Suzanne F

Maybe a Beau more? Since Tad has gotten to be tiresome. Haven't you heard? a HUSBAND more, now.

I've always thought that the temperature standards for lamb are a teeny bit higher than for beef -- something about the structure of the meat, maybe? That is, roast beef is rare at 120º, but lamb should be at 125º for the same degree of doneness. Maybe the kitchen just applied the same standards to the lamb as they would for beef. In any case, I could eat a black-and-blue steak, but I like my lamb done somewhere slightly redder than medium rare. Tastes better to me that way, and has a better texture. USDA guidelines? Feh! They'd have us all eating shoe leather. Don't they trust their farmers to raise animals safely? ... Umm, maybe it's right that they don't.

Peterson says 45 minutes to an hour. He keeps adding more apple pieces to the pan as they cook down. And he advises using Golden Delicious or Romes. His method takes a lot of time also because you have to let the apples cool down for an hour before putting on the pastry, then after you bake it you cool it for another 4 (!) hours before you reheat it on top of the stove to serve it. So that's an all-day project. But I'll bet it is exquisite (as long as you use better apples than GDs).

How much weight does the roast lose? Do you think it would work for me? Also, if you have the experience: how does this method of cooking compare with Pam Anderson's (sear outside first on the stovetop, then roast at 200 until done)?

Yes, that is pretty much how I feel. Not that I blame him personally -- it's more because of his publisher (or to be more accurate, former publisher, since he has switched from Morrow to Wiley). I mean, the dust jacket of Vegetables says "The Most Authoritative Guide to Buying, Preparing, and Cooking, with More Than 300 Recipes." Oh, puh-leeze. I'll take Elizabeth Schneider's Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini over his any day, as a reference. At least until another, even more comprehensive one comes along. I mainly look at a cookbook as a reference work to be consulted, rather than a blueprint to be followed slavishly. If I were still a beginner, it would probably be different. Also if I had less faith in my own taste. I have no argument with Peterson's recipes -- they are very well-written and clear. I'm just on that constant quest to find books that answer whatever questions I have.

Naw, I'd never, ever use canned chopped liver.

Nothing lasts forever When I was using smoked salmon ends bought in bulk, I DID have some go bad, even though it was still vacuum-sealed, and kept around 34ºF. It kept fine frozen, though -- both chunks and slices. According to the NYC Dept, of Health, smoked fish should be kept at or below 38ºF, a little cooler than other items. Exposure to air is usually what will make foods dry out and deteriorate -- so keep it well-wrapped, wherever you store it. (Although a threat with smoked fish is botulism, which is anaerobic; but cold inhibits that.) Frozen smoked salmon will lose some of its silky texture; but then you can use it in other ways than just plain on a canapé. Make a mousse, or toss some, chopped, with pasta -- you get the idea.

Sounds like a good set-up for another taste-off! Let's discuss it more after the 1st of the year? I might even offer to host, since I have space. Cakewalk -- "fresh" dried beans are from the current year's crop, or the previous year -- NO OLDER. Age does make a difference, and the older the dried bean, the worse the results. (This is different from rice, some of which can be aged for years and years to develop a distinctive flavor.) That's why it's better to buy the beans in stores where you can feel sure there's high turnover.

I meant that you could make a BIG batch of kimchi, and then have it to eat for months. After all, it is a preserved vegetable. And I use kimchi as a side with bbq (or what subs for bbq), put it on sandwiches -- do all sorts of un-Korean things with it. Someday I plan to use it as a filling for dumplings ... yum.

I'll be really surprised if you can find canned cranberry beans -- maybe at some fancy-schmancy upscale health-food store (or is that an oxymoron?). Now, if you can find them FRESH -- that is absolutely the best. Are they in season now? La Niña -- do tell: how in the nuker? Sounds like a great use!

Ooh, kim chee for the whole winter!!!!!!! And then you can feast on BIBIMBAP

Vengroff: he says to use an 8-inch non-stick, or a "well-seasoned cast iron omelet pan" with "curved sides that slope outward to make it easy to get the eggs to fold back on themselves." No instructions on seasoning cast iron -- but that's outside his scope. To me that is not a failing of the book. He's not trying to teach us EVERYTHING about how to cook -- just how to cook these classic dishes, and their variations. As it is, it's jam packed with information, and a monster in size (AND a midget in typesize).

Britcook -- I'm glad the message(s) came through clearly. Suvir and Jinmyo-- from the two of you, that is high praise indeed. Yes, one of the relatively few chapters on sweets is on Apple Tarts. (I neglected to mention that Peterson* seems to be far more interested in the savory side of the kitchen; only 7 of the 50 chapters are on sweets -- but they really are THE classics, like chocolate mousse and crème brûlée.) There are a couple of differences between Peterson's TT and Julia's (in MtA). Both use a pâte brisée: his includes whole egg and egg yolk, but no sugar; hers has sugar but no egg. And, of course, he gives instructions for making it by hand or in a food processor, while she only gives a "by hand" version. The bigger difference is in how the apples get cooked: Julia simply layers them in the baking dish with sugar and butter, and lets the oven do the cooking as the crust bakes. Peterson caramelizes the apples on the stovetop with sugar, butter, and lemon juice, then places the pastry over the cooked apples and bakes it. So: Julia's is much quicker, and easier, and her pastry is more delicate; Peterson's is more time-consuming and more luscious, except for that clunky crust. If I were to make a Tarte Tatin, I'd probably use his apples and method and her crust recipe. *Note on names: It's a little cumbersome to keep saying "Peterson," but in this context I can't bring myself to refer to him as "Jim." That moniker is of course reserved for Saint James of Oregon, America's spiritual cooking father.

We just got back from a terrific dinner at Thalassa. A good-looking place -- I especially like the Aegean feel to the lighting, "sails," and handrails, and the alabaster downstairs. Service was very, very good. Our waitress was very knowledgeable, and when she was unsure of something, she was honest ("We've just changed some of the wine list, and I haven't had all my training yet.") Since it was only about 1/3 full, I couldn't tell about the noise level; but the music was not intrusive. Shortly after we sat down, I noticed a woman -- obviously a manager-type -- who looked very familiar. It was Mina Newman, formerly the executive chef at Layla (after Joey Fortunato), and Laight Street (originally City Wine and Cigar Bar), among others. She is the GM at Thalassa, and says the owners and staff are just great to work with. Such a small world! The grilled octopus was one of the best we've ever had -- and that's one dish we use to test a restaurant. It was perfect to split; in fact, the large portion would have been just too much for one person in both quantity and ultimately in acidity. But the octopus was extremely tender, and the grilled flavor was right on the money. We shared a pair of grilled langustines -- very simply done with oil, dill, and parsley. Sweet, tender, juicy. But at $36 per pound, I was glad we only had about 1/4 #. Too many apps were calling to us: we also shared the Bakalao: three strips of reconstituted salt cod, very lightly breaded and fried, served over a mound of "almond purée" (skordalia including ground almonds) and lightly dressed, thinly sliced cooked (roasted?) beets. Also excellent. And the skordalia was pretty damn good on the octopus, too. For mains, we had the regular menu Arctic Char, grilled and served over a ragout of artichokes and fava beans, and the by-the-pound Royal Dorado, with a side of steamed wild greens (swiss chard, spinach, escarole, and something else, dressed with oil and lemon). The char was on the fatty side, but that meant that it was still very, very moist after grilling, and that the skin was very crisp. The dorado was fresh!! and grilled simply, then split and boned in the kitchen. We could have asked them not to bone it, but we were pretty tired. The busser was very accomodating about wrapping our uneaten vegetables to take home: each went into a separate container, which is much appreciated. We also had a couple of glasses of red Greek wines, and a couple of whites. I didn't manage to note what they all were, but they were all relatively light in body. A very enjoyable meal. Definitely a place to give fresh. a challenge. edited for clarity of reference.

Okay, here's the full (very long) report: Report on Eating in DC, December 5th through 8th, 2002 The original idea had been that since Paul had appointments in DC from 12/3 to 12/6, and then again on the 9th and 10th, I would join him Friday night and stay until late Sunday afternoon. But unrelated to the blizzard, some his meetings got canceled or changed. So I went down Thursday, and we came back to NYC together on Sunday. The train ride down in the snow was great. No delays, and while it might have been a bit nervous-making for the train drivers, for me it was beautiful to look out at the blizzard. Junkyards are especially well-transformed by snow. Even the nuked cheeseburger in the café car didn’t seem so bad – although maybe that was because of the shot of Absolut that preceded it. But hey, free refills on Green Mountain coffee, and real half-and-half! I had made a bunch of reservations via Open Table before leaving. Most places would have been walking distance from the hotel if not for the snow. Thursday night was at Vidalia. The room looks almost like a generic Mediterranean restaurant, but it’s Southern-inflected. Needless to say, many items included onions of some type or other, in some form or other. With the bread basket (small brioche-type rolls, onion/herb focaccia, and a custardy cornbread with whole kernels) came a red onion marmalade. Very nice to nibble on with our cocktails: a “Ben Baker” – lemon-infused sour mash bourbon with lemon juice, sugar, and a twist; and an Apple Martini – sour apple schnapps, citrus vodka, and a tiny splash of lemon-lime soda. Usually I hate non-Martini Martinis, but this was delicious. As was the other. Amuse: Roasted apple and pumpkin soup – a purée well-flavored with cream and butter. Apps: 1) Virginia Oysters with a salad of fennel, red pepper, and onion, on smoked shiitakes with a fennel emulsion; 2) Pan roasted squid, stuffed with a shrimp and tasso forcemeat, on soft grits with a shrimp cream and country ham. With the apps, a half-bottle of 1999 Champalou Vouvray. The shiitakes really worked well with the oysters, and the squid was just about caramelized from the roasting. Mains: 1) Smoked duck breast with wild rice, andouille (although I think it was actually more tasso), duck confit, and a coriander jus (with a touch of cream); 2) Sautéed rockfish with sautéed spinach; salsify; lobster flan on scallop galette, and quince vinaigrette. Half-bottle of 1999 Seghesio San Giovese. These folks know how to smoke without overpowering the flavor of the ingredient. Not very much wild rice; mostly proteins – spicy but well-balanced. The rockfish was very fresh; flan actually was based on lobster AND shrimp, and the scallop slices underneath were so sweet. The quince vinaigrette had a good sweet-tart contrast. I prevailed upon Paul to not have a sweet dessert, but cheese instead. Ordered the 3-cheese plate, although the waiter (lots of fun to chat with) was going to give us 4: Perail (French, sheep; which I had loved at Artisanal); Ibores (Spanish, goat); Mahón (Spanish, cow); and instead of the Keen’s Cheddar from Somerset, which they were out of, some well-aged Mimolette (France; cow) – supposedly DeGaulle’s favorite. Garnishes were quince paste (of course), apricot chutney, roasted almonds, and house-made onion crackers. With these we had an almond-flavored grappa, and an Acqua di Cedro – a citrus-fruit unknown to me. Both were spectacular. Friday lunch: Ortanique, with a colleague. Paul and Martha had a meeting to go to later, so only I had a cocktail: a very strong mojito, made with extra lime juice as requested. The garlic bread was quite buttery, a bit salty, and had some kind of herb (mint? cilantro?) mixed in. Martha had a sautéed grouper, which looked lovely, but which we didn’t taste. Paul and I shared: crab cakes, a mango salad, and a special sandwich of roasted peppers and wild mushrooms on baguette. The crab cakes (an app) were 2 cylinders, about 1 ½ “ in diameter and about 1” high, first lightly sautéed then finished in the oven. LOTS of crab; served with a mango/papaya salsa, tamarind sauce, and a crisp of some tropical root veg. The salad had nice greens, julienne of mango and hearts of palm, candied pecans, and a sweet/tart non-oily passion fruit vinaigrette. The sandwich included hen of the woods, shiitakes, black trumpets, and hedgehog mushrooms, along with the red peppers and some blue cheese. It came with a baby spinach salad with a little tomato and carrot. The three of us shared a slab of rum cake, very moist, very rummy, which we could not finish. Friday night: Zaytinya: We hadn’t made plans for that night beforehand, but we decided to see “Much Ado” at the Shakespeare Theatre. So we needed to eat a little something before the show. Walking around in the afternoon, I came upon Zaytinya, and figured I should check up on what Steve Klc was doing. And a few meze seemed like just the thing. While waiting for Paul, I had a “Visne-tini” – Turkish sour cherry juice and Ketel One. Once seated, he had some retsina. We shared: - grey mullet roe – thin slices of very salty, strong-flavored compressed roe; were we not supposed to eat the wax coating? - Kibbeh “fritters” – made of ground lamb, pine nuts, currants, and bulgur wheat, served with some labneh (dripped yogurt) - Octopus, stewed in red wine - Beets with almond skordalia – very thin slices of boiled (?) baby beets, but very tasty - A very chunky fava bean “purée” with capers, onion, lemon, and oil All with pita-type bread, fresh from the oven. For dessert (how could we NOT have dessert???) we had Ravani, a semolina cake with yogurt sorbet, fruit, nuts, and sauces; and “Turkish Coffee Chocolate,” a chocolate cake with molten center and I forget what all else. Both were very busy plates, but everything on them worked together. We especially liked that we could order our Turkish coffees “semi-sweet” as we prefer them. Saturday lunch: Casa Bianca: We just needed a little something to tide us over, so we had Sopa de Pollo and fresh tamarind drinks at a little Mexican/Peruvian/Salvadorean place. Just hit the spot. Good tortilla chips and salsa, too. Saturday night: Taberna del Alabardero: Liza had posted a glowing review, so I had to try it. Turned out it was the last night of their annual Zarzuela festival – the musical theater performance, not the seafood dish. With a 5-course prix fixe and live performance (2 singers, pianist, and a dancer). We started with La Gitana Manzanilla and Lustau Papirusa. The first course was on the order of a set of amuses: a shot of warm beet purée; a cube of sautéed foie gras with prune; a triangle of breaded, fried cheese, and a barquette of tuna tartare. The salad was a “Baby Mesclun salad with walnuts and Port glazed Pears.” Third: a fabulous warm “Fall Mushroom Terrine with Morell (sic) sauce. Mains: Grilled Grouper with Lobster emulsion sauce – very meaty piece of fish, well-flavored sauce; “Certified Angus Hanger Steak with black Truffle purée” – slices of tender, strongly beefy meat, with a sauce including lots and lots of chopped black truffles, wonderfully aromatic. With the beef came some very buttery potato purée filling a crisp cylinder of crisp pastry. With those we had a Torres Gran Coronas Mas La Plana Estate (Penedés) Gran Reserva 1990. Desserts were a banana sponge cake with caramel rum sauce and vanilla ice cream, and “A world of chocolate” – Chocolate mousse on a cake base, coated with dark ganache; white chocolate mousse; chocolate pot de crème, and a garnish of chocolate espresso beans, cocoa powder, and cocoa nibs. The mignardises were candied almonds, tiny meringues, cinnamon langues de chat, candied lemon zest, and some sort of chocolate crunch. The chef there now is fairly new, a guy named Enrique Sánchez. Youngish. Even if our meal was completely different from Liza’s, we were still very happy. (And the zarzuela performance was, well, quite stirring.) Sunday lunch: Bistro Bis: Before getting back on the train, we stopped at Jeffrey and Sallie Buben’s place near Union Station. Another excellent meal; it seemed sad that there were so few other diners. Bread basket: sugared short biscuits with dried cherries; pain d’épice made with honey and (black?) walnuts; and slices of baguette. Apps: 1) Charcuterie plate with 2 kinds of dry sausages, ham (Bayonne?), garnish with mâche, good olive oil, cracked black pepper, and croutons; 2) Soupe de poisson “Marseillaise” – a purée of fish, tomatoes, (olives? Capers?) with shellfish stock, topped with a gruyère-covered crouton. Mains: 1) Scallops provençale – seared scallops with tomato-basic ratatouille, an eggplant tian (so smooth and tasty!), and olivada; 2) Sautéed trout with spinach, braised pearl onions, a creamy sauce with capers, and topped with lardons and frisée. Wines, by the glass: 2 of Albariño, Lagar de Cevera, Rias Baixas 2001; 2 of Rhône Blend, Perrin Réserve, Côtes de Rhône, 2001. With dessert – an Apricot Savarin with poached (?) apricots, apricot ice cream, apricot coulis, vanilla whipped cream, and a tuille – I had a glass of Jurançon Bru-Bache. Delectable. It was a great trip.

I agree on the importance of presentation. How do you feel about pomegranate seeds? Of course, they have to be really fresh and deeply-colored.

Notes on meal at restaurant rm, 12/4/02 I worked as a line cook and the pastry chef for almost 2 years when the site was Match Uptown, and interviewed there when it was being turned into Lure. So going to restaurant rm was like revisiting the apartment where I’d grown up. The contours of the place were familiar, but it had a new paint job and someone else’s possessions scattered around. They’d even done some renovation, which did them credit (although that probably came about during the brief period in which it was Lure NYC). I couldn’t bring myself to check if the back walk-in was no longer dripping with sewage, nor if they had found a way to make the minuscule restrooms even just seem larger. At least the old second-floor employee-locker-room-cum-dry-storage-cage had been turned into a rather appealing lounge and dining room. The original ground-floor bar and dining room have a much warmer look now, and a large semi-private banquette replaces the sushi bar. The average age of the diners was 2 to 3 times what it was when the place was Match; even I felt young there! So it appears to have become a neighborhood place for the Park Avenue denizens, instead of attracting the young and loud. Immediately upon his approach, the waiter was thrown into a tizzy by my request for a dry sherry. Why oh why does that cause such consternation? It took an awfully long time until he could bring 2 bottles from the bar for my inspection, since he had no idea what “dry sherry” means. At least they had a Lustau Palo Cortado; and in all that confusion, they neglected to put it on my bill. Well, that made up for something else later ... The rolls offered included a seeded sourdough, onion sourdough, and a simple French roll. Instead of butter or oil, a white bean purée with lemon juice and olive oil. The amuse was a tiny cup of cauliflower soup with celery root and apple. Many patrons around me suggested that it go on the menu as a regular item, and I had to agree. Unctuous, creamy but not too rich, and the tiny bits of fruit and veg made a very nice contrast. For my app, I unwittingly chose one of the items the NY Times had pooh-poohed: Blue Island Oysters with Cucumber Sorbet and Tennessee Paddlefish Caviar. Actually, I thought it sounded rather good; and it almost was. The Times was right about the scoops of sorbet being just a bit too large for the oyster/sorbet/roe combination to be eaten in one bite. But that gave me a chance to combine the elements in several different permutations. The sorbet could have been a little more cuke-y, a little less sweet, and less bitter. I initially thought there might have been some yuzu juice in it, but the captain said the chef does not use it because he can’t find a reliable supply (of the fruit, I suppose). So that meant the bitterness came from the lemon juice – which I also noticed in the bean purée. The paddlefish caviar was rather nice, although quite salty. With the oysters, I had a glass of a non-vintage Nicholas Feuillate ($13). Main: Orata with Olive-Caper Relish, Roasted Garlic, and Gnocchi. A glass of St. Joseph ________??? ($12) I love orata, and this was a beautifully cooked fillet, with very crisp skin. BUT: overall, this dish is a salt-lover’s dream. On top of the fish were capers and a brunoise of black olives and tomato; underneath was the roast garlic purée, more capers, slivers of olives, and the gnocchi; along the side was a thin line of olivada. The garlic tasted like a version of skordalia, with a base of potato purée mixed with roasted garlic purée; quite tasty, actually. My only complaint about the gnocchi is that they were few, and tiny: they were quite delicious, almost like nickel-sized potato croquettes, crisp on the outside and smooth on the inside. I could have eaten a whole plate of them. A mostly successful dish, if one could ignore the salt (difficult to ignore, though) and the smallish portion size. I skipped dessert – nothing appealed much to me – and instead had the now-ubiquitous cheese plate, at a $5 supplement. A mistake. A little each of manchego, Tomme, and Ste. Nectaire, garnished with a tiny portion of quince paste, 6 paper-thin slices of apple, and a small pile of pomegranate seeds. Good walnut-raisin bread, and slices of ficelle. Overall, totally undistinguished. The glass of Elysium (black muscat) from Quadry in California ($8) was quite lovely, though. I did receive mignardises after my cheese, with my coffee: 2 tiny chocolate cakes with a slightly strange, unknown flavor, and a demitasse of caramelized popcorn and pumpkin seeds. Other than the unwarranted supplement for the cheese, the price seemed fair: $55 for 3 courses, with a few extras. One curious occurrence: I noticed on the wine list a Shooting Star Blue (Something). Piqued my curiosity, since I very much like Jed Steele's wines, and this was one I'd never heard of before. Asking the captain about it resulted in several very long absences on his part, with the eventual report: no one knew anything about it; the place had inherited the contents of the wine cellar from the previous owners. ??????? But now I know, I can’t go home again.

Wait a minute. I used to know a chef named Lou Lichtman, who has to be maybe in his early 40s. Can't be the baker you mean, but might he be son of? Cafe Sabarsky is a delight, even if the cakes are not totally Viennese. After all, the pastry chef is Swiss.

Whatever you make, just be sure to: undercook the pasta, so it doesn't get all mushy in the reheating wrap everything really tightly, or use good airtight containers, to avoid freezer burn label everything clearly, so you have no surprises and can rotate your stock package everything in meal-size portions, so that you don't have to re-re-reheat anything I'd stick mostly to soups (split pea ??) and such. There are so many dishes that you can make in minutes anyway (e.g., sauté broccoli and garlic while the pasta water is heating) that it seems unnecessary to make mains to heat up again. That said, though, I am partial to making a big pan of eggplant parmigian, or a slow-simmered ratatouille that can then be used to fill crèpes, or as a pasta sauce, or as a side with a quick slab of protein.

In addition to a microplane, I've got a Mouli rotary grater: all metal, a multi-hinged handle/cheese holder/tamper, and 3 different grating barrels (fine-ish, coarse-ish, and slicing). You put a barrel in place, swing the holder over it, place the chunk of cheese on top of the barrel, swing the "tamper" down to hold everything together, and turn the crank of the barrel to grate the cheese. It's easy to assemble and use, relatively easy to clean, and works pretty well. The main drawback is that the last bits of the cheese chunk slip through without getting grated. And that you can only do about a 1 1/2" to 2" cube at a time. But it works for non-artisanal mozzarella and similar soft cheeses (especially if they've been briefly frozen). And it's quite inexpensive. I probably got mine at Broadway Panhandler or the late, much lamented Lechters.

You can get them by mail from places like Vann's and Penzey, and probably other spice sellers. But if there's a "health food" store near you, check with them. Some regular drug stores, too. Some sell small empty jars for the customers to fill with their own concoctions.

Now, if that ain't the most fascinating post of the day!

Oh, YEAH!!! At Match Uptown, we made our own powdered guajillos and chipotles from toasted, dried ones. No one was allowed to make it in the regular kitchen -- had to go downstairs to the prep/pastry area. When I did it, I'd tell the prep guys to go take a break, and tie a napkin over my nose and mouth. Even so ... But you could always get the other cooks by making the peanut dipping sauce without warning them -- a big dollop of house-made panang curry paste in a little hot oil -- Ah, those were the days.

Me too, for 2 people!

Chefette, I'm so glad you finally explained the caramel corn part of your dessert demo! I was wondering ... and now, to find out it's that simple!! Thanks.