Steve Irby

Fresh tomato and basil soup. The stock is heavy cream and the pan gelee left over from the Easter ham. I was going to make tomato gravy and it morphed into soup. We are getting some great tomatoes out of South Florida.

My first attempt at falafel and accompanying tahini dip. Recipes from Sonia Uvezian Recipes and Remembrances.

Beautiful crust jvalentino and C. sapidus - my monitor has fork marks from trying to grab that chicken.

Keith_W beautiful plating on that J Dory FrogPrincessse that salsa on the halibut has me drooling Baselerd what a beautiful photo

Patrick, great looking dish. The flavor punch from the broth and zhoug must be great.

Great posts over the past week. Thank god that our spring break company has left! Total non foodies for a week. Although it does take a lot of pressure off the hosts when our guest start their day off at What-A-Burger. Fresh swordfish showed up at the market yesterday so dinner last night was grilled fish with Fattoush - Lebanese salad with dry bread, pomegranate molasses and sumac. Lunch today was pressure cooker chuck roast poboy on Reising's bread from New Orleans. It did not start out quite sloppy enough so I added more debris to make it a four paper towel delight. After a light lunch why not a nice porcini, cremini, and shiitake risotto to start the evening followed by filet, shrimp and asparagus.

ScottyBoy beautiful photo of the stew. mm84321 very nice presentation. It's actually strange to see salmon unadultered. I only have access to salmon that is farmed with color added.

Teapot- great line.

Thanks Steve.And I assure you, this is a normal European-size fork! :-) As a gluttonous Son Of The South I rest my case.

SobaAddict70 I'm going to take a stab at gnocchi this weekend. That combination looks great. FrogPrincesse you've been posting a lot of great looking dishes this week. I have to say though I'm afraid my rock cod would be cold before I finished it with the size of that fork. MM84321, ScottyBoy, Liuzhou very nice dishes.

I used the kibbeh in a tray version. It was my first attempt and I did not know how cohesive the kibbeh mixture would be. It was much more workable than imagined and next time I'll try the torpedo shape.

David beautiful job on that sablefish and with this cook-off. Really enjoyed the cured fish thread also. Is the batter that you used for the fried squid what you use with other fried items?

I did a couple of experiments last night and you can definitely make the carrot soup in a saute pan using the quantities from MCaH. I cooked 340 grams of cored carrots with three variations: from MCaH; sauteed with butter and 2.5 grams soda; and butter only. Pretty dramatic results flavor wise in the first two versus the last. My wife thought the flavor was to strong with the butter and soda method but it was also more concentrated versus the MCaH. Check out the yield from the different methods. After 20 minutes. Pressure cooked carrots on left. Carrots with baking soda at bottom Five more minutes with high heat for sauteed carrots. Pureed carrots with the addtion of 2.5 cups carrot juice Final product after straining.

Paul those gnocchi look great. Where do you keep your truffle stash? I swear I won't tell anyone. Patrick I'm going to give that twice cooked pork a try before the local swiss chard disappears. Inspired by some the dishes that you have prepared I tried a lentil soup with swiss chard and potato from Sonia Uvezian's Recipes and Remembrances cookbook. It's was quite delicious I also made kibbeh and tabbouleh with fareek and Israeli couscous. Continuing on the couscous theme we had a dish of shrimp, oil cured olives, capers for dinner. And fried shrimp and packaged slaw for lunch today.

Thanks for the positive responses to my recent posts. Again, the nice thing about egullet is the support for folks of all skill levels. From soup to nuts it's always fun. Keith_W commented that potatoes Anna is old school (Hey, I'm Old) but it holds up very well to Keller's pave and other preparations that requires hours of effort. The real reason I prepare them is my wife absolutely loves the dish. She loves it = more time in the kitchen for me to goof off. I'm inspired by so many of the contributors to this thread but I'll have to single out mm84321. No need to buy coffee table cookbooks with your presentations, and you know it delivers on taste.

Thanks rotuts. Here's the steak after spending the night under vacuum. And after the grill. Pretty good adhesion overall on the bacon. And the proof is in the pudding. Cooked to my wife's spec's with potatoes anna and wedge salad. I also cooked some feta sausage based on a recipe from Len Poli's site. A great resource for many different sausage formulations.

Homemade chicken boudin seasoned with rosemary and garlic. My first try making boudin and it came out really tasty. This will be dinner tomorrow night. A perfectly good ribeye broken down into four servings plus trimmings reformed with moo glue. The individual portions were then vacuumed bagged to enhance the bind. The trimmings were formed into a log and I'll put them in the circulator to finish.

Brunch for my wife and feline rescue group. Assorted apps including quick pickles, feta dip, and Tzatziki inspired dip. Carrot Soup from MCaH Carotene butter Dessert was Mango Mousse Here's a shot of the guanciale that finished the cure yesterday.

Guanciale from a Tamworth hog. Cured with salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic. Left in the utility fridge (no defrost cycle) for about three weeks. Mulberry smoked bacon from same hog.

Here's few of shots of some gumbo prep. I like to start with a good base and add the meats prior to serving to maintain texture. I also make 12 qts. of base and freeze in multiple containers. The base stock itself is usually leftovers of smoked or roasted meat that are full of flavor The roux is 1:1 flour and high smoke point oil. I use 3/4 cup of each which is combined with stock to yield about 10-12 qts. I make garbage can gumbo which means I add to the base a variety of stuff that I have on hand. If i'm using seafood I take the shrimp shells, heads, and crabs to a portion of the base to extract those flavors. That is returned to the base and and brought to temp. I then add my other ingredients and adjust the timing prior to serving that the components are cooked but not stringy.

I'm a more than happy owner of a VP-112. Here's where I bought mine - http://www.homebutcher.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=23. I purchased the scratch and dent mode lfor $499 shipping included just about a year ago and you would be hard pressed to find a flaw. It's listed as out of stock. I have seen it at other sites for around $650. It may not have all the bells and whistles but it is solid and does the job. A nice advantage of the 12-inch seal bar is you can seal two 6-inch bags at a time. Great for small portions and reduces wear and tear. It has the same motor as the VP-210 but can be used on a counter top with cabinets above. It is heavy, probably around 60# so you better have a dedicated place to park it. I have gone through 800-900 cycles to date and it has performed very well. The bags cost 3-4 cents which is 10x less than seal a meals so it can pay for itself with steady use. Does a great job on liquids with caveat do not start with the bag to full. Butcher Packer also has very good pricing on bags. At 30 second cycle it will pull 29.5 " hg.

There have been a lot of killer post lately. Patrick - that persian duck has me drooling. MM84321 and Baselerd posts continue to amaze. That photo by ScottyBoy of the salmon is my screen saver. The nice thing about egullet is that regardless of skill level the community is supportive and encourages us to expand our abilities.

Quick snack. Sesame flat bread, hummus, tomato, avocado, oil cured olive and preserved lemon.

What a great photo. I don't want to sound like GF but's that's a money shot.

It's going to be bacon tonight. Locally produced tamworth hog smoked with mulberry. Various ends and pieces from the freezer. The andouille and tasso were smoked over the weekend with pecan. The cheeks are going to take a littler longer to become guanciale