Behemoth

I got about as far as you did, Smithy, and I've a native speaker also. Well, I also thought possibly biyad = eggs but otherwise clueless. Can I just add that "Bizak" literally means "spitting thing"? I love Arabic. Is there an Arabic word for slug?

I debated putting this in the pastry and baking forum, as it is neither pastry nor baked If moderators think it would get more responses there... Anyway, I think this will be a fantastic way to work through all the little jars of stuff in my pantry. I had a cup of pistachios sitting in the fridge so I tried the gelato. The mixture is cooling in the fridge so we'll see how that works out. It is an old Saveur recipe but I am having some doubts about its current consistency. IMO way too thick, but I suppose I can dilute it with some milk tomorrow if need be. Anyway, will post results. The recipe is just milk, cornstarch, sugar and flavor...should definitely be adaptable for walnuts & stuff like that. Assuming it works out. I've read about parmesan ice cream. Playing off your idea daniel, it could be kind of amusing to do a manchego ice cream with some sort of quince paste as a cheese course... You know what I once discovered was a surprisingly good flavor combinaion? Tarragon and strawberries. The licorice thing (plus a little pepper and balsamic) really went well with the fruit. The problem was the texture of the herb wasn't that nice, I think ice cream might be just the solution. Hmm. chefgy -- what if you added some sort of slightly salty or goaty cheese flavor? Honey, thyme and feta is a pretty popular combination in mediterranean countries. I might have to steal the saffron ice cream idea. I love olive oil cake. Thanks for the responses!

1) In Hamburg I had a great ice cream made with quark and sour cherries. I figure I can sub sour yogurt labneh for the quark. The consistency of theirs was similar to frozen yogurt, though I know quark is considerably thicker. Any idea of proportions? They also did a great nutella-flavored ice cream -- I have no idea where to start with that one. 2) the other thing I'd really like to try is ice cream with herb flavors. The White Dog restaurant in Philadelphia used to do some nice ones with flavors like geranium or rosemary. Do I infuse the herbs in the milk and then strain? Would a custard or a Philadelphia (cream) style ice cream (or something else entirely) work better? How do you give it a decent color? Then again I have an in there, maybe I will give him a call... 3) Doing fruit-flavored ice creams that are not sorbets: say, pear flavor. What kind of dairy goes in there? Proportion of dairy to juice? I think it would also be really cool to try this with tamarind or different kinds of tea. I think I read about earl grey ice cream somewhere, would love to try that. 4) Any good recipes for gelato? What is the basic difference? I have a recipe for pistachio and for chocolate gelato, would like a few other ideas, fruit or nut flavored especially. 5) Anyone try making arabic style ice creams? The gummy milk flavor would be of interest, but something Jallab or Mulberry flavored would be very nice too. Thanks!

Just for the record, I've also been paying attention. The only American news I've heard about this was a CBC radio program carried by my local NPR station. What can I say, there are lots of important stories the american media don't cover. Mabelline, I am sympathetic. Has there been any attempt to sue packers for collusion? My understanding is that it is primarily their actions that keep beef prices artificially low and force ranchers to use extreme cost-cutting practices. It's a shame all beef gets lumped together whenever BSE news comes out. It would also be nice to see meat-packing workers unionize, there is a field that really ought to have medican benefits. But that's a whole other topic...

It's the same in Levantine Arabic. Cute, I never thought of that.

The lobsters...genius.

So, I just acquired "Bugialli on Pasta" for $3 and change. My first test drive was the penne with vodka (he has some other name for it, but that's basically what it is...) Anyway, it's not that I have a problem with heavy cream or anything, but this recipe involves a full cup per lb. of pasta. It tastes great but I feel like I'm about to keel over from major coronary failure. Has anyone else made this dish? Do you cut it with milk? Or am I just being a wuss?

I've been thinking about this. Airag, which is what I remember fermented mare's milk being called, isn't distilled. Arkhi is freeze distilled mare's milk (sometimes referred to as Mongolian Vodka), this method is thought to go back to the 600's. So much for the Arab link to Mongolian "Arak"... ← What is "freeze distilled"?

I got the feeling food wasn't something she's willing to spend money on unless other people are around to see her do it. Character flaw I suppose, but a common one. What I did find annoying however was the tone of the article itself. Equating the inability to cook with some sort of feminism just reenforces the stereotype that cooking is "women's work". Also this tone of "well, she's liberated, but even though she works she is still a real woman because well golly she loves her kids and made her wedding gown into pillows and she lives on diet coke!" Makes me wonder where I lie in that equation: I am ambivalent about having children, do math for a living, eat like a horse and got married in regular clothes. But, hey, I cook! Does that make me enough of a woman? But what mainly annoys me is that the article header makes some general claim about people not cooking, and then the entire article turns out to be some insipid piece about some random lady named Francine who seems to have some food issues.

That is really interesting. I definitely did not know that. In an issue of the Economist dated Dec. 20, 2003, they mention various distilled liquors with the name Arak existing in Mongolia (distilled from fermented mare's milk) Goa, Sri Lanka and Bali (distilled from sap of flowering coconuts) Tamils (sugarcane) Indonesians (rice wine) Iran ("anything they can get their hands on".) It seems the process was probably exported along with the term. Interesting that it crossed back west from Indonesia to Sweden!

A little online reading for quick background information. ← This reminds me of the fascinating conversation I had with my BIL's girlfriend, who is Spanish. She was sharing with me the apparently Arab origin of the name "Guadalahara". Wadi - al - Khara. (I s**t you not. ) I really wonder what that was all about... That is an interesting link, Farid. I am really looking forward to seeing where you go with all this.

I can't say cute was ever the issue for me -- I happen to think cows are really cute but still eat them. I also eat bunnies...I just found the rate at which things in Lebanon were being overhunted/overfished/forced out because of pollution just too alarming to take...And shooting 5-10 or so larks (or any kind of bird for that matter) per person to make a meal was just too much for me. I hope people have gotten smarter about that since I left. I'm sure some pockets of good news exist but in general I doubt ithere's been much of a change. People just don't think past the immediate future, which is probably why we had the stupid war in the first place. Sorry, sore subject, obviously. When you were growing up it was probably different, Elie, but during the war it was just really hard to take all the senseless waste.

I've heard of this before but never had it, has anyone had any experinece with it before? Is it also prepared in a similar way in other countries of the Middle East? ← Yes, and it's gross! Sorry, but I always felt it was really mean to cook so many little birds for one rather unpleasant bony little meal. I'd rather hear them outside my window in the morning...my dad's cousin was a hunter and would make that dish occasionally. My dad and I always refused to eat it. Ah well...

Exactly...I was just referring to distilled stuff. I think wine also existed before the arab renaissance -- come to think of it, Arabs took to chemistry and the sciences after Islam, but of course the Koran references wine. Anyway, I remember reading somewhere that the Romans planted most of the original grape vines in europe and the middle east? For once the human race had their priorities straight!

Sunday: Grilled chicken marinated with paprika, lemon juice and garlic, basted with thickened yogurt. Served with grilled pita, hummus and an avocado butter lettuce salad. Monday: Brats, poached in onions and beer then grilled. Poppy seed buns. Saurkraut and mustard for me, mustard and indian tomato chutney for my supposedly "german" saurkraut-hating husband. Today: When A travels I become the human trashcan. Leftover chicken and broth into tortilla soup, last packet of almond crush pocky, espresso, orange juice.

I guess I must represent for the north: Hamburger aalsuppe, Hamburger heringssalat, Nordsee krabbensalat, Lübecker marzipan and the rum drinks: Grog, Pharisär. Oh, and my husband's wonderful pancakes. And kassler, but those two are not specifically northern.

This is quite possibly the most eGullet sentence anyone has ever written. I am excited to see a pastry chef in action. So is it true you guys are very precise?

This spirit is found throughout the Med. I think the origins are Greek, someone will correct me if I am wrong. ← I would love to get my hands on a book that details the history of alcohol. What a fascinating subject. From what I have read, it seems fairly likely arabs first came up with the process of distilling alcohol, in their alchemy (another arabic word, heh) experiments. Just looking up etymologies in the dictionary (the great pastime of the chronic procrastinator), alcohol = al kohl = the powder of antimony. Cultural bias aside , I have read that licorice spirits really came to greece and turkey from the east. Again, going on the etymology, raki/raka would have certainly come from arak, which means "sweat" in Arabic -- a reference to the condensation that happens during the process of distillation. It would also be interesting to try and trace old trade routes via the local cuisines. You can really see the influence in venetian cooking I think (for example). (edited because the brain doesn't know what the typing hand is doing...)

Supposedly it is a little less than 1/8 of a tsp. but I like the three finger method better.

I remove the legs and thighs and wings. Then I cut the back away, using poultry shears. I then put the breast, meat side down on the cutting board and bend it outward until it is pretty much flattened and the sternum breaks. Starting at the sternum, I use a thin-bladed knife to separate the meat where it is attached to the sternum. By this point, the breast meat should have been loosened from the ribs and can be pulled off in one piece on each side. You can also flatten it with the meat side up, whichever, it is the flexing of the ribs that looses the meat from them. I learned this by watching the guys at El Pollo Loco one day while waiting for a large order for the office. I thought it was such a neat trick I tried it at home and it WORKED! ← Thanks andie, I will try that next time. As for the sea salt, carswell is absolutely right...I use kosher salt for everything in the kitchen, and generally save the sea salt as a kind of condiment for steak, potato chips and focaccia. I was mainly responding to whether it was okay to use coarse salt in cooking.

You can really just use it as you would regular salt in cooking. You just want to make sure you are cooking something long enough for the crystals to dissolve. (It takes no more than a minute...but for table salt, I would grind it first.) Oh, if you are following a recipe, remember a tsp of rock salt weighs less than a tsp of the fine stuff. (More room between the crystals) so you have to adjust a little. Oh, it is particularly nice sprinkled on steaks. Much more talented than that Morton's chick. My question: I have gotten good at cutting up my chicken, all but the breast part, which I always manage to shred. Is there a nice way of getting an intact whole breast off a chicken without having half the rib cage come off with it? I've read something about following the line of fat along the rib cage, but I'm still really sloppy.

I've seen ground toasted almonds used as a sub for flour in "flourless" chocolate cakes. Would something like that be worth trying?

I improvised a surf and turf of sorts: Trout pan-fried in beurre noisette, topped with sauteed shallot, oyster mushroom, bacon, white wine, a little vinegar and parsley. Quite successful, not to mention pretty colors. Served on top of potato roesti. I managed a photo of the trout, but the roesti too quickly vanished into, er, fat air

Just for fun, the word comes from the three syllable root (past tense) verb "Ta-ba-kha" which means cooked. Tabikh would mean "something cooked". In the Levant "tabikh" or "tbikha" generally seems to imply something cooked in a big pot, as a stew. Just in case you were looking for, like, a fifth language there Kris

It just means the surface has been exposed to oxygen. No big.