[Insert usual apology for the lack of pictures; as is manifestly apparent at this point, I can’t cook and take photos at the same time….]
ESC #26 had a Southwest Asian vibe. The fish curry and samosas were the standouts. The cauliflower was fine, and the golden compote, while promising on paper, turned out too raw, crunchy, and bitter to be nice with the ice cream (and this was the recipe’s fault, not the cook’s).
- Bengali-Style Fried Fish in Onion and Tomato Curry (Fish Bhuna),
- Golden Compote of Pineapple, Cardamom, and Rose Water
- Pakistani Potato Samosas
- Roasted Cauliflower with Golden Raisins
- Coconut Rice (really any recipe will do here)
- Gin-Gin Mule
ESC #27 was another fall distilling, ahem, perfume-making festival at my friend M’s house. The apricot brandy turned out *fantastic*, and we got an incredible yield compared to our previous apple-brandy experiment: over a gallon of distillate from 15 gallons of mash. This was a huge relief as I worked like an absolute dog saving all of those apricots from disaster when 4 branches broke off my tree this year under the weight of an over-set of fruit (and Jason helped too!) Everyone loved the tomato linzer torte, though to my tastes it was WAY too sweet; next time I’d leave the sugar out altogether. And I finally got the pastila (Russian apple marshmallows) to at least work, but I think I didn’t get enough applesauce in the ratio b/c the final product came out quite flat, though the flavor was nice. It’s so much work that I don’t know if I’ll try it again (unless I have an excess of eggs and apples someday…wait a minutes….)
- Kitchen Project #35: Tomato & Parmesan Linzer
- Crispy Spiced Lamb and Lentils in lettuce cups
- Honey Roasted Almonds with Lemon, Chile, and Thyme (reverse engineered from this episode of the Country Village Life vlog)
- Pastila (good luck!)
- Mulled Cherry Cocktail
The Rookery 