ludja

Zuni salad with sliced celery, cured anchovies, cracked pepper, olive oil and lemon. Yum. Also had a wonderful celery and grilled octopus salad in Venice. ...and love to add it to tunafish salad.

Thank you very much for sharing your meal at Kiss; it looks incredible. I'm intrigued by the courses you had before the sushi. It is officially 'on my list'.

Signature Dishes: San Francisco: Cioppino Sacramento: HangTown Fry (from goldmining days) Albuquerque: Green Chile Stew, Carne Adovada, Sopapillas Boston: New England Clam Chowder Memphis: Memphis-style BBQ pork Raleigh: Carolina Pulled Pork Hartford (area): Lobster Roll, Hot Dogs, White Pizza Also second votes on: San Diego: Fish Taco Providence: Stuffies (Baked, Stuffed Clams)

What's the best way to store pralines after making them? How long can you expect them last? (Assuming you have willpower not to finish them right away)

Maybe too far out for people... but thinkng of easy to make in bulk and also provide vegetarian options-- Hungarian Beef Goulash and a Mushroom Goulash. Also, boiled potatoes or rice and a green salad. An interesting starch would be dumplings. Makes me also think of chicken and dumplings or Pot pies (chicken,beef, vegetable)---if you can think of a way to scale this up--crust on top in big pans?

Thanks for mentioning and recommending the squid risotto from Hazan's book; I have it but the recipe wasn't on my 'radar screen'. It sounds excellent and I like having additional ideas for slow cooking squid dishes. Cabbage and pancetta sounds great too. I use pancetta very often as a base for vegetable risottos. Proscuitto is nice too as kendrabail mentions. Trader Joes sells little proscutto pieces (1/4 " or so) that are handy to use.

Probably a silly question, but does anyone dry their own corn husks from fresh corn they eat in the summer and then use them for tamales in the winter? Not exactly sure on the best way to dry them so they are stlil pliable.

My question is regarding cooking poached eggs ahead of time and then reheating before service. Is it possible to have the yolks still runny, and does the texture of the whites stay the same after this? (i.e cook 3 min, stop with cold water, reheat 1 minute). (I know there's nothing like trying, , Nevertheless, I appreciate any other comments and/or caveats you're aware of re: making them ahead). Thanks.

One of my favorite cakes---and one that I actuallly made for a wedding shower for a friend is a Tuscan Cream Cake, also called a Sacripantina. I used a recipe out of Emily Luchetti's, Star's Desserts. Here's the basic idea: layers of sponge cake (cut in half lengthwise to make 6 thin layers) fill layers with Zabaglione (Sabayon using marsala and sherry) refrigerate filled layers in springform pan to set Unmold cake and frost with sweetened whipped cream Cover sides with crushed amaretti cookies and top with d. chocolate curls. I've also added toasted and ground almonds to the layers also. It's a grand looking cake with wonderful flavors. In terms of another non-chocolate filling, there is Southern Lane Cake. The filling is cooked and has egg yolks, sugar, butter, pecans, raisins, coconut, bourbon. Typically the cake is frosted with Fluffy Icing/Italian Meringue. A cake I'm dying to try and haven't made yet is a french raspberry charlotte cake from Saveur. The filling is pureed raspberries, sugar, gelatin, fruit eau de vie and cream. Here's the link: raspberry charlotte

Fair enough; for as they say, each to his own... But your comment reminded me of the only great risotto I've happened to have in a restauant-- a really great Risotto ai Frutti di Mare in a small restaurant in SF. Can not remember the name of the restaurant, but it was owned by a woman/chef who had had a restaurant in North Beach for many years; then moved her restaurant to the Marina district. It was cooked perfectly--not over or under cooked, not gummy or lukewarm which has been the main problem in restaurant risottos I've run into, and the seafood was fresh and perfectly cooked.... Like many others mentioned above, I can always count on an excellent risotto when I make it at home. I've only used Arborio rice to date, but I need to try the Carnaroli also. I really love adding that last knob of butter just before the risotto is finished...

It would be great if it could be fixed; easier to find this thread in the future with the search function through subject line... I won't turn down any risotto if prepared correctly, but one of my favorites is fennel risotto with shrimp. Also, tomato, pancetta and hot pepper.

Thanks for the info on Blue Moon Cafe; finding good breakfast places when I travel is a real pleasure for me; so I'll remember this the next time I'm in Charm City. I liked what you were asking about in your first post--biscuits, shellfish, pie... I wonder if there is some place like that in Baltimore. Sounds plausible with the Southern influence and abundance of crab, etc. Hope the research for your brewery/guidebook came out well. Let us know when you finish it!

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Congrats on getting some nice fresh sardines! Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook suggests a similar treatment to slkiinsey's and gives another possibility. Take the marinated fillets, place on some halved baguettes and toast in oven for ~ 5min. (toast the bread and cook the fillets a little). I also love grilled sardines as AlexP suggested. I had them my first time in a very romantic setting in Brittany. We were staying in a farmhouse and grilled them in the fireplace. Very memorable! We had a nice green salad and some aioli with.

Vinagrette for salads or vegetables.

Gruyere cheese and lots of black pepper on rye or white bread. (+/- ham) Melts up nice and tastes great. or Swiss cheese, black pepper and slice tomatoes

We salted it the day before, slipped garlic and thyme sprigs under the skin, and left it wrapped in the refrigerator. Then we roasted it, along with the giblets, in a cast iron grill pan at 425 for about 50 minutes. The plan was to roast it for 30 minutes breast-down, then flip and finish breast-up, but the back looked so nice and brown, and we liked how quickly the thigh was cooking relative to the breast, so we decided to just leave it on its back. Once it was done roasting we moved it to a cutting board, poured off the pan juices, spooned the bread salad into the pan, and put the chicken on top of that. Returned it to the oven for 5 minutes, then turned off the oven and let it sit for 10 more minutes inside the oven. In the meantime, we tossed the greens with some of the drippings and made gravy with most of the rest. Surprisingly the gravy was not too salty. The chicken was moist and flavorful, and the finishing it on top of the bread salad helped integrate the flavors of these two items. Next time I might try flipping it halfway through. Not sure I would roast only breast-up, since that can make the breast cook too quickly. Usually I brine the chicken and rub an herb paste under the skin, but this way was good too and certainly less work. I really liked roasting it in cast iron - it seemed to speed up the cooking time and was a great size for the bird. Thanks for you comments on roasting the chicken. Does sound like a fine idea to rest the chicken on the bread salad--both keeping the chicken warm and flavoring the salad. Also great idea to flavor the greens. It certainly looked wonderful! Hopefully it will spur me to try this sooner rather than later.

The stew sounds great; I haven't tried it yet but have cooked about half of the recipes in Wells Bistro Cooking with great success. I also like the idea of a simple frisee/mesclun greens salad. Dressed with a nice lemon vingagrette. A nice addition to it if serving as a first course could be smoked trout. (I'd like something like this in summer or winter to contrast with the richness of the stew). A good chocolate pot de creme sound very nice. (served in a pool of heavy cream). For winter another idea from Bistro Cooking is the Prune and Armagnac Flan. For summer I would make Well's Raspberry Creme Fraiche Tart. It is excellent, easy to make and has become one of my 'go to' standards for dessert. *I would definately make the toasted bread and rouille; it sounds very tempting with it* edited to add: Brandade on tuiles sounds very intriguing Jinmyo as a first course. When it fits, for special meals, I like having seafood in the first course.

Any comments on the Zuni roast chicken Melkor or Ms. Melkor? Did you follow the recipe pretty closely? Did it rekindle memories of eating it at Zuni (if you have)? Anything you would change? Comparison to other roast chickens you've made? Alot of questions, I know; but Rodgers gives a lot of details in the recipe and I'm curious about...well I guess I covered that part above!

From: click "Chicken-Fried Steak – It is also known as Country-Fried Steak and affectionately called “CFS” by Texans. There is no chicken in Chicken-Fried Steak. It is tenderized round steak (a cheap and tough piece of beef) made like fried chicken with a milk gravy made from the drippings left in the pan. Although not official, the dish is considered the state dish of Texas. According to a Texas Restaurant Associate, it is estimated that 800,000 orders of Chicken-Fried Steak are served in Texas every day, not counting any prepared at home. Every city, town, and village in Texas takes prides in their CFS. Some, admittedly, are better than others. Texans have a unique way of rating restaurants that serve CFS. The restaurants are rated by the number of pickup trucks that is parked out in front. Never stop at a one pickup place, as the steak will have been frozen and factory breaded. A two and three pickup restaurant is not much better. A four and five pickup place is a must stop restaurants, as the CFS will be fresh and tender with good sopping gravy. History: The origin of the Chicken-Fried Steak probably comes from the German people who settled in Texas from 1844 to 1850. As Wiener Schnitzel is a popular German dish that is made from veal, and because veal was never popular in Texas and beef was, the German immigrants probably adapted their popular dish to use the tougher cuts of beef available to them." Growing up nowhere near Texas (in CT) but with strong ties to Austria, I think this was why I never had to struggle with how to "get it", which several people have mentioned as a response to the concept of CFS. Besides the classic Wiener Schnitzel, there are many variants which include sauces, different coatings, eggs, etc., but I think I'll spin this off to another thread... Anyway, regarding the original topic of this thead, "good places to get CFS", anyone have experience that the "pickup truck indicator" could be a good guide? Sounds plausible!

Good link on hot chocolate in today's SJ Mercury News: hot chocolate Includes recipes from Herme, Laduree and homemade marshmallows.

Not especially creative, but poached pears in their syrup are very nice with a simple dark chocolate sauce (not especiallly thick). A liqueur of some type with the pears or sauce could jazz things up... or raspberries and cream edited: was thinking more along the lines of just fruit, given that you have all that tasty bread stuffing to eat!

Precede with bombay sapphire martini, oysters and caesar salad, follow with espresso granita parfait??? Sorry for the silly joke; I was just projecting the rest of my 'order' if I could be up at Zuni tonight for dinner!! I haven't tried it yet at home; so I can't help. Look forward to this on your foodblog though!

What do ya know? It looks like they are the same restaurant (I saw a few distinctive menu items in common). But as far as I can tell, only two restaurants, one in Santa Fe and on in NYC. And you're right, it is ribsticking food.

Giulano Bugialli's books from the different regions of Italy focus on traditional recipes and have vary nice contextual and historical descriptions before each recipe, chapter, foodstuff. Beautiful photos also. Edited to add: These wouldn't be easy to bring along though. They are large and each book is only one or two regions. Maybe more useful to look over before leaving...