ludja

Along similar lines and addressing Brad Ballinger's point about food-wine parings, another helpful part of the conversation would be for the wine store clerk to inquire about what they want to serve the wine with. This type of conversation could also help to transmit confidence to the potential buyer. They may not fear *tasting* new wines but they might be apprehensive to try an unknown wine without understanding if it would fit with their meal, etc. This "tactic" and that described by Kouign Aman have definately encouraged me to buy a wine different than the one I was originally looking for. Now, I typically engage in this type of converstation even if they have the wine I have in mind and if I'm in a store wtih a knowledgable clerk. It's another potential learning experience!

Interesting flavor combination. This thread is already a treasure trove of ideas.

The eclair looks wonderful but I'd love to have this sandwich right now!

I like this too. It is different and elegant but close to the original in having a carmelized slice of pineapple on top. This would look very pretty.

So many interesting ideas... Here's another that I've been pictured for fun... (It's not really complicated in execution although it took me too many words to describe it.) It's only relation to pineapple upside down cake is the combination of flavors and that there is cooked pineapple that permeates the cake. An additional flavor is kirsch with the pineapple. Overview: A split yellow cake filled with a cooked pineapple filling that is flavored with kirsch and mixed with small cubes of cake. I would use a technique to split and fill the cake as is used in an Austrian Cake called "Punschtorte" and would ice the cake with a caramel icing made with brown sugar, butter and cream. Garnish with kirsch soaked cherries. Details: Bake a genoise-style cake that will be about 3 inches high. Cut off the bottom of the cake leaving it about ¾ inch thick. Set the bottom aside. For the remaining top piece of cake, slice off the top 1/2 inch layer and set that aside. Now you have a "middle round piece of cake" that would be about 2 inches thick. Cut out a smaller circle of cake within that piece. If it is a 9 inch round, cut out an 8 or 8 1/2 inch circle. Take the remaining "ring of cake" that results and lay it on top of the bottom round of cake. You now have a cake ‘container’ that can be filled. Take the 8 inch round of cake that you cut out from the center section and cut it up into small cubes and set aside. Make a cooked pineapple fillilng and flavor it with kirsch. When cool, gently mix the pineapple filling with the cubed pieces of cake. (Maybe the cake pieces should also be soaked in a kirsch syrup.) Place this pineapple/cubed cake filling in the "container" formed by the original cake bottom that has the cake "ring" on top of it. Finally, place the original top part of the cake as a lid on top of it all. Cover the whole cake with a caramel icing. Garnish with kirsch soaked cherries. (Typically the Punschtorte filling is just the cubed cake pieces soaked in a rum and citrus juice flavored-syrup. Also the assembled cake is usually weighted down a bit before icing the cake; maybe this should be done here also.) The fillilng should be moist enough to flavor the cake pieces well. Cover the cake in a Southern caramel icing and garnish with kirsch soaked cherries. Just a crazy idea! (While I can't guarantee in my mind that this variation would work, the original Punschtorte is a delcious cake!) edited to add: Have fun, Ling! Your ideas sound great.

Yum, fruit of the Peach Festival? In any case, check out the wonderful thread with photos that domestic goddess posted of a Korean Peach Festival: click

Harsh, but fair... (I've never to Glasgow, so I don't *really* know if it's fair. I do have a good friend from Glasgow though that enjoys good food. I'll try to hit him up for some info next time I see him.)

There are variations, but I think there is a classic Hungarian beef goulash as well. My mom is Austrian, from the area near Hungary and has made a great goulash all her life. I compared her recipe to that from George Lang's comprehensive book on Hungarian Cooking and they are quite close. I think a traditional beef cut is beef chuck. Sometimes people add in other types of meat but my Mom makes it with straight chuck. 5 Tbs fat (lard is best and authentic, else vegetable oil) 4 med onions, coarsely chopped 3 lb beef chuck, cut into 2 inch cubes 2 Tbs paprika* (Nobel Rose, a type that is between semi-sweet and sharp; is good) salt and pepper 1 Tbs vinegar 1 garlic clove caraway seeds (1/2 tsp) marjoram (1/2 tsp) 2 cups water 1 tsp flour (optional, see comments below) * try to get a Hungarian brand if at all possible. I'm temporarily out, and I can't recall the brand I usually have. Saute coarsely chopped onion in fat over low heat so as to soften but not brown. As onions begin to soften add beef, and brown the meat, stirring occasionally for about 10 min. Meanwhile, mash garlic and combine with caraway seeds and marjoram. Take the pot off the heat and add the garlic/carway mix, the paprika., salt and pepper and vinegar. Stir quickly to mix the spices with the juices and fat. Then, slowly add in ~ 2 cups of water, stirring to blend the spice mixture with the water into a smooth blend. Simmer, covered over low heat for 2-3 hours, until the meat is tender. Add more water as needed to maintain a soupy consistency. The final consistency is not thick; more soupy, you'll definately need to serve this in a bowl. Now--at the end my mom sprinkles about a tsp of flour over the top and blends this in. Lang states that flour is never added... I think a small amount adds a nice texture but it is something to go easy on. You can serve it with or without potatoes. My mom usually parboils potatoes in another pot. Peel and cut them into chunks that are about half the size of the beef cubes. Add them into the goulash for the last 30 min of cooking. You don't want them to thicken the sauce too much; just a little. At this time you can also add (or not) *one* peeled chopped tomato and/or some thinly sliced green pepper. The one tomato adds a nice flavor and I usually use it if I have some on hand. However, it is not a tomato-based stew so I wouldn't recommend adding more than one. When you add the potatoes and/or tomato, add some additional water, if necessary, to maintain a thinnish stew consistency and as mentioned above, simmer for 30 more minutes. Taste at the end to see if you want more s&p and/or any other of the spices. I don't usually add in the green pepper. You can omit the garlic if you like, but I think it adds a nice flavor. Another variation Lang reports is to add some thinly sliced hot cherry peppers in the last 30 min of cooking to add some heat. While packaged egg noodles are a later 'invention', it is a traditional variation to serve this with little dumplings, which I think are called, "Galuska"* or small pinched dumplings made from flour and eggs and salt. The little dumplings are cooked directly in the goulash. We usually just have it with the potatoes alone. *There happens to be a recipe for Galuska in the October Saveur... edited to add: Thanks to the moderators for merging the two different Hungarian goulash threads. Zaelic's concise description is great and it looks like my Mom's and Swisskaese's MIL's recipe are also very similar.

This is a great idea for a thread. I'll be sure to add any good pairings I come across. Do people think it would be a good idea to start each post with one line for the wine and one line with a brief description of the dish? These two lines could then be followed by any further description and discussion. I suggest it because I found myself searching a bit in each post to determine the wine/food pairing combination. Example for tammylc's post: Escanção Dão Reserva 2001. Pork chop dish with smoked paprika, sherry vinegar, tomatoes, potatoes and whole peeled shallots Made from the same grapes as port, ... (Thanks for mentioning that Dao wine, tammylc. I first tasted one of these this summer also thought it was quite good. I need to keep an eye out and buy some. Thanks for your specific rec.)

I think a salsa verde/chimichurri type sauce would be a very nice option as Kim suggested. We used to have some beef fondues "back in the day" but I can't recall the sauces too well other than I think my Mom made a type of homemade tartar sauce that was very good with the beef. As an alternative to a bbq sauce, a thick chipotle salsa/sauce might be nice. Thanks for reminding me of this. My mom gave me their old fondue set last time I was home I need to fire it up!

I couldn't help chuckling when I read your story. I think we've all been there at some time when baking... It's pretty cool that it still turned out well. Thanks for the post, and welcome to eGullet.

Thank you very much for the great report and photos, Domestic Goddess! Pretty wild seeing one foot oysters for sale! I also really like the first photo of the dining tent with suspended lights. I was wondering about the peaches also; here it would be late in the season for them.

I made some Pralines recently (after the cake) which follow a similar recipe and technique to the Bill Neal Caramel Icing. I got a little sugar bloom on the outside of the candies and after posting about this, someone on egullet said it may be due to the humidity being too high. So...noticing that you're located in Singapore, I wonder if high humidity may be a problem? Bill Neal's recipes don't mention humidity, but I googled "caramel icing" and humidity and found this link and quote: Collection of Caramel Icing Recipes from La Belle Cuisine. She refer's to a recipe in the link that she calls, "Becky's Caramel Icing". You melt butter, brown sugar and milk, add in vanilla extract and then firm things up by adding a bunch of confectionary (powdered) sugar. For others, this may also be a less tricky recipe than the traditional caramel icing. If this *is* the issue, I guess I had dumb luck in making this twice during a North Carolina summer... In any case, I thought the link to more Caramel Icing recipes was interesting.

Here's a link to another thread that myladyinsanity started regarding making caramel icing without cream: click

Sorry to hear about the misfires on the Caramel Icing... but your recovery plan sounds very good! Did you end up using the Bill Neal recipe for caramel icing? If so, did you have a thermometer? Also, do you think you got the 'grainy' result by overheating past 242 deg F (upper soft ball stage) or by underheating? Regarding the 'burning', I'm not too experienced in candy-making and heating sugar, but I noticed that once the temperature of the heated sugar mixture in this recipe hits about 225 deg F it climbs more quickly.

Is Thomas Beisl near your neighborhood? (The kitchen really looks great; what a transformation of the space. Love that large countertop space in the foreground.)

If you want a substantial dish, Belgian Beef Stew with Beer (Carbonnade) is easy to make ahead of time. Here's a recipe that looks close to one that I've made several times:click (As the recipe suggests, it's important to use a dark beer for the recipe.)

Thanks for the tip on the El Grito. My favorite tequila for cocktails has been the Herradura Silver but as you say, it's not cheap. I very much enjoy Herradura Silver for Margaritias using Cointreau and lime juice.

No tasting notes on this, but I ran across an interesting "B" wine in the October 2006 issue of Saveur. The wine is a red Hungarian called "Bulls Blood" or "Bikaver" in Hungarian. And here's a description of the Bikaver made by Ferenc Takler, the Trandanubian vintner whose winery is featured in the article: The entire article is pretty interesting in its description of the growing renaissance in Hungarian winemaking and there are some nice accompanying recipes for Hungarian dishes in the article as well. It's been easier to find Austrian wines in the last five years but I haven't noticed any Hungarian wines. *The Szekszard wine region is located off the banks of the Danube, about 90 miles south of Budapest.

Thanks for the tips regarding the pralines and humidity, fron two Louisiana cooks, no less! The blooming did start not long after I spooned them out. I would have thought the humidity was pretty low that day, as it usually is between May and October out here, but I guess there was enough moisture around. It was a little warm that day, so that probably helped increase the humidity. Northen California's rainy season is November-April though so the low humidity at Christmas time for making confections doesn't esactly work out! Perhaps it still is pretty low as long as it isn't actually raining out. I'll have to keep watch. Thanks again!

Thank you for showing us the kitchen remodel in your blog! This is one of my favorite things to follow on an egullet thread. It looks wonderful 'so far' with the period-inspired sink, ceiling and floor and how you integrated that with the modern counters and cabinets. Also, we won't have to wait several months for the remodel to be complete!

These look like good lists. If you think you might like to make Southern/American style 3-layer, frosted cakes I think it is a good idea to buy three 9-inch round cake pans all at the same time so that they are the same size and have the same baking properties. I make a lot of European-style cakes and also like making cheesecakes so another potential pan would be a springform pan, 9" or 10", perhaps. If you like to make tarts, a 10-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom would be another item to add on to the list. (I make a lot of tarts so I've eventually acquired 8, 9 and 10 inch tart pans. Now I want a rectangular one... and individual tart pans )

Thank you for an amazing blog, Kerry. I'm looking forward to trying the Vietnamese Chicken reciipe you shared with us and I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of that part of the world and of an interesting island culture. Thank you for sharing your week with us in beautfiul pictures and words.

Looking forward to seeing your neighborhood restaurants, as well as the Park and your farmer's market later in the week--and the vicarious cocktails at Pegu! That view from your conference rooms is amazing! What a wild contrast in beautiful scenery the last few foodblog's have provided.

... Fresh yeast, yes it sounds like an old recipe. I cannot even get it in my area unless I fedex it in. $2 for a pound block of fresh yeast, $40 for the shipping. ← Fresh yeast is still commonly available and used in Austria and Germany. Again, many of my Austrian or German cookbooks give recipes using fresh yeast. I'd have to look back at them to see what the suggested substitution ratio is. I guess recommendations could also be found via googling. Hope they come out nicely, ftsmb! A whole cookbook just on pretzels sounds kind of neat. Do they suggest some other pretzel toppings besides coarse salt or poppy seeds? We have a great German bakery that sells goods at my local farmer's market. They have a bunch of pretzels and one topping I really like is coarse salt and pumpkin seeds.