Priscilla
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Posts posted by Priscilla
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Cabrales, the octopus was not dismembered before our eyes. It is possible because we were sitting at a table rather than at a bar overlooking a preparation area we missed this step, but it seems to me the small place was all tanks and tables, and watching the prep was not a feature of the experience. I could be misremembering, and it certainly could differ among establishments.
The tentacle slices were maybe domino-sized, from, I would guess, a medium-sized octopus, judging from others I have seen at fish markets and sushi bars and aquariums. The tentacle slices were moving a little bit, on their own, (VERY slightly) when served, something pointed out for appreciation, but the suction cups contracted under application of soy and wasabi, (and I assume it was more the wasabi and less the soy causing the reaction).
I don't think there was any adherence during eating, but too I did follow the instruction on quickness and thoroughness, especially after a politely graphic description of what might befall those who do NOT chew quickly and thoroughly.
Priscilla
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Cabrales, I have eaten the very-nearly-live octopus in South Korea mentioned in the article you provided. It was slices of a tentacle, rather than a whole small beast, part of a range of right-outta-the-tank sashimi.
I remember our hosts advising thorough and quick chewage, lest the suction cups adhere to one's esophagus. It was very chewy, chewier even than the cooked octopus one commonly finds at sushi bars. (I very much prefer crunchy toothsome giant clam, anyway.) Part of the ritual was to shock the slices of with soy and wasabi and watch the contractions of the suction cups!
At that meal we also ate something called "blood clam," a small clam whose natural juices there in the half-shell looked like, yes, blood. The clams were very nice. During the meal one of our hosts regaled us with a story of how a bad haul of this same clam had recently killed a bunch of crew members of a fishing boat.
I have been very interested in fugu over the years, conceptually, intellectually, cuisinarily, but reports that it is bland and uneventful lessen its allure. However, given the opportunity from a seemingly trustworthy source I would certainly partake.
But not monkey brains. No appeal there at all, for me.
Priscilla
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What a particularly excellent-sounding run of meals, these last many posts.
Jim: The chicken menu sounds fantastic. Why haven't I been brining chicken wings all my life?
Liza: I am so glad Trout Odyssey is not at an end. I was just thinking about this the other day, buying fish, and wondering.
Robert: Do you ever make that Venetian rice and peas? I love that dish. Years ago where I used to live the farmer's market included a beautiful old lady selling a small selection of backyard-grown veg, among which were peas she grew, picked that a.m., and shelled. Practically convenience food, it was, if you like peas. I'm trying to grow peas in my garden this year expressly to make this dish. On my second round of sproutlings, Garden Unmentionables ate the first ones.
And: Sugar snap peas, I must miss the point, thus far. Raw, not bad, but cooked I dunno. Would like to be convinced. Open to suggestions. Don't mind snow peas, deployed appropriately, and I adore shelling peas.
(Which I believe is what English peas are, Wilfrid, shelling peas, as opposed to mange-tout types, I submit parenthetically and ingenuously, in case you weren't joking.)
Last night simplicity suggested itself through time and heat considerations. Grilled boneless chicken legs which had marinated in Mario Batali-style infused extra-virgin chile oil, surprisingly good farmer's market tomatoes sliced, mayonnaise. Bread.
Priscilla
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Grilled corn discussants: I no longer semi-husk de-silk repackage and soak ears of corn for the grill. Used to, have done, but the silk, I feel, contributes a LOT of flavor, AND plus, and PLUS, slips off magically with the husks after cooking.
High heat and attendant burning is the thing to watch, in my experience. The flavor development when corn is grilled is just incredible, isn't it?
Priscilla
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i prefer it roasted for hours and hours.
Me too, Tommy, at the risk of the dread me-too post.
But I do remain open to counterexamples proving whatever it is they prove. (Not that your dish, Wilfrid, didn't sound fantastic, especially with all those Clues to History making themselves apparent.)
Priscilla
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Lovely green sauce. Yes, cilantro amount certainly varies, and I know I put in more than I was taught, looks so pretty and tastes so good, people like it. But Victoria was strict about it being a tomatillo story, not a cilantro story, her green sauce, and it is much, much better when I do not go overboard on the cilantro. Chiles, the sky's the limit. Practically.
Priscilla
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"Simple" is a tough word to use with food. Is cheese "simple"? It's got plenty of ingredients, and the process to make it is quite complex. Is Jello simple? Pastuerized Milk? Pie? Tomato sauce? Pasta?
What about a salad? Yes, it is simple in the sense that the ingredients are closest to their original form--the least transformed by chemicals or packaging. But in terms of preparation a truly excellent salad is hardly "simple". If we use that scale to measure, than the flash frozen microwave pizza is far "simpler"--at least in execution.
Jhlurie, extremely cogent remarks. The frozen pizza especially is an excellent illustration. How much easier, if easier is simple, than that? And salad! One of the most difficult things to make well. But salad could hardly, as you point out, be lower on the food chain.
So. Is easy simple? Simple certainly ain't always easy. Sometimes the two do coincide, like an apple and a piece of cheese and some bread. Simple and easy are shifting psychological states, maybe, or relativistic principles, rather than specific foodstuffs. Or, maybe not!
Priscilla
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Niman Ranch super-thick rib-eye coated with sage, rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper, as per Mario Batali, grilled on the old Weber, sliced on a bed of dressed arugula from the garden. Also spinach puff, a Mario recipe new to me, delicate, and a foccacia with pine nuts.
Priscilla
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Jaymes and Stellabella, I am interested in these green sauces.
The one I make was taught to me by a Mexican lady, Victoria, and is quite similar to the recipe you posted, Jaymes, but with more cilantro and less onion, and no boiling of anything, ingredients bunged into the blender with maybe a little water to facilitate matters and let 'er rip.
Victoria insisted on not too much onion in any of her sauces, considering it a diluting agent in excess. A very refined cook she was, turning out very refined food. I have seen another Mexican lady from the same village as Victoria use chicken base in seemingly unlikely places, (cactus salad, for instance), but Victoria did not include it in her green sauce.
Priscilla
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Wow me too can never get enough.
What a gift you so generously give us, Suvir.
Priscilla
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Do you see regional differences among newspaper Food sections around the nation?
And (if you do note regional differences), how does your region affect your own section's Food coverage?
Thank you for participating in the Q&A! I enjoyed reading your early answers--they are very thoughtful and generous.
Priscilla
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The last article in my paperback edition of Is There a Nutmeg in the House is Asher's obituary of Elizabeth David, published (I think) in the Times. It is several pages long and answers to the description you give: trip to California, etc.
Could this be the piece you are thinking of?
Yes, JD, that is absolutely it, thank you for that. Did find my tearsheet (tucked in AOaaGoW), it was from the LA Times, reprinted from its original publication in the Independent.
A lovely affectionate piece. I'm glad it was chosen to close the book.
Priscilla
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I was sad to learn, a little over a year ago I think, that Norman finally got tired of storing David's remaining papers, and gave them most of them away or sold them to collectors. Who knows what was lost?
Hmmm ponderously sad. I do have some sympathy, from reading about Jill Norman's work on the unfinished Harvest of the Cold Months; the sheer volume of material must have been colossal.
One wonders if someone somewhere wouldn't have taken on the organizational and archival burden, though.
I remember reading an appreciation of Elizabeth David written by Gerald Asher after her death, perhaps published in one of the food mags, probably have the tearsheet tucked in a book somewhere. A treat to read, with lovely details, as I recall, about her visits to California, cited in the Reflexions timeline.
Priscilla
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I first encountered Elizabeth David's work while in hospital. I was, very literally, dying of viral meningitis. [...]
One day the "library trolley" came around, bearing lots of trashy novels and a copy of An Omelette and a Glass of Wine. I read this cover to cover, I think three times; at the end of it I was resolved (1) to recover and live; (2) to read everything else this person had written; (3) to get back to cooking; (4) to go back to the UK.
Yes, yes, JD, but BESIDES all that, what did Elizabeth David ever do for you?
Your story is inspiring and astounding, but in a way not surprising (of course meaning in no way to discount your ordeal). The literary presence of Elizabeth David is just that strong. I can well wrap my mind around her works having contributed to saving somebody's life, if that is not too OTT a characterization.
(I found the Chaney book, by the way, badly written and full of unwarranted psychological conclusions and implications about ED's character, sex life, etc.; the Artemis Cooper biography was thinner but less tendentious.)I would tend to agree with this assessment. But I do not regret reading both.
Have you read Is There a Nutmeg in the House?
Priscilla
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What is EBayC?
Just the book title, acronymized.
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one word: arugula
(or is that rocket to you Brits?)
Anyway, here in the temperate Pacific Northwest the stuff grows like a weed, and I'm guessing that it would do fine in London, too. It starts from seed tossed directly into the garden, grows quickly, and provides edible leaves and flowers almost all year long (until it freezes...mine overwinters unless it gets below about 25F).
Compelled to reintroduce arugula, if only to echo Jim's comments.
The most gratifying plant to grow, arugula is! In warm enough weather the seeds will sprout overnight, or nearly. And in an astonishingly short time there's instasalad waiting for you. The thrill of this never palls--as a gardener I am far more enthusiastic than talented.
I'd never used arugula flowers before, as I have always harvested whole plants once they mature to my liking, reseeding to keep the supply coming, thus never letting any reach flowering stage. (Controlling bolting is a constant in my Southern California climate.)
But after reading your comments, Jim, next time I was walking by my neighbor's garden with the beautiful drafts of overwintered flowering arugula, I certainly tried some and have been taking them off her hands (with permission, encouragement, even) ever since! Absolutely delicious. I'll be letting nature take its course with some of my current crop.
Priscilla
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Reading E.D.'s book, "English Bread and Yeast Cookery," created a defining moment in my life. It was then that I became so fascinated with bread that I decided to become a professional bread baker (this was in the early-80s). Her recipes are obtuse, as bread recipes should actually be, defining principles rather than recipes. From her I learned to start the dough with a slurry a night or two ahead, and to use the least amount of commercial yeast possible (1/4 tsp per two-pound loaf) and why this is important. I also learned to toast the flours before adding them to any mix, and what combination of flours to experiment with, and my shortcut for maintaining freshness by an extra day or two -- one tablespoon cider vinegar per two pounds of dough. She also explained how to shape out the bread dough, and this may be highly surprising to novice bread bakers. When this book went out of print, as it was for a decade or so, I simply could not believe this. Then it came back, from an ambitious publisher, and met the remainder rack within a year. Many folks I know agree that this is the best breadmaking book ever published. As for the rest of her books, love them all.
Pitter, I am so heartened to read all this. I thought English Bread and Yeast Cookery was absolutely mind-blowing, life-changing, all that you describe.
I mean, the yeast discussion alone! (Not to discount the rest.) That'll chasten a person, the relatively massive amounts of commercial yeast called for in conventional recipes, and Elizabeth David's discussion of how and more importantly why we oughtn't thoughtlessly adhere. And her sources in every section, so well and sensibly integrated into the text, with full citations, and still, all the deep scholarship not diluting the pure joy one bit.
I had my copy before the reissue, and was thrilled to give reissues as gifts when I could, but still, remainderment was its fate. And with all the cookery books being sold, too. Just tragic.
Does EBaYC continue to affect your professional baking life, beyond what you've noted above?
Priscilla
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Yeow. Guess I check this topic just to re-excruciate myself.
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Over the holiday week-end, which night was it, grilled Copper River Salmon, a nice side o' sockeye. Got the guy to trim off the skinny tail end, leaving me with the nice rectangle I wanted.
The skin on these wild fish gets surpassingly crispy and toothsome, seems to achieve heights unattainable by farmed salmon. Oh and the flesh was good, very good, too. Incredible color and healthy firm texture, stripe of rarity in the middle there.
Nice fresh spinach braised with onion and cream. Cute little red potatoes, fresh and earthy. Bread.
Priscilla
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Hmmm well not EVERYBODY agrees, seems like.Priscilla, yes but of course it is vital to read all avaible information.
I do, too. Not, as you say, all cookbooks lend themselves to this treatment. It would be interesting to note which cookbooks are useful anthropologically and which as fiction, and what crossover if any is apparent. Hmmm.Actually, I read a lot of cookbooks in this mannerI suspect that the dark subtextural foreboding stuff was recognisible to most British people it that era. Strange how strongly that comes through in the writing, given I have never lived in even vaguely similar conditions.Me too, I mean, me either, never lived in such conditions, unless you count when I was young and busted flat, which is not the same I know. HOWEVER that was when I happened to read Elizabeth David, it occurs to me. Begins to address why one reads at all, doesn't it. To get a window on some life not our own? To investigate why people are the way they are? To find that seemingly disparate situations can actually have shared characteristics?
There is a lot of meaning to be wrung from a putative cookbook.
Priscilla
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I like biographies. The trouble, as you point out, is time. I would probably be interested in another Elizabeth David bio if the first one I read had been unsatisfying. But the unread books pile up, forever...
Unread books piling up. There's a cheery thought. A thought that is constantly with me.
Even with Elizabeth David, I didn't even KNOW about Is there a Nutmeg in the House? until the other day. I thought, had thought, thought for years, in fact, that I was DONE with Elizabeth David, except referencing recipes or idle revisitation. And then, (tentatively, foolishly) looking for something else, somehow there's an Elizabeth David collection I do not have, have not read, on the screen. What am I supposed to do, NOT read it?
The gods conspire, I swear.
Priscilla
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Isn't it essential to read both--er, ALL--available biographies, if one means to survey properly?
No. Definitely not. Well, if you mean "survey" in the sense of write an authoritative report on the state of Elizabeth David biographies, then may be. But I don't think you have to read all or even most biographies of an individual in order to recommend one biography. Usually plenty of clues within the four corners of the text as to quality.
Sorry if I have taken your question too seriously.
Oh my no, Wilfrid, no comment on your recommendation was meant in my question. It's just where books are concerned I tend to be of the More is More mind, you know what I mean?
I am in complete agreement that a single book can confidently be recommended without having first to provide a punch-card showing the full catalogue as read. And, there is no percentage is reading things that are a drag, either, I firmly believe. Life is too short, for want of a less-hackneyed phrase, and there already is not anywhere near enough time to read everything that oughta be read.
I find it (however mildly) interesting, after reading a biography of some Somebody, to discover another and see how it compares. Even the politics affecting the biographers' information-gathering is relevant. To me, anyways. IF I am interested in the biographee in question in the first place.
And as you probably know biography-reading as a Venn-diagram subset of plain old reading ain't for everybody, no matter the subject.
Priscilla
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"Came home from mill, ate something fried, went to pub. Noticed that the summer evening light enhanced the olive green highlights on the mushy peas. Mentioned this to Alf, Alf beat me with black pudding for being a pansy. Recipe for Boudin noir alla Alf to follow."
You are John Osborne and I claim my five pounds!
(Removed Ozzy-related pollution, if yer interested.)
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Wilfrid - have you read the Lisa Chaney biography of E.D.? Is so, have you a preference between the two?
Isn't it essential to read both--er, ALL--available biographies, if one means to survey properly? Cooper's is the authorized, so-called, but Chaney had the cooperation of Elizabeth David's surviving sister Priscilla (Sir Terence's also got one, a Priscilla for a sister; also William F. Buckley) so how UNauthorized is THAT, not too, I would think. Both are big, rangy, dirt-dishing, and the picture of her life that emerges is romantic and quite nearly tragic, really.
Interesting to me how the dramatic personal details are not fully exploited in her own work, but there is a dark subtextural foreboding constantly present, right from the start, when she is reminiscing about bountiful fresh foodstuffs from the Levantine, as she terms it, whilst living under post-war privation. Puts one in mind of Stalin-era Soviet proproganda films depicting fabulous feasts, almost. I was interested to read more about her exactly because of this undercurrent of unease.
And treating it as fiction? Adam, don't get so hot about this idea. For me, over here in the U.S., reading about such a rarified life as Elizabeth David's (among others, of course) can feel just fully as fanciful and exciting as fiction, and moreso than inept fiction, you know what I mean?
I mean no disrespect whatsoever. It's just exactly the kind of thing that can introduce the blessedly corrupting idea that there are alternatives to the pre-edited few options presented by one's surrounding status quo, whether in cuisine or otherwise.
Priscilla
Cooking and Rock Music
in eGullet Q&A with Tony Bourdain
Posted
Hi Anthony,
Do you see any congruence between cooking and rock music? The two seem to intersect at least conceptually in KC and CT, unless, in my quest for relevancy, I'm reading too much in there. Could happen.
The nuts-and-bolts Les Halles cookbook you describe in the Cookbook topic sounds beyond fantastic. I'm imagining, I'm hoping for, an elaboration of the short list in KC about how to restaurantify one's home cookery, which included e.g. not stinting on the use of butter, and the importance of shallots.
Priscilla