ludja

Have you or any others in the UK had a chance to check out these other new cookbooks from UK chefs? Tom Aikens Cooking by Tom Aikens Nobu West by Nobu Matsuhisa, Mark Edwards, Eiichi Takahashi Made in Italy: Food and Stories by Giorgio Locatelli I also heard that Heston Blumenthal is coming out with a new book later in the year.

Sounds interesting, thanks for mentioning this. Michel Richard's Happy in the Kitchen sounds like another one that I'll check out as well. Here's a discussion thread on dining at Le Champignon Sauvage if you want to learn more about the type of food served there. And for something completely different foodwise... If you check out the current Daily Gullet, you can read an excerpt from White Trash Gatherings: From scratch Cooking for Down Home Entertaining by Kendra Baily Morris (eGullet's own, kendrabail.) The book contains recipes and reminiscences of Appalachian Mountain food. Included in the excerpt are two recipes: K.G.’s Country Grit Bread Jeb Magruder’s Chow Chow

Here are the links to the previous Iron Baker challenges: Iron Baker Challenge #1: Ling and Upside Down Pineapple Cake Iron Baker Challenge #2: gfron1 and dessert with animal (not byproduct

There is an existing thread with recipes and discussion... Here it is (The search parameters are "roca", select "all forums" and look in "titles" using the search function located in small blue print all the way at the very top of the page.)

Hing Lung 674 Broadway Street (at Stockton) San Francisco, CA 94133 Open Mon-Sun 8:00 am – 1:00 am Signature Dishes: Peking Duck, Steamed Chicken with Ginger Sauce, Congee, Chinese Fried Bread and Donuts

I didn't know Ryoko was known for being a such a late night spot! It's featured in the article. A friend of mine used to go there all the time late at night. Here's the list for posterity: Late-night hot spots Brick. 1085 Sutter St. (at Larkin St.), S.F.; (415) 441-4232. Dinner 5 p.m.-midnight nightly Farmer Brown. 25 Mason St. (at Turk), S.F.; (415) 409-3276. Dinner 5 p.m.-midnight Monday-Saturday Globe. 290 Pacific (near Battery), S.F.; (415) 391-4132. Dinner 6 p.m.-1 a.m. Monday-Saturday; 6 p.m.-midnight Sunday Nopa. 560 Divisadero St. (at Hayes), S.F.; (415) 864-8643. Dinner 6 p.m.-1 a.m. nightly Oola Restaurant & Bar. 860 Folsom St. (between Fourth and Fifth streets), S.F.; (415) 995-2061. Dinner 6 p.m.-midnight Sunday and Monday; 6 p.m.-1 a.m. Tuesday-Saturday Ryoko Restaurant & Bar. 619 Taylor St. (between Sutter and Post streets), S.F.; (415) 775-1028. Dinner 6 p.m.-2 a.m. nightly Thai House Express (Tenderloin). 901 Larkin St. (at Geary), S.F.; (415) 441-2248. Open noon-midnight daily Yuet Lee. 1300 Stockton St. (at Broadway), S.F.; (415) 982-6020. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday-Monday Other late-night spots: Cafe Maritime. 2417 Lombard St. (at Scott), S.F.; (415) 885-2530. Dinner 5:30 p.m.-1 a.m. nightly Grubstake. 1525 Pine St. (between Van Ness and Polk), S.F.; (415) 673-8268. 5 p.m.-4 a.m. Monday-Friday; 10 a.m.-4 a.m. Saturday and Sunday Osha Thai Noodle Cafe (Tenderloin). 696 Geary St. (at Leavenworth), S.F.; (415) 673-2368. 11 a.m.-1 a.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-3 a.m. Friday and Saturday

I remembered posting on this topic but it was another thread on non-guac avocado uses: Avocados: They're not just for guacamole Here's another similar thread: Avocado Recipes

Zuni is open to midnight Tues-Sat so I'd definately consider that. Two other options: Ryoko's 619 Taylor Street (between Post & Sutter) San Francisco, CA 94102 415.775.1028 6pm-2am daily (Good sushi in a casual environment; a few blocks west of Union Sq.) Brandy Ho's Hunan Food 217 Columbus Ave. San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 788-7527 Dinner: Monday - Thursday: 3:00pm - 11:00pm, Friday: 3:00pm - 12:00am, Saturday: 6:00pm - 12:00am, Sunday: 6:00pm - 11:00pm (One of my favorite Chinese restaurants in the city; located on lower Columbus, not far from the Transamerica building) edited to add: The Globe in the Financial District is open until 1:00 am every night except Sunday when it is closed. I haven't eaten there in many years but I think I read a review recently that they had been rejuvenated with new ownership or chef. 290 Pacific Avenue Maybe someone who has been there more recently will have some comments.

All the ideas sound great, but CanadianBakin's idea would work for me! Sounds like a great way to serve this cake!

Thank you for a wonderful blog, hathor! I loved the photo you showed us of the ancient city walls during the winter and of your porcini hunting expedition. Picking porcini (Steinpilz, in German) with my relatives in southeastern Austria is one of my favorite memories and your photos were so evocative of that experience. You mentioned a dish of taglietelle with porcini. Do you know what some of the other local dishes are that use porcini? Also, do you have any photos of your local churches to share? I wonder how they look compared to those in other parts of Italy I've visited.

Good point, Fat Guy, to distinguish the two types. Grilled garlic bread has been a perrenial and ubiquitious side dish for almost any grill out at my parents when I was growing up and they, and now I, still make it all the time. I don't really like the soft restaurant version that I also grew up with in CT, 'old school' Italian restaurants because the overall texture, to me, is just kind of soft and oily. Like other posters above, I mix crushed garlic with softened butter. This gets spread on individual Italian or French bread slices before toasting. I also sprinkle a little garlic salt over the top. Then I either gril theml, face down or if cooking inside, place under the broiler. The trick is to cook it just long enough to get some toasty brown areas and even a *little* black. But, I like to not overcook it so that portions of the bread are still soft and oozy with melted butter. The trick on the grill, is to periodically check slices on different parts of the grill as some areas will be hotter than others. For me, the perfect specimen has a pleasing textural combination of toasted and soft areas. I also make crostini and bruschetta, but look at that as another different, albeit similar, animal. edited to add: When I was young, even in CT with its heavy Italian influence, many people did not use lots of fresh garlic unless you were Italian! We used to make them by just spreading softened butter on the rounds followed by a sprinkling with garlic salt. This comes out pretty well also, although we definately moved to including fresh garlic which is even better... Garlic bread! So simple, but it evokes lots of good family memories for me.

Sounds like a very nice combination; thanks for sharing it. It is a bit different, but when I saw the title of your thread I thought of Scottish cranachan. One common variation is to fold toasted oatmeal into cream that has been whipped and flavored with Drambuie or a mixture of honey and whiskey. This is served as a parfait with rapsberries. (Sometimes the toasted oatmeal is sprinkled on top rather than folded into the cream.) (I like the lime/yogurt idea with the tomato soup as well...)

In Clovis... Ronnis Suburban and others discuss Trelio Restaurant in this thread. It looks to have nteresting, fresh, imaginative food.

Here is a thread on California artisanal foods available online: click

I think someone else also mentioned pork or chicken cracklings. If you think of bacon candy or dessert combinations that can handle a salty component that may lead you to some ideas. The proscuitto/melon redux idea was already mentioned. It may be difficult for you to find down there, but along the lines of what you were thinking of with thin slices of dried beef would be the use of thinly sliced Bundnerfleisch (German) or Bresaola (Italian). I could see these working with some fruit and/or cheese combinations. Other savory/sweet combinations that work and that might be amenable to manipulation more towards the dessert sphere: Chinese Spicy Orange Beef and caramelized savory Vietnamse dishes. I have some ideas for followup on these ideas but want to leave you some creative room. Maybe with your busy schedule you could get a dispensation for a few extra days...

Thanks for sharing your successful pork recipe, Jlam. It sounds very good. Caramel sauce is also used in some classic savory Vietnamese dishes which is where I've had this combination first, mainly with shrimp. Here are some recipes using Vietnamese Caramel Sauce in a few different dishes: Chicken and Ginger, Shrimp and also Pork Riblets. Click Kerry Beal recently shared a recipe for Vietnamese Caramel Chicken Thighs in her recent foodblog. The addition of fish sauce, garlic, shallots and sometimes ginger and/or chile reallly make the dish successful although it may not be intuitive before you try it the first time. edited to add: I cross posted with C.sapidus... We both linked to the same website which looked like one of the better recipes I saw online; i.e. similar to some of my Vietnamse cookbooks.

I want to try some of these recipes; especially the apple crumb kuchen... There are several good threads on apple cakes and breads; here are a few others I've bookmarked... apples: an autumnal celebration apple cakes: favorite recipes looking for an outstanding apple bread recipe

Discussion of the Bay Area Michelin ratings right now on KQED... edited to add: The show will probably be available later on the website at Forum. The guests are: Jan Newberry, (San Francisco Magazine Food Editor) Dan Schroeder (V.P.; Golden Gate Restaurant Assn.) Mark Cornwall (sp?) (Zagat official)

It is worth bookmarking the website you linked to called, "cibochepassione". They have a lot of nice recipes by region, including the twenty-four from Umbria.

It goes to 5 lbs - the gram marks are tiny, so it's hard to determine exactly where the needle is. ← Yeah, this sounds similar to my non-digtial scale, 20 g tic marks and up to 5 lbs. I usually like to measure at least 100 g. Maybe aidensnd's advice will work.

^Those biscuits rose pretty high, just a bit unevenly. I made biscuits a few times this summer after not making them for awhile. It took me a couple batches before they came out well. (This happens every time I don't make them for awhile... What seemed to help me: Speed in mixing dough, rolling out and getting into oven. (I'm intrigued by this recipe where Dorie suggests the option of freezing the raw dough.) Making sure the dough was wet enough. I had to sometimes add a bit more liquid than was specified (in the recipe I used) Rolling/patting out the dough thickly enough. (sounds like you did this; and I also found this to be important) Cut the dough rounds with a biscuit cutter round. It is open in the middle so that the dough does not get compressed as in the case of using a glass or other closed container. Mine is metal and has a pretty sharp cutting edge. Cut rounds as close together as possible to minimize the amount of dough that needs to be re-rolled out as these don't usually rise as high as those from the first patting out. Why do the raw biscuits look kind of misshapen? There seems to be an overhang at the top of the uncooked biscuits. I think this might be affecting the evenness of the rise and final shape. (As you mention, the raw dough *does* look like it might be a little dry compared to what I found worked well...) I want some of those biscuits right now!

40 g is stlll pretty small. What is the max weight your scale goes up to?

In case no one can help you directly... You may have thought of this, but is the scale sensitive enough to weigh several gelatin sheets or ten or however many you have? You can then determine how much one gelatin sheet weighs and determine from there how much 12 g will be. Eg. You weigh 10 sheets and they weigh 240 g altogether. Thus each sheet is 24 g and you will need a half sheet for 12 g.

Yum, that looks great parmhero! You should consider starting a new thread on key lime pie and use this nice informative post where it will be able to be seen and referenced in the future also! It would be a great topic as there are lots of different ways to go with this pie as you alluded to... After seeing your post I may need to make one of these soon!

Interesting...tamales are more specific to New Mexico but empandas might be another possibility. I wonder if there is any way to fit green or red chile in there...may not be easy. The other meat flavored profile that I thought about is red mole. Perhaps one could tweak the balance of flavorings to make a sweeter but still pleasing take on the mole flavorings in a dessert. One could play up the dried fruit, toasted nut and chocolate flavors.