Chufi

Elie, do make the chicken dish! It's also very good for entertaining because there's very little last minute work (although there is a lot of work hours before that ) and it looks very impressive. About the rabbit: we had the leftovers today. I made a little sweet and sour onion/raisin compote to go with it, and to be honest I liked that better than the prunes. It was a great combination with the sweet and succulent rabbit.

Hi mizducky, I have been reading along during my busy workweek, sneaking peeks into your blog while at the office I loved the pictures of the picnic, and yes, sitting on a blanket makes my body ache all over too! I also really enjoyed the pictures of those huge Asian markets. They make me insanely jealous. Nothing like that exists over here... I think 100 of my little Asian markets would fit into your big one!

I posted about the dinner on the Dinner!thread but thought I'd post with some more detailed comments here. So, this weekend I made the rabbit compote with prunes: It was very light and refreshing, the rabbit meat was really juicy and almost sweet in flavor. It was very good and my guests loved it, but I had somehow expected a more complex flavor. However, the compote was only 2 days old yesterday, so I probably should taste the leftovers tonight and see if the flavor improves like Elie mentioned upthread. Blanc de poulet farci comme en Auvergne: chickenbreast in cabbageleaves, with a swiss chard/giblet/ham stuffing. This dish had caught my eye when I first browsed through the book and I really wanted to make it, even though I could not picture in my mind what it would end up like or taste like. I have to say the giblet /ham stuffing did not look to appetizing after puree-ing it .. also, the stuffing remained very wet even after refrigerating it over night, and there was no way I could "enclose the chicken breast in it" like the recipe says. So I just put some stuffing on a cabbage leaf, chicken on top, topped with more stuffing, and rolled up the leaves. Rolling them was very fiddly.. my leaves kept tearing, especially when I was was tying them up with string. I think the suggestion to tie them in cheesecloth is a good one, but I did not have cheesecloths so I struggled on till I had this: I used up all my cabbage leaves on 3 chickenbreasts, but that was plenty for the 4 of us. I'm describing this in such detail because the endresult was so delicious that I would really urge anyone to try this.. it was worth the trouble. The chicken comes out as moist as I've never seen a chicken breast, the vegetables are cooked to perfection in the stock, and the stuffing gives just the right rich and herby balance for the light stock and the clean flavors of the cabbage and vegetables. I drizzled some walnut oil on top and sprinkled with fleur de sel. Very, very good. I also made the Gateau Basque. The pastry is indeed very fragile and a bit difficult to work with. I ended up just pressing it into my tin, which worked okay. Although I used an 8 " tin as specified, I had a lot of pastry left over. That Basque aromatic mixture is something realy special. I used a little less orangeflowerwater because I was afraid it would be overpowering (I like the stuff, but only in tiny amounts). I suggest mixing and tasting till it is to your liking. It delicately perfumed the entire cake, both pastry cream and pastry, in an almost elusive way. I thought it was like a fairy-tale cake! I liked the idea of the cherry preserves, but did not want to put them in the cake, so I made a little compote of fresh cherries to serve with the cake.

Great idea. I often do that on weekends & mondays: On saturday, I only shop for 1 dinner. I find that after that I can usually cook 2 more dinners from leftovers, bits and pieces from fridge, freezer and larder. In our house these are called 'something out of nothing' dinners. Still, I have a lot of stuff lying around that I know I should be using.. staples like beans, grains, pasta etc. Doing a project like this for a week would really be a challenge!

Daniel, if you like smoked eel, you should try these: they're like a smoked eel hotdog.. fatty, smoky, in yeasty bread, perfect for late night snacking.. recipe here

Oh my goodness. I have been reading this thread from the beginning, in awe. I never said anything because it's unlikely that I will ever do anything remotely Charcuterie-ish. (If only I had a Kitchen Aid, a backyard and a smoker...) But I love reading along. The experiments, the successes and failures, the drama (mold ) and the beautiful shots of glorious pork. And now we even have a charcuterie party! This thread is one of eGullets very best!

I have some friends coming over for dinner this weekend.. these our are 'eating friends' who really enjoy good food.. they gave me the book for my birthday and I want to cook them a whole dinner from it. I'm planning to make the rabbit compote, the chicken breasts with chard/giblet stuffing and the gateau Basque. I have seen wine suggestions for the rabbit compote on this thread.. but I could really use a recommendation for a wine to go with the chicken. I would prefer white because it's going to be warm and humid this weekend. Any other suggestions to improve this menu are also welcome! (like, should I serve anything with/ after the chicken?)

I agree with you. I have done many buffet dinners for the reasons you state (no dining table big enough, no servers etc.) but for my last birthday party, (about 25 guests) I did things a little differently. I just made sure I had enough light folding chairs (and they are easy to borrow or cheap to rent) and an odd collection of tables (one from the balcony, an old folding table with a broken top (covered up by a nice cloth), little side tables etc.), all this besided my regular dining table. Dinner was actually a buffet, but you could also say it was dinner, served family style. When it was time to eat, everybody had a chair, even if they had the plate on their lap instead of on a formally set table. I served some of the dishes straight from the pan, others were on the tables for people to help themselves. It really was so much nicer to have everybody sit down and eat instead of walking around.. much more relaxed. It was the best birthday 'buffet'dinner I ever gave and my guests agreed!

Soooo... I read the Bugialli book in bed last night, cover to cover. Didn't make any specific plans for dinner though. Then, today, I realized that it will be almost 2 weeks before I will have time for some serious Sardinian cooking, for various reasons that I won't bother you with. But I'm itching to start the month! So I went to the supermarket after work and this was the only dish from the book that I could remember all the ingredients for: Cavolfiore con olive Cauliflower, braised with a mixture of chopped dried tomatoes, parsley, garlic and onion. The olives are mixed in right before serving. We had it at room temp with a ham/mushroom/ricotta fritata and some ciabatta, it was a really nice side dish, with a mellow almost sweet flavor that's balanced by the pungent olives.

you bought the fregola ready made? the recipe Bugiali gives is made from couscous and seems quite elaborate and timeconsuming so that would be good to know.. not that that means I can buy it in Amsterdam ofcourse

I am really looking forward to the next 2 months. I bought the Bugiali book you mention just yesterday! I had been eyeing it for a while and this seemed to be the perfect occasion. (or excuse ) I also have Antonio Carluccio's Southern Italian Feast, which has a couple of Sardinian recipes. One thing I read about in the Bugiali book is fregola (I might be misspelling this, don't have the book with me now) which is couscous, moistened and baked and then rolled into larger lumps to form a kind of pasta. This really intrigued me and I'm definitely going to try it. I also noticed the use of saffron, apparently Sardinia is famous for it's saffron. This might be a good moment to say how much I am enjoying these monthly projects. They are really giving me a totally new feel for Italian cuisine, and the diversity of the cooking is so interesting. I am learning a lot. Also, it helps on deciding what to cook.. "sorry honey, we have to eat Sardinian again, for eGullet, you know"

Joghurt with rhubarb compote that's one of my favorite food things in the whole wide world. When the young pink rhubarb was in season, I had that for breakfast every day for 3 weeks! Love the blog, therese. And educational, with all the trivia

you know, I have no clue what borage is, what it looks or tastes like, what the Dutch name is, and if I can buy it!

Just before our month in Liguria ends, I managed one more Ligurian meal: Vegetable and cheese ravioli from the Plotkin book. He says to use borage or beetgreens for the vegetable, I used a mixture of 3/4 swiss chard and 1/4 parsley (because I had a huge bunch of crispy fresh parsley in the fridge). The rest of the filling is ricotta, parmesan, and an egg. I added a bit of lemonjuice. Plotkin says to sauce with either a tomato sauce or pesto, I was rebellious and did neither (or both) by heating some butter, oil, garlic, lots of shredded basil, and some sweet cherry tomatoes together in a pan. Poured that over the pasta, sprinkled with pinenuts and parmesan, and some fresh basil. Something like 'deconstructed pesto with tomatoes thrown in' anyway it was really good! Glad I took out my pastamaker again.

What fascinates me about these (American) breakfasts is the combination of sweet and savoury on the plate.. rhubarb pie and eggs.. strawberries and eggs.. eggs and pear.. fried potatoes & onions, with melon.. those were all on the last 2 pages of this thread. Has this always been a standard for a "big" American breakfast? I mean here, you will find both sweet and savoury items at the breakfast table, but almost never together on the same plate. One would eat a slice of bread with cheese first, and then a slice of toast with jam, and a piece of fruit to finish. If you are eating those eggs and strawberries, would you alternate bites of each, or would you save the berries for last, like a dessert?

Kletskoppen , lacy almond cookies. kletskop means someone who talks a lot. No idea why a cookie would get that name! Anyway, these cookies were my favorite when I was a kid. Crispy, crunchy, buttery, mmm. I was really looking forward to making them myself when I started this thread. But, it turned out to be quite a task! All recipes I found seemed to vary hugely in proportions of ingredients, temp of the oven, and baking time. 2 batches ended up in the bin and I gave up for a while. Today I tried again and had succes! Ingredients: 50 grams butter, melted 150 grams soft brown sugar 75 grams flour 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 50 grams almonds, chopped about 1/2 tablespoon water. Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F. Mix everything together to a smooth dough. Take little lumps of dough, roll them into a ball, flatten them and place on a lined baking sheet. place them well appart because these cookies will spread (at least, they are supposed to). Bake for about 10-15 minutes, watch them closely. They should spread to lacy thin cookies, but be careful they don't burn. Take them from the oven and leave for a minute to harden up a bit, then remove with a spatula to a rack and let cool completely.

I stored a couple in an airtight container and left a couple on the counter, on a plate. I have to say that I like the texture of the ones that were left on the plate best, but they were no longer fresh or crispy. So the best advice is to bake them and eat them

Klary, you were so helpful to us about eating in Amsterdam that I felt badly not being able to help you before. However, if it's not too late, I just put up a Compendium of existing threads that includes Aix. I hope your husband finds a nice place. Best wishes, John ← thank you so much John! Now, I did search for Aix, but nothing came up (which did surprise me..) how is that possible? Any way, looks like my husband and his companion will have lots of options, thatnk you everybody for the advice.

Some added advice: don't make them too far in advance. I just ate a few of the batch I made early this morning, and found out that the home-made ones don't hold their crispness as well as the factory-version that I've been used to. I wonder what's the best way to store them? I'll see what they're like tomorrow.

Did you have guests? I always wonder why it is that whenever I find a hair, it's always on my plate, and it's always when I have guests. What does that mean.. that on those occasasions, there are hairs everywhere, but the guests are too polite to tell? That there are hairs in my food also when it's just me and my husband, but I don't notice them? Maybe I don't look at my plate closely when we don't have company? How many hairs has my husband eaten over the years? Why ?? I guess now none of you will ever want to come to dinner at my house

Goudse kaasbolletjes (little cheeseballs from Gouda) The province of Zuid Holland is justly famous for it's cheese: Gouda, Leidse (with cumin), Edam. The favorite way (for most Dutch people) to eat cheese is on a (often openfaced) sandwich, but over time a lot of recipes have been developed to use up all that wonderful cheese. For instance, I came across a recipe for cheese soup, which seems to be something like a diluted version of cheesefondue, but minus the wine (too extravagant for the frugal Dutch I guess ) These little savoury biscuits are available in most supermarkets in the 'factory version', in some bakeries you can buy them fresh, but since they are really simple to make (and highly addictive) I thought I'd offer the recipe here. Now, these will only taste as good as the cheese you put in. The more mature and piquant the grated cheese you use, the better the flavour of the biscuits will be. If your cheese is blander than you'd like, add a little extra salt and pepper to the dough, or even a dash of cayennepepper to spice things up a bit. Or add some crushed cumin seeds for a "leidse" version! 125 grams selfraising flour 1 eggyolk 50 ml. milk 75 gram butter, melted 100 grams grated mature Gouda salt, pepper a bit of milk to glaze some extra cheese for sprinkling (optional) preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F. Mix all the ingredients for the dough together. You should have a fairly firm, but sticky dough. Roll the dough into marble-sized balls and place on a lined baking sheet. Brush with a little milk. Bake for about 10 minutes, than take from the oven and sprinkle with a little extra grated cheese (optional, but it does make them look better) bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. They should be quite dry and crispy, a good way to get that is to leave them in the oven for another 10 minutes or so after you've turned off the oven, to dry them out a bit. They will also become crispier upon cooling. edited to add: I've put the recipe in Recipe Gullet here

Katie, sorry I missed you post. I'm glad you (and the kitties.. ) liked the beef!

Thanks Eilen! I am insanely jealous too, because I'm not going.. My husband is taking the trip with his best friend, I'm just being the travel agent here. I'll pass on the info and report back after their trip (in a couple of weeks).

Gouda cheese biscuits The province of Zuid Holland is justly famous for it's cheese: Gouda, Leidse (with cumin), Edam. The favorite way (for most Dutch people) to eat cheese is on a (often openfaced) sandwich, but over time a lot of recipes have been developed to use up all that wonderful cheese. These little savoury biscuits are available in most supermarkets in the 'factory version', in some bakeries you can buy them fresh, but since they are really simple to make (and highly addictive) I thought I'd offer the recipe here. Now, these will only taste as good as the cheese you put in. The more mature and piquant the grated cheese you use, the better the flavour of the biscuits will be. If your cheese is blander than you'd like, add a little extra salt and pepper to the dough, or even a dash of cayennepepper to spice things up a bit. Or add some crushed cumin seeds for a "leidse" version! 125 g selfraising flour 75 g melted butter 100 g mature Gouda, grated 1 eggyolk 50 ml milk salt, pepper, cayenne extra milk to glaze extra cheese for sprinkling preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F. Mix all the ingredients for the dough together. You should have a fairly firm, but sticky dough. Roll the dough into marble-sized balls and place on a lined baking sheet. Brush with a little milk. Bake for about 10 minutes, than take from the oven and sprinkle with a little extra grated cheese (optional, but it does make them look better) Bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. They should be quite dry and crispy, a good way to get that is to leave them in the oven for another 10 minutes or so after you've turned off the oven, to dry them out a bit. They will also become crispier upon cooling. see the Dutch Cooking thread for pictures. Keywords: Easy, Cheese, Snack ( RG1719 )

My husband and a friend are going to be in Aix en Provence for one day (visiting the Cezanne exhibit) and are looking for a nice place to have lunch. Informal, not too expensive, but good (ofcourse ) (I already told them they are mad to travel there for a 24-hour stay). This one meal is all they're gonna get in France this time.. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks.