If we have any LA based Hungry Onion-ers out there, I would be game for a group cook day to batch cook her Chile crisp sauce.
In Marcella’s bolognese the meat is simmered in milk and then wine, and given that it’s delicious as written, I don’t change that.
Good reminder that someone asked for a Cooking From thread for Marcella Hazan a while back:
CHICKEN BRAISED WITH APRICOTS AND HARISSA p. 302
This is one of those homey dishes you can easily double so as to have a few extra meals tucked away in the freezer. The dried apricots are what originally drew me to this dish. As a young cook, one of my first successes was with a long cooked chicken. This recipe, though nothing like that one, conjures it in my imagination. I think it is the dried fruit. It acts as a natural tenderizer. So the chicken becomes fall apart tender, and the apricots disappear into the sauce.
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PRESERVED LEMON AND LABNE CAKE– from Good Things
I remember first hearing about preserved lemons in Chowhound times– I was intrigued but never tried them. This cake uses preserved lemon paste. The book includes instructions on how to make the stuff, but I found some commercially made – 3 ingredients only - lemons, lemon juice, salt. So I decided to take a chance, and I think it’s great! (The bad reviews for the product were for packaging problems.) The cake also uses labne, which is pretty much yogurt strained to remove most of the whey, and the usual egg, flour, sugar, etc. I didn’t use turmeric to enhance either the color of the cake or the glaze–I didn’t like the looks of the glaze in the book, way too yellow, I don’t mind a pale glaze 
(The glaze is made with just lemon juice, not the preserved stuff.)
Samin N. says the preserved paste brings a “welcome hint of funk” to the cake, I don’t know what that means! I just find it bright and tasty. I would like to ask, if anyone has tried both commercial and homemade would you choose one over the other? Seems like they both would be made the same way with the same ingredients.
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With good commercial or homemade preserved lemons you get a nice hit of umami/salty taste with one could describe as funky. It’s really this fermentation flavor that makes preserved lemons unique
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I have this bookmarked. Looks great! How’s the texture?
(Re homemade vs purchased preserved lemons / paste, as long as there are no additional ingredients, it’s going to be pretty equivalent. Just taste for salt.)
For a second I thought you meant the texture of the paste – which is pretty liquidy, not really a paste – but if you mean the cake, it is like a yogurt cake, or an olive oil cake – sort of “fleshy” if that doesn’t alarm you – there’s some body to it, moist and a little heavy for its size compared to like a cake-mix cake. But not underbaked. I hope that makes sense. Not too much salt in the lemon paste–just right. I think it will work in anything that calls for lemon zest or juice–très convenient!
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Yes, the cake! Thanks, I like yogurt cakes in general, so this bodes well!
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I’m finding the ebook of Good Things a little frustrating to navigate.
Several recipes (especially the “off-the-cuff” ones) aren’t in the drop-down table of contents recipe list, and there isn’t a full recipe list that I have found yet. (For eg: Preserved Lemon Labne Cake, Sparkling Banana Bread, and Vanilla Bean Flan are all missing in the drop-down menu even though they are in the dessert section. In addition to a whole pile of smaller recipes earlier in the book.)
I think the Julia Turshen books did a better job of capturing the recipe variations so they could be found.
Currently reading through to find what I missed from browsing through the drop-down list.
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Good Things
LAURIE ELLEN’S CARDAMOM SHORTBREAD
Was an ebook from my library; I no longer have the page number.
A while back pavlova posted Pistachio-Cardamom Shortbread Biscuits from A Whisper of Cardamom, called for both All- purpose and Rice Flour. They were delicious but unbelievably fragile.
When I saw this recipe in Good Times (uses one egg) I tried it but from the first time I added ⅔ cup toasted, ground pistachios.
It’s become a real favorite. I refrigerate the dough at least overnight, weigh the flour. She says cookies stay crispier if kept in a tin so that’s what I do. They aren’t very sweet.
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Those look tantalizingly tasty!
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Today’s batch tasted barely sweet and I know I put the correct amount of sugar, calls for 1.5 cups of powdered sugar. For the cardamom-sugar topping I always use Baker’s Sugar (fine).
I’d call these bite sized. Took 19 minutes.
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To get the right amount of cardamom, you need 60 pods; I don’t mind extracting the seeds but if you don’t have that kind of patience, you can just buy seeds, then grind up in electric coffee grinder.
IMO this tome of a book is definitely better in hard copy format. I devoured it from cover to cover. Lots of tidbits in the intros and headnotes, and yes, recipes or recommendations throughout.
The physical book is 50% off at Barnes and Noble right now.
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From salt, fat… her Squash and Brussels Sprout Agro Dolce salad is stunning. We’ve made it a number of times. The only tweak is a bit less oil than she suggests.
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I still have one roll of dough in the freezer…very tempted to make them now.
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SPICY TUNA PANTRY PASTA p. 177 Good Things
Lots of raves for this on EYB, so I took the plunge, and we did enjoy it. But I wish she’d given a bit more guidance on how much of the Calabrian chile paste to add. I wasn’t sure what she was going for here, and this was my first experience with the paste, so I erred on the side of caution and only added about 2 tablespoons. We needed more. I also didn’t salt enough, listening to her note about remembering the anchovies and the salted water. But next time I will add probably 4 tablespoons of the paste, and I will be a bit heavier handed with the salt. Because this was a good, easy pantry pasta.
Saute chopped onion until slightly browned, then add garlic, and next add anchovies, chile paste, & tomato paste and cook until the anchovies break down and the whole thing has an orange tint. Start your pasta, and add canned cherry tomatoes to the sauce. No canned cherry tomatoes to be found in my store, so I went with diced. Bring to a simmer, let cook a bit, then add grated Parmesan, and two cans of tuna in oil. At this point I should have added more salt and chile paste - next time I will. Drain almost al dente pasta and add to the sauce. Stir everything together and let flavors meld. Serve with lemon zest. Easy peasy (but have everything ready!).
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Looks good! Did you like it enough to make it again? Sadly my PIC is not fond of ‘hot’ tuna 
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Reminded me of the Blonde Puttanesca from the NYT – any preference between the two?
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