Eden

In honor of this cook-off I've invited friends to come over on Saturday to make Ashak (leek filled Afghani raviolis) I've made ashak with basic pasta dough, and even with wonton wrappers in the past, but if anyone here has a recipe for a particularly good (or more traditional) ashak dough I'd be happy to try it. Mmm Afghan food! I'll save the gnocchi for later in the month

As a long term project a full English of Scappi is on my list to do (with a fellow researcher). we even have some preliminary work done, but right now I am focusing on finishing my Anonimo Toscano translation. 14th c. Tuscany is where it's at man Oh and this weekend I realized that someone really needs to catalogue the names of all the kitchen implements in scappi's illustrations! Unfortunately whenever we have cooking night here, most of my attention gets grabbed by either explaining points in the recipes, or finding people kitchen equipment, leaving no attention for pictures. however, one of my friends is planning to make the pizza again this weekend, I will ask her if she can grab a shot, and all of these recipes need further refinement, so I will try harder to get photos next time... Here's the stuffed lamb recipe draft by way of atonement: To roast on the spit and on the grill shoulder of mutton Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) recipe text here Combine: 1/2 c chopped italian parsley 3 cups domestic parmesan, shredded 3 tbsp crisco (forgot to buy lard ) 3 eggs 1/2 tsp pow forte Stuff into 3 lbs bonelless leg of lamb (was 3.4 lbs, but cut a little out of center to make room for stuffing) Roll & Tie, salt, then bake at 350 for about 2 hours Notes: use less stuffing. Probably won't serve well in bulk because stuffing oozles out so much, you can't make pretty slices easily, or guarantee everyone gets both meat & filling Tasted FABULOUS! try adding other herbs next time, also use real lard

Oh Zaina's I haven't thought about them in ages. We used to eat at the Pioneer square location all the time when I worked down there. FAB felafel, good borek, and wonderful people.

do a web search for wendy wark's gluten free flour mix. I haven't done pizza with it myself, but I'm pretty sure my celiac friend has, and I know you can find it online.

that would be awesome, but couldn't they partner with someone besides WG???

In our house if it's holding still we generally read it sooner or later, so bring on the detailed info on the back! But please make the important basic information easy to find on the front. I have one company I buy bread from, that doesn't make it easty to tell which type of bread you're getting from them when you're grabbing a loaf in the grocery - all the bags look pretty much identical & the speciifc bread name isn't in a large font/distinguished well enough from the other info on the package This makes me buy other brands first - bad marketing...

I'm afraid Darwin is actually neutral on this one, because detatching her thumb won't keep her from reproducing. It probably won't even keep her from finding someone to reproduce with ala "wow this girl can't slice a bagel, I sure don't want to mate with her!", so you might as well protect the carpet & avoid wasting bagels I am slowly realizing that many of the gadgets I consider worthless crap, really are valuable to other people. Like your bagel holder, or electric can-openers which I never understood till I talked to someone with arthritis...

I would LOVE a sausage making class from Armandino! That would perfectly complement the Culinary Communion charcuterie class I'm taking next month. I don't have enough room for a dedicated prosciutto refridgerator like Darren , but I do have "Barbie's fridge" which is currently used for chocolates, but might fit a small chain of sausage...

Yesterday was the monthly get together & cook historic recipes night chez Eden. The menu was almost entirely from Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) Sorry no pictures. To roast on the spit and on the grill shoulder of mutton (Lamb stuffed with cheese & fresh herbs) To fry fresh peas with the skin and without (Fresh peas with pomegranate sauce) Cauliflour in sour orange sauce (cauliflower served with sour-orange vinaigrette) Even I, avowed hater of most brassicas, liked this dish To make a dish of rice of Lombardy roasted with meat of pullets, cervellate and egg yolks. (casserole of rice, cheeses, chicken and dried-sausage/salami) I want to revisit this as a timbale & see if I can get it to unmold nicely... To make tart with diverse materials from Napoli called “Pizza” (Dried-fruit & nut custard tart ) Pan unto con provatura fresca From "La singolare dottrina" di M. Domenico Romoli (fresh-mozzarella cheese toasts with cinnamon sugar & rosewater) Really successful night. all the recipes will need futher refinement, but they were quite good. Most of these recipes have the original text available in English online from one site or another, if anyone else wants to try them as well.

I heard a rumor that Armandino may be stopping the "adopt a prosciutto" program, but replacing it with some simple cooking classes ala how to make gnocchi etc. Anyone heard anything concrete?

A friend of mine has an electric crepe pan (might be different?) that she just adores. It has a slight dome to it's surface which you invert into your batter bowl to coat & then turn right side up to let cook. (and flip when browned) Personally I found it more of a pain in the ass than just making crepes the normal way... Plus you don't get all the extra butter in there from the frying process! (OMG, I just realized - they should add the phrase "low fat crepes" to their marketing materials!) Can anyone here explain avocado slicers to me? it's just an avocado for goodness sakes, it's not hard (or if it is you shouldn't be slicing it yet!) Oh and re the marshmallow roaster, I'm with Terrasanct, I like to set them on fire. It would be kind of cool to watch the flames rotating though

what a useful thread - I use these a couple times a year, and would love to know if there's a better brand out there, or ones to avoid. I discovered recently that the size variation is HUGE even when it's not particularly noticable to look at. I have a dried-apricot tart that I think we must normally make in 2.5" shells because when I unknowingly used some 2" shells a friend had picked up there was SO much extra filling! about 1/3 overage... I still have to go look at my local Cash & Carry & see what size I normally get, and then write it in BIG letters at the top of the recipe... and likewise update my other recipes that use these.

but that's the way they do it (sans stick!) in most of the freg stands in Italy that I've been to. My method is to pick one where the stuff you can judge by eye looks really good, and then trust that the quality on everything else will be as high. And ,as mentioned, giving them input about what you plan to do with it/when really helps. I've gotten some really amazing produce this way. If you're a local it's easier of course because you can take the time to get to know different shops & figure out who is best for what items etc. but this method has generally worked well for me. Oh and hey if you're going to have a fight with a produce guy, where better to do it than Sorrento? at least you can go to Davide for Gelato after...

we had some peaches macerated in Sauternes lying around in the fridge that we just weren't going to finish (too much for 2 people) so this weekend we pureed them, added a little fruit & tossed them in the new-ice-cream maker - VERY tasty! Chufi, I love that blackberry oatmeal crumble, we'll have to try it.

I think that sums it up nicely. I know we spend an outragous amount compared to what we did in our cash-strapped youth, but hey life is for living... (and for good cheese! ) I will admit that since we started drinking wine regularly a while back the food buget has almost doubled. A fact that nearly gave us a heart attack the first time we stopped & noticed, because we just couldn't figure out how we'd spent all that $$ when we knew we hadn't done any big splurgy meals recently

A friend down in CA shared these gems with me:

Not a coctail person, but speaking a fair amount of Italian I'm guessing it was "capriciosa"?

you can tell it's raspberry season Viva, that apricot-raspberry combo sounds wonderful!!! Here's Bill's latest dreamy concoction: This is raspberry icecream made with just a splash of black currant puree to intensify/support the raspberry flavor. The sauce is a mix of raspberry & black currant purees with pure-fruit strawberry jam. I am the luckiest wife in the world... Oh and we just picked up a delonghi self-freezing unit & will start trying it out tomorrow! I'm very excited!

I must be the only one here envying Adam his summer, but then I moved to Seattle for the rain & am whining because they threaten it will reach 80F later today Clearly once that non-smoking law goes into effect I'll have to come to Scotland for a summer holiday. Adam will you be doing any fun historical recipes this week? I may have to make some of that Glasgow punch, it sounds lovely!

About how much weight do you think was trimmed off as "rind"? For a second I thought we'd eaten 8.5 lbs of prosciutto ditto to Abra's raves by the way. I'd had a bit of commercial prosiutto the day before & this was so much meatier/richer in flavor.

like everyone I have a variety, but the 2 quart pyrex measuring bowl (with lid) is the one I'd take for my "desert island" choice. it's big enough for most projects, durable, heavy, able to go in the microwave and it has those useful measuring marks going up the side...

Wow, I'm going to have to go visit my friends down in Olympia & have me some Barbeque! How was the Cornbread? I was at the 5-Spot yesterday for brunch and it was too early in the AM to order the Calle Ocho Arepas, but now that I've seen your photo I MUST go back for lunch before the menu rotates! My friend had the Tortilla (fritatta) on cuban toast & was blown away by it. Obviously we need to compile a list of places (like DiLaurenti's) where you can get Salumi's meats on Mondays for when people need an emergency "fix"

Chocolate chip cookie dough It's got eggs, dairy and grain, what more could you want??? I should probably confess that there was a lovely antipasto salad late this afternoon so we just didn't feel the need for a proper dinner...

That sounds exactly like the description of Romantica, down to the weird free-standing fireplace in the middle. Paul and I ate there once and hated it. IIRC, it was because of the ambiance as much as the food. ← well we tried "Il Forno, wine & dishes" tonight. Bill wanted something Italian, but that he hadn't tried already, and the other places I called were booked, so we decided to be adventurous. It wasn't horrible, just very underwhelming. The ambience is just totally wrong in daylight hours (which last until about 9pm right now). Color & decor wise, the place is designed to be a little bit dim & intimate - pumpkin colored walls with lots of dark wood, and the ceiling painted a light brownish color to bring it down closer to you... but it has this entire front wall of floor to ceiling windows, that lets in a ton of light which just kills it & makes the whole effect washed out & dull until it gets pretty dark out when it starts to be at least plausible. For a friday night it was really empty. when we arrived at 7:30 we were the 3rd table in the place. It filled up maybe 2/3 by the time we left, but never all the way. Foodwise it's a very "harmless" menu about on -par with say the menu at Stellas: chicken veal or pork in piccata, marsala, pesto or wine sauce, some standard pastas; arrabbiata, sorrentino, alfredo etc., salad, salumi or formaggi for antipasti, and the usual sorbet in a fruit shell type prefabbed desserts shipped in from italy (the company name is Bindi, but it could just as well have been Carta d'Oro). It just didn't seem like anybody put any energy into the menu. And the funny thing about all that is there were definately Italians on the staff. I suspect our waitress was 2nd generation, and the nice lady refreshing water & lighting candles was clearly someone's Italian mamma Oh and the Wine list!!! It told you what type of wine it was (chianti, salentino, vernaccia etc), and the year, but not the winery. We ordered the salumi antipasto, which had a salami, a nice sopressata? and a prosciutto, along with 2 small slices of fresh mozzarella on some sadly pink tomatos (Bill said thay had some flavor, but I didn't even try they were just too pale) there was also one, count it one, crostini type cracker (from a bag?) covered with roasted red and yellow peppers. They piled up a ton of peppers on this, and nothing else on the plate felt skimpy so would it have killed their budget to put a second cracker under the peppers so we could each have one? In some weird synchronicity (because we're both wanting "comfort food") we both had the Linguini Carbonara, which was OK except that instead of just garnishing with parsley they mixed the parsley into the dish which I really didn't care for. (Carbonara is all about the eggs & bacon, and IMO parsley is an excess flavor that doesn't belong there) I picked mine out & had enough for a good side dish by the time I was done, so it was NOT just me being a princess! Aside from that they did a good job with it - not too runny, enough pepper, etc. For dessert Bill had the "coffee tartufo", a ball of coffee ice-cream with a sweet espress syrup center & "coffee pralines" on the outside. It was actually very nice. I had the "Cassata" ice cream which they translated as "Spumone". It was fine, though not exciting, and I think that that translation is going to give them problems with customers expecting ye olde green pink & brown ice-cream... Bill, being less fussy, had a much better time than I did, but this place just feels awkward - like it still needs to sort itself out. If they put down red checkered tablecloths & repainted it would make a lot more sense but the ambience says they want to be more than the menu lives up to...

I know you can do this with sorbet, but am not as certain re ice-cream. try it & let us know what happens!