Big kitchen day-matzoh ball soup, three kinds of latke and sufganiot, chocolate and raspberry. A day late perhaps, but a four person Hanukkah party was in order. Surprisingly, I had everything done well before the guests arrived.
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Thank you. Great find indeed.
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What varieties of latke did you make? Were they different types of potato, or did you go crazy and mix it up with different veggies?
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The traditional plain potato, just salt and pepper, grated spuds, grated onion and a few eggs, with some flour to help as a binder. Then sweet potato and apple, with a shallot instead of onion, and a mashed potato, zucchini and corn blend with cumin. This year I used the kitchen aid shredder attachment and avoided tinting them pink. (The new shredder set isn’t as good as the old one, the blades are cylindrical, and the shreds don’t fall out easily like they did from the conical ones). It was a pleasant evening.
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Sony going gastronomic with future AI
Sony AI has launched the Gastronomy Flagship Project aiming to train AIs to find innovative recipes for humans and machine-learning driven robotic kitchen assistants.
The research biz, spun out from Sony itself, wants to use AI in a recipe creation app that will analyze taste, aroma, flavor, molecular structure, and nutritional content of foodstuffs to come up with new cooking ideas that are tasty, nutritious and sustainable.
It also wants to build a chef-assisting cooking robot that is trained using machine learning to take over many of the food preparation and plating processes that currently take up many a harassed kitchen assistant’s time. Sony envisions future chefs using multiple robots to cook for people simultaneously in remote locations.
“Through the power of AI and robotics, we want to reaffirm the principle of our gastronomy flagship project, which is to enable creative gastronomy that is at the same time healthy and sustainable,” said Hiroaki Kitano, CEO of Sony AI. "Together with creators in the gastronomy community, we wish to contribute to creative, healthy, and sustainable gastronomy.”
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Pancake.
Pancake1.
Pancake2.
Pancake3.
Bourbon Barrel Maple Syrup, Butter, Blueberries, and Toasted Walnuts.
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I vote for!
also, that is a proper avocado toast and a perfectly poached egg!
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Last night I made my first squash-based curry and it came out great. (We have a lot of butternuts from our own garden to get through before our winter CSA starts next month.)
Made my own coconut milk by mixing 1 3/4 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened kind) with 2 1/4 cup warm water, letting it sit for a minute to soften, then blending in blender for a minute, then straining through a tea strainer. Each batch like that equals about 1 cans worth.
Sautéed onion, garlic, ginger, then browned the peeled, cubed squash, added red curry paste and the coconut milk and the last of our kale (harvested from under the snow! Still good.). Simmered about 20 minutes and served over jasmine rice.
Topped with a squirt of lime and chopped peanuts. (And hot oil, but that goes without saying).
Tasted like a bit of August sunshine saved up for the winter. 
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Laurie said she burnt the bacon. I thought it was grand!
Cheers!
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Did the Italian tradition of the Vigilia (hope I’m spelling it right).
Langostine risotto for lunch (with homemade shrimp shell broth)
Shrimp wrapped in bacon, sourdough crostata with smoked salmon, pepata di cozze (mussels with garlic, black pepper and white wine). For dinner, that wine is having an effect.
Loads of white wine, bread and prosecco accompanied…
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I like making pumpkin/ squash curry. I use our amaranth as the green to add. it grows well here and keeps popping up all over the place, so we always have some to gather!
I like your coconut milk idea! I keep lots of unsweetened coconut flakes to use in crunchy grouper fry-up. I will file this idea in case I need some in a pinch and don’t happen to have a can in store.
and yes, your hot oil is definitely going in my next curry! love it!
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Amaranth is great! Isn’t that what’s use to make callaloo? (It is.) That green is uncommon up here, but sometimes we find it at the farmers’ market at the Somali-owned booths. Side note: I found out a couple years ago that we have the immigrant population to thank for our awesome farmers’ market scene. Just like Minneapolis. 
For the coconut milk, it’s a great trick. Usually I just compost the leftover coconut stuff, but this time I saved it to see if I can figure out something tasty to do with it. I’ll let you know if I succeed. I’m thinking maybe toasting it, or making faux almond joys by flavoring the mash with almond oil then coating in chocolate…
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Nice!
Thank you,
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Thanks. Obrigado.
Next time I will put less bulgur wheat, add more mint,onion, parsley and make a filling with more cheese and spinach (a local touch).
Every time I see your avatar, I remember a character from the movie “The Neverending Story”.
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Sous vide steak and lamb. Mwah! Delish. Turned out tender and juicy. Marinade was a lemon zest, tarragon, olive oil concoction. I did 3 hours at 130F. The spices were cooked first, to kill anything. Then after the 3 hours, I seared everything on the grill.
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The sear looks a bit light, which is a regular problem with sous vide. Since the meat is wet when it comes out the bag.
I never had much luck patting them dry with paper towels. But what works real well for me is hitting the meat briefly with a torch. Just enough that the muscle contracts a bit and the color starts to change. Burns off the excess water leaving a really dry surface so you can get a really nice sear.
I’ve started doing it to most things I’m gonna sear, sous vide or not.
It doesn’t seem to work as well on poultry skin or certain veg though.
Torches don’t aren’t a good searing method on their own. But they’re awesome for prep and touch-ups.
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The wet definitely retards the sear. But I’m also not sure what the gain of “more sear” would be in this case. Little steaks like these don’t need it or they’d be at risk of drying out. A big roast needs it: that amazing crust of herbs and crispy fat. Torching is a good way to get there.
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