russ parsons

zucchini blossoms really need to be cooked the same day. unfortunately they are extremely delicate. i've cooked them a couple of different ways this summer: basic "pastella" batter: flour and water to make a thin batter about the texture of heavy cream, then beat in an egg (helps browning). i do this a lot and later in the season, when i've had them often enough, i'll start stuffing the flower before dipping: a dab of goat cheese (basil's a good idea), a small piece of fresh mozzarella (maybe with a little bit of salted anchovy). I've also cooked them in a frittata--really simple base of sauteed green onions in butter, beat the eggs and add the zucchini blossoms; cook; when almost set top with grated parmigiano and finish under the broiler.

daniel: i have no experience with a green egg, so can't advise. well, almost no experience. a neighbor was moving out a couple of years ago and left one on the driveway! i went up, knocked on the door, intending to ask if i could buy it. no answer, so after a couple of days, i figured it was abandoned and free for the taking. only problem: the damned thing was so heavy I couldn't move it. figured i'd just stick with my old weber. i think raoul is right about the overcooked part. i normally cook mine to 125 in the center--that's a nice medium-rare, going to medium at teh tips.

well, mystery solved, then. chandlers are magnificent berries. and until the late 1990s, they were one of the main commercial berries in california. unfortunately, they have a couple of flaws. first and foremost, they tend to be a little too soft to ship easily. secondly, they bear unevenly--there will be tons of berries to pick one day and then three days of nothing. that makes it hard to give workers steady employment. they were replaced by camarosas, which found almost instant acceptance among growers (they are steady, weather-resistant and ship well), but for me, mark the beginning of consumer dissatisfaction with strawberries. granted, if they are picked at full ripeness, they can have good flavor. but their color at full ripeness is much darker than other strawberries, almost black, so picking crews usually harvested them slightly underripe, exaggerating all of their flaws. they are so firm they are crunchy. You can still find chandlers at farmers markets, as well as other varieties like seascape and gaviota, which don't work so well in large commercial operations but are perfect for local selling. there is also another new commercial berry called the albion that can have really good flavor, but it, too, is extremely crisp, something i don't really care for in a strawberry.

oh no octave-boy. i think it's more like people who want to use their knives to cook, and those who want to have them to obsess over.

you're right, of course. were were talking about long-distant shipping, but i should have been more specific and said "continental united states".

forgive the commercial interruption (and mods, please eliminate if not appropriate), but I'm on Fresh Air today with Terry Gross ... check your local NPR listings. There is a podcast on the web, but it seems they cut off about the first half of the interview. Fresh Air

well, it was certainly a good restaurant when Don and Sally had it, but it was absolutely nothing like what it is now.

Might be this: http://tvwbb.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f...52/m/6510023184 ← that's the one.

i did a piece not so long ago talking about sharpening systems and the edge pro really was great. there is some scuffage--i've got some great laguiole steak knives (one of the good brands) with a mirror edge that i'm really dreading having to sharpen one day. but with kitchen knives it's not a problem. especially if you use the trick they talk about--marking the very edge with a magic marker and taking a few test strokes to make sure the stone is lined up exactly right.

i'm with fatty on this one ... usually. but it depends on the kind of salad. at my local coffee shop, they all think i'm weird because i order their chopped romaine with just lemon wedges--no oil. works great. with cooked vegetable salads, i do think the 3-1 works better.

those are all good choices, but i'd still go with water grill. david's doing a great job. his style is different than cimarusti's (much more playing with asian flavors), but the food is very, very good.

there are a couple of good books on beard. "delights and prejudices" is his autobiography, so it is interesting but not necessarily reliable. Robert Clark's biography ("James Beard") is very good in a fact-filled way. For me, the best picture of the man himself is in a collection of letters between him and his friend Helen Evans Brown (author of "West Coast Cookbook"). It's called "Love and Kisses and a Halo of Truffles".

thanks! things are clipping along. got a very generous review in the nyt from william grimes on friday.

i never met the guy, though i know many who did. still, i think "much-disliked crank" is a bit strong (bourdain, a much-liked crank, overstating something?) beard certainly had his, uh, down side. he was an hellacious gossip. he was a pretty notorious free-loader. he would do and sell just about anything for a buck, or less. he was intensely tribal and sometimes pushed those who found favor with him at the expense of others who might have been more worthy. still, he did a helluva lot of good work. judge the art, not the artist.

sounds odd, only thing i can think of is that maybe they're getting too warm. that could cause condensation to form on the inside of the bag.

it also depends on where you live. there is a terrific divide between east coast and west coast fish. for those of us out here, jay harlow and paul johnson's "west coast seafood" is an amazing guide. and paul, who is the fish purveyor for chez panisse and half the bay area elite, has a great new book out called "fish forever".

i really love this area. i spent more than a week up there last year doing a piece on the wine regions (note the plural max--you're exactly right) and had a wonderful time. johnny bailing on the hotel would be a blow, though, because that's the one place in Anderson Valley to get seriously good food. eta: looking back over the thread, i was really struck by the negative comments for cafe beaujolais and especially for navarro. i try to have a meal at beaujolais every time i'm in mendocino. again, it's not french laundry, but it's a very good restaurant. and as far as navarro is concerned, their white wines in particular are outstanding and at remarkably good prices. their chenin blanc is my summer house white. their pinot "ancienne" is always really good, too, at less than $30 a bottle, iirc. of course, there are other great wineries up there as well. though the big noise comes from pinot, and they are very good, i especially like the whites from mendo, because they're usually vinified very cleanly, with little oak, and because they usually have terrific grip: high acidity and mouth-filling fruit. terrific gewurtz, chenin, sauvignon blanc, viognier.

of course they do. they're very open-minded. sometimes they'll eat dishes from as far as 25 miles away.

the goal with greens is keeping moisture on the inside of the leaf (which prevents wilting), but keeping it away from the outside (surface moisture leads to cell breakdown and spoilage). almost all of the post-harvest people (the folks who really study this stuff) recommend storing in a tightly closed plastic bag and only washing and drying just before using. if the greens are really water-soaked when you get them home (overactive misters), you'll need to dry them out really well. a paper towel in the plastic bag will help absorb any excess moisture.

the only problem with brandy in this technique is that i wonder whether it gets hot enough for the raw alcohol smell to cook off. and if it does, where does it go (since it's in a sealed container). i used a riesling and it was delicious.

dang, lost the first draft of that. anyway: peel and slice the peaches into a zip-lock freezer bag. add a little sugar and some white wine. add a flavoring: i used cinnamon in one test and rose geranium in another--use very little (1/2 teaspoon rose geranium leaves for 1 1/2 pounds peaches was almost too much and 1/2 of a 3-inch stick of cinnamon would be about right). bring a large pot of water to 140-150 degrees and set it up to maintain that temp. lower the peach bag into the water bath and cook about 45 minutes. the color, texture and flavor of the peaches don't change that much, but the flavor of the spicing really penetrates the fruit. it's like a home version of sous-vide (though it was taught to me by josiah citrin, chef at melisse here in la).

good find. i stand corrected. i have never heard of that being done in this country.

unfortunately, i can't read japanese, but here is the wiki entry on gibberellins. there is a long list of things they are used for, but producing seedlessness is not one of them (in fact, it says it is used for seed propagation, which i hadn't heard).

i think most authors would be hard-pressed to remember who had written blurbs for them (though they can probably tell you those who refused right off the tops of their heads!). it's really not that big of a deal.

sadly, seedlessness is one of the most valued traits in my fruits these days. makes 'em better snacks.