shain

Pasta casarecce con cipolle. Onions caramelized in butter, garlic, chives, black pepper, nutmeg, parmesan.

Honey cake. Extra moist thanks to sour cream and post bake drizzle of a thin syrup. (I think there are a few foods more disappointing then dry cakes...)

New potatoes and onions, baked with mustard, rosemary, garlic. Finished with a little chives and lemon. + Some reheated leftovers.

Thank you very much!

Roasted butternut squash and sweet potato ravioli. Filling flavored with toasted almonds, nutmeg, black pepper, and a little amaretto. Sauced in browned butter, with crisp fried sage, roasted hazelnuts and a little parmesan.

Green (immature) cow peas "shakshuka", with plenty of garlic, some onion and very lightly cooked tomatoes. Flavored with cumin, lots of sumac, a little chili, lemon zest, a touch of anise and coriander. Eggs cooked very soft and served over labneh, with a warm pita to soak the juices as they mix with the cheese.

Baby eggplants, oven roasted with tomatoes and whole garlic cloves, with thyme and EVOO, served over lentils. A few raw veggies and vinegar pickle. A slice of some random bread from the freezer used to soak the juices.

That is more challenging... Eggplants=

I'm flattered. If you ever do all the way over to here, I'll make sure to hide every trace of okra, and of beans as well.

Not the most photogenic plate, even with the pomegranate kernels covering it, but it makes up for it with taste. This is a spread made from sliced eggplant, brushed with olive oil and roasted until browned. It is then blended with toasted walnuts and a little toasted coriander seeds and a touch carob syrup. Served with toasted bread.

Stir fried okra, in sambal (chili peppers, onion, garlic, tamarind), served with coconut and ginger flavored jasmine rice. Mostly based on a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty.

Yesterday was Jewish new year's eve. I wasn't hosting, my contributions to the meal where: Salad of whole bulgur wheat, cucumbers, tomatoes, scallion, onion, mint, pomegranate. Sauced with tahini, lemon juice, date syrup, sumac, anise and fennel seeds, chili and fennel seeds A few roasted almonds. Tart Tatin; challah bread - Details in sweets & breads threads (respectively).

Tart Tatin for the Jewish new year, where apple dessert are customary. Before flipping.

Challah for the jewish new year's dinner. I used my usual challah recipe, but added raisins, subbed the honey for sugar (at a slightly increased amount). I've also shaped the loaf to a round shape, which is the custom for the new year's.

Yestradys breakfast was very light. Ricotta (store bought, but very good) with pomegranate. Plus a few sable grapes, and turkish coffee with cardamon.

Ottolenghi's roasted butternut squash and onions with tahini, za'atar and pine nuts. This is a recipe that I like to make as an easy to prepare, yet very tasty lunch.

Other then stock, I had used it for pasta (not for any sauce), couscous or bulgur. Chickpea cooking water, if reduced and salted (you do salt your bean cooking water, right?), is especially delicious, good enough to drink as a soup.

I think that you will get better results with par-baking. Use a fork to prick the dough and minimize rising where the sauce would have been and remove any air bubbles (leaving the rim to rise), then brush or spray some water on the same area. Bake the naked dough, removing it from the oven once it's fully risen, but not colored. Chill then freeze. This has the advantage of being faster to bake whenever you want to eat (no need for shaping) you can (and should for better results) bake it straight from the freezer. You can even sauce it before freezing. If you use low moisture cheese, you can grate it and spread on top as well. Finish in high heat, preferably on a pizza stone or preheated pan. This process results in a crisper crust, but you might need to adjust the temp and oven position so that the cheese and crust are done at the same time.

I love pulses, my favorites are chickpeas, borlotti and fava (dry), black beans, in that order. I can't count the number of times Iv'e been served undercooked, starchy, or even crunchy () beans - I think that this is the worst offense against pulses. I like mine fully cooked - meltingly tender and creamy. I also don't really care for cold beans of any kind. My favorite dishes are probably hummus (obviously), pasta e fagioli, ful medames, cholent and Romanian style bean stew. You might notice that all are made with pulses that are simmered for quite a long time.

Hand rolled tagliatelle/pappardelle (apx. 1/2"), in a light(ish) mushrooms and cream sauce. A little thyme, garlic, chili, nutmeg, pepper. Topped with porcini flavored breadcrumbs and chives. This is the first time I made fresh pasta in few years. My first few attempts were with a borrowed machine, and I didn't knew much back then, and it was quite a mess if I remember correctly. After that, I thought occasionally on buying a pasta machine, but I knew it won't see much use. Recently, I concluded that that there is no way Italian nonnas had those machines years ago, and yet surely made great pasta! And that leads to todays meal, and probably many more pasta in the future. Would you mind if I ask what is that you dislike about beans? And BTW, Your dish looks lovely.

More coconut rice with mangoes and mint. I used sushi rice, and Kent mangoes from my tree. The rice is flavored with toasted coconut shavings, a little chili, cinnamon, and enough salt to give it an almost savory edge, then cooked in coconut milk. This time Iv'e decided to boost the coconut even more, and added a coconut flavor extract (which does a good job enhancing the floral notes of the coconut) and finished the dish with very lightly sweetened coconut flakes. The flakes give a nice crunchy texture, but I think the dish looks better without them:

Warm salad of wheat berries, lupin beans, mint, sliced grapes. Toasted sesame seeds, tahini paste, lemon juice, olive oil, anise seeds, carob syrup, chili. Also roasted eggplant slices, served hot with tahini sauce and cumin. And yesterday's leftovers - peas (frozen) in tomato sauce with onions, garlic and cumin; Eggplant and zucchini curry, with red lentils, dill and various spices.

Banana update: And a cute chameleon on a lemon verbena:

Oh my, I would love to taste this! Also, I now think of roquefort and fig preserve in a white a chocolate shell. I can not help about much about shelf stability, but I think you might need to pasteurize it, which can affect the flavor.

@Nancy in Pátzcuaro Thanks for the tips, this is exactly how I've learnt one should handle bananas. By now, there is a thourth tiny shoot. As I said, I'll remove some of them by spring. I also really like banana related ornamentals, such as Bird of Paradise and Ravenala.