forever_young_ca

For dinner I made "Chicken with Lemons and Olives Emshmel" from Paula Wolfert's Couscous and other Good Food From Morocco It was absolutely fabulous. I used PW's 30 day preserved lemons that I had made in January. By this time they have obtained an absolutely silken texture with a beautiful soft lemon flavour. Here is a picture: Paula - if you are reading this - a couple of questions if you don't mind - I served this with steamed couscous. Would you have served this with couscous or bread (or both )? Would you have browned the chicken skin to finish at the end? I liked the dish as is, but there has been some discussion as to browning dishes and I did not know if this pertained to only meat dishes or chicken as well. I used an electric coil stove with a diffuser. I was afraid to boil the sauce too hard to reduce it down to the 1 1/2 cups as I didn't want to crack my tagine. The sauce was fabulous and very flavourful even though it wasn't reduced down to exactly 1 1/2 cups. It was nice to have lots of extra sauce to pour over the couscous. I was tempted to leave out the cicken livers from the receipe as I thought they may make the sauce bitter, but was very glad I did not. they added considerable depth of flavour to the dish and did not end up tasting "strong". This is a "keeper" recipe. Actually very easy to make and not time consuming in actual working time. I know this is off topic, but here is a picture of the Orange and Radish Salad, from the same book that I served with the chicken. It was very, very pretty as well tasty and refreshing. How would you serve it - all mixed up in a plate/bowl or "arranged"

I always bake my yorkies in muffin tins. It is an individual serving and easy to remove. Also, does not take as long as one large baking tin.

I love yorkies and never made them successfully until I learned this tip. DO NOT open the door until almost done. If you do they will not rise properly.

Great Blog, Daddy_A. It is wonderful to see our fabulous westcoast shown off in a food blog. Have fun tonight.

Here is a BBC recipe that I have used many times http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database...with_4991.shtml It is a tomato tart tatin made with onion confit. It is made in individual servings and served with a goat cheese arugula (rocket) cream. Delicious and presents beautifully. It is also great as a sophisticated first course.

There were very small pieces of almond in the custard. I was not sure how smooth to blend. Next time I will blend until absolutely smooth. I will also try the almond extract instead of vanilla next time.

Thanks for the great receipe ruthcooks. I made the Tart Normandy for dinner guests last night and evveryone thought it was wonderful. It was very easy to make, and was a nice not to sweet ending to the meal. Here is a picture that I snapped before I had the leftovers for breakfast this morning The only changes that I made to the recipe were I added cinamon to the apples mixture just because I love the apple/cinamon combination and I added 1/2 tsp vanilla extract to the custard. A definate keeper of a receipe.

The overnight retardation worked fantastic. I mixed the bread, proofed, shaped and put into the fridge Friday night. They rose slowly overnight in bannetons. I did two types of bread - focaccia and walnut/raisin - and baked around noon on Saturday. I did find that having a thermometer was very important to know when they were baked completely. I took them out of the fridge and put them cold into the hot oven. The result was that the actual baking time was longer than normal. I was very pleased with the results. It is a easy way to do fresh bread for a dinner party without having "same day" pressures. I am a convert! Thanks to all for the help.

Yes, I will give them support - I can improvise some bannetons - cloth lined wicker baskets. I am in Canada - so it is 10C , but I can improvise with a bucket of ice I think. I will try for fridge space, but now that I can do them the night before I may do two different kinds, so fridge space will be at a premium.

Thanks all for your help. It will help my timing issues immensely if I can take it all the way to loaf formation. That is what I will do! Now I just have to find the fridge space. The garage is about 10 degrees at night, so maybe that has possibilities as well - or is that too warm? I don't want to open the garage door in the morning and see live dough crawling across hubby's work bench!

I am using a store bought yeast for this particular bread.

I am baking some bread for a Saturday night dinner party. One of the breads is a walnut/raisin that is to be served with the cheese course. The usual process with this bread is mix, rise until doubled, form into loaves, rise again, and bake. Because of time constraints I would like to mix the bread Friday night and put it in the fridge. I am assuming that this can be successfully done. My question is: 1) Should I let it rise in the fridge for the first or the second rise? 2) If I shape it into loaves and rise in the fridge in the pans, do I bake it "cold" from the fridge, or let it come to room temp before baking? I think I remember reading - maybe in Jackal's bread baking class - that cold dough increases oven spring? Suggestions would be most welcome.

A little bit off the topic. ALthough I am not a big fan of Venturi Schulz wines, I must say I think their balsamic vinegar is outstanding. It does not come cheap - $49 for a small bottle - but is is a bit of heaven I must admit.

The Mr and myself ate at the Handi in West Vancouver last weekend. We enjoyed the meal immensely. The service was great as well as the food. I have spent quite a bit of time travelling in India and the the Dahl Handi was probably the best dahl I have ever eaten.

Patricia Wells has 3 recipes in "The Provence COokbook" - bread, salad with peppers, shallots and parsley and winter grain and bean soup with tomatoes and rosemary. I haven't tried these recipes, but others from this book have been winners.

This is a great receipe - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/14640 easy to make and lots of kid appeal with pb and chocolate. They have become the current faves of my 80+ year old mother who claims that she never liked peanut butter before this.

Well, the pork roast is done, and mighty fine it was too! I have pictures of the process, but alas, not the end result. The hungry masses got to it before I could whip out the camera. Here are the raw ingredients for the first stage. 4 1/2 lb picnic, garlic, onions, preserved lemons, sage and rosemary. I took off the plastic netting before I browned the meat, so it fell apart into two pieces after browning. I could have tied it up with kitchen string but was too lazy. I browned the pork, deglazed the pan with a good glug of white wine, added chicken stock, more wine the pork, and aromatics. This cooked about 1 1/2 hours before I added carrots and potatoes. At this stage the temp was 140 After 4 hours the temp stalled at 185. I took out the vegetables and meat and let rest while I cooked dumplings in the broth that was left in the pot. Sliced the meat and served with the veg, dumplings and sauce. It was wonderful. Wish you could see it The smell was divine and the lemon gave a subtle lift to the dish. The pork was succulent - moist and meltingly tender Thanks to all who gave me suggestions. This one was a winner.

Thanks, I will brown it, as it will be braised.

One more point of discussion - to brown or not to brown the meat. I brown my pot roasts, but for some reason my instinct tells me not to brown this one. Comments

Thanks for the vote of confidence Fifi. This is what I am going to go with I think. Maybe I will throw some veggies in the pot as well, carrots, etc.

Thanks Fifi - So.............if I get this right - I am treating this more like a braise than a roast.... adding liquid. Question - do I cover the pot? I have available my newly made delicious preserved lemons, so I am thinking into the pot should go a bit of p.lemon, sage, rosemary from my herb garden, onions and garlic, along with some homemade chicken stock for 4 -5 hours at 275? Am I on the right track? If I'm not please set me straight!

I have read this thread from beginning to end. I want to cook a 4 1/2 lb pork picnic shoulder for Sunday dinner. I am assuming a slow roast is the best for this - am I right? 275 degrees? How long? Suggestions would be welcome.

I bought some of Bob's Red Mill organic corn grits today at Whole Foods in West Van. $5.95 (I think) for 680 g. Probably not the cheapest place to buy them, but it was the handiest for me at the time.

I would keep it Marlene. The combination of the Le Crueset and the All Clad should be a very useful in your kitchen for all kinds of dishes. Besides it is so darn pretty!

I use the LC 4.5 qt round casserole for my pot roasts. This gives me lots of room for the dumplings at the end. However the roasts that I do tend to be higher rather than shallow and wide. I think it depends on the height of the roast that you are doing. I am sure this will work. If it doesn't work for all sizes/shapes it just gives you an excuse to get another one