunch. Since I had some Rancho Gordo Marcella beans cooked, I turned to Marcella herself for the recipe for Bean and Tuna Salad from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Marcella uses red wine vinegar for this instead of balsamic and only uses a clove of garlic so I stuck with that. Served on traditional Italian shiso leaves 🙃

I was browsing through Dana Cree's Hello, My Name is Ice Cream, spied a recipe for Concord grape sherbet and wondered if you had tried making the grape ice cream yet? She starts with a Concord grape purée and suggests reducing 100% Concord grape juice as an alternative so it sounds like your use of grape juice concentrate would work well. Her sherbet base has buttermilk, milk, cream, sugar, glucose and a little bit of malic or citric acid plus your choice of texture agent. She also adds rosemary, which appeals to me but could certainly be omitted for straight up grape. Let me know if you want the recipe. We don't get Concord grapes locally but I'll probably try it with Thomcords when they show up at the farmers market

I was told they got that name, pad kee mao, because they were frequently served from street carts, late at night, to patrons who'd been out on the town and needed some food in their bellies. So it's more the patrons who were drunk, rather than the noodles! Edited to add: Scroll down on this page for a good description from Leela Punyaratabandhu and a recipe from her book in case you want to make them yourself.

English muffin with cashew butter, fresh farmers market peach and chili crisp. Galia melon on the side. And yes, the peach really looks like that. I forgot to ask what variety they are. Maybe July Flame? If not, it should certainly have flame in it's name! They're really good with a nice sweet/acid balance.

Yes, and it's important to carefully monitor post-spin stability with testing at frequent intervals 🔬

Galia melon sorbet. I generally followed the proportions on the 1995 Cook's Illustrated PDF that @weinoo linked upthread. Starting with 375g fresh, trimmed melon put me just a smidge shy of a full container. I used lime juice instead of lemon, added it to taste and ended up using a good bit more of it. I had some Galia melon-infused gin in the fridge so I used that as the alcohol. I added ~ 1/4 t of Modernist Pantry's Perfect Sorbet stabilizer, mixed in to the sugar. Not called for in the recipe and probably not necessary but melons can tend to give me icy popsicles so I figured it couldn't hurt to try, though I don't think there's really anything wrong with a melon sorbet being a bit icy. This is delicious and refreshing with a creamy, not icy, texture. Galia and Saticoy melons are my favorite. Once the Saticoys are in, it would be fun to make a trio of melon sorbets with Galia, Saticoy and watermelon. Pre-spin: -5°F, post-spin: 10°F. Sorbet cycle, spin time = 2:24 I took advantage of the soft, post-spin texture to transfer it out of the Creami beaker so I can re-use it. Preview of coming attractions: I put three sherbet mixtures in to freeze. All from Bestia. Blackberry buttermilk, orange and lime.

Kind of a curious one. Squid with cabbage, peach, herbs and peanuts (yeah, you read that right 🙄) from The Magic of Tinned Fish. I believe I picked up a tin of the La Brújula baby squid in olive oil by mistake when I was stocking up on mussels at the import shop. Or maybe I was just curious? I dunno but I had no idea what to do with them and I had nice peaches on hand so I gave it a go. The baby squids are the four plump, corpse-like items There are two more lurking somewhere in there.. They are plump because they are stuffed with their own tentacles. Seems kind of a rude thing to do to a baby but it wasn't my idea, I only found out after I took a bite! The header notes cite Thai flavors and other ingredients include fish sauce, sugar, a Fresno chile and a serrano, scallions, cilantro, mint and lime juice. I subbed cashews for the called-for peanuts. The baby squid are quite good. I enjoyed the contrast of flavors and textures but I think I'd be happy with a half, appetizer sized serving rather than this big plate.

The description & photos on the Lee Valley site make sense to me. I usually whack the top rim of the lid with the back of a heavy Sabatier cleaver which dents the lid and breaks the vacuum in a more dramatic fashion. I've never injured myself or broken a jar but I have alarmed others. I might get one of these as it's much more compact than the heavy cleaver which I don’t use for any other purpose.

I like to bring a black bean salad that works equally well as a salsa with chips, as a side or even a vegetarian main. Ingredients are flexible but here's an approximation I wrote up for friends who asked for the recipe: 1 pound dry black beans, cooked 3/4 - 1 cup lime vinaigrette (Newman's Own lime or light balsamic work well) 1 bag of Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn kernels (no need to thaw) 1 large red onion, chopped 4 green onions, chopped 2 bell peppers (red, yellow, orange or green), chopped 3-4 stalks celery, chopped 4 chopped fresh tomatoes or a can of Rotel 2 diced jalapeño or serrano chiles, or more to taste small pile of cilantro leaves, chopped While the beans are still warm from cooking, drain them well and toss them with the dressing. Then throw in the rest of the ingredients and serve. The frozen corn will thaw and chill down the beans so you can serve it right away. Or put it in the refrigerator if preparing ahead. Keeps well for several days.

Just upthread, I posted the Pasta with Summer Squash, Sardines & Preserved Lemon that I made from Back Pocket Pasta. I was thinking it would be good with the addition of white beans and decided to go ahead and make it a bean dish using Rancho Gordo Marcella beans in place of the pasta. As with the original recipe, I used at least double the amount of preserved lemon. IMO, you really want a little bit in every bite. This was very good, both warm and at room temp. I used these small sardines from Portugal:

Cooked up a bag of Rancho Gordo Marcella beans this AM for another purpose but started to get hangry so I went with a bowl of Creamy White Beans With 'Nduja, Kale, and Gremolata Breadcrumbs Used radish tops instead of kale and added a flatbread from the freezer on the side. I think I've made this before. That 'nduja is great for quick, flavorful dishes.

Both these items seem made for gifting. I've made Hasselback potatoes and I’m pretty good at cutting even slices but I can see why someone who's not handy with a knife might find the slicing guide helpful. Per the website, the seafood pan is to be used on a gas, charcoal or electric grill. I can see it helping to prevent seafood from drying out directly on a grate though it seems you could just as well use a cast iron skillet.

Happy belated birthday, @Kim Shook, and thanks for taking us along on such a wonderful little trip!

As I await the Sunday lunchtime feast that @BonVivant often shares with us, I have a question about the lucky souls who share these bountiful meals. There always seem to be enough for quite a crowd. Friends? Family? Do you cater meals professionally? And most importantly, how do I get invited? 😉