Jason Perlow

beaglefarts. I like that word. It sounds much more serious than poodlefarts.

Thats going to be next to impossible or very, very expensive to get. I'm going to guess maybe ebay. A serious rum shop in the Caribbean MIGHT know where to get one. Like the Old Liquor Store on St. Maarten. But a bottle like that is going to go for a few hundred dollars, maybe more, if you can find one at all.

Matzo meal is used to make matzo balls for matzo ball soup, a dumpling soup that is served tradionally during Passover. Its made from crumbled up Matzah, the unleavened bread that is served during Passover. It comes in a box and and be bought year round. The most common brands of matzah and matzah meal are Manischewitz and Streits, you might find a couple of other brands down there. You can find it basically at any supermarket in the Jewish/Kosher section. You can also make it by blasting a box of matzahs in a food processor into dust. Latkes can really be eaten any time of the year but they are most commonly served during Chanukah, as a symbolic reference to the oil that was burned in the lamps in the great temple thousands of years ago.

Monica: How about skipping making something Indian? How about making some potato knishes, or latkes? http://recipes.egullet.com/recipes/r166.html Rachel's recipe actually calls for 5lbs of potatoes...

Never mind. I read it as 50lbs.

Make 10 pounds of gobi aloo? 100 masala dosas? make 200 aloo parathas?

Creamed or sauteed spinach. Corn on the cobb is good too, so I would do both!

You mean the OLD charlie dimmock. They are making her wear bras now. Are you kidding? I can't believe she'd do that. Yes, people are lamenting about it on the BBC America forums. "They're caged!" they are all screaming. However as Alan is no longer on the show, its certainly a lot more noticeable.

You mean the OLD charlie dimmock. They are making her wear bras now.

You really should decant a vintage port to open it up -- it needs the oxidization to bring out its flavors, and also you should decant to remove any sediments in the bottle. A 20 or 30 year old vintage port (1977s and 1963's are in their prime now) is going to have a lot of sediment in it, especially if the bottle looks really old and dusty. Once decanted into an appropriate vessel such as a carafe or a glass pitcher or decanter you should let it breathe for about a half an hour to an hour before drinking it. However oxidization is also the death of a port -- so yes, you should drink it within a week. Tawny and Ruby ports and LBV (late bottled vintage) and vintage ports that are "single Quinta" or single estate which are to be drunk young don't really have as much sediment in them, so you can basically just open the bottle, pour into a glass and let it breathe for 15 minutes before drinking. You'll still want to consume that bottle within a week though. Here's a good article on ports and decanting: http://www.ivillage.co.uk/food/experts/win...67261-1,00.html we've had several decanting threads on the site, all of which have discussed the pros and cons relevant to wines in general. However in the case of vintage port decanting is an absolute necessity. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...ST&f=24&t=10940 http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...ST&f=63&t=10364 http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=24&t=7346

Actually instead of Absolut Citron we are going to use Cruzan Citrus Rum -- combined with the lime it should give it that sorta Mojito flavor.

Yeah we have kaffir and fresh lemongrass, but really those are not edible, they are aromatic type things (same with fresh galangal) and are primarily used for soup -- although what we could do next time is cook the lemongrass, galangal and kaffir in with a warm salad dressing to serve over the burgers or balls and remove them afterwards. They can be really tough. So we opted for the dried stuff, which still works really well. The lime zest also gives you a similar flavor to the kaffir lime leaves.

Yeah we were gonna do mint and basil but I opted for the hoisin. To make it even larbier, next time I will likely whip up some actual larb lime juice/fish sauce dressing with lots of dried chile in it. Thats probably what I am going to bring to the party saturday.

Yes, but these were really, really good. And I think Hoisin is used in Thai cuisine as well.

Well, its served on a baguette, so that kinda makes it a Banh Mi. Hoisin is typically used as a condiment on Banh Mi sandwiches. I realize thats Vietnamese and not Thai, but Jesus Christ, we've already bastardized the hell out of this dish by making them into meatballs. I don't think its going too far, do ya? I also felt with given all the other spices the dish need a little bit of sweetness. You know, to keep the Southeast Asian Hot/Sour/Salty/Sweet thing in complete balance.

Behold, grilled THAI LARBURGERS, served Vietnamese Banh-mi style on Baguette with a Coriander Chutney and Hoisin Mayo dressing. These are simply Larb Balls formed into patties and grilled on the Weber.

LARBURGERS! Sauce / dressing is a combination of mayo, hoisin sauce and coriander chutney.

Thomas Keller. Dodger Dogs. (although technically, the Dodgers are from Brooklyn)

On a recent episode of Ground Force shown on BBC America, they showed them eating some kind of crumpet-tea cake like things called Cream Teas. What are these, and how exactly do you make them?

Sure, those would be tasty, but it wouldn't be Larb. Then again I'm not sure this is Larb either.

Larb balls were a success tonight, so I think I'm gonna bring those. Rachel is still going to bring the sorbet and ice cream.

Once decanted you can drink a bottle for about a week until oxidation starts to set in. If you have one of those vacuum sealer type units you can pump a lot of the air out and extend it for about a week more. http://www.winespectatorschool.com/winesch...0,2128,,00.html This Page says that port and other fortified dessert wines are higher in alcohol, which effectively acts as a preservative and have already been oxidized as part of the winemaking process, and thus should stand for about 2 weeks still in the bottle once it is opened. But they advise keeping it in the refrigerator after opening it. Once you completely decant a wine I dont think it makes much of a difference though whether you keep the decanter in or out of the fridge.

The JERSEY FRESH website has a more comprehensive farmers market list: http://www.state.nj.us/jerseyfresh/searches/urban.htm

Well, as it was a first run, we basically went with your larb recipe except that we added powdered lemongrass instead of using fresh lemongrass and some fresh ginger in addition to the powdered galangal, and we used lime zest instead of the kaffir lime leaves, but we may use some lime leaves in a different dipping sauce than the one we used here. I think we underseasoned them a bit, especially the chiles, so we will double or triple the amount. We used an egg as a binder for 2lbs of meat (half ground turkey, half ground pork). There's also chopped thai basil and chopped mint in this. Overall these are really good for a first try but we need to use a larger quantity of spices. Herbally I think we used the correct amount of scallion and shallot. Still tweaking the recipe, we'll post when we get it right, hopefully tomorrow. I cant say I like the poached or the fried better, they are both really good. The fried you get this nice crunchyness on the outside, but the poaching of the balls in a chicken/fish sauce broth makes them taste really good too. We will probably prepare both for the party, maybe make 2 different dipping sauces.

Thai Larb Balls, poached and deep fried: The recipe is forthcoming, we are still tweaking it. These are a test-run for the NY Potluck coming up.