Smithy

Try Indian stores if there are any in your neck of the woods. ← There aren't any here, but I'm sure I can find them in other parts of the country. I see them in Egypt, too. My question is, are they worth the trouble? Those blocks of pulp, with seeds and fiber, are pretty darned convenient and much more compact.

I am in awe of your photos and your work! That Easter spread is gorgeous. Others have already admired the bunnies and the egg, said the things and asked the questions I wanted to ask. I'll just say the cakes are durned pretty too! If this is your idea of below-your-usual-quality workmanship, I can hardly wait to see what you normally turn out. Oh, wait...there was that tiramisu tart to die for. Wowowow. I love it that you have an entire bookshelf devoted to chocolate. You're my kind of pastry chef! On a practical note: if you can see your way to making an appointment with an allergist, it will cost you time and money but may save you a lot of pain and trouble working out what's causing your allergies. I finally broke down and did that to work out what was causing my lip(s) or other facial areas to swell unexpectedly and stay that way for hours. It turned out I'm allergic to birch - especially but not only the pollen - and that a number of foods (raw apples, some other red fruits) have allergens that approximate the birch allergen enough to cause a minor reaction. It was well worth the time and money, AND the allergist came up with an antihistamine that works for me when necessary.

Yes, please. I don't know whether I can sell the rest of the gang on oysters, but I'm sure pushing for it. Thanks to all of you so far for the great advice - more is welcome too, if you think of it! I'm getting really excited about this trip!

Beer was well-known in Egypt before there was any Arabic influence. I assume you're just referring to spirits, i.e. strong alcohol. My favorite chemistry professor used to say that humans figured out how to make alcohol long before they figured out how to make soap, and that that fact said a lot about the human race.

The olives picked and packed as ripe olives around where I grew up (in Tulare County - think Visalia, Lindsay, Porterville) are Mission olives. Maybe I should say 'were', since a lot of those groves are being pushed over and replanted with more lucrative crops. I think the pickled "Spanish" olives still are usually Manzanillas, but I'm not sure how close to our area those were grown. I can find out, if you're interested.

Nullo, I've never seen tamarind with added sugar. I wonder if you're looking at tamarind drink mix? (Tamar hindi is the Egyptian - Arabic? - name for a wonderful drink - think lemonade, but with tamarind instead.) I can't remember where you live, but I'm pretty sure you're in the eastern half of the U.S. If you can't find tamarind pulp in an Asian grocery, try looking in a Middle Eastern grocery. That's where I get mine. ← As you can see here, tamarind is a fruit that looks like a brown pod with fat little beans in it. You can buy it in the pods, or in blocks of mashed fruit that you have to dilute with water as in this diagram, or in prepared canisters of the liquid. If not that, then... well, sure, maybe vinegar with palm or brown sugar to cut the sourness? ← It's funny, I've never seen tamarind pods in the U.S. markets I've visited, just the pulp in blocks. The pods look like a lot of work compared to the pulp block - but then, that's the argument for most convenience foods, isn't it? I think vinegar with sugar wouldn't have that fruity sour flavor you get from tamarind. Perhaps if you added lemon juice to the above-mentioned vinegar and sugar mix? <Quick change of subject> MOUSSAKA, YES! There's an Egyptian version, too!

I'm learning so much more about history and geography through this forum than I ever bothered to learn in school. Then again, in school I didn't care so much about food, so maybe this entry into the topic wouldn't have helped either. The little Turkish food I've had has reminded me strongly of Greek food, and until I opened the cookbooks I thought that was the main influence. However, after I started getting interested in Middle Eastern cookery (by way of Egypt), and after I started collecting cookbooks with a vengeance, I picked up a couple of Turkish cookbooks. Lo and behold, I recognize a lot of those names - and dishes - from Egypt and other Arabic countries. I'll be interested in seeing what more knowledgable people have to say about this. All I can might be able to contribute is from my cookbooks, and that's second-hand knowledge at best.

Clarification: it's important to understand that, in the case of your run-of-the-mill California olives (Lindsay ripe olives, for instance) they are not picked 'green' in the sense of being picked early. They are picked when ripe. The curing process turns them black. Lindsay also markets "Green Ripe Olives". They're the same olive, same picking time according to the ranchers who grow them, slightly different curing method so they don't turn black. The taste is much the same either way...and I agree they're quite different from the Mediterranean cured olives.

I had no idea before this that diamond is a good heat conductor. A quick check (Google is a wonderful thing) shows that this isn't just some marketeer's hype. Thanks for showing us the brochure. You've talked before about the relative thicknesses of the Swiss NanoPro pan vs. the Swiss Diamond pan. Where does the Ikea non-stick that you used upthread fall into the mix? I'm wondering if pan thickness/mass is at least partly responsible for the different tenderness you got from the two steaks. I don't know why that might be, but we've been seeing a correlation between pan thermal mass and meat tenderness over in the braising discussions.

*bump* Late next week. 4 adults, 5 nights, Cambridge and Boston area - we'll be staying near Harvard, but we plan to visit historic Boston. We like wine. We like almost any kind of food. Being Midwesterners, we're especially interested in finding good seafood places in which to gorge ourselves. However, I'll be out and around during the day and looking for good inexpensive hole-in-the-wall joints for lunch, especially Middle Eastern, North African, or possibly Indian or Afghani. No doubt a wander around the Harvard area will turn up the usual university complement of good cheap international cuisine that doesn't exist in Duluth, but I welcome recommendations. Does Boston have a waterfront area with good restaurants? Any in particular that we shouldn't miss? Are there any food shops that I absolutely, positively must not miss? (Too bad Penzey's doesn't seem to be open yet.)

Tagine/tagine etc are derived from the Greek "teganon", the word for pan. ← Thank you Adam, thank you thank you, for finally scratching that itch for me.

Nullo, I've never seen tamarind with added sugar. I wonder if you're looking at tamarind drink mix? (Tamar hindi is the Egyptian - Arabic? - name for a wonderful drink - think lemonade, but with tamarind instead.) I can't remember where you live, but I'm pretty sure you're in the eastern half of the U.S. If you can't find tamarind pulp in an Asian grocery, try looking in a Middle Eastern grocery. That's where I get mine. Thanks for starting off with all the questions. I've been lurking on this one too, since I've never even heard of pad thai before now. Your questions just *might* tip me off into the unknown...maybe...the photos certainly look appealing....<wanders off musing over chopping and buying new ingredients>

Darn, this conversation is about a year late. Mom had one of those for over 30 years. I'm sure she had it right up to the point of clearing out the house when she and Dad were downsizing, a year ago. I never gave that particular piece a thought, and it's long gone since neither my sister nor I spoke for it.

Lessee...I've given away one (count it) book some time ago, and gained at least 3 in the meantime: The Gourmet Cookbook (what was I thinking?) Paula Wolfert's Couscous and other Good Food from Morocco (that one's already gotten a lot of use) The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine (I refuse to send Mayhaw Man a check for the suggestion that cost me more money, but it is indeed a fine book) That last book will make a good weapon if someone wants to challenge me in the kitchen. Mm. My mother passed a couple of cookbooks on to me also, although the names escape me at the moment. Count me for a net of 4 more since my last post. Don't ask me the total.

This all looks wonderful. Sorry if I missed an earlier explanation, but what is kabocha? It looks like eggplant? How to you fix it for that gratin? (Whether or not it's eggplant, I may change my plans for the eggplant presently in my refrigerator.) That bread looks terrific, too. I wish I could get a good olive bread around here, or learn how to make it myself. That raises a question about food variety available to you. The olive bread looks very European. European-style breads have only started to become available, possibly even common, outside major U.S. cities in the last, oh, 5 years from what I can tell. There's been a huge increase in variety of foods available in the Midwest, and in the quieter parts of California that I frequent, in the last 15 years. Now it isn't unusual to find different kinds of olives, rice, Middle Eastern food, panko, fish sauce in a middling-sized town. 10 years ago there wasn't an "ethnic foods" section in the grocery store, but if there had been it would have had Mexican, Italian and Chinese condiments. Have you seen a similar increase in "foreign food" availability during your years in Japan?

I always thought of iced coffees as a very Japanese thing... 10 to 15 years ago everyone in Japan was drinking iced coffee and when I would ask for it in the US people would just stare at me and have no idea what I was talking about. Matcha lattes are quite common and they even show up at Starbucks and other similar coffee shops. ← I grew up in the suburbs of New York City, where iced coffee had long been a well-known thing ... but up until relatively recently, if I asked for an iced coffee anywhere in the U.S. outside of the New York metro area, I'd get nothing but blank looks too--or at best a glass of coffee that was tepid because they simply dumped some ice in the glass and poured hot coffee in direct from the coffeemaker. Since Starbucks has taken over the planet, now at least seemingly everyone's familiar with iced and/or frozen latte drinks. But I still can get some puzzled looks in some places in the States when I ask for straight iced coffee. ← I grew up in California knowing about iced coffee from my mother, although I personally never took a shine to it. She knew it wasn't a local thing, though, because she often got strange looks when she offered it to others and she rarely could get it in restaurants. Eventually she took to ordering coffee and a glass of ice. Since she grew up in Florida, we always assumed it was a Southern thing.

Boy, howdy. It isn't just the obscure citrus. I weep at the loss of quality in oranges, mandarins, tangelos, and to some extent grapefruit (lemons seem to be an exception) from the present packing process. It isn't that they're being picked unripe as the stone fruits are; citrus is sturdy stuff and doesn't have to be picked early to survive shipping. Something happens in the packing plant - whether it's the fungicide to kill the bugs, or the wax that's applied afterward, I don't know - that blunts the smell and flavor so the poor things come to market tired-smelling and -tasting. I've noticed this in the organically grown citrus as well as the standard crops, so it must be common to both packing processes. If irradiation can keep that blue mold from growing (it really does happen overnight, but not on every orange) so the fungicide and wax can be avoided, more people would know how oranges are really supposed to taste.

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but the only questions I'd have had were already addressed by others. This part, however, made me smile: I wouldn't get a barometer to measure temperature, either. I presume you meant 'thermometer' in that sentence? I am thoroughly enjoying this thread. Thank you, chefzadi, for all this detailed work. It's a fine tribute to your writing that you are getting so many valuable contributions from the eGullet community, luminary or lesser-known. I really appreciate the linguistics lessons that are coming along with the food; I'm learning a lot, here.

It appears to me that confit serves two purposes: 1. Provide a rich, silky texture to the meat in question 2. Preserve the meat by storing it in fat, which process not only preserves it but allows it to age safely. I have a boil-in-bag system, old, that will seal foods in pouches but will not vacuum-pack them first. If I were to try the confit method in those, and then ice them down immediately after the long slow cooking, I would presumably accomplish the first objective above. Would it help with the second objective? Would I gain anything by using sous vide if I plan to pot the meat later? Or is that a silly thing to do with only 2 duck legs?

Very cool indeed. Thanks for posting that link. Hey! This Lebanese cookbook uses the word "tajin"! It's a fish tajin - fish cooked in sesame sauce. We now have that word in (at least) Moroccan, Egyptian and Lebanese cookery, although the cookware is different in each case. What does that word actually mean? Does it refer to a method of cooking, like a slow simmer? Cooking in a closed pot? (My Elias Collegiate Arabic/English dictionary shows a frying pan, complete with long handle, in the tagine entry. That's completely unlike anything I've seen yet....)

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I haven't had time to read through all of the recipes... I ordered so many books at once . Now I may have to get the other one you mentioned. ← Peanutgirl, you don't mention eggs, but you don't mention not-eggs either. Before you go buy yet another book, take a gander at page 99 of Kitty Morse's Cooking at the Kasbah. There, if your copy is the same as mine, you'll find Tagine B'Beid (Egg Tagine with Olives, Onions and Cilantro". (I've had this book a long time. I don't know whether it's been updated.) I happen to have it bookmarked as one to try soon, now that I'm on a tagine kick. Since I haven't tried it I can't swear it's good, but I haven't tried anything from this book that wasn't good. Cooking at the Kasbah also has at least one vegetarian couscous, and a recipe for roasted pumpkin with seasonings that look like they might almost redeem that misbegotten excuse for a squash. If your daughter likes pumpkin, you might consider this recipe too.

Keep a large box of baking soda around as the first response for a fat fire, and use the fire extinguisher only as a backup. Baking soda is less messy than the fire extinguisher, and if the fire is small it's just as effective. Not that you're going to need any of this, of course.

*bump* OK, I've acquired 2 ducks (White Pekin, the only thing I can find locally) and cooked one using Wolfert's Slow-roasted Duck with Olive Sauce recipe, from The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen. The plan has been to use that duck fat to augment the rest and get started on duck confit. I've been reading and re-reading this thread, and will continue to do so before I ask ALL my tom-fool questions, but I'll ask a couple now. I plan to pick the meat off the bones and pot it, a la Culinary Bear's original post, instead of leaving the legs intact. With that in mind, is there a reason not to cut up and cook the entire duck for confit? If so, what is it? If I break the duck up and just confit those two legs, reserving the rest for other purposes, should I remove the skin from those and render it? Then it seems I'd be short-changing the breasts in their glory. Alternatively, should I forget about confiting any of this duck? I've read that Pekin isn't the best duck for this, but I'm reluctant to try the mail-order route first time out of the box. Advice will be welcome, and I apologize if I've missed the answers somewhere in this amazing thread. I'm new as a freshly-hatched chick to this business. Nancy

I am in awe after looking at these photos. I keep looking at my Egyptian pot - which is beautiful and cooks brilliantly - and thinking "yes, but it doesn't look like a Rifi tagine!" I *may* hold out until my birthday. Mid-May. Mid-May...Mayday on the credit card...

My husband has been asking that same question with regard to the Egyptian stuff I've started to use. I am mightily amused, and have been giggling for hours, at Fifi, the resident hypnotist, issuing a Wolfert Alert. Pot. Kettle. Black.