chez pim

no recipe apple tart

Can you bake without a recipe?  Most of you are probably shaking your head no...no, no, no, no.  You've all been scared off by that culinary truism that refers to cooking as an art and baking as a science.  I don't think it's true at all.  And I think most good home cooks who are afraid of baking are missing out a whole lot.  The same is true with bakers who religiously follow recipes.  If baking is rigidly following a recipe, you're missing out on the improvisation, the play that makes cooking so much fun.

Of course, it's true that you need to learn a few basic recipes.  Learn how to do a pie/tart crust, for example.  Any good food writer/blogger worth their salt can teach you one. Yes, I even have one in my book (which of course you must wait for.)  But once you have that, you can bake just about any fruit tart or fruit pies that your heart desires and you mind imagines.

When life hands you a goose egg..

Ok, not life, but Dee at Harley Farms gave me a giant goose egg.  What do I do with it?  Help!  (That's a quarter next to it, by the way, not a dime.)

Thai scallop ceviche - Yum Hoy Shell

I'm calling this dish Thai Scallop Ceviche.  The "Thai" descriptor here is for the ceviche, as in Thai-style ceviche.  And not for the scallops, as in, these scallops are not from Thailand.  They are from the Northeast, actually, Nantucket Bay Scallops, to be precise.  Yes, yes, I know full well ceviche is a Peruvian preparation, but we do a very similar thing in Thailand.  We call it Yum.  Or Yum Talay.  And true to the name, it is quite yummy too, and easy besides.

The idea here is the same as the regular ceviche, that is to say the seafood takes a nice, long bath in lemon or lime juice to "cook".  Let us not be confused though.  There's no cooking happening here.  The citric acid in lime or lemon juice just change the texture and look of the seafood so they appear opaque and slightly firm and generally look like they've been "cooked".  So I wouldn't suggest this dish if you're afraid of germs or parasites or all that peevish nonsense.  I read somewhere that if you're afraid of raw ceviche you could get away with cooking the seafood very breifly in boiling water just to "cook" them slightly before making your ceviche.  Frankly I'm more than a bit dubious about this advice.  To a germ or parasite, passing just a few seconds through boiling water is like having a day at a Japanese Onsen.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to deal with germs that have just had a restorative day at a germ spa.