bleudauvergne

Last time I was at back in the states I picked up a 4.4 lb bag 2 kilos of "MASECA Masa instantenea de maiz Para Hacer: Tortillas, Tamales, Enchiladas, Pupusas, Atoles, y Otros Platillos Mexicanos, Centro y Sur Americanos. " From Azteca Milling L.P. It has directions in English but the directions make far more than I ever could imagine being able to eat nor have freezer space for (I live in the city) so I have adapted it and created my own little recettes for small quantities. I mean do mexican moms make 400 tamales at a time or do they make enough for the family fresh each time? Is that one an OK brand? The results so far with it have been just fine by my standards, but then again, I'm judging from the memory from 17 years ago, one sultry summer afternoon outside Boston somewhere. After a long day of biking, these boys came to meet us in the park with these wonderful fabulous tamales in their backbpack they were wrapped in foil... As far as finding sources in Lyon, I have to do more checking. There may be channels I am not aware of. I am a weekend tamale maker. But I suspect, due to the complete void of all mexican products in any and all venues I have been here, (I've scrounged just about everywhere within the city itself and taken notes on various ethnic products from many cultures here) anyone preparing to set up a real authentic Mexican kitchen may have to consider preparing a container shipment every couple of months, I think. The peppers here are hard to translate from recipes, many varieties of peppers but none really matching what I've learned from american sources, but I have found a nice selection of different peppers coming from Marocco and Africa in general that do alright but I suppose not exactly the right thing. I really do need to take a pepper course. A serious pepper course where I can see the peppers and know what they're used for in order to use them judiciously and with skill. It's mostly a shot in the dark each time for me. Sorry, off topic. I will report on the strange tamales I'm mixing up over here soon -Lucy

Project - I find that home made wrappers are easier than store bought wappers, which have been coated with this wierd stuff to keep them from sticking together in the pack! They are so so easy to make - if you have a powerful food processor with a dough paddle. Practically impossible to mess up with a machine, though. Really. You start with 5 parts flour type 45 to 1 part water. Start with about 2.5 cups flour in your machine. Add 1/2 cup water and whir it until its completely incorporated. Open up and mush the meal with your fingers. Does it stick together? if yes, pack it into a ball and put it back in to whir as a whole. If not, add 2TB water and incorporate. Open. Does it stick? and so on. Once it's in a ball you beat it as one big lump in the machine with the paddle. It'll look like it's going to destroy the machine but it will not. let it run for 5 minutes. You'll have to watch the machine because it might start moving. I have made jiaozi about 30 times in my 700W moulinex over the past three years. I will do it and take pics for you. Yes, it must be done. It must be worked like hell until it's limp with fatigue. But that's easy with the machine! Takes about 5 minutes. Then you have to let it rest for 30 mins. in a bowl covered with a damp cloth. Store gound pork is fine. But it must be fatty. In fact, add fat if possible. The lower the fat content, the more your dumpling is going to be dry and hard. You want a hot juicy dumpling just bursting at the seams and ready to explode with flavor in your mouth. Not a piece of cud - Fat is good! If I don't have lard on hand, I use any fat on hand except milk based ones. Duck and goose fat works. Last time I made them I had the meat ground at the butcher and it was too lean so I told him to add 1/3 of the weight in salt pork. This done, I simply reduced my salt and it was simply mouth wateringly delicious, just exactly like the ones I used to eat in Beijing. Both work. But in my method both are parboiled, and then drained and squeezed in a clean dish cloth. This is a must to avoid - 1) GAS in the people who eat them and 2) unwanted undercooked chou with an overcooked meat. I slice it up thin with a cleaver, parboil the lot for a minute (till it turns bright in color) (usually the weigh equivalent of your pork for either type cabbage) The regular cabbage has to be slivered more thin than the napa cabbage, it's more dense. You'll get the hang of it. But of course! But add a few other things. The common crescent dumpling shape is formed by - OK Start at 8oclock. Gather little 30 minute increments in a counter-clockwise motion from 8 oclock to midnight while sticking them down past 8 in a clockwise direction till you get toll strikes midnight. aw heck I'll just take a pic. Use a spoon! Don't be silly and use chopsticks like that demonstration at epicurious. The other fabulous wonderful thing about home mixed dough is that they stretccchh out if you've got too much and close without complications. Try that with a store bought dumpling skin. You don't need to do it if you make your own dough. I hope that pic works, it's the first time I've tried to put one up. It's a pic with the ingredients. t = teaspoon T = Tablespoon spice = msg - I did that to avoid freaking out anyone who might be browzing through one of my books. Don't use it if you don't like it. It is definitely not necessary. Frozen with raw. Cooking them first will just make an enormous slimy sticky mess that will not thaw out properly and be goopy when you cook it. Freezing tips: line up your dumplings on tray lined with parchment or waxed paper, not touching each other. You can get tons on one tray. Make a tray to fit with cardboard if you don't have a tray that fits in your freezer. Freeze like that, and once they're frozen solid, you can put them together in bags without them sticking together. Voila. Project, I will make dumplings and share with you the pics. I have a dinner party on thursday and I'm on a schedule. so I won't be able to make them for you until Friday. I hope this works out for you! I'm sure it will. -lucy

Cusina - you are genius! I was in this quandry about my real preference for the classic pimento stuffed olive in a martini and all this talk about good olives - once it's pitted it doesn't last long, almost impossible to find a good pimento stuffed olive in my neck of the woods. So now I can do it myself and even stuff olives with all kinds of lovely things to serve with my aperetif! I'm making a list right now. Thanks - - Lucy

While dining at my husband's aunt's place one sunny summer afternoon, she served Americanos in a big glass pitcher full of ice with bitter oranges floating on top. She served them in whiskey glasses with a spoon which was for crushing the orange. She gave me the recipe, and this was what was in them. 2 parts Martini Rosso 2 parts dry white vermouth 1/2 part campari 1/2 part gin That lunch is on my list as one of the highlights of my summer! Since then, I have taken to judging an Italian restaurant what they bring me when I order an Americano. It really differs from place to place. Sometimes it comes tasting like a syrupy glass of cough syrup, or even like cherry kool-aid laced with some kind of cleaning product. Only one or two places that I've been to actually seemed to be serving a real one (or what's real in my book). I mixed up a batch of my auntie's recipe to some French guests once and they left their glasses making rings on their coasters after the first sip. It got me to wondering if the recipe I have is the real Americano. Is it? - Lucy

sauce

I think what Adam is trying to define here is the difference between what is institutionally recognized as craft and art. -Lucy

Thank you thank you! Theabroma! The chard idea sounds very nice since this is something all over the market right now. I hope this is what the French call bettes (some people say Blettes but it's not lyonnais). A large white stemmed veggie with big green leaves. What would be a nice way to tie if I used the bettes? What other leaves might be used? I love this idea and am going to try it tomorrow for Thursday. I think my Africa man also has bananna leaves, I'll have to look closer next time. He's only at St. Antoine on the weekends, however. If anyone opened a good mexican restaurant here in Lyon France they'd get rich, by the way. Point taken about the duck fat, I thought of that myself, and will adjust accordingly. I'll let you know how this turns out. Thanks to all. - Lucy

I will think about that and respond tomorrow, it's time for bed in france - Goodnight! Lucy

What would you say if I said I was considering using duck fat instead of lard to make the tamales? Would that seem bad? Thanks, Lucy

Actually, there are three "Valence France"s. What on earth made you choose such a random place? One is in Rhone Alpes. That's near me and I might be able to help you with that. The other is in the midi pyrenees, and the other in Poitou Charentes. - L

Rancho G - Those special needs eaters are a fact of life here among the ranks where I live. Maybe I got lucky. The sis in law who won't touch cheese in any way shape or form, and who once became the martyr on the night I entertained 50 at home because she was given the lowly task of spreading the roquefort walnut spread on celery sticks when she asked to help (she didn't like the smell). Her husband who arrives with a list of foods we mustn't serve, depending on what diet he's on. The lofty ones who shun the cocktail lovingly designed to start the evening and prefer my husband to ferret around in the cave for a bottle of our finest champagne instead - "oh, just a simple glass of champagne will be fine for me, so much better with these smoked almonds". The father in law who does not tolerate onions, garlic, anything spicy, cherries, fruits and excess roughage. The friend who does not eat fish. I used to let it get to me. Now I just prepare accordingly. But tamales, in principle do not have a sauce. This is my excuse to make two. I am happy! - L

I had a truffle risotto at Felix in Hong Kong a couple of summers ago, and when I came back to France I could not wait to recreate it for my husband. So simple, so divine. It was truffle season and I found them at St. Antoine. Expensive and the first time I'd bought one. Long story short I think we wasted a good half truffle, or maybe the truffle wasn't real or a good one. It just didn't explode in slow motion not just in my mouth but somewhere behind my shoulder blades like the one at that wonderful restaurant did. It didn't make me sit up straighter with joy. I could not figure out why it didn't taste so lovely at home. I think I might've gotten duped at the market. Maybe it was their stock that made it so good. Or something in the method although I can say that the texture was exactly the same, I can guarantee that I put a great deal of love into making it. But what's the real secret to a wonderful risotto? -lucy

I cannot believe how wonderful the above food looks! Scallops!! What's that sauce? Fish with black bean sauce. Hmmm. Last week I had some chinese students over to make dumplings in a belated New Year celebration. This got me thinking about ravioli, the kind you find in Italy. So the other night I had some sausages in the fridge, and went to les halles looking for ricotta. The Italian supplier said it was a cheese I would have to special order since it comes fresh. So I went through the fromagiers and chose a soft fresh chevre instead. I tried the sausage, chevre, some spices including a mix of paprika, spanish pepper, oregano, salt & pepper, and a dash of nutmeg (none hot) with wilted fresh spinach in flat ravioli wrappers made from my jiaozi dough recipe (water and flour). They turned out nice. My husband suggested trying exactly the same thing using a soft sliced Italian ham like spek or parma. I am on a mission tonight to get some. -Lucy

Why don't you try stuffing one of them? One breast would serve 2 people with possible leftovers if you serve other things with it. Only do this if you have time on your hands. Defrost one in the fridge for the day. Remove the skin of the breast. Put a about an ounce of dried cepes or other flavorful wild mushroom into 1/2 cup of hot water. Render the goose fat from the skin. Put the goose skin in a saute pan and heat it up until it begins to render its juices. Over a low flame, get as much fat out of the breast as you can. Remove the skin, which should be crispy, and set aside. Add some neutral vegetable oil to the goose fat if you need to, and mince an onion and a shallot. Over medium heat, slowly saute the onion and shallot until they're clear. Slice a lb of average white mushrooms (champignons de paris). Add these with 1/2 t. salt to your onions and shallots, and cook them over med-high heat until they render their juices and the juices are reduced to about a tablespoon. Remove your reconstituted cepes from their water and mince them up small. Strain the water from the cepes through a coffee filter and both the cepes and their strained juice to the mixture. Add some spinach or oseille at this point. You can use 1/4 cup frozen or 2 cups fresh. Reduce again. Add 1/2 t. paprika, a pinch of ground of nutmeg, more salt and pepper to taste, and about a teasp. fresh tarragon. Optional splash of dry white vermouth. Martini extra dry that is. Reduce the liquid again. Off heat, add enough cream (or creme fraiche if you have it) to bind it together. Put the breast down on a cutting board skin side down. From the side, insert a sharp knife and cut as if you are trying to cut into the pages of a book, and then fold out like a book. Heap your mushroom composition on and fold it back over. It's ok if it doesn't close neatly. Place a rather large sheet of foil, or parchment into a low casserole. Carefully place the stuffed breast inside. Lay the brittle skin on top, and close up the foil or paper. Or you can wrap it similarly in a pate brise in which you have incorporated the finely minced rendered goose skin and a teaspoon extra salt. Bake at 400f / 190c for 20 mins. I hope that whatever you decide to do with them turns out great! -lucy

Try and wipe the condensed water from the tiles behind a hot pot of steaming tamales.

Hi Busboy, I would like to note that you should close your bedroom door, open the kitchen windows, fire up the hotte filter, and prepare at least one bottle of febreze for everything upholstered if you plan to cook your sardines in the house. -Lucy

Thank you for this thread. It's helping me prepare for my dinner party on Thursday. I have a few questions. Would the heat of a dish as you are describing it be like the light that illuminates a single holistic dining experience? Of course certain elements will cast a light - there are certain foods that can change the chemical balance in the mouth and cover or react with others, just like different types of lighting can change an environment's atmosphere. Is the goal a full spectrum experience, or one with a theme, a color scheme? What is the goal? What is the general spectrum of any given cuisine, and why don't they change it? Do the menus and dishes that constitute spectrum represented in the "haute cuisine" vary from year to year, and if they do take a tinge from year to year, how could we define the way these schemes have evolved? What would we call the cuisine where there is a more formalized approach (in the sense of isolating elements of taste, texture, presentation, even history and combining them experimentally)? - I spent several years in China and found that the dishes there were defined by rigid standards. It wasn't what you cooked, but how well you did it, and the standards were set long ago. Similarly it's easy to see that this sort of insitutional approach applies in France. Could we say that a complete mastery of the classics gives one the institutional liberty to incorporate a palette shift, at least in Europe? In many ways I wonder if haute cuisine isn't meant to call attention to what a chef has mastered as much as it is about how his/her preparations differ? - Lucy

I once reached tamale nirvana (it was home made, shared with me by a kid I met on a bike trip). Ever since that afternoon so long ago I have been trying very hard to re-create that tamale experience. Many dissapointments in restaurants and finally I have resorted to doing it on my own. It's not so easy because I live in France. Masa Harina is not available here. But I brought 5 lb. bag with me last time I was back in the states. So I've been making them. I have a couple of questions which might seem odd. 1) Can I use fresh corn husks, and if not, why not? I have been using baking paper but I think I could get some fresh husks from a local farmer. 2) I did notice that the home made tamales create their own juice and don't need sauce, but I am having a party where I plan to serve tamales and realized that some people don't like cilantro. Would it be a complete no-no to make a roasted pepper sauce with cilantro and one without and set it on the side for serving? 3) What is the best accompaniment to a tamale? Thanks! -Lucy

I would go for effect. Do something puffy and light, and pink. Quick and easy are ramekins lined with filo, which can be sculpted into a cloudlike puff around the edges. That will brown along the edges but still come out looking light and airy. Bake and turn out. Inside - spread or pipe along the base of the filo nest, a roasted red pepper tapenade, which can be done start to finish in 15 minutes flat and can be done in advance (doesn't have to be too spicy but a little spice is nice!) topped off by two peeled shrimp, arranged in a heart shape. Dusted with multicolored ground pepper, and it's a starter. Note, don't spread the tapenade until just before serving. The filo nests can be done well before the guests arrive.

The green tinge is definitely poisonous. It must be removed completely if you must eat the potato. If possible, find one without the green tinge. I understand potatoes were once cultivated as houseplants and prized for their decorative flowers. Best to bury the green tinged ones. On the other hand, old potatoes ones that are not yet ancient enough to have turned green yet, are very good for making duchesse, the grandmother of the tater tot. They can be carved into pretty almond shapes, puff out nicely and produce a nice light result with a golden crust. Moreover they look respectable on the plate next to a tourenado. - Lucy

QUOTE 1. Topinambour (Jerusalem artichokes) no matter how lovely they look at the market ... Amanda said: Don't have the book. What's up with sunchokes? Are you allergic? Hi Amanda, Jerusalem artichokes are not really artichokes at all. They are tubers that resemble oversized pink larvae, interesting, exotic, cool to buy, all over the winter markets in here in France, cheap. You peel them and they look relatively harmless. You boil them, saute them, whatever, add some celery salt and they taste nice, actually much like artichoke hearts (that's where the name comes from). I treated them like celery root. But three hours later, this incredible reaction occurs in the intestine, creating so much gas, and so suddenly, that it puts your body into shock. My husband thought he was having a heart attack, I had the same reaction but a little less (and I had eaten less) so we surmised it was the tuber, the pain was terrible! Avoid them if you can. If anyone can provide a method of cooking them that removes the wind, please let me know. - Lucy

The stinkier and wierder tasting, the better in my book!

Whew, I am so glad I read this string where so many people have confessed their hatred for cilantro. I LOVE it with a passion, and I'm having 12 people for dinner on thursday. I was going to put lots of it chopped fresh into the mushroom tamales I'm going to make. Now I think I'll keep it to one super cilantro laden sauce that can be optional. One sauce with cilantro and one without. When I saw this post I didn't think I would answer it, I am actually pretty adventurous in my food tastes, I grew up in a home where the rule was that we had to taste everything when it was served. Once we'd tasted it, if we didn't want to eat it, we didn't have to. It was liberating as a child to know that no one would ever penalize me or put me on the spot for changing my mind, and sometimes I'd get a nice pat on the back for joining the ranks of the adults for appreciating one thing or another. No interference there. I never was forced to eat out of principle. But I've given it some thought, and there are some things that yes, I've definitely crossed off my list forever: 1. Topinambour (Jerusalem artichokes) no matter how lovely they look at the market - my husband and I almost exploded the first and last time I experimented with this foul root, then realised with a start in the beary eyed morn after no sleep and nearly a trip to the emergency room that I'd read about it once (see Harold McGee's "The curious cook" chapter 5 for details). 2. Fromage fort, which is the rinds from all cheeses thrown into a ceramic pot and left to fester and rot several months and then sold "a la louche" at les halles. No matter how thin you spread it, it will always taste like barf. But I'd like to say that some things taste different in different places, for example, I wonder if Helen in Japan would come to an appreciation of sausages if she came to Lyon and tried the varieties here, they really aren't like sausages anywhere else. That mouth coating phenomenon that I completely understand exists in some kinds of sausages does not happen here. I don't know why, but it's true. Another example, I served beets (fresh boiled, not canned) to my sister and her husband when they came to visit, and my sister dutifully tasted them. "These are beets?" she asked. "But they don't taste like dirt! Honey!" she sid, jabbing her husband. "These beets are ok!" her husband was not amused, apparently she refuses to serve them at home and he loves them. - Lucy

I simply love to add anchovies, onions, and capers to a simple tomato sauce for pasta. Once I went to eat at a Spanish friend's house and she served anchovies and chunks of bread to go with sweet wine before the meal. I always crush one or two anchovies into my vinaigrette. Another all time favorite is to cut anchovies lengthwise into very thin strips, and to lay them onto little rectangles of pate feuillitee. Twist a couple of times and bake for 10 mins. Little salty fish flutes! -Lucy

Hi Susan and docsconz! The upstate New York cheese I pine over not having is found very close to the Canadian border near Lake Ontairo so I assume it's very close to what docsonz is talking about .. ------------------- Epoisse - This is one cheese that must be enjoyed at it's peak of ripeness in order to really be fully appreciated. The first time I had it was in one of those instants of synchronicity that sometimes happen; I had been reading an alticle that mentionned epoisse and then that very same day saw it at this cheese counter where they were selling off some that was "ready to eat". It comes in a rather tall wooden box, which is open, with the lid attached to the bottom, and covered with a plastic that has lots of little holes punched though it to let it breathe. It's orange and slimy looking and the riper it gets, the darker it gets, sometimes almost brown around the edges. It's still ok to eat when it's at that stage, but best to buy when it has a conssistant coloring over the whole surface. This kind of cheese you must buy whole, because if they cut it, it will melt down into the bottom of the box. The lady who sold it to me enclosed the box it in a waxed paper envelope which she heat sealed behind the counter. I continued with my shopping. The odors in French grocery stores (especially the kind that have cheese counters) are pungent in every square inch between their walls. Some good, some bad, all there. I never really noticed that despite my cheese having been heat sealed in waxed paper, I was resembling Pig Pen, trudging around being followed by a slightly grey cloud of Parfum d'Epoisse throughout the store. No one else seemed to notice, either. Then I got on the metro to go home. I boarded the car, and at the next stop, a young man with longish spiked hair died black and eyebrow, nose, and lip piercings came and sat next to me. This is not odd. There are many people like this in the town and neighborhood where I live. There was an elderly woman seated across from me. The brief thought that I wish some people would shower more often crossed my mind. One of these people, either the old lady or the pierced boy seated to my right was in need of some serious hygeine. I shifted in my seat. Ugh. That odor! It smelled like dirty diapers! Was there a baby on the car? The old lady was staring directly at me, a hard cold glare. This too is normal. Most old ladies in Lyon stare this way. But for some reason I felt the need to communicate about this odor! In an effort to assert my reaction to it, I flared my nostrils and blinked in a way I knew other French women to do. An incremental flash of amusement glistened in her eye and dissapeared. My stop came and I left the car. My god! Was one of those stinkers following me? Who was it, the old lady, Piercing, or the silent baby? I turned to have a glimpse of the offender as I exited the metro station. Moment of catharsis - I was alone. Epoisse - The odor is the barrier. But if you can bring yourself to break that barrier, heaven waits on the other side. It's a cheese from bourgogne made from milk from cows limited to 4 select breeds, that are fed only from fields falling only in the air d'Epoisse. They have special qualifications for fertilizing the soil there. The cheese has been washed in a brine which progressively contains more and more marc during it's 4 weeks in the producers cave. The flavor of the rind is not as sharp as you would imagine it to be, and since the marc flavor is generally contained in the rind, it's commonly eaten along with. I like this cheese best accompanied with a nice full bodied wine like Cote du Rhone, A young Condrieu, or any of the vins de pays of Bourgogne. The salt from the brine comes after the flowering of the marc on your palette, followed by the rich, stable, and pastoral cream of the body of the cheese. This cheese is the father of an array of offshoot artisinal cheeses done with the same method but not falling under the appellation. I'll tell about St. Nectaire & St. Marcellin in another post! - Lucy