Rachel Perlow

Yeah, that was really stupid. The stuff doesn't go bad. I just bake up a few at a time in my toaster oven. Still working on a container from a month ago. I think the batter gets better with age. Or you can freeze it. Of course, if it got moldy or something, throw if out, but if it didn't, you missed out by tossing it.

On behalf of eGullet, I wanted to thank Joyce White for her participation in this Q&A. Great Job!!! I'm sure we all hope Joyce will continue posting on eGullet in the future. Book winners are: dumpling Jaymes loufood Mayhaw Man zilla369 The publisher has agreed to give away two copies of Soul Food and three copies of Brown Sugar. Please send me a PM with your name, mailing address, and book preference to receive your book. I will accomodate book preference in a first come, first served manner.

While that's true in general, the blurb in question was from someone I know and respect his opinion about food. And, I'm aparently not even agreeing with this person. As you can see below, he liked the fact that the dessert was a piece of fruit in a bowl. I am saying that I would not prefer to experience a piece of fruit that way at a restaurant. Just to be clear, I wasn't bashing AW herself, but describing my reaction to a dessert described in this thread: I'm thinking of this post. Now, the poster actually liked the fact that it was just a pluot was served in a wooden bowl. But, to me, if that's what she wants to do -- source and select the finest ingredients -- then she may as well have it be a fancy gourmet store instead of a restaurant.

I can't even recall the names, an Italian place that was sandwiches & soup at lunch time and fancified at night, I think that came before 973. Haven't lived there for a while, I could ask my mom -- but I doubt she'll recall.

I can't exactly answer that question, but ever since I heard that they occasionally offer just a piece of fresh fruit for dessert, a plucot was what I recall (the excuse being this is a new type of fruit, enjoy it in its natural state), I've lossed my desire to go there. Jeez, do something with it, even if all you do is cut it up into slices and serve with some whipped cream. If another restaurant, say Gramercy Tavern or Judson Grill, want to show off a particular fruit they'd most likely serve it three ways, like in a tart, a sorbet or ice cream and maybe some raw as a garnish. A whole piece of fruit in a bowl?! I can get that at the (new age fancy) supermarket or gourmet store.

I think that location is cursed, so many places have come and gone. If this new place sounds like something you like, go now while the gettings good!

Is that the place that is just to the left of Kyoto, in the other wing of the strip mall?

Fascinating report, Ellen, thanks. Count me among the "You're going where?" crowd when I heard where you were taking off to. I know Steven missed you, we did too. Other comments/questions: So how did you get out of that river in which you were stuck? What are those ice cube shaped things that look like they are topped with yogurt? That picture of the goats tied up for milking looks eerie. Did they seem resigned to it as part of the milking process and come when called or did they have to be chased down to be strung together for milking? More captions next time, please.

When we finalize our plans (i.e. closer to the date), I'll do so.

If you like broccoli rabe and asian greens, then you have to try Chinese Broccoli (Gai-lon). Cook it simply like you would bok choy or just boil till crisp tender and serve with some good quality oyster sauce on top. It is one of my favorite vegetables.

We could probably make it. We could also meet up in the DC area sometime earlier in the week (Monday?) on our way down to NC.

Funny you mention the Watermelon Ice Cream, I have made your recipe and adapted it slightly to my taste and equipment. Here's the discussion thread about troubleshooting the recipe: Problems with Ice Cream? and here's the recipe as I make it in RecipeGullet: Watermelon Ice Cream with Chocolate "Seeds"

I usually just give them "eGullet.com" and if I have time, I tell them that leads to the webzine, and the articles lead you to the discussion forums, etc.

Elyse definitely made extra stuff. Get over there and buy some!

I just noticed this thread. Jason is indeed a bastard. Take me to California right now, dammit! Hmm, Trader Joe's is a good idea. Let's start an email/letter writing campaign to get them to carry It's Its.

No, Fornos is beginner, tourist Spanish, and not very good either. Here are some previous discussions of the food of the ironbound: Newark Restaurants great restaurant in ironbound district Spanish Sangria-Newark Casa Vasca/Newark Check out some of the places recommended in those threads and get back to us. For both the person wanting something in Bergen and the one driving from Monmouth, Tapas de Espana is worth the drive.

The answer then, is to start it in the morning, and not do it overnight.

Regarding the brodo vs stock point in the lesson: Being that many of us have recently made quite a bit of stock, and that stock, if you following Fat Guy's advice, is quite meaty tasting, the thought of making a separate brodo for the risotto makes my head ache. Since I have all these nice concentrated stock ice cubes, I'd like to use them. Should I use them in a weaker concentration, adding more water than I would to just bring it back to full strength stock? Please refer to the exchange slkinsey and I just had on page 3 of Q&A -- Straining, defatting and reducing Unit 3: Well, since you said you liked the taste at 6 quarts and reduced that down to approximately 2 quarts... I'd say you should add two parts of water to every 1 part of reduced stock to get back to the taste you like. Whether or not the "6 quart strength" represents a good concentration for sauce, soup, risotto, etc. is up to your own taste. I imagine it is probably perfect for soups with the addition of 2 parts water to make it "6 quart strength" -- although you may want to make it weaker if you have other elements in the soup that will contribute flavor to the broth If you're going to add a little bit of the chicken glace to enrich sauces, you can use it at ice cube strength. For risotto, it's more complicated. Since part of the risotto process involves a concentration of flavors as the hot broth is repeatedly boiled away, one normally uses a fairly weak broth. I have a less traditional method I use: What I like to do is determine how much broth flavor I want in the risotto and use the corresponding amount of hot reduced stock for the first few additions. Thereafter I simply use simmering water. That way I don't end up either short on broth or with extra broth once the rice is cooked perfectly. I haven't been able to taste the difference between a risotto made this way as opposed to mixing the same amount of reduced stock and simmering water to make a weak broth that is used throughout. Thanks. We'll see what the maestro dei risotti, Signor Camp, thinks of this method a little later on... Yep! But only if you heat up the reduced stock in the microwave. You don't want it to be cold when you put it in. Because you don't want to add cold broth to the risotto. You want all the liquid additions to be hot. Granted, if you toss in a few cubes together with a ladle full of simmering water, you're probably OK. Now that I think about it, there's no reason you couldn't just start the risotto off using simmering water and throw in a couple of reduced stock cubes with every addition of hot water until you reached the level of flavor you wanted, at which time you could go over to 100% simmering water until the rice was perfectly cooked. Until you made my mind go there, that hadn't really occurred to me. I had tended to nuke up the reduced stock and use the warm reduced stock as my first liquid addition. Edit: I see that Sam and I had the same thoughts at the same time.

I understand that many of the recipes in your books are developed from reader submissions. When testing out these recipes have you ever come to the conclusion that some of these people may be leaving out "secret ingredients"?

My mom thought it was a sin to make more dishes dirty than were strictly necessary. It's just the way I think.

Why? It'll melt right quick, maybe add a little water to go with it at the same time.

Wow, that's a great tip for making risotto. I totally wouldn't have thought of that. You save washing on the second pot too (if all you do is boil some water in it).

This was my favorite, the chutney really went well with the Thai spices in the pork burger -- I'm glad we have some of those patties tucked away in our freezer. This is one of the rare occasions when Jason (and Jon) made the dinner and I stayed out of the kitchen. They did a good job! I should have them do it more often -- I didn't even mind cleaning up the kitchen as much as I usually do.

Jay, you should post that pork burger recipe on RecipeGullet. It was really good, and hot, but not too hot. They kind of hot that you have to keep eating to not feel the heat.

The final glace was pretty clear as I just reduced on a low flame and skimmed off the skin every half hour or so. I stopped the reduction when the mark on my 16 quart pot showed it at about 2 quarts. It must not be marked very accurately though, because I ended up with about 11 cups. I have it stored as 3 trays worth of ice cubes and 5 1-cup containers. An ice cube equals about 2 tablespoons. I would normally have stopped the stock at about 6 quarts - that's when it tasted good. So how much water should be added to a stock cube to make a cup of stock for a sauce, soup, or other recipe, like risotto?