Lisa Shock

Ok, so the inserts don't work very well. The one takeaway message I get from the article is that there's still a lot of room in the market for innovation. That, and maybe building a permanent oven with bricks, etc. might not be such a bad idea...

A pink lambrusco (not the super cheap stuff, more like $12/bottle) would work well. It tends to be less sweet than the red or white versions. I'd also consider a vinho verde or albarino.

How about a different texture, like serving with nuts on top, or with a crisp cookie -maybe even making an ice cream sandwich...

I think I'd prefer one of those inserts for a Weber grill instead.

You know, the dish is a braise -the sort of treatment that makes meat very tender. I am thinking they just cut up the pieces to save a little money (and keep the bone in to make it look like more food) because their menu states that every main dish they make serves 2. So, instead of a couple of thighs per person, they probably cut them into thirds and then serve 9-10 chunks instead of 12. (that and the mystique surrounding bones and their supposed flavor enhancing properties) Overall, it's probably best to use whole thighs. I only suggested cutting them into thirds to mimic the restaurant. Whole thighs will braise nicely, and work well.

That's probably more historically accurate.

When I catered, we just made them and kept them in a perforated hotel pan set in a warming unit that had water in the bottom. We'd place a clean, wet side towel on top of the tamales to help keep them moist. The trick was making sure the temperature was as low as possible, while still being in the safe zone. -And making sure they were not overcooked when initially cooked. Carryover cooking can be a big issue here, with a large mass of food. Use a thermometer. Some places buy the tamales cold and then heat and store on a steam table for service. Sauce can be held in a warmer and ladled out as needed, you can always mix it up with a cold sauce (crema or queso based) squirted on top of the warm sauce.

My local Korean market sells dark meat chicken that is bone-in but cut into smaller sections, about 1"-2" long. I'd look for that, or ask a butcher to cut thighs into thirds, bone-in. You can do it at home, but, it takes a sharp cleaver and a strong arm to cut the bone. HERE's a different recipe, one aimed at showing how some restaurants make the dish. -It has a lot more vegetables in it, so it looks better to me. Even if you do not make the recipe, I think the video is worth watching. Especially the part where he cooks down the tomato in the fat. (which causes it to change color from a bright red to a brownish color)

Upon review, I'd simmer it for a bit (15 min) after adding the tomatoes and before adding butter, just to cook down the tomatoes a bit. Be warned, I tend to like my tomatoes less cooked than many people. -I do not simmer sauce all day, for example. And, @Thanks for the Crepes is correct, this is supposed to be a rustic hunter's dish nothing fancy. Before reading this thread, I had only ever seen it made with bone-in, skin-on chicken -a whole one with all the parts. (well, that and the time I saw it made from rabbit) HERE's a link to some Italian TV personalities making it. As I watch them, I am struck by how the thigh, viewed from the end appears to be some sort of roll. Are you sure what you had wasn't just a bone-in thigh? Honestly, doing the whole rolling procedure will not add any flavor to the dish. It will just result in really uniform pieces of chicken. And, by not using the skin (and to a lesser extent the bone) you will lose the gelatin which would normally be in the sauce, giving it a rich, thick, silky mouth-feel. I'd try Crepes' recipe first. HERE's the restaurant's Yelp page, which has another image of this dish -this time with a lot more mushrooms. Still difficult to see the chicken, though. The main reason restaurants don't give out recipes is because people don't realize how different restaurant cooking is compared to home cooking. They par-cook then chill dozens of ingredients along with prepping raw foods (like mushrooms) -all in anticipation of order which may or may not come. You can wind up making one plate of lasagna, or 56 plates of it. -And they all have to be identical. (customer service and your account both demand this) So, for a typical restaurant, they have some chicken marked off on the grill but mostly raw, several tubs of sauces simmering in a warmer, a big tub of chilled caramelized onions, and a mini salad-bar's worth of diced and sliced raw items. (plus spices, jarred condiments, pickles, etc.) Most of this stuff can be used tomorrow if no one orders it today. Anyway, your 'recipe' can't really be real because it would take them more than an hour to serve someone after an order is placed. So, they are using shortcuts. They probably pre-cook mushrooms and have them waiting chilled in their own juice. Same with caramelized onions. Since they toss red sauce on almost everything, there's probably a giant pot of it simmering away on the stove or in a warmer. This works great when managing 300 covers a night, not so well in a home kitchen where you are serving a MUCH more limited menu for any given meal. I suspect they just use rolled meat because it probably appears in several other dishes they serve, not because it improves anything. And, this dish was never really designed as a restaurant dish it's more of a homemaker dish or hearkens back to the days before restaurants when an innkeeper's wife might share the family dinner with people paying for rooms.

Butter has emulsifying properties if it doesn't get too hot and break. That's the basis of sauces like beurre blanc. For rolls, take the raw thighs and pound thin between layers of plastic wrap or wax paper. (like you would with breasts for making piccata) For smaller rolls, cut in half. I wasn't that clear about what was inside the rolls, as you mention rib bones being there. If there are chunks of chicken wrapped inside, brown them before rolling. To roll, I'd set up the thighs with the smooth side down, irregular side (what used to be next to the bone) up. Season the top with salt and a little minced garlic. Place whatever is going inside on the top. Get out some twine, leaving it on the roll. Roll up each roll and tie with twine moving from each one to the next, keeping the twine intact and only cutting it when you are done. Tie the two ends together, this will wind up looking like a wagon train pulled into a circle for the night. Dredge in flour, brown in oil or butter, broil a little longer for extra browning, pull out of broiler and add stock, salt & pepper, and parsley. Carefully simmer on the stovetop until the centers of the rolls get to 165°. Mix with the mushroom/tomato mix, mount with butter and serve.

Is the place dinner only, or lunch and dinner? If it's dinner only, make small batches in anticipation of seating times. If the doors open at 6, make a small batch at 5, then a larger batch at 6 for the 7pm crowd, then small batches at 7 and 8. Much can be pre-prepped and kept separate, like diced fresh chiles can be kept in a tub for up to 5 days in the walk-in. Cilantro can be minced in advance, and shrimp can be cleaned and stored by itself. IMO, the only part that needs to be done ala minute would be the lime juice. Earlier in the day, I'd take 4 (or more depending on how many waves you want to make) half sheet pans and put small tubs and the serving bowl on them with all the ingredients pre-measured and ready to go, plus the number of limes needed. This way, even a server could grab a tray, squeeze the limes, and dump everything in a chilled bowl and put it back into the walk-in or in a cold display up front. I'd also hype the dish on the menu as freshly made in limited quantities, urging guests to get it when offered because availability may be limited. I'd also get the servers to hype it a bit, whether it's a fresh batch ready to go, or golly, I'm sorry you just missed it.

Mushrooms make brown sauces. Not an enigma. One day, try sauteing a few then making scrambled eggs with them in the pan. The eggs will be dark brown, almost black-ish. Modern chicken won't be tough, any part, unless it's cooked at too high of a temperature. If you're serving tough chicken thighs, you need to re-calibrate your kitchen thermometer. In this recipe, it's key to not allow the chicken to get hotter than a simmer, ideally no hotter than 165°F. You can use almost any chicken parts, with or without skin (skin will be flabby), bones or no bones. Restaurants often use dark meat, it has more flavor and is more flexible in terms of temperature ranges. Thighs generally have two strips of fat which are easily trimmed off. Gristly tendons are more commonly found in legs rather than thighs. I believe the sentence about browning under the broiler should be prior to the addition of liquid to the chicken. Don't scrimp on mushrooms, they define this dish. In Italy, it's traditional to use several kinds of mushrooms in it. The only change I would make to the recipe would be to start the tomato sauce by caramelizing the onions with salt in a little oil (this takes about a half hour), then add the mushrooms, salt and cook for a minute or two, then lower the heat to low, deglaze with a glug of marsala, allow the alcohol to steam off, then add tomato sauce (I would prefer to add peeled diced tomatoes rather than a pre-made sauce, even if the sauce were homemade.) and mount with butter and immediately mix with chicken & its liquid. Other than that, take a look online. It's a simple dish, Epicurious has a good recipe, so do Jamie Oliver and Delia. HERE's Martha showcasing Eleanora Scarpetta making her version.

I just thought of a solution that would eliminate the solid butter issue: Make the brown butter with extra milk solids, strain through a fine strainer or several layers of cheesecloth, retaining the solids. Place in a large bowl, at least twice as large as needed for the solids. Add enough vinegar to cover the solids by at least an inch. Stir at room temperature for a few minutes. -The solids want to remain at the bottom, but, you want to wash them all with vinegar. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Remove any lumps of butter floating on the vinegar. Puree and use as needed. OR Strain again, puree solids, and make dressing with fresh vinegar. I have not done this. I am torn between suggesting using cheap white vinegar for the wash (and disposing of it) and, using the vinegar you intend to make the dressing with. With the cheap vinegar, you could keep a big container of 'pickled' solids in the fridge for quite some time at a low cost. Using the pricier vinegar has fewer steps and, perhaps the browned bits flavor the vinegar. But then, maybe you don't want browned bits flavored acid, maybe you want something fresh -then the draining (and perhaps use in another application) makes sense.

Good luck! I have made a tasty maltaise sauce with brown butter with extra milk solids. Your dressing should be pretty good, as long as you wind up with good harmony in the other ingredients...

I was also wondering if some genius added garlic to the cheese.... (not that it's necessary, a deep tub of cheese left in the danger zone too long can harbor botulism all by itself)

Most of the flavor in brown butter is in the milk solids. You can add powdered milk to butter before browning, and make a fairly large volume of tasty browned bits. (I recommend hitting them with an immersion blender after cooling to give a smooth texture.) You could then add the browned milk solids with a relatively small amount of butter to a vinaigrette made with a compatible oil. (maybe toasted hazelnut oil? or maybe something very neutral like grapeseed?)

Many places use canned nacho cheese, it's pretty much the standard for cheap nachos. I thought the article was referring to canned at a factory vs fresh block cheeses. Could have been a bad batch from the manufacturer, or, it could have been poor handling of the product. Remember McGee's takedown of Ruhlman's habit of keeping a pot of stock out at room temp and heating it up every day or so? Botulism was cited as being able to grow at the bottom of the pot as it was fairly deep. A slow cooker type setup with melted cheese in it could also foster botulism if it weren't maintained safely. (like if the pot was repeatedly left out after closing, but the heat was turned off for 6 hours -or if it wasn't cooled down properly prior to refrigerating) Too much time in the danger zone with a deep pool of undisturbed cheese providing lots of food (protein, sugars, water) will breed botulism. Even if a product is full of stabilizers, preservatives, texture enhancers, etc. doesn't mean people can ignore proper storage and handling techniques. And now, people are going to pile on here saying that it's 'oh so unlikely', 'stop scaring people unnecessarily'..... Nine people have been sickened, some may be permanently disabled. Botulism can be cultured relatively easily. Safe food handling techniques can save lives.

Eggplant Parmesan is simply breaded (with cheese and breadcrumbs) cutlets which are then fried and served with maybe a little pasta and red sauce on the side. (there's also a casserole dish where the cutlets are fried then layered in a casserole dish with sauce and the whole thing is topped with mozzarella)

basically a gastrique...

I have a bag in my freezer for bits of this and that for vegetable stock, which I add to until I get a couple of cups worth. I freeze extra tomato sauce in a large-cube ice cube tray, then bag the cubes. Plain rice freezes well, and I freeze it in several sized packages for various uses -like small containers to add to soup. I make pizza with small amounts of vegetables as toppings. Three mushrooms, a quarter onion, half a hot pepper, and some spinach leaves will make a very good pizza. Sushi can be a good way to use up small amounts of salad vegetables like cucumber, carrot, green onion, some herbs, etc. Leftover cooked foods can be incorporated into frittatas or quiche. (sauced pasta like baked ziti or lasagna is very good!) Hash is also often overlooked by modern cooks. If I have too much fruit, I try to make sorbet with it. Especially in summer when the fruit is really good. Opening the container 6 months later, in winter, can be an amazing experience.

I am such a perfectionist that at home, I have several sizes of pre-cut parchment rounds at hand, and several die-cutters for paper that could be used to make a hole quickly. If I owned a place, I'd probably still have some rounds hidden away somewhere. They are kind of pricey, but convenient when you need them fast. (part of the joy of savory-side cooking when coming from the pastry world)

I like to make cheesecake. It can be frozen with no loss of texture/flavor, so I will often make it a month in advance for holidays like Thanksgiving. If it needs to be transported I just pull it out as I leave the house. By the time the meal is over, it will be thawed yet still chilled. I generally make a big batch, then divide it up and make different flavors. Plain, lime, various flavors fruit swirl made with jam, chocolate. (in the chocolate, adding a little chocolate extract helps boost the flavor) I make pate sucree bases on parchment rounds inside the same pans used for the cheesecake. I make the bases the day of, or night before, serving and assemble at the last possible moment before serving so they stay crisp. They can also be brushed with white chocolate to repel moisture.

Yes, much higher, say 30, and sugar syrup will pool on top.

I forgot to mention a warning, a catering truism as it were, there will be people, even if you have them sign an RSVP card specifying which entree they will eat, who will eat 1-2 of every item served. They will take the fish entree and dump it on the beef, and proudly show off the 'surf & turf'. They will grab the vegetarian plates before they can be served to the vegetarians, eat several of them and then claim they did not know -they thought they were appetizers. They will often bring their dogs and serve them a couple of entrees as well. So, count on making extra. When I worked catering, we always had 20% more just in case. (waiters occasionally will drop a tray, too) Also note that many people will try a scoop of everything presented. (and then leave half on their plate, uneaten) So, weird as it may seem, you can often feed more people with less food, as long as there are fewer choices. You should designate people to cut the cakes and serve them. This way, some drunken uncle doesn't just start slashing them into weird, irregular shapes. And, people can't help themselves to pieces larger than their heads (and then throwing much of it away). You kababs sound nice, but the fruit ones have to be assembled close to the time eaten or the banana will turn and the pineapple enzymes will start breaking down the other fruit and marshmallows. I am also thinking that you haven't really contemplated how much time it would take to make 80+ of them. (not to mention storage space) If you have everything prepped (berries washed, tops off the berries, pineapple cut, bananas peeled and sliced) and it takes a minute to assemble, that's 80 minutes on the morning of taken up with fruit kababs -plus the prep time. (probably close to 2 hours, all told) IMO, you're better off with making cookies the day before. Or, if someone has freezer space, 120 homemade ice cream sandwiches made a week before and wrapped in parchment. You really need to consider making as many things as possible in large bowls to be scooped out by the guest. Fussing with individual servings will be your downfall. (this is why caterers charge $3-$8+ each piece for appetizers that are one bite, vs an all-inclusive pulled pork meal with lots of sides where the guests serve themselves, for $7 per person -they upsize staff numbers for fussy foods) While you are working out your menu, start working up a timeline. -Even time the day before will be precious and should be carefully allotted. (probably count on eating carryout or frozen food the day before)

Are you monitoring the brix? Your mix should be as close to 26 as possible.