Smithy

This wine has been one of my favorites for several years. Thanks for the WTN so I can learn the proper terms for what I taste.

My method is pretty much like Cusina's. Wash in a colander to get rid of the slime. (You'll save a bit of water if you first pitch them in a mixing bowl and swoosh them around in water, then do a rinse/flush cycle in the colander.) Drain until at least partly dry. Toss with olive oil, salt, and other seasonings at your discretion. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 325F, stirring occasionally, until they start to brown. Remove. Enjoy. They are crunchy, they are delectable, they are digestible, they always make me wish I'd bought more pumpkins. I dunno about "chewy", as such; aren't caramels chewy? But boy, are they good. Much better than the pumpkin, and almost as fun as the kids enjoying the Jack-O'-Lantern. Edited to add: in the night I remembered that I probably roast hotter than 325F... but now I've forgotten: 375?. Meanwhile, gus_tatory posted an even better sounding method, and that's the way I'm going next time around!

Thanks for all the answers, Elie! I appreciate your offer to protect me from myself, but after reading your answer I think I'll take my chances with this batch. OK, here are 4 things I learned making this recipe the first time. They should have been obvious, but sometimes I'm a bit dense. 1. Pick the straightest chilis you can find. Curved chilis are harder to seed and harder to stuff. 2. Cut the chilis short enough to fit into the jar below the neck! (Now really, shouldn't I have figured that out first? I had to cut the top inch off a couple of chilis after I'd already stuffed them!) The corollary to this is, don't bother buying really long chilis unless you have a really tall jar. 3. Do use a spoon to clean out the seeds, as noted in the original instructions. I tried using a knife to cut the web that holds the seeds, and it didn't work as well. I kept cutting the wall of the pepper. A long-handled spoon (like you use for iced tea) worked well. 4. Put enough peppers into each jar that they push against each other without squeezing out their filling. That way they'll hold each other in place when the oil is added. The first time I added oil all the chilis floated to the top because they weren't packed in tightly enough. I had to add another pepper or two to get them to stay in place. By the way, this saves a bit on how much oil you need to do the recipe. If you have nut mixture left over, you can throw some in the bottom of the jar (I think that will taste great) or mix it in with that night's dinner pilaf. I would love to have a preserved eggplant recipe - hint, hint - Edited for spelling

TP(M'sia), I don't think you hijacked the thread too much. Thanks for the idea! I made my first batch of stuff preserved peppers according to Elie's recipe last night, and now I have questions! (I also have comments and pitfalls, if anyone's interested, but I won't bore the general readership with that stuff unless asked. I get carried away. ) My first question is, Elie, how will I know when the peppers are done? Do I just wait two weeks and then start opening? My second question, closely related to the "wait two weeks" bit, is the result of the dreaded mental Food Police who visited me in the night whispering about garlic in oil and anaerobic bacteria and botulism. I hate when this happens! As a rule I think the Food Police are a bit too alarmist for me - I eat rare steak, runny egg yolks, and ice cream made with raw eggs. Still, the specter of botulism makes me ask: will I dare eat these peppers when they're finished? I forgot to put salt into the peppers before I started stuffing them. The filling itself is fairly salty. I added red vinegar at the end (a bit more than 2 tbsp each jar) and watched it all drop to the bottom of the jar, where it of course won't mix with the oil. Will these peppers be safe to eat, and are there things I can do to improve the safety? Shake the jar from time to time to redistribute the vinegar? Refrigerate the whole thing? Start eating them tomorrow? They really are works of art, and I hope I didn't botch the recipe too badly to eat them. Here's what they look like right now, although the photo doesn't do them justice. The green is a more vivid peppery green, almost like jewels under the oil.

Chorizo con huevos. It's ridiculously easy: break up or slice up the chorizo. (I'm assuming this is not the little hard chunky chorizo that won't break up and has no grease to give off.) Start cooking it while you beat eggs with milk or water or whatever your preferred scrambling liquid is. As the chorizo starts to brown, pour off some of the grease if you've a mind, and then add the beaten eggs. Scramble, stirring regularly over fairly low heat until it's all cooked to your satisfaction. The proportions for a hungry sailing crew are (approximately) a pound of chorizo for a dozen eggs. There are more sophisticated treatments, and this recipe could be gussied up with mushrooms or tomatoes or whatever, but this was the first spicy breakfast food I ever learned to love. It always reminds me of the college friend who taught it to me, and our trips to Catalina Island.

You mean, like my last car?

Ohhh, that hurts. Reminds me of a time in high school when I was putting away the dinner dishes. These were my mother's new dinner dishes, ceramic, to replace the indestructible Melmac with which we'd been raised. As I dried each plate I stacked it on its mates...on the edge of the drying rack. The last plate was the last straw, and the drying rack tipped up, crashing the entire lot into the porcelain sink.

A couple of years ago my husband and I were given a bottle of Davis Bynum Zinfandel, 1996. I'd never been much on zins, but what the heck - it was free, and I've rarely met a free wine I didn't like. Eventually we got around to opening it, and had a genuine WOW moment: so THIS was what all the fuss was about! I'm still learning the terms, so I can't say specifically that there were tobacco or soap or old leather or old shoelaces. Jammy, probably; full and fruity but with a darker, deeper, fuzzier note to it, definitely. (Don't ask me what "fuzzy" means, but to my palate some wines are clear and some are fuzzy. Maybe it's blackberry brambles.) We thought that Davis Bynum Zinfandel was a wonderful wine, and we were sorry to find we can't get it in Minnesota. That episode started us on a search for zinfandels we loved as we had that one. We began with wines from around Healdsburg since that's the home of Davis Bynum winery, and moved out from there. Alderbrook OVOC is a reliable winner. Seghesio is another, although they have - or had - multiple grades. (Our wine group was split on whether the Seghesio Sonoma or the Seghesio Old Vines (Ancient Vines?) was the better; I of course chose the most expensive in a blind test, and I haven't been able to find anything other than their Sonoma lately.) Once I had a Quivera Dry Creek Zin that hit the mark, but I've never found it again. Ditto for a Saugus. The quest continues, and it's a lot of fun, but now I'd like to learn more about what I'm looking for. Not all zins from the Dry Creek area hit the mark, and I think we've had a few that suited our tastes but came from someplace else entirely. Andrea Immer referred in one of her wine guides to a "Dry Creek-style Zinfandel" and cited one of the above loved wines as an example. She didn't define that style. She hasn't listed other zins with the same style so we can know what to look for. I have no idea whether she made that term up or it's an accepted term among wine makers...so, I turn to you experts to tell me. Is there such a thing as a "Dry Creek-style" zinfandel? If so, how would one characterize it? (Help me with this terminology, please!) Finally, how can I know before buying whether a zinfandel will be of that style? Edited for spelling

This weekend, inspired by this thread, I tried roasting paprika chicken in my Romertopf. I stuffed the cavity with quartered onions, put more quartered onions and some celery stalks down as a rack in the bottom of the pot. Rubbed the chicken skin with a mix of pounded garlic, salt, lemon juice and white pepper, and slid some of that mixture under the skin for good measure, then took Fifi's advice and coated that baby with insane amounts of paprika. I started with the Hot Szego, but after tasting it began to fear the results, so I tempered it with the Sweet Szego. (I think the final result was somewhere past 50:50 toward the hot end.) Went off for a walk with the husband and dog, and when we got back an hour or so later, checked in to see what I had wrought. Oh. My. Stars and Garters! We have a new favorite. My approach was very unscientific but the results were spectacular. I thought it was a touch overcooked but Russ didn't; it certainly wasn't stringy, and the bones fell out by themselves. There's lovely juice (and at least a little meat!) left over for some broth or sauce - perhaps to go into tonight's rice and chicken stuffing for peppers. I might have experimented with it at the time, but we were too hungry, and the wine flowed too freely to do much but clean up afterward. Next time: maybe cook slightly less time, maybe try the smoked paprika. Maybe follow an actual recipe written here. Start looking for other varieties to try. I dunno, but the possibilities are endless. Folks, sign us up as new addicts!

Elie, I got the peppers this weekend and thought I was all ready to roll, then realized I hadn't gotten the nuts! Before I trot back to the store I have questions: 1. Should the peanuts be dry-roasted or the more standard, somewhat oily, canned roasted peanuts? Does it matter? 2. Does this work for other nuts as well? I'm thinking walnuts, for instance. 3. How finely should the stuff be chopped?

That sounds terrific. Do you suppose a regular small skillet, or a crepe pan, would work instead of the upside-down wok? Or is the curved bottom critical?

Many thanks!

Andie, was that $69 in 1970 dollars or $69 in 2000 dollars? What I'm really getting at is, which version of the Bron do you have? The one I like the looks of best is, naturally, the most expensive version. I've never seen it for less than $100, and I'd rather have money left over for my next pot.

FoodMan did a great class called Introduction to Lebanese Cuisine and he included instructions on how to make pita bread. Much applause ensued, and many posters have written to say things like "but this is easy! and delicious!" I recommend you try that link first.

I'm pulling this back up to the top to see if someone will answer. The V-blade mandolines look to me as though they have an automatic pinch point (the apex of the V) right at the thickest part of most items you'd be slicing. The one time I tried a Zyliss V-slicer, I did end up with stuff getting stuck and breaking off right there, instead of slicing neatly. What a pain - I went back to my knife and my not-quite-perfect slices to finish. Has anyone else had this experience? Has someone here researched the issue of blade angle to performance? It looks to me as though a slightly angled blade - not straight across the holder, but going all in one line instead of a V, would be the optimal geometry. Yours in equipment geekiness, Nancy

So, my sorrel leaves are pretty stiff. Do you blanch them first for flexibility, or leave them uncooked for the best color? Any hints would be appreciated; I think I'll try it this weekend.

I frequent several forums, depending on available time and what interests me right then. At what level are you defining "forum? For instance, are you counting Wine separately from Ministry of Rum? I often wander into a new area based on an interesting-looking topic. For instance, this is my first time into Ministry of Rum because your post name intrigued me. Now I'll have to see what else happens here.

Sorrel! STUFFED SORREL LEAVES! <insert light bulb emoticon here> I've been looking for new ways to use my surplus before it freezes! Thank you!

I tried the Zyliss recently and kept having problems with the slices jamming at the deepest part of the V. It seems as though the V makes a pinch point, right at what's usually the thickest part of the object to be sliced. After messing with trying to slice potatoes and eggplant, I gave up on it. Anyone else have that problem, or did I have a bad V-cutter? Surely it wasn't operator error!

Well, I dunno. If you liked the house otherwise, you could probably sell that stove and get one you liked. Some people like glass stovetops very much because of the sleek look and the ease in cleaning, and I'd guess some such person would be pleased to purchase a used glass-top stove in good condition. I wouldn't be such a buyer, however. I personally wouldn't want a glass stovetop because of maintenance issues and limitations on use: * It's "easy" to clean IF you do it right away, but I'm not always a clean-right-away kind of person, and I am prone to spilling. An acquaintance had a sugar syrup fuse to her stovetop almost immediately, and it's there to stay. My cousin, who is an excellent cook, has the glass stovetop and has cleaned up such spills. He had to do it IMMEDIATELY, though. * I just know I'd drop something and break the top, or drag something across and scratch the top, or take a hot pan off the heat and set it elsewhere on the glass top where hot things aren't supposed to go. If I didn't, a guest would. I don't want a major appliance to be so fragile that I worry when company is visiting; I get weekend houseguests who pitch in with the cooking, bless 'em. * The burners are too small to allow canning in a large kettle. I could get around that by using a propane stove outside or by buying a special small canning kettle, but why accept the limitation? * IIRC they don't get as hot as standard coil electric stoves.

I generally hold the jar upside down and bang the lid flat on the counter instead of banging on the rim. If that doesn't work I have the rubber thingy to fall back on. However, my best jar opener is cute AND works. No, you can't borrow him.

Ah. Maybe I've found your thread here. This link takes you to a specific post that mentions Sanelli knives. If you go up-and down-thread from there you'll find reference to other knives, and links to knife shops, and even a link to a photo of a snappy Sanelli Japanese knife with a red-and-green handle. Thread started by a guy who wanted to spend $30 - $40 on a knife. Sound right this time?

"Lifestyle wines"? "Luxury wines"? "Lifestyle wines"??? Is this some weird Mondavi PR corporatespeak, or is it some common label I've been fortunate enough never to have heard before now? (Where's the nauseated smilie when I need it)

Are you thinking of the "When Cheaper is Just Fine" Thread? If so, try this post and see whether it puts you on the right track. There were a lot of posts about knives (and thongs ) in this thread, so your particular knife discussion may be elsewhere in there.

I have some All-Clad Stainless saute pans, sauce pans and a braiser. I love the stuff, although I agree there may be better values for the money out there. I like the way it looks and handles, and cleanup has been easy - well, except for the poor pan in which I boiled the shallots-and-wine down until there was no wine and only bits of charcoal where the shallots used to be. That was a murder cleanup. That's what I get for trying to use the hot tub and cook at the same time. I absolutely agree: don't get a set. Pick up pieces as you need them. I'll add: if you do, after all this discussion, decide to go against the professional opinions and go with All-Clad, go to Outlets Online and follow the links to the All-Clad outlet store. You'll save major bucks and the stuff is still good. I once ordered a piece that came, well, too factory-secondish for me and they cheerfully exchanged it.