Abra

Lemon Brie ice cream? Swoon! Percyn, that is one awesome market, and that pork sandwich looks like it should be illegal. Two for me, please. By the way, I have to say that I'm disappointed to learn that your name is Percy. Whenever I've seen your name in the forums, I've pronounced it "person." You're the person of the moment, that's for sure!

Boy, JohnL, I wish you were my client too! Tasting in advance is absolutely what to do, but in this case, I won't get to. For the Kistler, I'll offer a couple of starter ideas I've been thinking about. 1) a tarte of salt cod puree - it's kind of a brandade de morue, but in a tarte incarnation, with a little tomato, on a crust. 2) A cream of cashew and Armagnac soup with something else, something crunchy Would you want either of those with the Chard? Something completely different?

Whew, I was afraid that recipe had gotten lost forever. It was Saveur, and it's not on their site, and it was one of the most delicious oxtail preparations I've ever had. The ingredients look like this: 6 lbs oxtail 6 cups red wine 2 1/4 cups tawny port 3/4 cup cognac 2 ribs celery 2 carrots 1 onion 2 cloves garlic 2 tsp juniper berries 2 bay leaves 3 sprigs thyme salt and pepper 6 T peanut oil 1/3 cup flour 2 T olive oil 4 ripe tomatoes 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp brewed coffee How's that sound for the Leonetti? I also came across this recipe that I saved but have never tried herb roasted rack of lamb which might also make a good match, with the accompanying Roquefort bread pudding and a pile of roasted root veggies. Roquefort and oaky Cab? Good idea on freezing the chanterelles, Eden. It's supposed to rain tonight, so maybe we'll be getting a better crop in a few days.

What an interesting discussion! The guy is out of town for a few days, so I can't offer any enlightenment on the "Anderson" Pinot yet. You all are giving me lots to think about, though. I've got to dig up that oxtail recipe to show you guys. It was almost a confit, picked off the bone and served on puff pastry, braised in red wine. As I recall it was a Basque recipe, and appeared in Saveur, but I can't find the recipe on their site. I have it somewhere. It was awesome.

What Emma said about the slices, plus it allows the nice sauce to get into every bite of the meat. Paprika would indeed be a good addition.

I can't find anything on David Anderson Pinot either. I'll have to ask the client more about this wine. Brad, what wouild you suggest as an "in your face" dish? Steak really wouldn't suit the ambience of this dinner, which will be right before Thanksgiving.

Wow, since I don't frequent either the dinner or the breakfast threads (why not, I wonder) I had no idea how gorgeous your food would be. That fabulous duck dinner looked like you were cooking for one - did you actually do all that just for yourself? I bow to you.

Good article, mamster!

Whew, where to begin? I've met about 20-30 wonderful local foodies, and had tons of fun cooking, eating and drinking with them. One of the coolest things is that we get together a lot to play, and thus I've acquired friends of all ages, something one normally doesn't find in the outside world. We're so united by a common passion that age, and any other social factors, really don't seem to come into play at all. By doing a blog last year I got the food writing bug. I combined hanging out with local eGers and food writing here, when we cooked our way through an issue of Food and Wine together. We just did that again, and once again, our story will appear on the F&W website. Now that's pretty cool. I've hung out a lot on the Pastry forum, which was really foreign territory to me initially. I'm a personal chef, and while I do bake, it's always been at a competent but basic level. But I've learned so much from those sweet-siders, and I'm starting to have a few little pastry skills of my own, which I cherish. I've acquired a lot of new techniques, and a few priceless recipes. I already knew larb, and bacon, but roasted cauliflower, well, that's worth the price of admission right there. I've even participated in a couple of food swaps with eGers in other countries, and can now honestly say that my homemade BBQ sauce has been eaten in England after a quick flight from Seattle. Now that's cool, too.

I'll cast all three of my votes for Parsi food. Percyn, in the "man's room," you didn't actually choose that wall finish and those curtains, right? Or have I got the whole wrong idea about men?

I did test them at home, using both convection and conventional bake in my GE Profile and found a better rise without convection. But it was a subtle difference, in my relatively feeble home oven.

I'd make this with it, and maybe serve it with potato pancakes. It takes all afternoon to make, but it's a really nice thing for that super-lean meat. Supposedly it's an Eastern European style of brisket. This recipe has passed through several hands, and is edited here. 3 pounds brisket, trimmed -- Use flat cut brisket, trimmed of most of it's fat. 3 tablespoons unbleached flour 1/4 cup canola oil 4 onions -- thickly sliced, separated into rings. 3 tablespoons tomato paste 1 teaspoon salt coarsely ground pepper -- to taste 4 cloves garlic -- chopped 1 pound baby carrots Dredge meat in flour, salt, and pepper then brown deeply in a heavy Dutch oven in the hot oil. Set meat aside. Add the onions to the pan you browned the meat in and stir, scraping up the brown bits. Cook until the onions are well browned, 10-15 minutes. Off heat, set meat atop onions, pour over any accumulated juices. Spread the tomato paste overmeat. Sprinkle with pepper and salt. Add the garlic and cover tightly. Bake for 1 1/2 hours. Remove meat from oven, and transfer to cutting board. Cut it into 1/8- to a 1/4-inch slices, against the grain. Return the slices to the pan, overlapping them at an angle so it's like reassembling the brisket. Add the carrots. Cover, and return pan to the oven. Cook until the meat is very tender, 1 3/4 to 2 hours longer.

My stepfather was from Italy, and I was allowed sips of wine as far back as I can remember. I also remember that I didn't like it a lot, and thought of it more as a tasting novelty than a beverage, until I was an adult. There were alcohol issues in my birth family too, but I didn't take them with me when I left home. Mainly what I took away was the idea that a good meal is much enhanced by a good wine. I've mastered the good meal part, and now I'm working on my wine skills.

Oxtail, bingo! There's a fabulous Basque braised oxtail dish that might be perfect here. It's dark and deep and could probably tackle the oak. Thanks for the ideas, chefboy24! I've got some duck confit going and was wondering how I can work it into the Pinot. It'll be too late for chanterelles, which seems like a natural.

And isn't it interesting how they bake up relatively quickly, compared to some other recipes? I kept thinking they'd need more time, but they don't. I've gotten 31 from a half batch, but I've also piped them a bit bigger and got about 44 from a full batch.

That must be why most raisins are just plain sweet, with little fruit taste, just like those Thompsons. Interesting! But speaking of preservatives, my raisins are "nothing added." I wonder if they'll mold if I don't keep them in the freezer. Does anyone know? Right now I'm doing the trick of drying them in clusters. They'll be done some time tomorrow afternoon, and I'll take a picture of how they look. I love that idea.

Oh dear, I also just discovered the Leonetti thread, which rails against the oak. I hate to taste oak in wine I'm cooking for! But I love John Ash, so there's hope there, and that looks like a very nice recipe. Silly me, since I can't afford Leonetti, and it has such mega-mystique, I'd assumed it would be fabulous.

As a personal chef I'm often required to pair wines I haven't tasted with the perfect dishes (some of which I've never tasted before either, but that's another story). I can read the "rules" of pairing, and follow them when I must. I have a good wine guy in town, although he likes big wham! pow! wines a lot more than I do. I drink as much wine as I can manage, to get my own ideas (which nearly always tend to the Old World), but frankly I can't afford a lot of what my clients drink. And sometimes, I just want to feel absolutely secure in my choice, and know that the diners will swoon in ecstasy over the pairing. Hence, my appeal to you here. In November I'm doing a meal for a guy who is one of those big, powerhouse wine drinkers. He really wants to showcase a couple of things from his cellar, and I said I'd come up with the perfect matches. There's no chance that I'll get even one sip of these wines before the event, and I get one chance to do it right. What he's got is what he describes as a "recent" Leonetti Cab, a David Anderson 2003 Pinot, and a Kistler 2000 Chard. In a perfect world, what would you like to eat with those? I'm just praying there's not much/any oak in that Kistler!

I know of one good use for an electric skillet in a home kitchen, and that's making tempura. It's nice to be able to make it one piece at a time, at the table. Everyone gets to make the item they want, and consume it while it's fresh and crisp. If you like tempura, it might be worth keeping the skillet just for that.

I already have some of the great Trader Joe's raisin medley soaking in a brandy syrup, along with some prune plums, but this is giving me yummy ideas for things to do with my new raisins. On the confit thread someone mentioned soaking raisins in nocino, and since I made vin de noix this summer, and now have raisins, and am just putting up confit yesterday and today, a delicious dish is floating through my mind.

This has been a fun blog, Susan, and should probably get an award for the First Blog Featuring a Gecko! Thanks for a very enjoyable week.

Welcome, Genevieve! That's a neat idea, drying clusters. I still have quite a few grapes, even after this current batch of raisins is done, so I might try that. It sounds really pretty, as a presentation. It's so interesting if they aren't really wine grapes. They must be some old variety, to have that winey taste and tart-sweetness. I love them, whatever they are.

Paula, no vacuum here, just plain old duck fat immersion. It's Muscovy legs that I'm doing, and I'm going to try to keep them intact, although I imagine that some app would take shredded meat. Carolyn, I'm with you on the pinot with confit, that sounds a lot better. The trouble is that this guy has all these huge cabs, principally Leonetti, but also Kistler, and I'm having a horrible time with the food pairing, since I'm more of an Old-World red person. This is veering off topic, but I'd love your advice. I'm making homemade raisins with what I think are wine grapes see them here, and I did make vin de noix this summer, although I don't yet know if it turned out. Wow, what a gorgeous idea to combine these with confit, with a little something creamy, like a little confit stroganoff.

It's funny about the seeds. Up until this morning I wuld have said they were seedless, but when starting a new batch or raisins today I had a few really huge grapes, and those did have a seed or two. So the grapes are ripe and delicious when medium-sized, but get a seed when they're really big. Is that normal for some specific type of grape?

I just put up some duck legs to confit tomorrow. Last time I used Culinary Bear's recipe, this time I'm trying Paula's. I'm thinking they'll be perfect by the holidays, and I'd love to hear some favorite, splurge-y holiday-type recipes using duck confit (besides what's already upthread.) I have some folks to feed who love big red wines. What confit treats would you suggest to go with their Leonetti Cab??