Bella S.F.

In an attempt to make chorizo that would not have all of the unidentified chunks of who-knows-what in them, and perhaps a tad less grease than the wonderful chorizo that we get at a Mexican store in the Mission, we have been making our own chorizo. We start with pork shoulder/butt and grind it ourselves. As far as the flavor is concerned, we are just not getting it right. Basically we are using chilis, cumin, oregano, and cayenne. We do make the mixture, pinch a bit off and cook it to taste for flavor, but we are still not getting what we want. It does not turn out with that deep, muddy greasy red color like the Mexican chorizo that we buy. I think that we need to put in a bit more fat than we have been putting in, but what do we do about the flavor? What kinds of chilis do you use? Any ideas that you can share as far as other ingredients and ballpark proportions? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I really have a hankering for chorizo and eggs, the kind where you have that special red color dripping from the tortilla and the spice that spreads all over your mouth. Also want to make Rick Bayless' Chorizo-Potato Tacos with Avocado Salsa. (Like right now.) So... how can I try to duplicate that flavor?

By the way, for those of you who do not know the Alton Brown method. Low and slow. Take it out to rest. Then put it back into a high oven to crust up. Then rest it again. Well worth trying.

Finally, got to make our "Christmas Dinner" prime rib. (See the picture and description on the "Dinner thread".) After reading and rereading this thread as well as the links that people so kindly posted, we ended up using Alton Brown's recipe. The prime rib ended up being uniformly rare and then medium rare. The problem was that our friends from Napa were caught in traffic hell and got here over an hour and a half late. That threw off the whole meal. By the time we were able to put the roast back in the oven for the high blast, it had sat for too long a period of time. So it was really cold. Everything needed to be adjusted. However, when everything was done, the meat was still not warm and except for the end pieces, the rest was a bit raw for 2 of the 4 people. That method, however, really seems to be the winner. Thank you everyone for your contributions.

Finally had our "Christmas Dinner". Appies were two kinds of Bruschetta. One was prosciutto wrapped fresh mozzerella balls, baked till cheese had started melting and prosciutto was on the crisp side. They were finished with some chopped tomato, shreds of basil, really good extra virgin olive oil (brought back from Tuscany) and some really good balsamic (also brought back from Tuscany). The other Bruschetta had the "toasted" baguette slices topped with goat cheese and truffled mushroom "salsa" (Yes, also brought back from Tuscany.) They were put back in the oven to just warm everything up. With this course we had a side-by-sice taste test of 'bubblies". Our favorite Champagne from a very small house in France against our favorite domestic "Sparkling" That was really fun. Main course... prime rib, potato gratin, roasted green beans with onions, lemon juice and zest, and Marcona almonds, braised shallot confit, and popovers. Our friends brought two Napa Cabs from the early 1990's. Both wines were wonderful. No pictures of the appies or the dessert. This picture was taken before the green beans and the popovers were served. I am going to mention the prime rib on the Best Prime Rib thread Dessert... Orange Spiced Pumpkin Pie and Chili Chocolate Balls. We were going to open a bottle of Port to have with this course, but everyone vetoed that by that point. A truely wonderful dinner. I do hope that the picture makes it onto this entry. I have never been able to get a picture to appear here. My husband tried to work this out for me. If it doesn't work, just imagine a beautifully, evenly rare piece of meat, even the edges.

Oh yes!!! The braised shallot confit is truely amazing. Listen to everything everyone said. You need to at least double the recipe. I doubled it and it still was almost completely devoured by 4 people. If we didn't have so many other things to eat, it would have disappeared completely. You don't want that to happen because the leftovers are really wonderful.

The first Valentine's Day my husband and I had together (when we were first seeing ecah other, not our first after being married), was wonderful. It would definitely qualify for your requirement of "sexy but easy". We also started out with a shrimp appetizer. The main dish, (steaks, stuffed baked potaoes, and a green that I can't remember) did not get eaten that night. The dessert was just too irresistable. For dessert, I had melted a truely dark and delicious chocolate, poured it into this cruet type of vessel that had a voltive candle underneath. I had all kinds of fruit arranged on a platter, berries, apple, banana, pear, kiwi, and more that I can't think of now. I had little pretzels, and, I think some squares of a pound-like cake. It was truely decadent. Chocolate covered fingers were also a big hit. Let us know what you come up with.

I am not sure that I would experiment on people who are coming for dinner for the first time, but we get a lot of repeat diners so that is not a problem. We will try new recipes on company when are using a reliable source. There are also so many recipes that from spending a lot of time cooking, you just know that they are going to be good from reading them. I am often even confident about changing the recipe to suit our tastes, for example substituting pancetta for platypus nipple.

David, I love your freeform pizza. I like the idea of not needing to get it round since I hardly ever do. Could you please guide me to the artisan bread in 5 minutes thread that you mentioned? It is quite a coincidence. We were at a wine tasting today and ran into someone who was talking about bread that she makes that she called bread in five minutes. She said that she makes the dough every week and then comes home from work, tears a chunk of the dough off and then they have freshly baked bread in a very short period of time. She said that she would send me the recipe when she and her husband get back from their vacation. I don't think that I will get it for a while. It would be nice to try to make the recipe that you found here on eGullet, and then see what she eventually sends me. Thanks in advance!

I just found the pork recipe. It calls for a skin-on pork shoulder. I have never seen one out here. I could probably special order one from a butcher. Do you think that it will really make that much of a difference? I have found that slow cooked (like forever in the oven) or even smoked pork turns out wonderfully with a shoulder/butt that does not have the skin.

Bruce, can you point me in the right direction for those yummy looking beans. Anything with bacon and chorizo must be amazing. It does seem like I tend to love the recipes I find from looking at your posts. It helps that we have some of the same cookbooks. Not all however. Last night I used the broth left over from the Tinga Poblana recipe that I got from you, Bruce. (I had frozen it) In the freezer I also found a ham bone, a package of meat that had been leftover from the ham dinner, and a jar of really yummy beans that I had cooked with a lot of garlic cloves. I have found that when I freeze things that are leftover, I am not sure what I want to do with the single ingredient, I end up looking at what is in the freezer and creating something that is really good. The old "sum of the parts" thing. I started with a nice amount of chopped onions, carrots, and celery. I also added a can of some really good tomatoes and some extra beans. (Three different kinds.) We ended up with one of the best bean soups that I have made in years. What a pleasant surprise. David, the pork you made looks wonderful also. I am constantly trying new pork recipes, usually using the shoulder/butt. Kim said that she found the recipe on line. I am going to try that. If I cannot find it, I may get back to you. It's cold and damp here. Leftover bean soup. Yum. Keeping the freezer theme going... I found a bag with a foil wrapped chunk of garlic bread that I forgot about. I have never tried to freezer my garlic bread, but it seems like tonight is the time to try it. Oh, yeah... is anyone familiar with PICKAPEPPA sauce? That really added a wonderful flavor and slight zing to the soup.

C. Sapidus, I find myself thanking you again for another very good meal. We're batting 1000. Sunday we made your version of Tinga Poblana. It was very good. Our batch did not look as dark and rich as the one you posted on P. 710. I was a bit disappointed at first. In myself, not in the recipe. I thought that I must not have done everything correctly. When heating up the leftovers, I found that browning it in a cast iron skillet and letting most of the liquid boil off, was the way to go. My husband, however, liked the brothiness (is that a word) of the original recipe. I found that the potatoes tempered the heat quite a lot. I will add more chipotles next time. Your version has brighter flavors. The recipe that we have always made has a darker, earthier quality. It does not have the potatoes. We serve it with Mexican rice and beans. Now I don't know which one I'll make next time. Question for you. Do you add all of the cooking broth that the recipe calls for? I added about half and it was still very brothy. As good as it was... Mrs. C's salmon still wins for the most "MMMMs". (Actually one after about every bite.)

I am at a lose for the exact name/spelling of the other Kalamata EVOO that they carry... something like Martini's. We really like that one a lot. I find it tastier than the T.J. brand. It just has a wonderful flavor; one that you can cook with, but is really good on its own as in a "dipper' for good bread.

Don't know if this fits in here, I was trying to think of where to start a topic about the websites that we find helpful, interesting, and appetite producing. (That can be anycookbook, magazine, etc. that I look at, of course including this site.) I mentioned this over on the "Dinner" forum. I like http://theory.stanford.edu/~amitp/recipe.html when I want to take ingredients, like I mentioned in "Dinner", that are not yet science experiments. You type in what you want to use and you get recipes that use all of those ingredients together. I also like Michael Chiarello's website, Napa Style. http://www.napastyle.com/recipe/landing.jsp Everything that I have made of his has been wonderful. http://www.leitesculinaria.com/ is another great site with recipes from many wonderful cookbooks in addition to James Beard House and other sources. Do you use websites? What are your favorites?

Oops. Just checked out the link that I put up to make sure that it was the correct one. I just read the "fine print". It is not a Google project. They just use Google to find the recipes. Also never noticed that it is connectedf with Stanford. I might be a little bit more impressed now.

Thanks, C sapidus! A wonderful extra... we made enough for tonight also. Not quite sure how we got ourselves to stop eating, but it was pretty late (not unusual for us) I was pretty worn out, and I wanted something good for tonight, but knew that I did not want to go out to the store today. Wanted to mention a website that I got the gratin recipe from. You probably all know it already. It is a specific Google recipe research website http://theory.stanford.edu/~amitp/recipe.html You type in what ingredients you have that you want to use and you get recipes from many, many sources that use those ingredients. I originally got the gratin recipe by typing in potatoes and creme fraiche. The original recipe called for Idaho potatoes but I substitued the Yukon golds. We also just happened to have the Gruyere cheese that was called for. It is kind of fun to just type in what is hiding in the frig that is not yet a science experiment, and then get ideas of what you can make. Question for you Shelby. Your monkfish looked wonderful. I have also always heard it called "poor man's lobster", although by now it probably is not too cheap. I don't know, I haven't sought it out. How did you cook your's? I only made it once, quite a long time ago. I didn't do something right, because it was not done and then a moment later it was tough like badly cooked shrimp. It sounds like something that might be fun to try again.

Happy New Year, Everyone! Last night's dinner. (I finally had my appeitite back and could taste both food and wine. That's always a treat!) We started out with a shrimp cocktail in honor of my Mother-in-law who passed away in September. That was always the treat she would ask for. We served that with that Roderer Estates's Vinyage Brut 2000 from the Anderson Valley. It is their higher end Sparkling. The 2000 vintage is really wonderful. Main course... took out some sockeye salmon that we had vacumn packed back when fresh salmon was available. We really like salmon but will only eat the wild. Since its season is not too long, and we didn't want to wait till the next salmon season, one year we bought one of those "seal-a-meal" machines. Now we get to have wild salmon throughout much of the year. I am a purist when it comes to certain foods. There are certain foods that have such wonderful flavor on their own, that I do not like to cover up/mask the flavor. Don't like to guild the lily. Well C. sapidus, your discription of Mrs. C's salmon just struck a note. I grabbed our copy of Steven Raichlen's B.B.Q. and we made the maple mustard glaze. You are right. It was something that everytime we took a bite we made those noises that the people on The Food Network make. With that we made a Yukon Gold Potato, Creme Fraiche, and Gruyere Cheese Gratin. I didn't know if it would really go with the salmon but I just really wanted the dish. It was quite delicious. With that we served a 1999 Navarro Deep End Pinot. Never got to making the salad. Dessert was a tiny slice of cheesecake and a glass of Lemoncello. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. C for your contribution!

Didn't even get the chance to eat much of anything to get food poisoning. That made me smile when I saw it. Imagine me planning so hard and so long and then making myself sick. Nay. Was nursing a cold. It didn't get better. My asthma kicked in. After a while I couldn't use my inhalers because I could not breathe well enough to be able to suck the inhaler in. I am pretty stubborn and always say that I will be fine in just a little while. I couldn't wake up. My husband stopped believing me say that I was alright. By then I couldn't breathe or stop spasms of coughing, on top of, of course, I found out later infected ears, nose, etc. So off to the E.R. Breathing is really under-appreciated.

Well, I started this whole thing, read and reread all of the wonderful recommendtaions, and finally made my choice. Season, sear, and then low and slow to a beautifully medium rare doneness. I also had also chosen wonderful dishes planned to go with it and could not wait to start cooking. I was also looking forward to being able to post the results of the fruits of my labors. My Christmas dinner ended up being 3 bags of I.V. fluids in the E.R. Not exactly what I had planned and extremely upsetting. Since cooking and eating have not really been happening, our beautiful 3 rib (I did listen to people's advice about only 2 ribs) roast has been vacuum packed and is sitting in our freezer till we will be able to have a proper Christmas dinner. This is the first time in days that I have been able to be semi-vertical. I thought. perhaps, since I had started this thread that some might think it odd that I never posted a result. I didn't want anyone to think that I just asked questions but did not follow up on anything. Stay tuned. You will be hearing about an exciting Christmas dinner, hopefully, sometime in January. Gee, does that mean that Santa will come back again?

Haven't seen much said about what to roast the prime rib in. I was thinking that a regular roasting pan, which has high sides, might not be what I want. If I use a low sided pan, wouldn't that help the browning/carmelizing along?

hongda, Thanks for the link to the Alton Brown recipe. What I don't understand is why you would want to draw moisture away from the meat. ( the placement of the paper towels) Perhaps I am having a total mind fade (I originally wrote "wine fade" instead of "mind fade". Hmmm. Last night's glass of wine cannot be messing me up now.) Where is my thinking wrong?

Well, I have been reading over everyone's responses and now I am a bit more confused than before. It seems that there are strong opinions from all camps. alanamoana, thank you for finding the link to the other thread about cooking prime rib. I have not had a chance to read through that one yet, but it is on the top of the list of things to look at after I get through with the "things that must get done " list. I had mentioned that we spent far too much money last year buying a top-notch 3 rib roast from a butcher where we were given horrible instructions on how to cook it. I never kept the directions we were given because they were dreadful. All I remember was that we started the roast in a VERY HOT oven. I cannot remember anything else, except for the fact that if we had kept the roast in for the whole time the butcher had told us to, we would have anded up with a lump of coal. Raoul, I am not familiar with the Craig Claiborne method. It sounds like you just have to go on blind faith that the roast will continue to cook in an oven that will definitely cool down pretty quickly. I am leaning toward searing the outside in a pan (cast iron??) and then putting it on a rack in the oven. I have been told to salt and not to salt. I know people who swear that the meat will be tough if you salt it ahead of time. I do not think that I have found that to be true. One more question. This may get me stoned, but , has anyone ever bought a rib roast from Costco? I remember reading somewhere that Julia Child loved the meat at Costco. I was there this morning and completely forgot to ask about the grade of the rib roasts. Someone also told me that Safeway has a new "Rancher's Cut", I think it is called. Then there is always "Whole Paycheck". Looks like I better make a decision.

I know that many threads have mentioned prime rib, (Marlene, if I remember correctly, you make a real beauty.) but I can't seem to find what I am looking for in this forum. I want to make a prime rib for Christmas. Last year was the first time in years that we had decided to make one, so I wasn't thoroughly sure that I knew what to do. We went to one of the upscale butcher shops here in the city. We figured, why not... let's get a really good piece of meat. The fellow who waited on us told us how to roast the meat to a perfect medium rare. Something about what he said did not make sense, but we figured that he must know what he is talking about. Well, he didn't. Thankfully, we did not leave it in for as long as he had told us to. However, it was just not what we had been hoping for. It was not pink enough and it was not really tender, juicy, or flavorful. I want the perfect prime rib this year. (Or as near to as one can get.) I want "melt in your mouth" tender. I rember seeing some beautiful examples on this thread all the time. We will probably get a 2 rib roast. (It's for two people. Shouldn't two be enough with some leftovers? We were told two people per rib.) What should I do? How should I treat the meat even before getting it close to the oven. And then... what? I thank you for helping. HO HO HO ! Merry Christmas!!!

I'm confused. I could be reading this incorrectly. David, did you say that you try to buy Foster Farms chickens, not the free range or the organic, and then say that "The Tyson chickens often have small cuts in the breast skin from over-processing. And those small slits in the skin will dry out the breast meat during roasting." (I tried to add the quote from your post but couldn't remember what I did just yesterday, so I just did "copy" and "paste".)

I am just about sold on the Ronco model. There does not seem to be a "Fix It and Forget It" model. I have found models called "Showtime". Could the "Fix It" version just be an older model? Does anyone know if any of the newer models compare well to the one that you have? Has anyone done a roast, pork sounds like it would wonderful, with their rotisserie? I am hoping that spearing the meat would not make it lose its juices. I know not to turn things by stabbing them because I don't want the juices to run out. Is this the same idea?

I tried this once and it did not work. Here I go again. I am trying to copy something that someone else posted and add a question. Tonight: the mushroom barley meatball soup out of November's "Food and Wine". I have a couple of tweaks I'd like to make, and I garnished with some of the leftover grated parmesan instead of sour cream, but this recipe is definitely a keeper. Easy and tasty. I don't know if what I wanted to do worked. I'll find out when I press "Add Reply". If it did not work... I was trying to copy purplewiz's Mushroom Barley Meatball Soup from Food and Wine Magazine I have that recipe on the list of what to make over Winter Break. purplewiz, what "tweaks" were you talking about making? Thanks! Actually, if this did work this time, I am not really ahead of the game, because I am not sure what I did.