Grub

But, but, but -- does anyone know exactly what legal rights a customer/chef really has in this situation? )Obviously, I realize that it might be best to back down from such a confrontation simply because of the legal hassle.) If you buy a product, I would think you have every right to take pictures of it, or do whatever you like with it, because you paid for it, and it's yours. You don't sign a confidentiality agreement when buying a car, or a sandwich. So it seems a given, that you have that right, as a customer. But does the same right apply to taking pictures inside a business? As they say, they reserve the right to refuse, but still...?

Thankie! Aaah, I see! Draad is similar to the Scandinavian Tråd/Traad, then. I got confused by the series of letters, "djesvle" cause it seems to make up the word "devil" or something like that. Now, I realized that I've got this old, but excellent encyclopedia of cooking, and I decided to look up Dutch cooking, and came across something called Hâché. It is a little more complex than Draadjesvlees, but it does use both bayleaves and cloves -- in addition to onions, flour, vinegar and Worchestershire sauce. That sounds like a promising set of ingredients to me. Heh, I particularly like the fact that nearly every dish described in the vegetables section for Dutch cooking includes meat. In modern books, the vegetables section tends to be purely vegetables only, as if some kinda tribute to vegitarianism -- but not here. Meat, ham, bacon, sausages everywhere. Lovely stuff. This should make for some great eats in the wintertime!

Tens of thousands of children die every day from starvation or easily preventable nutrition-related diseases, and they're campaigning for crustaceans... If nothing else, at least try to stay within your own biological family, or at least find a mammal to worry about. Am I the only one to suspect that people like this suffer from some kinda Birgitte Bardot-syndrome, in that they're just too much of a nutcase to get along with other human beings, and so they prefer the company of animals?

In case you decide that it's a good idea to store trash and a bag of coals near the grill, try not to forget putting the lid on the grill after you're done, on windy days.

Happy New Year -- and thanks for a great recipe. Well, thanks for two great recipes: Draadjesvlees & Hutspot. I went a little nuts on the sauce on this plate, but it was all gobbled down, with several helpings... Great recipe. The draadjesvlees took 3 hours to cook, which wasn't nearly enough time to learn how to spell it. What does that word mean? Every time I checked on the dish, I looked at the name and tried to memorize it, but I still can't make it stick in my mind. One thing I'll say though, this dish is definitely one of the biggest payoffs I've ever cooked, as far as effort vs. results goes. Cut the meat into large chunks, season with salt and pepper, brown and nearly cover with water, add two bayleaves and two cloves and leave to simmer for three hours -- nuts. Anyone I mentioned this dish to were apprehensive that it only used a couple of bayleaves and cloves -- as were I. But as I sampled the liquid, I could see what was going on. Brilliant. It's obviously a "rustic" kinda dish -- but it's actually kinda subtle in flavor at the same time. Very cool. There's an odd, slight sweetness to the flavor. It combines brilliantly with the onion-potato-parsnip-carrot (& salt, pepper and butter) of the hutspot. One problem area is that when I cut up the meat, I left some pieces thicker than others, and they ended up drying out somewhat, since they weren't completely covered by the water (and I kept it covered the whole time, and turned the pieces several times). So next time (and there'll definitely be plenty of next times with this one) I'll make sure to cut the pieces to the same thickness, and also to cover them completely with water. I might also remove the meat at the end and set it aside (covered) in the oven, while increasing the heat, to reduce the liquid -- or even to add a roux to thicken it. I reserved the liquid this time, in ice trays, so I can use it for sauces in the future. The hutspot came out very differently from the last time I tried it -- the carrots and onions didn't cook through as much, so the mash didn't turn as orange. The turnips and potatoes became mushy, so I'm kinda wondering about cooking them in stages the next time, but I'm not sure -- the slightly different textures were kinda nice. Thank you.

Some of the best ribs I've ever made, aren't smoked, grilled or bbq'd at all -- but braised... I think I got this from a California Culinary Academy book. I love western style ribs, but if I absolutely had to pick a favorite, it would have to be this one... Braised Chinese Pork Spareribs, cut into 2-inch pieces, marinated overnight in: 150ml soy sauce 1-2 red chilies, finely chopped 1 tbsp ginger, finely chopped 3 garlic cloves, crushed 2 spring onions 200ml shohsing wine or dry sherry 2 tsp five spice powder 2 tbsp honey Brown the ribs, pour marinade over, cover and let simmer for 40 minutes. Uncover, add 2 tbsp honey and increase heat for a strong simmer to reduce the sauce for 5-8 minutes. Serve sprinkled with thinly sliced green onions, julienned carrots and shredded ginger. For an optional kick, add finely chopped chilies.

So I was feeling kinda pleased with myself, for being imaginative and all clever, rigging up this umbrella in a PVC pipe and getting the grill going in this nasty weather... Lovely seekh kebabs -- rain be damned. Bit of rain wont stop clever people like myself from grilling, no siree... Wind, on the other hand, will prevent clever people like me from being posession of umbrellas for very long... Of course, the moment I walked out onto the balcony, I knew it would be gone -- the wind was really tearing things up. I can't believe I didn't take it down once I was done grilling. With this weather, the thing is probably halfway to Nicaragua by now... Oh well.

Man, it was nasty out there tonight. Rain and leaves and general unpleasantness. Ugh. Got an umbrella rigged up, and lit some coals up -- trying not to burn the brolly down or anything. It's a challenge, grilling things in the wintertime, but I guess I'm spoiled and should be grateful that it ain't snowing, and that I'm not being attacked by wolves and lynxes and polar bears and whatnot. But uh, me make seekh kebabs. Voila!

Isn't this just a natural selection kinda deal for a chef? The only way a chef can get away with any Stalinesque tendencies, would be because he or she is very, very good -- good enough to attract the attention of customers who are knowledgeable enough about the subject matter to understand the chef's greatness. Thus, if such a chef finds it necessary to tell a dressing-on-the-side, rare-but-with-no-pink, bearnaise-without-butter kinda customer to go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut, it won't put the other customers off too much. Basically, you can only get away with being a soup nazi, if your soup really rules.

I've got a "recipes" folder on my computer. Anything that I cook with any frequency, I've got written down there. It's beautifully and efficiently formatted with Microsoft Word. Except after I had to reformat my main drive, I had to reinstall a lot of software -- only my MS Word disks are lost , and my efficient and beautiful recipes look like garbled nonsense in wordpad... Bill Gates is teh debil.

Kashmir Pork Chops with Aloo Mutter Tried Monica's Kashmir Lambchops but with pork -- worked out fairly well, except I should have let it go longer in the milk to cook it properly tender, and I also used too much chili powder in the batter, so it overpowered the subtle flavor of the milk mixture. But the aloo mutter (potatoes & peas) came out perfect. My new favorite Indian side-dish, I think -- especially for dishes that aren't of a curry/stew-like consistency, with their own sauce.

Chufi, thank you, and hey, good luck with it -- it's a bit of work, but well worth it I think... Abra, heh yeah I started out hoping the pictorial would be a smooth and perfect explanation of exactly how to make the dish just so, but when things don't go so smooth, I figure that it's more informative and constructive to honestly document it. I mean, you learn from your mistakes, etc... All in good fun. Oh and your suggestion about wrapping the rolls and chilling them sounds like EXCELLENT advice. I'll definitely do that next time around. I really appreciate that hint -- thanks a bunch!

Sultani Munghi (Chicken stuffed with golden raisin and spinach): There's a pictorial of the making of this dish, here...

I'm confused -- isn't a saucier supposed to be speficially for making sauces? With rounded edges on the bottom, so the whisk can get into the corners...?

There's all sort of intriguing things behind this one... A user comment on imd.com quotes a New York Time article that says the film is being made under the stealthy codename "Coyote" in order to help the filmmakers gain access... It also says that the main finacial backers is ebay co-founder Jess Skoll, through his Parcicipant Productions company, that "...believes in the power of media to create great social change." Very interesting. I never read the book, but heard an extensive and fascinating interview with the author on NPR. The bit about food flavoring -- artificial and so-called "natural" flavoring was particularly interesting...

Happens all the time! That's really one of my favorite things about egullet. I've plucked several from Monica Bhide's Introduction to Indian food course, and also a Kung Pau Chicken dish -- all documented in the Dinner thread... Speaking of the Dinner thread, there are a lot of dishes there that I WISH I could make, but seriously doubt I could pull off. Edit: Oops, if I have to pick ONE dish, it would definitely have to be Wazaa's Vindaloo recipe. BTW, the link goes to my thread (with pictures), but provides links to Wazaa's post and recipe...

When a show carries warnings about graphic content, the only reasonable response to complaints, would be to track down the complainee and give them a fucking beating. Intellectually speaking, this on par with pissing on an electrified cow-fence, in spite of there being a big sign there, warning you not to do it -- only you don't merely urinate on the fence and make a mental note that this was a really bad idea -- oh no! You track down the farmer and complain that it's his fault that your shoes are wet, and your wiener smells like burnt rubber.

Indian Fish & Chips: Deep frying rather scares me. I did this recipe once before (it's Monica Bhide's Macci Fry Koliwada, from her Beginner's Guide to Regional Indian Cooking) but I chickened out and tried shallow-frying it -- in a stainless steel pan, of all things... I still believe I could have gotten a good result, if I'd just used a non-stick pan, but well this time around, I decided to go for it, and deep fry it. Can't believe how well the fries worked out -- dip em once at a lower temperature, then again at a higher, to make em crisp. Very cool. Just wish I'd cut the cilantro up some more.

Excellent, -- great information. Thanks so much! I guess Tanith Tyrr's article was not as well researched as I thought... The F1 and F2 website wouldn't load for me, but I'll look around. You say almost every cattle raised outside Japan is F1 or F2, do you know of any instances; where real, full-bloodline wagyu has been raised outside Japan? Thanks.

Machi Fry Koliwada... ...and Kashmiri Lamb Chops: both from Monica Bhide's Beginner's Guide to Regional Indian Cooking

Excellent, thanks a bunch guys!

torakris, where in those three classifications would the California-riased wagyu that budrichard mentioned, belong? (Wagyu cattle raised in California, then shipped live to Japan, finished there and sold as Kobe beef, that is.)

The terminology appears to vary from country to country, and region to region, but I'm wondering if anyone knows what the words "SEEK" and "SISH" means, and where they come from -- as well as what they apply to. I was introduced to these kind of kebabs at Abdul's Takeaway in Manchester, England. There, the seek kebab was made of minced lamb -- and it tends to be the same here in the US, except they tend to substitute beef due to local preferences. Their sish kebab was chunks of lamb, marinated. I just heard someone refer to a ground chicken kebab as "Chicken Seek Kebab" and I wondered, does seek mean lamb? Or does it just mean ground? And what does sish mean? Would really appreciate some enlighted comments on this one... Thanks! Edit: Okay, I snooped around a bit, and have found that "Sish" is a generic term for anything that's skewered, possibly of Turkish origin. Wikipedia lists "Seek" as Pakistani in origin, but it doesn't say anything about the word's original meaning. So I guess what I'm asking is, does seek mean minced, or lamb, or something else?

Ah thanks, budrichard! That clears a few things up. Now, if some Kobe cattle is raised in California, shipped live to Japan and finished in Kobe, I obviously expect that some is also raised entirely in Kobe, right? Is any distinction made in Japan between them? And how big a percentage of Kobe production did the California-raised cattle amount for (when it was still being done)? I expect that it must have been a horrendous shock for these California Wagyu producers when the ban went into effect. Did "Kobe beef" suddenly appear on American menu because of the Japanese ban import?

Heheh, well thankie! I don't know if I think the pork looks good, though... If the chops were of a reasonable thickness, I would have gotten some brownage all over, and not just on the edges. The way these things look, they looks completely pale and uh, flaccid or something. They were covered in black and green peppercorns (the dish was actually called "Peppered pork with chive sauce," I just remember). It tasted pretty good, but that was just the sauce (as horrible as it looked) and the peppercorns, really. The pork was supposed to be slightly pink in the center, but in this case it was completely cooked through. The more I cook with pork, the more I like it -- it really has a good flavor. In this case, I might as well have used chicken or veal. There was just no real pork flavor left.