touaregsand
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Posts posted by touaregsand
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Sorry to be slow to post in this thread. I am committed to it more than I'm expressing these days. I'm in the middle of doing research for other things.
Yukejang- Spicy Beef Soup
Simmer 1 ¼ lb Beef Brisket or Skirt Steak in water for about 1 hour
Reserve the cooking liquid
Shred the beef into strips with your hands
Season the beef with a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce, ¼ cup Korean Red pepper flakes (more or less to suit your tastes), salt and pepper to taste, lots of garlic (maybe 5 cloves, finely minced) and a 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil. Toss the ingredients well untill all the meat is covered with the seasonings.
2 Bunches of Korean Leeks (they are longer and thinner than "western" style ones. You can substitute regular leeks or scallions). Slice the them into 3" long strips, add the green portions if they are tender.
Blanch 1/2 lb. mung bean sprouts in boiling water for about 3 minutes (I always cover the pot, something some sort of smell my mother told me about). Drain, rinse under cool water, squeeze out excess moisture.
Saute the leeks in a big pot with a little oil, add the beef and sautee for a few more minutes. Strain the reserved broth into the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low. Add a handful of fern bracken 15 minutes into cooking, add the mung beans 20 minutes later (taste for seasoning and adjust to suit your tastes). Cook on low heat for about 30 more minutes.
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I think that Cat Cora has her talents as a chef. I'm eagerly waiting to see what they are.
Her choice of dishes focused on inventiveness and novelty which she repeatedly tried to root in culture by mentioning her Greek heritage and the Greek influences. (Yes you are Greek, certainly you are Greek, did you mention that you are Greek?). She did answer a burning question for me though, "Is there anything worse than cold mashed potatoes?" Yes, sweet, frozen mashed potatoes.
It hurts me too when talent and substance lose to flash and false drama to generate ratings. But don't the losers gain something by being on the show? Publicity. They get alot of publicity. I'm not saying that's the only or primary reason for chefs to be on the show. I know plenty of professional chefs who would love to be on the show or something like it whether or not it's televised for the sheer sport and adrenaline rush of competing. But the fact is ICA is on TV. I've heard of Chef Bayless before, but after seeing him on the show I take his recipes more seriously. Alex Lee? Who's this chef? Wow, now I know he is talented and has a deep understanding of ingredients. The only time I've seen Anita Lo was on a program where she made a nouvelle Korean dish and then I read about her in the NY forum in relation to her dimsum restaurant. (I know it would work better in LA than New York). I know very little about her and Anissa. But now I'm planning on eating there.
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I admire egulleters who take photographs of their dishes. I always forget.
Last night we I had yukejang soup, rice and pickled scallion tops. My husband had bbq, rice and napa cabbage kimchi. The kids had rice, pan fried whole fish and seaweed soup. I suppose I don't really need to mentioned the rice.
Tonight I had Korean style fried chicken. I just bought it, although I do know how to make it. I have an aversion to smell fod food frying in the house. The kids had tofu, kim and fish cakes. Husband had sausage (beef polska kielbasa), rice and kimchi. It's a take on a Hawaiin meal of fried Spam, rice and kimchi.
I have thoroughly spoiled my family by catering to individual taste buds and requests at meal times.
I will post recipes as requested.
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My comments about Kennedy were about her in general. I have read enough of what she has written and reports of what she has said that I can't get through her books without that attitude in the back of my mind. The whole "Englishwoman goes to Mexico and becomes renowned Mexican food snob" just gets to me. Funny thing is, the good Mexican cooks that I know think she is nuts. Zarela started out in Veracruz telling us why she had some prejudices, then how she got past it and discovered the food.
Having grown up in LA, I'm practically half Mexican at this point. Writers who embrace a foreign cuisine oftentimes go overboard with "authenticity" (perhaps some of it has to do with insecurity regarding authority) and they can come off as arrogant and pedantic. It rubs me a little the wrong way too. I have visions of 19th century anthropologists.
Wow, I use Diana Kennedy's cookbook so often I've memorized a good 20% of it. I had the oldest one, which I then supplemented with Essential Cuisines, both of which have lots of do-able recipes. Fifi, she doesn't seem racist to me(?) Her tone reminds me a lot of Paula Wolfert's actually -- occasionally arrogant and prickly but very commited to the cuisine. Not someone I want to be married to, say, but a very reliable cooking resource. What did you read that gave your impression?I'm also practically half North-African at this point. (I'm a woman with many halves.
) At their best cookbooks written from a non-native perspective offer insights and details that someone wholly within might not notice. So they are very valuable in this sense. If I wrote a Korean cookbook I might just give my recipes and talk about my family's culinary history. Whereas someone who is not Korean will probably study a range of recipes for a dish and offer up a comparitive analysis, asking questions and providing answers to things that just would not occur to me. Different perspectives for different readers.
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The lobster however, did maintain a lovely proper lobster texture which I did appreciate, but lobster tasts nice and it was sad (IMO) to hide it completely.
I'm really enjoying this discussion. I do agree with you that lobster tastes better when it's not hidden, of course that's my opinion. Which seems to be a common opinion when it comes to lobster.
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I'm not sure that was true: I expect from a 3 star no missed steps; both the lobster and the scallop dishes showed disrespect to their ingrediants by using contrasting tastes to heavy to show them off, and ended up masking instead. And the strawberries and raspberries though gorgeous were slightly out of season and too tart. But of course, I may be a bit californian in my attitude toward the raw materials of art.
Californian here. Maybe I should duck and run as soon as say this or even before I say this.
A Californian attitude towards the raw materials of the art doesn't strike me as being more rigorous than the a French attitude towards the materials of the art. If I recall my culinary history correctly the Californian attitude was inspired by someone who had spent some formative time in France.
I've never tried Alice Waters fruit dessert of a whole peach (or whatever fruit it is) served with a knife, but even she can't control the seasons. I wonder what she does between seasons? Add a mint leaf?
I don't agree that using "contrasting tastes too heavy to show them off" shows disrespect for the ingredients. Perhaps the components didn't marry well on your palate or fit your philosophy of respect.
Isn't dining at this level about enjoying something that is contrary to common denominator thinking? Of course it's your perogative to disagree with the chef's approach, but is the chef making mistakes by having a different approach?
I don't mean to nitpick with you in particular, although it does seem I split a few hairs here. By the way I did enjoy your review and the photos. It alwasy amazes me how much time egullers take to share their dining experiences. I'd be too busy eating to photograph the dishes.
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It's not to say that I wouldn't ever use the recipes from Maynard--The Adventures of a Bacon Curer, it's just that it's pretty unlikely as this sample might attest:
'Penitentiary Dry Salted Bacon for 1000 lb Bacon':
16 lbs fine salt
16 lbs bay salt
6 lbs muscavado sugar
12 oz saltpetre
6 oz Jamaican pepper
6 oz ginger
Mix all ingredients thoroughly. It was a very fat bacon but the prison diet needed that as they had a lot of greens and in the bacon they needed a bit of flavour.
Clearly more ingredient-driven than Keller.
Costco is the place to shop for the ingredients in the recipe.
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except Robyn..new,inventive, delicious & honest stuff please!!
I'll pass on inventive and honest for just plain ole delicious. When the three come together that's a rare treat. When two out of three meet I'll settle for honest and deliciious, although I am more certain of delicious than honest, but then again I am even less certain of inventive. And when I read about what is considered "inventive" I wonder if the references go further back in time than 30 years or if they travel more in depth than a single, homogenizing culture.
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I will try to cook the Korean Tofu Chigage that Touregsand taught me before, probably tomorrow, I think the Kimchi is "ripe" enough in my fridge.
If you were close enough to me geographically I would just make it for you and your wife!
It's a simple recipe, "prepare to taste." Enjoy!
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Interesting how a couple of chef's cookbooks were mentioned a few times. Someone said about Keller "method over ingredients." In another thread I read Alice Water's style was compared to "shopping not cooking" by another chef.
I suppose that both cookbooks have there place. Keller introduced some French cuisine gastronomique technques to the American homecook. Alice Waters introduced (preached) about fresh, local, seasonal ingredients.
Both cookbooks are primarily vehicles to promote their respective restaurants and their visions. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with their visions or that they didn't contribute to the American culinary scene. I'm saying that the primary aim of these cookbooks is not necessarily to teach cooking. They are monuments to the chefs. I think that Keller's books fail as cookbooks, because he does not offer realistic options and substitutions for the homecook. What exactly is the number of crew in his restaurant kitchen? Even Keller doesn't cook Keller at home. How could he? But then again his books might of interest to someone who wants to learn finer/fussier techniques so they work on that level. As for Waters, the "shopping not cooking" comparison keeps coming to mind. It's all about the ingredients, well there is very little method to be taught and you better get those exact ingredients. Of course she has contributed greatly to the wider availability of those ingredients. Good for her.
Both of them are like fingernails on a blackboard to me.
With that said, I've never cooked anything from the Culinaris series. I just look at the pictures.
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I did a little research.
Aush and Aushak turn up similar recipes. Some recipes for Aush are soups like the one you mentioned. Inspired by the link you provided I looked up Ashe. Lots of results for Persian and Afghani soups. Ashe apparently means soup in Persian. An online menu for an Afghani restaurant describeds Ashe as "traditional soup with or without meat." Ashak is described as "steamed scallion dumplings topped with yoghurt sauce, with or without meat."
So I looked up Ashak and found a few dumpling, yoghurt, with or without meat recipes. Some of the ashe recipes have noodles and vegetables in a soup, meat sauce as a garnish of sorts and a mint relish.
Afghan is another country who's cuisine is little known. The Afghani people I've known have been ethnically diverse. I'm fascinated on the basis of location alone. "Afghan Food & Cookery? by Helen Saberi, published by Hippocrene Books is the only one I've heard of.
NOTE: I play around with the possible English spellings when I research foreign dishes.
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I know of a dish called Aush that has noodles, meat sauce and yoghurt sauce.
Do you remember any of the ingredients in the Aush soup you had?
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Worst meals-
I was 15 and it was at an Indian friends house, I sleptover. I like Indian food by the way. Dinner was great. But breakfast was all together different. She made these spiced dough fritters in a vat of what looked and smelled like bad oil to me. I'm not much of a fried food eater and I never make them at home because I have an aversion to the smell of fried food in the house. (I'll have to makes some chick pea fries for research though). So for me first thing in the morning, dough fried in bad oil served with a very tart and spiced yogurt was just too much. The fritters were really oily, oily with the bad oil. Did I mention that bad oil?
Dinner with a couple that we were starting to become friends with, but they were just too damn cheap and annoying in other ways. We arrive and we can't smell anything cooking, no aroma of food whatsoever. They have some nuts, cheeses and dips out with 3-4 crackers. We finish the crackers, they put out a few more but never more than 4. Same thing with the nuts, only a few are put out at a time. We notice 1 bottle of wine, of course we brought one ourselves, so that makes 2 for the entire evening. The woman starts on the salad. I thought she was making one portion at a time. Wrong, it's for everybody. We sit down to eat (I'm still wondering when she'll start cooking the main course). Divided amongst 4 adults individual salad portions come out to about 1/4 cup. She brings out the entree, it's room temperature chicken breast with a bland chili sauce and not enough salt. The breasts are dry, bone dry. The portion sizes are 1/2 a breast. Dessert is a single slice of cake. Not a single slice for each of us, a single slice for all of us. We left starving and thirsty. The weird thing is this woman bragged about her cooking.
Dinner at a Vietnamese friend's house. I like Vietnamese food by the way. But this woman just loved her fish sauce. She used copious amounts of it in this noodle dish. Just to give you an idea of my threshhold for fermented fish stuff I like fermented cuttlefish and salted shrimp. We could smell it as soon as we walked in. It permeated the entire evening. Eating this noodle dish was an act of politeness that I will never again duplicate.
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Has anyone made parsley kimchi or some other kind of parsley pickles?
There's a range of kimchi's made from greens/herbs. Some of the preparations could work for parsley. If anyone is interested I can come up with some suggestions.
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Or just go to Wholefoods.
Even Costco carries Naked brand carrot juice.
You're right a blender would pulverize better than a robo.
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I always tip based on the pre-tax total. The tax is not a good or a service that I purchased and someone provided - it's a tarriff that goes directly to the government. It's also worth noting that tax rates for restaurant meals vary wildy in the US from as low as 4% - 5% to as high as 10% - 12%.
As for what percentage I tip... it's not only a function of service but quite often related to the dollar size of the tab, the level of service required and the nature of the service provided. On larger tabs I generally leave 20% or a bit more and as high as 30% for exceptional service. But if I eat at a local diner and get the $3 eggs/toast/home fries special and glass of juice for a bill that totals $4 - $5 pretax - I'll leave $2 for decent service.
Excellent points.
I tip on the total with tax included out of habit. But you're right it's not a good or a service.
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1. A dork will make you feel uncomfortable. They are supercilious, punctilious, and from my point of view, just plain supersillious. A geek, however, will make you feel comfortable, and value your opinion of his wines.
More geek, I'll make you feel comfortable, but on the inside I won't always your opinion. On the other hand I won't be bothered if you didn't value mine, 'cause I know I'm right.
2. A dork holds his glass by the base, or with his fingers curled sensuously around the body of the glass. A geek grabs his glass by the stem and just sticks his nose in. All business.
Depends, I swing both ways with this one.
3. Geeks love sweet wine and the women who drink them. Always keep a bottle on hand for the sensual possibilities. A dork does not keep sweet wine or palate deadening spices in his kitchen.
I don't like sweet wine, but I do have palate deadening spices in my kitchen. (I'm a woman, am I allowed to answer this question?)
4. Dorks love to mention Bordeaux and Burgundy. Geeks speak and kiss French.
I'm a Geek, but I like my Bordeaux and Burgundy wines.
5. Dorks spend as much as possible for large bottles at auction, hoping for the ultimate photo opp. Geeks barter, trade and wheedle for wine, but always seem to have plenty on hand.
I'm a Geek, but I don't wheedle.
6. Dorks will ask, "How long will this wine cellar?" Geeks will age a wine only as long as necessary to make it drinkable. They have been known to pick up old bottles and hold them up to the light, shaking the sediment around, and saying, "Do you think I can drink this now?"
Neither
7. In a restaurant, dorks will swizzle wine loudly through their teeth before taking the first swallow. Geeks never do this on a first date, because they know if you laugh, the wine will come out your nose.
I'll try to taste the wine, but do it discreetly.
8. Dorks will order food, then a wine to match. Geeks order wine, and a totally unrelated food. They're always surprised by how well food and wine go together.
I'm a dork.
9. Dorks follow numerical wine ratings and place their bets accordingly. Geeks are the hecklers of the wine world, and can often be overheard saying, "That wine got an 87? Geesh, I woulda given it a 91. 92?!? How did that wine rate? Are we sure that's not the judge's age??"
I don't do either.
10. Dorks have a proper cellar for their wine collection, with adequate temperature controls, and chairs. Geeks and winemakers use their cellars for "important stuff," and store their personal selections in the garage, between the kayak and the workbench.
Neither.
I suppose I'm geork or dorek (or deek).
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I'd go with the robo and cheesecloth method. Or easier just buy carrot juice. Is it available where you are?
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It's not that hard to get an A. I'm not "sneering" when I say less than that is gross or careless.
I have heard from several of LA's chefs at very well known restaurants that the inspector's work hard to find enough violations to issue a "B"I have heard from several of LA's chefs that the health department conducts an initial visit, notes corrections that need to be made then conducts a "surprise" visit later to ensure that the corrections have been made.
I do recall that horrible scandal a few years involving one inspector who blackmailed mom and pop Asian restaurant owners.
I would like to add a little something here. LA County DHS ( health dept) has started using the letter grade system to generate fees.If that's true than a thorough investigation should be conducted. With enough evidence I don't think it would be that hard. Will these chefs sign a letter of complaint? I assume these chefs aren't non-English speaking immigrants who are afraid of hassles or reprisals if they question "authority".
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So, is Tramonto fat, or was Trotter trying to say Rick's an alkie?
Another point-do all chefs have to like all other chefs? Or play nice with them? For example, part of the charm of Mr. Bourdain's writing is his disdain for celebrity chefs, i.e., his peers. And he's the most popular food writer today!
All chefs don't have to like all other chefs. Or even play nice with them. Although I've never seen chefs arguing with eachother, maybe that's because there is only one chef in the kitchen. But playing mean is a bit silly and unprofessional. As for Bourdain part of his charm for me is his self-deprecating sense of humour and irony. Although in general I'm not a fan of anyone, so I tend not to keep up with celebrities even the ones that cook. If Bourdain has disdain for other celebrity chefs just because they are famous, I'd call that a bit hypocritical. I don't get the impression that's where his disdain lies. If his disdain is for the celebrity chef model and PR fabricated bullshit talk that some (many) engage in than I'd get a good laugh out of it.
As for the name calling in the article.
Hilarious!
I have a few Trotter stories, but I won't engage in public acts of gossip.
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There is a culinary history that should not be discounted or ignored. I would expect a chef, trained and/or working in America, to have (and/or willing to have) a basic knowledge & understanding of American culinary history. And to me, Julia Child is part of that American culinary history. Am I asking too much?
Yes and no. She was hugely inspirational to a certain generation who in turn was hugely influential to the next generation. But this next generation of trained cooks/chefs has greater access to culinary schools and highly trained chefs (quite a few are foreign) to learn under. Julia Child's was a home cook not a professional chef. A culinary student now who is being taught by a chef who has 10 or more years work experience in FDR is not get gonna all juiced up when he/she sees Julia on TV or reads one of her cookbooks. And yes, thanks to her the culinary world in Amerca has grown in leaps and bounds.
I wonder if Masayoshi Takayama should be sent a short biography of Julia.
Very well written and relevant; unfortunately the reality is SHE INSPIRED Jacques Pépin and other great Chefs of the world and pioneered French cooking into the modern world (and to the USA/Canada)...Isn't Jacques Pepin really American at this point. And they did those shows together. I don't mean to nitpick (ya smell a nitpick coming on?
). My points upthread weren't questioning the significance or grandness of her contributions in America, they were addressing someone's point about "true chefs." -
It is indeed a Bedouin speciality, but of the Bedouins of Palestine and Jordan, not Algeria, who probably imported in from the Mashraq.
Mashraq? Are you referring to the Arab countries East of the Maghreb?
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did anyone else notice the truffle recipe?
marinate one-inch cubes of truffle
in oil & lemon juice, then skewer and grill them. can you imagine?I asked about desert truffles in one of the forums, I never got an answer. I did a little research and truffles are found in the Middle East and North Africa. There is a company that sells canned Lebanese truffles. I've never tried them.
tah chin or tah dig?
in Middle East & Africa: Cooking & Baking
Posted
SwatiC-
Great to have someone on the boards who is Knowledgeable about Persian/Iranian cookery.