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the sauce simmered for several hours on thursday, made with a leek-onion-carrot-celery pestata, lots of garlic, porcini powder, anchovy paste, eco-friendly hot Italian sausage and ground beef, cento marzano tomatoes and tomato paste, a roasted red pepper, red wine, an aromatic herb bundle. it spent 24 hours sitting outside in the cold. lots of leftover sauce. a lasagna may be in my future.

Is this from a recipe or just from experience? If a recipe, whose? And why 24 hours outside? I thought only the Koreans did that with kimchee but then it'd be a few months instead of 24 hours and the pot would be buried.

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Is this from a recipe or just from experience? If a recipe, whose? And why 24 hours outside? I thought only the Koreans did that with kimchee but then it'd be a few months instead of 24 hours and the pot would be buried.

Not from a recipe. A couple of seen on t.v. influences re. method: Lidia Bastianich, Anne Burrell. 24 hours wait because 1) we decided to go out for dinner and 2)tomato-based stews always taste better the second day. Outside because it is winter and I didn't have room in the refrigerator for the pot.

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Stir-fry with maifun (rice vermicelli noodles) featuring shrimp, scallops, broccoli, red and green cabbage, carrots, and a visit to the flavor stratosphere thanks to quickly-composed teriyaki sauce. Being too icy to grill, we missed the "yaki" intention, but garlic/ginger/sweet mirin magic transformed this dish to exceptional. Pic enclosed, not a good shot, but a marvelous meal.

This followed an afternoon of making pork and vegetable wontons and egg rolls for the freezer. Second pic, a better shot, freezer now full of the makings for wonton soup, steamed dumplings, baked eggrolls, and impromptu appetizers.

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last night:

tagine with merguez sausages and lots of veg: roasted eggplant, butternut squash, cauliflower, poblano and red bell peppers; red-skin potato, carrot, onion, garlic, tomato, preserved lemon.

basmati rice (J's not crazy about cous-cous)

Nigella's dense chocolate cake with Talenti vanilla gelato

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- A beautiful mid section of local rockfish pan-cooked in cast iron with a simply wine/green onion/butter sauce

- left over baked maple onion sweet potato puree

- slices of tomato, avocado and red onion drizzled with EVOO and a white balsamic vinegar and finished with sea salt

- 2011 Sicilian Piccolo Fiore Bianco di Sicilia Table White (inexpensive at WF; worked fine if nothing special)

Lessons learned from this meal:

- cast iron is so the way to go to crisp fish skin

- cast iron is maybe not the best to do the sauce after the fish is done (a smaller steel pan would have worked better).

- was way off on the cook time but luckily had undercooked it so, after two trips back to the hot skillet, it was perfect

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- cast iron is maybe not the best to do the sauce after the fish is done (a smaller steel pan would have worked better).

Acid in wine not a great idea in an uncoated cast-iron skillet, though less damage to finish results than with a long-simmered tomato sauce, for example. Unfortunately, the retention of heat means the liquid added to make a sauce evaporates quickly. However, I love pan-frying steaks and adding mushrooms & butter to the same pan while meat rests.

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Comfort food from my cast iron skillet, plated cliché on the side:

Medium-rare hamburger (ground beef from Eco-Friendly picked up for a ragu) w fish sauce and garlic paste topped w sautéed mushrooms, garlic, parsley and dill on Panorama's olive-oil roll, toasted w mustard.

Diced golden beet w Chicano Sol's microgreens, goat cheese and toasted walnuts

Orange slices

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Acid in wine not a great idea in an uncoated cast-iron skillet, though less damage to finish results than with a long-simmered tomato sauce, for example. Unfortunately, the retention of heat means the liquid added to make a sauce evaporates quickly. However, I love pan-frying steaks and adding mushrooms & butter to the same pan while meat rests.

That was the problem. The pan's temp was way too high so everything evaporated too quickly. I should have realized that beforehand. Hadn't considered the acid/finish issue but also totally makes sense. We have a nice coated cast-iron skillet I use sometimes for stovetop-to-oven things. I like it alot but for real searing, crisping, it doesn't beat the uncoated cast iron. Thanks for the advice, Anna!

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Last night

Salad of red bibb lettuce, radishes, cucumber, homemade croutons, and Campari tomatoes; ranch or honey mustard dressing

Leftover scalloped potatoes

Chicken andouille sausages with red peppers and red onions

Sourdough bread* with butter

*From Silver Spork that used to be Marvelous Market

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Last night

Salad of red bibb lettuce, radishes, cucumber, homemade croutons, and Campari tomatoes; ranch or honey mustard dressing

...

Were the Campari tomatoes canned or jarred? Hadn't thought of using canned or jarred tomatoes whole in a salad but maybe the best idea since this time of year nearly all the lovely looking tomatoes on offer in stores have virtually no flavor and come from awful sources.

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Were the Campari tomatoes canned or jarred? Hadn't thought of using canned or jarred tomatoes whole in a salad but maybe the best idea since this time of year nearly all the lovely looking tomatoes on offer in stores have virtually no flavor and come from awful sources.

They're fresh tomatoes that are midway in size between a cherry and a regular-sized tomato. They're usually sold on the vine. And, truth be told, they're not bad. Not to be compared with a field-grown tomato in August, mind you, but way better than the pink cardboard we've come to associate with grocery store tomatoes.

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I used to find Campari tomatoes only at Costco, but they're becoming more available in supermarkets. I rely on them outside of field tomato season and enjoy them very much.

The taste is there and I've never had a mealy one. They're hearty (I guess grown to be that way) and make for delicious slow roasted tomatoes when you've got a handful of pruney 'maters staring you down.

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I used to find Campari tomatoes only at Costco, but they're becoming more available in supermarkets. I rely on them outside of field tomato season and enjoy them very much.

The taste is there and I've never had a mealy one. They're hearty (I guess grown to be that way) and make for delicious slow roasted tomatoes when you've got a handful of pruney 'maters staring you down.

I think I have seen them in stores and have bought them before. Will get them again on the next trip. For some reason, I thought they were also a variety sold in cans but maybe not?

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Were the Campari tomatoes canned or jarred? Hadn't thought of using canned or jarred tomatoes whole in a salad but maybe the best idea since this time of year nearly all the lovely looking tomatoes on offer in stores have virtually no flavor and come from awful sources.

As the comments below indicate, these are on the vine and fresh. I can't recall if they're greenhouse or hydroponic, but they're usually from Canada. The best buy is from Costco, but I've been getting a decent deal on them from Giant. Other than these, plum tomatoes (sometimes) are the only good ones in the winter. Until I started seeing these at Costco, I hadn't bought to tomatoes in the winter in a long time.

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Last night: eggplant spread (roasted eggplant, homemade marinara, red peppers, olive oil, and onions, whizzed in the food processor. We used to call this poor man's eggplant parm spread but it doesn't even need the cheese, so we stopped adding it) and fresh bread

Tonight: Good things salad (red pepper, avocados, chicken, grape tomatoes, corn, kidney beans, and cilantro, with a cumin-lime vinaigrette)

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Hanger steak and broccoli with butter. Never been big on cooking steak, but now that I have a method nailed down... it was awesome.

And your method is...?

Last night- Smith Meadows pork chops with a mushroom and red wine reduction sauce, russet and sweet mashed potatoes with gorgonzola, braised mustard greens.

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And your method is...?

Heat the oven to 425 (convection). Get a well-seasoned cast iron pan really stinkin' hot over the very hottest burner. Dry the steak, sprinkle with just a little salt, very lightly oil one side, put that side down in the pan and leave undisturbed for exactly two minutes. Very lightly oil the top, flip over, cook undisturbed for exactly one minute. Grind a lot of black pepper on the upside while it's cooking. Rush pan to oven and cook for 6 minutes. Remove to plate immediately and hit with a good coupla pinches of Maldon sea salt.

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roasted, dry brined chicken (TJ's free range)

kale braised with bacon and onion

roasted sweet potatoes pureed with maple sugar, ginger and orange zest

2007 Pierre Chermette Beaujolais

We often do sweet potato puree with maple and onion. Love the idea of using citrus and ginger. Is that a regular recipe for you, Zora or just how the mood struck today? That flavor combination wouldn't have occurred to me but, thinking about it more, it sounds interesting.

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We often do sweet potato puree with maple and onion. Love the idea of using citrus and ginger. Is that a regular recipe for you, Zora or just how the mood struck today? That flavor combination wouldn't have occurred to me but, thinking about it more, it sounds interesting.

Sweet potatoes are lovely with pineapple too.

I like the combination of orange and cinnamon. You can get away with low fat addition to sweet potatoes more than regular mashed potatoes imo.

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Raw carrots and turnip slices

Cedarbrook's spareribs braised w stock and a pint of an apple-cabbage choucroute (still emptying freezer)

Mashed rutabaga w black pepper and wizened mushroom bits

Dried apricots w herbal tea

Not to worry. Kale and arugula at lunch.

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Monavano: You ought to pick up some freelance assignments from local restaurants, glossy print and related online sources (NPR Salt...). You and Fishinnards shoot the most appealing images of food around.

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