Suzanne F

Col Klink, you are absolutely right. I don't actually see the need to continue that anywhere.

I am almost completely incapable of throwing out food that is still edible. Come to think of it, I even have trouble throwing out inedible food. (One of my favorite dishes when I was little was "Stinky-Cheese Eggs" -- scrambled eggs with barely-starting-to-go cottage cheese whisked in during the cooking. I still love it.) What a relief to see Dana's posts about gumbo! Little dribs and drabs of veg, gravies, sauces -- they disappear into the pot and are transformed. How could I make Thai beef salad without leftover London Broil? Or a Spanish tortilla without cold boiled potatoes? Whatever little bits that aren't used soon go into the freezer for incorporation into something else later. I consider it a challenge to my creativity: making a complicated dish, fresh, is not that difficult; but making something new and appetizing out of leftovers -- now THAT's exciting!

SobaAddict, I'd much rather say this to you privately, but since you have already flamed me here, I will continue in public. I don't get it. Are you mad at me because of the unhappy time you had at Gage & Tollner's? Is that what's at the bottom of this? When it was your suggestion to go in the first place, and I was the one who made the arrangements? Why did you have to pick a fight now? Please note that by saying "re-read," I assumed you had already read "Evangeline" at least once -- an accomplishment I doubt many people your age have, these days. This is being patronizing? And then when you threw in the non sequitur about "Cajun not Creole hehe" after making statements that were unsupportable -- Why? Again, I don't get it. Tommy seems to think that I believe I know everything; he couldn't be more wrong. But I DO have a rather eclectic range of food interests, and lots of materials that inform those interests (as well as a fair amount of practical experience). I know what I do know; I also know the limits of my knowledge. But I have no idea what you, or anyone else here, does or does not know about the topic at hand. So when I post, it's not to be patronizing or condescending to anyone, but simply to offer what I think someone somewhere might find useful. If you don't like that, so be it. But please don't accuse me because you had a bad time.

Cheese-racing cheese?

Okay, when?

That's what I figured. Actually, for photo cakes I think you can go to the disgusting rugelach place in Chelsea Market. Everything there is awful, though. Eleni's is so much better. And probably there cannot be wine bargains at TJ's in NYS because of way the Legislature "protects" the wine industry. On the other hand, because of that you can buy NYS wines on Sundays at Vintage NY (on Broome street across from Bway Panhandler -- where El Pollo was, briefly.) So it's "bonnet blanc, blanc bonnet."

Sorry, guess I did not make myself clear. YANKEE pot roast is, yes, chuck or round. YIDDISHE is brisket. What size varnishkes???? farfel? but lots of fried onions!! Kasha is usually medium. Fine is too itsy-bitsy, and whole is too grösse.

NO no no. KASHA, Kasha, kasha. Egg noodles? Feh. only for the leftover kasha, to make kasha varnishkes.

The cut, I think. And the veg that cooked with it. But what do I know? To me, pot roast is brisket with lots and lots of onions and sliced garlic.

Oh, all right, wahdya want?

Soba, you tell that to the editors of Acadiana Profile -- The Magazine of the Cajun Country. Ah, but they're Cajuns. Not Creoles. hehe SA Gumbo is a Cajun dish, not Créole. Cajuns are the descendents of the French-speaking folks who were forced out of Acadia (Canada) -- go back and re-read "Evangeline." They became farmers and hunters -- relatively low-class. Créoles were sometimes described as persons of European descent (French, Spanish, Portuguese) born in the New World; but that group also included those in the upper class of mixed African/European heritage (think Jelly Roll Morton). Hehe yourself. I know that gumbo is a Cajun dish and not a Creole dish. Ditto for jambalaya and boudan. However, pain perdu is not Cajun. Thank you for the lecture on cultural origins. (Not to mention that I know where Cajuns/Acadians came from, and also Creoles. I suppose that's irrelevant, as far as you're concerned. Couldn't you try to be a little bit more condescending or just a wee bit more patronizing? I wasn't sure I managed to get a sufficient dose.) My point is that Creoles have a certain sensibility about things Cajun, or perhaps a more accurate statement would be to say that Creoles sometimes ignore Cajun traditions and make things their own way. *shrug* But what the hell do I know? Clearly, I'm shouldn't post on this board cuz I'm not worthy. SA Oh, dear, you mean you're taking all this as deathly serious? Please, please don't!!!! Food is FUN. COOKING IS FUN. TALKING ABOUT COOKING -- ARGUING ABOUT FOOD AND COOKING -- IS FUN. Not life-or-death. Please please please don't talk like that. In any case, some of the people reading this thread may not know anything about the origins of the foods we discuss. I didn't post to diss you, but to teach THEM. To be completely honest (and, yes, mean): SNAP OUT OF IT, SWEETIE. I happen to be sitting here in my office among my many food books, and you're probably at your office without any food reference materials. I'm lucky, you're not; that's all it is. That was the first time anybody mentioned Creoles, who, yes, have a different sensibillity about LIFE and therefore food. If gumbo is served in Creole restaurants, as it sometimes IS, it's probably because of the popularization of "Cajun" food -- so folks who don't know the difference expect all LA restaurants to serve both.

I live in lower Manhattan, and I do not own a car. (This is important.) When I used to read about Whole Foods, I got really jealous. We didn't have any here, and it sounded like Mecca. Then we got one. It's not Mecca. Now I read about Trader Joe's. I feel jealous again. It sounds like Mecca. . . . You get my point? It's not that I believe I have every wonder of the food world available to me; I'm just trying to rationalize away my jealousy.

Hi, Kyle! Of course, because the flour has lots its ability to gelatinize. But the flavor ... aaah.

Soba, you tell that to the editors of Acadiana Profile -- The Magazine of the Cajun Country. Ah, but they're Cajuns. Not Creoles. hehe SA Gumbo is a Cajun dish, not Créole. Cajuns are the descendents of the French-speaking folks who were forced out of Acadia (Canada) -- go back and re-read "Evangeline." They became farmers and hunters -- relatively low-class. Créoles were sometimes described as persons of European descent (French, Spanish, Portuguese) born in the New World; but that group also included those in the upper class of mixed African/European heritage (think Jelly Roll Morton). Hehe yourself.

Soba, you tell that to the editors of Acadiana Profile -- The Magazine of the Cajun Country. As for the components of the roux: you're probably thinking of roux for classic French sauces, when, yes, it's clarified butter all the way. But maybe butter doesn't keep all that well in the bayou, so they use oil. I've seen recipes with whole wheat flour and oil, and even one with a dry roux -- just oven-browned ww flour. Of course, that was in a book of Cajun Vegetarian Cooking, so how much credence do we give it?

"Gumbo" literally means okra -- African origin. (Should multiple pods of okra be called okrae? But I digress.) Gumbo, the dish, can be thickened with roux, okra, or filé, which is powdered sassafras. It's a pretty flexible dish in terms of what can go into it. I've even seen versions that do not include the Holy Trinity (celery, green bell pepper, onion)! Otherwise: chicken and sausage; shrimp and okra; shrimp and oyster; wild duck and oyster; duck; seafood; chicken; gumbo z'herbes (with lots of greens as well as ham and andouille, or vegetarian). Kind of like cassoulet: it's a good excuse to cook up a big pot of something and then argue about it. 'Cause everybody's is different.

Braise them with olive oil and white wine (some chopped shallot is nice, too). You might want to split them and trim out the choke, first. One good thing about braising artichokes is that if you use too much liquid (as I did), you've got the base for a wonderful purée of artichoke soup (purée leftover artichokes and some potatoes cooked in the braising liquid, strain, thin with cream -- voilà!) Good hot or cold.

I like to add a little to a mushroom ragout when I serve it over pasta, the mushrooms being the "main course." And to mushroom risotto, if it doesn't already have porcini in it (they don't need the help). Basically, I like to add it when I want to emphasis mushroom flavors. I am NOT a fan of adding it indiscriminately to things like mashed potatoes, although you still see that a lot. I believe it should complement the flavors already there, not add something unexpected and unnecessary. BTW: I've got Italian white truffle oil which is great, and French black truffle oil from Oliviers that is just about tasteless. For black t.o., I like the one D'Artagnan puts out. Not always 100% consistent in strength, but generally very good.

I have made aloo chaat that never fails to surprise and please people who say, Oh, but I hate potato salad (thinking, of course, of the mayonnaise-y American kind). Now, if I could only remember where the recipe is ... I'd be interested in recipes that don't require frying so many of the ingredients.

AHA! Mold -- sure! Definitely makes sense with mushrooms, especially wild ones. Oh, no, now I really feel bad for you! No Roquefort, or gorgonzola, or cabrales, or huitlacoche, or, or, or.

Yes, that rather gave the lie to the description of the service, "As professional as it gets."

Fascinating, Marlene. What is it in mushrooms that makes you ill? Is it in all fungi? Gee, I feel for you.

A nice slab of rare prime rib sounds lovely, but are you sure you don't mean your dear departed Gran's Yorkshire's? After all, how long has she been gone? Surely long enough for the Yorkshires to lose their appeal, no? Even if it was only yesterday. Beyond that, except for a few bottle of good Burgundy, who cares? After all, veg and salads assume next-day excretion, and would that matter? NAAH.

HOT HOT HOT!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!

awbrig: which oil? Yes. That is, anything with a relatively high flash point. And you need a candy/deep-fry thermometer, not an oven thermometer: one you can clip on to the side of the pot. Otherwise it will get too hot for you to hold and you'll drop it into the oil and splash oil all over yourself and get a 3rd dgree burns and have to go to the hospital and then your wings will burn and where will you be? In the hospital with burnt hands, burnt arms, and burnt wings. Not good. I use canola oil for what little deep frying I do. Inexpensive, and more neutral than peanut which is probably better but I don't like the flavor. The stock pot is okay. In fact, the more oil you can use, the less the temperature will drop when add the food to be cooked, which means the food will be less greasy. Just dry the wings really well with paper towels, fry them (you can flour them first but that is not advised), and when they're cooked and drained toss them with melted butter mixed the same abount of with the hottest hot sauce you like (Tabasco, Frank's, Crystal, Cholula -- my personal fave, Melinda's, Louisiana, etc.). That's all it takes. Except for some celery sticks and Maytag blue cheese crumbled into Total yogurt (thinned with a little buttermilk if you must).