Welcome to Litsy!

I'd never heard of chile de arbol, the author's favourite. I kept a score card of the number of recipes specifying particular kinds of chilies:
33x chile de arbol
12x serrano
2x urfa
1x each alleppo, marash & jalapeño
3x unspecified type (photo is of unknown variety from my cupboard)
I'm now checking for chile de arbol at any new market I'm in, since I'm curious about just how good it is. Any Litten chile experts?

Beautiful writing, but fuck if I'd ever cook any of these recipes. Way too much for me to try. And I figured a book about vegetables would be veggie-centric, but an awful lot of recipes were full of meat and animal products, so I guess this wasn't what I was hoping for. Like I said, she writes beautifully. But meh.

The author's personality shines through, making this cookbook an enjoyable read. She uses ingredients that are new to me, like flower pollen, mughrabia, argan oil, shio koji & freekeh. So I feel like I've learned new things, even if I don't try cooking with them. Neither will I use raspberry vinegar to top ice cream. Nor dry fig leaves in a smoker, then crumble for seasoning. But I do like to think on these things.

"For the occasions when I drink a shade too much, I make this soup the following day. Beef broth with bean sprouts alkalizes the body and grounds an expanded mind." ?

This cookbook is artfully presented, but there are so many unfortunate errors in the text. Missing words, typographical mistakes (ofter instead of often), and wrong words (palate instead of plate). It doesn't give me confidence about trying the recipes, even though I'm really enjoying the author's style, as when she advises to serve along with soup "a pull of good, rustic bread," and I can envision a loaf too warm to slice.

Been teaching myself how to cross stitch tonight. My goal is to be able to make snarky feminist comments and Harry Potter references. 📼📸

This cookbook prompted a visit to a Chinese market in search of buddha's hand & burdock root. Didn't find either, but I did buy a bag of kumquats for chutney. Later, saw the recipe called for curry leaves & green chilies, so I went back today. Also got more ya-li pears, after buying just 1 yesterday. Best Asian pears! Now to get on with the chutney.

"Radicchio can be served raw, simmered, sautéed, roasted, and even grilled. When we seek to balance its intensity, we get to employ some exciting sidekicks like pork fat, preserved fish, and vinegar."

I love the author's enthusiasm, even when I don't share it. (Radicchio ?, pork fat and preserved fish ?.)

McKenzie is singing my song when she states: "Just the aroma of smoky, sour, sweet black cardamom pods makes me happy." I currently have three forms in my kitchen, including an extract that I made.

The kumquat is not a true citrus; while considered a member of the broader citrus family, many botanists place it in a genus all its own. It grows on a tree that pollinates the blossoms of citrus, thereby creating crosses with ridiculous names such as limequats, mandarinquats, sunquats and so on.

My CSA haul with some recipe ideas!