Andy Lynes
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Posts posted by Andy Lynes
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Dill is vile stuff, I never go near it. Some things that grow are not meant to eaten by humans.
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Sounds like pasta machines vary quite a bit in terms of calibration. It's a matter of getting to know your own I suppose. I'm doing duck ravioli tonight, so I'm going to try and get those edges nice and thin.
I am currently using Tom Colicchios pasta dough recipe at the moment which seems to work very well indeed, eggs, 00 flour and olive oil. Gives a nice workable dough. Any other favourites?
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Jus cos I drink beer dont meen I'm fick rite? Are you looking at my bird? Did you spill my pint? Outside mate.
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The only stocks I make at home are chicken, vegetable, fish and lamb. I will use the carcass from a small bird such as a pigeon to make a sauce but I have never done a demi glace before. Perhaps I will now.
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Couple of questions, how far do you click down on the machine when making Ravioli. I have stopped 2 clicks before the lowest setting which makes the pasta easy to handle but the sealed edge a little thick. Any further seems to be too thin and the filling in danger of tearing the dough. By the way, I make raviolis by cutting discs of pasta using pastry cutters.
Second question is, do you let the ravs dry before cooking, or plunge straight in to boiling water once they are made. Does it make any difference, and if you do wait before cooking, how long would you leave them?
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Steven, not only do I love SITC, but by amazing coincidence, my wife and rented an apartment at 1 East 93rd Street for a week about 10 years ago. I bought a copy of Silence of the Lambs from that very bookshop. Spooky.
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Immodest, moi?
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The reason your versions are better is because you have devoted all your time and energy to creating that one meal. For many chefs, when your order is called, its just one of a very long line and it may be his best shot that night, or it may well not. You have to go to the very top end of the scale to anything like the sort of consistancy you can manage at home, albeit that the whole meal can end up a disaster if things go wrong whereas it will be just one dish, or one batch of sauce or what ever in the restaurant.
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I think you have to have a feel for what you are doing. Some people love to work with wood, and so would make a much better carpenter than I ever could be because they have a feel. Good cooks can compensate for lack of technique, but you can't do without the feel, the intuition and natural instinct.
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Tommy - I'm not sure it would be worth a trip on Concorde, but you'd be welcome. I know it sounds horribly arrogant, but I've been cooking for a while now and eating out and that is my honest opinion. It's not always that good, and I really don't know how it might compare to Steven or Bux's cooking, but it usually goes down pretty well with our dinner guests and my family.
I said in another thread that I rarely don't get invites back to other peoples houses after I have cooked for them, so the only thing I have to compare my food with is my restaurant experiences, both as a customer and as a guest in a few professional kitchens, and my competition experiences. I make my judgement on that basis, which is not to defend, merely explain my pronouncment. I am a generaly unassuming sort of bloke and never brag about anything other than my cooking.
Steven - I am on the cooking as craft side of the fence, and really any craft skills can be picked up fairly simply. I hate DIY and would therefore claim to be absolutely rubbish at it. However I know that if I did more of it, spent time reading up and practicing, I could develop sufficient skills to carry out what I now consider tasks fit only for proffesionals.
(Edited by Andy Lynes at 9:33 pm on Aug. 23, 2001)
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I can basically do to just below Michelin starred standard at home, so when we eat out, unless its very casual, we go for Michelin star and above. We don't eat out at the local "formal" restaurants in Brighton because my food is better than theirs and they are mostly small and cramped. They are virtually all cheap conversions of cafes or shops so there is no "wow" factor either. We generaly save up and go to London, or pick somewhere special for our anniversary celebration meal.
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I read about that place ages ago, tried to find it and couldn't. I had decided it was an urban myth, like the aligators in the sewage pipes, but obviously not!
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restaurant Patrick Guilbaud 21 Merrion Street : Traditional Cork Crubeens Served Carpaccio Style, Panfried Rouget, Asparagus, Herb Salad (thats a starter priced 22.00 Irish punts) or maybe duck for 2 with rhubarb for 68.00 punts. 2 Michelin stars and a lovely if rather formal dining room (havent eaten there just looked a round and took a menu. The Tea Room at the Clarence on the river, U2's hotel: Pot roast squab pigeon, fois gras, choucroute, fondant potatoes and balsamic jus (3 courses £31.00 punts) or Peacock Alley, overlooking St Stevens Green, head chef now David Cavalier, owned by Conrad Gallagher, designed by Conran, very lovely room but overlooks Dublins busiest street, no menu details but quite pricey.
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The River cafe in London has a kitchen open to the dining room. This is where all the al a minute stuff is done. As with all show kitchens, there is a prep area in the back where they do the messy stuff and swear at each other.
I did a 1 day stage in Ciboulette in Atlanta when I was over on business and they had a "theatre" kitchen, which was on show to the dining room. It had a counter where the punters could sit and watch the chefs cook. I actually did cold starters for them that night, about 120 covers. A great experience I can tell you. The chef showed me a wall in the prep kitchen around the back where Paul Bocuse had signed his name. Apparently he had cooked there one night, they had the pictures to prove it. Hey, me and Paul Bocuse! (Funny, they didn't ask me to sign the wall).
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Tables too close together and the next table are smoking, totaly ruins a meal for me. I have mostly stopped going to Conran restaurants and MPWs places in London for this reason. You can't even get a slim waiter between the tables for 2 at The Mirabelle. Why do they have to be so close? Surely the loss of 1 or 2 tables to gain some reasonable space is not going to hurt the profits that much. La Trompette in Chiswick is pretty bad as well for space.
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If you don't need to keep the olive whole, you can just put it on a board or work surface and press the end of the olive with your thumb and the pit will just pop out, but the olive will be split. This is fine for when you need to chop then up or are going to blitz them for tapenade.
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Fanellis must be the one. So I stumbled into one of the oldest bars in New York, cool!
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Fowl in a sheperds pie - heresay!
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Here's my version of shepards pie that I cooked yesterday: Sweat 1 finely chopped onion in some oil, add some sliced buttom mushrooms and finely chopped roasemary and cook until softened and the moisture has been driven off. Add the ground lamb and brown. Deglaze the pan with balsamic vinegar, then add a glass of red wine and reduce. Cover with stock, throw in some diced tomato flesh and cover. Cook for 10 mins so that the tomato breaks down into the stock. Add a touch of ketchup, soy and/or worcestershire sauce salt and pepper and cook for 30- 45 mins. Empty into an oven dish and cover with your favourite mash recipe, possibly with some cheese added if you like that type of thing. Bake until golden brown, 20 - 30 mins.
Black pudding - Paul Heathcote renowned Northern chef with a star or 2 has a famous recipe which I think he actually markets as a finished product just has 60g of oat flakes to every 750g of dried pigs blood. It also has 2kg of sweetbreads in it as well so we are talking premium quality here.
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Quote: from jhlurie on 4:49 pm on Aug. 10,
McSoreley's is down around Greenwich Village--near Astor Place and NYU.
It's not the one I was thinking of. I had a beer in a corner bar very near the Mercer Kitchen. I had been in to the hotel for a look round, spotted Calvin Klein in the lobby, had a look at the restaurant, then went to phone home (I was away on business at the time) from the booth in this bar. It wasn't particularly memorable or anything, but I did use the urinals there as we are on the subject.
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Where is McSorleys, it looks very familiar.
Now, if we can get Tommys pic of the Squares loos, eGullet could be well on the way to becoming the webs foremost restaurant toilet photograph resource. Something to be truely proud of
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Mash in Great Portland Street London has cameras in the mens lavs with a monitor in the womens! The mens urinal is also shaped like something out of the Hall of Mirrors so that users get a distorted view of "themselves". Either confidence building or knocking depending where you stand I believe.
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Shepards Pie - unbeatable if done well and Albert Roux's favourite dish don't you know.
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This could help:
London Set Lunches
in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining
Posted
Le Gaveroche is very good at around £40.00 including a half bottle of wine coffee and service. Petrus is a splendid restaurant. I have a review on my site as well as a link to their homepage. This is particularly good value at £24.00 given that dinner is now £50.00 or more, but just an either or choice.
The Oak Room has come down in price dramaticaly, but the wine list is still cripplingly expensive. cheznico at 90 park Lane is a good bet, if a little souless.
I believe Chez Bruce in Wandsworth will be open on Monday after their refurb. Bruce is a friend of mine so i would say this, but I think it's a great place for lunch, great views of the common, but there are parking spaces directly outside the restaurant which may obscure your view.