Fat Guy

There's a pretty good Wikipedia entry on this, which squares with what I know about this subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_in_the_basket Wikipedia says "Egg in the basket" is the main name, but also cites alternate names:

The best meatballs I've had lately are the lamb meatballs at Beacon restaurant in New York City. I asked for the recipe and, as luck would have it, I wound up going into the restaurant to make them. This is the recipe as adapted for home cooking: +++ Beacon’s Lamb Meatballs By Chef/Co-Owner Waldy Malouf, Beacon Restaurant, NYC Makes about 24 x 2" meatballs 3 pounds ground lamb (not too lean) 2 cloves garlic (finely minced) 3 eggs 1/2 cup finely minced onion 1 teaspoon cumin powder 1 cup breadcrumbs 2 tablespoons chopped parsley 1 tablespoon chopped mint 1/2 cup aged Pecorino Romano 1 cup Greek style yogurt (Lebnah) Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 1 cup olive oil 1 quart tomato juice Combine meatball ingredients. Mix by hand until mixture hold its shape. Shape into meatballs (2” in diameter). In a large skillet, heat olive oil and brown the meatballs in batches. Place meatballs in a casserole and cover with tomato juice, bring to a simmer and braise for 30 minutes. Serve with cheese polenta, baby greens, and freshly grated Parmesan. +++ For those interested in seeing how it's done in the restaurant kitchen, there's a post on the Beacon topic with some photos. The major difference between the restaurant method and the instructions above involves grinding the meat. In the restaurant, they take chunks of lamb shoulder (chuck) and put them through a grinder, and they add the garlic, onion and herbs into the grinder whole or in chunks, and those ingredients get incorporated right into the ground meat. Also as usual in restaurants they do things by weight. So they make their meatballs around 2 ounces. I imagine the 2" meatballs specified above are slightly larger. If you have a scale you can experiment. For browning, in the restaurant, they use significantly more than a cup of oil. But that's for a 10-pound batch. Still, they use more.

I do it all the time. The starch, as I understand it, acts as both a binder and a lightener. I find egg works fine for both purposes. Your meatballs will be a little harder to work with, but they'll happen. Don't pack them too tight and they come out fine.

The Society is pleased to welcome Hungry Sofia as an eG Ethics code signatory. Hungry Sofia is a blog about the author's food life in general, Latin food and cooking specifically, and more specifically Cuban food. On a personal note, I'm particularly attached to Hungry Sofia not only because I enjoy reading it but also because its author was recently a student in my food-blogging class at the International Culinary Center. Welcome!

I've never heard of preserved frozen, though, for example I don't think there's such a thing as frozen canned tuna -- at least not in the marketplace. I thought the use of "fresh frozen" arose to reflect quick freezing very soon after harvest/capture/slaughter.

I wonder about the term "Ahi Tuna" in the first place. Isn't "Ahi" just a Hawaiian word meaning "Tuna." If so, is "Ahi Tuna" just "Tuna Tuna." I know it has come often to refer to yellowfin tuna, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have to. Actually, I believe that ahi does only refer to yellowfin tuna. Po'onui is bigeye tuna, aku is skipjack tuna, ahi palaha is albacore tuna, etc. (some info here). ← As far as I know ahi refers to yellowfin and bigeye ("Both yellowfin and bigeye tuna are referred to as ahi in Hawaii" is what it says in the Fish Forever book as well as many other sources), and albacore is "ahi palaha" aka "ahi." I'm not aware of any other species of tuna being caught in commercial quantities around Hawaii, though I'm by no means an expert on that. But I've heard from a variety of sources that in Hawaii "ahi" just means "tuna."

I wonder about the term "Ahi Tuna" in the first place. Isn't "Ahi" just a Hawaiian word meaning "Tuna." If so, is "Ahi Tuna" just "Tuna Tuna." I know it has come often to refer to yellowfin tuna, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have to.

As of last time I had one the cocktail consisted of Flor de Cana Silver dry rum, Lillet Blanc, fresh lemon and grapefruit juices, Bonne Maman orange marmalade and St. George absinthe. I don't know the exact quantities.

I wonder if any of the existing course materials are online. If so, I'd definitely like to take a look.

Okay so a quick report on what transpired today: We arrived at our friend's house in Sag Harbor, NY, to find 4 Oxo oyster knives, 4 protective gloves and 96 oysters. Why were there 4 knives and gloves? Because I was going to teach a little class, I learned. I took three oysters off into a quiet corner. These were local oysters from somewhere around Sag Harbor, very flat and wide with fairly brittle shells. I destroyed two of three shells and got one open with acceptable results. A little while later, my three "students" joined me in the kitchen. In a confident tone I recited all the oyster-shucking wisdom I learned here. Then I demonstrated. My demonstration oyster opened beautifully, forever establishing my expert credentials. This was not undone by the oysters I later wrecked, or by the deep stab wound I inflicted on myself later on. We shucked about 5 dozen of the oysters, yielding about 4 dozen good ones, which we put on platters with seaweed to stabilize them. I also made a mignonette sauce with vinegar and vermouth reduced by half, mixed with minced shallots and the liquid from the ruined oysters. I then took the remaining 3 dozen oysters and threw them on the grill. When they opened up I put them in a pot and poured in a sauce made from the remaining mignonette with half a stick of butter whisked in. A number of them got eaten before I had a chance to take a photo. The remainder of dinner consisted of brisket that had spent most of the day in the smoker, a salmon spread made from the Le Bernardin recipe and a whole bunch of other savory stuff not pictured (including a magnum of '82 Bordeaux). Cheese and several courses of dessert followed.

Just did a test run on 3 oysters. Not good. They're very flat and wide with brittle shells. Last-minute advice?

The Society is pleased to welcome Tasty Travails as an eG Ethics code signatory. Tasty Travails is "a blog about cooking, eating, drinking, restaurants, bars, the neighborhood and anything else that comes to mind," written by Mitch Weinstein, who is based in New York City on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Mitch, who goes by member name "weinoo" here, is presently an eG Forums host. Welcome!

I'm thinking something like that could not only be a teaching guide, but could also include resources on how to interface with community centers, churches, etc., so as to arrange for actual live teaching opportunities. We have so many members who are very educated about cooking, so packaging the right information for them could give them the tools they need to teach. We could also do some direct online teaching (because some percentage of the target audience is online), and we could develop printable course materials perhaps in translated versions as well.

If you, or you in combination with a group of members, wanted to develop a set of teaching materials -- essentially an online class on how to teach a class on low-cost, healthy eating -- the Society could publish and promote that.

I like 1/4" slices for this sort of thing. Enough to sink your teeth into, but not as thick as actual steaks. By the way leftovers make great hash.

The party is tomorrow. I'll report back tomorrow night or Tuesday, depending. Good news: Oxo oyster knife acquired.

On the other hand, there are quite a few sources arguing against rinsing, for example this article on FoodReference.com says:

This website has some very compelling explanations: http://www.sagevfoods.com/MainPages/Rice101/Cooking.htm On the question of the changing ratio for larger quantities, it says: On the issue of rinsing: Also recommends soaking for an hour prior to cooking.

Setting aside that jumping the shark may have jumped the shark, may we focus for a moment on competitive cooking on television? It seems the progression from Iron Chef to Top Chef was a healthy one: both shows are entertaining and interesting. But a show like Chopped, which is pretty bad and lamely derivative, combined with all the other lame competitive-cooking shows (remember the horrible Chopping Block?) seems to indicate that we've crossed the shark-jumping threshold. I can see the appeal of these shows to network execs: the competition aspect provides the element of dramatic tension that many will tell you is a necessary ingredient for a successful show. They follow the Survivor/reality mold and that's a recipe for ratings. But the shows are kind of starting to suck. I'm also wondering when we'll start seeing the fallout from these shows, if we haven't already, when consumers armed with a little off-base knowledge start being pains in restaurants.

Can we discuss washing rice a little more? 1. Why does everyone in Japan rinse rice, assuming they do? 2. Why do American rice packages rarely if ever specify rinsing? 3. How much water does rice absorb and/or carry with it when you rinse it, and how does this affect the quantity of water you need to add to the pot? Also, a separate issue: 4. Why do the instructions Kris linked to above specify using less water, ratio-wise, as the amount of rice being cooked increases? What's the science behind that?

I wonder how apple pie became a July 4th staple, given that apple season is in the fall. You'd think cherry pie would be the thing around now. We're just starting our faux Korean BBQ experiment. The meat has been marinating overnight, we're making cold sesame noodles and rice, I just washed the lettuce leaves . . . things are coming along.

I'm thinking if I use the countertop/towel method AND a protective glove I can avoid a trip to the emergency room, even if I shatter every oyster.

Our friend Sean, who is a co-owner of a large diner-type operation, made egg sandwiches for us for breakfast. The egg sandwich that he prefers to make at home, which he refers to as "the Perfect," consists of one fried egg (with salt and pepper), ham and cheese on a toasted buttered English muffin. Sean argues for ham on the basis not only of taste but of convenience: it takes no additional time to cook, it holds well in the refrigerator, makes no discernible mess. An excellent sandwich, albeit not terribly portable on account of being made with a sunny-side-up egg. Still, great for eating over a plate at the table.

We haven't decided yet. ← Okay so late last night we started the marinating process. We sliced up a couple of pounds of short rib meat (that was the yield after deboning a greater quantity of flanken-cut short ribs) and about three pounds of strip, and we placed all the meat in a marinade consisting of: 3/4 cup of soy sauce 1/2 cup of orange juice 1.5 bottles of Sprite 1 grated pear 3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic 1 small white onion, chopped 2 tablespoons grated ginger 3 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoon honey 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds 3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil 2 tablespoon ground red pepper 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 3 scallions, chopped This also provided enough marinade to set aside a cup or so to reduce into a sauce. For last night's dinner -- this is a weird weekend with the third day of the three-day weekend being Friday the 3rd, so the Friday night cookout really felt like our 4th of July celebration, not to mention there were a lot of fireworks displays last night -- we made hamburgers and hot dogs. Specifically, we double ground a combination of mostly chuck, some short rib meat and a little hanger steak with the KitchenAid grinder attachment, salting between the first and second grind. Hamburgers are much better when you grind your own beef. And we had Boar's Head knockwurst, which I believe to be one of the best widely available hot-dog-like products in the marketplace. And Cape Cod potato chips, which likewise are one of the best widely available products in their category. Plus various garnishes, and Allagash White Ale.

Just for the heck of it I Googled "hotel style turkey breast." I was immediately buried in an avalanche of results. I guess I was the last to get the memo on hotel-style turkey breasts. Actually, you guys were the last. Anyway, the first search result is a Q&A from Good Housekeeping. The questioner asks: "What's the difference between a turkey breast labeled hotel-style and one that isn't?" Good Housekeeping's "food director," Susan Westmoreland, explains: "Hotel-style breasts have whole wings attached and usually include portions of the back, neck, skin, ribs, giblets, and neck. They're mainly sold in the Northeast . . ."