Chris Amirault

I've never been, so I think we'll need a full report, Bob!

Was it just plain kosher salt? Or...?

For burgers and sausages on the grill this weekend, I made some quick refrigerator pickles and a red cabbage slaw that is a reconstructed version of a side dish at Al Forno here in Providence: blanch some thinly sliced red cabbage in boiling salted water for three or four minutes and then cool it in ice water; squeeze out all of the water from the cabbage in a clean towel, then add a few Ts of olive oil, a few Ts of vinegar (a combination of cider, rice, and raspberry works well), some salt, sugar, and some black and white pepper. The vinegar turns the cabbage a neon purple color, and the slaw gets better over the next few days in the fridge.

Great story so far! I'm in suspense! Meanwhile, I do hope that you'll write a note to the folks at the Wok Shop about your bad encounter. From my reading about the people who run the place, I think they'd want to know about your experience.

I think the word you're looking for is "good" -- "not so good."

I seem to remember a remarkably fine, slightly greasy crumb....

I've only used arborio and find that hitting that al dente/creamy balance can be tough. Does the carnaroli help? Also, is the freshness of the rice important? I'd expect so from my understanding of other kinds of rice (jasmine, basmati), but I'm not too sure.

What kind of rice have people been using?

trillium makes a lot of sense to me. I have a 49K BTU Patio Wok set-up (and the wok rests wonderfully in it, I will add), and I cannot imagine turning it all the way up. It is vastly more heat than I ever use save for deep frying or boiling water. As for BTUs, I did a search and found this great post by project, which helped me understand a bit more about the British thermal unit.

Makes sense to me. I do think that doing the 80/20 meat-to-fat ratio for chicken is important, given that the meat itself has no marbling, unlike pork and beef. I've noticed that too. Try it out and let us know.

I took another crack at the hot Italian sausages in the book this weekend. The recipe turned out great (I stuck to it save for substituting red wine for the vinegar), but I'm posting mainly because I started asking more questions about those tricky emulsions. Here is my tale.... I scored a Niman Ranch (do you pronounce it with a long "e" or a long "i," btw?) butt at Whole Foods, where I also grabbed a length of casings. A few things went very well: soaking the casings in warm water for an hour and keeping them wet while I was stuffing was particularly useful, and I put the KA mixer on a low table instead of the counter, which made stuffing far easier. Most importantly for this post, I took temperatures throughout the process, and after I had ground the meat and seasonings, the meat was at 43F, three degrees over the book's threshold. I got a little nervous, but forged onward, sticking the bowl into the freezer until the meat was well below 35F. I then paddled it for over a minute with the frozen bowl and paddle, but just to be sure I added some finely crushed ice to the very cold red wine and the mixture stayed pretty cold (around 37ish) throughout. I then stuffed the emulsion into the casings with great care and calm for the first time since I started. You see, I've been very paranoid about getting the meat in the casings while cold. However, having hung the andouille at room temp for a while before smoking it, I started thinking that Michael's comment above is right: once the emulsion is set, it's ok for it to get above 40F or more. So my tentative conclusions were as follows. It's a good idea to keep the meat as cold as possible throughout the dicing, combining with seasonings, and grinding. However, this time around I was less diligent about keeping things cold through these stages (see above) -- but I was hellbent on leather to bring the ground meat way below 40F and keep it there in order to achieve the primary bind. Once I got the emulsion, I didn't worry so much about temps. That is all to say: I hypothesized that, while keeping things cold is a good goal throughout the process, one can get away with less-than-frigid temps here and there but NOT during the paddling to set the primary bind. I'm here to report that these sausages turned out fantastic, with just as good a texture as I've ever had. I got no fat leaking out, no crumb-like texture, none of the signs that the emulsion had broken. Quite the opposite: I and my guests agreed that they were excellent. (On a side note, they grilled up over some hardwood charcoal fantastically well.) The reason I'm going on (and on, and on...) about this is that real-life cooking requires me at times to find places where I can be a bit more relaxed. Shuttling things from the freezer to the cutting board to the freezer to the grinder to the freezer to the mixing bowl to the freezer to the stuffer can be a real PITA when I don't have three hours handy. If it is true that one can be a bit more relaxed leading up to and following the primary bind stage, then it would make things a lot easier. Phew. Ok. Thoughts?

I think that I'd like a bit more rapid control of the heat, which the Sitram will provide. The cast iron is, of course, less responsive.

Thanks for this tip, plattetude. I just read Gary Regan's wonderful Joy of Mixology and immediately ran out to get a bottle of the Luxardo maraschino. This was a fantastic first drink to test it out.

Janet, I've always used my medium Le Creuset dutch oven for risotto, but I'm thinking about using my Sitram Profisserie chef's pan for the next batch. Shaya, that looks wonderful! What kind of mushrooms are those?

Well this is a fantastic tag-team! I'll be fascinated to read more of your comments, especially, John, about the BOH.

I'm a bit Seinfeld-ian about this: if I'm with someone who treats waitstaff poorly, I can never quite be their friend again. To me, abusing those who serve reveals a deep character flaw.

Cook-Off XXI: Risotto.

Every now and then since December 2004, a good number of us have been getting together at the eGullet Recipe Cook-Off. Click here for the Cook-Off index. For our twenty-first Cook-Off, we're making risotto. Up here in the northern hemisphere, it's a great time for risotto with spring vegetables arriving daily -- asparagus, morels -- and it's also time for the last few weeks of good lobster. But risotto is a great dish that allows for remarkable variation no matter the season. It's also a dish that relies upon some fundamentals (a fantastic stock pays great dividends) and that rewards tradition and experimentation both. Finally, for reasons that I've never quite understood, it tends to terrorize some first-timers -- which makes it perfect for the supportive atmosphere of the cook-offs. Thanks to Craig Camp's excellent Risotto Course and the Q&A that followed, we've already got a good base for our cook-off. In addition, you'll be able to read up on vegan risotto, vanilla risotto, the scientific issues related to risotto stirring (very complex reading, I warn you), and the different rices used. So get stirrin', folks!

We just polished off a large batch of andouille sausage and smoked turkey gumbo using the sausage and turkey I smoked (and documented over on the Charcuterie thread). No photos of the gumbo, unfortunately: ate it too fast.

Golly, gee, for all of the hand holding, I'm feeling pretty darned smart, because I stuck everything in the freezer last night (including the KA mixing bowl that I knew I'd be grinding into). And, did sharpen the blade using a plain old stone. ← Yep, that's where I've actually been storing my stuff. It goes into the freezer directly from the dishwasher, so it's always ready to go. =R= ← Saves valuable cupboard space, BTW. Tossed all sorts of odd freezer burned and unlabled things today to make room for a permanent freezer fixture! ← After all this curing and stuff and smoking, Ron and Susan, you've got freezer space?!?

For our Racilio Silvia we mail order espresso beans from Alterra Coffee in Milwaukee WI. They make beans that are, without question, the best we've ever used with Miss Silvia.

While folks are discussing them here, I thought I'd add a couple of thoughts about the KA grinder pieces. It's really worth sticking every piece into the freezer for a good while to chill them fully. I also found that sharpening the grinding blade makes a big difference: just run each edge of the wheel-like blade along a flat sharpening stone (I use the ones from my EdgePro system) several times.

Yikes! Now that's a deal, Chris. Is there a website? Toll-free phone number? ← Here's HomeGoods's website, but it doesn't provide on-line ordering. You can find stores in your area, though -- and there are a few in Texas, Ricardo.

Great job, Susan! I second Ron's request for the recipe. I'll be interested in particular how you feel about the fat ratio.

I love the Profisserie line that I got through the mail from Bridge on a sweet deal -- and then I found the same package at HomeGoods for $99, which I bought for my parents who also love it. Click here for the discussion uptopic.