JoNorvelleWalker

I don't understand how @suzilightning stole my idea for dinner! https://forums.egullet.org/topic/154785-dinner-2017-part-4/?do=findComment&comment=2107369 I had planned this meal some days ago! Giuliano Bugialli's Pesce ai Capperi, from his Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking, p 232: Unbelievably fresh North Atlantic black sea bass from The Lobster Place by way of amazon, delivered this morning, served with steamed fingerling potatoes. The first fillet was a pain to skin. The second, the skin came off easily in one piece. The fillets were marinated in milk, floured, and sautéed. Ever so simple. Pan drippings made into a caper sauce. And I don't understand how one night I can cook up dinner I wouldn't serve to the most wretched homeless person (and in less favorable times I have gratefully dined at the soup kitchen myself) while the next night I can better the finest restaurant. The one time I experienced Le Bec Fin the fish course was the most memorable. This more so. And I have dined around the Adriatic. Bugialli has not failed me yet.

The WMF spoons I posted were a disaster. The second picture of two pounds of capers with the humongous Ruhlman spoon was intended as a joke. Tonight I dumped an entire jar of capers into a strainer and then into my dish. Dinner was beyond all expectation but I am still looking for a satisfactory caper spoon. Non pareil are the smallest and finest grade of capers. Kunz needs to put up or shut up.

I don't have an instant pot, but I would be afraid to hold chilled rice 24 hours. I may be paranoid. On the other hand, my Zojirushi will cook 10 go of rice and hold it lovingly at safe temperatures* till next day, with just a couple moments to reheat. If you have two instant pots at hand why not prepare the rice a la minute? *plural, it adjusts the temperature with time.

Think of a juvenile domesticated swine.

The verb is "blinch" (I assume most of us here are literate) and the celery provided hours of amusement considering my teeth.

@rotuts may blinch now: Thanks to @Thanks for the Crepes this was accompanied by one of the finest hamburgers I have eaten.

As may be seen, that WMF spoon does not fit in a consumer size jar of capers... The lower olive spoon, also by WMF, fits in the jar just barely. Though you may guess what happens if you try. Then there is this as an alternative: Does Kunz have a solution?

I've seen people's kitchens outfitted with Miele stuff.

Good old plain ground chuck steak sounds awfully close the hamburger I wish I had not had last night. I'm still thinking, but I am not inspired and it's getting close to fixing dinner.

The dish isn't all that sweet. The two cups of Soave provide some acidity. Bugialli speculates that dry Marsala was invented to resemble the flavor profile of this recipe.

So far more savory, i.e. accompaniment to pork where I might otherwise serve applesauce.

Tonight I attempted to recreate the recipe @Kim Shook posted a while back for fried onion burgers: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/154479-dinner-2017-part-2/?do=findComment&comment=2092504 I don't think anything was wrong with my execution. Technically the recipe worked. I think the problem is I just don't like burgers, neither my own nor what I've had in restaurants. Not to mention my kitchen floor is now slippery with fat. This is my manifesto to all the world. If the burger was bad, what was horrible, I made French fries in the CSO, courtesy of Ore-Ida. Always before Ore-Ida fries have turned out tasty, if not quite up to the standard of a Belgian restaurant. This time they stuck to the parchment and the final texture was something akin to mashed French fries. That being said I ground about a pound of chuck tonight, and I have to think of something to do with the other half of it by tomorrow. I may just pitch it.

I'd hate to see your keyboard.

@Thanks for the Crepes the Berkshire chop was 10 inches long, about an inch and a half thick. For this American, American comfort food: Perhaps a crime against humanity but the Berkshire pork prepared well done (though not dry!) as the chop was full two weeks wet aged* and err, um very fragrant. Served with CSO steamed Fordhook lima beans, Minnesota hand gathered wild rice. Pears Corrado and MR not shown. Whistlepig as the digestive. *euphemism.

I misspoke through ignorance. Yesterday I found many comice in the store, just not in the organic section. Curiously having now finished the volume, the inside rear cover of Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking has a color plate of Pere alla Corrado. Bugialli arranged his pear slices the same as mine, ha! But stark white pears in an almost cochineal scarlet syrup. I may have seriously misinterpreted the recipe...though more likely in 1982 Bugialli had neither Photoshop nor a calibrated monitor.

Lovely, I had never heard of sautéed corn! Dinner here is a Berkshire rib chop, thicker than usual. Berkshire chops are what required me to acquire my largest Falk copper piece. Currently the 10 inch chop is salted and resting as am I*. When I finish up my Mississippi punch I shall go start searing it. *yes, I eat salt neat out of the bowl with no shame after the evening nuts are gone. Sometimes before.

I don't often see comice and I don't believe I've ever cooked them. However in Pere alla Corrado the pears remain uncooked. It is the end of the bosc season and bosc is what I found in the store. Organic too.

I've been working my way through Giuliano Bugialli's Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking. Under Chapter 2, Ingredients, Homemade Ingredients, and Basic Preparations one recipe particularly called out to me: pears Corrado (Pere alla Corrado) pp 61-62. Fresh bosc or comice pears are simply marinated in white wine and caramelized sugar until the sugar dissolves into a thin, highly flavored syrup. Bosc pears in Soave. Mysterious white powder. About a hundred and fifty degrees later -- 170 deg C, to be precise -- the amber syrup was poured over the pears. And no, no picture trying to hold an iPad, pouring molten sugar over my foot. I know my limitations and the caramelized sugar all went in the bowl (actually, in this case, my tarte Tatin pan). Result shown in the Dinner thread. Actually bosc pears may be somewhat of an anachronism here. Bugialli states Corrado published the recipe in his "earlier cookbook". But bosc pears were not invented till Corrado was nearly 100. And bosc pears were not had on this continent till Corrado was 100.

Now that the power failure excitement has passed: Pasta that was supposed to have been the other night. Fruit course, pears Corrado.

I used my new blade for the first time today -- mixing batter for a Dutch baby pancake, which is a Cuisinart food processor recipe. Perhaps the new blades are safer but they sure don't seem to work as well. More unmixed junk left on the bottom of the bowl and more batter leaking out the bottom during pouring.

I was unusually hungry this afternoon, so Dutch baby pancake in CSO. No picture, I confess the rim was slightly overdone. And as I said I was hungry. Note to self: should probably reduce recipe temperature for convection bake.

I just received my long pre-ordered copy of Flavor and Seasonings, volume 2 in The Japanese Culinary Academy's Complete Japanese Cuisine: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/flavor-and-seasonings-9784908325045?cc=us&lang=en& I haven't really started reading, but very detailed information on the technique of shaving katsuobushi.

Last night's focaccia from the CSO... Proofed 90 minutes in the CSO at room temperature.

Rosemary/onion focaccia, based on Hamelman. Baked in the CSO. I may have overdone it with the onions.

Poorly plated lamb, focaccia, fennel. Focaccia and fennel baked/roasted in the CSO.