Lapin d'Argent
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Posts posted by Lapin d'Argent
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I agree with just about all of the above.
But I would add that I have read cookbooks, since I was rather a tender age, more like most people read novels. So while it's important to have recipes that are easy to follow, and good indices, and lovely photos, etc., my very favorite cookbooks are the ones where the author really has something to say, and says it eloquently.
These are cookbooks I read again and again -- for inspiration, for rediscovery, for comfort, for the pure joy of it.
My slightly eccentric list of particular favorites, in no particular order:
- Anything by Julia Child
- Anything by James Beard
- Anything by Marcella Hazan
- The Time Life Series of Cooking Around the World (or whatever it is called)
- The New England Yankee Cookbook
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Pots.
I know my very beat-up Henkels are inadequate and need replacing. But I've grown mighty attached to my All-Clad dutch oven. Yes, I could replace it, but it wouldn't be *mine*.
But first I'd save my c. 1982 Kitchen Aid mixer. Even if I died trying. Life just wouldn't be worth living.
- L.
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SaladFingers,
Congratulations! You are already a good cook! Many people never even get there. You are able to make delicious food, and other people like to eat it. That's no small accomplishment, and not everyone can achieve it -- no matter how hard they try, it eludes them.
As for myself, I learned to cook young, and had natural ability, and yet I've spent half a lifetime learning to be a good cook, and look forward to spending the rest of my life learning to be an even better cook. The only thing that will teach you is to cook meal after meal after meal...simple ones, complex ones, hurried ones, relaxed ones...it doesn't matter.
Anna, as she so often does, went right to the heart of the matter: cooking is not about memorizing. Over time and repetition you will learn what is important to remember. It won't be formulas: those you can write down. If you look around eGullet you'll notice that all of us have lots and lots of cookbooks and recipes and magazines...filled with stuff we could never remember. I've been making the exact same pizza dough for 10 years, and I still have to look up the quantities every time.
What you need to "internalize" are techniques and patterns of cooking: how to saute, how to braise, what onions look and smell like when they're soft, or when they're carmelized. All these things come with experience.
My personal advice for a few books to learn from: Pierre Franey's 60 Minute Gourment (my first exposure WAY back when to cooking from a pattern); anything written by Julia Child; Molly Stevens' The Art of Braising, and any of the basic books by Marcella Hazan.
But please get rid of the idea that you're some kind of fraud. Enjoy cooking and feeding people...it's a wonderful, precious gift that unites all of here, and given a chance, I'm sure it will move into the very core of your being. Then you'll look back and wonder how you could have ever thought of yourself as anything other than a "good cook"
Best wishes,
- L
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I guess it depends on your definition of "inexpensive"...and how much you go through, and what you use it for, BUT:
We've settled on the 365 Organic EVOO from Whole Foods as our every day, good-enough for just about everything olive oil. It has a reasonably high smoking point for cooking, but enough flavor to use for salads. Can't tell you the actual price...the bottle on the counter is missing its price label.
I'm sure it's way more expensive than bulk cans from an ethnic grocer, but still a good value compared to boutique EVOOs. I got tired of stocking so many different bottles that were varying degrees of full, and worrying about using everything up before it went south, so now I lead a simpler, if perhaps somewhat less thoughtfully tasteful, life.
I figure I save some money, but I still really enjoy the color and aroma of the oil I pour into the pan every night when I cook.
It's all about finding what makes you have that contented feeling...
- L.
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Finally - regarding lack of storage in various units - I have at least one clue why. I was cleaning off my shelves/drawers today - and counted how many I have. I have a lot more in use than you get with the current model of my refrigerator (and there are some I don't even use). You can probably get a fair amount of extra space if you buy additional drawers/shelves as needed for a new unit.
That's one of the reasons our next refrigerator will be a Liebherr: there's no shortage of shelves or racks. Even if one of them in the the 36" model will be a bit tall for me to reach...hubby can keep his special snacks up there!
The current version of my unit costs less now than I spent for mine 14 years ago (found the same when I replaced my washing machine) - even though the CPI is up almost 40% since then.So funny...when we bought our current refrigerator 20 years ago, it cost $500. Of course, it was a very basic model, but it's worked fine all these years. Its replacement will cost about $3,700.
- L.
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Celery sticks with cream cheese was considered an appropriate appetizer.
Vegetables came from a can all winter long (and maybe all summer too).
Women wore pretty kitchen aprons and men wore a tie for weekday dinners at home. Or was that just on TV?
Either way, when those things were true, the TV would often be on, given pride of place at the head of the table, during dinner. Featuring the Vietnam war.
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But every couple of years or so I HAVE to have kraft macaroni and cheese w/ spam mixed in. I don't know why, my mother use to make it when I was young so maybe that is it. I know it is nasty, but man when I gotta have it, I gotta have it.
Sometimes, when I'm not feeling well, the only thing I want is Kraft day-glo macaroni and cheese, followed by strawberry jello. No other flavors -- only the strawberry is acceptable.
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Speaking of Rancho Gordo beans, for New Years Eve (that's 2009, right?), I made Molly Stevens' Escarole Braised with Cannellini Beans, made with RG's runner cannellinis. Served with a simple roasted tenderloin and red wine pan gravy.
Well, that is just about one of the best way to serve beans I have tried yet. And I have been completely in love with RG cannellini beans and tuscan bean soup and its variants for years. I think there were a few things that contributed to the extra yumminess this time:
- I pre-brined the beans, as suggested in the March/April 2008 Cooks Illustrated. Even though I didn't plan ahead very well and it was only a few hours, I still find this helps keep the skins nice and whole, and rounds out the flavor of the beans.
- For the first time, I cooked the beans in a crock pot. And they took FOREVER. Which didn't matter, because I had started them ahead, anyway. But my new crock pot, purchased for $30 at the hardware store, took about 6 hours -- on High, mind you -- to finally get the beans up to a simmer and get them cooked. They were perfectly creamy, but still firm, not mushy, and with skins completely intact.
- The lemon juice (I used meyer lemons) and olive oil added at the end of this dish makes it transcendent. And the flavors are still there when you reheat the leftovers a day or two later.
There's another batch of beans brining tonight, getting ready for the crock pot during tomorrow's winter storm. Cannellinis again...I meant to try borlottis or some other kind, but at the last minute I just had to repeat the previous experience. This is how ruts set in...
I know lots of people have All About Braising for the meat recipes, but I haven't been able to get out of the vegetable chapter -- this book has completely changed the way I cook.
- L.
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I always pick Rendezvous in Central Square. Always exciting without pretense, the most comfortable bar to sit at for dining, and completely consistent in terms of delivering a top-notch delicious meal.
- L.
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If you think you'll be doing lots of lobster, you might want to get Jasper White's Lobster at Home cookbook.
I made his Rich Lobster Stock for the holidays, which involved roasting a whole bunch of lobster carcasses and simmering them for an hour with lots of other stuff including fennel and tomatoes and and a whole bottle of white wine! Took forever to make, but now I have 5 quarts of the stuff in nice 1 cup portions in the freezer.
We started off with Lobster Newburg on Toast Points for Christmas Dinner -- it was heavenly! Of course, you start collecting more lobster bodies and bits for the next round of stock in the freezer with every recipe you make using the current batch of stock...it never ends.
There's also a "simpler" recipe for Quick Stock that doesn't involve roasting the lobster bodies. It also leaves out the tomatoes, which I think makes it more appropriate for many recipes.
It's an excellent, authoritative book to have in your collection -- let's make 2009 the Year of the Lobster!
- L.
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Aidan,
What kind of atmosphere would you like, and any kind of food in particular you feel like eating? Also, any area in particular that you will be near? Do you have a car or are there transportation issues to consider?
We aim to make our visitors happy...
- L.
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Staying in tonight ... just me and Mr. L d'A. After six days without power thanks to a record-breaking ice storm earlier in the month, we are still celebrating electricity, heat, and running water.
Dinner is a roast beef tenderloin with a wine/port/pan juice reduction, served with Molly Steven's escarole braised with runner cannellinis from Rancho Gordo.
Happy New Year to everyone!
- L.
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Buy your beans from Rancho Gordo and you'll always have fresh beans, not to mention the most delicious beans ever.
Ditto, ditto, ditto! I'm sure there are other good sources for good beans, but Steve is my go-to, since I don't happen to know of any others.
I wasn't much of a bean fan, either -- until I found Rancho Gordo beans and learned just how good real beans could be.
Making a cassoulet is on my list of 2009 resolutions! But I have learned by experience that nothing tastes good when I'm exhausted...so I agree with Chris that it's best to stretch things out over time.
- L.
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Well, I was very interested to read them. And having read them, I can say they certainly sound, uh, interesting. But I'm not sure I'll be whipping any of them up any time soon.
And yet, they somehow seem familiar, like something that my French-Canadian grandmother would approve of as appropriate holiday cocktails. Maybe it's the wanton, over-the-top inclusion of "exotic" ingredients. (Fresh *and* canned litchis? Lemongrass and pomegranates with yet more litchis?)
What's the alcoholic equivalent of cuisine a la grand-mere?
- Laura Letourneau Chalifoux
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Wonderful, Laura!
Somewhere in the Maine Shrimp threads from prior years are posts about specific places that choose to carry the critters - in Mass, Conn and farther away - made by other eGullet members. I completely understand if you choose not to wade through all of those posts - and places do turn over - so the best we can do is keep an eye open and pass this quest around to your friends. If you hear anything, report back!
Sorry, I meant menu ideas...not ideas about where to get Maine shrimp. I know from previous years that the Whole Foods in Wayland usually has them.
Other items likely to be on the menu include Oysters, Lobster Bisque (thank you Maine!), and Beef Carpaccio. There's just me and my husband, and we tend to like a series of small plates.
- L.
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Thanks for the report, JohnnyD.
If we can get them down here in MA, I'll definitely add them to our Christmas menu, along with Maine lobsters.
Suggestions welcome!
- Laura
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I don't see how it would be a problem with a big bird if you have that big pot.
Cooking finishes in the oven, however long it takes ... you can trust this will work, because people roast bigger birds than that entirely in the oven. Barbara Kafka does giant birds at very high temps.
I think my bird was around 120 degrees between the thigh and breast when it came out of the poach. This took 90 minutes for a 14lb+ bird. It took about 45 minutes to come up to 154 degrees, and then it came out and rested for over a half hour.
I'd guess your bigger bird would have done well with closer to 2 hours of poach and 1 hour in the oven.
Ah, I misunderstood. Somehow I thought that the bird went into the oven completely cooked, and was in there only briefly to brown the skin.
Now the process is making more sense; thank you Paul for all your help!
- L.
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Lapin, how did you determine that it needed to poach for that long? I would have been inclined to just poach for 1:45 or 2:00, and then just roast for however long it takes.
I used a thermometer to check the breast meat temperature. I'm sure you're right, but I have this unfortunate history that I think I mentioned with uncooked turkeys on previous occasions, and I guess I was just being a nervous nellie. With most things in the kitchen, I am confident and secure, even when I don't have a clue, but turkeys turn me into a neurotic mess.
However, with a big pot of delicious turkey broth on the stove right now reducing for a second heavenly batch of turkey-lemon-rice-egg soup, I am reconsidering my hasty decision to abandon this method. I don't think I could agree to live without the broth, and I don't think you can get it without poaching the whole turkey.
So, later in the winter, I will have to hunt down another -- SMALLER -- whole turkey, and give it another try.
Paul, I'll revive the other poached-roasted turkey thread, and you can hold my hand, OK?
- Laura
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Well my giant poach-roasted turkey ended up being just a poached turkey. It took *way* longer than I had expected to poach...the 20lb bird at 170degs required almost 5 hours! And at the very end, I made the mistake of leaving the house for half an hour to take my mother's dog for a walk on the beach, which is right when the stock decided to stop behaving and come to a rolling boil. The result of which was that the skin became very delicate and tore away in critical places, like across the breast.
So we made an executive decision, shed a tear or two, and abandoned the skin. At that point we were hungry and wanted our dinner. But the meat was flavorful and delicious, and nice and moist for a free-range, organic bird.
So would I do it again? Sometimes. The best part is the broth you get...it's fabulous! On Saturday I boiled down some of the broth by about half to concentrate the flavor, stirred in a beaten egg, added some leftover white rice and the juice of a meyer lemon, and we had the most delicious soup I've had in a long time! (Those of you who were listening to NPR on Friday can probably provide the source of the recipe...I forgot which of the 4,000 chefs they interviewed between the morning and evening news for leftover recipes this one came from.)
I would do it again for a smaller turkey, because it's an easy way to get a lot of meat and a really, really good broth without too much fuss. Same reasons you would poach a chicken. And from now on, I only poach in a court bullion made in advance -- it's worth the extra effort in terms of flavor. Thanks Paul for that life-changing experience!
Oh, sorry...the rest of the Thanksgiving menu (there were only three of us):
Poached Turkey
Gravy made with giblet stock and sage (came out great!)
Mixed root vegetable mash (potatoes, celery root, turnip)
Roasted carrots with balsamic vinegar
Brioche rolls
Cranberry sauce
Eggnog Cream Cheese Pie
Next year, I think I'll just brine the bird and roast it normally. Unless of course I decide to try Mark Bittman's splayed roasted method...
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If the leaves are young and tender, I like to cut them into a chiffonade and use them instead of basil in a Salade Nicoise. The fresh, tart, lemon flavor is perfect paired with good-quality tuna, whether an oil-packed imported variety, or a piece you've poached yourself.
Yum!
- L.
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Not only do I add salt at the beginning, for some beans, such as cannellini, I actually soak them in a brine overnight -- a trick learned from Cooks Illustrated in their recipe for Hearty Tuscan Bean Stew, in March/April 2008.
There's a detailed little explanation about how the brining helps the beans to cook up with softer skins, something to do with sodium ions. No matter...I like the results, and if I have the time, I do it. If I don't, I don't bother.
In any case, I *always* get my beans from Rancho Gordo, and then I know they'll come out perfectly, no matter what I do to them. But then I don't have high altitudes to contend with...
- L.
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That's a bigger one than I've done by a few pounds. I've found a 20qt pot to work well for a 16lb bird, so maybe you need 25qt? It will be great to have around for stock making any time of year you're not poaching turkeys.
Well, the best I could find at short notice was a 50qt behemoth, but it'll be great for a lobster fest later on, and I've been meaning to get one of those big outdoor propane burners anyway, so it all works out!
I'd estimate that cooking time will increase in rough proportion to the weight of the bird. So for a 21lb bird, expect it to be about a third longer than the times I give. I'd time the poaching, and then base the cooking on observation. A remote probe thermometer is your best friend with a turkey, unless you've coked enough of them to a good sense of when they're done.Also, really keep an eye on the poaching liquid temperature. You want it to be below a simmer. Like, maybe a bubble wandering to the surface and popping once in a while.
Thanks for the timing tips. I've got one of those remote probe thermometers, so I won't have to guess. And I'll definitely keep an eye on the poaching liquid...it'll probably be all I can do to keep that big a pot on a relatively small burner all the way up to a simmer anyway.
I added some edits to the recipe online, since people are actually going to be following it ... I don't want to get thrown off the island for ruining everyone's holiday!In that spirit, I offer one more suggestion: if observed reality clashes with what the recipe tells you, trust your senses and your instincts, not me.
Don't worry...I know my mileage may vary! This is definitely in the "experiment" category, and I promise to photograph and post the results, whatever they may be. But I'm really grateful for the guidelines for this technique.
- Laura
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Lapin, I'd love to see that recipe, if you don't mind. I'm used to doing breads at the last minute, and the reheating thing worries me. But lots of people say it's ok, so it must be. And I really need it to be ok!
On its way to you via p.m.
And yes, it's OK to reheat! In some cases, I think the bread actually develops it's flavor a bit over the course of a day.
Thanks for the link...those are cute bunnies (as if there are no cute bunnies). And the food looked great!
- Laura
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Abra,
Nowadays I always make the "Middle-Class Brioche Rolls" from Reinhart's BBA the day before, and warm them up before serving. But before Reinhart came along, my standard was the much leaner Parker House Rolls from the New England Yankee Cookbook. They're also fine made the day ahead, especially if just underbaked slightly and then warmed up before serving. And you can't get much more American than that.
If you don't happen to have this Gospel of New England Cooking in your expat library, I'd be happy to p.m. the recipe to you.
- Laura
Incredible grape leaf rolling machine
in Middle East & Africa: Cooking & Baking
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OK, Andie, in exchange for the tip about stuffing sorrel leaves, which I also grow, I'm going to share this with you, instead of scarfing it up for myself:
Stuffed Grape Leaf Roller
I leave it to you to ask the seller why a $24.99 item costs $12 for shipping. But whatever...nirvana does not come cheap.
- L.