Lapin d'Argent

Waddling is right; that was a truly wonderful feast! Everything was fresh and tasty and beautifully prepared. My absolute favorite favorites: Soup dumplings Garlic chives Christopher votes for: Rice noodles with dried beef Pea pod leaves Broccoli with crab We also both loved the fried chive something-or-others that you can just see in the background behind the baby squid. And we liked the congee quite a bit as well as the pork ton bor. And the...oh never mind, it was all good. The company was delightful as well -- so nice to meet fellow eGulleteers. A special thanks to Chris for organizing this event...it was perfect. - Laura (and Christopher)

I made the braised celery recently to use up a leftover head in the refrigerator, not expecting it to be much, and it was *delicious*! I used a good flavorful gruyere, with extra bread crumbs and cheese for more topping. I think I added a little melted butter to hold the mixture together, plus salt and lots of freshly ground pepper. This was so good I'm making it again this weekend! The flavor is very rich and comforting; this would be great with a simple roast chicken or turkey. - L.

I agree! A beautiful pot of Rancho Gordo's perfect cannellini beans are on the stove right now, becoming tuscan bean soup, a la Cook's Illustrated . The recipe is the best I've come across, and can be found in the Jan/Feb 2001 issue, for those of you who have bound annuals going back to 1993 and subscribe every year to the magazine and then still have to get the bound annual at the end of the year for more permanent storage. Not that we have a problem. We could stop any time we wanted to. I'm sorry, what were we talking about -- oh yeah, beans! Love Rancho Gordo's beans! Nice video Steve; you look marvelous! And congratulations on all the wonderful food press coverage lately; well deserved. - L.

Thank you Chufi -- Time to render some beautiful lard, hunt up exotic ingredients, and get a batch of Mole going! The weather this week is supposed to be in the single digits, so now is the perfect time. - L.

Don't like: - Bananas (can't even be in the room with them -- the smell!) - Melons of all types (I keep trying; I know I'm missing out on a good thing...) - Liquorice (but I like fennel and other mild anise flavors) - Egg yolks by themselves (any form of eggs mixed together or egg whites I like just fine -- but boiled egg yolks, forget it.) - Fish that's really fishy -- pickled herring, for instance. Although I love fish sauce - nam pla and it's siblings. - Pesto. I don't think anyone else has mentioned this specifically. It's a bit overwhelming, even though I like all the individual ingredients. Just too much of a good thing, maybe? Do like: - Cabbage in all its many splendors, *especially* boiled! - Strawberry jello (only strawberry; I crave it when I'm not feeling well) - Just about every cheese there is - Cilantro - Goose, duck, or chicken liver (but not beef) - Salt!

It's not exactly one system -- it's more like several. And some of them are less like systems than, well, let's just call it benign neglect. There are a bunch of files in a folder on my computer called Recipes. And a bunch of bookmarks in a similar folder in my browser. Also a large (physical) accordian folder full of pages torn from the food section of the NYT Sunday Magazine and various cooking magazines. And a card file with more magazine and newspaper clippings stapled to individual cards. Plus recipes on cards from my mother and grandmother. But lately, the recipes I actually use, no matter what format, end up inserted in vinyl page protectors in a 3-ring binder. And here's the novelty to my special "system" -- I take out the sheet for the recipe I want to cook. Then, when I'm done, I put it back in the *front* of the binder. So the most frequently used ones naturally gravitate toward the front and I can usually find what I'm looking for pretty quickly just by flipping through. Of course, I can search through all those other "systems" for something obscure or long-forgotten or really different. Or I can just look here on Egullet, or Epicurious, or Google. Which is what I usually do, anyway. So now at least forty or fifty of you will tell me that you have individually invented the exact same unique system.... - L.

Ditto, except I use the recipe from Cook's Illustrated. - L.

Ditto. Also: -Holds tall stemware. -Never clogs. Our second Asko; the first one finally quit after about 15 years. The only drawback (with this particular model) -- it's that modern sleek design with hidden controls, so you can't see when the damn thing is done! Not really a problem for us, since we almost always run it overnight. - L.

Even simpler, I just slice them in half lengthwise (stem end to blossom end), place them cut side up on a foil-covered cookie sheet in a slow oven until they are nice and jam-like. (Or you can use a large pryrex or corningware baking dish, if you have one or two of those, since they are easy to clean up.) Then I peel the tomatoes off onto a fresh cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, which goes into the freezer. (One or two always seem to get into the chef instead of the freezer.) Once they've solidified, they get transferred to a labelled zip-lock bag. The oven temperature depends on the size the of the tomatoes, how long I have, my patience, etc. Every year it seems I have to remember the best setting all over again. Lower is better; you don't want them to brown. Maybe 225 - 250. I grow Enchantment tomatoes for this very purpose, and if I have a big enough crop, enjoy them during the fall and winter on pizzas. Enchantments are a so-called "salad tomato", plum-shaped, with really good flavor cooked or fresh. Other small plum or round tomatoes will also work. I've used this technique with cherry tomatoes as well, but don't slice those, and use a really low heat -- my 1963 Westinghouse wall oven goes down to 140F, and that works well. A freezer full of tomatoes and a pantry full of garlic really keeps the worst of winter at bay. - L.

Or perhaps that is the attraction? We have 5 (yes, five) house rabbits, all rescues, all considered difficult to adopt, and in one case (the little guy in my avatar) pretty much a lost cause. But the male and female bonded pair who live in the kitchen are now over 10 years old, and the sweetest couple imaginable. The two younger brothers upstairs that we picked up just before they went to a shelter settled down nicley after spaying and behave reasonably well in a large fenced in area in a spare bedroom, and get time to romp in other bedroooms (carefully supervised) in the evenings. Rocky, in the photo, is a dwarf with a chinchilla colored coat, was mistreated while young, and was too feisty to even be handled by the farmer who raised rabbits at the farm where we adopted him from. Rocky had been dropped off by a woman who didn't like the way her boyfriend had been treating him, so she decided to keep the boyfriend and get rid of the rabbit. Rocky was about to be auctioned off the next day, probably to a pet store, where his chances of finding a knowledgeable and patient enough family were less than zip. It took a good two years at least before he would consistently let us pet him, and he's still pretty shy. After more years of patient supervised playdates, we've only been able to get him to make friends with Chaplin, one of the two brothers -- he fights with everyone else. But he's a good little guy all the same, and very cuddly and sweet when he does settle down. He's not a bad bunny, just misunderstood. All bunnies, like many dogs, are hell on wheels for their first two years, and then they settle down after that period of adolescence. That's why almost all strays are rescued when they are released in the wild -- with which they are completely incapable of coping -- at the age of about six months to one year. Now to drag this back to something food-related: we don't eat rabbit generally, but certainly wouldn't hesitate to chow down if served it at someone's home. The only reason we don't order it in restaurants is the fear of being caught out if we came home with "rabbit breath." Some day, when we have finally sent the last of our companions to their final rest, I do look forward to trying rabbit dishes -- although I'm not sure I could ever bring myself to preparing it myself. That might be a bit too, well, personal. Good luck Karen -- it's never easy making these decisions about pets that are thrust upon you. But if the little guy pulls through, I wouldn't assume that the vet knows what he's talking about in terms of the bunnie's likely personality. With time, patience, and consistent care, it's been my experience that all bunnies, great and small, settle down into lovely, gentle and highly amusing companions. Oh, and by the way -- almost none of them take to a harness. - L.

We switched to the Schott Zwiesel Tritan Diva series for this reason -- we got tired of breaking wine glasses faster than we could buy new ones. But the style I chose has a nice long stem, which wouldn't fit in in the top rack of most dishwashers. So, about six months ago, after 15 years of faithful, mostly trouble-free service, when our Asko dishwasher was going to require a repair of a few hundred dollars, I went shopping, wine glasses in hand. I hadn't expected to buy a high-end model, and certainly not another Asko, but darned if the only one that would securely hold my long stemware was -- another Asko. The model we ended up with is the D3251XLHD (I think). Sorry, I couldn't find a nice picture on the web of it's spacious interior racks. Things we really like (in no particular order): - You could fit dishes and pots for a family of elephants in this thing. - The flatware container is spacious, has a nifty pullout cover for small items, and can be placed anywhere in the bottom rack. - It's so quiet we can't tell if it's running. - Everything comes out really clean, always. - It's handle doubles as a nifty towel rack. - You can set it to start running automatically in five hours, so you can keep adding the inevitable glass here, spoon there, and not worry about forgetting to turn it on before you go to bed. - The controls are simple, even though there are more cycle variations than you could possibly ever use. Like you can run a load for just the top rack or just the bottom rack. Why, I have no idea... - We shake off or scrape large pieces of food, but otherwise don't rinse or fuss. - We use tiny amounts of powdered detergent from 7th Generation. - It uses very little water, and dries pretty well even on energy saver. - Top rack holds long stem wine glasses securely, and adjusts to hold small bowls and stuff like that. - The bottom rack pulls *all* the way out, so you can load conveniently all the way to the back. - The "food catcher" thing in the bottom is *vastly* improved over older models and trivial to pop out and rinse, should any really large chunks of food (or a stray piece of jewelry) get into the load by accident. Only down sides: - Stainless steel door surface attracts waterspots. (I ignore them. A more fastidious housekeeper might care.) - Controls are completely hidden when the door is closed, and it's so quiet, you can't tell when it's finished! We set it to beep, but the beep is so civilized, we never hear it. Mostly, we feel the door for any machine vibration or heat, and just kind of guess how long ago we started it. We usually run it at night, anyway. - It holds so many dishes, sometimes we have to run it before it's full because we've run out of bowls or something. When I bought it, I also asked about the cost of parts, and yes, they cost maybe $10 or $20 on average over say a Miele or Bosh, but the labor is the main cost anyway, and that's going to be the same. When the installer came, he showed me how cleverly they had designed access to the main parts that would have to be serviced. I was impressed. Besides which, it came with a three year full warranty, parts & labor; 5 year parts; and lifetime on the stainless steel tub and inner door panel. And no, I haven't lost a single wineglass since we made the switch, and they get stuffed carelessly into the dishwasher daily. - L.

They also have a regularly scheduled service at: Quilter's Way 75 Commonwealth Ave Concord, MA 01742 phone: 978-371-1177 email: info@quiltersway.com Service is scheduled for a specific dated, I believe every two months, although if there's an increased demand, they might go back to every month. Usually they will complete the sharpening the same day or the next day, depending how many items there are to do. Prices are modest, but payment must be made in cash when the items are consigned for sharpening, because the store just passes each customer's package with the payment and items to be sharpened on to Siraco. If you have any special requests about how an item should be sharpened or finished, just write a note and include it with your knives. You can drop off your knives (or scissors) in advance, if you want, and the shop will call when they're ready to be picked up. - L.

The milder weather at the end of the week must have helped. We were visiting friends in Providence on Saturday and saw beautiful Maine shrimp -- with the heads still on!! -- at the Eastside Market. Sorry, I don't remember the price. I've never been able to find shrimp with the heads on in the greater Boston area. If anyone spots them, please do tell -- I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to be informed. - L.

My 1963 Westinghouse double wall oven goes down to 140F/60C. But wait, there's more: stainless steel, side-opening doors. Go ahead, make me an offer. - L.

I found these very nice -- and very reasonably priced -- cheese presses while poking around the web today, and thought you home cheesemakers might be interested: CheesyPress Only $65 for the 2-gallon size; $135 for the 5-gallon. But my favority is the SeesyPress, which lets you see your cheese in progress! Silly, but cool. I'd be interested to know if anyone has tried one of these presses. - L.

Sorry, I can't answer this question, but I can answer a related question nobody has asked yet : Can you make this bread if you don't have an enameled cast iron or cast iron or corning ware or heavy pottery vessel? Answer: Yes, if you have a 10 qt All-Clad Stainless Dutch Oven. Made it twice, both times with excellent results. First time with all bread flour, germ restored (from a local natural food store); second time with 1 cup of KA white WW sub'd in. Second time I also increased the salt, as suggested by others here. Proofed for 18 hours and then 2 hours. No serious problems with sticking, although I used plenty of extra flour. I used a 450 oven, cooked for 30 minutes with the lid on and finished for 15 with the lid off. Sorry no photos; the crumb was very nice with good holes that weren't too big. I got good oven spring, especially considering how over-sized the pot was for the loaf. The closest thing I can compare it to is a local brand we have here in the greater Boston area called Iggy's; the flavor wasn't nearly as good, but the crumb and the crust were all that!! I had no idea it was possible for mere mortals, with a minimum of effort, to achieve something so sublime. I suspect that the key to real flavor, as well as great crumb and crust, is a natural starter, as others have indicated. That's my next project. But overall, I love the simplicity and convenience for such great results. Thanks, everyone, for all sharing your experiences and suggestions. - L.

I went through three Alligators, purchased through Williams Sonoma (we had a gift card) before finally giving up. Every one of them eventually succumbed to an onion that was a bit too tough -- despite my attempts to remove any layers on the outside of the onion that looked like they would cause trouble. WS was very good about replacing the item when it broke, but enough was enough. Eventually the blade grid got mushed out of shape and wouldn't work anymore. However, getting perfectly diced onions for certain applications, like risotto for example, it really nice, and I could definitely tell the difference in those recipes. So eventually, armed with yet another gift card, I tried the Chop Wizard from Crate & Barrel. Only Crate & Barrel's version doesn't show the brand name (apparently, it's actually made by Progressive Technologies), and it only comes with the dice blade, not the larger chopping blade. The Chop Wizard is definitely better made and stronger than the Alligator, and we've had much better luck. Only had to have the item replaced once, so far. (Again, excellent customer service.) Thanks to andiesenji's post, now I know where I can get spare blades. I think the larger blade is probably less useful than the smaller dicing blade, but would be great when you have large quantities to chop. This gadget isn't only for onions. It makes beautiful strips of radishes for salads, is great for dicing mango for exotic salsa...and while you're at it put everything -- the mangoes, the onion, the peppers, through the chopper and your salsa will look perfectly gorgeous, and take a tiny fraction of the time you'd spend otherwise. And it's really nice to have all that mess contained inside the hopper. Thanks for the tip on the mini-slicer -- perfect for mushrooms and mozzerella! Another related gadget for garlic that has also repeatedly broken -- and broken my heart -- is the Garlic Genius. We've been through two of the regular plastic versions available in many kitchen stores, and three of the slightly better ones available from WS. In this tool, it's the plastic holding the metal grid that always breaks. But damn if it doesn't make absolutely the most perfect little tiny cubes of garlic, which hold their shape and flavor beautifully in your homemade tomato sauce. What I wouldn't give to have sturdy, unbreakable metal versions of both these tools. I usually chop onions by hand with a knife, but sometimes you just want a better result than you can get. Or you need to save time. And I doubt there are many non-professionals that could produce the perfect tiny cubes of garlic that the Garlic Genius makes. Bottom line: I love these tools, even though they keep breaking on me. Can't live wihtout them. If anyone knows of stronger versions that perform better, please do tell! Thanks. - L.

Has anyone had any experience ordering wild shrimp online? Anyplace you'd recommend buying from? Thanks. - L.

I once made a "deconstructed" version of this salad on epicurious, served on endive leaves: Arugula Salad with Oranges, Pomegrante Seeds, and Goat Cheese I tossed the dressing with the oranges, then spooned the oranges on the endive, piped on the goat chees (or creme fraiche would also work well) and sprinkled with the pomegranate seeds. The endive fills the place of the arugula, flavor-wise. Looks quite beautiful, is easy to prepare, and was absolutely delicious! (Although I can't take the credit -- this salad ALWAYS gets raves. - L.

Pizza. Once you find a dough recipe you're comfortable with, it's as easy as...uh, pie. And it's hard to make a bad pizza at home. Somehow, it always tastes pretty damn good. Tomato sauce, whenever decent tomatoes are available. I make an adaptation of a recipe Cooks Illustrated ran Sep/Oct 1993. I do seed the tomatoes, but never bother to peel them anymore. I use enormous amounts of garlic, and a decent amount of cayenne flakes. Fresh basil sprinkled on each serving. Never any leftover. And it always tastes really sweet! Beef stock, thanks to Marcella Hazan. I had no idea you could just simmer a brisket in water with a few other items, get amazing boiled beef for salads and whatnot, and a ton of stock. Chicken stock I still buy -- I'm just not much of a chicken person, and I really like the Pacific Organics brand. Almost all soups. Still on deck: bread, cheese, charcuterie, pickles...

Scott, what are some of the chemicals commonly used in commercial vodka production? BTW, at the risk of making a fool out of myself, I'll own up to being one of those people who will buy an organic vodka. We don't drink much vodka, but in general we try to buy as much organic food and other products as reasonably possible. My reasons have to do with a desire to take at least some responsibility for the environmental impact of my purchase decisions. So I try to buy local and/or organically produced seasonal food whenever possible. We buy very little processed food. What I eat matters to me, and where and how my food is produced is a large part of that. Mind you, I have the economic luxury of making these choices, and recognize that many people don't. And for most people, obviously, the environment is not high on their list of priorities. Free country. Back to the question of cocktails: Scott, I always have organic sugar in the cupboard, along with organically grown teas, and organic OJ in the fridge. The local farmstands are full of fresh peaches and apples and plums right now, some of which are organic. Must be somewhere we can go with that? I need to buy a new bottle of vodka since we just used up the old one, so I'll go looking for Square One to try it out. - L.

Back in February, I made Abra's amazing "Black Tamales" with the mole sauce from Bon Appetit. The whole nine yards: mail ordered all the authentic ingredients, made my own fresh masa, rendered my own lard, etc. etc. Sorry, I don't have any photos (I may be the only person in the world still without a digital camera). The project took days, it was very cool, and a lot of fun in a grueling sort of way. That said, I would definitely go to the trouble of making the Mole sauce again, because it makes a large amount, freezes well, and it doesn't taste like anything else I've ever had in my life. It's probably a once-a-year production, and as many others have said, well worth it. Rendering lard was easy, but I wouldn't let the lack of fresh lard stop me next time. I used canola oil in some of the dough with great success. But I would settle for using a good-quality masa harina for the dough. Making my own was just too much work. Chris, we ended up filling the husks about two thirds lenthwise, rolling them around the filling, then folding up the flap from the bottom and tieing it with a strip of husk, leaving the tops open. Then I stacked them upright in an old enamel-ware pasta/lobster pot contraption, using the steamer insert which has a nice flat bottom with holes in it, and packing them in so they all stood upright. It took a lovely assistant to hold the tamales upright while I added more -- not something that's easy to do yourself. We tried lots of different methods, but this was the fastest and easiest, and got the best results. Finally, I've still got a large portion of mole sauce in the freezer, and this thread reminds me that with the cool weather here again, it's time to make another batch! This time I might make something like turkey with fresh roasted corn, to show off seasonal ingredients. Or maybe just plain old yummy pork!