kayb

I remember going to a local catfish restaurant (I grew up on the Tennessee River) when I was a kid and getting choked on a catfish bone. Waitress brought out a couple of slices of soft white bread for me. Worked!

Largely due to this topic, I have taken to going occasionally for stock-up items that are significantly cheaper than Kroger -- butter, cream, etc. But there is almost never more than one checker working, even with a long line. If I'm buying 10 pounds of butter at a time, which I periodically do (it freezes well!), I'll tolerate that as long as I've remembered to go on a non-busy day.

Here in the rural South, buffalo (a relative, I think of catfish, but much bonier) is often considered a "trash fish," but is highly prized by descendants of the rural African-American community and white sharecroppers alike. My eldest daughter had a babysitter who gleefully canned buffalo "steaks," or crosswise cuts of the fish, which she processed in the pressure canner for 45 minutes. The bones became soft and crumbly, like those in canned salmon (another "soul food" staple, in salmon croquettes, which I love to this day). She'd sub it for salmon, and I tried my best to show up to pick my daughter up about dinnertime on those days.

I have had coconut curry with mango, but this did not have it. I thought about fresh pineapple, as I had some; but no fruit in this one. It was ultra-simple curry -- onion, garlic, a plentiful portion of Thai red curry paste, and coconut milk. Fascinating. Must try this. Just luscious. Been out of town for the weekend. No exceptional meals, but for a very good picnic lunch today of chicken salad, pasta salad and marinated veggies.

Apologies for the very bad cell phone photo, but the dinner was quite good. Tilapia in a coconut curry sauce over brown rice, with a side of roasted broccoli which had overstayed its welcome in the oven and was overdone....but still good.

Local strawberries, homemade Instant Pot yogurt, homemade granola. No photo because I forgot, but it surely was good.

I will happily eat lunch with you any day, @BonVivant.

@ElainaA -- Awwww, c'mon. No grilling when it's 30 degrees and sleeting? Where's your sense of adventure? Glad I'm a Southerner. 76 here today. Planted pole beans. Life is good.

Thanks, y'all. I've loved my appearances at TFTS. It's a great show to find and follow online. My own personal favorite of the ones I've done is here. (Which has nothing to do with food, other than free food and drink. Sorry.)

Cook it as though it were pot roast, except with no veggies other than onion and some garlic. Shred the meat with two forks. Marinate in your favorite viniagrette. Serve on a sandwich with Swiss cheese. "Italian" beef.

Thanks, @huiray. The linked posts are informative.

Bumping this up to ask a morel question, inspired by a photo I saw on Facebook today of morel hunting in Missouri. Since I live some 40 miles south of the MO line, I'm wondering what the area of the country actually is where morels grow. When are they "ripe"? In what kind of terrain/ground cover does one find them? Any tips on morel foraging? I'm contemplating a road trip to the nearest morel hunting lands, should they be nearby. The foothills of the Ozarks are within easy striking distance, and I know people who have hunting land who would have no objection to me hunting life forms which do not move about on four feet.

Anova is currently running a $30 off online discount for Mother's Day.

Planting is finished here at KB Farms, all 208 square feet of it. Tomato plants are thriving. Got the yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers planted yesterday. Planted pole beans this evening, to get ahead of the rain that's supposed to come through tonight or early tomorrow. Will sic Lucy the Watchpug on the first bunny to show its face. Here's an amusing take on bunnies and other such varmints pillaging one's garden. It was my inaugural performance at Tales from the South, a storytelling show that's a regular on the local public radio station. One of my favorite things to do. "click"

I am intrigued by the mountain yam slices. Do they taste similar to regular yams? I've never seen them; are they grown in the US? @liamsaunt and @robirdstx, I could easily make dinner off either of your antipasti. Lovely. Edge goes narrowly to the one with the salted ricotta, because I love that stuff. Finished off my bunch of local asparagus tonight, with shrimp scampi for which I did not reduce the sauce enough before I added the shrimp back. One of my major failings in the kitchen; I do it often. You'd think I'd learn. Also had my first Arkansas strawberries of the year, procured on the way back home from Little Rock when I stopped and picked up the shrimp from a little Cajun market that brings it in fresh three times a week. While I was there, I dropped by the local diner and had their specialty, a strawberry shortcake with local berries. Old-fashioned shortcake wafers, topped off with whipped topping in a can in a nod to the place's history as a dairy bar, and the whole thing served over a base of soft-serve vanilla ice cream. Arguably the best strawberry dessert in the state.

Check the Kitchenaid refurbished site (I just googled Kitchenaid refurbished; didn't find the link from the regular KA site. Got my KA Pro 600 with paddle, dough hook and whisk there about 5 years ago for, best I recall, around $179. Perfect mixer for what I do.

Those look pretty similar to what is sold down here as "country style ribs." Generally fairly cheap, and great in any sort of slow cook.

Sounds marvelous! Saving this recipe. I have cod filets in the freezer (no fresh, here in midAmerica). Will pass on the squid, as I have never learned to like it.

I envy you your cheese and charcuterie source every time you post it. I am intrigued by the notion of bo ssam. I believe that will be the treatment for the next pork butt that comes through. Tonight's asparagus was butter-braised, with hollandaise because the youngest child was here. Doggoned good blender hollandaise, if I did make it myself.

First local asparagus of the year for me. With my favorite accompaniment, two poached egg yolks. Didn't have anything with it; why do you want a side with perfection?

Bumping this thread up (I guess it would be the April of Asparagus, actually) because I bought my first local asparagus today. A local farmer sells it at the Farmers' Market, but our local market doesn't open until May. He also sells at the market in Memphis, which has been going since the beginning of April. He and his wife also operate a farm-to-fork restaurant near their farm, about halfway between me and Memphis. I had lunch there the other day and asked if I could buy asparagus there. He said sure, and to tell him how much I wanted and when I wanted to pick it up. I told him two pounds, and I'd get it Saturday. I went down there today, and I had THREE AND A HALF pounds. I suspect it was cut this morning. I will eat asparagus all week, and not complain a bit. This purple asparagus cooks up a darker green, and has no bitter taste at all. I'm in spring heaven.

I believe cardboard would be good with that view.

That's essentially the way you make champorado.

I think my favorite eggplant treatment is to cube it, toss it in a mixture of honey and miso, and roast it.

Eat the grains? Interesting. By themselves, or with/in something?