It calls for an entire pound of butter to make two loaves! How is that even possible! By which I mean, yes, I want to try to make it exactly once.
(Also on the list: black pepper brioche from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook.)
angelakim asked: how do you make lavender kombucha? it sounds like the most wonderful drink!
We use this procedure for making our kombucha and have been super happy with it. For lavender kombucha, I tossed in a big handful of lavender buds along with the tea bags, then strained it, added sugar, and moved on with the recipe.
The end product smells really floral and tastes like expensive lemonade! One thing: the resultant SCOBY will be lavender-flavored, so store it away from your regular-flavored SCOBYs.
3djeff asked: How do you create the authentic looking borders on your photos? Is it an app like Polarize? Thanks in advance. They look great.
We use ShakeItPhoto, a Hipstamatic/Instagram precursor with only one filter. You can read more about why we like it in this interview.
JMM’s in New Haven, so it’s slightly burnt cinnamon toast — on fluffy, buttery, light brioche that I made — and iced coffee for one.
(Seriously, after all the craggy sourdough it was a relief to bake a bread that can be described as “pillowy,” you know? And I even used a quarter whole wheat flour because I ran out of all-purpose!)
A one-baking-sheet Sunday lunch of Ikea frozen potato rosti (the last of the Ikea products!) and asparagus.
I made JMM leave the apartment so his birthday breakfast would be a surprise: olive oil-brushed toast, chocolate granola, coffee, and…the poached scrambled eggs we made before, but with a big dollop of homemade pesto stirred into the eggs before cooking. (Pesto scrambled eggs = young JMM’s favorite breakfast.) I was nervous the pesto would taste waterlogged, but turned out really well. What else can we stir into the eggs before poaching them?
A steak salad (!) of skirt steak over romaine with a dijon dressing. On the side we had the last of the season’s ramps, cooked quickly in the pan in which the steak was seared.
Tartine sourdough with creamed caramelized leeks. We tossed in the last of the Ikea meatballs to stretch it further.
Tiger stripes of shichimi togarashi on breakfast sourdough toast with avocado.
We made the fanciest dinner of all time for Mother’s Day with JMM’s parents — planning and cooking this meal was so fun that I was almost sad to actually eat all the food. The menu:
- Spring pea and ricotta torte (again), this time poured into a pie shell
- Tartine sourdough with Frankie’s olive oil and the pink sea salt JMM’s mom brings us from Hawaii
- Zuni Cafe-style roasted chicken, modified with no flipping, lavender butter under the skin, and tiny potatoes baked under it in the pan
- Glazed carrots with wilted Bibb lettuce to which I added purple scallions and green garlic (this was possibly my favorite part of the meal!)
- Escarole salad with radishes and anchovy vinaigrette
- Our whole wheat-cornmeal variation on the Edna Lewis cake, served with a variation on this compote: toss a pound of sliced strawberries, 3 cups of chopped rhubarb, 6 tablespoons of brown sugar, big strips of peel from a lemon, and a big glug of rosewater in a pan, then roast at 300 degrees for 2 hours (it’ll set as it cools)
