budrichard

For these type of dishes i always use a rice that holds up well. An authentic paella rice or 'La Preferdia' Pearl Rice or Valencina style is very cost effective. Made a brown Jambalya last night with this rice and turned out very smooth. -Dick

My taste in individual wines has not changed in about 30 years. I still purchase Geman and French wines(of course Burgandies due to the pricing are now rareties)What has changed is my tolerance for poor wine and wine snobs. Poor wine now gets consigned immediately for cooking or in the case of really bad wine, it goes down the drain. Wine snobs are for the most part completely ignored. Wine Snob = A person that spends more time talking, writing and describing a wine in infinite detail and with nuances that one cannot begin to perceive than the time it takes for me to drink a glass of the wine!-Dick

Kuni's for sushi/sashimi and other things Japanese. Kuni started at Hatsuhana many many years ago and about 20 years ago opened his namesake restaurant. -Dick

You will never know what exactly is in any bottle of Cognac today. Most producers long ago dispensed with the nomenclature of Grand Champagne and Grand Fine Champagne Cognac as a way of at least telling where the spirits came from. The VSOP of 40 years ago is now the XO of today and rapidly changing. Our last bottle of XO was junk! The producers have a good thing going. They can change the contents while leaving the name the same, all the while increasing the price. To find a decent bottle of Cognac today, one has to pay well over a $100/bottle. Time to find a new spirit!. -Dick

The test of salt is to add salt until an egg floats in the water. Saltpeter is about 1/4 teaspoon for each zip lock bag. The brisket is put into 2 gal zip lock bags with water. A whole brisket needs to be cut in two to fit in the two gal ziplocks. Spices include a LOT of fresh chopped garlic, coriander, mustard seed, fenugreek, bay leaves, ceyon cinnamin, cardamon and whatever else suits my fancy at the time. When ready to cook, wash in cold water, into the pot with Guinness and cook for 4 hours. At the end add red potatoes and cabbage. Serve with mustards and horseradish. For sandwiches, use dark rye, swiss, cold pack kraut and a hearty mustard. I'm hungry! -Dick

About a month a go I took a whole brisket, salt, spices, garlic and a little saltpeter and started the corning process. Wednesday is the day! The process has never failed to yield a corned beef that everyone who has eaten it, says is the best they have ever eaten. How many of us have gone the corning route and what have been your methods and experiences? -Dick

See Jacques Pepin 'The Art of Cooking, Vol 1". -Dick

'Gai Scung Tong' or Chicken Stock from 'The Chinese Kitchen' by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo is without a doubt the best I have ever made! As with most Chinese recipes the intial boil water is removed. In French cooking, the surface of the pot is skimmed to remove the same impurities. In any event, lots of ginger, green onions and cilentro make for our favorite stock for Sharks Fin soup. -Dick

If a source of freshly shucked clam juice was not available I would stay away from the canned or bottled variety, They invariably have a 'taste' to my palate. Using your shrimp shells is an excellent idea for a shrimp bisque. Some bones from a non oily fish such as flounder could be used in addition. Avoid the commercially prepared stuff. -Dick

Food bags are called 'musette's' http://www.trekbikes.com/accessories/produ...category_id=740 As to what's in them, each team and individual has different ideas, needs and wants. They all consist of high caloric food that is easy to digest, eat on the fly and somewhat palatable. 'Water carriers' are correctly called 'Domestiques' which means what it says. They not only bring water bottles from the team car but anything else that is needed. They also protect the team leader in a group of riders and allow the team leader to draft off of them, thereby saving enegy for the end of the race. Actually the only simliarity between bicycle racing and touring is that most touring is done on two wheel bikes while all racing that I know is only done on two wheels. The energy output in watts and speed is much higher in racing than in touring. Until you are in with a pack of racers at almost 30 mph and experience the 'suck' from the peleton, you will have a difficult time believing the speeds that the peloton is capable of. -Dick

As a former USCF road racer, my rides are shorter(60 miles) and faster(20+ mph round trip average depending on wind and weather) than the touring faction. I only carry a cell phone, Gatorade with pre-measured dry powder to mix up at stops along the way if i exhaust my 3 20oz bottles. Gu, cookies, bananas, you name it go in my pockets with no tools or spares. Constant hydration and frequent eats are the rule. After stopping, tops on the list is hydration and electrolite replacement. Hunger for solid food will kick in and then I eat everything in sight. -Dick

show me one person on this entire site who won't tune in to watch a flay-morimoto match-up. there's your answer. Here's one person that won't watch. If the program is not run by the original Japanese production team then it will be a pale shadow of the orginal. The seriounes of the Japanese and the translation team were half the fun of the program. What other culture would make battle out of cooking? The last programs with Captain Kirk and the US production team were horrible. Bobby Flay is also not my favorite Chef being confined to the celeb category with Emeril who I refuse to watch or eat in his restaurants. I will watch Turner Classic Movies instead. I know what I'm getting and will not be dissapointed. -Dick

Fresh water fish is a no-no for sashimi and ceviche as correctly mentioned because of the parasites. Why it is different for sea fish, I need to investigate as sea fish do have parasites also. As I said before, i use only sahimi grade fish for ceviche. -Dick

Don't you love living in a society afraid to live... or possibly live... or potentially live... or occasoinaly live... or could have lived... Over the last 50 years our food preocessing has grown from a number of small regional facilites to giant, high speed facilities. With the increase in volume has come the potential for large amounts of food being distributed to large numbers of people with contamination. 50 years ago, an incident of this type would have only affected a small proportion of the population. That is the reason for what is percieved as an increase in the standards. I for one, appauld the increase and realization that our food system needs careful attention and inspection. -Dick

It has more do with possible leaching of chemicals from the cling wrap. -Dick

"French exports to the U.S. are mainly industrial products: capital goods (42%) - including aeronautics materials (25%), automotive parts (4%), and intermediary goods (23%). Consumer goods (17%) and food products (9%), traditionally associated with France, represent a far smaller proportion of French sales to the U.S." They forgot firearms of which i just took delivery of another French shotgun. Whether politically motivated or a failure to conform to USDA requirements, the ban exisits. My 'Jubugo' is now aging in Spain due to an entire processing facility being built to conform to USDA requirements because the Spanish want our $'s. Most of the time, it seems like the Franch could not care if they export to the US. The attitude has migrated to the Canadians who it seems allow all sorts of food imports but no handguns. Conan O'brien and the dog puppet had it right. Right now i ain't going to Canada and France and not buying much in the way of French products. Of course the Euro helped a little.-Dick

The process of using 'Cling Wrap' when cooking is not one I do. A loaf pan sufficiently buttered is OK. You need a vent for the steam and an aluminum foil cover with a hole will suffice. Important about a cooked terrine is the water bath and the fat to keep the terrine together when it cools and the preservation by making a seal on the top with the fat. Crisco can be used after cooking and when the terrine is cooled for preservation. -Dick

The acid in the citrus cases the protien in the fish to coagulate and cook as well as supposedly destroying harmful bacteria. That said, I don't make a ceviche with fish that is not of sashimi quality. PH? This is not Qualitaitive Chemistry and a PH Tester is not needed. If it tates sour to you then it is OK. Small pieces rather than a whole piece insure 'cooking'. -Dick

What you need is a'SuperMercado'(Large Mexican Grocery Store) so you can investigate the ingrediants and purchase what you need. -Dick

Look at Davidoff cigars. -Dick

In answer to your questions; 1. 'Shucked' oyster are not day old or reduced in price. They are opened and sold in bulk with an expiration date. they are perfectly safe for cooked foods where the oyster is not raw. If you only want warmed oyster than you must shuck your own to be safe. 2. In terms of safe to eat, all commercially harvested shell fish MUST come with a Harvest Certificate that must be shown on demand to the purchaser. This cert list where, when and by whom the shellfish were harvested. This is a must when purchase shellfish in the shell and always should be viewed. when you purchase you shell fish in the standard 100 count bag, the cert is always supplied. There are some oysters in the shell that have been treated to depuration, a sterilzing process. I don't know how the taste is affected as I don't eat these type of oysters yet. A freshly opened oyster must be glistening and plump as well as have hardly any smell. the taste should be of the sea, mild and blissful. Any deviation from these standards is not a good oyster. The cert that accompanies the oysters is the best that one can do to assure quality and free from disease. -Dick

DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT open your oysters without the proper oyster knife and a protective glove of some type. You risk serious injury to you hand any other way. I have been opening oysters and clams of all sizes and shapes for 30+ years. In that time I have had a few slips that if not using a blunt tipped correct opener would have caused severe injury to my hands. In that time I took one trip to the Emergency Room when I slipped opening a 'Littleneck' and the blunt end of the clam knife dug into my palm and reached the juncture of two nerves. Took about a year for the nerve sheathe to regenerate to obtain complete feeling in both fingers. BE CAREFUL! -Dick

Jaques Pepin 'The Art of Cooking' Vol 1 explains it all with very nice color pictures! I would debone the saddle and stuff with the tenderloins and a stuffing. Makes a very elegant preparation that slices very nicely. Jacques tells how to prepare and how to cook as well, which is very important to this preperation. The legs can be cooked on the bone or boned out and tied or butterflied and cooked on a grill. Jacques has a very nice marinade also. I would debone the shoulder and use in a stew with the bones reserved for a stock. Have fun! -Dick

Looking at the Canadian $ versas the Euro, I can see lot of Canadian whiskey or rye or whatever being drunk! -Dick

There are twp type of lobsters, live Maine lobsters and I forgot the other! Seriously, like many foods, fresh is better and a live lobster of any type is far superior to a frozen crayfish tail. Just take a live lobster and boil for 8-10 minutes for 1.25# version. Many times we boil for 8 minutes and quickly chill. The claws are done and tail is rare, suitable for medallions to be used in many dishes. Last weekend Browne Trading flew some in and they were prepared as just discussed. The medallions were used in a lobster/peekytoe Napolean and the shells for a Lobster Americain sauce for pasta and the claws for a cold appetizer served with a dash of white pepper, sea salt and lemon. -Dick