Dave Hatfield
-
Posts
1,577 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Dave Hatfield
-
-
I'm an experienced bread baker, but here's a thing I've never tried. I think the absolutely best rolls for Thanksgiving are these Buttery Pan Rolls. But this year, in my kitchen in France, I only have one oven and not enough time or counter space to make these at the last minute, as I usually do.
Could I form and butter the rolls, wrap tightly, and freeze? Then let them thaw and rise before baking? How much time do you think the thaw/rise would take? I'm guessing about 4 hours.
I know, baking bread in France is totally coals to Newcastle, but I'm having a dozen people for their first Thanksgiving, and these rolls are so typically American and so not French.
Would have thought you might squeeze them in. Make the dough a couple of hours ahead & set aside to rise. (I'd make only 24 & make them fairly small so they fit on one pan). When the bird or whatever your main course is that takes up a lot of oven space comes out pop in the rolls. The 15 minutes they take to cook makes them about ready after any bird or meat resting time.
Think this should work, but then again I don't know your menu so it might not. Think the French would enjoy them.
We're doing Thanksgiving today, also for 12. For an explanation of why look here. Post of November 4th.
-
Gosh; no posts on the cheese thread since August. Guess nobody is eating cheese anymore; except me that is.
We're doing Thanksgiving a week early for complicated reasons I won't bore you with, but think of us eating the cheeses in the basket below sometime around 1:00PM Eastern time.
Anybody feeling adventurous can try to guess what the cheeses are.
-
De construct your goose much as you might a turkey. Julia Child has some good recipes & I did a pictorial on my blog last Thanksgiving. Although we did turkey the same technique works for goose.
The problem is that cooking times of the various parts of the goose cook at different speeds. Therefore break the goose up & cook for appropriate periods of time.
-
A Google search for:
Recettes pour pain d'épices a la ancienne
Throws up some interesting variations. I'm sure each region & each cook will defend their recipe as 'the' definitive one.
-
Here's another take on cooking a thick steak. Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck.
This link takes you to a BBC recipe page. The recipe is abbreviated, but you can get the idea.
Brown the outside with a blow torch, then cook a 55 degrees C for 20 hours.
What the recipe doesn't say, but what he did on the TV show was to cut the steak into about 1 inch slices after it came out of the oven then fry it in a very very hot pan very briefly, just enough to form a crust.
Has anybody tried this?
PS: interestingly he tested steaks from 6 different breeds of cattle. Long horn came out on top. This was in the UK where thew beef is grass fed.
-
Great ideas and lots of things to try.
Here's another my favorites. Sortanara
Throw some pasta into boiling water (fusilli are my favorite shape for this dish). Put some smoked lardons into a medium hot frying pan; (No lardons? OK, cut up some thick bacon rashers into cross ways strips.) peel & roughly chop some garlic & add to to the pan. Fry until the lardons are just starting to brown; throw in some cream & stir well, let it boil down a bit. Now add a generous quantity of Parmesan, stir until melted then throw in some more. Drain the pasta well & add to the frying pan. Stir & grind some pepper over. Enjoy.
A variation. No lardons. Just saute some chopped garlic in butter until soft; add cream, stir in chunks of Gorgonzola and stir until they meld; now stir in some Parmesan. Pepper. Serve.
Can't much simpler than that.
Or can it?
-
Although I love complicated dishes that require time, skill & finesse I also love a number of very simple dishes.
Let me give an example of what I mean. Garlic sausage & cheese open faced sandwiches!
Simply cut a baguette down the middle length ways, cut that into 3 inch slices, add just a smear of Dijon mustard, top with a medium thick slice of garlic sausage, put a medium slice of sharp cheddar on top of that then sprinkle with herbs de province. Place in the middle of an oven with the grill on until the cheese melts.
Pretty simple and IMHO very delicious. We have these for lunch often.
The question is? What are your very simple favorites? There are no rules or criteria other than they should be simple in ingredients and easy to prepare.
Lets heard from everyone.
-
Good suggestion all, but you can get the majority of the things mentioned if you work at it in Europe.
What I prize (see post over on the Kitchen Consumer thread) is cling film, just good old saran wrap. Costco's own brand with the cutter is great.
The stuff you get here is pretty pathetic. Believe me any friend in Europe will appreciate it.
-
Good discussion. My question is how would you do a tenderloin?
A very good friend just brought me a tenderloin about a foot long straight from Washington DC. (Now you know why he's a very food friend). We don't normally get tenderloin much here in France.
So, I'm with the butter & fat, relatively low heat to do a crust, all sides yes. Now then how about timings? We like our beef rare. How long in the pan? And how long in the oven at what temperature if, that is, a tenderloin should go into the oven at all.
All help except in te eating appreciated.
-
Not exactly food, but from Costco.
Their Kirkland brand cling film with the built in cutter is wonderful. This was brought to me by a fellow eGulleteer who was moving to France. It was the best gift ever.
Those who live in France (and, I think, other parts of Europe will understand) What we can get here is pathetic.
-
Being American I hesitate to speak upon this subject. I have, however, been married to a lass from county Durham for 20 years who is a dab hand at making Yorkshire.
She claims there are three essentials to making a really good Yorkshire.
1) a Very very hot oven. She cranks ours right up to over 220 C. (this also implies that your roast is out resting Before you bake your Yorkshire)
2) That your batter is at least one hour old. She prefers to make hers several hours ahead and keep it in the fridge until just before cooking.
3) Your fat must be smoking hot Before you pour the batter in. She puts her tin with the fat into the hot oven until the fat just begins to smoke. Then quickly out of the oven, pour the batter in & back into the oven.
Note that you don't have to use beef fat to make good Yorkshires. Duck fat does very well as we've found here in France. Roast lamb with Yorkshire pudding is almost, but not quite, as good as roast beef with Yorkshire pudding.
Either requires a really good gravy, but that's another story!
-
I just wanted to bump this up to see if anyone had any brilliant new ideas for Thanksgiving 2008 that haven't appeared in prior posts.
I'm reconsidering turkey d/t Pti's comment
and am torn between a gamey bird and capon-type.I think turkey is insipid (except a well-roasted rôti the way my grandmother used to make ). Also, I have this personal thing with huge roasting birds — they make me feel like I'm eating some kind of dinosaur. I'd probably have enjoyed the idea at age 7, but now it's a bit too late. My upper limit in size is a good capon.I am also a bit suspicious of the common availabiility of turkey meat in France, and the relative rarity of free-range turkeys. I already loathe battery-raised chickens, so it's worse with larger birds (agh, battery-raised dinosaurs!) Sorry to be uttering my deep feelings so close to Thanksgiving.
Can sort of understand about big birds, but I do like turkey. ORDER NOW! for Thanksgiving. I put something about this on my blog below the other day.
Also, last year I think I did a post on my way of keeping turkey moist & flavorful. The infamous 4 legged turkey. By the way I find the turkey's I get down here are all free range (I see them ranging at several farms around here.)
Capon's a good alternative. If I weren't being so traditional I'd opt for a monster standing rib roast. Usually around this time of year the Supermarkets have their pork sales. A nice big leg of pork, marinaded and baked ain't half bad.
Not brilliant, but suggestive perhaps. If I were trying to be a bit different I might be tempted to roast quail (boned) and serve them with slices of magret and alliade. GO from a big bird to a very small one.
-
Here in France we can get fantastic hand sliced and cooked potato chips. Nothing added except a bit of salt.
Absolutely wonderful they are.
Made in Spain believe it or not! For the French to import them is really saying something!
-
And to everyone else: make garbure (and lots of it). With a chill in the air, you'll be happy to have a huge pot of it stashed in the fridge. And it gets better and better after a few days.
MMmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Garbure.
I love Garbure as well and just made a big pot last weekend. It is very easy to make and, as you say, perfect when the weather gets chilly.
I boil poitrine de porc with potatoes, then add cabbage, carrots, onion, garlic, turnips if I have them, herbs, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours. This recipe is basically from Julia Child, does the "Cooking of Southwest France" recipe differ much?
Julia's version is delicious.
A couple of variations that I like are: Add a parsnip or two at the most. And/or add, if you can find them a couple of the orange colored turnips that are in the markets now. (I don't know if there's a name for them other than Navet.) They add a wonderful flavor.
Another soup that's just coming into season is curried pumpkin soup. I bought the first potrions I've seen at market yesterday and am making the soup today.
Can't wait for dinner so may have some for lunch!
-
No ax to grind in any way, but in the spirit of helpfulness here's a link. to a review of the restaurant.
Sounds very Fat Duck like and seems as if there are now three amazing culinary experimenters (I'm including Adria of course) out there. Great fun and I think we'll all eventually benefit from their adventures as the techniques trickle down through the culinary world.
Not for me I must say in terms of partaking, but I enjoy reading about them and seeing them on TV when possible.
Its tempting to try to get a reservation and head for the coast, but I'll wait for an intrepid eGulleteer to fill us all in after the event.
Wonder how he'll cope with serving more than two tables? Or will there be a limit of X covers per evening.
-
I've recently discovered that torsades au fromage are very similar to some very special cheesesticks that were my favourites when I was a child. I want to try to replicate them, but I have a couple of questions.
Every recipe I've found (such as this one and this one) uses pâte feuilletée. From what I've read, this is puff pastry dough--is this correct?
If it's correct, could I use croissant dough instead of puff pastry dough? The bakery I buy "torsade a la tomate" from says they make theirs with croissant dough, not puff pastry, but I'm not sure if that's a translation error or if that's really the way they make them (Fauchon, but in Japan). Their torsades are the closest in texture to my beloved childhood cheesesticks, so if I can use croissant dough, I should. But pâte feuilletée would probably be easier for me to use, since I can buy some very good puff pastry dough, but not croissant dough. I also have a feeling I would really suck at making croissant dough, but I would definitely try it if it meant making really good cheesesticks.
Any helpful hints out there?
I claim no particular wisdom on these, but my advice would be to stick to puff pastry.
Croissant dough tends to have a bit of sugar in it & the finished texture is different than that of puff pastry. Its more 'bread like' and less flaky.
I don't know where you are located, but in the states one used to be able to buy little part cooked croissants (they came in a little tube like container). If you could find them you could try making the cheese sticks with both types of dough and see which works best.
-
Sort of allied question and reality check.
What percentage of your monthly income (net, after taxes) do you spend on sustenance? That is food, drink, eating out and so forth.
I suspect that its a reasonably small percentage. I know we spend less than 20% on average. Thus saving on sustenance won't make a big difference to our overall monthly budget.
-
I'll thank Mike from you? He's an eG member so maybe he'll come over and chime in.
Do you like Jewish Deli food? There are a few great places you can get pastrami, corned beef, etc.
Also, Coal Fired pizza seems to be all the rage now. A pretty good one is called Anthony's. There are numerous locations. All they serve is coal fired chicken wings, pizza, 2 salads and 2 different samwiches.
DONT eat CHINESE in S. Florida. IT all SUCKS!! There is a good Thai place not far from where you're staying if you're interested in that.
Also, I know some great high end Italian. Let me know what else you want.
Just keen'em coming. This is just great.
Yes to Deli's, yes to Brazilian steak houses. High end Italian might be nice.
Are there ANY good outlet centers? Linda & her sister love to shop & find bargains.
Although the way the pound is falling this vacation won't be as inexpensive as they thought.\
Doesn't matter to us as we have dollars; in fact we're delighted that the dollar is doing so well against the Euro at the moment.
I think the map is fully updated now.
-
The only thing I can think of that's seriously wrong with British food these days are the prices. Eating out seems expensive to one who lives in France and the British supermarkets although full of wonderful things are not cheap.
Although not a Brit myself I did live in England for over 15 years and both of my wives have been British thus I do have some experience.
By the way elevenses are a cup of coffee/tea usually served with a biscuit.
The blog writing friend I think has it right. Boring British food was a product of WWII and the austerity afterwards. People who were on rationing wanted bulk & calories thus there was a lot of stogy food around. Not much else could be found or afforded. Three major things changed that.
First, the country became richer and rationing was eliminated. More, better and different food began to appear.
Second, The British started taking vacations in "Europe" and were exposed to foreign foods.. (yes, I know you can still find 'little England's in Spain & portugal, even the Dordogne!) Many liked what they ate and created a demand when they got back home.
Third, Immigration from Hong Kong, Pakistan, the West Indies slowly introduced the British to a range of ethnic cuisines. This opened up a more adventurous attitude towards food.
Today Britain has a very lively culinary scene and, I think, can hold its head high. Interestingly the British seem to have rediscovered their own regional dishes and honor them. Pease pudding, Lancashire hot pot, panalkaty (SP?) and the range of hot desserts so beloved of English schoolboys. In addition they have rediscovered their beautiful range of traditional cheeses which are as good as any cheeses anywhere.
Given only a fledgling wine industry of their own Britain has a very wide an exciting range of wines on offer from all over the world. Great stuff if a bit pricey compared to France.
All in all I would say the old reputation should a thing of the past. One eats and drinks well in today's Britain whether in private homes or pubs or restaurants.
I only fear that the coming recession will set things back.
-
Wow! Thanks for all of your valuable information. I'll be incorporating it into my map over the next day or so.
Also, thank your nameless friend.
Should you ever come to SW France you now know who to call on for help!
-
Well I started going through all the Ft Lauderdale posts I could find for place thar looked good.
As an aide I put together this. Its an interactive map of the places I've seen mentioned.
Use it for what its worth. Better yet feed me more places!
-
Do you know what area of Ft. Lauderdale? Believe it or not, its quite large.
I can tell you where to get great bagels and NY style Pizza. I can also give you some good shopping options. I do do much fine dining when I'm there, but can give you more casual options.
Also check Chowhound, there is an active Florida board.
Thanks for the tip. Our friend's house is near Mayan Lake & South Beach Park. Does that help?
Some of the things I'd particularly be interested in are:
- A great hamburger joint. Don't have those in rural France.
- Likewise a great BBQ place.
- Best wine shop?
- Is there an outstanding Mexican place? I do my best here, but I'm not that good.
- Naturally, Cuban!
- Best nearby Supermarket. The thread tells me that there's a good Wholefoods, but I don't know how far away it is. We have fond memories of the one in Providence, RI.
I could go on, but really anywhere food related that local people think worth mentioning.
Thanks again for any & all help.
-
I need help.
I will be staying in Ft Lauderdale for two weeks in mid-January. We'll be staying with friends who have recently purchased a house there. I don't know the area at all as I haven't even visited for over ten years.
Here's the rub. I'm the only American in the group. There will be my wife who is British, her sister & her husband and our hosts who are also British. Needless to say I want to put on a good show for my British friends & relations.
We have two serious cooks in the group and everyone is a serious diner open to all styles of food. I suspect that we'll cook in about half the time.
So, I'm looking for suggestions for both food shopping and dining. We'll try anything but French or English cuisine. (on point bring coals to Newcastle so to speak.
I've read the thread and there are lots of great suggestions there, but I'm looking for more and I'm looking for up to date 'local knowledge'.
Any & all help greatly appreciated.
-
If you want an absolute ton of iSi compatible recipes, Khymos's free Hydrocolloids book is the way to go.
http://blog.khymos.org/2008/06/25/hydrocol...collection-v21/
Seriously amazing free resource.
Serious thanks for pointing to this amazing resource. I appreciate it.
Goose!
in Cooking
Posted
Didn't say anything about either rare or duck.
One cooks the breast until its still juicy which takes less time than most of the other parts.
Thus dismember the goose & cook each part as appropriate.