Rachel Perlow

Chinese Food for Christmas Last night, Taipai Noodle House in Teaneck. Today, brunch at China 46. Yum.

Oh my, how brilliant! I can't believe I've never thought of that. Usually, I'm dealing with the bit of chicken stock at the bottom of the container of chicken fat strained from stockmaking. Just store it upside down! Duh. :smacks forehead:

Your squash was underdone because yellow squash would be done as the same time as the onions in the initial saute, winter squashes take a long time to cook. You could always micro/steam the butternut squash to parcook it, if you liked that in the casserole.

Jason and I composed a little ditty for you all! Sing along to the tune of “Good King Wenceslas” (midi: Midi Music (Click), original lyrics: good_king_wenceslas Chinese Food for Christmas Many Jews eat Chinese food During Christmas evenin’ All the restaurants are closed Except those which are Asian. Kung Pao Chicken, Egg Foo Yung Lo Mein would be pleasin’ Beef and Broccoli, Peking Duck. No-oh MSG-ee please! As I eat my Pork Fried Rice, Wonton Soup and Egg Rolls; I thank G-d for Chinese food, Especially the Shrimp Toast! Grandparents’ solo or duet, Brooklyn/Yiddish accent: “Don’t the Christmas lights look nice? Beautifully they twinkle Oy, I’m glad I’m not a goy, Think of the e-lec-tric bill!” Gentiles all are in their homes, Drinking lots of egg nog. Can we have more oolong tea, Duck sauce and some mustard? If there were no Chinese food We would all go hungry. Now to end our fine repast With a fortune coo-oo-kie!

The Little Ferry location has a liquor store dept to the right immediately upon entering. It is also adjacent (with shared access) to a Value City department store. However, as tomorrow is Sunday in Bergen County, the liquor store and Value City will both probably be closed, in both locations -- does anyone know if they honor or ignore the blue laws?

Mmm, pepper steak.

That's exactly what the recipe I posted a link to above does.

Maybe this thread should be retitled with the name of your place then? We have no problem with shameless self-promotion, as long as it's good and blatant self-promotion! Tell us more about your restaurant, and, um, where's Newburgh?

I'm sorry I didn't see this thread sooner, but I figured best to post anyway for future "roast goose" searchers. Click here for a posting of the roast goose two ways recipe from Les Halles Brasserie in NYC. We had it at the restaurant's Christmas party and I thought it was a great way to handle a goose. Of course, where you're going to get 4 lbs of goose fat, don't ask me!

The pie and turkey prep looks good, but I have a question regarding the squash casserole: what kind of squash did you use? It looks like acorn or butternut, the recipe calls for yellow squash, which I'd interpret as the soft kind, like yellow zucchini.

Actually, they were even cheaper than Jason thought, like $10/lb. I'll try the simply grilled method next time.

Yeah, but I figured it was about time I added my chopped liver recipe to eGullet.

Yes, I suppose it would definitely depend on your local ShopRite. I could totally see doing this in Englewood. Heck, sometimes I can't find things and have to track down and emplyee -- if I specified things in an online order, they'd have to find it, wouldn't they? Obviously, you should check your order carefully to make sure they included everything and gave you the correct sale price, etc.

To me, chopped liver is not a course or country pate. It is more of a spread. It is rich, but only eaten occasionally. I don't get adding fruit to cut the richness, or adding booze or cream. It just covers up the taste. Now a traditional, kosher, chopped chicken liver recipe will have you broil the liver. I don't like this because the liver gets too firm, and becomes more livery. I prefer to saute the livers. This keeps everything moister and the final result softer, more spreadable. And it can be as course or smooth as you allow it to become in the food processor (as opposed to the meat grinder my mother and grandmother used). Here's how I make chopped liver: 2 onions, medium in size, coarsely or finely chopped. One can be a sweet onion 1 lb chicken livers (collected in the freezer 1 chicken at a time, and/or buy a container at the market), drain, rinse, clean of anything stringy or fibrous schmaltz (that you rendered yourself) 4 eggs, hard cooked or not salt and pepper If using a sweet onion, cut up and put in the food processor, pulse to chop. If you are using hard cooked eggs, pulse/chop them too. Heat a large skillet, add a spoonful of schmaltz (butter if you don't have schmaltz and aren't kosher. Heck, if you were kosher you'd be broiling the liver, so that's a moot point), then saute the non-sweet chopped onion until golden. Add the cleaned livers and saute. If you didn't hard cook your eggs ahead of time, cook the livers until the outsides are cooked, but the insides are still pink. Reduce heat, break the eggs into the skillet and poach with the livers, covered, for about 10 minutes. Yes, there's lots of liquid in the skillet, but everything should be cooked through. Now, if you want a very smooth pate, leave the onions (and chopped eggs?) in the FP, and using a slotted spoon, add the livers (and eggs?) and onion. Chop until smooth or pulse. If you like it a little chunky, remove the chopped raw onion & egg to a mixing bowl so they don't get over chopped and pulse the liver until it is a consistancy you like. You can add all of the liquid in the pan, or reserve some and add as necessary. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Start with about 1 tsp salt. Now, if you want to completely faux pate this, grind until smooth in the FP, then start beating in butter. It could probably take up to a pound, but I think that would be overkill. I've never done this for serving to my family, but I've seen something similar done in a country club. You might want to pass the pate through a food mill or seive and allow it to cool before beating in the butter. I would only do the butter enriched pate if I were going to serve it as canapes (piped onto small toasts) or in small little crocks. In my family, we just put out a bowl of chopped liver (no butter) with crackers and crudite before the meal, or serve it as an appetizer at the table with tomatoes and onions, matzo or challah.

I like to check the circular online, and just noticed that ShopRite now offers online shopping (pickup at your local store). Unfortunately the ShopRite from Home program is not yet at my local ShopRite (I usually go to Englewood), but click the link to see if it's available at yours. I made up a small sample order to see how it works. Most everything available at the store is available online, if you don't see what you want there's a section for adding that. For example, I didn't see limes in the citrus section or by doing a search, so if I wanted limes, I could add them there. If they don't have what you want, you can authorize substitutes or not. You only pay for what you actually get, the payment is processed when you pick up your order. There is a $10 service charge. But it seems a reasonable price to pay if you are in a hurry and have a large order. Especially considering they are doing curbside delivery of your order, loading it in your car for you, the sales prices are honored and highlighted online, and most importantly of all, you are avoiding impulse buying! I can easily spend an hour in a grocery store - and this would save lugging the soda and laundry detergent to the car. Has anyone tried it yet? 10 stores in NJ and 3 in NY are offering it. If you try it, let us know how you liked it.

Could you tell us more about your standard recipe, so we know where to go from there? Also, are you looking for a pate, like a mock pate, with cream & stuff, or something more akin to Jewish chopped liver?

If Jason and I make it down there, we get to judge!

OK, I've got the alae salt. So what should I do with it?

Found it: Feeding a Bottomless Pit

Sounds like he's about to have a growth spurt. Wasn't there a thread recently about teenage boys eating their parents out of house and home?

Excellent job on the pizza, Marlene. Like others have said, the oven needs to be hotter, but I'm not sure that you need to heat the oven for an hour before starting. I suppose it depends on your oven and how long it takes to get to heat. I'd say double that to preheat the stone sufficiently. They are good at that. I usually use it when I make tomato sauce to keep the "bloops" from splashing on the stove. And I ALWAYS use it when frying (deep or shallow) to keep from being burned by oil pops. Like when I was making latkes, there's quite a bit of liquid in the batter and that causes lots of oil pops. So, I'd add a handful of batter with one hand and hold the spatter shield in the other, ready to put it back on top of the skillet immediately. You still get some oil mess around the skillet, but it does contain those nasty pops.

Well, the first ingredient listed in that soup base is dashi, followed by soy sauce. So, combined with the stock and a bit of beef boullion concentrate (and mirin), it seemed to work. Frankly, the matsutake weren't anything special, I'm afraid. Jason thinks it is because they are domestic matsutake. I quartered them lengthwise and sauteed before adding the broth. I wish I had tasted one before adding the broth. Perhaps the simmering diluted their flavor? Anyway, good dinner. And, I had most of the ingredients in the house for it since we cook Asian style foods all the time. The only thing we bought special were the variety of mushrooms. But I suppose it could have been made with just white mushrooms if we decided to make it spur of the moment. Please note the carrot flowers. How are they supposed to be made? I used a zest stripper (the larger kind, like for peeling off a bit of lemon skin for an espresso) to dig trenches down the length of the carrot, then just sliced into coins.

Beef PseudoYaki

It is quite frigid here right now, and this really hit the spot.

I'm glad you saw the part about the splatter screen as peel, because the stone should be in your oven as it heats (and then let it heat longer than usual). You can't build the pizze on the stone.