Suzanne F

Does Spotted Pig do it? Seems right up their alley.

Here's to Mrs. Mayhaw for standing up to the evil corporate complex! There's nothing like a can of Coke and a bag of Fritos for getting through an all-nighter.

Alas yes, that's fairly normal here. I had the little white wiggly guys in the ones I bought in Chelsea Market. Some I cut out; others, I waited until they tried to escape from the frying pan, and scooped them out then. At worst, you can skim them off the top of the sauce. Gross, yes, but no real harm. The dried ones I brought back from Rome many years ago had dormant larvae; they woke up when I got them home. Had to freeze the mothers to knock them out, and even so, I was picking stuff out of my cooking until I used them up. Just unwanted extra protein. But I must say that I've gotten so used to the stronger flavor of dried, I found fresh to be kind of wimpy.

Well Cheezits Twisterz. And water.

Think about why you want one, and what you expect to do with it -- that is, what do you cook often that you could use help with? Do you want to make the smoothest possible pureed soups? Don't get one; use your blender. A fp cannot make smooth purees of solid PLUS liquids. Do you want an easy way to make mashed potatoes? Don't get one; use a food mill. A fp will break the cell walls and turn your potatoes to glue. Do you want to make doughs? The mixing you could do in the fp is easy enough to do by hand or in a mixer with a paddle (the kneading is fun and therapeutic to to by hand, too). Do you want to chop onions? Don't get one; once you learn the professional way, it is actually faster to do it by hand (and you'll have chopped onions that sautee better). Do you want to chop your own fresh meat? Maybe get one, maybe not. You can do it well, but you have to watch carefully. Hand-cranked grinders are a lot cheaper, but the parts can't go in the dishwasher as those of the fp can. Do you want to chop dry ingredients (nuts, for example)? Get one. It does a great job. Do you want to make your own bread crumbs? Get one. Again, great job. Do you make a lot of hummus and/or baba ganough and/or gazpacho and/or other dishes that need chunky, not-quite-purees? Get one. I have a Cuisinart DLC-7, a size that hasn't been made in I don't know how long. In fact, it took me so long to decide to get it (20+ years ago) that by the time I finally did get it, it was on its way out. But in all these years, nothing has broken. But I've also used KitchenAid fps, and they seem fine. Again, consider what you want to do with it before you get it. The last thing one needs is to spend money on something that just takes up counter space.

Bless you for posting that! I used to buy the stuff ("Makes your mouth happy!"), but it would be so much better to make it. I'm usually just drinking tea or coffee; any nibbles are nuts -- cashews or unsalted peanuts, that is. I get into too much trouble if I'm drinking wine while posting.

When I worked garde manger at Match Uptown, I marinated fish (usually red snapper, filleted and cut on the bias into thin slices) for no more than 45 minutes in lemon/lime/orange/rice wine vinegar/S&P marinade, then drained. When we used scallops, we sliced them as thin as possible and tossed with marinade a la minute. In both cases, the other ingredients were added as we were finishing the plating: sliced Thai chiles, sliced scallion, chopped cilantro, etc.

Ooooh, fresh porcini!!!! You have Paula Wolfert's new recipe that uses them, right? Didn't you also test that one? If not, I'll email it to you; just wonderful! [edit to add: I got confused; SethG is the one who also has that recipe; Hathor, if you want it, let me know. FWIW, I got fresh porcini at Manhattan Fruit Exchange, in Chelsea Market, for a reasonable price.] Today at WTC: Italian prune plums (before I miss the season) Ginger Gold apples McIntosh apples -- Conklin's reminded me why I used to love them! Beets: golden, candy cane, white, and regular Arugula Lettuces (not sure which; HWOE picked and dealt with) Basil Cranberry beans Okra Kirbies Bell peppers: red, yellow, green Brussels sprouts!!!!! Peaches Tomatoes Yellow plum tomatoes

Okay, here we go again. Labensky and Hause say that to get 4 quarts of consommé, you need to make a clearmeat of 10 eggs whites, 2 pounds of ground beef, 1 pound of mirepoix, 12oz seeded and diced tomato to add to 5 quarts of beef stock, plus flavoring sachet, onion brulee, and salt TT (TT????) Whip the egg whites until slightly frothy; combine with the ground meat, mirepoix, and tomato in an "appropriate" stockpot ; mix well with the COLD stock. Mix in the other stuff. Bring to a simmer over moderate heat, stirring occasionally. STOP stirring when the raft begins to form. [This is where we diverge: I was taught to move the pot to the side of the burner, so that the liquid will naturally circulates up one side only. They say break a hole in the raft. ] Simmer about 1 1/2 hours. Lift off raft (or drain liquid out the spigot at the bottom, if you're lucky enough to have such a pot). Strain liquid through several layers of cheesecloth and degrease. Of course, if it STILL isn't crystal clear chill and degrease the stock, mix in lightly beaten egg whites (4 per gallon), bring it slowly to a simmer, and when the egg whites have coagulated, take it off the heat, strain, etc. etc. I've also seen people just process up a bunch of meat, mirepoix, and whole eggs (INCLUDING the shells) to use for the clearmeat. The main thing is that the stock be cold when you mix in the clearmeat, and that once the raft forms, LEAVE IT ALONE. You got that now???

Andie hits it right: look for the old Salton Hot-Trays. They are great, and last and last (unless you drop something on them, oops ) I've been through 2 Maxims, both of which self-destructed, but the Salton just keeps going and going . . . As for chafers, you can probably get "disposables" -- frames that hold aluminum roasting pans -- but those don't necessarily have doubles for water. They'll work all right for wet stuff, though. Kinda ugly, though.

Mexicana Mama????? NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's what you get when just anybody can vote for "best."

Another market day when I was stuck inside. Come Thursday, I plan to load up on peppers to roast and saute, if they are as nice as y'all are saying. Last Thursday at WTC, HWOE got some McIntosh from (I think) Samoscott -- they were the best Macs we've had in ages: crunchy, sweet/tart. Heaven. Reminded me why they used to be my favorite apple.

Pere Hugo -- definitely get the Bertolli! I no longer buy books for the recipes, but only for the reference material they contain, and this was a great addition to my shelves! Keep checking for "used" copies on Amazon or on powells.com, or some of the other book-selling sites.

Shouldn't that be "freephage"? Anyway, HWOE and I are usually omnivorous, but until the autumnal equinox we remain estivegetarians. Except for this Sunday, of course.

Do you need it immediately? If you can wait until Sunday I'll bring you some; I think I have an unopened bottle somewhere.

Kalustyan carries a wide range of Middle Eastern foods as well. Myers of Keswick is at 634 Hudson Street (Horatio - Jane). And to be honest, you'll do better posing your pickle Q on the UK board

Not only Kalustyan -- all the stores on that block and on 27th and 28th as well! While they all have many of the same, they also each have some slightly different. But another possibility: Myers of Keswick, for Branson Pickle. Hey, if it goes with a hunk of cheese uncooked, why not with it grilled?

Or a watercress pesto. Even without garlic, it could work: H2Ocress, oil, lemon zest, S&P, maybe cheese maybe not, into the blender. Whatever you do, if you have time, blanch and shock the cress first to keep the color.

I haven't gotten the hang of those new-fangled no-boil noodles, so I always use cooked. With those, I use really thin layers of everything, no more than 1/4 cup for each layer of sauce in a 9X5 Pyrex dish. And a sprinkle of grated parmesan on top to mediate. Oh, and I bake it off uncovered, only tenting if the cheese on top starts to get too dark. I will admit to having made super-wet "lasagna" last week -- but instead of noodles I was using slices of eggplant, blanched in boiling water first. Yummy, but sloppy. Anyway, we're talking about AMERICAN lasagna. According to Santa Marcella, there are very few layers and the whole thing is not terrible tall.

Me too. AND pasta: quasispaghetti carbonara. or linguine, or whatever long noodles I touch first. Put on big pot of water to boil. Dice a few slices of bacon, throw in skillet, wok, whatever. Dice a shallot or two, slice a clove of garlic, add to pan once bacon has crisped. Beat together eggs, grated parmesan, a bloop of ricotta, S&P, red pepper flakes. Wash a few leaves for salad. When water boils, add salt, add pasta. While pasta cooks, finish leaves etc. for salad. Open wine. Drain pasta lightly, dump in pan with bacon etc. Toss. Pour on egg/cheese, toss, turn heat to lowest. Dress salad. Toss pasta one last time, serve. Serve salad. Pour wine. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I was cloistered all day, so I didn't get to enjoy TUESDAY AT WTC

...and that would be because: a) the Republicans ate up all the vegetables? b) the farmers are afraid of random arrests?? I want my city back!!!! Sorry, needed to vent. Yeah, I found that out when I dashed over there around 11:30. I asked someone in the LMDC information booth, who said yes, it was because of the convention. (I was a good girl; I counted to 50 before saying anything else. ) Maybe THEY are afraid that the delegates staying at the Millenium would start having flashbacks to the days of ex-Wall-Streeters selling apples on corners??? But get this: I then said to the LMDC information booth person, "But the market will be here on Tuesday next week, right?" To which she replied, "Oh, no, it's only here on Thursday." Well, I ALMOST kept my cool, but said through gritted teeth, "The market people have been saying for 3 weeks that they'd be here Tuesday starting after Labor Day. Maybe . . . . . . YOU SHOULD CHECK YOUR INFORMATION." and huffed off before I lost it and started impugning her self or her employers. hathor: I thought Republicans don't eat vegetables. That's why they're______________________ (fill in the blank yourself; I don't want to get in any more trouble. )

My copy arrived yesterday. It sounds just like Suvir! And it includes the recipe for Chai Pots de Creme.

Gee. I find that for supermarket cheese, Cabot's Hunter's Seriously Sharp is not half bad. But back to The New Yorker: I'm on the NO RECIPES side. But more to the point, The New Yorker has had some excellent food articles in the long-distant past -- Burton Roueche on apples, Sue Hubbell (?) on the quest for pie (source of one of our favorite lines: when she asked a young Highway Patrolman where she could find good pie, he replied, "Sorry, ma'am, you're in cobbler country now.") And of course so much of Calvin Trillin's early work. Haven't read the articles yet, but there are a few really great drawings (aka cartoons). I'll try to link to them once they show up in the Cartoon Bank.

And what of the Hungarian Pastry Shop, up by Columbia? Forever, it seems to me. Okay, please help me out on this: in the 1960s (probably before and after) there was a French restaurant in the high 60s, much like those in the theater district (real French waitresses, etc). That was where I first had the real thing. But I can't for the life of me remember its name. Help?