chefzadi

This seems like a good place to get into flavor combinations and to play around with some variations of charamoula (also spelled chermoula, Arabs can't seem to decide on how to prounounce vowels. ) If I were preparing a charamoula for roasted/grilled eggplant I would add things that would play well with the smokiness of eggplant. First I would add olive oil, because in this context it's more of a dressing and eggplant is born to coupled with olive oil. Maybe (not all of it) sun dried tomatoes, slow roasted or fresh tomato, roasted or fresh red peppers, harissa, onions or shallots, almonds or pine nuts... for seafood or chicken any of the above, also preserved lemon, lemon zest, olives, fresh ginger... Depending on the application the ingredients could be pureed together or finely minced or chopped...

I'm laughing so hard, tears are streaming down face! I didn't know Mario was a comedian too. Although his shorts always made me laugh. He doesn't have the legs for them, non?

French Poultry site. Global poultry site with links..

Just to clarify, I didn't say anything about Italian food here. I was admiring Ivan's post and Ptipois was agreeing with my admiration for the poetry in that post.

I understood that immediately. I like your sense of humour Mr Busboy and appreciate your posts.

Ideally it must occur in France, you must be French and the food has to cooked by a Frenchman or woman. I'm afraid so... We're in the France forum discussing French cooking. So one person shared an experience, very poetically. I suppose if this person had such a culinary moment in Hoboken it would have been called the "Hoboken epiphany" in the New Jersey forum. Sure it can occur anywhere. The thing about epiphanies is that time and place are hard to predict... hard to say who will have one, if ever...

The producers of Bresse poultry all follow the same AOC standards. The rules are quite precise and the birds are feeding off of the same terroir. The flavor differences are the result of natural farming and not a more homegenized/industrial style. (Why does American free range chicken always taste the same?) Leave it to the French to spend all this time and care knowing that the splendor of what makes Bresse poultry so great is that ultimately mother nature decides. When she is fickle we settle for poultry that is just plain good, well really good. But she tends to be kinder to Bresse poultry more often than she is with other birds, because she knows the farmers are trying to help. And when she kisses a bird with gold, it is sublime as ptipois described.

All true. Another good one is to tell hospital that your water broke (helps if your OB/GYN is in on it) ← She did that too...

All of Europe, I don't know. Volailled de Bresse are the only AOC poultry Outside of Bresse, perhaps hormone injection, unless it's a free-range/all natural/hormone free producer. Coqs aren't hung like horses, it takes delicate hands to do this. I've never tried. In Bresse most likely surgical. Bresse poultry has to be all natural, no hormones. I really don't know much about castrating capons with hormones. I'm sure someone, somewhere is concerned about it. I haven't heard about it though. Capons have the most white meat and higher fat content. They are thought to have the most flavor and tenderness. It's the result of screwing with mother nature.

I think the proper Freudian answer is that they are all vaginas or penises.

A puree is good to suit your tastes.

The tourne was invented before the melon baller. Is there any cooked thing that is the same on the outside as it is on the inside?

Have you heard the stories about Catherine and the horses? Or am I thinking about a different Catherine? Equally great, of course. The Hague just doesn't have the same terroir. Good for growing pot and redlights.

My wife tells me walking and/or sex. (both I say) Or faking labor within two weeks of due date, sure recipe for pitocin drip...

Well, is it that do you expect you won't, on this particular subject? It's true that the French are not usually big experts on rice. Other nations are much better at it. There are weak points and undeveloped fields in every cuisine and this is one. Our habit of cooking rice in plenty of salted water (riz à la créole) has resulted in much soggy white stuff on dinner tables. But we're pretty good at provençal tians (plenty of flavors), baked rice puddings, and the technique of pilafs cooked in meat stocks has been mastered a long time ago by French cooks, resulting in delicious "riz au gras", my favorite recipe including bay leaf, whole almonds, a few sultanas and petits lardons. I first found the recipe in a Claude Peyrot book, where this rice was to be used as stuffing for a guinea-fowl. It is wonderful and can be served on its own. Just what kind of rice recipe would you like to read about? ← Thanks, Ptipois! I was just wondering how I could introduce rice into French dishes without causing resistance, in a "pleasant departure from the norm" sort of way. Your reply is enough to satisfy my curiosity. I think I can make some experiments with your suggestions in mind. As much as I appreciate your immediate reply, I still feel inclined to start such a topic in the Cooking Forum rather than the France Forum. ← We do rice with chicken also. Blanquette de Veau can be served with rice. Why start the topic in the cooking forum rather than here?

Hey you! That's one of my favorite posts. The French, or rather a few French, we're the first to codify the primordial culinary slime. It's the leg up we have. I think that I just said nothing. EDIT Where else do they lead? Lyon, perhaps or Oran...

Also culture is like confiture. The less you have the more you spread it, sort of like the restaurant owner who inspired the question behing the thread. I guess the name of her restaurant is appropriate for her concept afterall...

If any of you have had a braised beef dish in France, chances are it was made with two buck chuck at the mid and below places. Above that better quality wines will be used, but then again beef braised in wine probably won't be on a haute menu. The aromatic subtleties will dissipate into air with cooking. The flavors that the wine leaves are acidity and sugars mostly. "medium body, dark fruits, honey, tobacco" etc, ya think you'll be able to smell or taste this in a boeuf bourguignon? At home? If it's more than $10 I'm drinking it.

What would you consider a chef oriented cookbook? I've read some threads in the cooking forum regarding a few cookbooks. There is one in particular that I think is not the best to try to learn techniques from (since it does a poor job of explaining them step by step nor does it clearly explain which steps aren't really necessary) and it doesn't have very many recipes that I would suggest to home cooks unless they have a kitchen staff of say 40. I suppose this chef was the first to publish certain aspects of cuisine gastronomique techniques to an American audience. I have no problems with these types of cookbooks. But it was a bit painful to read some of the posts/threads about a particular recipe that took hours and hours to do, I think someone gave up in exhaustion mid way through. It's really a simple dish and the techniques were simple enough, but there were alot of steps that were more for the sake appearance at an extreme level.

Juice of half a lemon (or vinegar, depending on the application) ½ cup fresh flat leaf parsley or cilantro 5 cloves garlic 1 ts sweet paprika ½ ts hot red chili powder 1 ts cumin You can add oil, as per Ms Wolfert's suggestion. It's also good for crudites, seafood kebabs and cigars. Why for lamb? I don't know if I would put chili powder and paprika on lamb for grilling or roasting. I mean if you want to, there's nothing wrong with it.

Here we go again. I think you are more familiar with the part of the Arab world that makes flat bread with an air pocket. In Algeria street food is eaten on the street, often. At night squares fill up with street food vendors and people eat where they pruchase the food. Walking and eating is not common at all. Maybe a sfenj doughnut in the morning. But generally it's considered not a good thing. As for fasting if it's not to lose weight and it's for religious reasons, well the whole country is supposed to be doing it. So there will be no food vendors, street or otherwise open during daylight. As for disrespect to those who cannot afford it, if a hungry man or someone poorer or if anyone asks you for food you're supposed to offer with a warm heart. I don't know if this is Muslim, as much at it is an Arab thing. I'm teasing Behemoth a little here. Back on topic. As for the North African/ Middle Eastern places in France I mentioned upthread, it's not street food. I just mentioned it because they seem to be the most casual of mom and pop restaurants. Vietnamese might be just as casual but it isn't found as frequently, so I didn't mention it earlier. I also can't think of a Vietnamese dish that has become "French" like couscous has.

A few months ago I had some questions about capons, and AOC chickens. I asked about them on the French forum, and got no replies. Haven't been back since... ← That's cause I wasn't here a few months ago. I actually went through the Middle East/Africa forum one day and looked through all the threads and tried to answer questions that hadn't been. I'll try to do that with the French forum. But I'm not a food historian or much into food trivia. I can answer questions about regional French cooking. I can answer technique and recipe questions. The restaurant business. But stuff like, "why does Keller wash his bones for stock?" "cause he doesn't know how to skim his stocks? Don't know why he does it. But I can tell you how I do it and how alot of other French chefs of a certain calibur do it.

I just thought of crepes. I suppose that could be turned into street food of sorts. Beignets too.

"Gimme two vichyssoise, a couple a homard americains , a pavé bernaise, three pommes Anna , three haricots verts an isles flotant and two chocolate mousses to go. " "You want Burgundy or Bordeaux with that?" "Two white Bordeax, and you got any Cotes du Rhone?" "We got a Cote Rotie" "That'll do." "That will $86.57, monsieur. Your plus fours are in the bag." 30 minutes later. "Merde, I forgot to get the brie!" ← Do you want that supersized?

That's the thing too. We sit down to eat. In Seoul you'll see people just standing in front of a stall eating. In America people walk while eating. EDIT to add: I miss that alot. minus the jambon of course. It's nice to be able to buy a pastry or a baguette with good cheese in it and take it to one of the many parks in Paris. That's one of the things that makes Paris so pedestrian friendly.