hathor
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Posts posted by hathor
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Brava Katie!!!
Katie: if I can't find limes, is it true that I can't make tiki drinks??
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Give me the wide open spaces! You stay in....I'll dine with Al!
Here in Italy, the entire country waits until they can go outside to eat, most restaurants have some sort of outdoor seating. I adore it.
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I've always been told by Italian chef never to use sharp cheeses with seafood, however.........Cheese with a little more subtley can do wonders with seafood. Mascarpone with Bisques, smoked salmon and cream cheese (however not Italian they do eat it often in the north), stracchino or pizza with Tuna or folded into risotto with Halibut. The most interesting cheese and seafood combination I have tried has been watermelon, Ricotta Salata, and scallops. If you haven't tried it check it out.
Ciao and welcome to eGullet!
That's quite a teaser: watermelon, ricotta salata and scallops. come on, tell us a little more...how was everything prepared, assembled? Inquiring minds!
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Salmo carpio is that salmonid found in lake Garda and is known as "carpione" as mentioned above. But the method of preparing the dish and name of the dish is used for other types of fish. One fish from Torino that is prepared in carpione is the tench. Oddly the medieval recipe for carpione is the opposite of the modern recipe, first the fish is marinated, then fried.
A similar 14th century Tuscan recipe is called "schibezia", and there is and extant dish called "a scapece", these are derived from "escabeche" and beyond.
Lest anyone think that anything can be this cut and dry in Italy.... I took a short stroll thru some of my resources and came up with the following:
In a current dictionary (Garzntii), carpione is described as a large carp. In an old Veneto recipe, they use the word carpione to mean carp.
In Emilia Romagna, Lombardi, Peimonte, the word shows up as either 'in carpione', or 'al carpione' and the recipes call for similar preparations involving white vinegar. These recipes all use fresh water fish such as pike, perch, trout, or tench (which is allied to the carp).
I could only find the word 'scapece' in Abruzzo and Calabria. In the town of Vasto in Abruzzo, scapece is a vinegared, preserved fish recipe. My source doesn't indicate the type of fish, only that it is cut up pieces of fish.
There are numerous other recipes in Abruzzo & Calabira that use 'in scapece', but these are for eggplant or zucchini 'rollups.
I came up totally empty on 'schibezia'. But, the fun is in the hunt, so I'll keep looking.
Adam, is salmon also allied with carp?
And getting back to the original reason for the question, secondo me, this would make a great dish for a summer picnic.
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Sounds to me like 'sarda in saor". I think I spelled that right....
But, it's sardines, that are lightly fried, barely cooked, then layered with hot cooked onions and raisins and some vinegar, then left to marinate for at least 24-48 hours. Good stuff. Popular in Venice.
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We did it in 3 months. It was an empty space that hadn't been used since the 12th century. Easy to clean, already stripped, but we had to lay all the utility lines.
The food suffered, the wait staff suffered, the boh suffered...our customers suffered. I sincerely don't recommend it.
I know you've been dealt this. I know that which does not kill us makes us strong...but step back from the urgency and decide what compromises and sacrifices you are willing to make, as there will be many. Then decide if it even makes sense. Sit in a room, alone, and think about it.
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2 things hit me:
1) you took your displeasure out on the wrong person. The waitress, who probably hasn't been trained to love, honor and respect her profession, looked at the check and saw you were .87cents short. She has to account for the money, and it's a reflex to say, maybe you made a mistake, the bill is 'x' amount.
Your problems with the tip and/or the service should have been taken up with management. The need, the custom, the existence of tipping is altogether another discussion.
2) someone in your party didn't ante up.
IF your problem is with the percentage of the tip, that's a great topic for discussion and Katie makes a clear case for the situation in the US.
IF your problem is that service is a dying art in the US: that's a valid topic for discussion.
IF you question automatic gratuity: excellent topic.
But, to Flo or Candy the waitress, who works at the Mexican joint, has a baby, sore feet and a demanding boyfriend, you were just .87cents short.
You make valid points, but choose wisely with whom, and where you stake your battles. Life is far too short and precious.
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Grazie. I just spent time googling and catching up. You know I'm rusty when I can't remember the word for strike!
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What fisherman strike? What's going on? Is it regional or countrywide?
A neighbor of mine made an odd comment at the market today, she declared that even though she wanted some fish, it was too early for fish (tropo presto). OK, some fish run seasonally, but tropo presto for all fish? I've been puzzling over that all afternoon.
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A friend told me that clams are never served with cheese in traditional Italian cuisine. Is this true?
Yes, it's true. Traditional Italian cooking does not combine seafood and cheese ... except ... it happens! I've been making linguine with clam sauce following the Marcella Hazan method for years (modified of course
) with a sprinkling of parmesan and butter. In her "The Classic Italian Cookbook" for the white clam sauce recipe she writes "This is a tomato-less sauce that includes two ingredients rarely used in Italian clam sauces: butter and cheese. But this departure from tradition is justified and successful because it adds smoothness and delicacy to the sauce." I don't know if she has repented this statement but I find the inclusion of a smidgeon of butter and parmesan essential to my favorite version of this dish. I am an Italian American whose relatives came from Piemonte. Being landlocked, anything with anything seafood but anchovies and salt cod is beyond my inherited (Piemontese) experience but I have spent a few years in most regions of Italy and can't say that this taste profile is something I've encountered much. It is still my go-to vongole bianco version.Kate
Marcella Hazan's recipes are very Emilia-Romagna biased, so there is a natural tendency to add a bit of parmigiana for that characteristic creaminess.
There are always exceptions to the rules, I thought that NYTimes article that Fat Guy mentions was very well researched and written. All rules should be broken from time to time, secondo me.
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Central Italy checking in: no, no, no. No cheese with clams or seafood.
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If you have enough time, take a cab into the town of Fiumicino. There's a bunch of good restaurants, pizza, seafood. It's actually a pretty fun town.
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you caught it perfectly. well done! No matter the reason.
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Rain in May only helps if the same rain shows up in October!
I sure hope its better than last year. We had nothing but eastern European truffles masquerading as local truffles. Dry. Dry. Dry. Although its been a fairly rainy spring, so we keep our fingers crossed.edit for p.s. I'm in Umbria, so pay me no mind.
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Try My WebpageItal.cook
I went and it was fantastic. Classes are given in Italian, but there is usually a translator present for the lectures. PM me if you want to know more.
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The breads look really lovely, Eilen. I like the looks of the second one better as well. I wish my slashes were as good.
My mother is a tough bird, it looks like any preferment, and rises like crazy so I'm not sure the runny mother is the way to go. But others may know far better than I!
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Food Man, you rock!! That looks, and smells gorgeous!!
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Do you know where in Italy it is?
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I find that to be true often in Italian dishes.
Italians cook, but often names are given by others.
OF course there is an on going battle to the origins of many dishes, if they are French or were taught to the French by Catherine de' Medici's chefs, such as Bechamel sauce- Colla in Italy.
On international menu's , Veal Florentine, Eggs Florentine etc, all are dishes prepared with spinach, Here in Florence Veal Florentine is with peas.
Florentines are big eaters of spinach , chard or anything leafy and green, but it was the French that codified the recipes they saw.
Even in Italy names change for the same dish, area to area.
A classic dessert Zuppa Inglese, is said to have been a dessert which fell and was reassembled - cake and custard, while being served to an English guest- so called English soup.
Ciao Judy!
Sort of off topic, but do you have any good sources for info regarding Catherine de Medici's chefs, or her spectacular dinners? I've been trying, but coming up with less than wonderful results.
Honey....that woman put the SPEC in spectacolo!!
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Hmmm. That's interesting because I did 2 baguettes, a small boule and large boule, and all three had the oven at the same temp, and all three split. But you think its the temp more than my slashes or the moisture content of the dough?
That is officially beyond my skill set.
Slashes are decorative, they aren't going to cause splits.
I know by feel, I'm useless at hydration, ash, potassium percentages... I'm sorry.
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Gfron: oven temps are a funny thing. You could calibrate your oven...or get one of those handy dandy infared hand held thermometers. I use mine all the time (not only as a cat toy) and it's amazing the variation in temp from one spot in the oven to another.
It takes a lot of the guess work out of what you are doing.
Depending on the size of the loaf, roll, bread, etc. I adjust. I might start at 500F, then start dialing back the temp.
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I've been reading a lot of baking recipes lately where it calls for a stick (4 oz.) of unsalted butter and also a 1/4 teapoon of salt.
A stick of regular (salted) butter is 4 oz. of unsalted butter with a 1/4 teaspoon of salt added.
So if you're going to add the salt anyways, why not just use regular (salted) butter?
There has been an eGullet discussion in the past where some have said that unsalted butter is considered fresher than salted butter (the salt in the butter acting as a preservative so that the salted butter can stay on the store shelf for a longer period of time). But in a well patronized grocery store in a large city, I don't think lack of product turnover really becomes an issue.
I've also heard the argument that it's better if you control the salt. But a 1/4 teaspoon is a 1/4 teaspoon, whether I add it or the manufacturer adds it to the butter.
So why make that trip to the grocery store to buy unsalted butter when the recipe math says that the salted butter I have on hand will suffice?
Talk to me.
You might also want to consider that salted butter contains a higher level of water content than unsalted, particularly if baking figures in your repertoire.
As Anna and others have pointed out, not all salted butters are created equal. You'll likely need to adjust your recipe. For something as precise as say, a beurre blanc, that could lead to disastrous results. Also heat reduces/evaporates liquid, thereby concentrating flavor which in turn will significantly affect the final product particularly if salted butter is used.
The percentage of actual butter fat will also very from brand to brand, so to expand, not all butters are created equal.
Find one that you like, learn it's properties and then you have a better shot at consistency.
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That reviewer should get a kick in the pants. He starts off the review with the words: Dark. Dirty??? Then a full paragraph about how it used to be. Not. Nice.
We ate there recenlty and while Katie's expertise and her cocktails are phenomenal, the food was also very good! I remember stealing quite a bit of Jeff's steak....
Harumph to Adam Erace.
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I don’t believe that restaurants are responding to the economy correctly.
If I seemed rude or as if I jumped on you, I apologize; certainly not my intent.
But, I still don't understand the intent of the last line of your original post.
What would you expect? What would you consider to be a correct response? I just am trying to understand your point of view.
Restaurants are caught in the crosshairs of rapidly escalating food prices and diminished consumer spending.
That local blue cheese is going to cost a whole lot more than the industrial stuff that gets poured out of a gallon container, that's reality. Unpleasant but true.
The media is full of stories right now about how the US consumer is going to be feeling the pinch in his food budget. It's not a pretty picture.
Viaggiatore Gourmet
in Italy: Dining
Posted
Grazie per l'informazione!
Saluti a Tupac!!