hotMeat

So after (do the math) hours of letting my pureed IL with a little evoo and salt sit in the fridge, I boisterously asked my friend to "taste this." His wince was discouraging and when I went in to verify, I realized that time had taken it's toll on my leafy liquid. Oxygen! DAMN YOU! Anyway. The delicous creamy sauce had metamophasized into a pungent, garbage-like brew. Grody! Next time I'll put some acid in there to slow down the oxidation. Boo-hoo, another perfectly good head-o-IL gone to waste. what a shame.

After agreeing with a friend that iceburg lettuce (IL) has a mighty tasty flavor and a certain summer crispness that can't hardly be found elsewhere, and a briefly deriding celery for being overly priased, I decided to try to bring out its flavor. I started by throwing a whole head in a blender with a couple tbs of olive oil and a couple tsp of salt. Although i wouldn't say that I've extracted IL flavor yet, I would say that I mad a very light, almost yogurtlike, sauce that would be good on anything from lamb to stringbeans. It's almost like a lassi, and it's taking all I have to not drink a glassful. Next step will be to let it sit for a few hours and then try straining out any remaining solids. I just wanted to share my fortuitous discovery with everyone.

Touche Johnathan but when you go to someone's house do you eat the salad and they eat the spaghetti. Everyone eats everything

How do you cook on a budget. How do you get every conceivable molecule of goodness out of a whole chicken? Where do you find tomatoes off season for less than $6/pound? How do you make sure nothing EVER goes bad? Here's one: I like to buy big cheap cuts of meat (pork shoulder, brisket, beef shins, etc.) and cooking them all day. They come out tender and oh so flavorful. Cooking cheap has always been a central in my kitchen. This does not mean sacrificing quality for cost. What I'm interesting in here is maximizing the intersection.

I REALLY wish I had read some of this advice before I mad dinner last night. I quickly sauteed them with some shrimp in olive oil with garlic. I thought, "simple, light". The quick sautee was not enough to really cook them and as I was eating them i thought "these are undercooked, next time, maybe ill blanch." I didn't even finish eating them before they hit me. It was a long and unpleasant night. They were purchased at the US farmers market in NYC. Next time I will cook them. Thoroughly.

Got some of these guys today at farmer's market. I love their texture. I was gunna saute with ramps and eat with some kinda fish. Maybe some fingerling potatoes. Any ideas, thoughts, inspirrations.

Our new overlords are green leafy members of the onion family which are sometimes refered to as "wild leeks." The are commonly known as ramps and they are taking over the world. I was at Union Square farmers market today to witness that nearly every vendor was selling the lush little guys. WOW!

Holy yum batman that sounds good

What exactly is your problem with the final product nwyles? i.e. What's wrong with them? One thing is that brand new oil never works as well, leaving stuff soggy. It's always good to save a couple of cups from your last batch to start your next one. I save as much as I can without getting all the crap that sinks to the bottom.

tanabutler: I talked to the guy at the farmer's market today and he said that ramps had about 2 weeks left. So, according to him, there will not be ramps at the end of may. bigjas: I thought about the bacon fat idea especially in light of the rabe. But, besides the fact that I didn't have any bacon fat around, I thought that the baconyness would over power the ramps which are pretty delicate. The whole affair was lovely though.

I made a first pass at the ramps tonight. butter and a little beefy evoo int the pan then white parts cut like scallions. Gave them a minute and then the green parts chiffonade with some rabe. let it go for a minute more put in a little chx stock and gave it 5 or 10 more min. S&P. booya! It was really great. Thanks for the guidance Dryden.

I got some ramps at the NYC Union Square farmers market today and I am amped to use them. Any suggestions on preperation, I was thinking of sauteeing (that can't be spelled right) them with some broccoli rabe that I got.

Wow wannabe, it looks great. Here's my feeling, you're getting more bang for your buck when it's shaved on top. I'm a little afraid of getting heated on this one because of the concept here that good food has to be expensive. If you're using the most expensive ingredients for everything, of course your food is gunna be good. For me, shopping on a budget and often for large groups, I have to concider how much goodness for my buck I can get. I'm not going to deep fry in $60 a bottle olive oil (smoking issues aside). Just like I wouldn't buy kobe beef to make stock. I guess this is where I seperate myself from a "foodie." Half the fun for me is the challenge.

Good stuff cost money. If I could I'd spend $100 on every meal I made but you have to do some prioritizing, right?

I'd say keep it out of the pesto or anywhere else that it will be blended in (like lasagna). On top of pasta is good but even better would be on top of a salad or in an antipasto format. It'll make the pesto better but is it worth the money? If you ask me, no. Use it where you'll really taste it and you can savor it. Note: if I was richer, my thoughts would be different.

How long do you marinate for?

Last night, I did asparagus on the grill. Marinade: minced garlic, salt pepper, evoo and i think most importantly balsamic. On the grill, good color, then back into marinade. They sat there for about another hour and then I warmed them up in the oven before i served. Gooood flava. I generally shy away from balsamic but the sweetness worked well with the gus.

I've been to August twice. I went the first time because I had walked by it and it looked nice. I went the second time because the first time I went was one of the most pleasant meals I've ever had. Service, great. Food, incredibly well executed. Atmosphere, warm and welcoming. It is the restaurant I recomend to anyone who is looking for a restaurant. The food is honest more than anything. Unpretentious to a fault. I don't think that their menu has much originality in it despite the uncomfortable spacing of the font. I don't go there expecting to learn something new about food, I go to eat well.

Back in my restaurant days (daze), I put a pinch of ground dried hot red pepper into the calamari salad marinade just before service. Another thing I always did just before service was relieve myself because I knew I wouldn't be able to do it during service. I always washed my hands after using the bathroom but this particular time I didn't wash them before. "Chemical Burn Johnson" eventually lost out to "Wang Aflame" as the name for this phenom.

I say starch. Onion is more flavor than actual veg. Leeks maybe pass as a veg but standard onions, to me, are more like mustard; technically a veg but doesn't fill the veg hole in a meal.

I recently had a milk braised veal at August in NYC's West Village and was immediately enamored. I brought the idea home with me and tried to reproduce it with reasonable success. I used a full sholder which was delectably cheap. Seered it, threw it in with some mirepoix and herbs and about a half gallon of whole milk at 250 for about 6 hours. It was great! I'd like to try next time to use my new preassure cooker. The one thing I wish got right was the liquid which curdled to a point that was beyond usable. Anyone have any ideas how this can be prevented or worked around. Overall it was an experiment with which I was very happy and I was able to feed 6 or 7 with about $10 worth of meat and it was real tasty.

I say keep it simple. The best frittata i ever had was just eggs potatoes and onions. The trick was cooking the potatoes and onions in deep olive oil. (this was done in italy where evoo is much cheaper, but it can be reused after the process.) The other thing that I think makes the difference especially on a larger frittata, is continually stirring the egg mixture until it's almost all the way cooked then adding the still hot, pre-cooked veg. Finish in broiler (plan ahead with oven proof pan: cast iron), a little parsley and BAM! (ew, BAM!)