Smithy

"Birds, except when broiled and in the society of a cold bottle, bored him stiff." --P. G. Wodehouse "The French think a man can face the day on a cup of coffee and a piece of bread. That explains a lot about their politics." --Robert Heinlein (from memory - may not be quite verbatim)

Is that rapeseed? I was thinking mustard and wondering whether we're jumping to Provence.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Does sorbet count? Today I made a sorbet from pitted* sweet dark cherries and pitted* tart pie cherries, a spot of lemon juice, a whipped egg white, and a simple syrup of 1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup water. I plan to serve the finished product with chopped slivered almonds. It's all such a deep red that something lighter in color and crunchier in texture will be a complement. *Well, I thought they were pitted, but that seems only to have applied to the 99%. The blender suggested there was a 1% 'otherwise' in there, and the food mill proved it.

"The bookness of books". That says it all; thanks for a wonderful phrase!

We're in a heat wave up here - nothing unusual for people farther south, but everyone here in the Northland is wilting in the 90+ degree heat and >50% humidity. The only definite plan is cherry sorbet. Any cookery will be on the grill, outside, or the smoker, outside. Smoked chicken and grilled vegetables, perhaps. Happy Independence Day, USA'ans!

I'll second that. A wonderful book. I heard her speak about it in New York -- sadly, right after the invasion by the US -- and she seemed like a lovely person. Definitely a book worth tracking down. ObMeToo: I third the recommendation. A friend gave me a copy after hearing Ms. Nasralllah speak, and we both love the book.

I am an avid cook and ardent reader, and I have a terminal weakness for cookbooks in particular. My bookshelves are starting to groan despite frequent culling. Although culling helps the space issue (it would help more if I had more discipline) the purchases don't help my bank balance. In the process of thinking about cost, weight and space, I've started an internal debate about, among other things, conservation of resources (including but not limited to money) and fairness to authors. I bet I'm not the only one who thinks about these things. I'd like to hear from some of you. Borrowing from the library solves both the space and cost issues, and allows me to "test drive" a book. Sometimes a few uses show me that I don't want the book after all; other times I end up buying it to have for my very own. If I end up buying the book new, whether in electronic or bound form, the author (and everyone in the publishing chain) presumably gets something. As far as I know, authors and publishers only benefit from a library's purchase once, so my borrowing the book doesn't help them. Second-hand book sales help my bank account and address conservation of resources, but they don't help the author, publisher, et alia one bit. I purchase a fair amount from Better World Books or other charitable organizations, so that helps assuage my conscience. But it doesn't help Robb Walsh, Katy Loeb, Paula Wolfert, Lynne Rosetto Kasper...the people who actually generate the content I'm enjoying. Retail purchases seem to be the only way to contribute to the continuance of publishing, but then I'm back to killing trees, using energy, taking up space, and damaging my finances. The resources can be conserved somewhat with eBooks. I have a few of those. I like their compactness and portability, but otherwise I don't find eCookbooks as satisfying - partly because they don't seem to have effective indexing yet and partly because I like the feel and smell of physical books. Besides, a spill or stain is a badge of honor for a physical book...not so for electronics. What say you, cookbook collectors and writers? Does anyone else wrestle with this balancing act?

As a longtime fan of Lynne Rosetto Kasper and her works, I was surprised and a bit dismayed to find a book written by Maxine Clark and published in October, 2011 with the title Italian Country Table. "How strange," I muttered to myself, "I thought that was one of Lynne's books." Going back to check the record, I see that Ms. Kasper's book (published in 1999) is fully titled The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens. Hmm. Ms. Clark's book doesn't quite have the same title, but if you were going to look for Ms. Kasper's book in a store or online, my guess is you'd use the shorter name to find the book in question. Is the newer book flirting with copyright infringement? Are there rules - codified or unofficial - governing the naming of books with similar topics?

It's been a few years since my last trip to Egypt, and I haven't heard word one from friends who travel and work there, or used to; for all I know they may have bailed out during the past year. Does anyone know whether, say, Istoril and Tabbouli in Cairo have survived? What about Khoshary Tahrir? What about Pharoah's Hotel on the West Bank near Luxor, or the restaurants in Luxor proper? How are the street cart vendors making out? I'd love a firsthand report if anyone here has one to give.

Wait, Chris - are you saying you keep the specific gravity in mind of each of your liquids? Or do you just add the liquid in question to a beaker on a scale until you have the desired mass? I like the small Oxo "look down" cups for measuring up to a quarter-cup, but it has more to do with convenience, compactness and resolution down to a (more or less) tablespoon than with precision. For larger quantities I have a wonderful measuring cone that goes up to 2 cups, with gradations marking tablespoons, teaspoons, ounces, cups, pints and milliliters; its principal drawbacks are that it's some plastic prone to cracking with hot liquid and that it doesn't go up to the traditional 4 cups. For hot liquids and 1-quart measures I have my trusty Pyrex set. Guess I'll have to be more careful with them.

It's been here at eGullet that I've been able to ask questions, find answers, take courses, expand my cooking capabilities, share wacky experiments and their surprising results, and make some friends. You've been one of the faces of the community and a chief driver of its growth. I'm sure Dave, Chris and Chris, JAZ and the rest of the all-star cast will keep the community thriving, but I'll miss your voice here. Thanks, Steve, and Best of Luck to you! Smithy P.S. Do keep the eGullet community in mind if some new product needs beta testers!

Beautiful! Did it taste as good as it looked?

How can food coloring go off? Other than drying up in the bottle, of course. I've had that happen. I have some duck fat and duck jello that I've been hoarding for a few years, back when duck fat was all the rage on eGullet and I had time to render some. Looks and smells okay, but it's at leas 3 years old and possibly older. If I get around to using it instead of tossing it I'll give it a really good cookdown first. If some reader KNOWS that I'd be courting food poisoning, please let me know.

Oh, this made me laugh. Way to go, Kerry and Anna, and thanks for the topic, Darienne! Now I want a Bosch compact mixer too, but I'll enjoy it vicariously for the moment.

Ah, I just remembered - an unfortunately few moments after my last post - my favorite low-priced zinfandels: Ravenswood vintner's blend. Sometimes it's called the Old Vines blend. Either way, it goes by lower prices than the others I've mentioned, but it's darned good stuff that makes a nice contrast to the high-end zins. Enjoy!

I'm very partial to the Seghesio Zinfandels; Rockpile and Block 8 are my favorites but there are several other sets every year. They're all in the $28 - $35/bottle range; I'm not sure of the exact cost. I'm also very fond of the zinfandels produced by Dover Canyon winery and by Sunce winery. I don't think the Rancho Zabaco zins are all that great...not that they're bad, but they don't seem to have much character. Ridge??? I heard wonderful things about them from an aficionado. My own experience was quite to the contrary. First: their zin wasn't that great, and it was blended with other grapes. Second: their tasting room requires a fee up-front, and nothing that we tasted justified their fees. I'm leaving Ridge out of my future purchases.

I still have a bunch of the Taylor and Ng mugs from the mid-70's - often advertised on eBay along the lines of "X-rated Bunnies!" (or whatever animal it happens to be). I was so young and dumb then that I just liked the design and it took me a long time of drinking from the rabbit mug before I realized what they were doing. Then I went back and bought a variety. The wide, toothy grins on the bears are particularly funny. Sorry, no photos availabe but you can almost always find them on eBay under Taylor and Ng.

Oh, alf shokr! Thanks for a wonderful tour, with evocative writing and tantalizing photos...and thanks for answering our questions and comments. In these days of reading about the Arab Spring (in whichever country) your foodblog is especially encouraging. This has been a great pleasure, and has given me fresh inspiration to break out my Lebanese and Egyptian cookbooks. Safe travels, and thanks for sharing with us

In the first of the menu pictures from Basma, there are hot mezze (choose 5) listed. How are potatoes provincale prepared? What is the difference between the two hummus offerings? On another menu page it simply lists fattat - can you explain that one a bit more, please? Finally, you noted that the saaj-made bread is more tangy than the khoubz arabi, which is the more urban take. Any ideas about the difference in the dough for those two?

This is all lovely. I can't decide which I like best: the scenery, the food, the restaurants, the menus. The mountain scenery is particularly beautiful. And that gigantic honeycomb! Wow! I do love freshly cooked fish, and the sultan looks wonderful. What kind of seasonings were used with the fish you showed us?

I'm very fond of lamb stew, based roughly on a recipe I got out of _Taste of Home_ eons ago. (Credit where credit's due: The original recipe is called Wyoming Lamb Stew. However, the recipe may have drifted a bit from the original.) Start with chunks of bacon thrown into the stew pot and rendered. Pull the meat out if necessary to keep it from overcooking, but use the bacon grease for the rest of this dish. Add chopped onions until they're softened. Toss the lamb chunks with flour, salt, pepper, paprika, and any other spices you think are appropriate. Brown them in the fat. Add chopped celery and garlic and carrots; cook until softened. If you time it so the carrots and celery brown slightly but the garlic only goes translucent, you've done everything right. Add diced potatoes. I'm fond of red potatoes. My husband likes Yukon Golds. Let the potatoes warm up, maybe even brown a bit. Add a couple or three cans of diced tomatoes, or even whole tomatoes (but then you'll have to cut them up). Add lamb or chicken stock to make up any necessary liquid and make sure all is covered. Add a few tablespoons of tomato paste to boost the tomato flavor. Lamb and tomatoes are a good match. Add a couple bay leaves, some thyme or rosemary or parsley, or whatever other compatible herbs that strike your fancy. Put the bacon meat in, if you removed it earlier. You don't want it crunchy; you do want it to add flavor. Simmer, simmer, simmer slowly until the lamb is fall-off-the-bone tender. Who needs to remove those bones? They'll remove themselves. When the lamb is tender, adjust sauce as needed with things like Worcestershire sauce, more tomato paste, whatever. Fish out the bones. Fish out the bay leaves. Enjoy with fresh warm bread.

Are you familiar with a dish called tawouk motefa? That's another fave of mine from a Cairo Lebanese restaurant. I've made my own version of it from poor memory but would love to see how it's done by the pro's - assuming it isn't a one-off concoction. Olives! How do they look and taste there? Oil cure, dry salt cure, tart? What does your family make of this food-blogging business?

I'm loving this blog! Lebanon is on my list of places to visit, but so far my only experience in the Middle East is Egypt. However, I've learned over the years that most of my favorite restaurants in Cairo are actually Lebanese. You mention the difficulty of getting around in Beirut with their insane traffic and expensive taxis. Is there also some sort of affordable mass transit, like a metro rail line? And, to keep this food-related: one of my favorite dips is called (not sure about spelling) thoumeyya - an extremely garlicky white dip that seems to be Egypt's answer to aioli. Is that Lebanese? I'd love to see some discussion about that simple but oh, so potent dip. What are the lemons there like?

I've been delighted with the fingerlings I've used, partly for their ease of preparation (rinse, pat dry) and partly for their variety in size and color. Although I can see where the size differences might be aggravating, that hasn't caused a problem for me. I do think that as a rule I pick potatoes with approximately the same diameter to allow for even cooking. I've cooked them in the following ways: (1) braised; (2) parboiled then spitted and grilled; and most recently, used as a stand for chicken roasted over a bed of salt. That last may take some explanation: it's a technique from Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Southwest France. You put about an inch of coarse salt in the bottom of a pan; bury the potatoes in it (whole); park the chicken atop the potatoes or on a grill parked above the potatoes, and let 'er rip at high heat. The potatoes come out silky, the chicken comes out perfectly done, and the oils and greases are absorbed by the salt to make cleanup a breeze. For more detail see her book; my point is that fingerling potatoes cooked in a bed of salt are a wonderful treat.