chappie

I just saw on rerun Erik's comments for the first time. Whoa. Where does the ego come from, especially on camera? It wasn't even an elimination. Deal with it. It was the parameters of the challenge. Glad he's gone.

So you preserve them in salt, and then cook them? I'm confused.

So a "salty egg" is uncooked and preserved in salt? Can someone describe the texture, taste of one? How else are they consumed? I'm interested.

I have to wonder if that is really as rare as you think it is. ← I don't mean rare in that she watches the hell out of it, but I don't know anyone else who tries so many recipes they see on TV. Most people I know who watch cooking shows do so for the entertainment value (but also tend to enjoy cooking). They might pick up a technique here and there, but they're not replicating what they saw on the show within a day or so of seeing it.

Pound the chicken thin, bread it, wrap it around a cone mold and fry it. Then use the rest of your ingredients to make ice cream. Fill the cone.

Starting in college I used to watch Food Network all the time. By then, I already liked to cook and did so frequently, though I've improved over time (not by watching FN). While there are a couple things I'll tune into nowadays if I find it (still enjoy watching Iron Chef, and sometimes learn a "why" of cooking from Alton) I find like many of you I'm not that interested anymore. My mom, however, whose cooking I adore, can't get enough of FN. She is one of those exceedingly rare viewers who will watch a few shows, see some things she likes and go immediately to her computer to print the recipes, then make them that day or the next. And she's added some great recipes to her repertoire this way.

I want to try this. What's the thought on flipping the crust midway through to get it crispy on both sides? I am skeptical just reading this, but I've just finished glancing at a ton of testimonials that have convinced me to try it ...

This is the 297th time I have rehashed the same point, so just bury it along with the rest. But for the 8,976th time I am watching reruns of Season 2, the moment where Ilan says: "Shut the f--k up, go make your foams and cry in a corner." Or whatever. I have never really felt this strongly about TV personalities, but if I were dragged into a restaurant somewhere and suddenly learned Ilan Hall was the chef, I would leave mid-bite. That dude is the worst winner of any reality show, hands-down, I've ever seen. Absolutely.

Someone somewhere, maybe even here, debunked the potato myth. It simply doesn't work. I'd say add more water to dilute, bring to a simmer, then remove some of the broth if it's to liquidy and reserve it for a future use. In fact I can't believe this didn't occur to me 10 years ago.

What about rosemary used to flavor beer? I'm thinking this could be interesting. Not an overpowering amount, but enough to know it's there.

My sister and I definitely used to "cook" our pu-pu delights over the flame. It was perhaps one of the first times I ever cooked, come to think of it: burning already well-done food over a glowing blue flame and loving it. Long live the pu-pu platter.

I do frequent Latino markets, but I'm looking for the Indian markets with eye-popping bins of fresh spices in bulk. Ah yes, the Italian market. I need to get back there (both Philly and the market). Is Sarcone's still in business? I remember they had a fire some years back, but supposedly rebuilt. To this day my favorite sandwich memory.

Actually, I've long thought that one of the aims of gene tinkering and laboratory capabilities would be for this exact purpose, and can recall envisioning, with a friend several years ago, these long horizontal silo-looking buildings where "meat" was cultivated. The idea doesn't abhor me. It would never replace a fine cut of meat, but for a way to get animal (or then would it be "animal") protein to the masses in a cheap way -- without the horror of modern factory farms and meat processing plants -- it might have merit. I mean, really, if you're gumming down a McDonald's cheeseburger, are you more reassured that it came supposedly from some living cattle somewhere in the world? (Or, more likely, dozens). Hygiene could be controlled much better, as could, I imagine, disease. And by eliminating all the other tissues and life processes that require energy (and thus food), the resulting cultivated muscle tissue would consume far fewer resources than current beef, pork, chicken production. Again, as a food lover, I am not saying this is an idea people are ready to accept. Nor will it replace fine meats or my winter-long pots of venison stew. But if something like this made major inroads into the "cheap meats" market, perhaps the live animal market wouldn't be so foul, inhumane and creepy.

Years ago I shopped at an Indian market in San Francisco where bulk spices -- many of which were common in "American" cooking also -- were not only fresher but cheaper by many factors. Are there any in the D.C. area? Barring that on the Shore, I've found that the little bags of spices sold in the Lation aisle in Food Lion save money as well. I buy bay leaves that way; getting them the McCormick, et al route is for suckers. But I think if I could track down a good Indian spice market, I could fill my larders with the schtuff I needs.

Just tuned in tonight's episode, at the corny main challenge point where they draw knives bearing different zoo animals. When Padma told the chefs they need to base their meals around said animal's diet, I was hoping they would have to quickly research this themselves and interpret. For vultures, I was immediately thinking offal, organs. Instead, they get a lame little sheet listing foods they should focus on -- totally dulling what could've been an interesting challenge. For vultures it had things like rabbit, fish, lamb. Lame. Boring. Blah.

Ketchup on a hot dog is like dipping rock candy in honey. I would, however, like to ammend my comments to say that I wouldn't ask for ketchup with steak frites or moules frites, and that good Boardwalk fries deserve malt vinegar. But the gooey red stuff has its place on a whole realm of "other" fries. And I would prefer a variety that doesn't use HFCS, because that stuff is both vile and an insidious food industry trick we shouldn't be falling for anymore. Maybe you should put your ketchup in the bottom of the hot dog bun to cover up evidence of your gustatory crime.

My mom used to beat the "I hate ketchup" into us as kids to the point where I came to adopt her loathing, but I've since realized it definitely has its time and place. Ketchup on a hot dog is a damn shame and a true crime. On a hamburger, less so, but I shun it for good spicy mustard. But I don't care what the highbrows above say -- it's great on onion rings and fries, and certainly not "to mask the flavor." I don't prefer Heinz; if it's store-bought, mass-market I like Hunts much better. Less cloyingly sweet and a tad more acidic. My favorite is House Recipe, the Sysco brand that many restaurants use to refill their Heinz bottles. I can always tell; it's got a distinct clovey, tangy flavor. For those who are seeking a non-sweet ketchup: what is the point? Ketchup, at least the modern definition of it, is a sweet condiment. If I didn't want sweet I'd go mustard, sriracha, salsa, aoili, etc.

Who was the spaz they kept showing over and over, the one who wore his hat all yo and talked double-speed. I can't watch him more than a few episodes. Sorry.

Wow. I'm going to try this. I have this ever-so-lightly smoked sea salt and some kalamata olive oil. I am not going to let my ice cream get too soft, either.

I am looking forward to it, even with the psychodrama. Season 3 was a vast improvement from its predecessor, and I can only imagine this one will be another step forward (or at least back toward Season 1). I have said this a thousand times in other posts, but watching a single rerun of Season 2 today, I will say it again. Ilan is the single worst character that show has ever fielded. I cannot believe he walked away a winner. Slimy.

This is a culinary homicide, but years ago when I was sick, a friend told me about something he referred to as a "Peruvian Garlic Blaster." He said you take a few cloves of garlic, mince them finely, add the juice of a few lemons, top off with cayenne and slam it back. Supposed to knock the sick out of you. I tried it, and I think it worked. Years later, I came down with something awful on the eve of an important weekend I had no intention of missing. So I upped the ante. I ran a head of garlic, two fresh serrano chiles and a good knob of ginger through a juicer, then added two lemons' worth of juice. Again, I slammed it back -- and instantly fell to my knees. It burned instantly and the impact on my stomach felt like a pint of molten lead. My head spun, I fought bravely and brutally to hold it down, kicking and crying spasmodically on the bathroom floor. Perhaps I blacked out, but I don't recall whether my battle was successful. Incidentally, I did get better really quickly. But I do not recommend this.

I wish I knew a conspiratorial busboy at said restaurant who could call me 15 minutes before someone is served the $1,000 bagel. Just as they bit into it I'd rush into the restaurant buck naked on roller skates with bottle rockets shooting from my beard and beat them -- and their f__king bagel -- senseless with a giant American flag. With lasers shooting from its tip.

I have lately become adept at poaching eggs and do so for my wife most mornings before she leaves for work. But yesterday's Washington Post food section printed a blurb that confused me and countered my own intuition on the technique. It read: "Another tip is to use eggs right out of the refrigerator; a chilled white will be thicker and less likely to 'feather' or become stringy when it hits the water." To the contrary, I have been using either room-temperature eggs or even soaking them in water as hot as my tap will produce for at least 10 minutes before poaching, using the logic that they will set faster by beginning closer to the setting temperature when they hit the simmering poaching water. I have had good results this way. How do you explain the Post's logic? Also, if you're adding cold eggs, won't it lower the temperature of the liquid and both slow down cooking and encourage "feathering?"

Really? I mean, I understand that scientifically you can do whatever with powdered gelatine -- but where does that gelatine come from? Is there no merit to getting the effect from chicken feet in a chicken stock? David -- I'd love to hear your recipe/technique for stock.

Those periwinkles look a lot bigger than the Chesapeake Bay variety, which usually cling to marsh grasses and bushes. Also, would the brackish quality of the rivers here mean the 'winkles don't taste as good?