JoNorvelleWalker

Nuts.com just made my delivery.

To blanch and toast, that is the question. Actually it is two questions. And unless I am missing something this recipe is not heating the sugar to the syrup stage. Does the heat necessary to form a syrup do something untoward towards one's almonds? Kerry, I have a Kuvings.

It's been a couple years... Anyone currently making their own orgeat? Over the decade I've spent more on @feste's orgeat than any one human should. Sadly she seems to be having logistics problems. I can't do without orgeat so I need to learn how to make my own. Charles H. Baker Jr. published an orgeat recipe from 1817 but it has 2 cups of rosewater to 2 pounds of almonds, and no sugar. That's in addition to the orange flower water. Since Baker calls this a syrup I'm sure sucrose must be in there somehow. Did rosewater use to have been sweet?

This might be considered an absurdly, stupidly basic baking question: when baking a hearth bread that has been brushed with butter, how do you prevent butter from running off the edge of your baking steel?* I'm getting tired of putting the baking steel through the dishwasher. *"Level the oven" is not a valid answer.

Indeed. I have tried Tamaki Haiga but I did not care for it. I don't like brown rice either.

Top bedroom shelf. Antica Riseria Vignola Carnaroli, Santo Tomas Bomba, Tilda Basmati. Not shown, bag of Tamaki Gold on the floor. Less interesting rices in the kitchen. The rice I go through most is Tamaki Gold. Edit: if we may include wild rice I go through much Bineshii Ghost.

It is sad that even poor Paragon, who may or may not still be in business, provides a better app than anova. Don't get me wrong, for the most part the anova app is functional, but then so is an outhouse. They've been working on this for more than four years.

Lydia Bastianich's Gorganzola dressing. A change from Momofuku and Vivian Howard's ranch,

@SLB what about the attachments?

Yesterday I threw out a bag of Medjool dates. Food is no bargain if it's not something you are going to eat.

I started in the afternoon.

Tagine bread... I started from @Wolfert's Marrakech tagine bread recipe. This is a soft semolina loaf. First I converted @Wolfert's cups to grams. Then I added a preferment. I replaced the olive oil with butter. This is what I came up with. Preferment: King Arthur Organic All Purpose 120g water 120g yeast 1/32 teaspoon (approximate) Dough: semolina 410g water 300g yeast 1.5 teaspoon Diamond salt 1.5 teaspoon sugar 1.5 teaspoon butter 3 tablespoons preferment (above) First ferment: 15 minutes Divide: 4 loaves Second ferment: 45 minutes Bake: brush with butter, 210C, 20 minutes, no steam This gives an hydration close to 80%. Unfortunately my dough was more like batter. In retrospect I measured the water weight as the semolina weight (410g). Yes, the weights were written down in front of me. I recovered by adding additional flour until I arrived at something like a dough. Turned out OK. Very good, even.

@Wolfert's chicken with caramelized quinces and toasted walnuts... Marrakech tagine bread... As with any @Wolfert repast I sat down to dine at 3:00 in the morning. And that's without the cubeb.

And time is something you do not have?

You could get yourself a juicer...Kuvings is still 30% off.

I am not as enamored with my little green dress as I had hoped. I thought it was wonderful as a base for ranch dressing as a change from Momofuku, but not so great for coleslaw. Nor did it work for me as pesto. Don't worry, I will almost certainly use it up.

Does orange blossom water go bad or lose its flavor? I have a bottle with a best by date of 2013. Would it be OK to use it?

I shall never again run out of cubeb. Possibly I never had cubeb. Most likely I have cubeb and cannot find it.

I use stale bread for bread crumbs, Bugialli recipe. But be it known, stale bread can be resuscitated by heating to 77C. Waste not, want not.

I drink whole milk. I use heavy cream on cereal. Real garlic goes with almost anything. You've never had garlic ice cream?

The only fruitcake I have made was from the NY Times recipe. To my taste the texture was ruined by fig seeds. If I ever make fruitcake again* I'd probably use the NY Times recipe but omit the dried figs. *which is by no means assured.

On sale for $39.99. I have an onion to grate but I don't think delivery would be in time.

APO made Wall Street Journal's Tech Gifts of 2020 list.

Tonight I put LGD on pasta. I thought the flavor was too sharp, that is, too acidic to work as a pesto. But then I mixed it with some leftover tomato based meat sauce and I thought the result was pretty good. Not as exceptional as adding it to ranch however.

This afternoon before work I made a recipe I saw on the Williams Sonoma site: golden beets, apple, and an inch of ginger. This was like ambrosia. Unfortunately I was timing how long it took and I neglected to put a glass under the juicer spout. From starting to prep the produce to cleaning the kitchen floor it was almost 30 minutes. Normally I do not eat before work, but I must say, I felt I had more energy today. Maybe there is something to this juicing business.