Thinning the Recipe Stockpile

RadishEater

acpgee wrote: »

Tried manzo all'olio with limited success after eating it on vacation in Lombardy last month. The recipe we used was

https://polentaebaccala.com/2017/02/19/manzo-allolio-beef-in-extra-virgin-olive-oil/

Beef was not as melting soft as we remember it in Brescia. Probably used the wrong cut of meat, but that is so tricky with butchering being so different in different countries.

I have trouble identifying meat to buy in Wegmans from American recipes. There is just so many and never quite what the recipe calls for. Or the recipe calls for the most expensive cut and I'm googling a cheaper substitute in the meat aisle.

acpgee

I was recently gifted David Thompson's authoritative "thai food". Made his som tam with crispy sweet pork for the first time. Some hacks were necessary due to hard to find ingredients. Two long beans were substituted with 10 green beans. Green papaya was substituted with a combination of spiralized carrot and granny smith apples. Calorie reducing substitutes were air frying the pork instead of deep frying. Labour saving hacks were pressing the garlic, and chopping the roast peanuts and chillis instead doing everything with a mortar and pestle, though that might have been a good arm workout.