Chris Amirault

They don't just look thickly coated; were they also rolled in panko?

Great piece, Maggie, as always. Your pie reminds me of rappie pie, an Acadian dish that my dad's family from Nova Scotia makes at family gatherings. (Click here for a brief discussion.) Unfortunately, I've tended to have them during summertime reunions, when they're not exactly picnic fare. Your piece encourages me to try out your tourtiere and, perhaps, even a version of rappie pie, when it's brutally cold outside.

What instructions have you received? I've heard that you should grind in salt and/or rice.

Probably the safest meal you'd be likely to have all year.

You can go either way. However, if you're short on duck fat and are planning on adding the confit to cassoulet (as opposed to crisping the skin up in a saute pan to serve with something else), you'll probably want to skin the ducks first. This brings me to a little tip that someone (Paula?) mentioned somewhere and that I tweaked. If you pull off all the fat and skin from your ducks (I didn't skin the breasts -- duck ham) and then grind it up in a food processor with 1/2-1 c of water, you can easily render that skin and fat very quickly in a 200F oven. No cracklings, but the maximum amount of duck fat rendered, I think.

Those are two great ideas. I'm definitely going for the seasoned salt (with perhaps a bit of the tangerine rind ground in). I fear that the little sweet shrimp may be overwhelmed by the oil, but I'll give it a try to see.

Some brief experiment results. Carefully peeled orange zest, sliced into thin laces, is pliable enough to wrap the lop yuk bundles. The cryovacked water chestnuts were awful, bitter and slightly fermented. Prunes only, it seems. In addition, the lop yuk isn't as salty as I had expected. So I'm leaning toward stuffing the prunes with slivers dried tangerine rind, wrapping them with the lop yuk, and dusting them with some sort of powdered salt -- perhaps some five spice and a bit of ground tangerine rind. Then the orange rind laces.

Elie, I went with a modified version of the Toulouse sausages in Paula Wolfert's book (I had a fatty Niman Ranch butt to use) and spiced it primarily with quatre epices and extra white pepper (no thyme this time). BRM, I have bought casings from WF, but lately I've been using a salt-packed bag from Butcher Packer (see link up-topic) for months and am nowhere near done! I'd take the plunge and order from BP.

RI: Gasbarro's on Atwells Ave in Providence; Town Wine & Spirits on Newport Ave in East Providence; Joyal's Liquors on 117 in West Warwick. Click for a bit more information.

Did a little more research (thanks, Jack) and then went out to Joyal's Liquors (thanks, again, Jack -- and click here for a discussion), where I bought the E. Guigal Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2000 and the Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Herrenweg de Turckheim 2003, both a bit out of my price range so I only got a bottle each. Given the drinking habits of my guests, that should work: two small glasses for each of four people (the fifth is nine years old) per bottle. On the way back, I stopped at the Chinese market and got some cryovacked water chestnuts and a king oyster/royal trumpet mushroom from last week's delivery to do a bit of experimenting. If the water chestnuts are good (always a dicey proposition even when fresh), I'll do the aromatic lop yuk wrap with one of those and the plain lop yuk wrap with the prune. Still thinking about trying out those orange rind ties.

Thanks to jackal10 and oxfordwineroom.com, I found a new place that is amazing: Joyal's Liquors in West Warwick. It's about a two minute drive from exit 10B off 95S (west on 117, a bit past Rt. 2; just follow the signs for 117 west and look for it on the right just after a little bridge). A massive scotch (bigger than Town, for sure), bourbon, rye, and rum selection, plus a surprisingly great wine selection hidden in odd, ugly metal racks. I found everything I needed for my up-coming Christmas dinner there. I'll be back, over and over. edited to clarify directions -- ca

Thanks -- and I think the egg shell glass idea has been left behind with the move of the cocktail.

Next draft of courses: Starting cocktail: Red Hook Amuse 1: Lop yuk and asparagus/prune bundles Amuse 2: Maine shrimp, cucumber noodles, Thai gremolata Course 1: Mushroom noodle soup Course 2: Lobster tempura with arugula and two sauces Course 3: Ham and eggs with toast Course 4: Roasted Toulouse sausage, shallots, and grapes, mashed potatoes I'm drawn to the mi cuit prune idea, but I'm unlikely to find any out of the bag this week. Could I gently and partly reconstitute some prunes somehow? As for wine, I'm going to take Jack's ideas to my wine merchant for courses 1 and 2; I'm still hoping for ideas on 3 and 4. Might they also share? Made the sausages today.

Raves for the Grizzly can be found here. I have mine set up to stuff 3# of Toulouse sausages as soon as I get off eG Forums, in fact!

Thanks for the wine specifics, Jack. The shallots would play very nicely with the grapes, too.....

Yeah, that's the technique that's been driving me batty for over a year! I'm hellbent to get it right. Them's the ones! THANKS!!

Hi Jack -- thanks! Unfortunately, I can't do melon or oysters, both of which I prefer to the asparagus, due to diner restrictions. The prunes, however, are intriguing. They're a little too small for these shrimp, I'm afraid. I had worried about placement of this in re the lop yuk, yes. Perhaps I should swap this with the soup? And the cocktail works so perfectly I'm loathe to give it up. Perhaps it should just start the meal and lead into the first amuse, which would also work: the flavors in the Red Hook pick up on the cured pork and duck both.... Thanks. Any particular wine recommendations to hunt down? They're massive ceps, then, bigger than any ceps I've ever seen. Have you seen any like this, Jack? Excellent.... Poured at table: that's perfect. Great idea. I'm fearful of too much starch here at the end -- can't steal the fire from the house baker!

Thanks for the stack of ideas, Qwerty! It's true that there are some Asian techniques in there -- and a few flavors -- and stupid fusion makes me ralph. However, each of these decisions is motivated by a specific urge: with the shrimp, something that will accentuate the sweetness; the asparagus is intended to showcase the lop yuk; the lobster tempura isn't really an Asian dish in any way save the fry method, which seems best to provide some crunch but be sufficiently light (a beer batter, for example, would overpower just about everything). That is to say: this isn't merely an attempt to experiment and have fun. I really do want to have dishes that have integrity, a menu that progresses through textures and flavors, etc. So if there are components that seem jarringly fused, I'd be very interested to know what your specific concerns are! I had, and took a pass on it, since that would be a bit too much orange. Again, the idea here is to put the lop yuk at the forefront. That's why I'm not dressing the asparagus at all. Interesting idea, creating the plate with food somehow, but I don't think it'd work in this case. Since the shrimp are so delicate, I think that a fried wonton skin would threaten to overpower them. (Actually, given your concerns above, I was surprised to see a wonton skin suggestion!) Great ideas. I definitely want the maple flavor in there, and your idea about making a candy on the nuts would work very well. Letting the yolk be the sauce is also smart -- I mean, it's gonna be unless I screw up. Two textures is a good thought. I'm not sure what you mean by "sandwiched": can you say more? Just to hold its shape in the fryer. It won't be skewered on the plate; sorry I wasn't clear. Another great idea -- one that picks up on the lettuce for a lobster roll, btw. I'm a bit concerned about having too much oil on this plate, though, so the dressing would be tricky; perhaps the arugula can be undressed with enough of the two sauces that they can be used by each diner to dress the salad? You've got it right there. The method I use for getting meat in chunks is just to kill the lobsters and patiently pry it out while grimacing as the meat twitches. But to get it out whole I use this boiling water trick. I wondered about that, too. I think in terms of flavor and wine progression it fits there, but, of course, in a traditionally coursed meal it should come earlier. Not sure.... My better half is the baker in the house. I may do a sorbet at meal's end, or she may, but, in any case, dessert is when I get to collapse!

Thanks Susan. I'll fiddle with the cucumber idea below, but I think I can get the crunch from the noodles pretty easily. Not surprised you agree about the duck fat.

Thanks Shalmanese. No immersion circulator, I'm afraid. Since this is an amuse (and since these two amuses are already two bites instead of one bite each), I want to keep the dish simple. I'm also already afraid that this is going to be egg-centric! Cucumber noodles are a great idea, and I can salt, drain, and squeeze them to get that pickly crunch and a bit of added salt. The trick here is going to be what, if any, flavors to impart on the cucumber. I'm leaning toward staying out of the way of those sweet shrimp.... Fried in duck fat: oh yes.... If this is the post you were thinking of, then I believe Bryan's technique is for getting sous vide eggs out of their shell. This is a bit different, I think: I want to retain the shape of the shell below about a 1/2" cap.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

If you can resist eating them first, yep.

Due to the arrangements by which my household operates, I am forbidden from doing any tinkering with the basic elements of our Thanksgiving meal. Due to my decision that it may be the most wonderful food on the planet, I have decided that cassoulet must be made every New Years Day. This leaves me with Christmas dinner as the one winter holiday meal with which I can fiddle around extensively. I've been working on the menu for a few weeks now, and I'm settling into the arrangement below. I'll be serving only five diners, so I can do quite a bit without worrying about getting trapped in the kitchen for hours between courses. I'm hoping to get some feedback here on basically any aspect of the meal, but especially including plating, wines, and tweaks to the courses. I've already gotten some great help -- thank you, Dave the Cook -- but need more. A lot more, I think. ******** Amuse 1: Lop yuk and asparagus bundles I had hoped to go for a rumaki revision here using the lop yuk I've been curing, but I can't get a solid source on fresh water chestnuts and refuse to use the canned crap. (In case you've never had fresh water chestnuts, be warned: you can't go back to cans ever again.) So, instead, a take on prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, with black and white sesame seeds for both visual and flavor contrasts. No beverage here. Two questions right now. First, do I need any acid in there? The second is more complicated. I'm imagining using about three, 3-4" asparagus spears on each plate, wrapped with a 2" paper-thin (thank you, Hobart slicer) piece of lop yuk. Functionally, I think they'll hold together fine that way, but visually I'm thinking that a long strand of orange peel would make a nice accent, picking up on the dried orange peel in the curing spices of the lop yuk and adding some contrasting color. However, I can't quite figure out how to prepare the peel to tie it in a knot or bow. Does any one have any experience with this? I may have to do some experimenting with raw, blanched, even pickled orange rind. Amuse 2: Maine shrimp, cucumber, Thai gremolata Every year at this time, johnnyd sends a clarion call throughout eG Forums that Maine shrimp are here, and our local Whole Foods has started carrying the little gems. Preparation for the shrimp is going to be very simple -- a quick douse in boiling water -- but I'm not sure if that water should be at all seasoned; I'm tempted to say "No" to stay out of the way of the sweet shrimp. The "gremolata" in this case is going to consist of minced kaffir lime leaf, shallot, white pepper, and thai basil; the layering is a cucumber slice, shrimp, gremolata, and a few grains of alaea salt on top for saline and contrast. No beverage here, either; everyone gets two. My question involves plating. I can certainly stick them on small plates, but that seems lonely, don't you think? I can also serve them in some shallow Japanese bowls that would fit single items, but I have only five of those bowls and they're pretty wee: each cucumber slice would be jammed in there. I suppose I could go buy some small plates, but I'd like to avoid that purchase that if I can. So: creative thoughts on serving these? Course 1: Ham and eggs with toast I've tried to resist this sort of amateurish copping of Thomas Keller's far more intelligent approach to revamping common classics, but, having tried out dry runs of this course with beverage, I actually think that this combination is going to work. Please cross your fingers for me. On a round toast base, a poached egg, duck ham, maple syrup, ground smoked almonds, and a thyme, salt, and black pepper sprinkle. On the plate next to that, an egg shell or small glass with Red Hook cocktails in each (1 oz Sazerac rye, 1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino, 1/4 oz Punt e Mes). Questions are legion. Should the ham be in thin whole slices or julienned for greater texture? I know I can poach the eggs beforehand, chill them, and reheat using Keller's own method in, I think, Bouchon, but are there other tricks? If I go with the egg shells for the drink, how do I cut the tops of the eggs off, and then how do I prop them up on the plate (bed of salt)? Finally, what sort of bread should go under there? I'm worried that brioche is too rich, Portuguese sweet bread too sweet, and other options a bit too toothy. Course 2: Lobster tempura with two sauces This is a less literal version of some of the elements of a Maine lobster roll: the fried tempura recalling the butter-sautéed roll, the first sauce (sieved egg, arbequina olive oil, sherry vinegar, sea salt, smoked paprika) playing on mayonnaise and the second (meyer lemon juice and zest, roasted garlic, black pepper, sea salt) a tweaked lemon spritz. I'm thinking of skewering raw lobster meat (claws and tails, primarily -- the rest is cook's bounty), preparing a basic tempura batter, deep-frying it a la minute, and serving on plates with the two sauces on either side. This is where the wine questions come in. For family reasons, I'm thinking that a sancerre might be very nice (there are sancerre fans in the house), but I would love other suggestions in the $15/bottle range. In addition, I'm having a hard time thinking though the preparation and plating sieved egg "sauce", so any ideas there would be helpful. Finally, if anyone has ever fried lobster before, chime in. I'm already afraid of overcooking it. Course 3: Mushroom noodle soup This course is driven by two happy shopping finds. The first is some dried porcini at the Dekalb Farmers Market while in Atlanta, which enable me to include a porcini soup on the menu, something I really enjoy. The base recipe I think I'm going to try, from Joey's in Seattle, appears in the current (12/06) edition of Gourmet (p. 42). I'm intrigued because it calls for grinding the porcini into a powder; I'm moving away from the tarragon and Mexican oregano in that recipe toward rosemary, probably as an oil, and think I may get rid of the cream. The other find involves unnamed cylindrical mushrooms from my local Chinese market that are about 3" in diameter and about 6-8" long. I'd love to know the name of these things and can't find anyone or anything that knows; if you have a clue (photos to aid soon), please do share it. These mushrooms have a remarkably firm texture when cooked, and I've been experimenting with cutting them into long, thin "noodles." They'll be the base, and one of the challenges will be to see how thin I can get them. I'll probably poach them in the same chicken stock I'll use as the base for the soup, chill them until serving, and then rewarm them just before plating. Question: if I deep-six the cream, do I need to worry about the oil sinking into the soup? That may not be a problem, depending on plating: I've been thinking of serving a high mound of "noodles" on a quarter-cup of soup in the center of a flat soup bowl and then ladling the soup around the mound, in which case I could just drizzle the oil on the noodles sticking up out of the soup. Also, I've no idea what a good wine would be with this course. I'm imagining a light red, but not sure what. Course 4: Roasted Toulouse sausage and grapes, mashed potatoes This is a dish that George Germon and Johanne Killeen made famous at Al Forno here in Providence. I wanted a meat-and-potatoes dish for one of the guests, and since last year I served Paula Wolfert's astonishing Gascony daube of beef, I thought this year I'd go for pork instead. I'll still be using Wolfert, as it turns out: these sausages are based on her recipe in Cooking of Southwest France and tweaked thanks to my learning this year in the charcuterie topic and the sausage cook-off. I've made this a few times in the past, so the trick here will be getting the sausages right (I've got the meat getting ready for grinding tomorrow in the fridge) and wrenching my albatross from around my neck: mashed potatoes. I'm imagining a Cotes du Rhone with this, but, again, don't have much of a sense of particular wines. ******** So that's the plan for now, anyway. Thanks in advance for any thoughts, warnings, tips, or advice.

Cut it into 1" wide strips. You can always go back and dice it later if you want to keep it in.

I'm leaning toward a frisee salad and fried egg with lardon -- a stand-by that I can pull off without too much extra effort. And I decided I couldn't break the bank for the tarbais beans, so got some flageolet beans from Steve at Rancho Gordo. I admit to a twinge of envy, however. ETA: Just put up the diced pork, some homemade bacon, garlic, quatre epices, etc. for the slightly tweaked Toulouse sausages.