menuinprogress

Chile-rubbed butterflied leg of lamb on the grill: Grilled veggies: and some roasted potato wedges:

Nice ravioli! And I definitely agree with you that fresh pasta is worth it.

The recipe we used for the tofu was "Pock-Marked Mother Chen's Bean Curd" from Fuchsia Dunlop's "Land of Plenty". This version online is almost identical to the recipe in the book. For the buns, we used a recipe from SheSimmers.

Mapo Tofu - our best version to date: and our first try at Char Siu Bao: While we still need some work on the bbq pork filling, the buns themselves were perfect.

Very nice looking fiddleheads! And I hear you on grit - I'm really sensitive to it. Kind of like getting a bit of shell in soft-boiled eggs...

It is a cut from the top sirloin. We cook it on a grill pan flipping every 3 minutes for a total of 15 minutes.

Grilled baseball steak, tomato-avocado salad, and hand-cut fries.

For some reason we're on a shrimp and egg kick lately. It is such a good flavor combination. As part of a dinner a few days ago we had Shrimp, scallion and egg pancakes: This was the first time we've made these, but it certainly won't be the last. Wow, were they good. Tonight, we reprised the shrimp and egg combo with our best version of Phad Thai yet: We usually use pork rather than shrimp, but I think I really prefer the shrimp. The flavor and texture contrast they provided was really nice.

That looks great! We've got some tuscan salami curing right now - I hope they turn out as nicely as yours did.

Chris - we took some of the saucisson sec out after 3 weeks, and kept the rest in about 3 days longer since they were still soft in places. Jane - I think saucisson sec is a pretty good bet as a first cured sausage. We chose it because it doesn't require fermentation and is small and cures quickly.

We finally broke down and picked up a spare fridge to use for curing meats. This is our first batch hanging: We figured we would start simple with the Charcuterie recipe for Saucisson Sec: It came out beautifully. Great texture and intense flavor. We also did a cured version of an improvised Spanish-style sausage that we have enjoyed as a smoked sausage: It came out a little soft, but still very nice. Since we had some jowl on hand, we also decided to do some Guanciale: Along with some smoked cheddar, it made for some great sliders the other day... We're officially hooked. We've got Tuscan Salami and some Coppa hanging now.

We recently made Savory Braised Lamb (shank) with cauliflower from My Bombay Kitchen: The juices from the shank were great - sticky and richly flavored. We had a lot more braising liquid left over than we had lamb, so a few nights later we blended it up into a soup. The remaining bits of cauliflower acted as the thickening agent. With the leftover lamb bits, we made a rolled taco of sorts - adding onion, cilantro and queso fresco. The original dish was very good, but the improvised leftovers were fantastic. Most satisfying dinner I've had in a while.

Kim - I noticed that Mr. Kim managed to get bacon in every course. Nice! Bruce - I love the idea of the soup - from a recipe, or improvised? And now I'm craving keema...

Lasagna Bolognese: We use Batali's recipe.

I've made sushi a lot more than two times and my rolls still aren't pretty, so don't feel bad - it's the taste that counts!

That looks absolutely fantastic!I *need* to get some brisket on the smoker...

Lamb's liver "Portuguese-style": Cobbled together from recipes from several Portuguese cookbooks. The liver was marinated in white wine and lemon juice, cooked in bacon fat, sauced with the reduced marinade, topped with the bacon, and served family-style over sauteed onions.

Ce'nedra - lovely soup. How do the eggs get cooked? Are they poached? Prawn - that confit looks great. Good luck in the new kitchen!

Being an often light-challenged photographer myself, I completely understand the reasoning behind the "photo-box", but I'm not a big fan. I find the resulting photos too sterile and lacking in soft background details. That being said, it is certainly much preferable to a dark or blurry photo. For a long time I just worked with natural light, tried to hold steady, took a lot of pictures and picked the best ones. When I got a "good shot", I was very happy with it, but the hit and miss was really frustrating. A while back I bought a Lowell Ego, and the extra lighting really helps a lot to get good, focused shots. But even though I use it on our dining table without a cube of cardboard, I still feel like my shots are "boxed". It works incredibly well for tight, "up close with the dish" stuff, but doesn't help nearly as much for broader, more contextualized picture. The bottom line is, I think, that getting the look of natural lighting in insufficient-for-photography light conditions is really hard to do. I think my next step will be using an external flash as Chris Hennes has outlined upthread.

Nice! Definitely a cut above our "press".

We recently did a wheel of Queso Fresco. It turned out great, and was ready to use the day after it was made: This was the makeshift press we used - aside from instability problems (it fell over dramatically a couple of times), it worked pretty well. The cheese has been surprisingly versatile (which is good, since we have a whole wheel). In addition to being very nice crumbled, it melts better than I would have expected and has worked really well in quesadillas. We're going to try it on a pizza next...

Fantastic! I can't even imagine how many tomatoes go into a gallon can of tomato powder. My guess is a whole lot...

Since Bruce has taken us in a Mexican direction, I thought I'd chime in with this morning's breakfast: Memelitas. No eggs, but at least there is cheese! Our first homemade queso fresco.

Kohlrabi Risotto with Scallops, Sage and Bacon: The kohlrabi in the risotto was an impromptu experiment that worked out well, and it is pretty hard to go wrong with scallops, fried sage leaves and crispy little bits of bacon...

Percy, Prawn - absolutely gorgeous eggs...