Forum

MWFhome, it's not really a problem to have a separate topic, but since you meant to post on the Cooking from Your Books thread, I can move this thread over there. As soon as I move it, this one will disappear, but the conversation can be continued over there.

Thank you, Christine.  MWFhome

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone about recipes that they like to make in early summer especially. (now or in the next few months in Northern hemisphere)

Salmon Burgers w/Caper Mayo from Dinner with Julie. 

I really wanted them to be salmon cakes but they really insisted on being burgers, which was no bad thing.  I made them a little smaller and they were still pretty substantial.  I by-passed the buns, choosing instead, to serve them w/a scoop of Trader Joe's corn-chile salsa (Heaven in a jar) providing a nice crunch and spicy kick.  While I liked the caper mayo, I think my capers were a little aged and had lost their flavour, so I added a little hot sauce and that made a big difference.

These were made with fresh salmon.  Roughly chopped, producing a great texture with the advantage of identifying any overlooked bones.  I wouldn't chop the fish in the food processor, you'd have a puree in seconds – the knife made short work of the job resulting in a loose mixture that barely held together as a burger, but cooked like a dream, golden and crusty in a hot cast iron skillet - in about five minutes.

I would definitely make them again, delicious and very easy to put together and I'd love to see them as mini-sliders - appetizer style.

It's tempting to add to and tweak these burgers, I added some dill - but I wouldn't do much more than that as these are, and should be, all about the salmon.

Last night I made Chicken Quesadillas w/Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and they were great!  Despite having purchased bone-in, skin-on thighs which took much longer to cook than boneless would have, it worked very well for a mid-week dinner.  I think using rotisserie chicken would also be worth trying - there's such a medley of flavours w/the other ingredients - I shall experiment.  We really loved the corn in this treatment, both the texture and flavour.

I had only full-size tortillas and the smaller ones would have made things much easier.

Notwithstanding, we enjoyed this so much.

I made dukkah from "My Paris Kitchen" and Fusilli with Ricotta and Spinach from "Cooks Illustrated, May & June 2014" and combined them both tonite for dinner.  I used the dukkah in place of the seasonings.  

Poulet a l'Estragon (Tarragon Chicken) from Food52 was on the menu last night and it was a lovely twist on the longer, more conventional preparation.  Inspired by the tarragon in the garden which is doing inexplicably better than in recent years, I was able to be lavish with the herb.

This has been on my To-Try list for a little while and it's an easy, extremly flexible dish which could be taken in several directions, but it's great the way it's written.  I'm tempted to use Dijon mustard instead of tomato paste, as suggested by one of the commenters.  I used bone-in-skin-on thighs and they crisped up beautifully under the broiler at the end.

A delicious mid-week recipe with rich and luxurious flavours - I served it with new potatoes (par-boiled & finished in a cast-iron skillet in a hot oven w/a little olive oil) and fresh English peas.  Could easily be spruced up as a company-worthy dish, my guest certainly loved it.

I made fish tacos this week, using haddock, mostly following the simplest and lightest recipe I have access to (no deep fat frying)-- the recipe in Eating Well is the Best Revenge.  I served them with two salsas, one made using mango and oranges, and the other using watermelon and mint from the garden, and with some black beans that I had soaked and boiled up.  This was a wonderful meal served along with the French Beans and Mangetout salad from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, as we had fresh vegetables.  Like you, Foodelf, I like spicy food in summer, and both of these dishes, once the salsas were made in advance, were quite easy to prepare.

I found three colors of cauliflower (purple, green and gold) at the Farmers' Market this weekend and just had to try them.  I used a simple recipe from Verdura called Cauliflower Salad with Lemon Dre ssing.  It was so easy and turned out with so much wonderful color that I had to try Rinshin's trick of posting the photo to Facebook and copying it here.  Besides the color the flavor was good too.  I added some capers for garnish too along with the radishes and olives the recipe calls for.  This would be a good company dish with a big "Wow" factor on the table.

hillsboroks - I can see the new feature for adding photos to recipes on EYB is going to be stunning if all the photos look like this.