Franci

Thanks Jon, I also read what you wrote with a lot of interest! I tried to cook foie gras two more times and I'm here to report. Both recipes come from this little book. 1. a torchon of foie gras poached in a spiced wine After simmering wine with spices and sugar, out of the stove the foie is dropped into the hot liquid and left to cook for 1 hour. I found impossible to tight again right after poaching, so I trasferred in the fridge for a couple hours before retightening. I cut it open after 24 hours but for sure the foie needs at least 2 days. 2. Then I tried to steam it. After the foie is deveined and properly seasoned (here there was only salt, pepper, 4 epice and port), it was left to rest overnight in the fridge. S. Reynaud says to wrap in cling film and steam. I feel very uncomfortable at cooking in plastic, so I wrapped in cheesecloth and steamed for 18 minutes. He says 15 minutes of 500 g foie. Well, my was 680 grams and I set the timer for 18 minutes. I totally forgot I had the foie gras steaming, so I left in the steamer for 10 minutes longer , I was already hitting the head on the wall but I checked the internal temperature and it was 48 C and the foie resting was still releasing some blood. I transferred as it was in the fridge and after an hour I rerolled the foie tight. Also this foie is pretty good, I agree with S. Reynaud when he says that the steamed foie keeps his taste "brut". Since I steamed in a dish, I could collect all the fat (I lost almost 50%), which is much more delicate than the fat from panfrying the foie. Also this was quite nice. So far the salt foie is the winner for me. No waste, very little fuss.

Anna, can I come over for dinner? Everything looks lovely. Soda, I have a soft spot for scallops. Dcarch, beautiful, as always. Yesterday night my husband was expecting marrow bones, which instead where soaking, so he was a little dissappointed he didn't find them for dinner. Thought I wasn't thinking of him, just on Valentine's day My non Valentine's dinner: lamb ribs with tamarind glaze And salad of fennel, tarragon (I had to use it for the previous day), pomegranate seeds, and sumac. Recipe from Ottolenghi's which paired very well with the lamb. Picture from files finocchio melagrana ott di Francesca Spalluto, su Flickr

Yes, it's tarragon. The sauce is shallots cooked in oil, a pinch of flour, a glass of white wine. Reduce. Add some cooking stock, Madeira and pouring cream reduce until nappant. Adjust seasoning. In the plate I added cornichons, capers and tarragon. Comes from Ripailles

Tonight we had veal tongue with Madera sauce. Not bad but I like it so much better with salsa verde!

In the States I could get them from German stores and I know that are used also for norwegian sweets. Are you still in Denmark? In German they are called Oblaten, don't know in Danish. I heard about substituting with rice paper but doesn't feel right to me. Or if you have a church closeby...you could ask where they get their ostie...

Tonight we had tiny red mullets, they were the size of my thumb. I fried half in a mix of corn meal and breadcrumbs with thyme and half with flour, served on a bed of rocket. Red mullets really go well with corn meal coating. As side also the loved puntarelle with anchovy sauce ando to keep my son happy, some scallion pancakes. I always find them highly addictive

Chifeleti di patate! Tonight we had a broccoli soup (no photo) and bodin noir with parsnips, shallots and renette apples

FrogPrincesse, it looks really delicious. I like the long recipe with little work. I should give it a try. I always buy poitrine of pork or veal. At my butcher's shop they always have on display the plat-de-côtes maybe I should ask for the poitrine.

Every time I see the raw foie on offer I grab it! It paid for it 19 euros, cheaper than the calf's liver at my butcher. Kayb, your meat loaf looks really good! How did you roll it? by hand or pasta machine? I know this is in Italian but watching is helpful I'm sure it tasted very good. I'll have to try it. Kim, what a nice brisket! Blether's lamb was in my mind at the butcher's this morning. So we had lamb shoulder with saute' chards

I have a little book of Stephane Reynaud, Foie gras & petite terrine maison. There is a recipe for mabre' de lapin et foie gras. You cook a couple cloves of garlic in milk and water until soft, squeeze out the pulp. Mix rabbit (just the saddle) with eggs, pepper, garlic pulp and cream. Season. Add some walnuts. Cut the foies in strips. On cling film put some fat strips, rabbit meat on top, foie gras to form 3 strips. Roll and tight. Poach 30 minutes in vegetable stock.

Sorry for the late reply. I also needed to use those. I simply cooked in the oven with a whole clove of garlic, some thyme, piment d'espelette and paprika, EVO and salt. Just the time to soften a little bit the carrots. That looks so good!!! Lamb shoulder in one of my favourite cuts. I just love it . Tonight my fridge was truly a desolation...I had a little bit of ragu' alla bolognese and we had some undersauced tagliatelle. I steamed some shrimps for the children with some napa cabbage and carrots. And I was still hungry. So, I pulled out my dessert: two slices of paiou with a foie gras torchon which I poached in a spiced wine.

Tonight we had Sole roe on toast fried sole. I tried Ad hoc at home batter. My son really liked it. I'm not a huge fan of "fish & chips" kind of batters so enjoyed more my anchovies Some stuffed anchovies, which were all mine...since in this house stuffed food is not appreciated (no ravioli, dumplings, etc) plus some plain butterflied. And some raw fennel on the side.

Tonight we had Sole roe on toast fried sole. I tried Ad hoc at home batter. My son really liked it. I'm not a huge fan of "fish & chips" kind of batters so enjoyed more my anchovies Some stuffed anchovies, which were all mine...since in this house stuffed food is not appreciated (no ravioli, dumplings, etc) plus some plain butterflied. And some raw fennel on the side.

Duck looks cooked perfectly. mm84321, thanks. I got great training at cooking duck breast at the FCI all the rest (or almost) got down the drain but I enjoy duck a lot and usually do an ok job at cooking it. Wow. Happy you find my food appealing. Here I can point at a lot of people which food is more appealing to me Tonight I made pork belly with leftover red cabbage (frozen from Christmas) and escarole. I mixed Heston Blumenthal at home recipe with the braised pork belly of ad hoc at home...maybe pan should had been a little hotter so I wouldn't have lost a couple "squares" of fat in the pan. It was good but enough to justify my addictional effort

I haven't had frog legs in ages... Welcome to the new entries I've seen many nice meals lately. Scottyboy, I could have a whole bowl of fish skin chips. Nice. Didn't have time to take pictures in the last days. Yesterday night we had wonton soup. Here it has been very cold and it was really nice a steaming hot bowl of wontons. Tonight I was lazy, which traslated in emergency food: duck breast. Duck breast with glazed carrot and some bitter vegetables. I could have put together a sauce quickly but older son wanted to play hide and seek

I'm thinking of taking more advantage of my dehydrator. What food do you think would benefit most from being slightly dehydrated before frying? How much would you dehydrate from initial weight? Which temperatures are more appropriate for different food (higher for meats less for vegetables)? Things that come to mind first are: fish and vegetables. I generally dehydrate meat at 70 C (to make jerkies), would that be appropriate also for fish for deep-frying? Do you think it is worthed it?

Thanks, that sounds like my English at the moment. I mix English and Italian in my head whichever comes to mind first (I've been outside the Country for the last 12 years). I guess I need to spend more time reading now, since ingredients here are less available. Thanks Prawncrakers. I read a bit on textures on Chinese Gastronomy. This could be a fun and interesting exercise. Useful not just for understanding better Chinese cuisine. Maybe I could open a post on the Chinese forum to ask people whenever I'm trying something new Between trying to really understand another cuisine and NEVER seen it there is a lot in between

I recently tried this by N. Slater. In his book, Tender, the recipe uses chards instead. Stalks get cut in small cubes and added at the beginning after softening the onions and the chiffonade of leaves at the last 5 minutes. Really, really good. I loved the mint and lemon in it. On the same line, I also tried this, simpler lebanese version. And also this from Ottolenghi's book. This is the one I liked the least. Not bad but N. Slater's version was more to my liking. Otherwise, I often mix red, small green and brown lentils (the brown presoaked) to get a soup of different textures. I also like to add shredded birds meat (pheasants, duck, etc).

I'd like a spoonful from each of your plates Yesterday I cooked lamb shanks with gingered lentils from Odd bits. I'm slowly finding myself cooking throught it (and also Fat). And tonight we also had spaghetti with clams. I'm eating this very often because it's one of my husband's favourite dishes

Thanks everybody. I have a modest collection of chinese books: Irene Kuo, Barbara Tropp, Grace Young, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, Hsiang Ju Lin. I do need Fuchsia Dunlop and I've been wanting to buy her books for long time. I didn't mention it but I lived on my own, without my husband (yes!), with my in laws for a year. And that was a good experience for me. I certanly learnt a lot at that time, although my mother in law food is limited to shanghainese food. I've also been to China a couple times. Techniques are not a big deal to me. Once you know the basic of cooking doesn't matter what cuisine you cook that's what I've learnt in cooking school. But do I really get it? I don't feel confident enough. I do cook on regular basis things like: scallion pancakes, steamed breads, noodles soups, some dumplings, stews. My parents in law live in NY now and we are basically in the South of France, with limited access to Chinese ingredients. And no...my husband doesn't cook any chinese food. My son's nanny is taiwanese and she often tries my food and tells me if something is off. I'm just saying that is very difficult to get the essence of another cuisine without knowing the language and being totally immersed into it. Nice article liuzhou. You know, I never met an italian family who would pray before meals? I'm wondering if a lot of people think that we say a grace. And a lot of Italians despise the use of cream, at least the food snobs. Well, many Americans would be surprised to hear that many Italians don't like garlic or onions which are use sparingly, in fact you can buy pesto with no garlic in supermarkets. All this talking made me realize that I need to train better my sense of taste. Being able to understand and balance a sauce. If a can do it for an italian or a french sauce, why the use of different seasonings: a little bit of soy sauce, some rice wine and bit of salt and sugar seams so foreign and difficult to understand?

I already feel a little arrogant saying that I have a good knowledge of my own food: Italian. Now, I'd like to have a better understanding of my husband cuisine: chinese. It doesn't help he favors mediterranean food over chinese but I guess as our children are learning to speak chinese, they shouldn't be ignorant in chinese food either. I think Italians and Chinese have many things in common and I can see similarities also in food. When my parents in law visit I try to cook foods they also would like: tiny ravioli in capon stock, oxtail/coda alla vaccinara (they are shangainese so they have something similar), tomatoes and eggs, risottos, etc. To cook chinese I need books. To cook Italian I don't need a recipe...I see non-italian people on the web or in the print/tv and cooking italian food, coming out maybe with good stuff, inventive, interesting but in my mind I know an Italian would never use that spice, that condiment or pairing with another ingredient. I know what is appropriate or not in a meal as variety of dishes and so on. But for chinese...books are good place to start. But it takes much more than that. I see, for italian food, what Marcella Hazan has done in the US but it requires much more to say that one understands another cuisine. Internet is a very good place but also very dispersive, with a lot of people just posting recipes and with superficial knowledge. There are people here with good knowledge of other cuisines. Do you have a way of approaching it, besides travelling and being a little obsessed about it ?

Here it's not as cold but I would have loved to have your dinner. We didn't realized that it is Chinese New Year! Got the phone call by the mother in law for greetings So we had leftovers from the freezer: veal's heart salad (yes, heart again!) with some balsamic glazed onions and steamed chinese flower rolls.

After talking about corn bread, I had to try the "pizze e fojie" from Abruzzo. I'm sure my pizza doesn't compare to this but I'm missing the fireplace or brick oven and the "coppo" the cover.

I like it! I immediately thought of two things: pizz e foje, a traditional dish from abruzzo of cooked polenta and baked like a small pizza eaten with vegetables. And secondly to the black sea corn bread. Oh, I almost forgot, "bordatino" from Toscany. Maybe this is common also in the South of the US. Tutto il mondo e' paese...not sure how to traslate. All the world is the same place? Oh, they are fresh! Usually here you find two prices of anchovies and generally I buy the better ones which are a little bigger. I also eat the spine if they are small. Many things to do with anchovies. Another way of frying them is to open them up, remove the spine and spread a filling an sandwich two of them and then dip in egg/flour and fry. Or to make layers of anchovies and potatoes, onions, garlic with topped with breadcrumbs and bake. I also like to substitute anchovies to sardines for "spaghetti con le sarde" but my husband doesn't like any of this stuff, he is a purist: food less manipulated as possible. Salted anchovies are a condiment to me, I could not eat as much. Let me guess. You went the "cassoeula" way. With pork? Or goose? Cannot tell from the picture. Tonight we had mussels and anchovies again. We overbought

SodaAddict, I also like very much your eggs, bacon and sprouts! I'm getting a little repetitive...husband obsessions. We had fried artichockes and anchovies