What's cookin'?

Do you ever sit there, look at your food, and think, “gosh, this is just too precious and pretty to eat”?

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Another beautiful dish from you Maladay . Bravo :raised_hands:

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This sounds great!
http://chefchloe.com/recipes/entrees/avocado-pesto-pasta.html

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Ha ha, no. But thanks, @ipsedixit! In my parents’ household, an A- was tantamount to an F, so I always look at my photos/pictures critically.

Thank you so much, @Emglow101!

It’s a great recipe, @catholiver. I like tweaking it by adding roasted or grilled vegetables. Also the dish is filling, but not too heavy.

Duck leg and breast cooked on low in ci skillet . Just some salt is all is needed . Sliced white potatoes par boiled for a minute or two . Cooked along side the duck . Wine to drink . Cheers . Duck and Potatoes

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Started cooking without a clear plan except that I wanted pasta. Sautéed onions in olive oil and gradually added Pomi finely chopped tomatoes, diced leftover fennel pickles from Hog Island Oyster Bar, diced three slices of pork belly left over from Great China mei cai ko ro, and Red Boat Fish Sauce 40°N. Ttossed with penne, grated Locatelli Pecorino Romano, chopped cilantro, scallions, and peanuts. Finished with red pepper flakes to taste.

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This was the best carrot salad I’ve ever made, and I’ve made a lot of good carrot salad. The difference was the variety of carrot, something that came in our CSA box. They had red skin but were orange underneath. Grating didn’t release juice like other varieties, maybe the dressing adhered better.

1 tbsp. Dijon mustard (I prefer Amora but this was Trader Joe’s)
1 tbsp. French red wine vinegar (I use Vilux or Beaufor)
3 tbsp. olive oil (I use TJ’s Kalamata)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1 lb. carrots, peeled and grated

Stir everything but the carrots and onions until creamy. Stir in onions and let sit for half an hour or more, stirring occasionally. Toss with carrots and let sit for an hour or so, stirring occasionally.

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I asked at the farmers market and they said the variety is Purple Haze.

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That looks frigging great.

I was surprisingly good, given that I’ve made that hundreds of times with regular carrots.

Made bacon fried rice the other day. I had all of the ingredients on hand so it made perfect sense.

Shhh…I used brown rice.

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You cook?!

I cook all the time. :man_cook::shallow_pan_of_food:

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braised pork shoulder, pickled turnips, beet greens, onion, bell pepper, tomato, chipotles en adobo, sour cream

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This time of year we get a lot of nappa in our CSA box. I already had a head from last week, and we got another yesterday, so I grabbed a third head someone left at the pickup point and started a big batch of sauerkraut. Above you see the two ingredients: 2326 grams (a little over five pounds) of cabbage with 3% by weight (70 grams) of kosher salt.


one hour after being stirred up with the salt


four hours

After 12 hours you can see that the nappa has thrown off a lot of liquid. This is the only vegetable I’ve pickled where I don’t need to top off with 3% brine to cover the fermenting mass.

The one-gallon crock is about half-full. I just weight it and let it sit for maybe a week.

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How do you weigh it? I like the idea of fermenting, but despite googling, I can’t figure this part out. Is the cover supposed to seal it, or just weigh it down? Is there a seal involved anywhere?

And I haven’t gotten any napa in my CSA. I feel like I’ve entered a black hole of beets, red leaf lettuce and Brussels sprouts.

I use this scale:

The important thing with the weight is that the fermenting mass is fully submerged in brine. I keep a 750ml bottle of 3% kosher salt solution handy to top things off.

I also have a special-purpose fermenting crock with a water-lock lid, which but that already had a half-done batch of European cabbage in it. In theory the water-lock lid can help prevent undesirable bacteria from taking over the fermentation, but that’s not so likely with cabbage, and I’m not sure it’s true, since a batch of cucumbers went off anyway. The water lock can be a useful indication that the fermentation is done: no bubbles, no fermentation (or it has entered a second stage).

https://www.stonecreektrading.com/products/fermenting-crock-brown-barrel-with-weights-4l

For small batches I have this gizmo and a set of small weights that turn a quart Ball jar into a fermenting crock. Fun to be able to see the bubbles, when there are any. Mostly I use it for hot sauce, and they don’t throw off enough gas.

This is supposedly an excellent book:

The local fermentation-supply store sells this one:

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Sandor Katz has a website with a lot of really good information. Not the most intuitive to navigate but…

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leg of lamb marinated in lemon, rosemary, and garlic

French lentils

gingered carrots and leeks

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I love it all. Your lamb is cooked beautifully. How did you roast the lamb?