Behemoth

It sounds a bit like Harira, the soup you have for ramadan in Morocco. I forgot about that one, that is good. (I think it is usually made with lamb bones...)

spatchcocked chicken, marinated in coriander, garlic, black pepper and fish sauce & grilled nam prik gapi (relish made of shrimp paste pounded with sugar, salt, lime, garlic and chilies.) scallions soaked in ice water hard boiled egg wedges jasmine rice grilled eggplant, brushed with coconut cream

That last one could be the gummy thing with pistachios. I have no idea what its called. Oh, its not cream cheese BTW, I think the filling is more like clotted cream. I really miss two things I can't seem to get anywhere: "Znoud el sit", a sort of clotted cream-filled pastry cigar, and "ktaif" (I think?) which are little pancakes usually eaten with the cream and sugar syrup. Are those just a Tripoli thing? Man are those good. I have some candied orange blossoms my folks sent to me. Also some ktaifi dough. What should I make....

Slutty noodles, eh? Um...yeah. I am stuck in Urbana so I am eating taqueria and thai basically. But this weekend I get to cook up a storm, these houseguests are a captive audience so I don't expect any cancellations.

It gets a huge amount of business here, people really seem to love it. I find the bread too squishy and undercrusted and they put way too much gloppy stuff on the salads and sandwiches. Asking for dressing on the side got me funny looks. And the coffee is too weak. The soups aren't bad, assuming they warm them enough. And yet, if I need a "bagel" and coffee within walking distance from my department, I do end up going there. Meh. (There are far better bakeries in my area, but not within walking distance from work. If we could only convince mirabelle bakery to open a stand in the basement of Altgeld hall...sigh.)

Not that it's a bad suggestion, but don't you ALWAYS say "vinegar"? ← Only for stew! Chili, lamb stew and beef stew. It really works! Okay, also for braised onions, braised radiccio, braised cabbage.... Seriously, I never understood the wonder of vinegar with meat until the first time I tried it, and now I believe it is a magical substance. edit: the trick is to add just enough so that it does its job, but so little that nobody can tell what it is. It just pulls everything together for me.

Doesn't it depend on where you are? In Urbana-Champaign, they are all free. They have enough space for all the lingerers. But in Chicago, where space was harder to come by, most places seemed to charge. Maybe tour a few cafes in your neighborhood and see what they are doing.

Karen, how do you do your agrodolce? Vinegar and...? I could use a new recipe. I love all the penelope casas onion tapas. Also, I sometimes roast cippolinis & fill with a lentil & goat cheese mixture. Great for vegetarians on thanksgiving.

My favorite combinations: roasted fennel with serrano ham fennel and tomato sauce or soup raw fennel with black olives and orange slices raw fennel with black olives and preserved lemons grilled fennel & fish with lemon Now that I think about it, 8 out of my last 10 dinner parties included a fennel dish...

Right now I would officially push over someone's grandmother for a magic meatball. You people are killing me. If you like falafel try Rami's truck on 38th & locust walk. Assuming it's still there, I hope I also used to like Kim's truck for chili chicken. God I'm hungry right now... There used to be a lot of great trucks that got squeezed out when Penn started rearranging everything. Also, appreciate your fruit trucks while ye have them, for they do not exist in the Heartland (Philadelphian in exile...)

vinegar

Most people I know aren't so big into cooking, so I haven't given a lot of food related books. But anyone who likes to go to farmer's markets gets a copy of Elizabeth Schneider's Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini so they can figure out what to do with all that weird stuff they bring home. My mom got that one last year.

Susan, that just made my day, I am so glad you liked it. The really funny thing though -- that wine in the second picture is precisely what I had bought last night for our dinner party! Great minds...

Well, we will clearly be having leftovers today . Here are some pics: Salmon appetizer: Short ribs:

Tee hee. What if you combined the two requests? There is a description in my Elizabeth Schneider book of a recipe from "Charlie Trotter's Vegetables" for a baby carrot terrine with shiitake salad, carrot juice reduction and balsamic vinegar. You make an aspic out of the carrot juice, (which is sorta like jello... ), then dip the vegetables in it and layer them in a terrine mold, wrap everything in chard leaves etc etc., dot the plate with dill oil, reduced carrot glaze, vinegar etc. I could PM you her description if you like...it sounds phenominal. If someone here has the CT vegetables cookbook, maybe they could give more precise details. It sounds like a lot of little steps but nothing individually difficult. It would be really funny to walk in with something that spectacular.

I love brussels sprouts. I follow Julia's instructions for pre-cooking, cut them in half then spread them on a tea towel to dry until I'm ready for them. Then I heat mustards seeds in lots of oil a pan until they pop, add garlic, cumin, a tiny bit sugar and hot pepper flakes, toss the sprouts until they turn deep green and a little carmelized, them add sea salt & course ground pepper & toss again. I don't think I've ever had leftovers. I got the spice combination from a Madhur Jaffrey green bean recipe, but I like the mix even better for sprouts. Something about the spices in thanksgiving food reminds me of indian dishes, I find them to be a really complimentary.

Yes, they but are veal demi-glace jigglers, cut in the shape of pig intestines How about bringing an amuse? It is easy to pull something together with a big "wow" factor, keeps people out of the kitchen, and staves off hunger until the big meal is served...

Thanks -- I'm just glad I'm experimenting on friends and family (well, actually mainly myself), and not restaurant patrons

Rachel, you patience preachin' genius, you were right, it was gelled this morning. jsolomon, I had to pour the reduced stuff from an 8qt to a 3.5 qt pot to save room in the fridge. The smaller pot had just been used to boil something else (turnips) then rinsed out with hot water. I will definitely be more careful next time. This time, I think I may do the marine survival thing, where you eat a spoonful and wait a couple days to see whether you keel over. Considering the crazy street food I've blithely consumed in my lifetime, I will take my chances this once. Is it "getting nasty sick" bacteria, or "kill you instantly" bacteria?

More like 5 hours. But I like the sleeping idea.

Ugh. Day of culinary frustration. First my stock wouldn't gel because I think I did something stupid (thanks Malawry...) and then we were supposed to have a dinner party and our guests cancelled at the last minute Well, we got a VERY nice dinner for two, at least. Original menu: smoked salmon on buttered pumpernikel bread, topped with horseradish cream (horseradish folded into unsweetened whipped cream) and chives grilled belgian endive halves with vinaigrette & sieved egg yolks Braised short ribs with turnips and pearl onions In honor of the yutz with the "first baghdad next france" bumper sticker in the parking lot, two french cheese (delice de bourgogne, St Agur blue) and pear slices mousse au chocolat ---------------------------- So we skipped the salad, I only made a couple of the salmon things (you gotta try the horseradish thing if you have't already) , saved the cheese for later and had a little mousse. But mostly, we ate 2 portions of short ribs each, which is a lot. But it was so good. It was actually made last night -- took out the ribs, strained the sauce through cheesecloth a couple of times and then poked a hole in the gross fat layer this morning to pour out the beautiful gravy, sorta like christmas. Really lovely. Oh and French wine (Rothschild 1999 blah blah don't get too excited but it was good). And now the plus side is I don't have to clean anything up...and I can get some work done.

From the eCGI course: It was a 16 qt stockpot, filled water to capacity on top of the meat and veg. Seemed like a lot of meat in there...(?)

Crap. Would the egg-white trick work? Or is it beyond repair? The heat was the lowest possible but eventually it must have built up quite a bit. It is glossy, though I guess not "iced-tea" clear -- how clear is clear? I was using beef bones (veal seems to be practically unavailable in my part of the world). Well, I guess I can still freeze it...it certrainly tastes great, and it certainly won't go to waste, I'm just really bummed I can't keep a cool tub of gel in my fridge.

I basically followed eCGI through the defatting and reducing steps. My stock didn't produce a solid sheet of fat as shown in the photos. It might be that I didn't cool it down fast enough -- I had to shove it in the fridge to run some errands. But it stayed cold for while after that and seems to be fairly fat-free now. Wait, I did one stupid thing maybe -- In the initial 8 hours cooking, I had the lid on so it wasn't reducing (it was late, I was tired). I realized afterwards that this was probably a dumb thing, but I thought reducing it all later would still be okay. Could that be it? I would think the gelatine is what firms it up, so it shouldn't matter if it reduces later rather than sooner. Maybe I will poke my finger in rather than just wiggling it arund, and try to reduce it some more. Any ideas welcome. Thanks!

Well, my 8 lbs of meaty soup bones, 16 quarts of stock is now reduced to three quarts. No, scratch that, I took one quart out to use for braising spare ribs. 15 quarts, now reduced to three -- looks nice and dark, tastes nice and meaty, but is not gelling up. It's been in the fridge for several hours now -- am I being impatient or did I do something worng? Any ideas?