What's Cooking (Take Three!)

Sounds great, Barb. I love truffle flavor.

Tell me more about how you make the chevre.

[Robin Garr]

Barb, I'm so sorry to hear about your difficult year. We'll be thinking of your husband, and you too, during his surgery. Here's a glass raised to a much better year coming up!

Barb, I'm so sorry to hear about your difficult year. We'll be thinking of your husband, and you too, during his surgery. Here's a glass raised to a much better year coming up!

Thanks Robin
Sometimes it helps to unload a little in a safe place, so I can remaini positive and cheerful at home.
Hopefully the surgery should rectify some issues and improve his quality of life. He doesn’t complain, but has been through a lot.

Sounds great, Barb. I love truffle flavor.

Tell me more about how you make the chevre.

Hi Jeff, it is as simple as shaving/grating truffle over some chèvre, wrapping it up to let it infuse for some hours. You can form it in rounds or blocks then butter quarter sheets of filo, four layers, put a teaspoon of fruit paste add cheese and roll up. Brush with butter Nd bake 180c for 15-20minutes. I think the recipe called for added truffle or Périgueux sauce to finish, meh, melty truffly cheeses pastry is good enough for moi.

Actually
, you could probably achieve a similar dish by using truffle oil, so long as it is good quality and
Made using real truffle, not ‘truffle flavour ‘ which is a disgusting chemical concoction.

Sounds good, Barb, and simple.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for Beloved's surgery.

[Jenise]

Barb, let me add my good wishes for Pete to the others. That's a lot of surgery and while I admire his stoicism he sure has earned the right to complain, and so have you! Love the meal you made. You call this your annual truffle buy--where do you order yours from? Are any being grown in Australia?

Thanks everone for you kind wishes for us.

Jenise, I buy my truffles from a guy In Tasmania where first truffles were planted upon Australia. They are grown widely here, W Aust, New Sout Wales Victoria in fact they are now growers practically on my own doorstep (within 50 k).. see the article below from Thw West Australian newspaper.

“In a stunning reversal of agriculture’s world order, Australia is this year on track to overtake France in producing black Perigord truffles.

The WA truffle harvest, centred on Manjimup in the Southern Forests region, will be responsible for up to 75 per cent of the national crop.

Black truffle is synonymous with high-end French cuisine and food culture but according to Australia’s biggest truffle producer, The Truffle & Wine Com-pany, a combination of weather setbacks in France and the prospects of a modest increase in local truffle production “will more than likely” result in Australian production outstripping this year’s French harvest.

“The weather in Europe has been horrible, with production in France and Italy said to be 90 per cent down on previous years in some regions,” The Truffle & Wine Company’s head of sales Alex Wilson said.

“I would expect France to do 10 tonnes this year, with Australia set to produce 12 to 15 tonnes.”

Amazing. I had no idea.

[Jenise]

I had no idea either! That's incredible! Barb, I'm going to repost your article in the main part of the forum where people who don't read this thread will also see it.

[Jenise]

Today I'm working on my terrine for Bill's annual All Terrine Dinner. No recipe: just a collection of flavors in my head that I believe will be attractive and harmonious (never had them together, to be truthful) inspired by remembering some artichokes I made at the CIA under the watchful eye of Chef Roberto Gallo--they were peeled down to a heart and braised with red wine, garlic and anchovies. I have never made them again but intended to--and they'll be the garnish. Sounds silly, probably, designing a terrine around a garnish, but I need some reason to be inspired and this is as good as any.

So today I'll make a terrine with the two basic layers. I'll then sit down with a slice and little dishes of other potential flavors and additives. Once those are selected, I'll make the new, final terrine on Friday.

Also going to turn the leftovers from Babe the Pig into a chili verde.

As you have a pig's head handy, would head cheese make a valid entry in the All-Terrine competition?

[Jenise]

As you have a pig's head handy, would head cheese make a valid entry in the All-Terrine competition?

The pig head was carefully placed inside the crappy roaster we rented and returned to the rental agency. Kind of a Godfather thing. I hope they enjoyed it.

[Jenise]

Making my terrine for tomorrow.

Last night I made the artichoke garnish. Bought a few very large ones which had, duh, very woody/stringy stems and hearts. It was like 90 degrees in my kitchen as I stood there cutting this huge thistle down into little manageable tulips, if you will, with a big vat of lemon water and choke feathers everywhere, 7 down, 3 to go, when I looked at Bob and said, "These are going to be shit. They're just too big. Why didn't I think of going to Costco? Theirs are always smaller." Five minutes later we were in the car on our way to Costco.

By 9 p.m. the new artichokes were peeled and face down in a pan with about an inch of white wine, red wine vinegar, garlic and anchovies. I made myself a martini, and sat down to share a bit of cheese and crackers with Bob. That was dinner.

By 9 p.m. the new artichokes were peeled and face down in a pan with about an inch of white wine...

Oh, thank goodness. For a moment, I thought it was you face down in a pan with about an inch of white wine...

[Jenise]

By 9 p.m. the new artichokes were peeled and face down in a pan with about an inch of white wine...

Oh, thank goodness. For a moment, I thought it was you face down in a pan with about an inch of white wine...

Maybe next week....

Well, hurrah!! my favourite man has come through his surgery and his medical team is very happy. He is looking pretty good, and now 3days post op. Hopefully I can spring him on Monday
So I managed to cook myself a meal in the apartment I’m staying in near the hospital.
Just a schnitzel from an upmarket butcher (because that what is available at the nearby grocery) pan fried in butter, with a “baked” potato, no oven except microwave, and a simple salad. A glass or two of De Bortoli Woodfired Heathcote Shiraz 2017. In my slippers, watching food network.

[Jenise]

Barb, that's such great news!

Dinner last night was Poorman's Jambalaya, Paul Prudhomme's recipe from his Louisiana Kitchen cookbook. Ingredients are andouille, tasso, the Cajun Trinity, garlic, a seasoning mix, and, of course, long-grain rice (I use Uncle Ben's in jambalayas).

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, what a delightful summer dinner. I guess I should make a real Jambalaya some time--I've only made it once. That time, I was in Holland and invited to someone's home to cook an American dinner for them--they had never been to the States. They requested Jambalaya, and so I winged what I thought should be in there but I really wasn't too certain! (Not to mention not exactly having authentic ingredients available.) What I remember most about that evening was buying some very long narrow red peppers and throwing them on the open gas burner on their little stove. They had never seen that done, and were so delighted about it they went and got the neighbors to come look.

What I remember most about that evening was buying some very long narrow red peppers and throwing them on the open gas burner on their little stove. They had never seen that done, and were so delighted about it they went and got the neighbors to come look.

Sweet or hot?

Barb - so glad to hear that things have gone well on with the surgical stuff! That's wonderful news.

My dad is visiting, so I've been cooking a bit. Last night was roast chicken with mashed potatoes and salad with Pepin's tomato dressing. Tonight, it was sous vide carnitas, elotes, and caprese. My daughter made an angel food cake that was topped with whipped cream and fresh berries to celebrate my wife's birthday.

[Jenise]

Haven't been cooking much! Or at least, cooking the kind of meals I talk about here. Last night: a main course caprese salad with the sweetest red tomatoes. And today for lunch, a steak salad consisting of a small steak, pan-seared and divided into a few strips over romaine, red onion, tomato, parmesan cheese and toasted bread crumbs in a red wine vinaigrette. Last week, two nights ended up being cheese and vegetable platters with a glass of wine. Basically, fairly normal food for us, and owing to the fact that lunch yesterday was at a Mariners/Blue Jays game and tonight dinner will be at the opening of a new barbecue place. Life's kind of been like that--we just haven't been home as much as usual, or we've been coming back home late and not up to what you'd call a real dinner.

Tomorrow, though, back in the saddle!

[Jenise]

Last night I made a salad of white asparagus spears topped with shrimp cooked and then marinated with a little vinegar, EVOO and white truffle oil. Followed that with cacio de pepe, which didn't work out great because the pecorino I bought at WF was disinclined to melt and instead turned into rubbery little globs. I actually pulled the wrapper out of the trash to make sure it was an Italian import--yup, it was.

I didn't serve all the asparagus in the salad, but held back the small pieces (white asparagus always has a few broken spears) and separately poured the liquid from cooking the salad's asparagus over the peels and simmered all that with cream to make a rich base for four delicious little panna cottas that I'll top with an asparagus and mushroom salad.

Jenise, that sounds delicious.!