Chris Amirault

We have a CSA here in Rhode Island, and four weeks ago, instead of picking one of the usual herbs, I chose one I had never eaten, nor seen, nor heard of, which the folks there referred to as "papalo." (From the few mentions here, I understand that the full name is "papaloquelite.") They referred to it as a kind of "Mexican cilantro," which seemed a bit tautological -- and once I popped some in my mouth, I realized it was also reductive in the extreme. I loved it. While it has some of the profile of cilantro, it is more lemony and practically floral. We sauteed some salmon massaged in Reed Hearon's chipotle rub, threw in some chopped spring onions into the pan after the fish was done, and tossed the onions off heat with shredded papalo and a bit of lime to sit alongside the fish: it was great. Unfortunately, it turns out that a cabal of ding-a-lings phoned the CSA and basically demanded that they tear it up and plant basil. So, no more papalo from them for this year -- but I'm hunting for more. The nice folks at Cornell have a great papalo pdf here, and here's a good website on the herb. (Gourmetsleuth.com, on the other hand, has what looks like an incorrect image on their site.) So: ideas? recipes? seeds? sources? lore?

Three more: Rick Bayless's Authentic Mexican, Paul Bertholli's Cooking by Hand, and Lynne Rossetto Kasper's Splendid Table, all on supercheap remainder -- which just goes to show you that the world is a wacky, upside-down sort of place, don't cha think?

AmyKay, believe the hype: there is nothing, absolutely nothing, like walking from a cold, wintry outside into a warm, cozy inside in which there's a roast chicken, or bread, or frittata in the oven.

Made a salade nicoise last night -- no pix, sorry; the digital camera batteries ran out -- and it raised an interesting point. In a few descriptions of salads, particularly the Larousse Gastronomique, there are firm statements about the need for dressings not to overpower ingredients. Last night's vinaigrette was simple enough (EVOO, rice wine vinegar, garlic pounded with salt, little dijon mustard, some pepper), and it was perfect for the really strong ingredients: we have a wonderful Portuguese tuna, some great green beans, excellent eggs, and some good provencal olives. But a composed salad really brings out the worst in lousy ingredients: the mediocre gaeta (couldn't get good nicoise, of course) were overpoweringly bad; the anchovy fillets were just fishy salt and nothing else; the potatoes were ok, but only with plenty of dressing slathered on them. On those eggs, Shirley Corriher's method -- full boil for 30 seconds; cover for 15 minutes; rinse in cold water for 5 -- is perfect.

Brainteaser: Molded lemon Jello with marshmallows, mandarine orange sections, and baby shrimp: composed salad? Diced aspic with cornichons and duck confit: composed salad?

A friend just lost her sense of smell because of a brain tumor (she's not in danger of dying, I will add), and there are things that she cannot taste at all, some that are lessened, and others that have not changed a whit. Wine is apparently impossible to drink, as she gets merely the alcohol; citrus fruits explode in her mouth without the forenose of aroma. [edited to add:] As for sound, while I'm not sure about the role of sound in eating (though I wonder how certain textural components, notably crunch, are affected by our hearing...), I'm very sure that sound in cooking is vastly underrated. For example, all deep frying requires are careful ear much more than a careful eye.

Right now, I'm eating leftover yard beans in fermented bean curd sauce with jasmine rice. Oh, man.... Y'all gotta eat more fermented bean curd, seriously.

The avantgardiste Futurists, led by Marinetti through the 1920s and 1930s, had meals devoted solely to the sensation of touch.

Instead of answering "yes" to every question concerning whether something is or is not a composed salad, I think that we can delve into the more philosophical aspects. What elements make up a successful composed salad? What textural balances? What flavor nuances? What about color? arrangement? size? Meanwhile, Were you spying on the dinner I made Wednesday night? The viniagrette for the mesclun was referred to repeatedly as "Salty Dressing with Salt."

Thanks for the tips, folks. Last night, I made a very non-traditional yet tasty shrimp with black bean sauce using the zucchini. I cut 'em up in irregular chunks, stir-fried them in my increasingly wonderful wok (the wok hei is great right now) with very little oil and some garlic and ginger, and then added shrimp, spring onions, shaoxing, etc. The extra moisture from the zucchini added body to the sauce, and the slight char on the pieces was a nice fit with the beans.

It's own beautiful self; a few really, really good raspberries; a couple of excellent anisette cookies.

Very exciting! I feel neurotic whenever we pack for one of our off-season weekends in Provincetown -- a few knives, some skillets, decent EVOO, and so on -- but now I know that there's an even more obsessive packer out there! Dave, what kind of kitchen shears are those? They look quite like a Chicago Cutlery pair that I got dirt cheap and that have eclipsed my Wusthofs. Also, where are those spices from? I don't recognize the jars....

Absolutement. And it'd count more if you had photos!

Thanks, Wendy. Must've misspelled "nicoise" (and probably just misspelled "misspelled").

Keepin' it cool, daddy-o: Cook-Off XII: Composed Salads.

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 twelfth Cook-Off, we're going to continue the cool food trend with composed salads. Ok, yes, another northern-hemisphere-centric cook-off: mea culpa. But even if you've been in the hazy, hot, and humid zone the last six or eight weeks, you surely can appreciate the pleasures of a good composed salad. Which is... what exactly? Well, Dave the Cook found this definition from The New Food Lover's Companion on the FoodTV website: That'll do for now -- but if you have a working definition of your own, please share! Unfortunately and unusually, our eGulleteer forebears haven't done too much research on our behalf. Save for a few threads on Waldorf salad, potato salad, and the like, there aren't too many topics devoted to our composed salad days. Whither Cobb? Nicoise? And what about the composed salad traditions in Thailand, Russia, and elsewhere? What should one drink with them? How should one serve them? Roll up your sleeves and get to steaming, whisking, chopping, and assembling!

Might that be the aroma of garlic, Kristin? You go! Right now, our house smells like no-food, as I've been cooking on the grill, making salads -- and tonight I had the propane-driven Patio Wok thingamajiggy out on the front porch during a crazy thunderstorm, for crying out loud. Like Cole Porter wrote and Ella Fitzgerald sang, it's too darn hot....

Yep, that was me. And there's still gumbo, lamb curry (from cook-offs, in fact!), and a few other things waiting to be defrosted. But, damn, it's too freaking hot to make even rice!

It's HHH here in Providence: hazy, hot (90-plus) and humid. This is not cooking weather, friends, neither on the stove nor on the grill. It's barely eating weather either -- unless you have central air (nope) or a budget that allows eating every meal at a restaurant (sorry). Most people fantasize about sunny, warm weather. Not me, not now: lately, I've been fantasizing about what I'll be making not for tonight's dinner but for some crisp fall afternoon: a simple roast chicken, perhaps, with a few brussels sprouts tossed with bacon and mashed potatoes. ... sigh ... Anyone else thinking about meals they'll make or eat once autumn has arrived? What'll it be? Make my mouth water....

Bumping this up as our CSA is delivering summer squash by the suitcase. Any new tips? How about for those of us who seek to reduce the level of moisture in the little beasties?

For the many people that I know who use convenience foods regularly, it is both a lack of time and a lack of pleasure in cooking. Those who enjoy cooking and baking find the time to do so.

As someone who buys in bulk, freezes, and then a year later tosses out packages of that "great deal" on meat X, I gasped when I read this idea: This is brilliant. So simple, yet so useful!

Is there any evidence for this claim?

jilli42, click on "Search" in the upper right hand corner, type in "squash" in the search field, and click the button that says "Search titles only." You'll find over twenty threads in Cooking alone!

For more uses, click here for the sriracha thread, which includes a wide array of unexpected pleasures!