ldubois2

Looking for advice: Pre-novice at this...for Thanksgiving made the Country Pate from the Dean and Delucca cook book. I made it without too much forethought, going to my local butcher thinking they'd have pork fat. Ha! With a need to improvise, I purchased very fatty salt pork, removed the fat and substitued after soaking it to remove some of the salt. Cut the meat manually as suggested, and it turned out ok. After reading much of this thread (and loving the pictures) I am now ready to try again. I have Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook and plan to do pate de campagne. Problem: Pork liver. My local, better grocer has veal liver and I purchased that on impulse when they did not have pork fat...now think it is likely too delicate a flavor, am I right? Would there be something better to use? These guys will save pork fat for me and have ordered that. They would not slice fat to line the mold, and had nothing they'd suggest. After I made the original Thanksgiving pate I looked on line to see if I could purchase jawl fat (what the Dean and Delucca says is the best option) and in error purchased caul fat. Jowl, caul...know the difference now. I received 10 pounds of caul fat which I divided into small packets and have frozen. (available in the US on Amazon.com). Also the D&D did not suggest weighing it down. It was tasty but crumbled, pieces did not stay together once sliced. Thank you for any help. Making gravlax and sausage for Christmas and this will be a great addition!

Received the Dori Greenspan "Around my French Table" cookbook last week and wanted to make the cover recipe but did not have any preserved lemons....came late yesterday from Amazon....so I made the roast chicken for les paresseux on page 200. Added the vegetables that are optional. The chicken was amazing. Best of all, she suggests placing a piece of bread under the chicken before you roast it and also placing the liver (if you have it) in the cavity of the bird along with the herbs and garlic. Then, when you take the chicken out of the oven and remove it to carve, take the piece of bread...now crispy and full of the cooking juice....and smear it with the liver and eat while carving. That in itself was phenomenal! And I have half a chicken left in the oven for today!

First sausage making experience....what fun...Julkorv

Cardamom Coffee cake! Absolutely...Never had with apples. Do you have a recipe to share?

Swedish Christmas update. We no longer have the ability to travel to the Swedish neighborhood in preparation of the Smorgasbord. Have changed the tradition and started preparing the foods we would purchase there. This will be the fourth year of making Gravlax...thanks to the topic posted here. Last year made Sylta...will make again and this year will make sausage. I have not been a fan of potato sausage over the years and was not excited about attempting. Found a recipe in a Swedish/American cookbook (1955 American Daughters of Sweden) that I am going to make today. It is called Julkorv and contains pork shoulder, veal, potato starch, pepper, ground cloves, ground ginger, powdered sage, ground all spice, sugar and salt....I have never attempted sausage before. Have the Kitchen Aid meat grinder/sausage stuffer attachment so am optimistic. Coffee cake and cookies. Also purchased a Lucia crown for my granddaughter with light bulbs...not the 13th of December but we incorporate that into our Christmas Eve tradition. If she goes along with it, she is four and rather choleric.

Made BB from Julia's recipe last Saturday. Read through the comments on this post first. Have the Keller recipe, the Bourdain and Julia's and followed hers adding the Beef Demi-glace as Bourdain recommended instead of the canned broth Julia's calls for. Wonderful...served the next day to a dinner party of 10. My pictures are not as artistic as Pille's. Made it in Le Creuset large dutch oven.

Babette's Feast for sure, Diner, Tortilla Soup...not fond of the plot but the food prep was great.

Marcus Samuelsson has a recipe in Aquavit for a Cured Tenderloin of Beef. He suggests a sugar/salt curing mixture and says to place the raw beef in a non-reactive pan that will snuggly hold the beef, cover with plastic wrap, weigh with a brick and refrigerate for 6-8 hours. Remove beef, wipe off salt, pat dry, wrap again in plastic and place in the freezer for about 30 min to make the slicing easier. Question: Does this seem like enough time to cure the beef and then eat....

I'm sure that Jaymes will have good information on this topic. You might even want to contact her directly.

In addition to the curly hair and "hair on your chest" distinctions my parents made between male and female children, we were told every seed swallowed meant a watermellon or apple tree was going to sprout in your stomach....

Hello, My first attempt at Gravlax was successful. I used two sides of salmon, farmed, from the local Jewel Food Store. I think they were about 2 lbs each, never frozen with skin intact. I followed a previously mentioned recipe that called for salt, sugar, crushed juniper berries and lots of fresh dill. Brushed with vodka first. Cured for about 48 hours, weighted with a couple of left over pavers on an old cookie sheet and turned it each morning and evening. First day I had alot of liquid....little the following turns. I used one of the halves for Christmas Eve Smorgasbord....it was terrific. Everyone loved it. The texture was still firm, not too salty (I rinsed it). Had some trouble slicing, so we removed the skin and slicing easier. Took some day after Christmas to Wisconsin where my family gathers with locals of scandinavian descent. There, using a Swedish cookbook my father had purchased, I made a mustard sauce using a mild swedish mustard, oil, vinegar, sugar and dill. Served with the gravlax.....fabulous. I had to leave before my dad presented his version of gravlax. He took half a side of salmon and cut it in two. Then salted and sugared. He could not find fresh dill, so he added dill weed and on a whim, decided to add fresh cilantro. Weighed with two five pound dumbells and was turning it whenever he remembered. I can't wait to hear my brother's report on the cilantro..... ldubois

Jaymes, Early in this thread you mentioned that you make pralines. My mother has been looking for a praline recipe for years. Would you share yours? I'd like to make them for her and pass along the recipe.

Hector, Thank you for the meatball recipe. It is similar to the one I use. We add allspice. I forgot to mention brown beans. I'd love the mustard recipe if you can share. Also what is Almond pudding? Is rice a la malta similar to rice pudding? We travel to Wisconsin on the 26th to prepare an additional smorgasbord for my father. He is the one who has perpetuated the tradition in our family. By the way, he built a home there that is modelled after Carl Larsen's home in Sundborn. He calls it New Sundborn. Very beautiful. That part of Wisconsin is very scandinavian: mostly norwegians but alot of swedes too.

The sausage is similar to what we would call "summer sausage". It is dried or cured with whole pepper corns. It is wonderful. What is mumma? We serve glogg on Christmas Eve. What kind of terrine will you make? By the way, we also put out a collection of Tomte and Dala horses. Straw goats, too.

Hello, Every year my family celebrates Christmas Eve with a smorgasbord that is rather Americanized. We are able to purchase some food in Andersonville (a changing neighborhood that was once populated by Swedish immigrants, became largely Puerto Rican and is now trendy) at a Swedish deli. There I get potato sausage, silta, prinz corv, some cheeses, frozen lingonberries, a variety of herring, sausage from Gotteborg (forgive the spelling) and a fresh ham. And yule limpa and hardtack. We prepare meatballs (without gravy), cucumbers in vinegar, potato salad, rice pudding, the ham (of course), shrimp, and whatever else suits us. I am interested in knowing what you would do in Sweden, would love a good, authentic, smorgasbord meatball recipe, and to discover if other people with Swedish ancestry celebrate in a similar fashion. Thanks for any input.

Might be the recipe but the overall review of the people who made it was poor. Doesn't look like it would be worth the effort to translate. It had a 2.4 rating out of 5...if I am translating the rating correctly.

My mother was from the Campbells Soup generation and a memorable meal that my brothers and I particularly remember was: Ground beef (did not need to be thawed to use, she would put it in the pan with the lid on low and watch it) (did not need to be fresh....my mom always said that when the ground beef smelled like it was going bad or looked a little grey, it was time to make spaghetti) onions garlic salt 1 can cream of tomato soup 1 can cream of mushroom or celery soup 1 can tomato paste She would then boil a package of creamettes and mix it all up in the pan and serve with a salad that usually contained: Plated: large piece iceberg lettuce 1/2 canned pear dolop of Miracle Whip two pieces (small) of velvetta crisscrossed on the dressing She also made open faced tomato/bacon/grilled cheese sandwiches in the broiler, pigs in blankets, biscuits with butter and karo syrup.

Refering to a Foodman post from June 29 or 30: "On a good note, awsome cookoff! I am planning on making some chocolate ice cream tonight based on Pierre Herme's recipe. I have made it before, but this timke I want to add something to it. I am thinking some lightly -very lightly- salted crushed nut brittle. We'll see..." I made this ice cream over the holiday. Used 70% chocolate. Had not used the ice cream maker for awhile (Krups). The mixture did not freeze well in the maker althougth the cannister had been in the freezer for about 22 hours. The ice cream was very grainy....any hints?

I'm not going to get to it until next week, myself -- this week just disappeared somehow. ← I have decided to push brioche to next week and make some ice cream instead. Got inspired by the other current thread and will use my White Mountain Electric machine. This is the one that requires rock salt and chipped ice. Had alot of luck with vanilla last year...also peach. This year I am challanged by chocolate. Looking at the Pierre Hermes recipe. But....I am on for Brioche after the 4th.

This is the Larousse definition too. As a matter of interest, will you be leaving the stones in your cherries? This is one of the big French cullinary debates. ← Made a cherry clafoutis on Sunday using recipe from James Peterson's Glorious French Food. Pitted the cherries which is what he suggests even though he says this is an option and that some people prefer to spit out the pits. Bought a cherry pitter (Peterson suggests a chop stick as an alternative). What is the basis of the pro position in the debate...tradition, or is there some value to the pits? Never ate a clafoutis before, so I cannot compare this recipe to any other but it was gone in the first sitting......

Made them fancy last year for a baby shower in Chicago....used soft white bread (top) and soft whole wheat (bottom) cut with a biscuit cutter the same size as the tomato. Mixed minced onion in with the mayo. Adapted from a Paula Deen recipe, so they also make them in the Carolinas.

Thursday would work for me, too. Too hot to be outside anyway!

After I posted, I read the recipe and it seems....scanned the recipe would be more accurate.....that a bread pan about 8 x 4 will do. I have never tasted Brioche, so it would be good to have a partner or two in the adventure.

Did you try the Brioche? Bought a pan at Wms Sonoma and will endure the 99 degree kitchen heat in Chicago to give it a go with you.

I have had almost every paella failure possible from too done to too raw (rice) to inconsistently cooked. (Brought home a Spaniard in the early 70's and struggled for 8 years to learn to cook to his satisfaction....finally gave up.) To address this problem, though, make sure that you are properly sauteeing the rice in the sofrito (tomato, garlic, onion, olive oil or whatever you are using) before you add the broth...making sure that broth is boiling. Once you add the broth, add other ingredients like chicken, peas, beans, shrimp, sausage (whatever you have planned) and from that point forward you are not supposed to stir the paella. I have finished in a weber with lid or in the oven. While the weber is more dramatic and fun, it is hard to control the heat and cooking time. Remove the paella before completely finished and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes covered with a kitchen towel. I have tried to locate a good rice to broth ratio but it seems that depends on the kind of rice you are using. Bomba rice (according to my book) requires more liquid...1/3 cup more for 3 cups of rice. If you cannot find paella rice, Beretta Superfino Arborio works well. As far as quantity of rice for the pan is concerned, if you are using a paella pan try 3 cups rice for a pan that measures 17-18 inches at widest point, 1 1/2 cups for a pan 13 inches. (Penelope Casas has some great hints on successful paella.)