menuinprogress

I use an old, crappy light-weight flat-bottomed pot that doesn't hold heat. I add kernels to fill a full layer at the bottom of the pot and add vegetable oil to get the kernels coated and viscous. I put the lid on with a gap to let out steam, turn the heat to medium high and let it do its business. I used to shake until I tried not shaking and found that I got a better result. I'm partial to seasoning it with brewer's yeast.

That bread looks really good!

That looks fantastic! [Moderator note: This topic continues here, Dinner! 2013 (Part 4)]

An improvised dinner tonight that turned out really well. We had some lamb mince, and I was craving a burger. The result was a "French onion soup burger" - lamb, caramelized onions and Gruyere cheese. Pretty tasty.

Pulled pork sandwich, potato salad and corn on the cob. Pork butt coming off of the smoker:

That's our go-to waffle recipe - yours look great!

Thanks! I don't really follow a particular recipe. The base is blended pasilla and dried costeña chiles. I added diced onion at the beginning and Mexican zucchini and potato toward the end. Seasoning was simply salt and Mexican oregano.

Oxtail Mole de Olla with Taquitos: Intended for last night, but the oxtails needed more braising than we had time for. Fast forward to tonight, with an extra few hours of cooking and all was well. The taquitos (cheese, onion cilantro) made for a nice, crunchy edible utensil.

Fantastic list of dishes! It grabbed me with both familiarity (ingredients and cuisines I enjoy and am comfortable with) and inspiration (new ideas and combinations). Thanks!

Duck seems to be a theme this year! We did ours on the smoker:

That looks delicious!

Huevos Cubanos: Eggs with black bean, plantains and bacon. We had this dish years ago in Veracruz, and finally got around to recreating it at home. Yolk reveal shot:

Thanks! We use the cure from Charcuterie - the savory variation. The tomatoes get sliced and salted during prep so they have ten minutes or so to get happy.

We just happened to have BAATs last night: Bacon (home-smoked), arugula (from the garden), avocado and tomato (Celebrities, also from the garden) on homemade bread. Some things we do that I think make for a better sandwich - salt the tomatoes a bit and put some extra bacon fat on the greens. I'm also a big fan of PPLT sandwiches (pulled pork instead of bacon)...

The menu for the 4th at our place varies here and there, but today we were solidly in our traditional zone: Smoked pork spare ribs, potato salad, corn and sliced tomatoes.

Thanks! We use Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe and it has turned out pretty reliably great.

We made our first batch of tofu (using Andrea Nguyen's "Asian Tofo" book) and have been really happy with it. Here is a batch of Mapo using it:

We've been getting fantastic scallops from our local seafood hook-up for years now, but this is the first time I've seen this variety: We are in San Diego, and most of our fish and seafood comes from Baja California. We've had fantastic bay scallops and amazing "mano de leon" (lion's paw) scallops, but this is the first time we've encountered this variety. In Spanish, they are called "Callo de Hacha". My attempt at translation makes that "callus of the hatchet" - not sure if that makes much sense... They have a very interesting shape. In the picture above, they look almost like shrimp. Raw, though, they very much look like two small scallops connected together in the middle: The flavor is also different from other scallops I've had - the taste goes more toward a clam. To me, it tastes like a fresh and clean version of my childhood memories of fried clams at Howard Johnson. Hopefully we will get more opportunities to experiment with these intriguing scallops.

Thanks! I love all sorts of food, but sometimes nothing satisfies quite like a good burger.

Burgers tonight. While I generally champion cooking them on a flattop or in a frying pan, it was just so nice out that the grill needed to be fired up. Homemade bun and pickles, garden lettuce (but not tomato - soon!), unapologetic use of American cheese.

Lovely!

These tadigs are starting to get into my head. I need to make one!

Thanks! The dressing was a simple vinaigrette with shallot and mustard.

Beet, avocado and orange salad:

To make up for my previous violation of the egg rule: