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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 25, 2012 18:33:40 GMT
That sounds fantastic and the picture certainly upholds that impression! My feelings about caponata can only be expressed with sublime orchestral music, but I'm also very drawn to those stuffed peppers. What are piquillo peppers, please? Stuff raw, or parboiled? Now I'm dying to try to reproduce that stuffing. Oh, and what is that adorable little plate with the white rim -- the one in the far right of the picture that looks like some sort of souvenir plate? Piquillo peppers, or pimientos piquillos originate in Spain. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piquillo_peppersThey are mild and tasty. I had a can of them, but in the hope of upgrading to a higher quality, I bought a flat can of Cidacos Pimientos Piquillos. It cost near $40 pesos. There were only 6 peppers in the can, but they were perfect in color and conformation. I was hoping to find them in a glass jar, but they weren't available in that supermercado. Of course, they are packed peeled and cooked. All I had to do was drain them and pat them dry and stuff them. The filling was good, but IMO could have used a little more OOMPH! The cute little plate with the white rim is one of very few survivors of some French cheese plates purchase from Williams-Sonoma many years ago.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2012 18:37:12 GMT
My turn to be back to magret de canard. Certain nights, half of Europe might be eating the same dish, it seems.
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Post by lagatta on Feb 25, 2012 22:45:24 GMT
Oh, I'd certainly like a magret de canard, but it is even cheaper and less work for me to buy half a Chinese bbq duck. Oddly, the cooked ducks are not a whit more expensive than the raw or frozen ones, and they seem to be the same size and quality. I made a dish with hulled barley (see barley thread, goat on the ribs slow-cooked and removed from bones, cut into small cubes, leeks, the regular mix of finely-chopped veg (onion, carrot, celery - either stalk or root), garlic, some other things I forget. It is very good. Bixa, a mildish "Europeanised" pepper I love is the piment d'Espelette, from the French side of Euskadi (the Basque Country). It is only a wee bit hot, but has a very intense and wonderful flavour. Links in French, Spanish and Basque: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EspeletteI've read about the Espelette pepper festival, attended by townspeople and members of the traditional gastronomical societies that are so much a part of Basque culture, on both sides of the border. Those were originally for men only but nowadays there are also women's societies and "co-ed" (or co-cookery) ones.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2012 12:26:10 GMT
I had some uncharacteristically juicy and nice chicken fillets with braised Belgian endive in a cream sauce. However, the photograph looked like a plate of upchuck, so I deleted it.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 26, 2012 21:14:10 GMT
Late lunch Sunday: Leftover polenta with sauteed mushrooms and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Spinach optional. Nice and simple.
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 27, 2012 5:19:39 GMT
Had some friends down from Siem Reap yesterday so I took them to my favourite BBQ place:
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Post by amboseli on Feb 27, 2012 16:54:09 GMT
Those Piquillo peppers are interesting. See if I can get anything like that over here.
We'll have boudin noir with oven-baked apples tonight. Yummie!
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 27, 2012 18:16:56 GMT
Thanks for that information, LaGatta. I gnash my pepper-loving teeth in frustration, as I had access to a huge variety of pepper seeds in the US. No such thing here, ironically enough.
Everyone's food sounds scrumptious and HW's picture is positively mouth watering.
Oh Amboseli -- it never occurred to me to have baked apples with blood sausage. Can't wait to try it!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2012 18:19:48 GMT
Last night, I had prawns cooked in red curry sauce on top of "mixed grains" and various chopped chives, mini cucumbers, cilantro, red onion and you know what? It looks much better than it was. There was something wrong with the seasoning, and I don't know what. If I were doing it again, I would add lime juice and a bit more salt for a start, but I don't know if that would be enough to fix it.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 27, 2012 19:26:30 GMT
Maybe fish sauce, K2.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 27, 2012 19:41:44 GMT
This is really lunch, and really simple: saltines, sharp cheddar cheese, stuffed olives and Cerveza Victoria.
I forgot the roasted, seasoned almonds.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2012 19:47:09 GMT
I was indeed thinking afterwards, "why didn't I bring out the nuoc mam?"
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Post by amboseli on Feb 27, 2012 21:09:59 GMT
It does look very tasty, kerouac. By the way, what's the difference between prawns and shrimps? Would prawns translate as gambas and shrimps as scampi?
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 27, 2012 21:43:30 GMT
You know, you are a species of genius. I was just going to suggest the same thing, then saw that you already had. I have found that certain salad vegetables, particularly tomatoes, but also cucumbers, somehow don't absorb salt correctly or something, but just shine with fish sauce. Kerouac, you are correct that the plate of food looks wonderful! I wonder if serving the prawns on the side of the grains and providing some kind of sharpish &/or piquant salsa would have made the whole thing work better. The raw stuff garnishing it looks just right.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 27, 2012 21:44:52 GMT
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Post by amboseli on Feb 27, 2012 22:24:15 GMT
Oh my, bixa, now I'm even more confused. I do recognize the crayfish but the ones we ate in South Africa were bigger than in picture no. 1. and they looked more lobster-ish because of their claws. Acamayas is what we call (free transl.) river lobster. But then ... the prawn/shrimp question. Oh well, it's all delicious food and looking at those pictures makes me hungry!
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Post by lagatta on Feb 27, 2012 23:38:36 GMT
boudin (black pudding/blood sausage) is often served with apples in Normandy - and in Québec. I've never had it with baked apples - usually the sausage and fruit (and onions) are sautéed in a skillet.
Bixa, DonC and Kerouac, I also thought "nuoc mam" upon reading Kerouac's post. It really is a magic ingredient if not overused (as it is VERY salty). Remember than ancient Roman cuisine used a very similar fermented fish sauce, liquamen.
For Bixa - a lovely producer of peppers and other things at the Jean-Talon Market always has locally-grown piments d'Espelette (which of course are not piments d'Espelette under European laws, but other Basque villages grown them with more generic names) - the booth we dirty old ladies call "the cute Italian brothers" as there are two very handsome young men, the sons of the grower, among the staff. I am NOT a cougar - this is strictly eye candy.
Tonight - I have a bit of a cold, so just pre-made spinach and ricotta ravioli, on sale at Fruiterie Milano, which may well have started out as a greengrocer but now has become a supermarket similar to many in Italian cities - starting out in one boutique premises and taking over its neighbours when they go out of business. As far as I know this is not predatory - it has been a process over decades, and many shops close for various reasons.
I didn't feel like cooking - however I have some cubes of rather lean boneless pork for a stew or sauté, bought because it cost something like $4Cdn kilo $2 lb and also looked good. Yes, I have been looking at the recipes here (recipes) and other sites, but any flavourful recipe that wouldn't triple the price would be welcome. I do have onions (yellow and red), stem celery, mushrooms, a big carrot, mushrooms and some other veg on hand. Garlic and ginger root as well.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 28, 2012 0:27:45 GMT
Hm. What about cooking the pork to tenderness, then using it in a stir-fry. You certainly have all the ingredients for a delightful one.
I was partly inspired by the talk about fish sauce, partly by what a hot day it was here, & greatly by the fresh stuff I have that needs to be used. I made a real fusion nopal salad -- it had the regular stuff: cactus, tomato, onion, minced chile & (too little) cilantro. I added basil, radish, grated carrot & canned tuna. It was dressed with fish sauce & lime juice. I've had one serving & it's really nice, but I might sprinkle on some drops of sesame oil for the next go-round.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 28, 2012 12:53:19 GMT
I need to use up a bag of mushrooms that departing friends gave us. I was thinking of a pasta, and now, thanks to LaGatta, I will likely use the good old standby, frozen Four Cheese Ravioli.
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Post by imec on Feb 28, 2012 19:07:46 GMT
Out of sheer boredom I came up with Chicken Tikka Burgers! If anyone wants the recipe, let me know while it's still fresh in my mind.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2012 19:26:38 GMT
Looks great!
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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 28, 2012 21:15:05 GMT
I decided that the 4-cheese ravioli would be too rich, so I uses farfalle (butterfly noodles) and a slightly lightened version of this recipe: www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/130868/Vanessa-Jones--bacon-and-cheese-pasta/printI put aside most of the bacon fat and used olive oil instead; for the milk, evaporated milk. A modest amount of sharp cheddar for the cheese. And a small handful of parsley for color and viatmins.
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Post by cristina on Feb 29, 2012 6:25:32 GMT
You guys are killing me! I am so tired of not having a proper kitchen. The furnished place I've been living in for the past 6 weeks is nice enough, except for the lack of kitchen things beyond plates and glasses and a few pans. Therefore, I am eating out a lot. The good news is that I have a lease on a more permanent space now and the movers will have all of *my* stuff delivered in 10 days. A long 10 days... I also really miss my bed.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 29, 2012 7:54:46 GMT
Get one of those tilted mirrors installed behind the stove like on those cooking shows.
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Post by imec on Feb 29, 2012 13:33:26 GMT
I also really miss my bed. Ouch! You tried moving a little closer to it?
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 29, 2012 13:37:46 GMT
Oh, Cristina, that really is frustrating. You must have walked into that kitchen so many times, ready to whip up something, only to realize anew that you lacked the right equipment.
Boy, I so know what you mean about your own bed!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 29, 2012 21:50:09 GMT
Sunday night I was feeling super lazy, so I just threw some chicken samosa in the oven. They made an easy and appropriate light dinner. I put some mango chutney in the center of my plate to liven them up a bit.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 29, 2012 22:24:59 GMT
I would cheerfully gobble that up! Every since Amboseli posted about the boudin noir with baked apple, the concept has been lodged in my food-loving skull. Yesterday was big-market day, so I got a quarter kilo of moronga ( Mexican blood sausage). I sauteed a sliced apple, & a coarsely chopped bell pepper & onion in a little lard. When that started getting golden, I added a bunch of chopped garlic, then sliced cabbage & some splorps of balsamic vinegar. I let that cook down a little bit, then cleared a space in the middle of the skillet and added the cut-up moronga. When it was sizzling, I put in a small amount of spicy, thick tomato sauce I'd made that morning. (sriracha probably would have worked also) Just before it was fully cooked, I added some slices of huitlacoche. I figured it was going to be funny-colored food anyway, so turning it black wouldn't matter. Seasoned it with salt & pepper & tasted. It was nice, but not perfect. What it needed was a very tiny touch of sweetness, so I put in some drops of oyster sauce, then folded in a huge amount of chopped parsley. I have to say, it was totally delicious. Can't wait till tonight, when I can have the leftovers for supper.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 29, 2012 23:27:25 GMT
A large salad: baby romaine, vine tomatoes, sliced cucumber, overlaid with strips of roasted red sweet pepper; a few anchovies, a couple of disks of goat cheese, a lemon-olive oil caper dressing, with a slice of hearty no knead peasant bread. This was plenty for me.
"splorps". Good one, Bixa.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 1, 2012 0:15:55 GMT
Hmmm. Now I want a salad!
Re: unit of measurement for balsamic vinegar -- the bottle I have is one of those that mimics a wine bottle, with an extremely crummy, thin, screw-on metal cap. It got to where I didn't want to use the stuff because it drooled down the side, leaving sticky residue, & often wound up on the counter rather that into the foodstuff where it was aimed.
Luckily, I'm a psycho bottle & jar saver. I got out a nice empty hot sauce bottle with a flip-top lid. Now, no more mess + controllable splorping.
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