Food Thread: Ripe Tomatoes, Dust Safety, And Chewy Meringues!

Ah...it's that time of the year, when tomatoes are mature and ripe and very, very, tasty! I can't think of many other foods with such a short-lived window of opportunity. Asparagus is one, and I guess there are some fruits that ripen in a three week window, but frankly I don't care much about fruit, and I never have!

But tomatoes? Yeah, I do care about them, although there is a small voice in the back of my mind that is telling me that lovely ripe tomatoes are merely a vehicle for fresh mozzarella, good olive oil, a dash of Balsamic vinegar, and a few snips of fresh basil!

What about you? Do you believe, as all right-thinking people do, that tomatoes are best served with mozzarella still warm from the water bath? Or do you serve them in some weird way. like on Skyline Chili dipped in Canadian Whiskey?

Fess up!

What to do with the six egg whites left over from the six egg yolks I used in the coffee ice cream? Remember...I am a cheap bastard, so tossing them was never an option.

So meringues it was! Except I was lazy and didn't want to pipe them, so I just heaped them onto a single sheet pan. Yup! Those are big ones! And tasty, though soft in the middle, which is an interesting twist on the classic crunchy meringue. But fun, and once I figure out what to do with them besides eat them plain, I'll make some more gargantuan ones! The chewy middle was quite pleasing!

But... there are some shortcuts that decrease the overall quality of the dish. Here is a good example, and I am not picking on "The Spruce Eats," because it is one of the better and less fussy cooking sites out there.

Chicken Parmesan can be a fantastic dish if the chicken is crispy and the sauce is delicious and the mozzarella is fresh and just melted without being desiccated. But that requires a lot of work and several steps.

This version, Easy Chicken Parmesan, is easy! And tasty, but it is a far cry from the one that requires a lot more work. Have I made something like this? Of course I have. Sometimes cooking is simply a vehicle to get the meal on the table in the quickest way possible, and that is perfectly okay, and in fact is probably the default for most people.

But if you have the time and the inclination, give some of those great recipes a try...

Anyway, they love bacon! The Best Way To Cook Bacon is a meandering trip through lots and lots of different techniques, and some surprising results. It's worth a watch.

Why yes, that is a slice of mozzarella with a chunk of fried chicken skin on top. And don't you dare scoff! it was delicious!

This is the coffee ice cream with chopped heath bars that I mentioned in the FWP thread. It was excellent, especially considering I haven't made ice cream in many years. I should have chilled the custard down almost to freezing before I put it into the machine, because it wasn't quite as creamy as I wanted. The longer it takes to freeze, the larger the ice crystals are, and that is the enemy of creaminess. But next time I will be better prepared! And there will definitely be a next time, because it was fun as well as tasty!

I might have to recertify for my Dust Safety Certificate soon!

About the Bourbon Bubble...I think it has burst, but the category is also suffering from the inflation that affected everything else (Thanks Biden!). I think the sweet spot is still $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!

posted by CBD at 04:00 PM

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