Malawry

I think the problem here is that there are so few great restaurats in Old Town to begin with. It's too bad, since it's such a great neighborhood to tromp around at Christmastime--it's so quaint with those pretty lights and everything. I wonder if Eve might be open? Majestic Cafe might be worth investigating as well.

Does anybody here do a remouillage (sp?) technique? That's the term for when you're done with your stock, you take all the skimmed-out solids and put them in a clean pot. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Turn off, strain, and use the liquid as the starter for your next batch of stock. I've seen it done in schools and restaurants, but have never done it at home because I don't really want to store a bunch of remy in my freezer until I run out of stock again. (I make my stocks in a 5gal stockpot, and I usually only cook for 2, so it takes a long time to run out--and I almost always reduce stocks to save freezer space before freezing.) I've never done a side-by-side comparison of stock made with fresh cold water vs. stock made with remy, and I wonder how they compare.

Hee hee. I've always been a pickle lover so that's nothing new. We almost always keep cornichons and Kosher dills around the fridge. But now people look at me funny when I eat a pickle! Last week I made some turkey burgers and was grumping to my spouse that we were all out of pickles. He just stared at me, so I added, "And a gallon of ice cream to wash it down!"

I had three mini-dinners tonight: Dinner 1, 5:30pm: PB&J using Polish Aronia jam on toasted crunchy whole wheat bread. Dinner 2, 6:30pm: A Texas grapefruit, peler a vif and sectioned clean. Dinner 3, 7:45pm: The last bits of hanger steak from last night's dinner, with a kosher dill pickle. Gotta love being pregnant.

You said that people can bring on one food item each. What sorts of things do people choose to bring on? Do they have some kind of shelf or locker where they are expected keep these items, or do they keep them with their clothing and such? My experience cooking for young adults is that many, especially men, are condiment-happy. Is this the case for your fellow sailors? How much hot sauce do you go through on a 45-day mission? Are you allowed to cook with alcohol?

Thanks again for all the great suggestions. I only got this call around 4pm today and they want me to have some idea of what I'll do each week AND what it might cost by tomorrow morning (!) so the rapid response is really appreciated! I have taught cooking classes before and am already booked into teaching some at a nearby community college next semester, so I wasn't completely clueless, but this will be my first time teaching a series so I want to be sure and get it right! Here's what I just scratched out. Please, tell me how to improve it: The Basics of Home Cooking: An Interactive Series Series Description: Ever wonder how restaurants get that perfect sear on your steak? Have you picked up a can of pressurized whipped cream and wondered how to make it from scratch? Do you want to know why your vegetables wilt rather than dazzling on the plate? Come learn about the basics of home cooking from scratch ingredients with a classically trained chef. We’ll pick up techniques and discuss the science of cooking while we prepare a full menu each week. Tastings of each dish will be offered. Wear comfortable, closed-toe shoes; you may also wish to bring a bib apron. Week 1: Introduction and the basics of basics We’ll discuss kitchen equipment and appliances, compare and sample ingredients, and practice simple knife skills with a menu of Caesar salad, pasta primavera, and berries with whipped cream. Week 2: Breakfast and small plates These dishes are quick and easy to put together, yet few people prepare them at home. We’ll discuss egg cookery, prepare pancakes and waffles, and practice a few appetizer dishes for company or for light lunches or snacks. Week 3: Soups, stocks and braises Homemade stocks transform the simplest dishes into gourmet fare. Learn how as we prepare fresh chicken stock and use it for creamy tomato soup and beef burgundy with mashed potatoes. We’ll finish with lemon squares. Week 4: Fish and fowl It can seem tricky to prepare these low-fat animal foods, but care in preparation and attention to the basics can result in terrific home-cooked dishes. See for yourself with pan-seared Asian-spiced salmon, chicken breasts with spinach-artichoke sauté, mushroom risotto and apple-ginger crisp. Week 5: Beef and pork The meat of the matter: These dishes can be some of the quickest yet the most satisfying in your repertoire—they’re perfect for entertaining or for a special night in. We’ll make both pork chops with apples and sauerkraut and a simple marinated flank steak with gratin potatoes and asparagus. Finish things off with a cherry-almond tart. Week 6: Pastry and Breads These sometimes-intimidating dishes turn simple home cooking into spectacular productions—and everybody will be impressed with your pastry skills! We’ll try our hands at pizza dough and an American butter cake with real buttercream frosting. We’ll also try versatile dessert sauces like crème anglaise and raspberry coulis to dress up the desserts we practiced in previous weeks.

I don't want to bore people to tears with too many technicalities about sanitation, though it is an extremely important topic. I plan to cover that sort of thing by working it into the other things we work on and giving them handouts with time-temperature charts to tape to the fridge at home. I think knife skills are worth a short demo, but then it's up to people to practice on their own if they're going to get it. I do plan to start with equipment after the introductions on Day 1, I don't want to spend the whole 2 hours on it but I think it's very important. Tammy, I am aware of the prepare-in-advance technique for classes--it's how cooking shows work as well. I just don't want to spend too much of my unpaid outside-class time on this, given how much planning it takes to teach a class to begin with and given the pay scale they're offering.

These are great, thanks. Each class is only 2 hours so I'm not sure how I can fit a topic like breadbaking in there, but I will consider doing it. Tammy, I am really liking the quick-and-easy idea. I think most home cooks want to cook that way most of the time--that's how I cook except on the weekends myself. Maybe I'll do that the first and second sessions since I'll want to spend some time talking over equipment and knife technique and getting to know my students. I LOVE those Laurie Colwin books. What a treasure she was. I don't think I'll be foisting potato salad on my poor students every single class session though.

I've been engaged to teach a 6-session series (2 hours per session) on basic cookery. What are the essential things I should be going over? I think the target student is somebody who is just starting out or starting over who doesn't know much about cooking but is inspired by Food TV or some such. I want to teach simple foods, using ingredients available at the lower-end supermarkets in my community. (I live in a somewhat rural area with limited access to specialty ingredients.) It's been so long since I was at this level, I have a hard time wrapping my brain around this. I'd definitely like to cover soups and stocks, basic fish, fowl, and meat cookery, grain/starch cookery, vegetable selection and preparation, some small dishes for entertaining, and basic (American-focused, not French-style) pastry work. I'd also rather not completely break this out into individual topic classes like that, since I think it's not as fun as preparing a full menu each week. What would you cover or want to learn from such a class series?

What time do you run on? Eastern? Do you run on the same time no matter where you are, even when you're docked? (I'm wondering if people end up eating "breakfast" while in an international port at 3pm, or something.) Also, what sort of meal do you prepare for MidRats? Is that when you make stuff like the corn dogs, or is MidRats more of an actual balanced meal?

How many people are on your kitchen crew? What are their ranks, and how do their positions compare to the brigade in a normal kitchen? How much control do they have over what they do--do they help you plan menus, come up with recipes, place orders?

One of the instructors in my culinary school got his start as a British navy chef. Do you ever get a chance to hang out with other military chefs, US or international? Do you keep in touch? What have you learned from talking with them? Do you get tired of the 5-week menu repetition? Do you ever change it after you're at sea?

As somebody who writes a regular column for a small daily newspaper (circulation in the mid-50,000s), I can attest to the lack of budget and resources for good local food reporting and writing. The food section here is not ad-thick at all; the supermarkets simply enclose separately printed ads in either the Wednesday or the Sunday paper. I don't really know what it costs to get a wire story from AP, but my local food section is only 2 pages on Wednesday (that's a cover and the inside cover, not 2 "signatures") and it usually carries 2 wire stories. It also usually carries 2 pieces produced in-house. If you're dissatisfied with your local food section, I have 2 recommendations: 1. Volunteer to write something, even if the pay is laughably low. I had a very easy time landing my column partly because of my timing but also partly because staff resources are stretched at these small papers and they just can't produce in-house the things they'd like to. 2. Read the LA Times, the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the other big-boy food sections online each Wednesday. (SauteWednesday can be essential for finding all the good stuff.) Frankly, I think my local paper does a pretty good job with the limited resources they have. The staff does a pretty good job of getting out and talking to the local grandpa who makes thousands of candy canes by hand every fall for Christmas, or the Muslim family with their favorite Eid recipes (both of which ran in the last month or so).

For your time-is-no-object lunch, I'd defintiely consider Zest. Their lunch menu entrees top out at $14, with some under $10 (that chicken pot pie is alluring, as is the bison salad): lunch menu pdf here I'm very interested in responses to your other two queries. I'm on a strict budget as well but end up in Frederick at least every other week to hit Costco and run other errands. The Costco hot dog at $1.50 (including a soda from the fountain) is a great deal and often serves as my lunch, which is good for both quick takeout and 45 minute lunches (if you like sitting in the food court that is!). I usually end up with that when I'm in town. But something different, local and good would also be quite welcome. Are there good ethnic eats in and around Frederick? I've seen plenty of little hole-in-the-wall Indian and Asian restaurants along the strip centers of W Patrick Street for example, but haven't explored any yet.

A friend of mine was stationed in Iraq last summer and reported that the military offered a lot of really great desserts. He said that everybody there is expected to be on duty 24/7, so there are no chances to take a break and kick back with a beer like there might be for soldiers based in the US with a short weekend leave. So they offered lots of desserts as a sort of something special under the circumstances. I imagine being stationed on a sub would be similar, plus the fish-bowl atmosphere probably leads to a lot of stress after a few weeks at sea. How do you address this via the kitchen? Do you pile on the sweets as well? I'm also really interested in the supplying questions. What kind of storage space do you have on board? How do you assess your supply needs when you're docked before taking off on a mission? Can you resupply at various international ports, or only on US grounds? Do you just order a bunch of raw ingredients and then figure out while at sea how to use them, or are you setting all your menus before you place your orders?

My spouse is a big supporter of my culinary career, and he truly enjoys most of the food I prepare for him. He's even allowed me to teach him a little bit here and there. We already have pretty much all the equipment we could possibly desire, but he knows that I am extremely specific about what I do and don't want so he only buys me equipment that I pick out by brand name (like off an Amazon wishlist, that sort of thing). Same goes for books. I am now the proud owner of Larousse Gastronomique as a birthday gift yesterday from my Amazon wishlist. He does not try to get me a substitute for the things I specifically asks for--he too is very specific about the tools he uses for his passion (music) and understands that it's worth it to invest in the good stuff. The rest of my family? They sorta get it. I wish they'd ask me which cookbooks I actually want rather than just winging it though. Grandma especially tends to give me useless large cookbooks off the bargain shelf at Barnes and Noble that are often unreturnable, so they sit on my bookshelf gathering dust. I finally found a polite way to tell her last spring that I'm actually rather picky about my cookbooks. For Hanukkah this year she gave me a Williams-Sonoma fruit desserts cookbook, which I regard as a big step up--I really appreciated her effort to get something with really good recipes in it, even if I rarely make fruit desserts. Mom sometimes gives me goofy gadgets which are amusing but otherwise not that useful. Then again, the cheap plastic basting brush she gave me last year (molded handle etched with a guy in a chef uniform, very thin sparse bristles) saved me after we moved this summer and I couldn't find my boar bristle brushes to baste some summertime ribs. So who am I to complain? I don't think one has to be married to a fellow foodie to have a fulfilling life together. I'm not married to one, but I'm extremely happy in my marriage and have every confidence that I married well. Just sayin'. So what if you gotta explain to them exactly what you want for the kitchen? Surely they know how to pick out other, nonfood gifts that you'll love as well? (My sweetie is very good at that!)

I don't like overcooked mashers. I like my potatoes to be as dry as possible so I can cram more cream and butter into them. I usually dry them out by putting them back in the pan on the heat after draining for a few minutes and stirring them gently. This also starts them on the process of breaking down a little. I like my mashers smooth, so I use a ricer or a food mill. I don't even own the wavy-line or grid-type manual masher devices.

I supped at Zest last night with my husband. Service was a little wobbly--we were the only table initially, but then a group of regulars showed up and suddenly our server was planted at their table almost exclusively. She regained her senses after my husband explained that we were ready to order, and after that things were appropriately attentive. I started with the small plate of fried oysters, which are almost as irresistible as the version at Firefly. It's a generous portion for a "small plate" and comes with a healthy dollop of chile-spiked mayonnaise for smearing. My spouse had a "fisherman's stew" appetizer, which was also a very generous portion of Asian-influenced fish soup. This was more like a strong fumet with slices of assorted fish and shellfish than the creamy French-style soup we thought we might be getting, and there was pak choy floating around in the bowl. I wanted the beer-braised short ribs, but they were out, so instead I ordered the lamb. It arrived with a walnut gremolata showered atop and came with glazed carrots and an acceptable rosti. The lamb itself was spectacular, the best lamb I've had since dining at Eve--flavorful and rich and a little gamey and very tender. I sampled my husband's peanut-crusted fried chicken, which again had an Asian slant with a rice wine-spiked dipping sauce and a pickly slaw draped over the top. The chicken was cut into chunks, breaded and skewered before frying, almost like chicken lollipops rather than the large pieces of bone-in chicken normally served in restaurants. It'd be fun if you had a picky child along with you to let them tackle this dish. We were satisfied with our meal, especially the oysters and the lamb. The desserts just didn't sound that engaging, so we went without. I suspect the small plates are the real highlight here; I also had a really hard time picking an entree as so many sounded so wonderful. There are a lot of fish dishes on the entree list that are particularly appealing. The room is bright and warm even on a night with terrible weather like we experienced yesterday. Frederick is lucky to have this place.

Snowangel, I used to serve my latkes as part of this meal, in courses: A big Greek salad, with chicken if desired Latkes with sour cream and homemade applesauce Broiled grapefruit with candied ginger Stroopwafels or butter cookies and coffee/tea It was a fun dinner for a few friends around Hanukkahtime. You know, latkes ain't the only potato pancakes out there. 2 weeks ago, I made a big rosti and ate it with ketchup as my dinner. Yes, that was the whole dinner. I had a bad potato craving!

That's the jackpot bar snack there. Unfortunately, they rotate their bar snacks. The in-house chips and salsa aren't bad (really, none of the bar snacks are bad, but none of them touch the chips and dip!). These are freebies on the bar, btw, not a menu item. So if you're lucky, you can sit at the bar and eat chips and dip with your cocktails before dinner rather than crappy Sysco snack mix. Nice touch.

The problem with pommes souffle is that even somebody who is really experienced at making them only gets about 80% of the potatoes to puff up. This is really one of those Ye Olde dishes and I would love to hear if somebody in town is actually making the effort to produce them. Restaurants I miss: when I first moved to Dupont Circle, I lived at Blue Plate, which occupied the P Street space where Johnny's Half Shell is right now. I almost always got the macaroni and cheese--a generous ramekin of penne cloaked with a just-rich-enough mornay sauce, with browned spots on top from a pass under the salamander. It came with green beans but I usually subbed in sauteed spinach. It was such a simple, inocuous meal but I adored it, and it was not expensive. I think they had real Southern sweet tea on the menu, too. I still swoon remembering that place, years after I moved out of the city.

It's amazing to me that more people aren't obsessed with what I put in my mouth these days, at 21 weeks pregnant. My husband asks questions sometimes, but almost everybody else is more interested in what comes out of my mouth (I still get sick sometimes, most recently Saturday night) than what I put in. That being said, I am avoiding the following: Salmon Raw or rare fish or beef--I only eat steaks 'cause I hate beef cooked past medium, and I think burgers should be medium-well to be safe for me (which tastes terrible) Caffeine, which I had already kicked before getting pregnant, and excessive refined sugar I only let myself eat tuna salad once a month, which sucks 'cause I have a huge craving for it! I'm worried about mercury. Raw eggs, which of course means I always want a real caesar salad Alcohol I eat deli meats, but I try to make sure they've been heated up until steaming before I eat them Chicken and coffee make me nauseous right now, so I'm not consuming them. (I used to NEED a cup of decaf in the morning--and derive such great pleasure from consuming it--I miss that satisfaction...) I've never heard of avoiding green peppers and sage. Sometimes I wonder what the hell all this is about anyway--people try so hard to make pregnant women paranoid and give us such clear messages that we can't handle our own pregnancies and our own births. I work hard to continue taking pleasure in dining despite these restrictions--I think it's good for me and good for my baby to do so.

I've dined at Lightfoot many, many times over the years. They have a delightful bar where I usually eat alone before a concert. I only had lunch there once, which I regarded as merely acceptable, but dinner is another story. The sandwiches on the bar menu (especially the seared tuna with watercress) and the starters are universally excellent. Entrees are more likely to fall down on the job in my experience. I almost always order a bowl of that spicy tomato soup and a spinach salad with dried cherries and Smithfield ham as my meal when I go there.

Yesterday, I ate the leftover stewed apples for breakfast before my 11yo cousin could get her mitts on them. There are benefits to getting up before 11:30am, lemme tell ya. I had lunch while out shopping, a steak n cheese sub from Ghassan's (I was in Greensboro, NC with my family). For dinner, Mom made a beef brisket and some gravy. She had some kugel left in the freezer from a relative's unveiling a couple weeks ago, so we defrosted that and threw it in the oven. We made a "salad bar" using this set of plastic containers that fit on a lazy Susan that Mom bought when I was about 10 years old. We heated up the leftover turkey, turkey gravy, stuffing, mashers, cranberry-apple crumble, and haricots verts. We ate Mom's challah from the freezer and had a big family Shabbat dinner together. The braised cabbage and the sweet potatoes were already long gone from people picking around the fridge. We killed all the leftovers with that dinner, which made Mom pretty happy. On my personal plate: brisket, haricots verts, challah, kugel, and salad. Late last night, my cousins stopped by Cold Stone Creamery for dessert, but I had already retired for the night. I was just fine after all that food without it, to be honest.

Nice. Did the caterers provide all that holiday decor for the table, or did you contribute some of it? Also, what's the stuff dolloped on the potato pancakes?