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Thanks, but I didn't have time for a grocery store run last night, so I had to use what was on-hand. Found a recipe from Bittman that worked out really well: In a large skillet, saute chopped onion/shallot in olive oil; when softened add 1.5 cups rice. When rice is glossy, add 1 teaspoon turmeric & saute another few seconds. Add 3 cups hot water or broth & bring to a boil. Lower heat a bit & cover for 15 mins, then turn off heat and let sit another 15-30. Came out perfect!

Thanks, feedme. I saw Daisy Martinez's recipes recommended elsewhere, but unfortunately I don't have any achiote oil. At this point I'm willing to sacrifice authenticity to get something approximating the flavor you'd get in a Cuban restaurant, kwim?

Hi all. Haven't been on eG in a while but I know somebody here has the answer to this question: What's a good, basic recipe for yellow rice, Latin-style, to accompany ropa vieja. I'm pretty sure this is the easiest thing in the world, but I'd love to know how you do it. I've got turmeric on hand, but no saffron. Thanks!

plus this .. a pictorial on matzo brie ← Thanks for the nod to my blog, Melissa! I've also got a couple of other Pesach recipes: Chocolate Souffle Cake (a diet-friendly version, no less) Jewish-Style Smothered Chicken

Just popping in to add myself to the "excited" list--both my parents and my in-laws live near TJs, so we go whenever we visit either. Whoever said to only bring cash was absolutely right: When we went last weekend we dropped $92 and still needed to go to the "real" store for produce, etc. I consider this mostly supplemental stuff, things to go into recipes or make life easier on a busy night, but not for the most part it ain't pantry staples.

I'm a huge fan of kale braised with lots of garlic, or tossing handfuls of greens into a soup at the very end--just did this last night with some leftover (uncooked) escarole, which went into a farro & white bean soup. That escarole was extra from this dish, braised escarole and white beans: It's in Molly Stevens' All About Braising. Fabulous cookbook. More details, including the recipe, on my blog if you're curious.

Monavano, that link is to my blog--my husband grew up in south Jersey & adores this stuff so I made it for him, exactly twice since it's so deadly unhealthy (he's got cholesterol issues, so something with "butter" in the name isn't exactly recommended eating). Let me know how it turns out!

I'm just back from my local farmer's market, where I bought fresh young garlic with greens & scapes still attached. I knew I'd find advice on EG! Now I have lots of ideas for the scapes, but does anybody have experience with the garlic itself, and the stalks? The farmer told me it's stronger than stored garlic, no peeling required, although the stalks are milder. I'd like to do something with it that'll make garlic the star of the dish, but I'm afraid it might be overwhelming. Suggestions?

And thanks to you, cheeseandchocolate!

My wedding (this past May) was catered by the restaurant I used to work for, so we had a lot of input on the menu. Sunday, early afternoon, fairly casual: Passed hors d'oeuvres: Swiss chard & shallot tartlets Pigs in blankets Vegetable dumplings with soy-ginger-scallion dipping sauce Smoked salmon mousse on pumpernickel rosettes Salad buffet: Poached salmon salad w/fava beans, red bliss potatoes, chives, & lemon sea salt Grilled vegs with lemon aioli & roasted red pepper dip My mom's recipe--cucumber salad My huband's grandma's recipe--caponata Baby arugula, spinach, and radicchio with roasted baby beets & balsamic vinaigrette Crispy sesame chicken skewers Dessert buffet: Chocolate-dipped mini-macaroons German chocolate and double-chocolate brownies Chocolate chip cookies from City Bakery (my absolute favorite) And the cake: Cupcakes! I do remember eating a plate full of food, though I don't recall specifically what I ate--but there were an awful lot of comments about how wonderful it all tasted. And the best part was that there were six cookies left (and if you know CB's cookies, you know they're huge). We brought them on the honeymoon!

Mmmm yes, the Donut Plant is just a few doors east of Kossar's. The Lower East Side/East Village is just filled with good foodie places. I thought of a couple more: -Katz's deli on Houston, for perfect NY pastrami (in case, as Rozrapp suggested, you still need to sample some). -Russ & Daughter's, also on Houston (near Yonah Schimmell, suggested above) for smoked fish & "appetizing" -Moishe's on Grand St (another is on 2nd Ave in the E. Village) for black & white cookies & Jewish rye bread -Veselka on 2nd Ave for pierogies & hearty soups -Pepe Rosso To Go on Sullivan Street for great, inexpensive Italian (they have a couple tables, but it's not a restaurant by any stretch of the imagination) I'm sure there are more... You could spend an entire day eating within a 15-block radius. Oh, and if you want to see old-school NY foodies in their natural habitat, take a trip to the Upper West Side and check out Fairway, Zabars, and Barney Greengrass.

The chocolate chip cookies at City Bakery (18th St betw. 5th/6th Aves) are the best. cookies. in. the. world. If you like gelato, Il Laboratorio del Gelato on Orchard Street (Lower East Side) is worth a special trip. It's the guy who founded Ciao Bella, making small-batch, intensely flavored stuff. Try the chestnut, the dark chocolate, the pistachio... Nearby on Rivington is Economy Candy, an old-time penny candy store with an impressive array of high-end stuff, too. Also not far, Kossar's Bialys on Grand Street. The best bialy you'll ever eat. And I'm sure this'll ignite an argument, but I think the best bagels in the city are made by Ess-a-Bagel. They've got a couple of locations around town.

Here's how the midtown Manhattan restaurant I used to work at got in, after years of lobbying and being ignored: Tim Zagat whizzed past in a cab one night just before the book closed for the year, and saw that we had a huge crowd outside. It was a private event, but it made it look like we were a hotspot. He whipped out his cell phone and called an editor from the cab. The guy contacted me for info/details the next day, and we were in. Silly, but true.

I just got it yesterday (a late birthday gift, yay). In my sun-filled office the yellow doesn't seem so bad, but this doesn't seem to be a first edition so maybe they've fixed it already. What have you cooked from it? I only see a couple of recipes mentioned here...

Doesn't this also depend on what kind of restaurant it is? One of my (former) favorite neighborhood places--stress the word NEIGHBORHOOD, although the food is very good--refused to substitute a baked potato, which is on their menu, for the au gratin side that came with one of the entrees. Now, call me crazy, but if I'm trying to avoid overindulging and I know the restaurant has a baked potato back there, why on earth shouldn't I be allowed to request it? That strikes me as an overly imperious chef, one who doesn't give a hoot about whether the diner goes away happy. (If this were a 3- or 4-star place I'd understand, but we're talking about an upscale tavern here...) We don't go there anymore.

PSA for New Yorkers: I got an email the other day from the Museum of the Moving Image: "Saturday, January 8th at 7:00 p.m. Moving Image will present a special screening of SIDEWAYS, the film that swept the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, winning four major awards including Best Picture. After the screening, stars Paul Giamatti (Best Actor), Virginia Madsen (Best Supporting Actress), and Thomas Haden Church will participate in a Pinewood Dialogue moderated by David Schwartz, the Museum's Chief Curator of Film. This screening is part of the Museum’s annual New York Film Critics Circle series. "This event will take place on Saturday, January 8, 2005, at 7:00 p.m. at the Directors’ Guild Theater, 110 West 57th Street in Manhattan. Admission is $18 for the public and $12 for Museum members. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, December 22 at 10:00 a.m. Call (718) 784-4520 to reserve yours now."

I've got a late-December birthday, and Hanukkah, and Christmas, so I cleaned up this year: The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion Jacques Pepin Fast Food My Way Roul'Pat Silicone Pastry Mat Flour sifter Cookie scoop Pizza cutter Farberware Millennium 12" nonstick skillet Silicone spatulas Bag of goodies from Trader Joe's That's it, I think, but I may have forgotten a cookbook or something...

A brief report on 9:00 dinner this past Wednesday: We didn't end up going early enough to see the grounds--just couldn't think of a way to fill the five hours before our reservation. All in all, it was a lovely meal but as the courses progressed we were less and less thrilled. Service was impeccable, almost to the point of overkill but never going quite that far. A note about wine: I've developed a bizarre allergy over the last year and my husband was driving, so we abstained. In the end I'm sort of glad we did, since the bill could easily have doubled. 2 amuses: a warm chickpea soup with aleppo pepper, served in the tall flute shot glasses others have mentioned here, which was pretty spectacular; and goat cheese & chives in a parmesan cup with a candied walnut--you'll probably all kill me but I'm not a cheese-lover so I didn't taste it, and let my husband have both of ours. He loved them. We were really looking forward to our meal by this point. We had three savory courses each, in this order: 1. Me: Mushroom Tartelette, described as "local wild mushrooms, walnuts and fingerling potatoes." It turned out to be sliced portobellos laid over chunky mashed potatoes, with a small salad of greens and other mushrooms alongside. The walnuts were in a puree between the mushrooms and potatoes, the waitress said as she presented the dish, but I couldn't taste them to save my life. It was beautifully and precisely presented, delicious but not WOW. I liked my husband's salad much better... 1. Him: Baby Romaine Lettuce, with a panko-breaded and flash-fried egg, pine nuts, and warm pancetta vinaigrette. This was the WOW dish of the evening, by far. We were quite excited by it, and hopeful that it was an indication of more excitement to come. 2. Me: Poached Chicken Breast, with "farro and roasted carnival and cabocha squash." This was lovely, silken-textured chicken with chewy grains and a lively sauce--with soy or something like it, to richen and deepen it (and make it slightly too-salty). But after a few bites I got a little bored--each mouthful tasted the same. I'm not sure I would've been happy with this in an entree size. 2. Him: Homemade Cavatelli with guanciale and broccoli. This was another beautiful, but not spectacular dish. The cavatelli had a nice flavor and texture--though it was almost too al dente--but the guanciale tasted very much like the pancetta in the salad, and though the broccoli had been cut into the tiniest, cutest little florets I've ever seen, the whole thing didn't quite hold together as a dish. 3. Me: Wild Striped Bass, with "hen of the wood mushroom, caramelized cauliflower, almond and caper vinaigrette." This was the big disappointment--I was really looking forward to this, loved every aspect of it in the menu description, and the waitress had raved about it when I wavered between it and the Cod. Ultimately, it was fine, but the fish was underdone--again, call me a philistine, but I'm not a fan of raw, tough fish. I'm not sure if it was intentional, or if the kitchen screwed it up, but I ended up leaving a hunk of flesh behind on the plate. I was surprised that nobody asked if there was a problem (which makes me suspect it was, in fact, intentionally undercooked). As for the other components, the capers didn't add the punch I expected, the almonds were visible but added no flavor, and the cauliflower was little more than fine. The mushrooms were the best part, earthy and slightly crispy. 3. Him: Crescent Duck, with "romaine, stew of napoli carrots with toasted spices, fromage blanc spaetzle." Another almost-winner. He loved the duck, said he'd never enjoyed it prepared to that texture before (soft, rather than crispy) but in this case it worked. The vegetables were lovely, perfectly cooked, and the spaetzle, served in its own small iron pot, was browned and tangy from the fromage blanc. But the sauce, which covered the duck and vegetables, struck me as a little too one-note. Underwhelming. Dessert: we shared the Warm Chocolate Bread Pudding, with "caramel ice cream and pine nuts," and it, too, disappointed just a bit. It's a good-sized square of the pudding, served with a quenelle of ice cream on top. A couple of pleasing textural surprises: the pudding had a creme-brulee-like sugar shell, which added a nice jolt, and the pine nuts were somehow hidden underneath or inside the pudding, in a small pile in the center. We'd forgotten reading about them in the menu, so coming across a nutty interruption partway through was a clever bonus. But flavorwise, we weren't as happy. While the pudding looked nearly black (though that could've been the dim lighting), it had surprisingly little fudginess to it. If I'd been served this blindfolded, I'm not sure I would've recognized it as a chocolate-based dessert. And the caramel ice cream, of which normally I'm a great fan, seemed to be made from an overcooked caramel, veering towards burnt and acrid. A nice little send-off with the coffee: chocolate-covered almonds, which were delicious and perfect. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but in the end it struck me as a place striving for four-starness but just missing. The service, the setting, and the presentation were all there, but the food itself: not so much. Excuse the blatant plug but if you'd like more detail, within the next day or two I plan to write a bigger, more thorough report for my blog, with pictures (click in my signature below). I'd post the pictures here but a) I don't know how, and b) the lighting was so low I'm still trying to figure out how to make them usable!

Well, my big birthday dinner is finally here--tomorrow. We have a 9:00 reservation and we were thinking about heading up there early, so we can see the place in daylight. Problem is, that leaves us with a good four or five hours to fill in the area. Any suggestions for nearby attractions that'll be open in the early evening?

I've never owned a sifter before, always used a sieve and it was just ducky. But my husband, sweetheart that he is, gave me a sifter for Hanukkah. I just used it for the first time and it occurs to me that I'm not sure how to clean it--it's got sort of a complicated inside (and we don't have a dishwasher). I seem to recall my mom just keeping hers in a plastic bag and never washing it--is that what people do?

There's also Chimu, a Peruvian "Steak House" on Union Avenue in Williamsburg. I'm a big fan of their rotisserie chicken, but I'm not sure if it meets the low-class charm qualification. It's inexpensive, but they've put in a lot of effort to make it charming.

I'll jump on that soup bandwagon--last night I made mushroom barley, enough for four meals, for about $3. Last week it was epicurious's Lentil & Brown Rice. Other times I'll just throw whatever aging veggies I have in a pot with some stock and let it simmer. I also separate the trimmings from chicken cutlets--you know, the little bits that come off when you're preparing them for the freezer--and freeze those separately. I'll usually get at least 1/2 pound out of a family-pack of cutlets, and it's perfect for stir fry. It's all cut up and ready to go! Oh, and my mom's old standby, American Chop Suey. It's elbow macaroni & ground meat with tomato & worcestershire sauces, onion & celery. Yummmm.

OK I did stop by this weekend, and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. We got there around 3:00 yesterday afternoon (Sunday), and the place was indeed jumping. Not overflowing, out-the-door lines, but there were half a dozen people eating already, and another half a dozen checking things out and placing orders. In the twenty minutes my husband and I spent there, I'd say they had about 25 people wander in. Several left without ordering, but the majority did seem to be there to buy. The atmosphere was cute, fun, lively--and a little prepackaged-feeling. It's all pretty slick, as if it's part of a franchise already. And as my husband pointed out, the college vibe was definitely there--the living room area, where we sat, was so messy it felt a bit like a dormitory common room before the cleaning crew arrives. As for the food, it was...cereal. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but somehow I thought it would take on magical qualities by nature of being served by "cereologists." My husband ordered one of their suggested mixes, the PB&B Crunch: Cap'n Crunch, Reese's Puffs, raisins, banana slices, and chocolate syrup, for $3.50 (I think). He was a little disappointed when they handed it to him--it hadn't been mixed at all, just poured in one ingredient on top of the next. He didn't mix it himself before pouring in the milk, and the result was spoonfuls of raisins, of bananas, of cereal, but very little that gelled or felt like a "specialty." My husband's biggest complaint, though, was about the packaging: while the modified chinese take-out box is very clever and leakproof, it's impossible to drink the remaining milk by tipping it back and pouring it into your mouth--it would spill all down your front. They do have straws, but half the fun of leftover milk is drinking it straight from the bowl, no? I had an oatmeal brownie, one of their prepared goodies (others being a s'mores bar, several kinds of granola, and yogurt-cereal parfaits). It was a layer of brownie with a layer of chewy oatmeal dough on top. Delicious, fudgy and not too heavy, but it wasn't good enough to make me want to go back time and again. The oatmeal didn't seem to be adding much to the experience, other than qualifying it to be sold in a cereal-only establishment. While I was taking pictures the manager (I think) came over and we started talking. He said business is huge, with all the publicity they've been getting. Apparently Jay Leno mentioned them in his monologue the other day. You know you've hit the mainstream when Jay Leno's talking about you...

Woo hoo! Success! I just baked a batch and they're EXACTLY what I was looking for. Chewy and crispy and thick and golden brown. If I knew how to post pictures, I would. (I took a bunch for my blog, so if you're curious click on the link in my signature later on today). Thank you all soooo much. I made a couple of changes, using various suggestions: 1. Creamed the butter and sugars together at the beginning, eliminating the initial creaming of the butter alone (chefpeon's) 2. Did all mixing on low speed, rather than medium (KarenS's) 3. Refrigerated dough (in bowl) before baking (JFLinLA's, sorta) Here's the final recipe: Chocolate Chunk Cookies Ingredients: 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour ½ t. baking soda ½ t. salt ¼ pound (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces ½ cup sugar ¾ cup tightly packed light brown sugar 1 ½ t. vanilla extract 1 large egg, at room temperature, lightly beaten 7 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2 inch chunks (I just used half a 12-oz bag of bittersweet Ghiardelli chocolate chips) 1) Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. 2) Using a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugars on low speed until it is smooth and lump free, about 3 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle. 3) Add the vanilla and egg and beat on low speed for 15 seconds, or until fully incorporated. Do not overbeat. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle. 4) On low speed, add the flour mixture. Beat until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the chocolate chunks and mix until they are just incorporated. If using a hand mixer, use a wooden spoon to stir them in. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour. 5) Preheat oven to 350. Adjust racks to lower and upper thirds of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats. Spoon the dough using a cookie scooper 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. (makes about 22 3-inch round cookies) 6) Bake for 11-13 minutes [it’s 13 in my oven] or until golden brown around the edges, turning the sheets front to back and switching racks halfway through. Remove the sheet from the oven and carefully slide the parchment or Silpats directly onto a work surface. When cookies are set, remove them to a cooling rack. Wait at least 5 minutes before serving or 20 minutes before storing in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.

Thanks for the quick responses, everyone! Hmm chefpeon, that's a good point about the double-creaming, at least as far as the greasiness goes. I'll try your cream-it-all-at-once suggestion next time, and if that doesn't work I'll definitely try melting the butter. Is your recipe by any chance the same as ellencho's Alton Brown one? It's got melted butter, bread flour, & milk too. And is it really chewy, or chewy-inside & crispy-outside? Cuz the latter's what I'm hoping for... Cherimoya, I've already played with the sugar ratio--the original recipe was equal. I wasn't sure how much further I could push it!