Okanagancook

Stuffed chicken legs in pastry with Andouille cream from Emeril's New New Orleans Cooking and Cauliflower Casserole from Paul Prudhomme's Fiery Foods that I love. Total caloric load: out of this world. However, the chicken leg was excellent. Next time I would use less pastry or perhaps roll it out thinner. And for the cauliflower, we used much less oil than called for.

This is our first attempt at pizza using a 1/2 inch steel plate. Heated it up at 550 degrees F for one hour. Switched to broil about six inches from the element and baked Peter Reinhart's Napoletana Pizza Dough from "American Pie". Didn't take long...maybe 8 minutes and wow. It was so crispy especially the cheese on top. This is our new way cooking pizza for sure.

Here is my copper jam pot in action. It holds 5 lbs of fruit. It makes wonderful jam. So fresh tasting because of the short boiling time. No pectin required. Yes it was expensive, around $325 Cdn but if you make a lot of jam it is a dream. I bought some copper cleaner in paste form which makes cleaning the pan is very easy. I should say it is a big pot so I clean it in my large dog bath. I clean it as soon as I am finished using as I do with all my copper pots.

Keller's duck breast from Ad Hoc with blackberry risotto.

I like using English muffins for burgers. Just the right ratio of meat to bread.

Very cool website. The pictures of what they do and the farm animals are wonderful. And, it is nice to see they have a solar energy tracker. Those are amazingly efficient because they rotate and tilt to follow the sun.

Here is a website that shows the whole process. I have found it useful for watching the techniques involved. http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2014/10/01/cocktail-green-peas-samosa/

Half a plate of vegetables. Good job.

Oh my goodness! My guts are churning just looking at that.

I use it to wrap burritos in. They then go in a plastic bag in the freezer. To thaw I just pop them still wrapped in the microwave...don't notice any excess wax. Also us to grate cheese on to.

Out here in the Okanagan, apples on the ground will not be sold so if you know the land owner they are free.

I use the Map Pro. Also good for tomatoes when you just need a few peeled.

If I just need a couple of peeled tomatoes I use my blow torch. A quick wipe with a paper towel and all the skin is gone and the flesh nice and firm.

For a nice duck breast I like the fat to be rendered, the skin to be crispy and the meat to be on the rare side. Does the fat get rendered when it I'd sous vide?

Looks like my Early Girls! How does it taste?

Welcome Ted. Friends of ours got us interested in southern cuisine too. We have a couple of Paul's cookbooks and everything we have made from them so far have been fabulous. What are some of your favourite dishes?

I throw out left over mayo after a week. It has raw egg yolk and only a little acid. Not worth the risk. I put the date I made it on the container and keep it in the coldest part of thr fridge.

Me, too. Serious Eats mayo is dead easy. Just made some yesterday.

From Jerusalem on page 200 I made the turkey and zucchini burgers. They turned out very moist and flavourful...mainly from the mint and cumin. They were a little sloppy so I put them in the fridge for about an hour before frying and baking. They held together remarkably well.

Last night with sous vide lamb and all things good from the veggie garden we had a 2006 Merlot from Poplar Grove in the Okanagan, BC, Canada. The wine was well aged but still had some good fruit but the chocolate and leather undertones were a good foil for the lamb and vinaigrette on the three vegetable platter from David Tanis The Heart of the Choke cookbook. We've got a few more of these in the cellar (this one was brought by our guests) and I think we should drink them soon otherwise the fruit will be lost.

Thanks for an inspiring blog and thankfully no mouth watering naan!

Sous vide grass fed flank steak: 131 degrees F for 24 hours then a quick sear. Perfect medium-rare and very tender. I had previously cooked that kind of flank steak at 125 for a couple of hours for a more rare meat but it was quite chewy.

I too struggle with toasting. I find that the "toastees" require undivided attention and constant stirring/shaking. I have a dump bowl near by so I can get them out of the hot pan if they are going too fast or too long. You can always put them back in for a bit more. The other thing is toasting one kind of seed/spice at a time as they tend to need different treatment. For practice, there is a recipe for Versatile Vinaigrette in the July issue of Bon Appetit on page 32 which requires toasting of coriander, cumin and fennel seeds(they don't tell you to toast them individually though)....the result is delicious on salads and especially on steak.

Thanks Anna for the reference to Essential Pepin. Couldn't stop watching the whole show. He is such a good teacher but you have to listen carefully as he gives little tips quietly as he chops!

Should have checked his website before posting. Yup there is a recipe there Jose Andres.com