Abra

We're so hardcore!

If you haven't already been, I vote for La Carta de Oaxaca. The food is restfully unpretentious, unrefined, manages to be fresh and delicious, and the buzz is contagious. It'll be totally different from the rest of the week, especially in that your tab will be under $50.

It's tough, so I'll go course by course. My overall favorite dish is IC #1's starter. The combination of flavors and textures just jumps out of the picture and right into my mouth. IC #2's starter is very cute and very neatly executed, but I'm prejudiced by a detestation of ginger Altoids, plus the photo perhaps is not doing justice to the color of the corn, which looks a bit washed out. For the mains IC #1's flavors sound right on, although the presentation is a bit squishy-looking, and I'm not sure what the green drizzle is. It is the nature of pulled pork to be unphotogenic, however, and IC #2's is equally so, and I won't add or subtract from either on texture. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I'd be equally happy eating either one, but I do give a slight edge to IC#2 for "showing the work." I can see more clearly the thought and planning that went into plate #1 - this one's really close, though. For the desserts, I have to say that the bellini wouldn't do it for me, too minimalist, more of a pre-dessert bite. The tart is gorgeous, although I'm not sure about the mint ice cream with curry, caramel, and peach. Might be one of those things you just have to taste. I think the bottom line for me is IC#1 - 8.5 IC#2 - 6.5 I feel like there should be some extra mention of challenging circumstances - sharing a relatively small kitchen, judges all from a high-zoot restaurant kitchen, the need to compete without breaking up, and all that. Kudos to both of you for what looks like a lovely meal!

I stopped by to drop off a little chocolate, and wowsers, there were peaches all over the place. Peaches in places you would never actually expect to see a peach. I was allowed to have one perfect, enormous peach all for myself, and oh my god, it was the best peach I've had all summer. Maybe in two summers. And yes, it was really hot in the kitchen. I stayed out of the fray and went over the the City Kitchens huge annual sale, where I bought myself a Ken Onion Shun knife for the spectacular price of $145. That is a very sexy knife, I have to admit, and I'm not even a major knife freak. I'll bet it could shave the fuzz off a peach, easy as pie. Drool here.

I'll just add that we have Pergo on the kitchen floor. The kitchen had been remodeled shortly before we bought the house, so we weren't about to tear it out right away. Although I wouldn't have chosen it, the Pergo has held up perfectly for the past 5 years, no dings from stuff being dropped, no stains, no damage from lots of wet incidents. It looks more or less like wood, but behaves more like vinyl, and looks exactly as it did on the day we moved in.

I've only ever used Maseca, and I always do use lard if I'm not making tamales for a vegetarian. I find that to make quite a good masa. But then, I've never worked with anything else.

Today I filtered my vin de noix and set it to rest until it does its magic. Just like last year, the stuff is absolutely vile at this point, so bitter as to be spit-outtable. How in the world does it transform itself into elixir, with virtually no input but time? I can't figure it out.

Post the dishes anonymously, so we can vote without playing favorites! Peaches, though, aren't local, even though I hate to disillusion those who think we have an actual summer here. They're coming over from eastern WA on a truck, chugging over the mountains all crated up. That is, unless someone has a secret local source, in which case, do tell! I love soon dobu. Rocky needs to lead a Ranch 99/soon dobu crawl. Lorna, did you see the chocolate message I sent you? Chufi sent me some incredible chocolate that you need to taste.

Are you kidding? That list is WAY too easy! How about some fregola bai krapow mimolette boquerones rau ram achiote geoduck C'mon, stretch yourselves! You know everyone's going to vote for bacon, right? The ballot box is pre-stuffed when it comes to eG and bacon.

That cheesecake was really an awesome mouthful, especially with the Oloroso that accompanied it. It had a very Seattle look, a little scruffy, proudly funky, really delicious. The chocolate tart was excitingly spicy and rich and gorgeous, but of course, we expect that from Ling. I wouldn't put actual money on either of them for the Iron Chef, since they're both very accomplished cooks. The whole party was a blast, and the Seattle group did itself proud. We're a pretty kick-ass bunch of cooks here, and we love to feed each other. Not to mention that I'm absolutely sure it's the first party ever where a lesson was given in how to say "don't piss on the rabbits" in Hindi! I'm really looking forward to learning more about your Chinese banquet. Are you cooking that, or is it going to be out somewhere?

Congratulations and felicitations on the new additions to your families, gentlemen! Two babies on one month's thread must be some sort of eG record. Those cardoncelli look nothing at all like what we have here for cardoons. Maybe that's why I'm never impressed with the way cardoon recipes turn out. It's the wrong vegetable. And those stuffed mussels look like nothing on earth that I've ever seen before. I am dying to try them. My husband and I have both been sick for a week or more, so while we've been eating, I can't claim to have exactly been cooking. I'm afraid I flunk Puglia, but I'll try to do better next month.

ChefJohnny, thank you for the great recipes. I have a question about the belly - 110 gms is a lot of pink salt! Are you sure it's not 10 gms? How long do you brine it for? Is that recipe for one whole, skin-on belly?

I can't say about toasting chiles or mustard oil, but I have successfully done near-burnt onions for vindaloo and various curries using a downdraft, in houses where the owner was fussy about food fumes. I definitely wouldn't get one if I were going to use a wok a lot - that semi-vaporized oil is really the devil to clean up and I can't imagine that a downdraft would work for that. But for a person who mainly cooks soups, stews, sautees, and the like, and does their high-heat grilling under a broiler with an oven fan, I'd say they work excellently.

Marlene, if you can't smoke enough butt, I'd get small dinner-type rolls to serve it with, that way it's maybe a 2 oz serving per person.

The salt inhibits the growth of algae and scummy stuff in the water.

Wow, gariotin, I never knew that about cheese mites. First it was eyelash mites, now cheese mites. I haven't tried mimolette, mostly because the color is so off-putting to me, but now I will for sure, and I'll think of little artisan mites doing their dusty work on my behalf.

That looks so appetizing and homey, and makes me want some with coffee. I notice that in addition to the thicker walls you have a little rope of dough reinforcing around the bottom edge of the tart pan. It that traditional, or just because you had extra dough?

That's very interesting, Dan. So you would do a pre-ferment even with instant yeast?

Marlene, on the amount thing, I'd look at it like this. You'll need a minimum of 4 oz of cooked meat per person if you're serving it on buns, more if it's the only protein. That equals a bit over 31 lbs of cooked meat. The butts are going to lose weight in the cooking process - I've never weighed it out, but let's assume it's 30% loss as the fat melts and from the fat you take off when you pull it. So starting with 40 pounds of fresh meat, you should end up with enough for one good sandwich each for 125 people. Adjust from there depending on the rest of the menu, and whether you eyeball the meat as having more than 30% fat. Personally, because some people inevitably want more pulled pork, I'd probably go for 50 lbs fresh weight.

Bruce, that's just lovely, a night and day transformation. Kudos to your stepson for the beautiful cabinet work, and to the two of you for getting just what you wanted through superior planning. Is the kitchen door still the main door? Any way to relocate that, or are you able to live with it?

Kerry, there is no such thing as "gratuitous" bacon. All bacon is essential. Wow, Elie, there's a lot of meat in that lardo. how come you used a belly, as opposed to fatback? I'm looking forward to your lomo recipe!

Wendy, it's easy to render your own lard, and you'll be amazed by the pure, sweet flavor. I'd use canola in the meantime.

That's what I'd do with the flour, and don't bloom the SAF! It's meant to be added to the dry ingredients.

Michelle, in addition to potential yeast problems, I just want to say that bread flour isn't a good sub for 00. The 00 is a very low protein flour, whereas bread is high protein. A sub for 00 is 75% AP flour and 25% cake flour, so using a little cake flour would be the direction you want to go, flour-wise.

Alana, that's Chefpeon's leaf lard pie crust, although I don't think I'm executing it perfectly. It's so soft it's almost a cake, just melting in your mouth, possibly due to underbaking. When I bake off the blackberry pie I'll really crank it and see if I can get it crisper. Lexy, it's neat how you've managed to convey that "last piece" effect of the pie, making it looks a bit forlorn. That might start a new trend in Pastry With Personality photography. Tweety, even though I don't eat Jello, I always admire the extravagant colors and shading of that mold. Was it fun to make? Pontormo, that boiled cider comes from King Arthur flour. I think I'll be using it a lot at the holidays, especially as a glaze for roasted squash, one of my main winter food groups. Patrick, I keep going back to look at your chocolate croquettes and rice pudding. I think that's my vote for dessert of the month.