highchef

file' Edit...you asked, I gave.

I am back and had a wonderful time. A long walk in the snow to Formaggio's kitchen (south end) ended in a 3 figure take out of wine, cheese, cookies (pear, and so good) pate', Perbellini bread which I carried home for Easter on the plane. Gifts for all the people I farmed my kids out to. Mostly Chocolates. The only 'common' thing I bought there were some Carrs' water crackers to go with the pate' and cheese. Thank you for telling me about that, it was so worth getting lost (I did it first day out, in the snow and REALLY discovered that end of town. The resturants...a little later I'll go into them, have to pick up now, but wanted to say a big THANK YOU to you guys for the help.

I get 'into' things. Over the holidays I was doing the chocolate thing, buying and seeking out and comparing taste and what %'s and sweetness' go with what. so many combinations! Before that it was flours and now it's been playing with seafood...With Easter coming it'll be savory holiday dishes. I just go whereever time and cravings take me. Hitting little ethnic markets and georgous farmers markets have been encouraging too. It's Spring, I won't get bored real soon!

My conclusion from this discussion is. if you're following a recipe and want to do the extra step, then go the whole 9 yards and go do the classical thing. On a daily basis though my cooking is a dailylevolution. I have demi etc. in the freezer, but I'm more likely to cook something that requires a stock as a result of having the ingredients from something else that points me in that direction.cooking has many different paths and I think I'll just do what comes available and consider the variations of flavor (albeit, this way would be hit or miss for beginner cooks) a bonus. very informative thread.

I think it's all relative...resturants and homes use what they have. As far as the knawed bones..well when you have big dogs (I know, I know, Your not supposed to give them that, but YOU tell my husband and the labs that) they find their way outside. Heck, I had a setter once who helped himself to a turkey leg at thanksgiving then wagged to go outside with it. Mom threw a fit for someone to 'grab that dog' but I pointed out to her that we wern't about to eat that leg after the dog slobbered all over it...gotta draw the line somewhere! I have been making chicken broth and concentrating it down (without salt) and just using that when I don't need/want to use the veal demi I made. BTW, I was in a little market the Boston people turned me onto this week and they had veal demi and chicken and beef concentrates. This is a high quality place, with the best of the best...olive oils, breads, chocolate, spices, pates', wonderful wines. I bought the veal to compare with what's in my freezer. When I get back from this trip this weekend, I'll make something with it and let you know how it is cause I think you may be able to order it. It's high...7 bucks for maybe an ounce, but if it's good it'll be worth having on hand. I have never seen veal demi in a condensed paste before..we'll see.

good point, and rest assured that I don't use knawed turkey bones...just the carcass when I make the after holiday gumbo mentioned above. Since I do the cooking and the cleaning, I know what was left on the platter and what came off a plate. Honestly, I've never had turkey gumbo made any other way. That's what I was getting too up thread, there is a logical reason for doing what you do and the resturant is always deboning for the raw meat then using the bones, where most home cooks would probably at most debone the breast for a recipe. A resturant would have ample supply of the raw bones available, but the home cook would have to do the added step unless he/she bought them. I'll ask about buying chicken bones from my local supermarket, but I'll bet the kid looks at me like I'm from another planet...I swear most cuts must come packaged already, they really don't know how to cut anything for me except tri-tips...guess I got lucky!

Sounds like fun! thanks!

got ya. Thanks, boots jeans heavy socks, heavy sweaters (I have a couple)and moms mink!! I'm ready!! Bring it on! I thank you all and look forward to visiting. I will post late next week when I get back and let you know where we/I ate and how many fingers and toes I have left. This is our chance to try some new stuff.. Ethiopian and Afghan resturants are not found here. The choices are amazing, I just need to sit down with a map and plan the days out. Besides the Spice shop in Cambridge, are there any other must do kitchen places? Local products I must bring home? Thanks again..

I have come to the conclusion that Dorchester is a cab ride straight to the cemetery. I've seen the web site and the cemeteries themselves are being maintained and in fact are still taking customers so they should be ok, I'll have the cabbie stay. How long is the weather supposed to be snowy? The cold is ok but snow is only a novelty for a brief time! (she says from the relative warmth of the deep south)

I have children, but are not bringing them and they are heartbroken until I walk back into their lives with presents. They'll live. I'll check out the museums, thank you !

I am making notes left and right.. please pm me if you know anything about Dorchester itself. what is the haymarket? Can I buy flowers there? thanks everyone, I'm making notes and will try as many places as I can. As an aside............. There has never been a place like this before, where someone can get what info they want and need asap....this is better than cool...........this is E-GULLET!!!!

Gallygirl wrote..Many parts of Dorchester are actually very well served by the T (our "L", if you will, short for MBTA) The JFK Library (which is wonderful) is served by its own stop on the redline, JFK/UMass. Afterward, get back on the redline, and go another stop or two to Fields Corner, which stop is about a block or so from Pho 2000, the best Vietnamese restaurant in Boston, Thank you, I knew it was the T...habit. Pho 2000 it is. I'll check it out after the museum since apparently there's no good lunch to be had there. I'll give the north end and the italian area a day of it's own, I was curious about the science musuem and did want to see the aquarium.That may be where the SAGE resturant is that I read about, I'll have to double check. Filenes and China town..if I spend too much it'll be lunch at 36Beach st. and do dinner with hubby and check out Peach Farm seafood. Are you guys sure these are Chinese resturants???!!! Thanks for the info, I'm happy happy to hear the Westin anchors a mall, but I don't want to shop ALL the time so I'm praying it clears up for next week. Any pre-St. Patricks day stuff in the works? Have to leave on the 17th so will miss the day itself, but wouldn't mind lifting a pint in a good Irish pub (or two..did I tell you I was Irish?)

Suggestions please. Hubby and I are heading to Boston this weekend until St. Patricks day. He's working during the day, so Ill be on my own, which is ok since we're staying at the Westin Copley place and there's plenty of things to keep me occupied. I'm a little worried about getting around outside of the area ( I want to go into Dorchester and visit my grandparents graves) because 1) I don't know how to get there from there via the L, and 2) it's supposed to be a nice snowy weekend and I'm a Louisiana girl, so mile long hikes in the snow arn't gonna happen. I read some old threads about resturants and I'd like to try Sage, Grill 23 and the East Coast Grill with my husband, and check out China town on my own for lunch one day, and go to the JFK museum and have lunch there. any ideas from there for the other couple of days I'll be winging it?? I confess, I thought I'd be walking and exploring in nice spring weather. I don't want to spend a fortune in cabs so help me plan my lonely excursions with places of interest to a foodie and shopaholic and history bluff, with ancestrial ties to Boston. (Daddy was a double eagle). Any exhibits going on? is the haymarket open this time of year? Have they ironed out the kinks at Smith and Wollensky's? Tell me about the museums and the galleries and any new resturant that I must try. Money is no object, this is my vacation. Good eating near Felines? you get the picture...shop, eat..sightsee, eat...browse, find a bakery...

← Well, that's enough for me to try and establish a regular supply of organic chickens, even if I have to take up all my freezer room to buy in bulk. Thanks for the ingredient info..I take it that organic poultry food would be the first 5 ingredients...

What's worrying you about hormones? Were you aware that in the US no poultry, organic or otherwise, are given growth hormones? Eggs do have high levels of some hormones --higher than beef raised with hormones-- but they are present naturally, not as a result of supplementation. ← I was apparently under the wrong impression that chickens were given hormones to develop those oversized breast....or maybe I have the wrong species! Why do the 'organic' chickens make a point of saying NO HORMONES, if they arn't added commercially? Is this a fallacy created by hysterics/militant mother earth news readers? (don't yell, I used to subscribe myself, but quit when I realized y2k was a non event!) just curious...

I found 2 farms within a couple of hours driving from here. I'll be going right by one of them Sat. morning. I've e-mailed them to see if I can pick up some chickens and eggs. Thank you for that site, I'd never have known those farms were there without it. I've not tried organic eggs, but do use organic butter and milk so it's a logical next step. I've heard they are noticeably better, so I should see at once if paying extra is going to be worth it, not like the chickens. btw, I made those 2 chickens I paid 3.29$ for do triple duty. We ate them roasted (critique above) Then I used the leftover meat for chicken spagetti, then roasted the bones and made stock. Think I got my moneys worth!!! Thanks again Steverino (my bil's name), that is a HUGE help.

What is that? about 17$?? still cheaper than 40! It makes a case though, for introducing more produce and less meat into our diet. For me it's the cleanliness issue, I think to have a healthy bird you're gonna need more space. First, though, I'm getting worried about hormones. Organic, fenced in chickens! That's what I'm after, for under 10$/each. I think this is where I need to make friends with some country people, and cut a deal.

I cooked the chicken my sister brought. It was not marked 'free range' but she was told it was, I thought it was a bit fat for that from what I've heard. It was marked hormone free and organic, which I think is a major attraction. It cooked and tasted like a Tyson, but with denser meat and darker 'dark' meat. I'd probably go that route if they were available. There's another in the freezer marked as above but also as 'free range'. It is smaller and more expensive. I think he'll become stock on the reccommendation of farmer dave. Thanks. They are called 'Smart choice' and I believe they're from HEB. I'd like to find someone local who'll does the organic/hormone free thing, but I won't hold my breath.

a pate' would be good.

Well, I guess chili's out..are you afraid of a shoot out? Someone mentioned jambalaya, but I think that's toooo easy. what about paella? Where's that vanilla/saffron thread?

I don't have access to free range birds, but I've been reading up on stock making techniques (the lesson here, from Les Halles, and Chef Folse's new encyclopedia for starters). In Les Halles, Mr. Bourdain stresses his preference for the free range chickens quite graphically, but it's not right there by his stock making recipe. It's an opinion elsewhere in the book, but I assume that's what he uses since he really doesn't like the way chickens are raised commercially. No one else makes a distinction. Anyway, since I have a sister who frequently runs I-10 between NOLA and Houston I asked her to bring me one so I could check it out. Now...what sort of taste test do I devise to see any appreciable differences? I was considering quartering it and braising in my large LC 'Chefs' pan (think large paella). What, if any, opinion do you have on these birds? worth the bucks? must cook them tomorrow, what would you do? (I am going to save the bones and makes stock..even though they'll be cooked already. For what I paid her for them, I'm going to get a few meals from the investment!)

I've suggested on the chili thread that it should be the next cook off. I'm link illiterate or I'd send you there. It's basically an argument (nice one!) of what constitutes chili. I'd like to see what you think!

wow! I'm going to have to try that! I have a house full of boys who'd pay good money to see mom turn green. I may have to make a practice run when they're not here though, cause it does seem kinda wierd...and I hate losing bets.

I thought miss foodie was speaking as an appetizer (the johnny cakes) but a corn bread is good with anything. Hushpuppies arn't cornbread. They're made with cornmeal, but fried like fritters and usuallly are served with other fried foods. If this was a buffett, I'd make some quarter size corn pancakes and have different toppings for them (that cavier someone down here is marketing is supposed to be good, made of roe from what? alligater gar? )as a pseudo southern appetizer.. but have french bread with the gumbo itself. imho. edit: I'll look up the southern cavier when I remember where it was I saw it. Louisiana Magazine?? or maybe Southern Living?

forgot about dixie ← Mayhaw Man could tell you about the varieties of Abita, there are a few. Dixie is good when it's ice cold and in LONGNECK bottles, that's the key to drinking Dixie. Have fun!