weinoo

So I got a corned beef brisket from Fresh Direct. A couple of questions: 1. Soak it before cooking? 2. I want to cook it in the slow cooker, but it's bigger than will sit nicely in the slow cooker (as most briskets are). Should it be cut in half? 3. Add my own spices or use the weird little packet that is packed with it? 4. Cook in plain water?

In my neighborhood, they call plantains "green bananas." Not love tostones?! They're awesome with that Peruvian aji verde!

While our current situation often brings out the best in people, it also highlights the worst (and the stupidity) of a small percentage of the population. That NY times article mentioned is here....https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/us/coronavirus-terrorism-nj.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage Yesterday, I was one of the first shoppers at the Essex Market; they've allotted the first hour of opening time to seniors and immuno-compromised individuals, asking others to please respect that. So there was a young couple (no masks or gloves, so I imagine not compromised) happily shopping, and while I was paying for my produce, a senior came up right next to me and dropped his stuff on the counter, and which point I stage-whispered said aloud: 'back off, idiot!"

In today's version of ugly delicious. Lunch was using my now 24-hour fermented dough... In a baking pan in the CSO. 1/2 mozzarella and tomato. Half just parm. Better than yesterday's! Dinner... Céleri rémoulade. Salade de betteraves. Ceci in Zimino. Or a variation of that (starting with dried garbanzo), along with a leftover ham hock and some jambon de Bayonne. As I said, looks aren't everything; this was all about the taste, and this all tasted pretty good.

Thanks for the memory. Have you ever made the Spanish/Basque potato salad with tuna? Quite good. Ensalada Rusa, too.

You'd be surprised at the things I've tried. But broiling with parchment in my oven merely sets things ablaze.

Yeah, but that would certainly veer from its original intent of classic braised chicken wings. As well as create so much more work cleaning up!

I'll start by saying thanks for the chicken wing suggestions. I'll continue... with dinner last night... Wings, braised and glazed in a spicy Sichuan bean sauce. They were actually going to be simply wings in black bean sauce, a more Cantonese dish, but when I started tearing apart my cupboards to find the black beans, I gave up and used one of the various spicy bean pastes I have in my fridge. Along with dark soy, garlic, scallions, a hit of sugar, sesame oil, etc. etc. Served over jasmine rice, kimchee on the side. Pretty satisfying.

My guess is contains some wheat, as 100% rye is a pain in the ass! So my bread making is off to its usual nightmare start; and I usually start with flatbreads, cause you know, they're easy... This is using an abridged version of the overnight straight dough from Forkish (similar to Lahey's), but I didn't let the dough rest in the fridge for it's allotted time; in other words, I cheated. Stretched. Then topped with a few tomatoes and anchovies on half, parm on all... Baked in the steam girl, on the bread setting... Puffed up like crazy... But...it tasted great...

Maybe. But there has to be a better way to drop $295, right? Especially when I already have 2 baking steels, and multiple enameled cast-iron pieces that probably work almost as well.

Yes...I don't want to climb up on the step ladder again, but it was made (or finished) in Belgium. I don't remember where this one came from, probably somewhere deep in my parent's garage. ETA: OK - I climbed...and indeed, Descoware, from Belgium! Evidently collectible!

I actually enjoy the roasted barley tea - I think it's also a Japanese thing. Doing my research, I found that it was certainly one of the earliest cultivated grains in the fertile crescent. And it grows in lots and lots of places.

I think even just taking the lid off, which is how I often did it, promotes the browning we're looking for.

Ironically, I don't remember that being too much of a problem, back when I was baking no-knead breads in an enameled, cast-iron Dutch oven.

Good question... https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/cholent/

It's exactly what I do when making a soup that has pasta in it; cook the pasta separately and add it at the end. Jewish congee - I like the idea! When I did a little more research into the barley conundrum, I saw that it is used in cholent, making that a real rib sticker!

Back when I doing a bunch of Dutch oven bread baking, I used this... The interior ended up looking like this... But not sandpapery at all. I wonder if different enamels and enameling process matter. In any event, if it's still good for bread baking and only bread baking, that would work for me.

Jeez, they actually designed and now sell one of these... https://challengerbreadware.com/product/challenger-bread-pan/ It's $295!!

Indeed what modernist says is: Since I've never used this oven for anything else, I'm not too worried about the enamel becoming useless for anything else . Maybe it'll even become better for bread baking?

Enameled cast iron. Not as thick as a Lodge or Griswold, but still cast iron.

While this isn't a gadget, it was gifted to me by someone quite a few years ago - never used, but now I'm wondering if it's the perfect size to bake bread in? It's made by Dansk, 4 qts. It's approximately 8" x 11", 3.5" deep and the lid adds another 1.5" of depth.

When I was in school learning How to Bake from the master Nick Malgieri, his apple pie filling always started with not apple butter, but a layer of thick apple sauce. Pie looks wonderful.

The other night, mushroom barley soup, along with a nice fillet of halibut (this from an order I received from Sea to Table) I roasted on top of some pre-baked mushrooms and potatoes. The leftover potatoes and mushrooms went into this frittata, along with minced herbs and parmesan, to have for breakfast... with Jones sausage (yeah, I like Jones sausage, don't judge) and sourdough rye from Pain d'Avignon. At some point there was a salad... for lunch, along with leftover mushroom barley soup. What I learned today is: don't use so much fucking barley in my soup - it turns into concrete! I think 2 - 3 T would be enough, as opposed to the 1/2 - 3/4 cup I actually used! Last night for dinner, supporting one of my local faves... Cafe Katja pick up, including liverwurst with pickles, potato cucumber salad (creamy and comforting), Berner Würstel and sauerkraut. There were also a couple of slices of their quite good rye bread (I think they get it from a bakery in Newark or Elizabeth). For dessert (but we'll have that today), applestrudel. Most of their prices are now about 30% less than usual. And they're selling many, if not all wines from their list, at 1/2 price. So with 2 bottles of wine (a grüner and a riesling), the food mentioned above (and 2 pretzels with liptauer), I spent $96 before tip.

What's everyone/anyone's favorite thing to do with chicken wings?

A Boon Time for the Bean Industry - NY Times