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pork

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Posts posted by pork

  1. I also like green salsa.  I get it with chips from the mexican restaurant in my neighborhood when I order take out.  I throw out the chips and eat the salsa on some ciabatta bread with some olive oil along side a hearty black bean soup with a dollop of sour cream, sliced up avocado and a nice glass of red wine.  The postings on this thread have been helpful - I'm inspired to go out and buy the brands of green hot sauce mentioned.  It would be great to have the perfect green hot sauce on hand without having to go through the rigamarole of ordering take out, so thanks! :)

    I make it with:

    tomatillos

    jalapenos

    onion and/or green onion

    garlic

    lime juice

    cumin and/or coriander seed, freshly ground

    salt and pepper

    white wine vinegar

    flat leaf parsley (most people use cilantro but I don't like cilantro.)

    you'll have to play with the amounts to get the sauce you like. just combine in a food processor and pulse a few times, then refrigerate an hour or three to allow the flavors to come together.

  2. I rub mine with bacon drippings, kosher salt, and cracked black pepper.

    I have had this exchange with more than one dinner guest:

    "This is the best baked potato I have ever tasted. What the hell did you do to it?"

    "You do not want to know."

  3. I keep a few extra gallons of water in the basement along with my camping gear.

    I don't so much have a 'disaster kit' as much as a mental list of supplies that I keep around in more quantity than I really need for day-to-day usage, and tools that would be first to go into the truck if I needed to bug out.

    books on hunting, butchering, and preserving meat

    lots of salt

    vitamins, asprin, tylenol

    vodka

    canned goods like tomatoes and tuna, but I rotate that through my pantry to keep it fresh

    dried beans and rice, ditto

    whole peppercorns and spices, ditto

    pistol, rifles, plenty of ammunition

    the usual radio, flashlights, batteries, etc

    chainsaw, axe, maul, extra gasoline and oil

    trenching tool

    we have a cabin in the mountains that we would retreat to. Having lived in the DC area for most of my life I would not count on the kindness of others.

  4. What he calls "the dreaded hot mushrooms on toast."  sauteed wild mushrooms and shallots on top of crusty bread topped with a gruyere white wine sauce.  He hates it, I love it. 

    What the hell is wrong with him?!?!

    When the wife is away I like the guilty pleasure of store-brand boxed mac'n'cheese right out of the pot with hot sauce.

  5. Pork - what do you think of real thai? I've thought of picking that up but I'm leary of thai cookbooks as they never seem authentic or if they are they are waaaay to nitpicky. I want more homestyle or street stall food. That's the stuff I lived on in Thailand.

    I think it's excellent. I have several books on thai food and always wind up using this one. You can read the introduction and a few recipes on Amazon, and also see the index.

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0811800172...341#reader-page

    Seems authentic as hell to me. I wouldn't say it was nitpicky, but I do some substitutions to make the recipes fast and easy for me (storebought chile paste, chile/garlic sauce, and I almost always omit the rice powder.)

  6. I was thinking for all Yellow -maybe ginger, curry powder-what else?
    like the curry idea, but wouldn't really go with the other flavors so much. Maybe make a traditional salsa, but go with grilled/roasted flavors on this one, using onion, yellow tomatoes, banana peppers, garlic, olive oil, and a bit of sherry vinegar?
      Would sesame oil be overkill?
    It'd impart a very asian flavor if you're going that route.
    Green Peppers-certainly Jalapeños for kick, minced onion and.....?

    ground, dried green new mexico chile powder, garlic powder, jalapenos/serranos for sure.

  7. The worst one I have ever had is at a Tex-Mex place in Sterling called Los Toltecos.

    They make good tamales. That's about it. You have to look at a place like that and figure out if they really know what they're doing or if they're faking it. These guys are faking it, hence the total lack of understanding about what fried ice cream is about. The falutas and tamales are good because they know how to make them. The "jalapeno poppers" are sysco brand, I'm sure.

    You're right about the tablecloths though.

    For good texmex, find an "Anita's." It's a local chain, but I remember when the original one in Vienna was the only one, in a shack on maple st.

  8. First I check epicurious.com.  Then I check Bittman's "How to cook Everything".  Then I check "The Best Recipe".  I compare and contrast all three and usually make a variation.  Anal but it works!

    Same process, but I use google, Joy of Cooking, and The Best Recipe.

    Oh, and for Thai: Real Thai. Cajun: Paul Prudhomme's Lousiana Kitchen.

  9. It sounds to me like you are making a common mistake, confusing prosciutto (fully cured italian ham, usually shaved paper-thin and not cooked) with pancetta (italian style salt- and spice-cured pork belly, [basically unsmoked bacon] which would be gross eaten raw.)

    The most commonly known presentation for prosciutto is prosciutto y melon. Shave it thinly (you usually get your deli guy to do this) and serve with or wrapped around pieces of honeydew melon or canteloupe. It is sometimes cooked though. I have seen it wrap shrimp and asparagus and breadsticks, among other things.

    Pancetta is used in many Italian recipes in the same way you'd use bacon in American ones. Diced, rendered for fat, fried crisp, removed, added back to finished product later.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosciutto

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancetta

  10. Anyone catch Michelle Bernstein totally spanking Flay in battle onion?

    bernstein.jpg

    Oh my, she is dreeeeamy. Good cook too.

    Also, god in heaven why did they fuck up the Shatner episode so badly? Shatner would have been a perfect Chairman, for all eternity. It was his place. Why the hell would they feed him horrible puns and alliterative nonsense through a teleprompter? He could have ad-libbed the whole thing and we'd have been enthralled.

    I, too, weep for what could have been; nay, should have been. The four horsemen are not sous. They are: Marc Summers, Bobby Rivers, Al Roker, and Marc Silverstein.

  11. Cantina di Italia, very good Northern Italian food.

    There's a chain by that name in northern virginia. Reliable but unspectacular italian food. I have to try not to get excited that it is, in fact, possible to get pasta at a regular stripmall restaurant and have it be cooked properly. I do love their veal piccata though. Slurp!

    My contribution: Dominique's

  12. "An off night" just doesn't happen. More likely, an off patron.

    Both are possible, and the although the latter is usually more likely, chances are good that anyone that posts here knows better. Especially someone that would pick "knifeskills" as a moniker! You don't learn that term watching food network.

  13. Lots of good variation suggestions, thanks everyone. I write like a rabid purist, but that's really just my extremely dry sense of humor. It doesn't translate to text that well. As always, "eat what you like" is king in my mind.

    One quick question, do you ever have a problem with the wing sauce breaking or separating once the wings are coated.

    I usually don't make the sauce mild enough (i.e. with enough butter) to have it noticably separate. The sauce does change consistency rapidly after deployment though, which is part of why they don't travel that well. I think the pungent off-gassing of acetic acid from the hot vinegar is key to the experience, which is lost after 15 minutes at most. That's why I don't think I'll bother to make them "to go" any more.

  14. I've found kitchen shears actually work best for this.

    I will have to try this next time I have to cut them myself.

    Suspend them in the oil for 10 seconds before dropping them so they form a non-stick skin. Easiest way to do this is to drop them in using the spider.

    What keeps them from sticking to the spider? :laugh:

    What if I make my own home-made ranch dressing?

    shhhhh! ok you can use homemade ranch, but don't tell anyone I said so ABSOLUTELY NOT! :raz:

  15. So Pork ....  you gotta be from Buffalo, to do those so pure, so right. (?)

    Acually I am from the DC area, with Pittsburgh and Philly ties. I learned them from a guy from Buffalo. He opened a bar in Blacksburg, VA called "PK's" back in 1992 or so. He taught me the basic recipe and I've been a disciple of the pure wing ever since. Thanks though! :smile:

  16. yeah, countertop fryers with dual baskets are splash-burns waiting to happen. I worked at a joint called "the Farmhouse" in Christiansburg, VA, where in addition to the two Vulcans at the fry station, each station had its own countertop model (homemade fries were a side option with everything). When working fry I had to drop and filter up to seven fryers a night. Those little bastards with the dual baskets dropped their baskets into the oil at the slightest provocation, splashing the unfortunate operator.

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