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Chris Amirault

eGullet Society staff emeritus
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Everything posted by Chris Amirault

  1. Chris Amirault

    Meatballs

    Yep -- or stick it on a plate and toss it in the microwave for a few seconds. That's interesting, I do exactly the opposite as I consider meatballs to be in the sausage family. I mix everything very well when cold to create some sort of meat/fat emulsion. ← Not sure it's the opposite, just another point in the middle somewhere. I want the emulsion but not something the consistency of kielbasa.
  2. As a dog owner who recycles bags on walks -- ahem -- I can testify to the fact that produce bags are a poor choice if you're seeking to trap odors. Grocery bags and industrial-baker bread bags are basically impermeable.
  3. Makes sense. Some stuck and some didn't, and I admit to using a too-small pan and being less than attentive with the bugs....
  4. Bumping this (five-year-old!) topic up with this question. Got head-on gulf shrimp -- brown I think; previously frozen for sure -- from Whole Foods today, and made 'em for dinner. (Kind of an Indian "barbecue shrimp": leftover lobster butter used to saute some ginger, Thai roasted red pepper, and cumin; added the shrimp; removed them leaving the heads; quick sauce by mashing the heads, adding lime juice, and straining; cilantro. Yum.) They were terrific, but I kept the shells on for flavor until service and the damned things stuck to the flesh. That is to say: the problem wasn't that the shells were papery or too rigid; rather, the shells adhered to the flesh in such a way that peeling them off tore flesh off the shrimp itself. I have no idea why. Do you?
  5. I'm going to be in Miami Beach with a car for a week, and I'd be eager to hit any terrific liquor stores, particularly if they have a great rum selection. Any pointers?
  6. Thanks. Reservations for next week. Will post here.
  7. Chris Amirault

    Meatballs

    Another meatball-freezer here: let them cool on the pan (see below) and then into a FoodSaver bag with them. Like Maggie, I also now cook my meatballs on large, thick sheet pans in a very hot oven instead of on the stove. No oil, easy clean-up. My biggest meatball challenge is making sure that I've combined everything effectively without turning the meat into rubber balls from overwork.
  8. Is that true? Doesn't the bone conduct heat and make the interior meat cook more evenly?
  9. Lots of info above as well, including the tip of scoring the fat.
  10. Excellent is right. Wonder how it'd work with Regan's -- tasty, I bet.
  11. Just ordered two: $48 including shipping. Oh well: birthday gift. Do you need the asbestos mitts for these bad boys, or do the handles stay cool?
  12. Excellent: got each and every item, and the same desire to fit the Cruzan into a cocktail. There's tonight's drink.
  13. You illustrate my dilemma. Isn't anyone making them somewhere? I can by a Kold-Draft machine for my home but I can't find a wooden-handled Blue Blazer tankard? I thought we were in the midst of a cocktail revolution...
  14. I'm sick of seeing so-called "designer" kitchen equipment that costs a boatload and doesn't do the trick, and it's prompting this shout-out to unheralded designs that many of us take for granted. Hats off to Earl Tupper, who gave us Tupperware. We are nearly finished with a determined project to eliminate all junky food storage units from our house to be replaced with vintage Tupperware being tossed into donation bins by fools who don't know the stuff is perfectly shaped and will outlast the species -- all while refusing to retain the smell of the fish cakes you stored in it and forgot about last month. All hail the Ekco Kitchamajig, an ingenious tool that you can use for a variety of purposes and is so underappreciated that the Ekco Corporation doesn't even include it on its website. Screw Alessi. What are the unsung design heroes in your kitchen?
  15. Bumping this up in the hopes that, over the next many months, I can find me some decent options for Blue Blazer mugs. Any thoughts on what to use and where to find two?
  16. Yes: not sink-bad, but I wants me scotch in a B&S. Bought a bottle of Maker's Mark for a visiting friend who likes it neat, and the Goodnight, Irene (2 bourbon:1 Branca Menta) I made with it was without character. That drink needs the punch of a bigger, higher proof bourbon to work. Now I'm wondering what to do with the MM...
  17. Boston Shaker's Adam Lantheaume and I were corresponding about just this thing today:
  18. I was talking to Sarah Hart, who sells her Alma chocolates at the Portland OR farmers market about this very thing. Give her a call: from our conversation, I can say she's both very friendly and does one hell of a business there.
  19. Duck press was squishing live lobster heads? Not that there's anything wrong with that.
  20. To show you're not a dope but recognize different practices among kitchens, if given an instruction that's unclear to you, state your understanding and then ask if it's accurate. "Chef, I usually do mirepoix in a 1:1:1 ratio by weight. Does that sound right?" is a lot better than "Chef, what's a mirepoix?"
  21. No patent claim here, either -- hence the "riff." But I think that this is more tasty than Alize and vodka, hence the name.
  22. No gas here. I want the smoke off the coals if I'm going to the trouble of grilling the damned thing.
  23. On the drive home, I started thinking about associations I have with ginger, which drew me to an apple, cranberry, and ginger compote I often make at Thanksgiving. No real cranberry flavors available at home, but I thought pomegranate might work. That lead to applejack, and that lead to this riff on a Jack Rose (with apologies to the fine people at the Alize corporation, who seem to have a libation with the same name). Ginger Rose Cocktail 2 1/2 oz applejack (Laird's BIB) 1/2 oz lemon 2 t ginger syrup 2 t grenadine dash Angostura Shake, fine strain, garnish with lemon and candied ginger.
  24. My ideal grilled pizza (perhaps unreasonable -- click here and you be the judge) is extremely thin, with far fewer toppings on them than shown so far in this topic. I haven't made grilled pizza at home in years and years, dating back to when someone left my cast-iron grate out in the rain and it rusted. That thing was PERFECT for grilled pizza.... But I digress. I think that a handful of items is best, most importantly including cheese that will melt quickly in the intense heat, and that dough rolled out to nearly transparent thinness is essential. Might have to fire up the grill later this summer and try to rekindle an old love....
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