[Dinner 2021]

Dinner from a few nights ago, duck breasts. This batch was sous vided and then put in cast iron to render fat and sear.

 

[Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )]

Trying a few new banana bread recipes... one from sourdough discard (texture way too moist & compact) and one from an old family friend (more of a sour cream banana bread). Still prefer my old tried and true recipe but it was fun to try some other recipes.

 

[The Bread Topic (2016–)]

While the bread baking continues, the pace has slowed to about 1 loaf per month. Here are my loaves from January & February. Baked both of these loaves in the CSO.

 

January 2021 sourdough bread

 

 

February 2021 sourdough bread

 

[Camping, Princess Style]

The foods, plants, flowers are all great. Great that you both got your first vaccine dose!!! Thank you for sharing your adventures with us every year. But what really caught my eye this time is that sunrise, glorious!

[What frustrates you when you try to organize your kitchen cupboards/pantry?]

I have seen pull down shelves used in designing homes for individuals in wheel chairs... those may also be helpful if installed in all cabinets that are not easily within reach. The euro design versions are quite nice. Here is a link to a company that sells the hardware https://rev-a-shelf.com/2552

[Cooking with "This Will Make It Taste Good", by Vivian Howard]

After watching Vivian Howard make Chicken Toast on Instagram and be so enthusiastic about the dish, I decided to make it. You roast chicken quarters on slabs of bread, remove the chicken skin, remove the chicken meat from the bones, dress the chicken meat with little green dress, and then assemble a salad. The dish is schmaltz soaked toast, arugula, chicken salad, and chicken skin. Quite tasty but I was not as impressed with it as Vivian seems to be... I think that I am looking for different flavors in the chicken salad. I will probably make this again and tweak to my preferences.

 

[Cooking with "This Will Make It Taste Good", by Vivian Howard]

On 2/8/2021 at 5:48 PM, blue_dolphin said:

Today, I made the Collards Break Character on p 158, one of the recipes that use lemons from the Citrus Shrine.  The citrus I posted above won't be ready for a while but I always keep preserved lemons on hand so I used some I made a while back.  

In my hands, this came out as more of a collard/coconut soup than a bowl o'greens.  The flavors are excellent but has the potential to be a huge salt bomb, so watch out for that.

I used Mae Ploy green curry paste, which has 610 mg sodium/2 t serving. I should have read the label before I got going.  This recipe calls for 1/4 cup for 4 servings, which ends up to be 930 mg sodium/serving and that's before we even get to the salt-preserved lemons!   There, Vivian calls for using both the rind and the pulp from 4 lemon quarters. I rinsed them thoroughly and only used the pulp from 2 quarters, holding the rest of the pulp back to add if needed.  NOT needed!  

Vivian also calls for 1/4 t salt to be added to the onions and another 3/4 added with collards.  I skipped that.  

Funnily enough, my initial concern was not the sodium level but the fact that the collards only get a quick sauté/wilt with the seasonings and 2 five-minute simmer periods, first with just water added and then with the coconut milk. That's way less time than I usually cook them.  They do have a bit of a chew to them but I really liked them.

My recommendations are to check the salt level of your green curry paste, consider backing off on the amount of preserved lemon, definitely reserve the pulp and only add it at the end if you want more salt.  The flavors are really wonderful so I hate to suggest big changes in the amount of curry paste or preserved lemon but use caution if salt is something you are sensitive to. 

 

I should also allow that the preserved lemon quarters I used were from a pretty big lemon from the bottom of the jar, likely saltiest pieces.  Knowing that, I did rinse them very thoroughly but with that green curry paste, it was already a very salty dish. 

 

 

I have also made Collards Break Character and served it over brown rice. Very tasty. I used Thai Kitchen green curry paste and did not find this to be overly salty. Sorry for the quality of the photo.

[Best 3" or 4" deep cake pans?]

@mmlstarr I have various sizes of all three of the brands you mention and would recommend Magic Line and Fat Daddio pans.

[Cooking with "This Will Make It Taste Good", by Vivian Howard]

@blue_dolphin I’m so glad you tried the But-a-Nut soup and liked it!
 

Your citrus shrine looks good in quart jars too. Don’t know if you saw it but Vivian Howard demoed making citrus shrine on her Instagram feed. I think she is demoing items from her new book once a week.

[Dinner 2021]

Well I learned something new today, the toothpick method of deveining shrimp! Will definitely give that a try.
Thank you @liuzhou.

[Costco]

Haven’t been in Costco for over a year and they offered me a $10 gift card to renew my membership. Went shopping at Costco yesterday and discovered all sorts of new products! Happily it was not too crowded and 99% of the people were properly masked and distant.
 

I tried two of their sous vide refrigerated meals: Kevin’s natural foods paleo Korean bbq-style steak tips and Cuisine Solutions turkey sausage & cheese egg bites.
 

The Korean steak was fine as a quick low-fuss meal but one could easily do much better with their own recipe and a bit of prep.

 

I’ll get the egg bites again. They are better than the ones that I have made and now I won’t have to scrub glass jars to remove egg bite residue (and yes I greased those jars before pouring in the egg mixture). The Cuisine Solutions egg bites are so similar to the egg bites at Starbucks (I heated them in the CSO at 400 F for 11 minutes) that I suspect that Cuisine Solutions makes these for Starbucks.

 

Update: Cuisine Solutions makes the egg bites for Starbucks and Costco — https://www.sousvideeggbite.com

 

[Cooking with "This Will Make It Taste Good", by Vivian Howard]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Started a batch of Citrus Shrine today

I used 2 small Oro Blanco grapefruits, 2 large Cara Cara oranges, 1 blood orange, 2 Meyer Lemons, 4 tangerines and a bunch of small Bearss limes in that 2.5 liter jar.

I cut the fruit all the way through in quarters.  Sixths or eighths for the bigger fruit.  Basically, the size of pieces that I tend to use at one time.

You can see that the top fruits aren't submerged. I think there's enough juice but the grapefruit had very thick pith and didn't compress much so I'll keep working on them over the course of the day. At some point today or tomorrow, I'll add additional fruit and/or juice to get everything submerged. 

Beautiful! Love the combination of citrus and the Weck jar.

[Camping, Princess Style]

When I have frozen spanakopita, I have frozen them pre-cook and that worked out very well. But I make mine with phyllo dough... not sure how well it would work to freeze puff pastry spanakopita pre-cook. They look yummy!

[Breakfast 2021]

On 1/14/2021 at 3:08 AM, liuzhou said:

 

New home is about only 10 minutes walk from old home, but moving is still traumatic.

Good luck on the move. How does the kitchen in the old place compare to the new place?

[Imperfect, Misfit, Etc. (The Food Delivery Services)]

Did both boxes ship from the same location? If so, definitely weird that they sent it as two boxes! Your haul looks good.

[Camping, Princess Style]

I'm guessing potatoes were easier than onions.

[Purchasing Ganache and Caramel Ruler Bars]

6 hours ago, no10 said:

Thanks for the information, @curls. What?! This forum hosts chocolate workshops?

 

6 hours ago, Anna N said:

Until Covid put the kibosh on it. 
 

Click.

 

And to add to Anna's post, a list of links for all the workshops 2009 - 2020

Reports

·         2020 workshop Buffalo, New York, USA – postponed due to COVID-19

·         2019 workshop St. Louis, Missouri, USA

·         2018 workshop Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada

·         2017 workshop Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

·         2016 workshop Toronto, Ontario, Canada

·         2015 workshop Merrifield, Virginia, USA

·         2014 workshop Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

·         2013 workshop Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada

·         2012 workshop Woodbridge, Virginia, USA

·         2011 workshop Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada

·         2010 workshop Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

·         2009 workshop Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada

 

Planning

·         2020 workshop planning Buffalo, New York, USA – postponed due to COVID-19

·         2019 workshop planning St. Louis, Missouri, USA

·         2018 workshop planning Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada

·         2017 workshop planning Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

·         2016 workshop planning Toronto, Ontario, Canada

·         2015 workshop planning Merrifield, Virginia, USA

·         2014 workshop planning Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

·         2013 workshop planning Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada

·         2012 workshop planning Woodbridge, Virginia, USA

·         2011 workshop planning Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada

·         2010 workshop planning Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

·         2009 workshop planning Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada

 

     Host's note: this index has been pinned near the top of the Pastry & Baking forum, for future reference and upkeep. You may find it here.

[Purchasing Ganache and Caramel Ruler Bars]

Quite a few of us met the owner of TCF; he joined us at one of our eGullet chocolate workshops in Vegas. I have also purchased guitar wire from TCF. Got exactly what I ordered and it was shipped quickly.

 

I’ll second Kerry’s recommendation of getting the ends of your metal bars polished if you go the metal bar route.

[Coffee Gator]

I have their french press. I wanted something sturdy and insulated for camping trips. It works great. 

[Instant Pot. Multi-function cooker (Part 5)]

13 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

What are the spices?

 

sage or marjoram or oregano, chili powder, cumin, salt, black pepper

 

other additions: poblano chiles, jalepeno or serrano chiles, onion, garlic, tomato, cilantro, scallion, lime

[Imperfect, Misfit, Etc. (The Food Delivery Services)]

3 hours ago, TicTac said:

Thank you.

 

That is I am assuming $30USD - so let's say nearly $40CDN.  I would hazard a rough estimate that I might be able to purchase the same volume of organic veg (I shop at either a Saturday Organic farmers market or a local chain called 'Organic Garage' and 'Ambrosia') for nearly the same price, if not albeit slightly less.  Though I do like their modus operandi and the EASY factor.

 

 

Yes that is $30 USD. I could probably get a better and/or cheaper selection of produce by shopping around myself but given these COVID times, this is a great solution. I’m going to the store for the larger / stock up shopping trips and using Misfits/Imperfect to keep fresh produce in the house. I’m also using this as a way to try new (or difficult to obtain) produce. I’m also enjoying the ordering and unboxing — kind of a mystery box with known parameters.

[Cooking with "This Will Make It Taste Good", by Vivian Howard]

The butternut squash from my Misfits Market box became but-a-nut soup. Great recipe, I'll definitely make this one again. My husband preferred the soup without Vivian Howard's suggested garnish (which included spiced pecans, leeks, and apples). I loved the soup and loved it even more with the suggested garnish. The soup reheats well and we were able to make a few meals from it.

 

 

[Imperfect, Misfit, Etc. (The Food Delivery Services)]

8 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Wow you got garlic and a mango!  I've never had those as a choice.

 

I want to try imperfect too, but I wish I didn't have to sign up and then cancel it over and over.....

 

Ha! I wouldn't order the garlic again - it was a very small head of garlic and I paid an extra 50 cents for it. The mango smells good and I have it in the fridge, will try it soon.

[Imperfect, Misfit, Etc. (The Food Delivery Services)]

5 minutes ago, TicTac said:

Not sure if they were 'past the point of no return' but often for salad greens that are past their prime, I will tear or slice them and soak in ice cold water.  Seems to crisp them back up most of the time, quite nicely.

 

Great haul.  If you don't mind my asking, what does a box with said contents cost?

 

 

Including tax & shipping that box was ~$30.

[Instant Pot. Multi-function cooker (Part 5)]

Instant Pot black beans from Melissa Clark's "Dinner in an Instant". I've made this recipe a few times, I really like the combination of peppers and spices that Melissa Clark recommends adding to the beans.