Chris Amirault

Welcome to this second anniversary eGullet Recipe Cook-Off! Click here for the Cook-Off index. A click on that index shows that, while the Cook-Offs have ventured throughout the globe, but they've never stopped in Africa. One could say we've passed through -- gumbo, for example, is widely acknowledged to have roots in Africa, among other places. So, for the first Cook-Off rooted in African cuisine, we'll be cooking up mafé, otherwise known as peanut or groundnut stew. Mafé is a traditional west African dish that can be found in the kitchens of Senegal and Mali. It's often served with a starch of some sort (rice, most often) to soak up the nutty stew juices, or, alternately, the starch is part of the stew itself, resulting in a drier braise. While there are a few mentions of mafé in eG Forums, there are no discussions of actually preparing it that I can find except this brief post by yours truly. There are a few recipes elsewhere, including this stew-like one and this more braise-y one, both of which are from the Food Network. Mafé is a forgiving cold-weather dish, and one that, like most stews, benefits from reheating (read: swell as leftovers). I'm convinced that mafé is one of the great one-pot dishes in global cuisine, built on a solid base of sautéed onions, peanut-thickened stock, and hearty meat. Like other classics such as gumbo, cassoulet, and bibimbap, it affords tremendous variation within those guides; it would be hard to find very many vegetables that haven't made an appearance in a mafé pot somewhere, and there are lots of possibilities concerning herbs and spices. (I like to increase the heat quite a bit with cayenne, which I think plays off the silk of the nut oil just perfectly, for example.) Finally, it's a pleasant surprise if you've never had a savory peanut dish before, and kids in particular tend to think it is the bee's knees. The kitchen fills with a heady aroma -- browned onion, ground peanuts -- that's hard to describe and resist. So: who's up for mafé?

I'm planning to make cassoulet for New Years, and I'm gearing up. I've managed to wheedle the aforementioned cassole from Clay Coyote Pottery based on the one that Paula Wolfert has on the cover of Cooking of Southwest France from my folks for Christmas, and I've just ordered some flageolet beans from our own Rancho Gordo. I think I'm going to make some Toulouse sausages from CSW next weekend too, while I'm getting a few duck legs confiting. Phew. So a question. What are some other things to serve with this dish? I know, I know, a meal in itself, but I've got guests and don't want merely to slap down the cassoulet. Any salad ideas? Sides?

Erik, have you had chance to try the Sazerac 18 year old 2006? I've just grabbed a bottle -- an xmas gift from me to me -- that I'm dying to crack open; the salesman at my favorite wine and spirits shop was gaga.

Oven at 500F, lousy cookie sheet covered with chips, then pickled jalapeno slices, very finely minced red onion, some really good pinto beans cooked in bacon fat and a little onion, cooked chorizo, cumin, habanero hot sauce, and jack or cheddar cheese. Quick note: my Mexican-American grandmother-in-law who lives in Bisbee, Arizona prefers the nachos at Dairy Queen.

I think Katie's right: bourbon (or rye) would probably match up well. That would also open up the door for some interesting uses of bitters, Angostura or orange, probably. Burnt orange twist over that.... Interesting question!

Just made a fine Toronto Cocktail thanks to CocktailDB: 2 oz rye 1/4 oz Fernet Branca dash simple syrup dash bitters CocktailDB lists Angostura, but I used Peychaud's to good effect. In fact, I'm wondering if replacing the simple syrup with Cointreau and using orange bitters would work, given the happy brightness of the orange sitting atop the drink.

Can we establish the categories? Are we talking about a simple hard/soft wheat designation? Fineness of grind? Protein, gluten, and starch?

Are you asking about traditional Spanish tapas? Or, like, little plates of savory food?

How did the cannellini beans hold up?

Seaplane Diner in Providence, Modern Diner in Pawtucket, and Jiggers in East Greenwich -- all in RI.

Dave, great job so far. Two quick questions. Where do you get your boquerones? I'd be particularly glad to know of any mail order operations that you trust. Meanwhile: What kind of sauté pan is that?

I agree -- great job! Where in Europe are you, and where are you able to get those ingredients?

Finally got some time to settle into a daube tonight. I found some decent-looking angus chuck strips at Shaw's, and grabbed a couple of bottles of (unremarkable, sadly) shiraz on the way home. I was trying to come up with a shorter version since I was running a bit late; the increased heat (325F for most of it) and cooking without a recipe lead to a few slight missteps. The first several steps were pretty standard: brown the salted and peppered beef chunks in lard; remove and add onion to pick up the fond; add garlic, then celery, then carrot, then a cup of porcini soaking liquid, minced porcini, a orange's worth of peel sans pith, bay leaves, quatre epices, and salt; finally, half the bottle of shiraz (the rest would follow over the two and a half hours of braising) and into the oven with a crumpled parchment "lid." Here's the braising liquid: And the beef that I removed to set aside while I dealt with the sauce: Meanwhile, I turned up the heat in the oven to roast these wonderful little potatoes: Liquid pre-immersion blender: Sauce post-immersion blender (should've grabbed the orange peel): During the day when I was plotting, I had read through a few different recipes for this. I realized that, while I could appreciate Thomas Keller's version in Bouchon, the sense of refinement didn't appeal to me, so I didn't grab the chinois but instead when with the chunkier sauce. The potatoes were nearly done, so I assembled the beef with the potatoes: Then sauced the entire affair and back in the oven at 400F for about fifteen minutes while i finished up the brussel sprouts. The result: It turned out very good, not great. The meat definitely suffered from the hastiness that the evening required, and the orange flavor was far, far too pronounced, resulting in a strangely fruity tone. In addition, it lacked, not surprisingly, the real depth of flavor that a low-n-slow braise brings (and I wonder about Shaw's beef, I must say... ). However, this method -- starting the potatoes toward the end of the braise, turning up the oven after you pull the beef out, and then finishing both in a hot oven in final, sauced combination -- worked very well, and I can imagine trying something similar with roasted shallots, carrots, and the like in the future.

Initial impressions: So far, it's been performing as well as it looks. I really like the three settings for both the fan and the lights, and at the first two settings the fan really is remarkably quiet. Setting three brings up the volume a bit, but not to a roar -- and, honestly, if I'm doing something that requires that setting, it's probably making plenty of noise on its own. We've already noticed a difference in food odors on our second floor, I'll add, and the dishwasher-ready screens seem great. I think it's a swell addition.

First, C. Nuttall-Smith, welcome to eG Forums. I'd offer a few other possibilities. First, your sample is a bit flawed: there are dozens of topics on eG Forums that discuss this very subject in other contexts, filled with pretty compelling debates (for example, click) about the matter from many different members. If you check those out, I'm quite sure that you'll find that our members, on the whole, understand a good deal about how restaurants are reviewed. To that end, I'd urge you not to base your impressions of Society members on posts like this one, the source of the material apparently quoted in your magazine, particularly given that the member, who has three total posts, divulged a conflict of interest with Mr. McDonald a few posts down the topic. Veteran members of eG Forums know to ignore such "insights"; with a searchable public record, anyone can find out who's got the real skinny on what. As for what is and isn't obvious in re restaurant reviewing, let's face it: different reviewers approach the matter in different ways. Thanks for laying out yours, in which it appears that Toronto Life works hard to maintain a high level of ethics, and for that you deserve recognition. But we all know that such ethics are not the low bar over which many happily crawl.

Brooks, I half expected a reference to Dogfish Head in there. As it turns out, I'm attending a Dogfish Head dinner with Sam Calagione (founder) in a few weeks, and I'm hoping we'll get to try the 20% abv 120 Minute IPA, which I haven't had yet. Any reason they're not mentioned? I'm not very knowledgeable about beer, I admit, but their 90 Minute IPA is the standard house brew here, so I'm curious. Thanks.

I'm interested in hearing more about both of these, as pears and peas seem likely to be tricky to balance with sage and sausage/red wine, respectively.

Really? Erp. That makes mail order a bit risky. Has anyone else had this experience?

Ah -- got it! Thanks for clarifying. One of the reasons I'm attracted to this knife includes a heel that doesn't back directly into a bolster, which would make it a lot easier to sharpen right down to the heel. (For those still considering one of these, I'll just throw in one of my regular pitches for the Edge Pro sharpening system, which allows you to create back and primary bevels with confidence -- particularly if you use Chad's great eGCI course on knife sharpening. )

So no one sharpens it themselves? With, say, an Edge Pro?

I found Merle Ellis's Cutting-up in the Kitchen: The butcher's guide to saving money on meat and poultry at a yard sale and it's a hoot. It's got some useful information throughout, though it's a bit dated (published in 1975), and the illustrations are to die for. Here's Merle breaking down a side of beef wearing a plaid shirt and a paisley tie....

Bumping this up to see if anyone can report on the sharpening question. I used one of these a couple of weeks ago -- another lefty, too! -- and loved it.

As I type, two nice fellows are installing a Broan Allure range hood. It looks real purdy, but performance feedback will have to wait a while.

I see that no one has mentioned a Last Word.

Thanks -- I had just looked it up and was ready to make the edit!