robyn

Actually - the idea of having a smoker has always appealed to me. But I can barely keep the backyard critters away from the grill for 15 minutes when I'm cooking (and I have to do it by serving them dinner - dog food). I doubt I'd find anything left in a smoker if I left it alone for 30 minutes. By the way - our back yard critters - mostly coons (plus armadillos and other misc. critters) are pretty clever. They actually know how to remove to grease drip pan from the bottom of the grill. I'll find it sitting on the ground - totally licked clean - in the morning. Robyn

If there isn't blood in beef - what's the point of "koshering it" to remove the blood? This is a description of the koshering process: "After kosher slaughter, meat must be "koshered" before it becomes acceptable for consumption. The process of koshering removes any blood that may remain in meat. To kosher a beef carcass, only the forequarter is used...First, veins, arteries and certain nonacceptable fats are removed from meat by highly trained specialists. After deveining, the meat is soaked in cold water, salted, then allowed to drain for a period of time to aid in the removal of blood from the meat. Following the draining process, the meat is rinsed in cold water." Robyn

This looks like a great recipe (and how did you know I have a leftover pie shell from the holidays!). I'll be planting all my basil plants in about 2 weeks - I usually trim off the tops after planting - and that would be a perfect time to make this for the first time. Robyn

The cigars aren't a problem. Hanging out on the beach in the middle of the summer is (after you've lived in Florida for over 30 years - your skin just says - "PLEASE DON'T"). But thanks for the information. And remember your sunscreen! Robyn

OK - Jacksonville FL seems to be getting a bit more trendy (maybe it's Super Bowl 2005). I can now buy fresh D'Artagnan duck breasts locally. And I did buy a couple. But I don't have the slightest idea how to cook them. First and last time I ever tried duck at home was maybe 25 years ago. I tried to make a whole duck. Wound up with an apartment full of smoke from the fat - and a totally inedible bird (part of the duck was raw - part was dry and stringy - what a mess). It was so bad that every time I mention trying to make duck again - my husband makes a face and checks to make sure our fire insurance is paid up. Well - after 25 years - I deserve another chance. So what are your favorite ways to prepare duck breasts. We prefer savory to sweet - but I know that a little sweetness in a duck preparation never hurt. I also don't mind chopping the meat up into pieces - for something like a gumbo - doesn't have to be served as a whole breast. Please note that if I screw it up again - I'll be too old to experiment for a third time 25 years from now. So try to do your best . Robyn

You forgot to post the picture. Agree totally. Poached is a much better word - although most of us would look a little askance if we saw "poached filet" on a menu . On the other hand - the conventional rules of cooking meat developed in societies less affluent than ours. You broiled/grilled/roasted the better cuts because they tasted good that way. And you braised/long cooked at low heat the lesser cuts to make them edible. But we are more affluent now - which is why DB can put foie gras in a burger. In less affluent times - that would have been considered a scandalous waste of foie gras. So if he can put foie gras in a burger - why not poach a filet? (Note that I've liked his food the couple of times I've eaten it - in New York - and Palm Beach - so I'm mentioning it to make a point - not to criticize his cooking). Perhaps a poached filet wouldn't be my favorite. When I eat beef - which isn't that often - I'm kind of partial to those lesser cuts - like short ribs - because the braising tends to do incredible things to the meat and the sauce in the hands of the right chef (the short ribs at Le Cirque 2000 were to die for). And because I don't cook beef at home that often (I've only cooked a whole tenderloin of beef once) - I'd probably be reluctant to poach a filet. But if you're a 4 times a week beef eater - why not try it (if you have the money)? I guess the only point I was trying to make is that unless you're willing to condemn DB - you shouldn't utter a lot of expletives about the chef at Juniper (unless you've actually tried his cooking and hated it). By the way - I do cook ribeye at home - for company. On the BBQ. It is a very fatty beefy cut that seems to appeal to people who really like steak. Crusts up nicely because of the fat. I really can't imagine making it indoors without a really super exhaust system (it throws off a huge amount of smoke when you're cooking it). Robyn

What is this event? I don't smoke cigars - I do eat seafood - and I live reasonably close to Fort Walton Beach. Robyn

I used to spend a lot of time in the Finger Lakes going to various functions at Cornell (in Ithaca). Most of the local restaurants serve a lot of the local wines - and Cornell serves them exclusively at the functions I attended. The reds aren't drinkable. Some of the whites are ok - decent - food-friendly - but I sure wouldn't pay more than about $10/bottle for any I tasted. It is a very pretty area of the US though - and some of the winery tours are a lot of fun (didn't run across big mob scenes). I would recommend the area for a weekend trip for those of you who are relatively close more than I'd recommend efforts to get cases of wine shipped to California. If you get there - don't miss the glass museum in Corning (or the races in Watkins Glen if that kind of activity is more to your liking). Robyn

i'm guessing the answer is "yes", if he says: 1)Rib eye is just a disgraceful, scrappy, chewy, over-rated meat. and 2) all the top restaurants should serve fillet steak because it is the king of meat and no other cut can get close to toppling its crown. i somehow doubt that Boulud says either. So you don't object to boiling a filet mignon? Robyn i haven't given it any thought. i'm not sure why you'd imply one or the other. what's your point? The point is simply that a bunch of Yanks are willing to jump all over a little known British chef who dares to say a bad word about a piece of meat they like and the way they cook it (as opposed to what he likes - and the way he likes to cook it). On the other hand - all of you seem to have your tongues stapled in your mouths when it comes to criticizing a famous US chef who publishes a recipe which calls for boiling a filet mignon. Like I've said - I'm not much of a beef eater - but I do cook it for company. And I think if I served my company boiled filet mignon - they'd have me Baker Acted the next day (that's legal shorthand for throwing me in a psychiatric ward). So I'd like at least a hint of consistency here (or is consistency the hobgoblin of small minds)? Or a straight answer. Everyone here has strong points of view about what this chef said about steak. So who's in favor of boiling a filet mignon - and who's opposed? Robyn

I don't buy a lot of produce there either - because it's kind of hard for 2 people to work their way through 10 pounds of potatoes or 6 heads of lettuce. On the other hand - some of the things are so good and inexpensive (like the peppers) - that I'll buy them - and if I have to throw away 1/3 - so be it. By the way - I can't remember what thread it was - maybe the Costco thread - someone mentioned the small tomatoes at Costco (not cherry or grape - but smaller than regular size). Bought a package - and they're great. I've been thinking up ways to use them (I'm at the bottom of the recipe pile by tomorrow - BLTs). Robyn

So what's your opinion about boiling filet mignon? Robyn P.S. The smoking stuff is - as people have suggested - off topic - so I'll stick to discussing meat.

i'm guessing the answer is "yes", if he says: 1)Rib eye is just a disgraceful, scrappy, chewy, over-rated meat. and 2) all the top restaurants should serve fillet steak because it is the king of meat and no other cut can get close to toppling its crown. i somehow doubt that Boulud says either. So you don't object to boiling a filet mignon? Robyn

Actually - the foam thing is about the least strange thing. And it has worked its way into the mainstream. When I had dinner at the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta last summer - the classically trained French chef there did some fabulous things with foam. I'm not sure you'll ever find it at Burger King - but there are even chefs in Jacksonville FL (where I live) working with it now. Robyn

Talk about finding customers! As a "Yank" who has been a regular visitor to the UK over the course of the last 30 years - I am surprised that a restaurant like this (whether it's an experiment that fails or succeeds) even exists in Manchester. It's easy to try this in London - or a high end resort outside of London - but in Manchester????? It would be like trying to run an Adria-type restaurant in Cleveland. Heck - even when a chef who does this type of cooking tries to run a place in a reasonably sophisticated city in the US - like Miami (La Broche) - it doesn't work. So I say more power to the chef. This type of cuisine isn't my favorite - but I'm sure that its best points will eventually work (if they haven't already) their way into the mainstream. And we'll all be better off for it. Robyn

Sorry you didn't catch a bigger fish than me. Perhaps I will succeed with the article where Daniel Boulud recommends boiling filet mignon. Robyn

I'm catching up on my reading. Just read the November 2003 issue of Elle Decor. Daniel Boulud has an article/recipe there for pot-au-feu. Calls for 4 6 oz. filet mignons - basically boiled in the pot-au-feu (for about 7 minutes - until they're done to medium). So is Daniel Boulud an idiot (don't know - just asking - but it's easier to rag about some relatively unknown chef in the UK than Daniel Boulud)? FWIW - I'd never take about $30 of filet mignons and boil them. Just a personal preference. Robyn P.S. I have to apologize that I said that Thomas Keller's dishes were never mentioned in Elle Decor. They get one line in this issue. But the pictures of Raynaud/Limoges dishes in the quarter page article don't include his.

Costco has bags of colored peppers - red - yellow - orange - 2 of each. $6.99. Also boxes of colored mini peppers (they make nice circle cuts) - $3.99. They're very fresh and usually last a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. So if you're anywhere near a Costco.... Robyn

I am firmly in the camp that it should be up to a restaurant owner to decide how he/she/it wants to run a restaurant. And that's especially true in large metro areas with thousands of restaurants - where the patrons can run from extremely ascetic vegans who don't want their servers to wear leather shoes to people who want to watch sports on large screen TVs while they eat steaks, drink martinis and smoke cigars. I am in the middle of those extremes - but there's lots of room for variations in that middle. I have never minded having a restaurant owner tell me that he doesn't want smoking in his restaurant. That should be his right. Indeed - I recall eating at restaurants 15-20 years ago where the owner didn't allow smoking. I have minded it when a government tells the owner what he must do. When governments get in the middle of this - they wind up taking away a lot of personal choices. And so - for every nice locally owned restaurant where I live - I will wind up with 3 Ruby Tuesdays. Innocuous familiar salty garbage food for people who want to get in and out in less than an hour. Type of food I could take out from my local supermarket (I'd rather make a couple of scrambled eggs at home for dinner when I'm pressed for time). Some places I used to enjoy are gone - particularly the kind of place where you went to have a few drinks - a simple dinner - maybe just a selection of appetizers - and some talk with people you knew. The neighborhood watering hole as it were. From what I read in the NYT - places like this in NYC are also going under - or simply paying the fines when the inspectors make their regular visits. By the way - when was the last time you remember being able to smoke at a play? I remember smoking sections in movie theaters - but it has to be at least 15 years or more since I've seen one of those. Robyn

If I go - just give me the mailing address for the commission . Seriously - someone mentioned this place to me a while back when I was asking about London restaurants (it was relatively new - and not too many people had first hand knowledge). Looks like a "don't miss it" based on what I'm reading here. Robyn

I don't rant anymore. I just vote with my pocketbook. That's one reason I picked London for a spring trip. I can eat a high end meal and have a cigarette too in a lot of places. Don't at all mind repairing to the bar to have one - it's being forced out into the street that I mind (last time I was forced out into the street in New York - which I thinkl is where you live - it was from Nobu - and I wound up standing next to a group of rather untidy people who were openly smoking pot - can't say I felt entirely comfortable - or that the attitude about laws in New York made a whole lot of sense to me). Anyway - apart from a few large cosmopolitan cities - all smoking bans wind up doing is killing lots of lower end to middle of the road local places - and what pops up in their place are tons of "family-friendly" yucky chains. If you doubt this - try eating in Rochester Minnesota. I never quite understood the dynamic. But on our last trip to Rochester - I spoke with a 20 something (I haven't been 20 something for a while). He and his friends used to go out a lot. Local places where they could eat and drink and watch sports and smoke. Now they all own large screen TV's - and rotate from one person's house to the next for dinner instead of going out. As for high end places - when you get to warmer cities - like LA and Miami - despite "smoking bans" in those cities - all the restaurants scramble to provide outside dining for smokers. It is usually very hard to get those "smokers' seats" outside - even when the inside of a restaurant is empty. Of course - you have to go to a place like Rochester to see what a truly draconian smoking ban does to the restaurant scene. Anyway - like I said - I am voting with my pocketbook. Hope you'll go out twice as often to make up the slack. Robyn

It actually works great if you use it the way I use it. Say it's 11:50 - and I'm at the Whitney. Want to eat and go back. I'm not familiar with the neighborhood. I just look up the sections east 70's/80's. Narrow it down further by eliminating the places say east of 3rd avenue. Scroll down the list - maybe looking for some kind of food in particular or not wanting some kind of food in particular. Pick a few likely candidates - call with supplied phone numbers and make sure they're open for lunch. Walk by - and try what looks good. I've eaten at some good restaurants that way (some dogs too - but such is life). And the book fits easily into my purse. Is it a good guide in terms of food ratings. No. But - since that's not the way I use it - I don't care. Robyn

I always buy Zagat guides when I'm going to big cities. The most important function they serve is telling me what restaurants are in the neighborhood I happen to be in when I get hungry. Then I can cross-reference (am I interested in Italian, Indian, perhaps a sandwich - big deal, little deal - then I can do a walk-by and size up a place visually). That's why I just bought a Zagat's for London (won't use it to decide where I'll eat perhaps 2-3 big deal dinner meals - but it will probably work for all lunches and a couple of after-theater dinners). I would think the New York guide might serve the same purpose for people who live there as it does for me (whenever I get together with a friend in New York and we go to a neighborhood that isn't that person's home turf - they don't know seem to know doodle about the restaurants - mind you - I'm not casting blame - New York's a big city). On the other hand - people in New York do seem to be a little weird judging from the conversations here (like you might not try out Per Se because it's not on the ground floor - GMAFB ). Robyn

Tony (if I may call you Tony), you don't know the half of it. This is from the website: "SMOKING POLICY For the comfort of diners, our air conditioned dining room is a no smoking area. Smoking is permitted in Juniper’s relaxing bar where a selection of fine beers, wines, spirits, cocktails and soft drinks are served." Also, I think it's hilarious that half the pictures on the website are of the chef! Being a smoker - I didn't understand your point of view about the smoking policy. What is it? Robyn

OK - I'm not a beef person in terms of how how often I cook/eat it - but I do cook/eat it at home from time to time (it's an easy dish to prepare for guests). And here's what I've observed. When you have a cut like a rib-eye steak - it's a reasonably tender cut (not like a brisket or similar cuts which require braising). And it has a ton of fat. So it's great on the BBQ - with perhaps a little marinade and some basting butter. I am a rare beef person - but I like a crust. With a rib-eye - you can crank up the BBQ - crust the outside - and still get the inside rare. For rare - 5 minutes total. All that fat keeps it juicy - even if some of your guests insist on medium. A beef tenderloin/fillet is an entirely different animal. Hardly any fat at all. So there is no fat buffer between the chef and a totally dried out worthless piece of garbage. I cook a beef tenderloin same general way I cook a pork tenderloin (which has the same problems). Marinate if a particular taste is desired. Pan sear to get the crust on the outside. Then finish to the desired degree of doneness in the oven (in my case - rare for beef - pork is done to appropriate temp). I won't comment on which type of beef is better (I think that's a personal preference - and I prefer fish ). They're just totally different - and what this chef said about preparation methods makes sense to me. By the way - as a rare meat person - I had great difficulty trying to cook thick cuts of beef that had a nice crust on the outside - and which were rare - but not raw - on the inside. With rib-eyes - I found the answer was thinner steaks. With the tenderloin - it was the pan sear and the oven finish. I ate both of these cuts in a couple of so-called famous steak places (just to compare whether their extra BTUs made a difference) - and always found that when they served thick cuts - and I ordered them rare - the meat was raw and cold inside. I had the same problem last night with a "double thick lamb chop" at a restaurant. So I cut it in half - and had them grill the 2 chops for a minute or two. Much better (crusty on the outside - rare and *warm* on the inside). Anyway - those are my observations as an amateur chef. Robyn

Just an update. I put my peas in the ground a couple of weeks ago (couldn't do it in March - we're at 80+ here in north Florida in May). They've sprouted. But it's cold. Hope this wasn't a fool's errand (peas aren't really a Florida crop - but I couldn't resist). On the other hand - it just took me 10 minutes to plant the seeds after I cleaned out the bed - which I had to do anyway so the early spring flowers - like Louisiana Iris - would show nicely. For those of you not familiar with Louisiana Iris - it's something I discovered at a Farmer's Market in Tallahassee (have never seen it in a nursey here). Not a true (bearded) iris. But it looks like one. And it seems to grow great here. Doesn't need a ton of chill hours - and it can take the summer heat - and rains. Suspect the only thing it wouldn't take is baked soil - since it's native to the swamps in Louisiana. I just have it in a bed which is watered regularly - and it does fine. There are internet sites where it's available. If you plant it - give it some room - because it spreads if it's happy. I got the haricot verts seeds from Swallowtail Gardens. Nice web site - good service. Thank you for the recommendation. I'll wait until March to plant those. Some of you who are interested in gardening are probably also interested in other aspects of nature. I recommend a web site - Journey North - a global study of wildlife migration. It's funded by the Annenberg Foundation. Although it's designed to be an educational resource for children - adults can have fun with it too. For example - I report my sightings of monarch butterflies and migratory robins. Don't have much occasion to report the comings and goings of caribou - unless I've had too much to drink . There's something for everyone - no matter where you live. Don't be afraid to join in if you're an adult - and if you have children - so much the better. And spring is the best time to report what's going on. Take a look. Think you'll like it. Robyn