Kevin72

OK, in the interest of furthering the cotechino thread and certainly not, NOT because I've just figured out how to post pictures and am having too much fun to stop, here's our Cotechino and lentil feast from last week.

Looks like it worked!!! On the left, the meat item is a modification of cevapcici (guess Alberto's suggestion buried itself in my mind). Cevapcici are a grilled, skewered sausage item made of lamb, pork, beef, and I added nutmeg, ground clove, and ginger (recipe called for mace and I didn't have any on-hand). The dipping sauce right above them is salsa di yogurt e aneto--yogurt-dill sauce for dipping the meat in (though my wife said it was good in the potato dish as well). To the right is potato goulash--potatoes, onions, green peppers simmered with tomato paste and ample amounts of paprika. I was a little disappointed in the spicing of the sausages--the exotic flavors didn't come through enough. But everything else was tasty. With it we drank a Hungarian red called Bull's Blood; I figured it would go better with the more overtly Hungarian flavors of the meal.

All right, let's try it. This is Saturday night's meal.

KatiaandRonald: Sicily will be up sometime in the summer (that's right folks I've already mapped out most of the year!) Alberto: Ore's thread talks a little about handling eels--apparently they suffocate them in vinegar. The other method is to nail their head to a board, and skin them alive. Not sure why but that's repeatedly come up in a number of books that mention cooking eel. I'm going to try posting first pics of a meal next. I apologize in advance if I somehow crash the site in my ineptitude.

Alot of the recipes I've seen for sqash or pumpking gnocchi warn that they (the squash or pumpkins) can have a high water content and that you should drain them for a while after cooking. If that was your first time making gnocchi, please don't give up yet! They are hard to get just right but when you do, man is it worth it! Edited to add: Actually, coincidentally, the first two times I made gnocchi were some of the worst dishes! In fact they turned out exactly like you said: flavorless, pasty lumps that had to be drowned in sauce to taste good.

No, worst as in horrible, not bad for you or guilty pleasure kinda thing. Can't see how you'd go wrong with the nacho lasagna myself!

All right, I can't believe this hasn't already been done here, but I did a number of searches and didn't come up with anything. Still, feel free to merge this topic if I'm just a search engine dolt. What are the worst dishes you've ever made? Maybe this is along the lines of the "I will never again . . ." thread since most of our worst dishes come from a mistake somewhere along the line (right? ). My top three, no order: Fennel and Broccoli Rabe Soup My first experience using broccoli rabe. I wanted to make a double batch so just double the broccoli rabe, right? WRONG! Insanely bitter. Dumped the whole thing after two bites. Looking back though I can't see how that soup is supposed to work, though. The Horseradish soup mentioned in the Horseradish thread. Again, too much of a key ingredient. Squid ink risotto All together now: too much of the main ingredient. This was just oozing the ink everywhere, gave it a tarry consistency. At any rate, all three of these were so bad that I'm not sure I can ever even attempt them again without dredging up unpleasant memories. Really the only one I'd want to try again is the risotto but I don't think the wife would go along. Fortunately, I've not yet >furiously searches for some wood to knock on< had a dish go massively wrong for a large crowd or dinner party. Step up to the mic!

Alberto: I'd imagine controversy #1 will be what regions get left out, with 12 months and 21 regions. First consideration in what stays or goes is what info I have on-hand or know is out there. I know Piemonte and Lombardia are well-thought of on this board but neither have made the initial cut. Though I am strongly considering Piemonte as a holdover for next January. I've only seen one cookbook on Piemonte and it was braise after braise after braise. I may cheat a little and do combos of two regions, though: for example I'm considering a Calabria/Basilicata combo for one of the summer months, though again neither have been given much in-depth attention in the cookbook world. For your recommended dishes: Jota is definitely on the menu in the next few weeks, though it will be heavily tweaked (I'll save that debate for when I cook it though! ). Hopefully it will get cold enough here to really hit the spot, though it's entirely likely it will be served with the pleasant hum of the AC in the background I made a brodetto-like soup for New Year's eve at my parents. My understanding of the Trieste version of brodetto is that it must include eel, though, correct? That's not so readily available, and I'm not so sure I'm willing to go through what you're supposed to when you do get them. Gubana should show up at some point. I made it a few years ago and liked it. Plotkin's writeup on the grilled meats is definitely intriguing and I may try them as well. Interestingly enough I read that chapter and then went to a place here in Dallas that serves Pizza and Croatian food (long story), but both of the items you mentioned were on the menu!

A) and B) I live in Plano, TX. Luckily I live within 10 minutes of a Whole Foods and a Central Market, so ingredient-wise, I don't think I'll be too put off. C) I don't have the book handy, but from what I recall, you place everything (liquid, aromatics, meat) in the pot at once, bring to a simmer, and cook the liquid completely away, even to the point where the meat and aromatics glaze and brown in the residual sugars left in the pot. Garnish with horseradish and serve over polenta. This was the standout dish of the whole cookbook; it blew my mind, too, when I first read it. It's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the book. D). As luck would have it we did get a digital camera for Christmas. We're still figuring it out but I'll try and get pics up here when I can!

Ore: Just want to add another rave for this thread, and I regret that I hadn't jumped in sooner. Great pics, write-ups, analysis, everything! I learned alot and am insanely jealous. You should keep all this info handy, I think it'd make for a unique book one day.

This is more a knock on my own cooking skills, but I made this soup a few years ago and it was one of the worst things I've ever made. I added too much horseradish and/or cooked it too long maybe? It was harsh and bitter and the whole apartment took on the smell. In fact warming it up the next day I just gagged and threw it out. Is there something to be careful about when cooking horseradish? Does too much or too long cooking make it bitter? I've got a whole fresh root in my fridge and a few ideas about what to do but I'm wary after that last incident.

Oooh, that's what I'm hoping for! And geeky or nerdy was a tossup for me.

Well, the first one is to get my wife to like lamb. But the one I'm referring to is that I've decided that I'm going to devote each month of the year to only cooking from one region of Italy. This mostly applies to dinners and occasionally lunches (i.e., soups and such). There are some exceptions here and there, but I'm going to try to stick to it as much as possible. Couple this with trying to do the typical seafood and vegetable-only Lent and I think I've laid down a little challenge for myself! My cookbook library is almost 90% Italian with several regional-specific books in there as well, as well as a host of old Molto Mario's I've taped, so I'm doing well in the reference department. So first up is Friuli-Venezia-Giulia. Chief references are the MM tapes, Plotkin's Terra Fortunata (a Christmas gift), and various Friuli chapters in other cookbooks. I haven't been able to stick exclusively to it thus far as we've had Holiday leftover meals. But here's what I've managed to make so far: >An "antipasto" meal mostly from Plotkin's book of radicchio and prosciutto "wallets", broiled scallops with horseradish, and crostini with an apple, ricotta, and chive spread. >Chestnut, potato, and cabbage soup >Musetto with vinegar and polenta: Musetto is a sausage product made largely of the face and particularly snout of a pig. Everything I've read says that its closest resemblance is cotechino, which I just *happen* to have sitting around! Sliced up the leftover cotechino, seared them in a pan, deglazed with red wine vinegar. I dry-toasted some polenta in a pan first and then made it in the usual method (I seem to only be able to find instant, not that I'm complaining). This weekend I'm doing a lamb and horseradish dish "braised backwards" from Darrow and Maresca's Tavola Italiana book. Accompanying it will either be pappardelle or gnocchi with poppyseeds, Montasio cheese, and Prosciutto San Daniele, and sweet and sour beets. I haven't decided what the other night's dish will be yet. So, thoughts? Recommendations? Is this worth keeping a running commentary on here? Edit: Has anybody ever done this? Do you generally stick to one "region" of Italian cooking, or ever cook meals entirely from one area? Any favorite or intriguing regions of Italy you'd like to know more about?

I'd echo the comments in this thread to just go to the nearest piazza and have a capuccino or espresso and a pastry of some kind. It enhances the experience of being there, gets you more into the local lifestyle, etc. All the places I stayed at that advertised having "breakfast" laid out a spread of breads and jams and coffee. Plus, a light initial breakfast gives you an excuse to pop into ANOTHER bar for a midmorning snack! Alberto, one of the most memorable breakfasts I ever had was in Innsbruck (sp?) Germany. It was my first Europe trip and this was the one hotel we stayed at that served breakfast. It was in the pastry/coffee vein, but it was of amazing quality. And homemade jam . . . and tea so dark and thick that I thought it was coffee for a while . . . .

They just keep pouring gas on that lawsuit fire don't they? Anyways, haven't been to any, unfortunately.

Hell, do the Good Co. triumvirate and hit the Taqueria next door and the BBQ/Hall of Fame across the street. Though I was disappointed last time I went to the barbecue place . . . they used to hold my coveted Best Barbecue crown. Too touristy of me?

Is it just a sign of how few letters they get, or how bad the letters are, that this is what makes it into their pages? Why don't they at least have an editor's response clearing this issue up?

The problem is that, much as Busboy was talking about above, if you watch MTV2 now, they still don't show music videos! When it started it was much more video-driven and showed a lot more cutting edge music, but now it's pretty much just runoff from MTV: recycling old shows from its past. So even if an FTV2 were to start it probably wouldn't be too long before it got swallowed up by the Scripps Marketing machine and turned into an all-Unwrapped channel.

This is the Christmas where we officially outgrew our rather spacious kitchen. Got a number of serving platters, bowls, and utensils, so now they are jammed and stacked haphazardly in whatever cabinet space we can find. Any more and we'll have to >shudder< clean out our closets and use them for extra storage space.

Central Market's actually pretty good about having bones and scraps available in their refrigerated case. Though come to think of it its usually only beef, I've never looked for veal.

Not to defend FTV for even a second, but programming about French cooking and cuisine has been a gaping hole in their programming for as long as I can remember.

I read that somewhere too which made all the sense in the world at the time as I looked over boxes and boxes of yet-to-be-eaten candy and cookies and a groaning freezer full of leftovers. It's more or less why I do it, no offense intended to the more religious-minded out there.

Great PSA on cotechino, Alberto! I still have the other one in my fridge. I was going to cook it up last night but after so many rich meals over the past week I just wasn't up for it. Later this week though I will be having it with lentils and drizzled with balsamic. I've served it to several friends now, many of them picky eaters, and yet they all agree that it's unique and one of the best sausages they've ever had. Next time I see them it's usually the first thing they bring up!

Thanks for the list! Sadly, I did rely on the wooden-box baccala this year. But next Holiday season, I'll definitely be digging this thread up again!

I chop the "heads" of the calamari up and mix them with breadcrumbs, garlic, oregano, and parsley. Sometimes I add a little anchovy in there too. The less breadcrumbs, the lighter it tastes, I think.