mamster

Yes. I should have mentioned that I poured off some of the liquid before serving it. There was ample flavor left behind.

Salt and Pepper Shrimp Serves 4 as Main Dish. From mamster's Desperate Measures Column 1 lb extra-large shrimp (16-20), shells on 3 tsp salt 4 c peanut oil 2 tsp cornstarch 1 clove garlic, minced 1 fresh hot red pepper (jalapeno, Thai, or Serrano) 1 tsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry 3 scallions, white part only, julienned (for garnish) 1 tsp ground, roasted Szechuan peppercorns (see below) 1. To make roasted Sichuan pepper, toast a few tablespoons of whole Sichuan peppercorns in a dry skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Toast about five minutes, stirring often, until peppercorns are fragrant and beginning to smoke. Cool to room temperature and grind in a spice grinder. Sift into a jar to remove stems and seeds and store up to a few weeks. 2. Devein and rinse the shrimp without removing the shells. Dissolve 1 tsp of the salt in 1 cup cold water and brine the shrimp in this solution in a Ziploc bag for 10 minutes. (If brining in a bowl, double the solution.) Drain and pat dry with paper towels. 3. Heat the oil to 400 F in a wok. Dust the shrimp with cornstarch (a sieve or flour sifter makes this easy). Fry the shrimp 1 minute, stirring gently. Pour off the hot oil into a heatproof bowl with a strainer perched on top to catch the shrimp. Please do not set yourself on fire while you do this. If you are scared of the idea of pouring off a quart of hot oil (and if you’re not scared of this, the Green Berets need to talk to you), fry the shrimp in a saucepan, lift them out with a bamboo skimmer, and leave the oil in the pan to cool, continuing the recipe with a wok or skillet. 4. Return the wok to high heat. (If you are introducing the wok at this point, add a tablespoon of oil; otherwise the residual oil from the deep-frying is plenty.) Add the garlic and hot pepper and cook 10 seconds. Add the shrimp, ground Sichuan pepper, and remaining 2 tsp salt; toss to combine; and add the rice wine or sherry. Cover for 10 seconds, remove cover, and stir-fry an additional 10 seconds. Turn out onto a platter and garnish with the scallions. Eat with your hands and make rude gestures at the USDA goons. Keywords: Main Dish, Seafood, Shrimp, Chinese, The Daily Gullet ( RG265 )

They make wine in Luxembourg? I thought they were packed in there like battery hens. The litany of modern wine writer tics has become so cliche that it makes you long for someone stodgy and English to come along and try to reestablish the old order. I nominate Jeremy Northam.

Cucina Simpatica.

I'm more picky about some pasta shapes than others. For short pastas, which for me means penne rigate more often than not (I am a penne rigate fiend) I like Trader Joe's cheap house brand. It's definitely American-style, though, thinner than the De Cecco and more like Ronzoni. The ways I usually cook it (with vodka sauce or with tomato sauce and spicy Italian sausage) are awfully American in their own right. For long shapes, I've liked Rustichella ever since I first used their bucatini for bucatini all'amatriciana. Last time I was at Whole Foods they had a new artisan-looking brand in paper bags for a surprisingly low price, somewhere around $2 or $2.50. I tried some and it was quite good, but now I don't remember the name. I'll check next time I'm there.

Don't make a milkshake. Make a malt, with a few heaping spoonfuls of Horlick's malt powder.

There's an article about this in the current issue of Food Arts in which someone (I gave my issue away already) says, approximately, "If you're accepting a certain percentage of corked wine for sentimental reasons, would you also accept a certain percentage of leaky condoms?" If you drink wine because you like wine, it doesn't make sense to accept corked wine when solutions are readily available.

Thai Green Curry With Shrimp And Gai Lan Serves 2 as Main Dish. 1 can (13.5) oz coconut milk, separated into thick cream and thin milk 3 T green curry paste 1 T fish sauce 1 tsp palm sugar Juice of 1/2 lime or 2 tbsp tamarind paste mixed with 1/3 cup hot water and strained 1 lb gai lan (Chinese broccoli), cut into 1" and parboiled 4 minutes, or substitute 3/4 lb regular broccoli, with the head cut into florets and the stem peeled and sliced crosswise 1/2 lb medium shrimp, shelled and deveined 1 fresh red jalapeno, sliced thin Jasmine rice 1. In a medium saucepan, heat the thick coconut cream over medium-high heat until bubbling furiously. 2. Add the curry paste and stir until well mixed, grinding the paste against the bottom and sides of the pot if necessary. Cook until you see dark streaks of coconut oil forming. 3. Add the fish sauce, palm sugar, lime or tamarind, and thin coconut milk. Stir to mix. 4. Taste and adjust seasonings. 5. Reduce heat to medium. Add broccoli and simmer five minutes. 6. Add the shrimp. They should cook through in 2-3 minutes; remove from heat when the shrimp are just shy of fully cooked and they'll finish cooking at the table. 7. Taste and adjust seasonings. Garnish with fresh jalapeno and serve over rice. Keywords: Vegetables, Shrimp, Main Dish, Dinner, Seafood, Lunch, Vegetables, Thai, The Daily Gullet ( RG249 )

Thai Red Curry With Chicken, Potatoes, And Beans Serves 2 as Main Dish. How do you decide what ingredients to use with what color of curry? There are traditional combinations, but when it comes down to it, it doesn't much matter. Here are two of the unlimited possibilities that can be painted on the Thai curry canvas. I encourage you to work from these simple beginnings and then improvise your own curries. Please let me know if you come up with something irresistible. 1 can (13.5) oz coconut milk, separated into thick cream and thin milk 3 T red curry paste 1 T fish sauce 1 tsp palm sugar Juice of 1/2 lime or 2 tbsp tamarind paste mixed with 1/3 cup hot water and strained 1/2 lb chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into 1/2" cubes 1 medium Yukon Gold potato, peeled and diced 9 oz package frozen green beans or 1/2 lb fresh green beans, cut into 1" lengths 2 fresh serrano or Thai chiles, sliced thin Jasmine rice 1. In a medium saucepan, heat the thick coconut cream over medium-high heat until bubbling furiously. 2. Add the curry paste and stir until well mixed, grinding the paste against the bottom and sides of the pot if necessary. Cook until you see dark streaks of coconut oil forming. 3. Add the fish sauce, palm sugar, lime or tamarind, and thin coconut milk. Stir to mix. 4. Taste and adjust seasonings. 5. Reduce heat to medium. Add chicken, potato, and beans. 6. Simmer 30 minutes or until potato is cooked through. If you don't simmer gently, the coconut milk will separate a lot, and the curry will look kind of weird and be harder to dish up. It will still be perfectly tasty. 7. Taste and adjust seasonings. Garnish with the fresh chiles and serve over rice. Keywords: Thai, Main Dish, Beans, Dinner, Potatoes, Lunch, Chicken, The Daily Gullet ( RG248 )

Hot and Sour Soup with Shrimp One ounce of mushrooms doesn't sound like a lot, but once they're reconstituted and sliced, it looks like Gargamel had his way with the Smurf Village. If you don't enjoy the chewy texture of dried shiitakes, you've got options: substitute any sort of fresh mushroom, substitute bok choy stems, or drop the mushrooms and shrimp in favor of chicken or pork. If you're using an Asian chicken stock that was made with ginger, reduce the ginger to 1 tbsp or omit if you're not a ginger addict. 1 oz dried shiitake mushrooms 6 c homemade chicken stock 3 T peeled and finely julienned ginger 1 tsp minced garlic 2 tsp chile paste with garlic (such as Rooster brand in the green-topped plastic jars) 1/4 c rice wine vinegar 1/4 c soy sauce 1 c canned slivered bamboo shoots, drained and diced 1 T lime juice 2 tsp sugar Salt 5 tsp cornstarch 2 T cold water 1 large egg, beaten 4 oz medium shrimp (51-60s are fine), shelled, deveined if necessary, and coarsely chopped 1/4 c scallions, thinly sliced Soak the mushrooms for thirty minutes in lukewarm water, drain, and slice thinly. Heat the chicken stock in a large saucepan and add the mushrooms, ginger, garlic, chile paste, vinegar, soy sauce, and bamboo shoots. Simmer 10 minutes, add the lime juice and sugar, and season to taste with salt if necessary. Add the scallions. In a separate small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water into a slurry and add half to the soup. Simmer until it thickens, adding more cornstarch slurry if you prefer a thicker soup. Give the soup a vigorous stir in one direction and slowly pour in the beaten egg to make swirls. Place 1 ounce each of raw shrimp into four heated soup bowls. Divide the soup among the bowls, stir to distribute the shrimp, and serve. Ingredient notes: Chicken stock: You must make homemade stock for this recipe. There's no reason to dismiss canned stock out of hand, but it just doesn't work here as the backbone of this soup. One thing most canned stock does have going for it is MSG, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to toss a little of that into the soup. Here's how I make my stock: Buy four pounds of chicken necks, backs, or breast frames, none of which should cost much more than 50 cents a pound. If necessary, cut into manageable chunks with a cleaver or poultry shears. Heat vegetable oil in a stockpot and brown the chicken in two batches. Add all the chicken to the pot with a few slices of fresh ginger, a half-bunch of trimmed scallions, and two quarts of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer one to two hours (the time isn't that critical, so feel free to work in a game of cards or prep another dish). Strain and refrigerate. Skim the fat off the top before using. When cookbooks talk about stock, they often imply that the worst mistake you can make is letting it boil or not skimming often enough. If you're making a perfectly clear stock for use in a serious European restaurant kitchen, they're right. But the most common home stock-making error is using too much water for the amount of meat and ending up with watery stock. For chicken stock, don't exceed one pint of water for each pound of meaty bones, which is easy to remember if you recall that a pint of water weighs a pound. You probably don't want to use less water than this, because it won't cover all the chicken. If you need a stronger stock, reduce the stock or make a double stock by following the above instructions, substituting stock for water. Rice wine vinegar: Kong Yen brand, available in almost any Asian grocery, doesn't have the unpleasant sugary undertone of the ubiquitous Marukan. Keywords: Soup, Chinese, Appetizer, The Daily Gullet ( RG247 )

That sounds incredibly delicious, lou. Want to contribute the recipe, perhaps to the Recipe Archive?

I find the Alsatians reliably tasty and food-friendly, and a fair number of places pour them by the glass, which is nice. (I don't think I've ever seen a German riesling or gewurtz by the glass except in one of those everything-by-the-glass wine bars.) But here's what Peter Schmidt says: "Trocken, Halb-trocken (literally: dry, and half-dry) - an attempt to meet customer demand for dry wines. I have a personal bias against these wines because I think the glory and uniqueness of German riesling is that perfect balance of acidity with sweetness." Okay, he's talking about Germans here, not Alsatians, and I like trockens and halbtrockens fine, but the off-dry German wines are the most likely to make my head jerk back with surprise and delight. Of course, I don't have genuine depth of experience with any of this stuff. Also, I didn't mention this in the article, but Peter Schmidt is my friend Dan's dad. I ran the article by Dan and he said, "Hey, my dad has a web page about this stuff." It was bizarre.

Viognier makes you cool, but not as cool as me. (You knew I was going to say that, right?) A lot of the butteriness associated with chardonnay comes from the oak, not the grape. Ever had a good Chablis?

I just finished off my cracklin' pork bellies for breakfast, and these is some fine eatin'. (It's hard to eat cracklin' pork bellies without affecting a lame fake Southern accent, at least while your mouth is full.) They're remarkably tender, with cracked peppercorns, crispy skin and a layer of soft, juicy fat. The Georgian is great. I remember hearing that they modernized the room recently, but not so you'd notice. You have to run a gauntlet of smokers in the bar to get to the dining room, which has enormous crystal chandeliers and lace curtains and the like. Who doesn't love a good time warp? Then the food is surprisingly modern. The pork bellies are served with these awesome little cornmeal hush puppies and some green and white asparagus. My starter was a nice little piece of cold-smoked black cod (smoked sablefish! L'chaim!), with a vegetable potsticker (they called it agnolotti, but it wasn't) and grilled cipollini onions. The only disappointment was dessert. I had the white and dark chocolate souffle, which tasted mostly like wheat. I did like how they cracked open the top and drizzled milk chocolate sauce in; I keep meaning to open a restaurant where every course is cracked open and sauced tableside. The people who got cinnamon-sugar donuts with cappuccino semifreddo lucked out. This was a genuine deal--everything was on the regular menu and it would have come out well over $40. Oh, and they know how to make a French 75. I hope Canlis takes part again this fall, because I need another excuse to put on a tie.

German wines are, of course, brilliant with bacon and most other smoked meats. I think a kabinett would be perfect with some of klink's smoked pork shoulder--slightly sweet wine, slightly sweet meat. I popped into a wine shop near work the other day and they had several 2001 kabinetts for around $13. The golden age is now.

(Warning: flagrant self-promotion) Re: Zoka, I have no opinion on their coffee, but I do know that my band, Fluffy Kittens, will be playing there on Saturday, May 3, at 8pm. No cover. If you've seen us before, we have lots of great new songs. If you haven't seen us before, what's your problem?

Will you tell us more about the event, spitzbuebe?

Nope.

Okay, I have some Hiroki goodies here. It's a cute little shop with some tables and an espresso machine. The dessert selection is pretty small at this point. A couple of types of croissants, strawberry shortcake, green tea tiramisu, Basque custard cake, cream puffs. I got a plain croissant, the tiramisu, and the Basque cake. I haven't tried the cake yet, but I'm not terribly impressed with the other stuff. The croissant has good flavor but the consistence of a buttery biscuit. The tiramisu has a blue-cheese flavor to it that isn't bad, exactly, but unexpected and doesn't really fit. The guy at the counter said this is their second day--they were open last Saturday. So they've got plenty of time to improve. spitzbuebe, have you made it over there?

Explanation, no link, although now I'm curious whether Wilfrid has a really good web-based Whack-a-Mole game. Whack-a-Mole is a game found at kids' pizza parlors, mostly. It consists of a horizontal surface with a grid of large holes in it. The idea is that you're a farmer trying to get rid of moles, and these mole puppets keep popping out of the holes and you have to hit them with a mallet before they go back down. I guess you'd put it in the same category as pinball (albeit requiring less skill): a game that's electric but not necessarily electronic. It's a highly intellectual activity and is considered the basis for Modernism.

I have absolutely no response to that.

Dang, and I thought you guys were going to tear me to shreds. Jason, are there any wines with hints of bacon?

I'll be there! Well, okay, I might wimp out and call to make sure they're really open so I don't schlep all the way over to Greenlake first thing in the morning for nothing.

It's uncooked, unsmoked sausage--Whole Foods makes their bangers with pork, breadcrumbs (not too many), and spices. I discarded the casing and pressed the sausage meat flat between my hands so it made a thin, solid layer between the layers of cabbage. You can see the strata when you dish a piece up.

I just had a huge slab of leftovers for lunch and can vouch for the last part of your statement. The potatoes will go in next time. The sausage I used, I noticed, had a hint of nutmeg, something worth sprinkling between the layers if your sausage lacks it.