justing.net/culinaria

Appetites 50

2025-04-10T07:00:00-07:00

Random food notes from the week. Just a reminder: I’ll be off for the rest of the month, back in May.

Cooked
- Max’s Hungarian Goulash soup is really fantastic.
Recipes
- The ciabatta pizzas at the end of this Gozney video look awesome. Can’t wait for summer garden vegetables to make these.
Drinks
- Recess’s Mule is not my favorite at all.

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Appetites 49

2025-04-03T07:00:00-07:00

Random food notes from the week.

Cooked
- Is making a sandwich cooking? You don’t need to count that I made the bread, today, or that it smelled divine. I mean, assembling freshly baked and perfectly hand sliced bread, with a bit of good butter with a pinch of salt, some quality salami folded and layered for looks, is that cooking? If there was one more ingredient, would that be cooking? I suppose it doesn’t really matter, because it was a goddamn perfect sandwich, and I hadn’t made one of these in far too long.
- More waffles. So good.
- Ramen with mushroom topping.
Recipes
- You can roast radishes. Via Garbage Day.
- I don’t know how to feel about Aramco sharing this delicious looking spicy roasted cauliflower recipe.
- Max’s Hungarian Goulash (soup version) recipe takes me back to the mysterious dish that a Kazakh colleague was eating a couple of decades ago.
- This split pea soup recipe from Yeung Man Cooking looks divine!
Eating out
- Doppio Zero has thinned their crust more, it was delicious.
Ordering in
- Von’s chicken.

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Week Notes No. 48: Appetites

2025-03-27T07:00:00-07:00

Plenty of cooking this week but not much to show for it.

Stan's Donuts.

Cooked
- Pizza Baciata, damn that was good. Will make again.
- Bittman’s black bean burgers. Been a while since we’ve had this, and I missed it. Served with a side of sweet potato fries.
Recipes
- Where has sheldo’s kitchen been hiding? Minimizing dirty dishes, weights and volumetric measurements, AND careful consideration of the constraints on home cooks? I’ll watch some more.
- Bri’s chicken teriyaki looks sumptuous.
Eating out
- Stan’s Donuts is a Bay Area classic. Up to this point I had only had my generally favorite donut flavors, but hadn’t yet gotten a plain. What a missed opportunity; plain is where it’s at! Don’t mess with the original.

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Week Notes No. 47: Appetites

2025-03-20T07:00:00-07:00

You know the busy-ness has really escalated when my food notes are getting this thin.

Cooked
- Bread.
- Bodega style egg and cheese.
Recipes
- This Pizza Baciata looks fabulous. Can’t say I agree with the dough recipe though, but that’s ok. We can all do our own thing.
- Another vegan ramen that looks just as delicious as the others I’ve seen.
- Sourdough flavor and acidity.
Drinks
- The Fieldwork Blood Orange Pomegranate Rosemary supertonic drink is quite good.

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Week Notes No. 46: Appetites

2025-03-13T07:00:00-07:00

Random food notes from the week.

Pepperoni pizza

Cooked
- Kimchi tuna salad. Avocado from a neighbors tree. Yum. That was good.
- Pizza night! But, disaster struck. Not really. My pizza’s front edge caught on the peel. It’s been ages since that’s happened. Luckily A’s didn’t suffer that same fate. And mine only resulted in the loss of a single pepperono (see ingredients, below), which I retrieved before it burned to a crisp. Tasted like bacon because the fat had rendered. Delicious. The rest of the pizzas were amazing too, some of the best I’ve ever made. I might be known to say that every time.
Recipes
- I can’t decide if cinnamon roll focaccia is good or not.
- It’s the simplest things, like rice with chicken, that always look so tastily delicious to me.
- Several potato recipes look so appetizing: potato, onion, rosemary pizza, lemony greek potatoes, crispy smashed potatoes, pommes aligot, aloo tikki, gamja bokkeum.
- This (slyt) Brown Recipe video was way more dramatic than I was expecting. Also, can I get a list of those cookbooks?? I might just do it myself.
- Townsends’ “French” Bread recipe (slyt) looks quite good too.
Ordering in
- Castillo’s Tacos: it’s a meh for me.
Premade things
- The Trader Joe’s pretzel things covered in some candy crème vaguely tasting of Oreos–they’re fine, I guess. I could eat ten without even noticing. And that’s kind of the problem. I wouldn’t really remember or remark on the experience either. Does that even count as food? I’m developing more and more of an “allergic reaction” to that kind of thing. In the bin they go.
Ingredients
- The Trader Joe’s Uncured Pepperoni is excellent.

To Reply: Send pataties.

Week Notes No. 45: Appetites

2025-03-06T07:00:00-08:00

Random food notes from the week.

Unlooked for goods, these were excellent.

Cooked
- Mexican Black Bean tacos, with acorn squash. Yum! I would put them over rice too.
Recipes
- Milk Street flatbreads 101 episode. Dang these look good.
- Maybe I should smash burger at home.
- Alvin has some parallel universe ramen recipes. I am not a user of TikTok or other places that I suspect these recipes percolate. They are all new to me, and I am inspired to make some of my own modifications. Not necessarily these modifications mind you, but some, to be sure.
- Rigatoni and Cauliflower al forno (NYT).
- Someone brought the NYT rosemary shortbreads (gift link) to A’s book club. OMG these are so good. The recipe looks trivial too; I cannot wait to try it myself.
Drinks
- Health-ade Kombucha, Pink Lady flavor. It’s a good drink, I buy it every now and again. It’s not as sour as some others, but still good.
- Aura Bora essence’d sparking waters. Kinda bland for my tastebuds.
Eating out
- Vito’s Tacos in Las Vegas. Excellent birria.
- Maria’s Taco Shop at a gas station in Pahrump, NV. Very good.
Ordering in
- Pizza.
Premade things
- Trader Joe’s Joe-Joe’s are solid. They aren’t the same as the famous chocolate-creme sandwich cookie. If those are the ones for you, just get those. But if you are open to something similar, and maybe even better, give the triple Joes a try.
- Siete refried ranchero beans. Refried beans with extras. Yum.
- The TJ’s 70% Peruvian Cacao bar is very good dark chocolate. Very fruity.
Ingredients
- Acorn squash. It ranks above some other squashes when roasted, such as butternut, but it’s no kabocha. Kabocha is still the best I’ve found so far.

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Week Notes No. 43: Appetites

2025-03-01T11:30:00-08:00

Sorry, it’s waffle talk again.

And double sorry, this is publishing much later than originally written. I apparently forgot to hit publish. Originally dated 25FEB20THU.

Cooked
- Waffles: solved–Vegan edition. Replace buttermilk with vegan yogurt, plant milk, and a tablespoon of vinegar. Flax eggs replace the regular eggs.
  - Why this is working now? Our guesses: either a) having a thick batter is what matters, or b) induction burner heating is somehow different.
- A loaf of bread.
- Samosa mashed potatoes (recipe from the other day). There were not enough spices, but I was careless with the amount of potatoes. It was good anyway, and worth making again, to make it better.
  - Other samosa things: take this filling and make croquettes or patties. Bloom the spices and toss in tater tots still hot from the oven. How to get the spices on french fries? I guess like curly fries, but that seems like a process.
Recipes
- Pizzette (slyt). Especially interested in the green sauce.
- Frijoles Charros (slyt). This might be the one. Can’t wait to make this. And I have to look at the taco video (slyt) for the carne asada / grilled steak recipe. Also, I may be ordering that hat, right now.
  - Why, oh why, did quote put your recipe on Discord end-quote? Spoiler from the future: I made the recipe. A) It’s not a recipe that you put there, on Discord. B) Do you honestly expect anyone to find it? C) You are a joke. D) This recipe is really quite tasty, but there is no way this won any contests. You left out ingredients or flavor building steps, I’m sure. E) Yes, I will be making it again. F) Yum yum!
- Another Barbacoa (slyt). It looks amazing.
- Miso Soup. But be warned: the recipes are good on that site, but they are mega SEOd, which is very frustrating to use as a human. Optimized for the machines, yes, but the machines do not eat.
- Garlic Burger (slyt). Alvin, what are you doing? That burger is absurdly big, too big. It’s beyond ridiculous to being just stupid. But, I like all the pieces you’ve got there. Thank you for going there so I didn’t have to. Brian’s buns (slyt), the way to get ground meat with a food processor instead of a very expensive single use meat grinder attachment for Kitchen Aid mixers, and the garlic sauce.
Drinks
- De la Calle Tamarind and Citrus flavor. I liked it! Now I have to go and find the other half of the flavors that I haven’t had yet.
- Toasted barley tea. It’s an herbal tea–no caffeine. The flavor interesting, quite the contrast to green or black tea, or other herbal teas. How do: bring a liter of water to a boil, turn it off and add the bag, let it steep for 10 minutes. Drink it hot or cold. I looked for the toasted rice and corn alternatives too, but didn’t find them this time. I’ll keep looking.
- GT Dave’s Synergy Elderberry Juniper kombucha. Thumbs up!
Ordering in
- Bento night. This reminded me that restaurant miso soup is the best and has to be straightforward to make because it’s the same everywhere. Or it’s a mix they all use. Seems unlikely.
- Picked up some cold lunch items at Mitsuwa in the morning. You have to get there early or there is no parking. Anyway. Crispy chicken onigiri, a (unintentional) beyond meat curry bun, and a red bean paste bun.
Premade things
- Trader Joe’s Cheddar Mac and Cheese, but with buttermilk. I approve.
Ingredients
- Broccolini, is kinda similar to broccoli rabe but much less bitter. It’s delicious when given the roasted in the oven with olive oil and salt treatment. Crispy, blackened edges. Tender stalks. Next time consider a squeeze of lemon or crack of black pepper.

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Week Notes No. 42: Appetites

2025-02-13T07:00:00-08:00

Simple meals are the theme this week. Low and unchallenging effort.

Just the right amount of butter.

Cooked
- Simple meals are usually best. Crispy gyoza, kabocha roasted in half-rings, semi-brown rice. Don’t forget the dipping sauce. Harder to write than to make.
- Baked sausage and beans and sage served over pasta was an unexpected hit! It’s trivial to make. The substitution potential of this recipe is staggering. It’s more like a framework or philosophy. In the aftermath of all the recent winter storms, sage was just perfect. Note for next time: double or even triple the amount of sage. To round out this meal we made sautéed kale and puree of leftover roasted kabocha. I was surprised by how easily it came together, yet it was still both flavorful and textureful. A complete meal too, which is often a weeknight challenge.
- Buttermilk waffles, you’re the one. What magic is contained in you? No recipe has ever released clean from this iron. I’m glad I tried you again,¹ after all these years. The rest of my life could have turned out so differently. The griddly grail is firmly in my grasp now.
- Pizza night.
Drinks
- Oat milk, the Califia Barista, is a good one in black tea. You see, normally, I prefer dairy milk. But we rarely have it, so I’m trying the alternatives we keep on hand.
- Oat milk in my moka espresso however is not working for me. Dairy milk for me there.
- I figured I try not adding in the usual salty mixin for my morning glass of water. It was a different experience. I was not compelled to drink it. Now, I enjoy water. It is my favorite beverage. So, I’ll have no trouble drinking it plain. But I learned that I’ll have to be more intentional about it in the morning, if I want to do that.
Ingredients
- The Volpi chorizo is now my preferred alternative to pepperoni, when making pizza at home.

I did try buttermilk about 12 years ago. It was good. We kept the powdered stuff in the fridge for a while. But I think it must be somehow inferior. But I seem to have lost the knowledge. I think it was common in my childhood too. The waffle above is similar. Reunited! ↑

To Reply: Send waffles.

Week Notes No. 41: Appetites

2025-02-06T07:00:00-08:00

Random food notes from the week.

Eggs don't lie.

Cooked
- Collards aren’t chard. Chard tastes like a spoon full of dirt, and not in a good way like beets. Beets taste like a sweet spoon full of dirt in a good way.
- Basic pancakes, I made them from Ruhlman’s Ratio. But with buttermilk, and even though he said half buttermilk half milk, I used all buttermilk and a little extra buttermilk. And I was inspired by my memory of an episode of Chef Michael Smith, must be a decade ago. Shallow fried in oil, with bananas. They were so thick and good. Maybe even shallower fry next time though.
Recipes
- These dumplings (slyt/nyt) look awesome.
- I think a veganized version of this Tandoori chicken and garlic naan recipe is on the menu soon.
- Both the braised beef and those rolls look fabulous.
- Somasa potatoes. We don’t plan to put the filling in the wrapper. Just going to have it with rice and a veggie.
- West Lake soup and turnip cakes sounded good to me.
- Two words: taco soup.
Ordering out
- Bonchon, I think you’ve changed since the last time I had you. Or maybe it’s me. Still deliciously crunchy outside, but what happened inside? And I don’t remember the coleslaw being like this. Weren’t pickled radish actually pickled? I might stick with Von’s.
Drinks
- De La Calle Tepache sodas are pretty good. I got to have the Pineapple Spice and Prickly Pear flavors; I liked them both. It’s not too sweet either, nor very sour.
- GT Dave’s ‘buch is still one of the best, imo, if not the best. Very sour, not very sweet, good flavors. Don’t mess with the best.
Links
- Holy moly that’s a lot of snacks and many flavors that I’ve never seen before. Via DF.
- Josey Baker Bread looks nice. Thanks L!

I see that Ooni has a new dough mixer. Maybe this’ll be great, or maybe make-pizza-at-home has jumped the shark. Time will tell. Via Kottke.

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Week Notes No. 40: Appetites

2025-01-30T07:00:00-08:00

Random food and drink notes from the week.

Maximum ketchup

bread: Unremarkable standard loaf of bread was baked. I mean it was unremarkable for me, just the usual thing. This same loaf though, I made it a few weeks ago, and I’ve never seen my sister-in-law eat bread, but she had some of that.
soup: The cozy soups from Rainbow Plant Life look so good. We’ve had good look (batting a thousand so far) with their other recipes.
- We made the broccoli one (recipe); it’s very good. And the topping, the topping is good too.
drinks:
- I tried a Wild Tonic, Blackberry Mint flavor. It’s quite honey forward, rather sweet for my taste. I didn’t get a lot of blackberry or mint either. Too bad; it’s a pretty can.
- Also had the raspberry goji rose flavor of Wild Tonic. It’s better than the blackberry mint, but is still quite sweet, very honey forward, and not very sour. If that’s your thing, this could be the ‘buch for you. I like mine sour forward.
- The Recess Lime “Margarita” is ok. Nothing wrong with it, but not what I’m looking for.
- The Cascade Mountain bubbly water is good. It has tiny bubbles! Carbonated at the factory though.
A picked up pastel de nata from Pastelaria, and dang were those good. We’ll be going back to try the other offerings.
It’s no secret that I am a noodle fan. I like the instant kind and the fancy kind alike. The Momo fuku sweet and spicy noodles where on the menu this afternoon. Not bad.

To Reply: Email me your favorite sour NA drinks.

Week Notes No. 39: Appetites

2025-01-23T07:00:00-08:00

Couple of random food notes from the week.

Roasted kale is the answer. When the kale is grown in your own garden, at least. That may be the secret ingredient.

Recipe: preheat the oven to 425 F. Clean, de-stem, and tear the kale. In a bowl, toss it with oil and salt. Arrange on a sheet pan, preferably lined with parchment. Spread it out, even like. Place it in the oven, it will take at most 15 minutes to cook. It will wilt, and toast a bit. Turn it once, just flop chunks of it over with tongs or a fork, so the other side might get a little color. Present it and squeeze lemon over it.

It’s delicious.

Also: Derek’s quick noodles (slyt) look fabulous.

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Japanese Food Collection

2024-12-21T13:00:00-08:00

These are some of our favorite Japanese foods to make.

Vegetarian Ramen, easy and full of flavor. YT1, YT2. I do have ambition to make my own tonkotsu broth, or some of the other awesome broths. Just haven’t done it yet.
Sushi rice → Sushi Party or sushi rice with vegetables (gomoku zushi bowl (see Uses under the link).
Tsukune (chicken meatballs) and brown rice, so easy. And, and! Green onions instead of Japanese leek (can’t find it easily) is another surprise hit for green onions. Sauté those more often, yo!
Curry rice. Kare Raisu
Miso soup. So many ways. Imamu
X-don: Oyakodon, katsudon, gyudon YT. Imamu. Basically <thing> in simple broth with onions and simmered egg scramble over rice. I want to make it with deep fried tofu squares (you can get them pre-cooked at the store) to make tofu-don.
Onogiri, or yaki onogiri.
Tamagoyaki / Rolled omelette.
Gyoza

I’ll update and add over time. But this list serves as a good starting place.

To Reply: Comments by email are welcome.

Basic Pancakes

2024-12-08T10:10:00-08:00

I’ve had two go-to recipes for pancakes: Bittman’s and Ruhlman’s. This is Ruhlman’s from Ratio,¹ which makes thicker pancakes that are a little more delicate.

Thick Pancakes

The ratio here is 2 flour, 2 liquid, 1 egg, 1/2 fat.

This is my dairy free version.

Note: Add a little acid to the non-dairy milk so it will activate the baking powder: 1 t to 1.5 t apple cider vinegar in your measuring cup and then fill to 1/2 C with oat milk.

Note 2: Substitute buttermilk for waffles. To make vegan buttermilk, use about equal parts plant milk and vegan yogurt or vegan sour cream. Add more vegan milk after mixing with dry ingredients to get the right thickness. See here for the significance.

You could mix in toasted nuts such as pecans or walnuts, chocolate chips, berries, or bananas. Or spices: cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, etc.

Tools

A griddle is ideal here. Any shallow pan will do.

Ingredients

This should make 4 4-inch pancakes, or 6 or more smaller sized ones. It’s enough for 2 people for a light lunch. Ignore your stomach and just make the smaller amount, it’s enough. Trust me.

Double, triple, or more for larger crowds.

Dry

4 oz AP flour, or 3/4 C. Or other kind of flour.
1 T sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t table salt, or 1 t Diamond kosher salt

Combine all in another bowl, making sure that the baking powder is fully granulated.

Wet

1/2 cup non-dairy milk such as oat, see note above (or just milk for the dairy version), see note 2 for waffles
- Non-dairy alternate: replace with equal parts non-dairy yogurt and non-dairy milk. Add a splash (1 t+?) of apple cider vinegar to aid the activation of the baking powder.
- Dairy alternate: replace with butter milk, thin it a bit with milk.
1 egg
2 T veg oil (or melted butter for the dairy version)
1/2 t vanilla extract, or more

Whisk together in a bowl to thoroughly combine.

Steps

These steps come together so fast that you probably want to begin heating the griddle before you start mixing.

As already mentioned, combine the wet and whisk to combine.
Similarly with the dry. If you want a thinner pancake, add a splash more milk.
Add the dry to the wet and whisk together until fully wet.
Heat a griddle over medium heat, add a bit of oil, and cook a few minutes on each side.

Serving

Serve with butter, maple syrup, berry jam², apple butter. I’ve heard some people like peanut butter. Honey is nice. Additional fresh fruit.

Notes

This recipe has been known to induce naps.

According to Ratio (p. 70) double acting baking powder contains its own acid, so it seems like you can just skip the apple cider vinegar in the oat milk. I have not tried this yet. Also here it says 1 t baking powder to 4 oz of flour (5 g to 110 g) is a good starting point for how much baking powder (or soda). Double it for more rise. Also, 4 oz of flour is a scant 1 C.

Bittman’s recipe (from How to cook everything vegetarian, p. 200) is approximately the same, except for his uses considerably less salt. I find having a bit more salt is better.³ The starting point for the ratio of flour to liquid is maybe less (so more wet), which results in thinner pancakes. My conclusion is that the thickness of the resulting pancakes is quite sensitive to this ratio.

This same recipe also makes fritters, just skip the fats, and add lots of interior mixins. Vegetables, mostly.

This book is one of the core reference cookbooks in my library. Highly recommended for decoding one of the essential themes of cooking a wide range of basic foods. ↑
If you aren’t making your own berry jam, you are missing out. To see what a difference some homemade things have compared to store bought, start here. It’s zomg different imo. Follow up with your own quality ice creams. But, like, only do this if it’s your thing. ↑
We’re not talking industrial food amounts of salt here, so I don’t think your heart doctor will have any concerns. But also, I’m not that kind of doctor. ↑

To Reply: Email me your favorite pancake topping or mix-in.

The Vanilla Ice Cream Experiment

2024-09-19T07:00:00-07:00

So, I’ve run the following experiments.

The vanilla ice cream of your dreams.

Full cream.
2 C cream, 1 C whole milk.
2 C cream, 1 C half and half.

The full cream version is the winner. Don’t mess with the best. The Perfect Scoop, 1st ed. by David Lebovitz has more great recipes.

Vanilla Ice Cream Dream

A Philadelphia style ice cream.

Prep

Put the ice cream churning tub thing in the freezer the day before you plan to make the base. If that’s the kind of ice cream maker you have.

Ingredients

3 C heavy cream; get the all grass fed or organic stuff.
3/4 C sugar (150 g)
1 vanilla bean, split; Costco has a good price on these. Email me if you know another good source.
pinch salt
3/4 t vanilla extra

Steps

Add 1 C cream to a saucepan, and add the sugar and salt. Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the back of a knife. Add the seeds and the bean pod to the pot. Heat over medium, stirring, until the temperature reaches 175 F¹ and the sugar is dissolved.
Remove from heat and add the rest of the cream, and the vanilla extract. Stir to combine.
Chill overnight in the fridge.
Remove the bean pod, rinse and save for another use.
Churn the ice cream according to the manufacturer of the churner’s instructions.
Freeze for a few hours before serving.

Eat that with brownies, pineapple upside down cake, berry or apple cobblers, or just by itself.

Temperature reference is from The Science of Good Cooking by The Editors at America’s Test Kitchen, 2012, p 188. ↑

To Reply: Email me your favorite ice cream flavor.

Easy Cooking Brown Rice, Instant Pot method

2024-05-06T09:00:00-07:00

I learned about this rice from a friend. Sometimes you want brown rice; it’s got a different flavor than regular white rice. But also, sometimes you don’t want all that flavor. For those times, there is easy cooking brown rice. I liken it to demi-ble, as we used to say in France.

Instant Pot Easy Cooking Brown Rice

Ingredients

2 cups short-grain Japanese rice
2 cups water, maybe 1/4 cup more
optional pinch of salt

Method

Optional: rinse rice until the water is clear. I like to do this like they do in the Japanese restaurant videos on YouTube: swish in a strainer in a big bowl of water, and change out the water a couple of time. The agitation and not-just-letting-the-water-run aspects make me feel better about it. I have no idea if it is more effective or a better use of water or what. Let it dry for a few minutes in the strainer. Or just put the rice in the pot.
Add the rice and measured water to Instant Pot and set pressure to high and cook time to 12 minutes. Allow about 10 minutes before degassing.
Serve.

Uses

Good for eating. Or use it to make fried rice later.

To Reply: Send rice tips!

Instant Pot Sushi Rice

2024-04-25T04:00:00-07:00

No story, just the recipe.

Ingredients

2 cups short-grain Japanese rice
2 cups water
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup natural rice vinegar
1 ½ tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar

Method

Optional: rinse rice until the water is clear. I like to do this like they do in the Japanese restaurant videos on YouTube: swish in a strainer in a big bowl of water, and change out the water a couple of time. The agitation and not-just-letting-the-water-run aspects make me feel better about it. I have no idea if it is more effective or a better use of water or what. Let it dry for a few minutes in the strainer.
Add the rice and measured water to Instant Pot and use either a) the rice setting (or low pressure) for 12 minutes, or b) high pressure setting for 0 minutes. For either of those options, once the pressure-y part is done, follow natural release method: allow about 10 minutes before degassing.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl - combine white vinegar, rice vinegar, salt, and sugar. Maybe microwave for 1 minute, maybe not, then stir until completely dissolved.
Transfer rice to a large bowl, add vinegar mixture and gently mix well to combine.
Let it cool some or all the way. Use in your favorite ways. Enjoy!

Uses

Make sushi
Make deconstructed sushi
Make sushi rice bowl aka gomoku zushi / picture

Notes

I found two sources for this recipe.

The first one has a 1:1 rice to water ratio (after rinsing the rise), and the 12 minutes at low pressure cook time I mention above.
The other one, which I think is the one we found first, has the same 1:1 ratio but 0 minutes at high pressure cook time.

I’ve had both versions and honestly they’re about the same. So I updated the cook time to reflect the faster one.

To Reply: Comments by email are welcome.

Strawberry Sorbet

2024-04-21T13:00:00-07:00

I made the Serious Eats Strawberry Sorbet recipe, and I’d like to share it with you.

I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, so I note here what I did:

Strawberry Sorbet

You’ll need an ice cream maker of some sort. I use the Cuisenart one with the frozen tub. Put the churning bucket in the freezer, the coldest part if it’s not too difficult, at least a day ahead of time. Also chill the finished sorbet storage container in the freezer.

You’ll also need a blender to make the puree. I use my Vitamix, because that’s what I have. A food processor would probably also work, but in batches.

Ingredients

2 lbs (recipe called for 2.25 lbs) of the best freshest strawberries you can get your hands on.
1 C sugar
2 t lemon juice
3/4 t salt (I used kosher, Diamond Crystal)

Method

Clean and remove the tops of the strawberries. Just put them in the blender jar and blend until pureed, about a minute.
Add the sugar, and blend for 30 more seconds to incorporate.
Add some of the lemon juice, and some of the salt. Blend and taste, and adjust as necessary. I added all of it, and it was great in the finished product.
Pass through a fine mesh strainer to get any seeds or other pulpy bits out of there. Flavor and texture are the stars of the sorbet show.
Chill for several hours in the coldest part of your fridge.
Churn according to manufacturers instructions. It ended up taking about 13 minutes for my batch.
Freeze for a few hours to ensure fully set before serving.

Oh man is it good.

I also finally realized that sorbet is basically just jam that isn’t cooked. It’s frozen instead.

To Reply: Email me your favorite sorbet combos.

Spanish Potato Chickpea Stew

2024-03-01T00:00:00-08:00

I started from this Spain on a Fork recipe, but mutated it to be GF. It was delicious. Here’s what I would do different next time.

Spanish Chickpea and Potato Stew

Ingredients

extra virgin olive oil 45 ml
handfull of corn chips
garlic
onion
1 t smoked paprika
1/2 t ground cumin
2 tomatoes, grated on a box grater
2 potatoes medium in size
2 cans 15 oz cans chickpeas
3 cups veggie broth
2 T chopped fresh parsley
1 bay leaf
salt
black pepper

Mise en place - do this before you begin putting heat to anything. It really is the best habit to get into. Feel free to skip this section if you already do this.

Measure the broth (or water and Better than Bullion) into a small pot and begin heating it. If it gets a bit steamy while still preparing the other mises, just turn it off.
Measure the cumin and paprika into a small dish. Don’t worry about the salt and pepper since those are just a pinch and a grind.
Get the bay leaf out and have it ready.
Finely chop the onion and 4 of cloves of garlic, and put them in a bowl.
Peel the other 3 cloves of garlic and place them in a small bowl. Leave them whole.
Grate the tomatoes into a bowl.
Drain and rince the chickpeas.
Clean and chop the parsely, and set it in the bowl of a morter and pestle, along with the corn chips.
Last: clean and cut the potatoes into small bitesized pieces, like small enough that they look right on a spoon because that’s how you will be eating them.

Begin applying heat to things.

In a stock pot, heat a few table spoons of olive oil over medium high heat. When it’s hot, add those 3 cloves of garlic that are just peeled and still whole. Saute and stir occassionally until they are brown all around. Take them out and add them to the bowl of the morter and pestle along with the already in ther chips and parsley. No need to turn off the heat to the pot.
Add the finely chopped onion and garlic to the pot. Add a pinch of salt. Stir until they are translucent, a few minutes.
When the onion and garlic are translucent add in the ground spices, some salt, and some pepper, and stir constantly to warm up, about 30 seconds.
Add the tomato, stir to combine and then continue cooking undisturbed for a few minutes until they have thickened.
Now add the chickpeas, the potatoes, the broth, the bay leaf. Raise the heat to bring it up to a simmer and when it starts to bubble, lower the heat and cover. Simmer for 20-30 minutes.
While that is simmering, mash and grind the ingredients in the morter and pestle into a paste.
A few minutes before you feel it’s simmered enough, check the progress of the potatoes, they should be tender and not resist when poked with a fork. Add the paste from the morter and pestle and stir. Simmer another minute or two, to thicken a bit.
Off the heat, taste and adjust the salt. Serve it forth.

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September Record of Cooking

2023-10-01T00:00:00-07:00

I’ve been trying to cook more (because I enjoy it). I also want to get better; I am already a reasonably good cook, but better is always better. The notes are here to help me improve. I’m doing science to it.

This is what I’ve been cooking. It’s not all that I ate this month, just the foods that I, myself, prepared/cooked.

2023-09-30 SAT
- Wintertime Tomato Soup, from Bittman’s How to cook everything Vegetarian. Man, this has been a favorite for years. Taking advantage of an early cool weekend to get another soup on.
- Pan Toast with that bread from a few days ago. In olive oil. Delicous.
2023-09-29 FRI
- Minimalist Korean Street Toast Egg Sandwich. Pan toasted thick slice of bread. One egg, lightly scrambled. A bit of ketchup. (picture).
2023-09-28 THU
- Roasted cauliflower.
- More popcorn.
2023-09-27 WED
- Another loaf of bread, The Standard #1. More sesame seeds. picture.
2023-09-25 MON
- Oven roasted Brussels sprouts.
2023-09-24 SUN
- Another The Standard #1 Loaf (picture). I gave away half of yesterdays, and used much of the other half for those hamburgers. This loaf is for another friend, so I’ll probably make another in a couple of days. Bread (is) Life.
- Cheeseburger, again. Achieved my desired improvements over yesterday’s burger: a bit more salt and pepper on the patty, thinner bread slices, less pink in the middle (picture). I’m still amazed that I got the patty the right size for both burgers. I think I would improve on the crust of the patty next?
- Grilled chicken thigh (picture).
2023-09-23 SAT
- The Standard #1 Loaf, from Forkish’s Evolutions in Bread (picture). I put sesame seeds on it, which is not part of the recipe. I’ll be doing that again for sure.
- Cheese Burger, on slices of the loaf above (picture).
- Oven fries (potatoes).
- Roasted Artichokes. I’d never prepared them this way; they were quite good (picture).
- Grilled chicken thigh.
- Popcorn.
2023-09-21 THU
- ‘nother grilled cheese (picture).
2023-09-20 WED
- Grilled Cheese, with my bread (picture).
- Dinner: roasted broccoli, grilled chicken, semi-brown rice (picture). Yumm mmm.
2023-09-19 TUE
- Pan toasted a slice of my bread (no picture). This counts, right?
2023-09-18 MON
- The Standard #2 loaf, from Forkish’s Evolutions in Bread (EiB). It’s that loaf I started yesterday.
- Mushroom and Eggplant Yassa, quite good actually.
2023-09-17 SUN
- Sautéed Cabbage, topped with olive oil, balsamic glaze. Letting it sit for about 5 minutes after dressing it made it better. (picture)
- Started a loaf bread.
2023-09-16 SAT
- Pain Au Bacon, from Forkish’s FWSY. It’s a hit! Kind of a lot of work though, well cooking the bacon is. Pictures: outside, inside.
- Better Than Snickers Ice Cream; we’ll see about that. But I did make my first caramel (picture). Maybe a touch burnt? Not sure.
  - I kinda wish the peanuts were lightly salted, at least.
  - Damn, this is good (picture).
- Bittman’s Potato Leek Soup. High of 76 F is soup weather, right? Right??
2023-09-15 FRI
- Bacon, for Pain Au Bacon that will be baked tomorrow (picture). I used the simmer and sauté method. The finished product was perfect, but it sure took a while.
- Pain Au Bacon, started, but it has to rise overnight.
- Bacon Sushi, because science, and I had the materials available to me. It was ok, not really consistent with the vibe of sushi. But… experimenting. picture
2023-09-14 THU
- Classic/Rome Style Alfredo, again. Better this time. picture
- Sushi party: I am sushi roll construction challenged, so we make them sloppy hand rolls. Trim the nori to small squares just big enough to hold the rice and one topping. Usually the toppings are veggies: carrot, cucumber, avocado. Not this time: tofu, egg. Instant pot sushi rice.
2023-09-12 TUE
- Carla Music’s Sautéed Scallions. Unexpectedly yum (second time making them). picture
2023-09-11 MON
- Babish’s instant pot risotto. I doubled it. Half is for my wife who is currently doing an elimination diet, so no cheese. The uncheesed part was surprisingly good; if I didn’t eat cheese I would definitely still eat this. The other half I cheesed, ate, and plan to also make arancini with the leftovers. If you can be non-traditionalist about it, the instant pot version is just great.
2023-09-10 SUN
- Toum, but started here. Tasted off. It wasn’t the right texture/consistency. Too liquidy. Maybe because I didn’t remove the germ? And I made it with the stick blender. Or maybe it was the wrong oil (canola). I tried to save it on Monday, by putting it back in the chilled food processor and adding some more chilled water and oil. I added a bit more salt too. It didn’t help. I’m frustrated, this is one of my favorites. Update: it broke. ☹️
2023-09-08 FRI
- Faux-tisserie chicken, again. This time I used regular poultry seasoning.
- Started a new sourdough starter, since my previous one (Vigor and Theref) got moldy. Picture at the end, on the 15th.
- Popcorn again.
2023-09-07 THU
- Spaghetti Squash Broccoli Pasta. This is normally made with linguine, but my wife is on an elimination diet at the moment, so we subbed in squash instead. It worked quite pleasantly well, which wasn’t really that surprising to us. It’s not the same at all, think of it as a different delicious dish.
2023-09-06 WED
- Fettuccine Alfredo, Original Rome style, for a crowd. I used dry pasta, and while the end result was tasty, it was also not very creamy. So, I will try again, with a smaller (single serving sized) batch. I think more starchy water is key. Other notes: Nailed the pasta amount, and al dente perfectly. Well almost, I got a bit of crunchy stuck together pasta, which I really don’t understand because I stirred the pot quite well several times.
2023-09-03 SUN
- Ken Forkish FWSY Same day pizza. No canned tomatoes in the house, and no regular mozza either. So, this is what I’m topping it with:
  1. Garlic candy (smashed cloves sautéed in evoo over low heat), Pecorino Romano, evoo and a few left over mozza pearls (picture). So so good. It’s another one of those random things, but sautéed garlic just became one of my favorite pizza toppings, and pecorino didn’t disappoint either (but I think it only worked so well because there was no sauce).
  2. Mozza pearls, basil, evoo (picture)
2023-09-02 SAT
- Molly Baz Cook This Book Wedge Salad (pic). This was quite good, and I would make it again. Maybe next time I would add bleu cheese or Gorgonzola to the sauce or just on top.
- Molly Baz Cook This Book Popcorn. I find that the 1:1 ratio of fats to kernels in the recipe is way too high. 1:2 fats to kernels is right for me. I skip the turmeric, and go more with something like Carla Music’s toppings. These two recipes are not all that dissimilar, and work better for me than the OG Alton Brown recipe, which uses less fats, and is in a bowl + foil. I used to have so much success with that, but somewhere I lost the thread and it just burned all the time.
2023-09-01 FRI
- Brian Lagerstrom’s mashed potatoes from the faux-tisserie chicken video (picture). I made the chicken the day before, and dang is that good- going to be a go to recipe for a while I think. I don’t have a chinois, but I do have a food mill with a fine grate; that worked well. Next time, I would reduce the liquid a bit, maybe 25%. The potatoes were very good, but a bit slack in the final result.
- Brian Lagerstrom’s bigggg cinnamon rolls (picture). I doubled the recipe, but something went wrong, maybe my notes were off. I had to add more flour to get a firm enough dough. The bake needed an extra 20 minutes to reach 190 F too. Still totally amaze-balls. Note: I double the cream cheese and reduce the sugar to 100g in the frosting. It’s still sweet, but not too sweet and it’s so so good.
  - Ok, figured out what went wrong: I didn’t weigh my wet ingredient, I used volumetric. This lead to a ~6% error in the amount of liquid, which agrees with my need to add about another ~100 g of flour. Oops.

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Brunch

2022-05-15T21:12:00-07:00

Brunch at home is such a good meal. Even if home this week is a rental in the next state. Overnight french toast bake, crispy hash browns, eggs sunny side up or over easy, coffee, tea, juice. Fruit salad, with oranges from a neighbors tree back home. It’s not a complicated or fussy event, at least not where I come from. One thing that made it special today is having all the family together here, even us out of towners, to celebrate a late Mother’s day.

In the afternoon I got to solve a technical TV issue for my parents so they can enjoy a baseball game without the spinning baseball of your-connection-has-been-interrupted. That’s the hope, anyway.

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