Anna N

That will be my next “experiment” but for now I’m plumb out of both onions and stamina.

Rather than drag any other topic off-topic I thought I would revive this one. Elsewhere we have been discussing methods of caramelizing onions. I expressed my opinion that the onions I attempted to caramelize in the slow cooker years ago did not measure up to my expectations. Today I decided to test out the method for caramelized onions in a pressure cooker following the directions from Serious Eats. Of course I used my Instant Pot. The hardest part of this recipe is peeling and slicing 3 pounds of onions which were each smaller than a racquetball! Should I decide to attempt this again I will look for much larger onions. Even after almost 30 minutes of cooking off the excess liquid using the sauté function on the Instant Pot these onions were a far cry from what I expect when I do the same thing on top of the stove. They were mushy, lacked the colour I expect and tasted overly sweet. I will not let them go to waste but next time I need caramelized onions in quantity I will revert to the old-fashioned way of doing them on the stove top. I believe this is very much a matter of personal taste and I have no wish to find fault with those who are happy with the results they get using other methods.

From a professional point of you are absolutely right. But somehow I felt less in the care of someone attempting to make a living and more in the care of someone who wanted to make me feel warm, comfortable and homey. Probably not the recipe for a successful business but I found it hard to fault them.

They look delicious and I bet they were. Did you make your own wraps? They look different from what I might’ve expected meaning they don’t quite look like the egg roll wrappers I can buy here nor quite like the flour tortillas that I can buy. I am just very curious.

That looks mouthwatering.

This and this. While none of the first blends contain fenugreek it is an ingredient in one masala in the second link. You will need to scroll right through. I could post many more links showing the use of fenugreek in garam masala. And you could also post many more links showing garam masala without fenugreek. So it seems a bit of a pointless exercise.

I find the concept of a basic garam masala hard to get my mind around.

Hmmm. I think you will find that it frequently does appear. Since it basically means nothing more than “a warm spice mixture” it can vary regionally and personally with each family developing its own particular blend.

Every winter, towns and cities in the Greater Toronto Area run a restaurant promotion called Taste of X. Today we took advantage of Taste of Oakville. Independently, both @Kerry Beal and I had decided we would like to try Cubas. Here is their offering for taste of Oakville: The staff were warm and welcoming and the decor cheerful. After first offering us menus, they somehow intuited that we were there for the Taste of Oakville menu and pointed it out to us on the blackboard. They said the roast pork might not be quite ready. Kerry immediately said that she was there for the roast pork and the cook offered that he could probably cut off enough for a single serving. We both chose the calamari. It was wonderfully crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside but quite underseasoned. When the cook/chef came over to our table to ask how we enjoyed it we did point out that it needed some more seasoning. He cheerfully acknowledged that we were probably right. He had ordered a different breading and found himself with Panko rather than his usual. He was charmingly accepting of the criticism. Roast pork for Kerry needed a bit longer in the oven and where the calamari was underseasoned the pork was somewhat oversalted. I went in there with the idea that I wanted a Cubano. I thought I knew what it was and pictured something along the lines of a Vietnamese Bahn Mi but with Cuban ingredients. So when my lunch arrived I was extremely disconcerted. It was probably a perfectly adequate Cubano perhaps even a good one but so far from what I was expecting that I didn’t give it a chance! I know there are fans of plantain chips but I am not among them. To me they are about as tasty as dehydrated cardboard. Fortunately Kerry is a fan and ate most of mine. Not our most successful lunch in terms of the food but the staff were perhaps the most charming we have run into in quite some time and that can make up for a lot. At least can in our books.

Thanks very much for this, @blue_dolphin. It was not even on my radar. I don’t “do” pastry. But I have also been trying to challenge myself to step outside of my comfort zone. I had no pancetta and I had no gruyere but I did have bacon and I did have cheddar. I didn’t even have a 10 inch tart tin but I did have a 9 inch and what’s an inch between friends? And so I found myself this morning making this dish. I reduced the sugar as you had done, looked up how to do the fraisage technique and before I knew it, I was making pastry. It went so much better than I expected. I did not quite understand what I was expected to do with the edge of the crust and I suspect if I had understood it better I might’ve had a neater result. But all in all I am quite pleased with myself and don’t think that I will be quite as afraid of pastry in the future. Who knows I might even attempt puff pastry one day. I did think that the tart could’ve used more filling.

Try one first. I just gave everyone of mine away. I hate them. They catch on my nails, or on any bit of skin on my hands that isn’t perfectly smooth, the very feel of them gives me the Heebie-jeebies. They are not for everybody

@Shelby I am liking your meals not your flu!

I finally made it into the basement to grab a photograph of my countertop rotisserie. It is a Franklin Chef brand. The bulldog clip is holding the instructions together and I keep them inside the rotisserie when it is not in use.

And would your world fall apart if you dried your clean hands on any one of them? My germophobe relative believes it might. But I have yet to figure out how to dry dishes with a towel while avoiding any hand contact with the same towel.

I have a relative with the same hang up. It baffles me.

My daughter went shopping at Costco and shared with me some chicken wings and broccoli. I cooked them up tonight.

Thank you, thank you. The Book of Greens was also a deal on the .ca site. I am a prime member.

Lime & Ginger Cookies from The Artful Baker.

I have hundreds upon hundreds of recipes that I am anxious to try out. Today would’ve been a good day to choose one. Instead I got busy and found myself on the verge of starvation about lunchtime! So I winged it once again. But I am so glad I did. This didn’t seem too promising but oh boy was it good. I had some squash that I had roasted yesterday and some spiced butter that I had also made yesterday. I found two slices of homemade sourdough in my freezer. I slicked the bottom of a cast iron skillet with some of the spiced butter and put some colour on the bread. I smashed up some of the roasted squash and spooned it onto the bread. I then dusted everything with some mild madras curry powder and stuck it all under the broiler just to heat it through.

And I bet most of them wish it was never anything worse than this.

My reaction was the same at first meaning that I was confusing the fell with skin.

Salad. It’s not just for lunch.

Pork belly and kimchi on a homemade bun with some carrot sticks.

Finally, finally I had all the right pieces and the time to assemble @HungryChris‘ marinated mushrooms. Did not have enough of anything for a full recipe so I made a partial one. And although it’s not summer I felt a need to make a small portion of @ElainaA‘s slow roasted cherry tomatoes.

Gorgeous!