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azureus

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Everything posted by azureus

  1. They are larger, and they taste "richer" to me, though my chicken eggs are "richer" than store-bought ones, so it could just be due to diet. The turkey eggs act "drier" when used in baking, as the yolk is thicker, and smaller in proportion to the white when compared to chicken eggs. The whites are tougher if you hard-boil them. I need to revisit the Val d'Aosta thread now that I have so many eggs! April
  2. Soured milk is fine to use as long as its merely soured and then thorougly cooked. I use it deliberately for baking quickbreads that call for it, because it gives a better rise and I don't like the flavor that vinegar imparts. The second-best pancakes and waffles are made with soured milk, in my opinion. The best are made with buttermilk, but I rarely have that in my fridge. April
  3. His recipe does have milk, and he calls it I'm hoping to try it this weekend. Any idea why "the real thing" is supposed to be made in 100lb batches? I'm going to have to settle for Downie's much smaller recipe, baked on a round stone, but I am curious as to how the batch size could affect flavor or texture. I have been completely unable to locate pancetta, prosciutto, fava beans, or even edamame. I picked up some frozen lima beans to use a substitute for favas instead. I succumbed to everyone's seductive carbonara photos and made some last night with locally made bacon and turkey eggs. It's all I can do to keep myself from running out to the kitchen and making another batch. It's that addictive. April
  4. Ooooh! How about split pea gnocchi? The Italians make gnocchi out of just about anything! April
  5. Thanks. I love sweet-and-sour onions, and the grilled packets sound wonderful. April
  6. Apparently not. I haven't found it in any of my seed catalogs. You can buy seeds or plants from Richter's Herbs. They ship to the U.S. I bought a plant labelled "Nepeta" last year, but I don't know if it's the authentic nepitella. The scent was wonderful, but not reminiscent of fennel. I'd go with the oregano/mint mix, if necessary. You might look for plants at your local nurseries, or raid your Mom's garden! All of the meals looks fabulous, and I think that I'm going to have to jump on the Carbonara/Artichokes alla Romana bandwagon. Are there any good Roman/Lazio recipes featuring leeks? April
  7. Hathor: Your brodetto looks wonderful. And you're welcome to stop by the middle of nowhere for turnips anytime! Ludja: Thanks for the information on the Easter breads. The interlacings of cultures and cuisines is so fascinating. I need to try one of those recipes for Easter next week. Marlena: I'm not very familiar with Middle Eastern cuisine. What are the pickled turnips called? Here in the mid-west, rutabagas are often called "Swedes" or "Swedish Turnips", though they are a different species. I'll bet that they would make a great brovada. I'm wondering if radishes might work as well. I can't believe that I forgot to post this: The Friulian cookbook also has a recipe for brovada that uses pear must for fermenting the turnips. I'm trying to imagine what that would taste like. April
  8. I agree. I grew cardoons in my garden for the first time last year, because I thought that they might taste more like artichokes. They were either horribly metallic or completely bland. I didn't blanch the plants while they were growing, so I'm going to give it a try this time, and see if it changes the flavor. I had a bit of good luck yesterday: the used bookstore had a good copy of David Downie's book. Now, I just need time to cook. April
  9. Yes, but the results are similar (spicy/sour), though the texture of the turnips was much softer than that of the sauerkraut. April
  10. FoodMan--Your squash pasta looks great. It even coordinates with your dish! Kevin--sorry to hear about your blecs trouble. Perhaps you were supposed to use coarse meal? It might then have fried up like bread crumbs, instead of thickening the butter. The cookbook that I just got (and can't really read) says ". . .in una padella soffriggete nel burro la farina gialla, mescolando continuamente; il tempo che il condimento ha preso colore. . ." Hopefully, an expert can translate, but I think it says to fry the butter and cornmeal just until colored. For my Friuli Finale: Brovade Three Ways Back on March 10th, I started a batch of brovada by marinating whole turnips in red wine vinegar. I don't think that the turnips have really fermented, as they would have if I had used the more traditional grape must. The brovada mise: The turnips were very tangy, though you can see from the photos that the vinegar hasn't completely penetrated to the interior. The brovada three ways: Raw, sauteed with garlic and sausage, and in Jota. Raw, it tastes like turnip and vinegar. Sauteed with sausage, it's divine. The jota was quite good this time as well. I used cornfour to thicken it this time. Here's a quick mention of some interesting recipes from the Friuli cookbook (I really wish that I'd had it at the beginning of this month!) Bread--there aren't alot of recipes for bread, and the directions are sketchy for most of them. Many of the recipes are just proportions of ingredients, without time or temperature suggestions. One is called Hausproat, which is a mixture of buckwheat and corn flours, with yeast, water and salt. I'll bet it makes a dense loaf. There are also recipes for French bread, potato bread, a "focaccia" with eggs and cornflour, and Pan de Frizzis, which reminds me of eggy American biscuits, as it calls for 6 eggs in the batter and either pork cracklings or lardo. There are several recipes for cavallo, guinea hen, and frog, and eight recipes for cjalsons, each named after the town of origin. There are a few recipes for an herb called "sculpit". I can buy seed for it from several different gardening catalogs, but I never knew how it was used. There is also a recipe titled "Suf which sounds suspiciously like the bechamel soup Kevin mentioned. Whew! Sorry for such a long post. Now, on to Lazio. April
  11. No, my version was essentially pasta dough--flour, eggs, and water. The recipe was actually listed under the Primo/Pasta Fresca section of the cookbook. But, to get really confusing, Lidia's version of gubana does use puff pastry. Carol Field's version uses yeast bread. And in Culinaria, there is a recipe for pinza, which uses the same filling, and an egg dough. The dough is rolled up, cut and baked like cinnamon rolls. April
  12. After posting, I felt an urgent need to walk the dog so that I could burn some calories. And yes, I was referring to Adam's spinach roll. The Friuli cookbook has several savory struccolo recipes, including one similar to Adam's. I did like the flavor, although I think that the boiling made the nuts in the filling taste blander than if it had been baked. The shar-pei wrinkles likely occured because I rolled out the pastry almost square, which made it quite long, and iit had to be coiled up in order to fit it into the pot.
  13. Last night, I finally found the time to cook a multi-course Friulian meal: Antipasto: Strucolo Carsolino Primo: Zuppa di Asparagi Secondo: Pollo in Sguazet con Polenta Contorno: "Spinaci" Affogata Kevin wasn't sure if he broke any rules with his meal, but I know that I did. Lidia Bastianich states firmly in La Cucina di Lidia that the affogata isn't appropriate to serve with braised meats. I'm such a rebel. The Strucolo: Everything else: I was intrigued by all of the recipes for strucolo (also called rottolo upthread) that I found in my latest cookbook. The fact that most are to be boiled was also intriguing. In my own personal food classification system, I had always thought of strudels as being more akin to puff pastry. This was definitely more like a gigantic noodle, and I wish that I would have stretched the dough more, because cooked pasta was a bit thick in spots after cooking. I chose this particular recipe because the filling contains fried breadcumbs, nuts and raisins and the sauce has cinnamon and sugar in it. This combination seems to be a defining part of Friulian cuisine. The asparagus soup was boiled asparagus pureed in its own cooking liquid and thickened with flour, butter and eggs. It was tasty, but very rich. The affogato was based on a recipe from Lidia's book, I just substituted spinach for the escarole. The main dish was mainly inspired by a dish that Lidia's co-author wrote about at the beginning of her book. The sauce was made from a long-simmerd free-range bird and served over fuzi. I don't see how the recipe actually given in the book on p.164 could even be compared, as the chicken is only simmered for 20 minutes. This will probably seal my image as a knife-wielding maniac, but I had an old, tough, free-range rooster out in my barnyard. So, into the pot he went. I used the ingredients given in the recipe, but added extra stock and wine, and then simmered it all for over four hours. It was every bit as good as promised. Actually, I made the sauce on Sunday, and the leftovers have kept improving. My husband has been making sandwiches with the meat for his lunches. After that, I needed a nap! April
  14. Not sure anyone really has actually. Ever read Steingarten's "Supergoose" article in his "Must've been something I ate" book? He tries every trick under the sun with many geese and never could manage to roast a perfect goose, with medium done breast, tender legs and crispy skin. ← I'm glad to know that it's not just me, but it makes me wonder how roast goose was ever popular. Or maybe the modern varieties just aren't suitable for roasting. April
  15. Sorry! I promise to be nice! Hey--I have until Friday to roll out the brovada. I will make the soup, never fear. April
  16. Yes, several kinds. One features in the dish that I cooked last night. Sioux Falls, SD has a small Eastern European grocery. They carry about eight brands of ajver/ajvar (pronounced EYE-var) from various countries. Some have eggplant, and some do not. Each brand comes in Mild and Hot, although the Hot versions aren't truly hot, at least not for me. I found a link on wikipedia discussing the word: Ajvar (from Turkish hayvar, salted roe) (ETA: I see Adam already discussed this, but I didn't read far enough ahead before posting!) I never managed to get a copy of Plotkin's book, but just last week my copy of La Cucina Del Friuli-Venezia Giulia in 850 Ricette Tradizionali arrived in the mail. Despite the large number of recipes, haivar isn't mentioned. Red bell peppers are $1 apiece! right now, so homemade haivar is on my list. April
  17. Um, this American deals with whole poultry all the time. I haven't purchased any type of bird at the supermarket since I moved to the country eight years ago. But, heads don't need to be hacked off. You can disjoint the neck by cutting between two vertebrae close to the body. Gutting isn't fun, but not difficult either--pm if you ever want details. I've never mastered roasting a goose whole, either. Did you make your own haivar sauce? I buy it all the time here, and I wish that I'd realized that it was part of Friulian cusine. Off to make a Friulian dinner! April
  18. I'm not sure that they're actually fermenting, thought they are nice and pink. I'm not seeing any bubbling that would indicate fermentation. Probably it would happen if I ever remember to add grape must. I plan on using them for a meal this weekend, and I still am planning on using the turnips to make another batch of jota before the end of the month. Right now I have a version of Chicken in Sguazet, inspired by a story in La Cucina di Lidia simmering away in my crockpot overnight. I'll report on it tomorrow. April
  19. Hathor, welcome back! What a great trip report. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us. Can you tell us more about the ingredients in the coniglio humido? And I'm really curious about the seeming popularity of horse steaks. Is there a local breed raised just for meat? April
  20. azureus

    Fresh fava beans

    Over here, butter beans are a type of lima bean. I've never seen favas labelled as such. April
  21. I'm still interested, and Library Thing does look promising to me. The book list can be grouped by Author, Title, Date, or Tag simply by clicking on the word at the top of each column. For example, if you click on "Author", the book list is then sorted alphabetically by author. The "Tag" column is where we would designate subjects and provide other pertinent information, such as the publisher, regions, and the location/owner(s) of the book. From Library Thing: I had missed silverbrow's link, so I need to go look at that, and then compare the two. April
  22. Do you mean that European bay is different from... what? American? I never knew... ← The leaves of the California Bay Laurel are also sold as "bay leaves", though the flavor is slightly different from European Bay. I like to add roasted red pepper strips to bean soups. They add a tangy sweetness. I think of beans as the plain, starchy base of the soup. Potato or barley soup would be bland without other ingredients as well. The excitment comes from what you add! April
  23. Batali's on-line recipe only calls for two days of fermenting, hence the need smaller pieces. He probably doesn't want to wait two months to use it. My on-line sources mention grating or thinly slicing the turnips just before use. My turnips have already softened and are now red all the way through. It will be interesting to see how the flavor and texture changes over time. Has anyone here had the original version? Does Waverly Root mention what kinds of bread were baked in Friuli? I haven't been able to locate any mention of wheat- or rye-base unsweetened breads. How much wheat is grown in Friuli? April
  24. Nathan--Wow! I think that you have Kevin beat for access to coolest ingredients (outside of Italy). San Daniele ham, Mantasio cheese, and Tocai wine! Sigh. I don't think anybody has heard of Friuli around here. Heh--I imagine that's where all of the fricos were headed anyway. I feel the need to go for a run after just looking at your luscious photos. This must be the coolest cooking pun ever: April
  25. Tonight I started a batch of brovada. Here's the "before" shot: And here are the turnips steeping in the red wine vinegar: Not pictured: a bowl and a weight to keep the turnips under the liquid. After following the links provided upthread to Mario Batali's site, I see that he adds crushed red grapes to his version. I think that I might add some, in the hope that it might add to the flavor of the finished pickle. Ideally, the tunips should ferment at least 20 days, but my plan is to use some of them by the end of the month to make another batch of jota. I've been thinking about why the jota that I made was so appealing to me. The soup was tasty on its own merits, but it really reminded me of something that I'd had before. I finally remembered a dish that my parents made frequently when I was young that we called "Hot German Potato Salad". I don't know if this is made in Germany. Potatoes were boiled whole, then peeled and diced and added to a sauce containing mainly bacon, vinegar and celery. I swear that this tastes just like jota. In a way, my culinary wanderings have brought me home. I'm eager to prepare this soup for my Mom to see what her reaction is. April
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