kayb

Oh, my! Been gone most of August and have neither cooked nor read blogs, so the holiday is a great catch-up for that. mgaretz: That char siu is the first thing I've seen that really makes me wish I had a sous vide set-up. I wonder if I could conduct an experiment and see what temps I get in my slow-cooker.... Genkinonna: The cheddar bacon fritters are enough to make me get over my hatred of deep-frying at home. I see them in our future. Thanks for posting the recipe link. Kim: I have little interest in NFL football and less in fantasy football, but I'd join up just to share that repast. Tell me more about the pintos with chowchow -- cooked with it, served with it, or what? Paul Bacino: Gorgeous caprese; I've been eating a lot of those all summer as well. Is that a cucumber second from top, or just a very coolly colored heirloom? dcarch: Pollock by Pollock is abso-freakin'-lutely genius. You should have those printed and sold in culinary stores. What were the sauces? Norm Matthews: I'm going to try tomatos like that next weekend. It's a mission. Rhonda: Great crab boil. Do you prefer Zatarains brand over Louisiana brand? I've always liked Louisiana better for shrimp, not sure why. David Ross: Beautiful monkfish. Had never thought of it with the Provencal relish. Marvelous idea. In my fridge marinating is a chipotle-honey-garlic flank steak, recipe in this week's NY Times. I'll update with photos later if it's decent. Glad to be home for an eight-week stretch!

Bumping this thread up a notch -- any new recommendations? I have time for three dinners and one lunch in Asheville next week (one is a Monday night). All the recommendations on this page look excellent, except it appears La Caterina Trattoria is closed. I'm thinking Zambra is a must, given my love of Spanish food. Anything new I cannot miss?

Got it! Thanks!

Percyn, I believe that's the finest use to which I've ever seen a leftover crab cake put. It'd be worth making too many, for leftovers the next day. Rhonda, I can't place the restaurant but will most assuredly hunt for it when I'm next there. Where is it from Cafe DuMonde and TuJacques? RobirdsTX, a breakfast taco like that would NOT make me miss the tortilla! Here on the hillside, it was fried cheese grits, an over easy egg, a yeast roll with bacon jam, and a slice of fresh tomato. New batch of bacon jam. I think I got it too sweet. Got to figure out how to add more bacon, I guess, and tone down the sweet. Last weekend,which I never posted, I made cheese biscuits and had the last of the old batch of bacon jam.

Way to go! I'm telling you, I have no idea why the east side of Aisle 9 at Price Chopper doesn't go....ketchup, mustard, relish, BACON JAM, mayo...... this stuff just makes sense as a part of daily life. It sounds decadent, and it is, but you render way more fat out of the bacon than if you were just to fry and eat it. Plus, a little bit goes a LONG way. Total healthy food, lol! Welcome to The Matrix.....you just shifted your reality by making that stuff. I'm telling you. Bacon jam is the duct tape that holds my world together. Try it on a cheese biscuit. Put it on a grilled pork chop or burger. Spread it on a waffle. Eat it on crackers! Kim, glad you liked it. I've been hitting mine pretty heavy of late.

Sigh. I wanna GO!

Warm! I just scoop out what I want to use, put it on what I want to use it on, and run it in the toaster or the microwave. Or you can microwave enough to serve in a container. You don't need it really warm, just enought take the chill off and make it pliable. Let me know what you think. I'll be anxious to hear.

First, I'd peel 'em and salt 'em and let them sit for a half-hour or so, and then rinse off the salt and pat them dry. Then you're ready to try any number of other preparations. I'm of a mind to try Sichuan eggplant, for which I found a recipe recently that looked quite marvelous. If you want to cover it up a bit, do an eggplant cassesrole: Roast your slices of eggplant until they're quite soft. Cut them in chunks. Or cut them in chunks to roast them. Make a bechamel. Put the eggplant and lots of cheese in it. Saute some onions. Throw in whatever else strikes your fancy -- peppers, etc. -- including some Italian bread crumbs. Stir it all up. Sprinkle cheese and breadcrumbs on top and bake it. Call it a gratin, if it makes you feel better. If you still can't abide it, trade it with your neighbors or fellow CSA-ers for something you love that they can't abide. K.

RRO, it's easy enough to have proper pulled pork. My tutorial is here. If you don't have access to a grill on which you can achieve indirect heat, you can achieve a similar result in a low oven (maybe 275) on a rack in a roasting pan. I swear, you'll think you're in Memphis.

Bruce, do you mind sharing your recipe for rendang? I tried to make it once, but not knowing how it was supposed to come out, I didn't do it right. It tasted OK, but it certainly didn't look like yours. dcarch, love the plate, as always. You are such an artist!

Not a cocktail master (wish I was, reading what you folks are drinking). But I often have a drink at home alone, well, except for the sixteen-year-old who is, y'know, not a drinker. Thankfully. Usually it's a Ketel One dirty martini in the summer; a single malt Scotch with two ice cubes, in the winter; if it's really cold, coffee with Bailey's, Jameson's and a grating of good semi-sweet chocolate. Or a glass of red wine, anytime. I'm currently favoring Menage a Trois blended red for my sipping wine.

Leftover pulled pork barbecue, atop a split, buttered and toasted yeast roll, topped with scrambled eggs and a sprinkle of barbecue dry rub. I prefer my eggs over easy, but I broke a yolk (my current supplier of farm eggs for some reason has eggs with REALLY delicate yolks!), so I scrambled 'em.

Wait a minute -- a hot air popcorn popper to roast coffee beans? You can DO that? Where have I been? I need details. And I think my coffee life is about to kick up into another gear. Loved the intro. Gonzo food blogging is a wonderful thing. Anxious to follow you this week!

PC, that is possibly the most artistically condimented (I don't think that's a word, but you get my drift) burger bun I've ever seen! Great looking dinners. SobaAddict, I'm going to make some ricotta gnocchi soon. Made some once with gluten-free flour for my gluten-intolerant daughter; it wasn't bad, but a bit heavy. I think perhaps my ricotta wasn't drained enough, and thus took too much flour. Do you boil before you saute? RRO, a Mexican restaurant here roasts peppers like that and puts them out on the counter as a "help yourself" item. Shameful admission -- I love 'em with queso. Last night, we had steak, which I had cooked a bit overdone; still trying to get used to the new gas grill; grilled yellow squash brushed with truffle oil and sprinkled with sea salt; and a baked sweet potato puree with honey chipotle butter and smoked Gouda. Headed out tomorrow to Tampa for five days, so hoping for some excellent Cuban fare while I'm there.

AHA! I buy farm eggs, and the only thing I don't like about them is they're damn near impossible to peel if one wants to make deviled eggs. Would this technique work to accomplish that?

Down here, we'd call that a fish cooker, and it'd do double duty to boil crawfish or shrimp in. Great blog. I want that Stilton mushroom cap, and a lobster roll, and half a dozen grilled Malpeques, please!

Keep going! Loving this!

NikkiB, I use unripe tomatos; most of the farmers who have tomatos at the farmers' market will also pick a few green ones for the customers who just want to fry them. I slice and soak them in an egg-milk mixture -- they won't soak up much, but it seems to improve the texture and taste -- and then dredge them in cornmeal that has been seasoned with salt and pepper. You could, of course, vary the seasonings any way you wanted. I actually used the left-over cornmeal from shaking up the okra. Kim, I used to use a mixture of flour and cornmeal, but I find when you're frying a big batch, you wind up with a lot of burnt flour sludge in your pan that sticks to the last one. Katie,yes, we always had a lot of fried green tomatos at the end of the season, when frost was due. That was also when Mama canned "green tomato pickle," which, best I recall, included chopped tomatos, jalapenos, onion and I'm not sure what all else. It had a sort of sweet-sour-hot taste. Daddy loved it on hamburgers and hot dogs. I use green tomatos as part of my trinity when I'm cooking Cajun, because I don't like either celery or bell pepper. Dcarch, I've never had a green-when-ripe tomato. I'll have to look for those. mgaretz, lovely brisket!

More veggies, centering around fried green tomatos, but including fried okra, fresh corn and a ripe tomato slice. I didn't bother with meat this time! I always tend to think of fried green tomatos as a Southern "thing." Can those of you in other geographies chime in on that?

All of you please ignore reports of my 16-year-old son, for whom the five food groups are pizza, hamburgers, chocolate and macaroni & cheese, being whacked upside the hand with a baseball bat. If it worked for Andie's acquaintance....

Kim, here's the bacon jam recipe I use. I can buy Wright's thick-cut, smoked bacon (regional brand, good stuff), a three-pound box of ends and pieces, for way cheap, and that works just as well as the expensive trimmed-and-sliced stuff (about $8.99 per pound vs $5.99 for the ends-and-pieces three-pounder!), so I triple everything else as well and make a big Dutch oven full. I keep mine refrigerated, or frozen, in sealed plastic containers, but I suppose one could can it, if one wished. I've never had a problem with it going bad in the fridge -- y'know, it doesn't tend to stay there that long. Bourbon Bacon Jam Yield 1 1/2 cups 1 pound thick-cup applewood smoked bacon, cut into 1″ pieces 1 large sweet onion, cut into 1/4″ thick slices 3 tablespoons light brown sugar 3 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 teaspoon allspice 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon Pinch fresh grated nutmeg Pinch ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon dry chipotle powder 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1/2 cup good quality bourbon 1/4 cup maple syrup 1 tablespoon hot sauce In a large skillet over medium high heat cook the bacon pieces until they begin to crisp at the edges but are still soft in the center, about 1 – 1 1/2 minutes per side. Set aside to drain. Pour all but one tablespoon of the bacon drippings from the pan. Lower the heat to medium-low and add the onion and brown sugar. Cook until the onions are well caramelized, about twenty minutes. Add the garlic and spices and cook an additional five minutes. Add the liquid ingredients and the bacon to the pan. Increase the heat to medium heat bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about two hours. Check the mixture every 30 minutes. If the mixture becomes too dry add a few tablespoons of water. You want the final mixture to be moist and very sticky. Let the mixture cool slightly them put it into the bowl of a food processor, or blender, and pulse about 20 times, or until it reaches your preferred consistency. (I prefer mine slightly chunky so you really notice the bacon)

Love it already. Perhaps reading about someplace cooler than my 102 in Hot Springs will cool me off -- can't wait to see the extreme cheese and all the seafood (and of course, good whiskey!).

Not so much for the food, but the atmosphere -- the Old Ebbet Grill, and the bar at the Willard. Both marvelous.

Your blog has been an absolute delight. Thanks!

Watermelons have been OK. Peaches have been superb. I've been disappointed with the cantaloupes, though.