Kevin72
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This should get lively.
For the most part I use Marcella Hazan's recipe from her Classic Italian Cookbook. I do like to use different meats than just beef, though, and typically have ground pork and pancetta.
what do you use for the sofritto?Carrot, Onion, Celery, and to be heretical, a couple cloves of garlic. I whiz them all up in the food processor so they basically dissolve into the sauce after all that cooking.
red or white wine?White, because it just blends in and adds acid notes. Red would just seem to call too much attention to itself.
do you use milk?Yes, I think it's one of the main differentiating factors of Ragu Bolognese. It balances out the acid notes of the tomatoes and wine and adds a rich and unctuous note to the sauce that you don't get otherwise. There also seems to be some difference of opinion on when the milk should be added. Hazan (and I) do it at the beginning but in The Splendid Table Lynne Rossetto Kasper does some at the beginning and then at the end (when it's added at the end it's cream, I believe).
when do you add salt?I do it in layers, so I salt the sofritto, then the meat (going easy if there's pancetta or prosciutto in the mix), then once the tomatoes are in. I do a final taste after it's reduced quite a bit to see what the salt level is.
do you use herbs?No. Along with short cooking times for a Bolognese, the thing that most curdles my blood in recipes is when they toss in basil or oregano or even rosemary and sage. At the most you do some parsely but I never do.
However, I do add spices: nutmeg and just a dash of cinnamon to give in that faint, can't place it, familiar flavor and aroma.
cooking time?Once the tomatoes are in, 3-4 hours minimum. I've experimented with tossing it in a very low oven overnight but I find that the meat gets too dried out that way.
To me Ragu Bolognese is a true example of the whole being more than the sum of its parts. And the secret to getting it that way is the longer cooking time. Less than a couple hours if you're using canned tomatoes and you get something that tastes like tomato sauce with hamburger in it. Something really magical happens though around the three hour mark of cooking when it's reduced enough.
lid or no lid?Uncovered, so it can reduce.
There's some other key differences I think you'll find if you haven't already in your research that may be worth asking about.
1) Canned tomatoes or tomato paste?
As you can see with muichoi above, there's quite a bit of difference of opintion on this one. I've experimented with both and find that I prefer canned tomatoes, but it almost seems like paste is more "traditional" or at least more widely used from the recipes I've seen. But I think that the canned tomatoes bring something else to the mix that tomato paste doesn't. But it's not a red sauce by any means, even with canned tomatoes: I cook and reduce the hell out of it to where it's a rusty brown at the end and the tomatoes haved completely broken down.
2) Browning the meat and aromatics or not:
That's another key difference I see. Again having done both I prefer Marcella's method where you don't brown either one. The meat is just cooked until it's lost its raw color. Mario and Kasper both brown the meat in its own fat that comes out.
3) Using broth or stock:
With tomato paste recipes the liquid of the sauce comes from stock or broth being added. With the canned tomatoes versions you don't really need it and again I prefer that way.
I think one thing that gets left out is how much cooking of the ingredients you initially do before you let it start simmering and reducing. The method I use is:
Butter and olive oil in a deep pan, let the foaming subside.
Add the soffritto and cook until the liquid of the soffritto (there will be quite a bit if it was zapped up in the food processor) cooks off.
Add the meat and spices and cook just to get the raw color out. I don't brown it.
Add the white wine and cook it almost completely away.
Add the milk and do the same.
Then the tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and then let it go. Total cooking time to this point is typically 45 minutes.
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Pretty even handed. He goes easy on his usual targets (Ray and Semi Homemade) and takes a few digs in unexpected places. I was surprised to see him come out and say it about On the Road Again.
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I found this outing to Vietnam to be surprisingly touching and melancholy. He's been talking about doing the year in Vietnam for a long time, before even No Res, and I get the sense that he worries it's slipping away or that moment has passed and he's losing that country he loved so.
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I am curious, and pardon me if someone asked this before, but I have only been on this site for a couple of weeks, but how did the original ICA chefs become Iron Chefs? Michael Symon had to compete for it, but how did the rest get the Iron Chef title? Did they beat the japanese guys? Also, do they really only have an hour? It seems to me that once they get the secret ingredient they know exactly what pantry items they want and all the chefs have a specific responsibility, so something must be discussed ahead. And, BTW, I am so with you on the judges they have on this show - a football player? The judges should all be food critics, chefs, etc, but not tv personalities or sports figures, etc.
When Iron Chef America launched there were a series of battles pitting the new FTV Iron Chefs against the Iron Chef Japan chefs. Being a Food Network show now, FTV picked Bobby Flay and Mario Batali as part of its original lineup (there wasn't any back story for the choices but they were both prominent professional chefs on the lineup at the time). Cat Cora came along later at mid season.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that they are really allowed an hour of hard cooking. But they are given a list of likely theme ingredients to prep a menu around. It seems to me like they can have some basic items up and running for the battle: water simmering, stock or broth premade, etc.
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New DMN critic Leslie Brenner's inaugural column is a new feature called Critic's Notebook and can be found online here. It's about, fittingly, fellow Californian Wolfgang Puck's new Five Sixty restaurant. In the column Brenner states that these Critic's Notebook features aren't a formal review; that will come later after the restaurant has a few more months under its belt.
She also takes the time to outline what she's looking for from restaurants in their service and food and outlines some of her philosophies on reviewing restaurants and where she'll be taking things. The star system stays and she will continue the practice of not doing half-stars.
Finally here's a transcript of her online chat, earlier today:
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The Mansion closes the Chef's Tasting Room
Nichols makes the valid point though that without a recognizable head chef at the moment, and given the current economic climate, it made sense. Hopefully it's only temporary (gives me something to shoot for!
)ETA: Two more tidbits, from Eats Blog:
More on the Tasting Room:: Chef's tastings still exist, and diners can eat in the Chef's Room, but the concept itself is on hold or is not part of their regular operations.
Also, an update on former Exec Chef John Tesar: He's heading to NYC to work with David Burke and Fishtail. Too bad for the local scene. I really would have liked to see where Tesar took things next if he stayed here.
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Yow.Za.
(Former) Dallas-ite Casey has some choice words about Carla and the editing of the finale for D Magazine's Side Dish blog:
Carla was not prepared and in over her head. The show did not talk about how the first course (crab) took her half of the friggin’ cooking time that day, I was left to work the rest of HER dishes.She also did not have a plan. The ONLY thing she had in mind was a cheese course! I would NEVER do a cheese course. And where in the hell did french come from!? She is not even classically trained! It (the show) didn’t talk about how I worked on a sauce for 2 days and Carla forgot to put it on the plate… It didn’t show how the 2nd course (fish) was MINE. It didn’t show how she took the sous vide idea and decided to GRILL it last minute causing it to be tough… And it didn’t show how she WANTED to do the souffles which she does not even know how to make! That was HER food, because it certainly was me asking her how she wanted to do this and that while she was busy picking crab the entire time and making a souffle that didn’t rise!
I am done with TC. I did not influence her. She has NO ideas of her own, oh, except a cheese course.
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Personally, I thought Stephanie deserved to win last season (or, at the very least, every bit as much as Richard did). I don't know Richard Blais and I have nothing against him. I'm sure he must be a very talented chef. And he seems like a downright nice guy too. But Blais has a very zealous following - one that I can't quite comprehend.
From whence this belief that everything he touches should turn to gold?
Speaking only for myself here, but I like Richard because, like Stephanie (who I also wanted to win last year), he's a professional, relatively drama free, and pretty damned skilled to boot. Of the three to pick from, Casey's main drawback is that she was uneven (the infamous onion incident), and Marcel's is that he could be a little too independent and egotistical, though yes, he acquitted himself well as a sous.
Plus there's some sentamentality over his loss last season: he went in a favorite and then very clearly choked, coming in behind even Lisa for that matchup. Had a new baby at home, etc. So I've always had a soft spot and was happy to see him get a chance to redeem himself.
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Fitting cap off to a progressively underwhelming season. There's just no compelling "story" to Hosea's win at all. He seemed to luck into it. I mean, given what happened to Stefan who had been losing his groove the past four eps and Carla's rather unforgivable sins, I don't object to the final judgment or feel anyone was robbed, but he was and still is my least favorite of the three competing. I only got marginally more interested in his prospects b/c he picked Blais.
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I have to know about what went on behind this. Granted it was probably shot alongside TC or even before, but Ariane just doesn't strike me as the one you want on your team in such a high pressure situation. And they had her butchering and prepping meat?!
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Hopefully this choice of Leah vs. Stephan might cause a slight revision in the "judge only on the dish" attitude, because as you point out OA, Stephan probably should have gone home under normal circumstances with those rules being what they are.
But it seems so clear that this was the right call. Leah was in every way an inferior chef and if she skated by this time she'd be right at the chopping block next week probably. Her heart clearly wasn't in it, she admits it, and her dishes were reflecting that.
I understand that the judge by that dish alone rule should probably be the general frame of reference and stuck to certainly early on in the season when there's alot of fat to cut. But as things wear on how can you not look at the chef's overall performance? Leah's mistakes seemed to speak to more to a lack of passion and even skill and she kept screwing up throughout the season. Stephan botched the dish but is there any doubt he wouldn't knock it out of the park if given a second chance?
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Yeah, I did the math and everything. And I was panicking for them. "So, do they have to have say, peas and squab in each course? Can peas count as one course and squab the next? They're going to have to be creative! This is a disaster!!!" Took me until they went to WF to figure it out.
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I am still waiting to see Colicchio's explanation. On the Bravo Blog, Toby says he thought that Hosea should go home, but was outvoted by Colicchio.
It seems to me that Colicchio has been itching to send Leah home since around the Xmas Party debacle when he barked her down in the stew room. He was pretty hard on her last week and it seems clear (with the caveat as always the show's editing) that he wanted her to go home over Jamie. So maybe he finally won out over everyone if that was the case.
While I thought last night was a good show, I thought one of the drawbacks was the requirement to produce a specific dish that the judges wanted, and it seemed like creativity was not rewarded (or maybe it was just poorly done) - ie Pepin's comment that this was not a Provencal tomato.I think it required probably probably a good gut check to think the nature of the challenge through. I've read alot of the last meals-type discussions particularly from Bourdain's angle and the thing that comes up over and over again is that people traditionally want comfort food done as best and traditionally as it possibly could be. They don't want a deconstructed roasted chicken sous vide with potato foam and a "salad" of crystallized vinaigrette with freeze-dried arugula powder. They want that exact dish cooked the way their mom made it.
Though I will say that both my wife and I thought, the way the challenge was explained, that each chef had to cook a 5 course meal around that request.
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It seems to me that one of the abiding complaints of season 3 (Hung, Tre, Casey, etc) and even to some extent season 4 was that the contestants were solid but the challenges left quite a bit to be desired: they progressed oddly, too many catering challenges, too many gimmick challenges too late in the season (the airline food ep being a particular standout).
Conversely I've liked the progression of challenges this season where they got most of the catering and gimmick challenges out of the way early on but it's become much more based on pure skill as the season progresses. Last night was stellar for a challenge. I hope they keep that one in rotation. Perfect and what a crop of judges. If only Bourdain were there . . . Unfortunately, however, the chefs this time haven't been quite up to it.
Anyways I totally thought Stephan was out the door, meaning 3 of my top 4 were eliminated in as many weeks. Maybe they bent the "judge on the challenge alone" but I'm glad they made the call that as a whole, Leah belonged nowhere near the final 4 especially at Stephan's expense.
Dammit all if Carla hasn't grown on me. Fabio's made it further than I ever thought he would. Get Hosea out of that final 4 and I'm content with any of the other three winning, with Stephan still being the odds-on fave to me.
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I guess I'm just a sucker for these goofball eps so I loved it all, like Claudia said: the grainy footage, the entendre-laden promos, the porn names, etc. I must have that deep fried pork and oyster thingie from Momofuku before I die (which, conversely, may be WHY I die if I ever eat it).
I just like that Tony's got enough clout to do these sort of eps and dig down deeper into why so many people love the show and that there's faith enough in the audience to put it on the air.
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The problem with Jamie's remarks for me was that, she's certainly free to not like the food or be overly impressed with it (but I find it hard to believe, given her own seafood-centric approach, she wouldn't see something exciting/interesting in the opportunity). There were just better ways to say it than, IIRC, "I was a little bored with it to be honest . . . ". Taken into context of her snotty attitude at times throughout the season, it was just too much.
Plus, it just rankles that someone who a) has shown a pretty narrow repetoire without backing it up (seasonal, seasonal, scallops) and b) spent the first part of the season regularly coming in second to Ariane really doesn't have much wriggle room to be bored by one of the best restaurants in the country.
This is completely independent of her elimination though. I still would rather have seen Leah go, but I really wouldn't have been pulling for Jamie much more in my hypothetical final matchup either.
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Speculation here, but I'd imagine this is the totally "raw" kind of cotechino more typically found in Italy and not widely available here. That kind cooks for a very long period of time (4 hours) vs. the precooked kind that's sold here, needing only an hour or so. Plus, I'd guess that the kind permitted for sale in the US has to have more preservatives in it.
Foodman makes his own from scratch so maybe he or J Molinari can offer some more precise explanation.
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Yeah. I'm officially on the hunt for his On the Line book now as well.
He's really a class act. Doesn't berate anyone's dishes or humiliate them but he's got enough clout and respect that you can tell it's devastating to alot of the chefs on TC if they don't impress him.
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Leah is rapidly turning into this season's Lisa: subpar talent who makes it frustratingly far due to the worst mistakes of others.
BTW, it's getting downright fun watching the ways Colicchio barely contains his disdain for Toby. The withering glances, the "it's not as easy as it looks" retort when Toby had a long speech about how poorly replicated a dish was, and then there was a wide shot of the judges' table when Toby was talking and Tom was leaned as far back and away from him as possible.
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Maybe Jaime was uninspired because there weren't any scallops.
Bwa-haha!
I thought it was a little rude of her; she was getting a meal at one of the top restaurants in the country and she can't wait to say how bored she was?
Still, two former top contenders (in my book at least) gone in as many weeks. I like Hosea less and less every episode, yet Carla's steadily winning me over. Weird final 5.
Now THAT'S an Elimination Prize!!!
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I TIVO'd the Chicago ep and haven't had a chance to watch it yet. We were really hoping he would go to Alinea; bummer that doesn't seem to have happened.
He name checked it, and then went to a similar type place but I forgot the name.
I forgot to mention how much I loved the L20 sequence and the discussion. That totally should be the blueprint for the roundtable show he attempted last fall. I'd watch that all day.
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Wow, impressive attempts on all. Splendid Table is an endlessly useful and fascinating book and I just keep going back to it time and again. I can never just get a recipe from there; I always get lost re-reading chapters and whole sections of the book over again. The pears and prosciutto are a favorite for me as well.
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Kevin, what a beauty she is. Wait until she realizes what an amazing cook her daddy is.
Oh, and the dinner looks fantastic too. I have some shanks in the fridge right now, it's one of my favorite meals to make.
Thanks! Let us know how your dish turns out.
As for the cooking and reheating questions asked, I'm not scientifically astute enough to answer these but I'm sure Chris and/or Samuel will probably chime in here shortly with some answers.
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations Seasons 1-5
in Food Media & Arts
Posted
If it's not online on the No Res site, I'm pretty sure it'd be in Rippert's new cookbook On the Line.