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bucktown_boffo

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Everything posted by bucktown_boffo

  1. Hey thanks for the tip. I definitely need to re-evaluate the Whole Foods here and will look into the Paterson market next time I go exploring (it's only 6 miles away). Prime is obviously great, but what my wallet would be happier with on a regular-type basis is just decent quality choice cuts, cut 1 1/2" or more thick. I used to be able to get big meaty ribeye steaks like this for $10/pound. Sure they weren't as well marbled as prime is, but when cooked properly they still tasted great, and didn't break my bank.
  2. I'll try the pork store when I have a chance, and I need to take another look at Whole Foods, but from what I remember, their prices hover around $20/lb for the nicer cuts, all choice grade. Maybe my memory is wrong on this. Or maybe I need to get used to NJ prices.
  3. Recently moved here and am still looking for a place to buy decent quality meat without paying over-inflated prices. Tried the Italian market by Watchung Plaza on past visits to Montclair (but not recently) and found their meat to be average and overpriced (also, on those prior occasions they claimed it was prime beef when it seemed obvious to me that it wasn't). Both Whole Foods and Kings are priced very high, to the point where a few extra dollars and a little extra mileage could probably get you prime. The Costco nearby was substantially cheaper, but the meat was butchered very poorly (although still tasty). So, where do I go if I want to get thicker cut, well edited choice cuts of meat or the occasional prime cut? Anybody have any suggestions?
  4. Can spinach handle a blanching and a subsequent sautee? When I cook spinach, it's almost always in hot pan that I just finished cooking some sort of meat in, and the spinach usually cooks in less than a minute, way less actually. What are the overcooking issues with spinach?
  5. frozen steak on the grill? do you mean fully frozen or put in the freezer for a half hour? sounds scary! but i will give it a try it next time. i often buy quantities of steak from costco (damn budget) and freeze them, so not having to worry about defrosting them would be great!
  6. thanks for the great responses so far. the biggest problem i face, it seems, is that unless i'm lucky enough to get a big thick cut, my grill simply isn't powerful enough to get the desirable crust on the outside without cooking the inside too much. i've tried searing with the lid up and the grill doesn't retain enough heat to so a proper sear. but with the lid down it's essentially acting as an oven and cooking the steak too quickly all over while still not searing it as much as i'd like on the outside.
  7. With a cast iron skillet, I can cook a great steak on just about any oven with the foolproof technique of blazing hot sear on both sides followed by a short spell in the oven. take me outside to the backyard gas grill, on the other hand, and achieving the same result becomes a course fraught with peril. keep the lid down the whole time? up during the sear? how many burners to use? at what level? can anyone help? bonus points if you have a weber genesis b or similar 3 burner setup.
  8. I'm not sure that using a brined bone-in skin-on chicken breast will make enough of a difference, at least in my oven, because it just takes so long to get any color on the meat. I think I simply need to find a way to get the chicken closer to the flame.
  9. I tried it tonight, and it didn't work out at all. I thought being so close to the flame would give them some nice color, but that never materialized. I ended up with these unattractive white/greyish globs of protein. Looks like there's no substitute for searing in a pan followed by a few minutes in the oven.
  10. any ideas on how long it should take per side? chicken breast always seems so finicky on cooking time with little margin for error, and I have no idea on what kind of temperature is maintained in the broiler pan. just to be clear, i'm talking about the broiler pan at the very bottom of my el cheapo gas range.
  11. but doesn't the bonjour model's design seem better? with the bonjour model you can control the plunger such that post-plunge you are left with almost all coffee and no water beneath the plunger, and just brewed coffee above the plunger -- all the extraction is done, and the water and ground coffee beans are separated. it is left to the user to decide how hard to press on the coffee so as not to get too muddy a cup. compare to the bodum, where the plunger doesn't go down nearly far enough and you are left with good brewed coffee above the plunger, but still a fair amount of water left below the plunger screen co-mingling with the coffee grounds. the user doesn't have a choice in how hard to "squeeze" the coffee beans at the bottom because the plunger can't reach them. moreover, the water that still remains below the plunger screen after it has been pushed down is still "brewing", so you better pour that pot fast. seems like terrible design to me. but isn't bodum like the cadillac (or at least honda) of press-pots? this design quirk has got to be intentional, right? what am i missing here?
  12. pouring takes longer with the bodum because the loose water must pass through the screen with only gravity to help it, whereas in the Bonjour model the fully extended plunger has already pressed almost all of the water out the grounds through the screen. but my biggest question is this -- doesn't a plunger that goes almost to the bottom of the pot extract more than a plunger that doesn't? why would Bodum design their pot so that the plunger leaves room for loose water below the fully extended plunger screen?
  13. I recently bought two french presses -- am about to return the first because it is too small -- and noticed an enormous difference between the two that has me somewhat confused. The first press is a "Bonjour" brand 12oz french press that I picked up at Peet's. On that model the plunger descends almost to the bottom of the pot, which results in the coffee grounds being tamped down quite a bit at the end of the brewing process, letting me extract virtually all the water from below the screen. I purchased a 32oz Bodum press pot today that functions quite differently. On this one the plunger doesn't go down nearly as far -- at full descent, there is still loads of room at the bottom, so the grounds never get tamped down, and most importantly, even at full descent, there is still plenty of loose water at the bottom below the screen! Does this make any sense? In this way the plunger screen seems to be acting more like a regular old strainer than a press. Please help, because I'm really confused on this.
  14. canned garbanzo beans, rinsed and skin removed, seasoned with salt, dredged in some flour, then thrown in a hot pan on top of the stove until the flour cooks and the beans turn crunchy-- really simple and really tasty!
  15. i just made a quick side of chickpeas similar to the toasted recipe above, except i floured them first, then dumped them in a hot pan with olive oil for 7 minutes or so, cooking them until they got golden brown and crispy looking. tastes awesome, and the flour makes a huge difference!
  16. anyone here use them to good effect? seems to me that the big oven burner could probably get hotter than the conductor at the top of most electric ovens (at least at the lower price points), but also might be harder to control the cooking intensity? personally, i've never touched mine, but am curious if i'm missing out on something good here.
  17. i didn't even bother to look at the roasted coffee bean prices when i was at the costco -- do you remember what they are, at least at the one you go to?
  18. i mentioned in my first post that the roaster person at my local costco refused me, but maybe i should talk to a manager. or maybe i should just continue to use mail order...
  19. anybody know where i can get some, inside the city? the roasters at whole foods on north and the costco on clybourn both refused me!
  20. consider getting an old popcorn popper. there's a wealth of information online about home roasting with these. i just got one last week and it works great. only certain models are safe for home roasting -- this has to do with the placement of the heating vents so that the chaff doesn't get in and start a fire -- but they are easy to find and buy. there are also modifications you can make to the poppers to improve the quality of the roasting. i got a modified west bend air poppery II off of ebay. definitely cheaper than a gourmet home roaster model!
  21. so to do this, would you make more or less vertical cuts? i haven't looked at a head of cauliflower in awhile. is this the type of thing where once i have it in front of me it will be obvious what to do?
  22. haven't tried the recipe yet but am intrigued. could someone offer a little more detail on how to cut up the cauliflower before roasting? what so you do exactly? do you want small but chunky florettes or big but skinny segments? i imagine the latter because it would be crispier but am unsure. thanks.
  23. need to expirement some more, but not sure it'll hold much more than 2-3 tablespoons of coffee unless i tamp it down hard, in which case the water will likely be jammed. 2 1/2 tablespoons of ground coffee beans + 8oz of water made what seemed to me a fairly strong cup of coffee. i just wish it made more than 8 oz.! --- oh, and one other thing, the brewing cycle took 4:30 -- doesn't that seem like a long time for 8oz of water?
  24. anybody have any tips on getting the best coffee out of the swissgold "one cup" pour-over brewer? i just got one. specifically, i need help with: 1. how much coffee should i use for 8 oz. of water? when using my old automatic drip brewer, i always loaded up on coffee beans when making small amounts of coffee, and would lower the coffee bean to water ratio as i increased the amount brewed coffee. do i not need to worry about that with the "one cup" because of the water regulator? looks like the unit may not hold much more than 2 or 3 tablespoons of ground coffee beans anyway, so this may be a moot point. 2. proper grind -- i have a starbucks barista burr grinder, which i think is virtually identical to the solis maestro. what grind setting should i use? same as automatic drip? courser? finer? 2. adding more water -- the water container only holds 8 ounces of water. has anyone had success with adding more water midway through the brewing cycle? again, because there may not even be enough room above the filter for more than 3 tablespoons of coffee, this might too be a moot point. any advice would be appreciated!
  25. bucktown_boffo

    Quick Pasta

    thanks guys. anyone know how long they last after opening? i can't find ANY information on that. take my just opened jar of mom's marinara for instance. on the jar all it says is to refrigerate. i checked their website and there's even less information. my gut tells me probably about a week or two but it'd be nice to know for sure. also, anyone know if freezing works well?
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