phatj

Success! I did a spicy orange-garlic short rib braise of my own invention (recipe RecipeGullet). It was really yummy. I wish I took pics, because unlike many of my creations, it actually was pretty attractive, with a lovely glossy brown sauce. The pot did fine for the browning, and stuff didn't stick too it badly. It more or less deglazed itself when I sauteed the onions. Cleanup was easy. I think I'll end up using this quite a bit.

Spicy Orange-Garlic Braised Short Ribs Serves 6 as Main Dish. I created this recipe as a vehicle for testing my new cheapo dutch oven. It could probably be done successfully in a large stockpot if you don't have a dutch oven. As written, this isn't very spicy. To liven it up, add more peppers, or cut one or more in half, releasing the seeds. 3 lb beef short ribs, cut into 1-rib segments 2 T chili-orange oil 10 dried red peppers 4 oranges, zested and juiced 10 cloves garlic, crushed 1-1/2 lb onions, coarsely chopped 1 pinch Chinese five spice powder, or to taste 1/2 c soy sauce 1 c beef stock 1 T corn starch 1 bunch scallions, green parts sliced 1. Sprinkle rib segments with kosher salt at least 1 hour before cooking. 2. Pre-heat oven to 250 F. 3. In large, heavy pot (I used a 7 Qt enameled cast iron dutch oven), heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Brown rib segments in the oil, in two or more batches so as not to overcrowd, 2-3 minutes per side. Remove with tongs and reserve. 4. Add onions and saute until translucent. Add peppers, garlic, half of zest (saving the other half if desired for other uses) and five-spice powder. Cook one minute, stirring constantly. 5. Return rib segments to pot, arranging bone-side down. Pour stock, orange juice and soy sauce over ribs. Add water if needed so that ribs are about halfway submerged. Bring to a simmer. 6. Cover pot and place in oven. Cook undisturbed for 2-3 hours, or until meat is tender and falling off bones. 7. Using tongs, extract meat from sauce and set aside. Strain sauce into a medium saucepan. Skim off most of the fat. 9. Bring sauce to a boil. Dissolve corn starch in 2-3 T water and add to sauce. Cook until thickened. 10. While sauce is cooking, pull meat into bite-size chunks. Add meat back to sauce. Ladle meat and sauce over rice. Top with sliced scallions. Keywords: Main Dish, Intermediate, Beef, Dinner, Hot and Spicy ( RG1915 )

I did read about the ChefMate pots in Cook's Illustrated, but couldn't find them at my local Target. And I was leaning towards the 7-Qt pot anyway, which ChefMate doesn't seem to sell. I hadn't thought of the oven rack sagging issue. However, I just put the thing in my oven and pushed down on the lid as hard as I could; the rack sagged somewhat, but not enough to worry about.

I originally posted the below in the "Understanding Stovetop Cookware Q&A" thread, but then realized it was an EGCI thread and didn't get bumped to the top of the EGCI forum, so nobody will see it. I've seen threads about Le Creuset & Staub, and I've seen other brands mentioned in various threads, but perhaps they deserve their own thread. I've been lusting after Le Creuset's assorted enameled cast iron products for a long time, but have not been able to get the exchequer to approve one. So, last night in a HomeGoods store, I saw that they carried "Authentic Kitchen" brand enameled cast iron cookware. Has anyone heard of this brand, or had any experience with it? It's all made in China, unsurprisingly. The heft seems good (in fact, it seemed heavier to me than LC, but of course I had nothing to which to directly compare it), but the enamel quality seemed iffy in the store, borne out by experience (see below). On a whim I bought the 7-Qt oval dutch oven for $50. Before I even got it home, I managed to chip the enamel: in transit, the lid slipped down into the pot, chipping the edge. As this is an unimportant spot, I'm going to let it slide. I haven't had a chance to actually use the thing yet. Any suggestions for a first recipe? I'm leaning towards braised short ribs of some sort. Once I've cooked some things, I'll report on further impressions, but again, I don't really have any reference point for this kind of cookware.

I've been lusting after Le Creuset's assorted enameled cast iron products for a long time, but have not been able to get the exchequer to approve one. So, last night in a HomeGoods store, I saw that they carried "Authentic Kitchen" brand enameled cast iron cookware. Has anyone heard of this brand, or had any experience with it? It's all made in China, unsurprisingly. The heft seems good (in fact, it seemed heavier to me than LC, but of course I had nothing to which to directly compare it), but the enamel quality seemed iffy in the store, borne out by experience (see below). On a whim I bought the 7-Qt oval dutch oven for $50. Before I even got it home, I managed to chip the enamel: in transit, the lid slipped down into the pot, chipping the edge. As this is an unimportant spot, I'm going to let it slide. I haven't had a chance to actually use the thing yet. Any suggestions for a first recipe? I'm leaning towards braised short ribs of some sort.

Goulash-style Slow Cooker Beef Stew Serves 12 as Main Dish. This is my version of Hungarian Goulash. It's pretty far from traditional, I'm sure, but it's pretty tasty, and the recipes I've read don't agree much on what "traditional" goulash is. Goulash 2 lb Beef chuck roast, excess fat trimmed and cut into large chunks 2 T Oil (olive or neutral vegetable oil) 3 White or yellow onions, sliced (about 4 cups) 6 Cloves garlic, pressed or minced 6 T Paprika (sweet or hot) 4 T Flour 1 tsp Caraway seeds 1 tsp Dried marjoram 1/2 tsp Freshly ground black pepper 1/2 tsp Salt 1/2 tsp Ground cayenne (optional -- reduce or omit if using hot paprika) 3 c Beef or chicken stock, water, beer or wine, or a combination 2 T Tomato paste 2 Bell peppers (pref. red) 8 oz Fresh mushrooms, sliced 3 Tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped 1 c Sour cream Corn starch (if desired -- 2 T plus 2 T water) Herbed Buttered Noodles 1 lb Egg noodles 4 T Butter 1 T Garlic, minced or pressed 1 T Fresh parsley, minced 1/4 tsp Freshly ground black pepper 1. In a large skillet, heat a little oil over high heat until shimmering. Add meat chunks and brown quickly on all sides (2-3 min. per side). Remove meat to a bowl and set aside. 2. Add a little more oil to the skillet, then add the onions. Saute, stirring frequently, until beginning to brown, ~ 5 min. 3. Remove onions to the bowl with the meat. Toss with the flour and spices. Deglaze skillet with some of the stock/water/wine if desired. NOTE: steps 1-3 (plus all prep work) can be done in advance. Put the meat & onions in a container or large Ziploc bag (or the slow cooker insert if it fits in your fridge) until ready to stew, and reserve deglazing liquid (if any). 4. Beat together stock/water/wine and tomato paste, then add to slow cooker with meat & onion mixture. Turn slow cooker to low and go to work. 5. Come home from work and skim off fat from surface of stew. If cooking without leaving for work, let cook for at least 4 hours. 6. Saute peppers and mushrooms briefly if desired, then add to stew along with tomatoes. Turn heat to high & cook 30 minutes. 7. Remove meat chunks from stew; set aside and let cook for a few minutes. Shred with a pair of forks or your hands into bite-size pieces. 8. Add sour cream (to help incorporate sour cream without lumps, first mix some of the stew liquid with the sour cream, then stir the mixture into the stew) and beef to stew, and cook until bubbling again. If a thicker consistency is desired, mix corn starch and water and add with the sour cream. 9. Cook noodles in 5 Qt. salted water. While noodles are cooking, in a small saucepan or in the microwave, melt butter and mix in garlic, parsley and pepper. Toss cooked noodles with butter/herb mixture. 10. Serve goulash over noodles. Keywords: Main Dish, Intermediate, Beef, Dinner, Eastern Euro/Russian, Crock Pot ( RG1898 )

From-scratch Green Bean Casserole Serves 12 as Side. The American holiday standard green bean casserole sounds good in theory -- green beans and fried onions baked with a mushroom sauce -- but is usually pretty nasty in execution, as it typically involves canned beans, canned french-fried onions and canned condensed mushroom soup. I set out to try to make a good version, from scratch. It turned out very tasty. It is, however, a lot of work. 4 c homemade cream of mushroom soup 2 large onions, sliced into thin rings 1 c buttermilk 1 c flour 1/2 tsp table salt 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper 4 c vegetable oil 2 lb fresh green beans, ends removed, broken into 1-in pieces STEP ONE (make cream of mushroom soup [my mushroom soup recipe] -- can be done well in advance) STEP TWO (fried onions -- should be done as soon as possible before casserole will be cooked) 1. Heat oil in large, deep saucepan or skillet until shimmering. 2. Separate sliced onion into rings and put in a bowl with the buttermilk. Toss in a mesh strainer to get most of the buttermilk off. 3. Mix flour, 1/2 tsp salt & 1/4 tsp pepper. Sprinkle some over the onions and toss again. 4. Add remaining flour to a paper sack or ziploc bag. Put onion rings in bag, close and shake well. Dump into strainer over trash and toss to sift out excess flour. 5. Add onions to hot oil in batches. Stir occasionally to separate and cook until crisp and golden brown. 6. Remove onions from oil with slotted spoon or skimmer and set on paper towels. STEP THREE (pre-cooking green beans -- can be done while frying onions) 1. Steam green beans ~5 minutes or until bright green. 2. Shock beans in a bowl of ice water (to preserve color) and set aside. STEP FOUR (assembling and baking casserole) 1. Reheat mushroom soup and preheat oven to 350. 2. Put the beans and 1/2 of the onions in a casserole dish. 3. Add mushroom soup to cover and stir. 4. Cover dish and bake for 20 minutes or until bubbling. 5. Remove lid and top with remaining onions. Return to oven for five more minutes, then serve. NOTES: 1. If using the mushroom soup recipe I linked above, I'd cut it with extra milk and/or cream. The mushroom flavor is a little too much for this casserole, and the color is a little too brown. Keywords: Vegetarian, Side, Beans, Vegetables ( RG1890 )

Cream of Mushroom Soup Serves 8 as Soup. I created this recipe to use with in a from-scratch version of the holiday standard green bean casserole (my casserole recipe). It's actually a little too mushroomy for that application (the mushroom flavor overwhelms the beans), but darn tasty by itself. 1 T olive oil 3 T butter or olive oil 2 shallots, minced 1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms 8 oz white button mushrooms, chopped 8 oz cremini or portobello mushrooms, stems removed and chopped 8 oz shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and discarded 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper 1 tsp minced fresh thyme or .5 tsp ground dried thyme 3 tsp flour 1 c heavy cream 1 c milk 1. Preheat oven to 425. 2. In a bowl, pour 1 c very hot water over dried porcinis. Let steep for 1/2 hour. 3. In a bowl, toss cremini and shiitake caps with 1 tbsp oil. Spread caps on a greased baking sheet, sprinkle with salt, and roast for 30 minutes, tossing once. 4. In a large saute pan, melt butter or heat oil over medium-high heat. Add shallots, sprinkle with salt, and saute until softened, about three minutes. Add chopped mushrooms, 1/2 tsp pepper and thyme, sprinkle with salt, and cook about 10 minutes or until most of the liquid given off by the mushrooms has evaporated. 5. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add 3 tbsp flour and cook, stirring well, about five minutes. 6. Increase heat to medium-high. Gradually add cream, stirring constantly to prevent lumps, then add milk. Bring to a simmer. 7. Remove porcinis from water and set aside. Strain water through a paper towel or coffee filter into soup. 8. Roughly chop porcinis and roasted cremini and shiitake caps and add to soup. Simmer for five minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary. Keywords: Vegetarian, Easy, Soup ( RG1889 )

I think if you try a few different grocery stores you should be able to find a frozen goose, at least. I've had good experiences with frozen. If you have your heart set on fresh, I can't really help you, unless Wegman's has made its way to New England (Wegman's is an upscale supermarket based in upstate New York but growing rapidly). As to recipes, I can only tell you that if you're planning to toast the bird whole, you shouldn't plan on having potatoes roasted with goose fat at the same meal. Roasting goose releases a ridiculous amount of fat, but not necessarily in a useful timeframe for also roasting potatoes.

I bought a $20 no-name mandoline several years ago. It's mostly plastic, with inserts for slicing, french fries, and julienne. There is no thickness adjustment. A year ago, I was given the Oxo mandoline for Christmas. It is of much more substantial construction, and includes a reversible flat/crinkle blade, and a rotating cylinder with different width julienne blades. It's adjustable for thickness. But on the infrequent occasions when I have use for a mandoline (slicing beaucoup onions for confit, for instance), I always reach first for the cheapie. The reason? Well, its relatively simple construction makes for easier cleaning, but mostly I think it's because it cuts better. I believe this to be largely because its blade is slanted, rather than perpendicular to the "sled" (if that's the right word).

Amazing. My wife has been going through chemotherapy for a couple of months now, and I was condsidering starting a thread like this myself. She seems to like the stronger-flavored foods, though, contrary to some other posts here. I made very lime-y fajitas a week ago, and that was one of her favorites since this started. But then, I made mac and cheese a couple days ago, and she liked that too. Who knows. At least she's eating, and doing well.

Looks like tomacco to me.

It was on the grill for 10 hours. It was at 190F when I took it off. EDIT: I should have mentioned in my previous post, the temp in the "smoking chamber" according to the grill's built-in thermometer varied between about 225F and 250F.

In my Pork Orgy thread, I mentioned I would be doing a pork butt today. This was my first-ever attempt. Well, it's complete, and it was awesome. I bought a 7-lb Boston Butt from the Lansdale Meats and Deli (also known as Colonial Meat Market) here in Lansdale, PA. It went into a brine last night, and I took it out this morning at about 7:30 after I set some hickory & mesquite wood chips soaking in water. By about 8:30, the beast was on the grill: Note the black stripes on top of the butt. That's because I initially put it on the bottom rack, but when I closed the lid, the dirty bottom of the top rack pressed down on it. I brushed it off as well as I could and moved it to the top. Here's the whole setup: As you can see, this is a gas grill. Yesterday, I barbequed spare ribs on this, and was a little disappointed with their lack of smokiness. So today, I added a second loaf pan of wood chips. Also, note the pans under the butt. When I preheated the grill today, there was the most amazing flareup from leftover rib fat, accompanied by nasty black grease dripping from the bottom of the grill. So today, I decided that a drip pan was in order. Lacking a single disposable pan of appropriate size, I crimped together two of the loaf pans and mashed them over the burner. At this point, I went back to bed for a couple hours. When I got back up, I put some whole chicken legs on the bottom rack of the grill, hopefully to catch some porky goodness dripping from above. Here's the butt after about two hours, with the raw chicken visible below: I never really had any trouble regulating the temperature. The weather here was pleasant, topping out at about 85, and my deck is covered so the grill wasn't in direct sun at the hottest part of the day. Interestingly, the second pan of wood chips didn't do anything. The pan on the left burned well, but the pan on the right hardly even got charred. Nevertheless, it worked better than the rib smoking last night, when four hours of "smoking" didn't even burn up the chips I put in initially. Several hours later, with the butt in a stall at about 177, I tossed some corn-on-the-cob and a sliced onion on the grill for accompaniments to tonight's dinner: A bit later, after I took the corn and onion off the grill, the butt was past the stall and nearly done. This thing was BEE-YOO-TI-FULL. Deep smoky red. This photo doesn't do it justice, but here it is, bathed in evening sun glory, about 10 hours after starting it's journey: And a few minutes later, resting in the kitchen: After it had cooled a bit, I pulled out the bone and pulled off a chunk. Here's the inside: I mixed up a batch of what was supposed to be =Mark's famous Carolina-style barbeque sauce, but I'm afraid I botched the proportions. In copying it from screen to paper, I wrote a capital "T" for both tablespoon and teaspoon, so I wound up with much more Worcestershire sauce and especially salt than called for. I didn't find it too salty, though. In fact, it was quite tasty. Anyway, I mixed some of said sauce with some of the pulled butt, and put it on a soft Kaiser roll topped with sliced smoked onion. I know this is non-traditional, but I'm OK with that. I made a coleslaw by marinating cabbage and some thinly sliced onions with vinegar and salt for a while, then (after rinsing) tossing with a dressing consisting of vinegar, canola oil, mayonnaise, mustard, garlic, black & cayenne pepper and celery seed. I served the slaw on the side, along with corn brushed with fat from last night's spice-rubbed ribs (in lieu of butter, my usual corn-on-the-cob condiment). Here's dinner: Everything was great. The pork was exceptionally tender, but not so much as to be mushy. It was rich and juicy with a great smoky flavor. The corn was very good, with a hint of smokiness (Which I'm not sure came primarily from the smoking, or from the rib fat). I think next time I'll try smoking the corn longer. The slaw was pretty salty, but crisp and tangy, not too creamy and not sweet.

Porgy Day 2. The ribs were super yummy. Here they are just after being put on the grill. I had to cut the slab in half so as to keep it from being directly over the heat. The small piece was a random piece that was in the package along with the slab. The wood is 50-50 hickory and mesquite chips. After the first hour, I sprayed the ribs with a mix of apple cider, cider vinegar and Jack Daniels and flipped them, and repeated every 1/2 hour thereafter. Here they are after about three hours: And about 45 minutes later, I declared them done. I ate a bit before taking this shot: Mmmmmmmm. Very tender, almost pulled pork consistency (or at least what I imagine pulled pork consistency to be, having never had it), and very juicy. The rub was perfect, to my taste. Salty and not too sweet, with just a little kick to it. They didn't taste very smoky, though. I think for the butt tomorrow I'll add an additional pan of wood chips. Speaking of the butt, it's brining as I write. I'll be up at the butt crack of dawn (pun intended) to rinse that sucker and get it smoking. I never got around to making slaw tonight, opting instead for an all-protein (and fat) meal. But tomorrow I think I'll want slaw. Any suggestions for good non-sweet coleslaw recipes? Also, does anyone have experience with smoked veggies? I'm thinking smoked corn on the cob and halved onions would be pretty good. Any tips on time or preparation? Thanks in advance.

It contains, roughly, the following: 1/4 C generic chili powder 1/4 C brown sugar 1/4 C table salt 2 T paprika 1 T ancho chili powder 1 T ground mustard 1 t fresh ground black pepper 1 t cayenne 1 t garlic powder 1 t thyme

Day One of Porgy 2006 is complete. I crisped some bacon for the grease. I ate one strip and reserved the rest (see below). Fried the chops (naked, brined in .5 cup table salt/1 gallon water for 1-2 hours) in the grease for 90 seconds per side; then tossed in 400F oven. Made pan sauce by deglazing with Jack Daniels and adding whole grain mustard, beef stock, onion confit and chopped reserved bacon. The sauce was inspired by something I had at a local steakhouse recently (Skippack Ale House, for those who are also nearby) that was awesome. It contained the bourbon and mustard, but the onions and bacon were my own addition. (I must here give a shout-out to eGullet for the onion confit and stock recipes. I had made my own stock before, but never as good, and I'd never heard of onion confit.) Served with bagged salad with red pepper slices and buttered, parsleyed rice. The chops, unfortunately, were uninspiring. Juicy, but not especially tender or flavorful. The sauce was yummy, though (trust me, it tasted better than it looked!). I need someone to point me to a place that serves really incredible pork chops. I'm not sure if it's me doing something wrong or if they're just not a cut that is for me. Nevertheless, leftover pork chops with yummy sauce and rice are my lunch tomorrow. A 4 lb rack of spare ribs are currently enjoying a dry rub in my fridge for tomorrow's dinner.

I've had good results with walnuts in pesto if I find myself caught without pine nuts, but I think it's a must to toast them to avoid bitterness. This is easy to do -- just toss them in a dry skillet over medium-low heat for a few minutes until they're just beginning to brown and start to smell toasty. I think the addition of parsley sounds intriguing, but then I really like parsley. I'd omit it unless you identify something else as the culprit. One other thing -- a healthy dose of salt can really take the edge off the bitterness, if it's not totally irredeemable. Too late now, I guess.

I intend to do that this weekend, although based on previous gas grill smoking experience, instead of a smoker box, I'm probably going to use disposable aluminum bread pans set directly on top of the burner baffle. One question about this, for anyone with an opinion -- when I've done this in the past, the pans have partially burned away. How worried should I be about toxic fumes from burning aluminum?

It is also disadvantageous to attempt to catch such a knife with one's foot. I once pierced the toenail on my big toe (and a bit of the toe itself) that way.

OK, here are my chops: As you can see, I have appetizing pork, lean & juicy, and guaranteed fresh! It also appears I have two different types of chops. I'm guessing the latter are rib chops, as one of the two bone segments in each appears to be a rib cross section. Are the former loin chops? Also, I stand by my original estimate of 3/4 inches in thickness now that I've taken a closer look (for both types).

I don't know off-hand what kind of chops they are. They were purchased as part of a large bundle of assorted meats from a local butcher, and came unlabeled. I'll see if I can take a picture tonight and post it. They're bone-in, and ~3/4 in. thick at a guess.

My wife, a pork hater, is going to be out of town for about a week starting this coming Thursday. I have decided that it would be good and proper for me, a pork lover, to overindulge my love during her absence. I intend to eat pork, probably to excess, with each meal during that time. I ask you, good people of eGullet, to help me achieve my goal of pork poisoning. Pork items I have on hand: several pounds pork chops, frozen; one pound sliced bacon, frozen; one pound breakfast link sausage, frozen; one 1/2 pound ham steak, frozen. Pork items I intend to purchase: rack of ribs, shoulder roast, ??? Tools at my disposal: 12" & 10" cast iron skillets, gas range, two-burner gas grill. Intended menus: Thursday: pork chops. I need help here. I have never cared much for pork chops, possibly in large part because of their general leanness and also possibly because I've almost always had them overcooked (fear of trichinosis, I suppose). I've never cooked them myself, and I need a good recipe. I'm going to have to make do with the ones I have on hand, which look pretty lean, so I'm assuming that brining will be a must. Friday: ribs. I will probably smoke these (soaked wood chips on top of burner on one side of grill, meat on the other side with burner turned off). I have a recipe from Cook's Country involving a dry rub that I've made in the past with excellent results. I want a good coleslaw to go with this, though, and I've never had a great deal of luck making that. Suggestions would be appreciated -- I don't like the sweet, creamy standard coleslaw. Saturday brunch: bacon, sausage, eggs, leftover pork chops and/or ribs. Saturday dinner: =Mark's Carolina Pulled Pork. I've never tried this, but I've been dying to. I hope it will work out all right using the offset smoking on the gas grill mentioned above. I'll probably invite friends over for this, and will want to serve coleslaw again. Sunday: probably more bacon, sausage and eggs for breakfast, leftover pulled pork the rest of the day. The next few days I need some help with. Any suggestions for good pork recipes that aren't too expensive and that don't require a lot of time (i.e. weeknight meals) would be appreciated.

Returned from a week on Kaua'i this past Monday. Food wasn't really one of the highlights of my trip, although we ate well (we rented a house and cooked our own dinners, mostly). The first night we were on the island, we ate at Brennecke's Sea Broil or something like that, just off of Brennecke's Beach in Poipu. WAAAYYY overpriced. Dinner for six came to ~$250 for a meal that could have been done as well or better at any TGI Friday's. My ahi fillet tasted like Chicken of the Sea. Our second dinner out was at a Japanese/Chinese restaurant in Lihue, I think. I forget the name. It was pretty forgettable overall. It had the standard sit-on-the-floor-in-a-room-with-paper-walls Japanese ambiance, but the fare was mediocre. That the sashimi was fresh is the most complimentary thing I can think of to say. I'm not sure what this cost (my parents took me and my wife as well as my brother and his fiancee, and paid for most of our dinners), but it wasn't cheap. The next night we went to the Smith Family Luau. It was buffet-style on a large scale (there were easily 300 people there), but excellent given that limitation. It featured mahi mahi fillets in a tropical fruit sauce, teriyaki beef, a couple kinds of salad including one that looked at first like pico de gallo but actually was chopped tomatoes with bits of smoked salmon. All the food was yummy. The mai tais were a disappointment, though. Heavily watered-down. The rest of the luau wasn't great; the dance show following dinner was entertaining, but perhaps not always for the intended reasons. At $65 per person, given island inflation, I guess it was more or less worth it. Our final dinner out was at Casa Di Amici, a few blocks from Brennecke Beach, again in Poipu. It was fantastic. The wine list was extensive (and expensive!). We had an organic Italian Sangiovese from a vineyard called La Carraia. I'm not really a wine expert, but it was quite good for my tastes. Appetizers included fried calamari such as I've never had before. Who knew calamari isn't supposed to be rubbery? This was accompanied by some sort of mustard/peppercorn sauce that was excellent. The other appetizer was crab cakes with a light saffron cream sauce -- again excellent. My entree was prawns in a saffron garlic tomato cream sauce, over farfalle. I think I'm not a big fan of saffron, at least not that much, but the shrimp were very good. My wife had veal with gorgonzola cream sauce. Awesome. My dad had this crazy Japanese/Mexican fusion dish consisting of salmon with a teriyaki-like glaze served over black beans boiled in something that included tequila. The salmon (Atlantic, farm-raised in British Columbia, for those who are interested) was excellent. Prices were similar I think to Brennecke's, but worth it in this case.

Sliced avocado. Salt. Done.