shain

+1 to this - puff pastry in tarte tatin just doesn't work for me.

With your plating and photography skills, you could make an ash tray look appetizing. Given you make great food to boot, I can't think of a single photo you shared that'd be out of place in a glossy-paged cookbook.

Dandanmian. Alkaline noodles. Merged the sauce and topping. Mushrooms, tempeh, douchi (black fermented beans) and zhacai (mustard root pickle) make the base, along with mild chilies, toasted peppercorn, garlic, a bit of ginger. Sesame paste, homemade chili oil, black rice vinegar, a bit of sugar, and MSG. For my serving I opted for a far more generous amount of spring onions. I'd go for some blanched spinach or other greens, but didn't had any.

Interesting. I'm not sure what texture you are after, but I think you will have something tasty nevertheless. I would be careful not to break it tough - make sure your base is fatty-sugary enough, or slightly defrost it.

Thanks. They did brown nicely before I applied the sauce. I then grilled them a second time, which didn't seem to do much. Maybe a lower heat would result in more browning, but I was afraid of them drying up. I do love roasted dango/mochi, though I prefer it sweet rather than savory.

I boiled them in salted water until they were done, then oiled, grilled over high flame, sauced and briefly grilled again. I'm not sure that the second grilling did much, I wanted to carmelize the sauce a bit, but would skip it next time. Regardless the blanching, I had to make those from scratch and I think they were a bit dry, so commercial ones might be grill ready. We are quite behind when it comes to Asian food and culture around here... I'd be surprised if there's any store in the country selling it at all

Kimchi and noodle pancake (a big one!) with lots of scallions, garlic, chili paste, ginger, a few spices. Served with a sauce of sesame paste, sesame oil and rice vinegar. Cucumber salad with chili, scallions, garlic, rice vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, a bit of fish sauce. Grilled tteokbokki with sweet and spicy sauce.

Not if you're after good Indian food, it's hard to find here 😛 But thanks, I'm flattered.

Paneer makhani with lots of fenugreek, as well as cardamom, dried chilies, curry leaves, cumin, coriander seeds, fennel, turmeric, some paprika, hing, cinnamon and black pepper. Most toasted or fried. The gravy base is onion, tomato, garlic, ginger and garlic - coked down and blended with cashews, cream and a bit of sugar. Saag lasooni dal - split peas and spinach. Quite a few spices but mostly curry leaves, cardamom, hing, turmeric, ginger, chilies and garlic. Finished with sliced garlic fried in butter, paprika and chili powder. Rice, and a raita of yogurt with cucumber, garlic, chilies and toasted spices.

Thanks I shared my pantry pics once: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/160963-your-pantry/?do=findComment&comment=2252112

Pretzels. Used baked baking soda rather than lye. Pretty good, IMO. Shaping and scoring can be improved. Frittata with smoked Gouda and mushrooms, a few spices (incl. caraway, fennel, paprika, coriander). A quick slaw, honey-mustard sauce, sour cream, pickles and veggies. And a few German beers.

I'm not a fan of pineapple pizza with tomatoe sauce (I don't hatie it, but I'd prefer a plain slice anytime). However, I never thought of trying it on a white pizza until now. Mozzarella, pineapple, fresh chilies and a sprinkle of five spice. Might need something else to add moisture.

Chana gajar chaat. Chickpeas and cooked carrots in yogurt sauce. Flavored with homemade tamarind-dates-ginger chutney, chaat masala, amchor, toasted fennel seeds. Topped with tomatoes, onion, mint, cilantro, pomegranate, peanuts, sev, puffed rice.

apple kugel. With walnuts, wine soaked raisins, cinnamon, dark brown sugar. Brushed with butter and baked crisp. Recipe here:

I find cooked mint quite awful. Anything longer or hotter than a steep in hot water (as in making a tisana) will develop unpleasant flavor. I used mint to flavor basbousa and other cakes by steeping it in sugar syrup and dousing the baked cakes. But even briefly stipped, it doesn't taste like raw mint, rather like mint tea. Dried mint is often used for cooking in middle eastern, african and other cuisines. Usually added towards the end of cooking, it does not develop the same unpleasant notes.

Soya saag aloo matar - potatoes with dill ,peas, turmeric, toasted chilies,and tadka of mustard seed, cumin, hing, pepper. Paneer, chickpeas and tomato (chana paneer tamatar) with Thai touches - Onions, garlic, ginger and Thai red curry paste fried in butter along with cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, coriander seed, fennel seed. Tomatoes, coconut cream, pan fried paneer, chickpeas. Indian flavored coleslaw - with onion, chilies. Toasted fennel, cumin and coriander seeds, a bit of hing. Mayo, some tart yogurt and a little Dijon mustard.

No problem, though I don't understand the last part... Is "eggs sitting in a mixture" a scathing description of shakshuka? 😁

@Darienne Putting my thoughts about alternative medicine as aside. I think that making a soup out of cherry tomatoes is a bit of a waste. Why not roast them as others suggested, then use for roasted tomato salad. Maybe with croutons or pasta. Some feta or shaved Parmesan. Maybe a stew? Over polenta, or with bread? You can add the roasted peppers you mentioned. Maybe add eggs and make a shakshuka out of it. Or sticking with the idea of soup, keep them halved and add some chickpeas/lentils, or grains, maybe with some leafy greens. I hope some of this will give you ideas.

Baking alone will get you good flavor and decent texture - they will start to dry by the time you get deep brown color. Steaming before hand keeps them tender and juicy. They are great sauced, added to stews towards the end of cooking or eaten as is. I love them warm, drizzled with lemony tahini and some cumin. I sometimes bake them without steaming, but add even more oil. This gets you very rich eggplants, great for some sandwiches (for example in focaccia bread with some feta).

I've been experimenting with flavoring soda water lately, nothing fancy - just extracts, simple syrup and for some flavors a bit of citric acids. I liked the results of almond extract, orange blossom and vanilla. Haven't tried combining them yet. The almond one gave me a very Chinese vibe. The vanilla is a common flavor in Georgia. The Georgian also makes an awesome tarragon soda. I might try to make some tarragon syrup at some point. Less successful were rose water, cherry, and banana flavors. However I successfully use the cherry one to create cherry coke out of plain one on the rare occasions I feel like having coke. I like cherry coke (the plain one is just OK). It's not available here for more than a decade. The banana I sometimes use to give this nostalgic flavor to milkshakes and the like. Other than tarragon, I might try making some orange/lemon syrup at some point. I'd like to try combining orange vanilla and orange blossom, or lemon and rose water.

Sabich. More details here:

So after all those talks I had to make some sabich. Eggplants are steamed, brushed with oil, salted and roasted until deep brown. I prefer those over fried eggplants. Eggs where pressure cooked to form cheat haminados eggs (real haminados are baked overnight). Our choice of cold additions - tomatoes, onion, vinegar pickles, parsley, chili. Flavored with tahini, a little amba, lemon and some spices. More of the sauces are added later, but this helps spread their flavor more evenly. Usually, one sabich makers will have the ingredients separate to allow for customization, but we already know what we like, so this streamlines things. Warm fluffy pitas. They must be sturdy - sabich is a dish that puts quite a strain on them. More tahini, amba and schug are drizzled on while eating, this prevents the sauces from overwhelming the entire dish, and keeps each bite unique.

I'm not a fan of faux meat, I usually prefer to choose dishes that are vegetarian by nature, or those in which meat is a secondary flavoring/texture agent (i.e. mapo tofu) and can therefore be substituted. But sometimes one just feels for a specific dish. Setian meatballs not-meat-cubes ( :P ) bound with eggs, parmesan, smoked paprika, garlic, herbs, dark malt syrup, chili, pepper. I bake them like a meatloaf and cut into cubes. They doesn't taste like, but they are quite good. Simple tomato sauce with butter, onion, garlic, sage and chili flakes.

I can't think on many commercial cookies that I like - I always preferred other types of commercial sweets. I think that this is because commercials cookies available here tend to be a bit boring. Especially so when you have the options of home/bakery-made Middle Eastern and North African cookies so common here (Moroccan cookies are amazing). That said, I do love those cookies, and so are most people I know. Those are crisp (but thick) cookies, generally, Israelis prefer crisp, crumbly, sandy or fudgey cookies over chewy ones. Chocolate chips cookies are usually crisp. This brand also have chewy cookies that I never so anyone buy. If I can include wafers, than I'm also a fan of those. They are sugar wafers with dark chocolate. Light and not too sweet. And of course Loacker. My favorites flavors are coconut, yogurt-raspberry and yogurt-blueberry. But you can rarely find them here. Those chocolate filled ones are my fallback. Much more common. Those are salty savory cookies (available with or without sesame). Pretty good and very popular. They get your mouth seriously dry. Served with tea or coffee. During Passover, those are available. "Wine cookies" aka "enriched matzo". Apparently kosher since their are made with wine rather than water 🤷‍♂️. Not that I care. They taste good. I love them with tea. And one cookie that I'm not a fan of, but is very "Israeli". Argaliyot. Those are made of crumbly short pastry with no hint of butter filled with various filings. Chocolate most popular - a bit elastic /fudgy and barely taste of cocoa. Strawberry is also popular - elastic filling with flavor. The date filled one is less common, but IMO the only edible one. I also like Cinnamon Toast Crunch (branded Cini-minnis here). I consider them cookies

Thanks! Eggplants (apx 600g) are roasted over flame until the peel is all fully charred. Chill and peel well. Fry thin wedged if 1 small onion in butter until caramelized. The onion is optional in this salad. Add two cloves of garlic, 150g nice tart labneh, 2 tsp sumac, some chopped mint, olive oil, chili, lemon, salt. You can add silan or honey to taste. You may add chopped toasted walnuts (I didn't this time). Serve topped with pomegranate seeds (I forgot them), more olive oil, sumac and mint.