Marya D.

About 10 days ago, At the Kroger in Columbus Ohio, they were selling them in the parking lot, raw or roasted, for $1.00/lb. I didn't know what the word "Hatch" meant, but I recognized the fact that they were green New Mexican Chilis, and I thought "Hmmmm, maybe those are the ones." I bought a pound roasted while the person in line in front of me bought 50 pounds. This, I thought, was unbelievably obnoxious. There were people waiting while they tied up the whole operation. But clearly, from what I've read here, this is customary behavior. I happened to be back in that store the day before yesterday and they still had a few uncooked, so I bought another pound. I'd planned to roast them over a fire, but that does not seem to be orthodox, so I guess I'll do them in the oven. Then I'll freeze them, so come February, when it is as cold as Siberia here, I can make another pot of that green chili that blew my mind last week.

I've had this recipe sitting around for some time. It seems as though it is a more dramatic presentation Of the CI recipe: Preheat oven to 425 degrees 6# kosher salt 1 bunch thyme, roughly chopped 3T cracked black pepper 1c egg whites (from about 7 large eggs) 1 5# beef eye-of-round, trimmed Make a froth of the eggs then fold in the salt Slather the salt mixture on the roast, coating well. Roast for 3/4 of an hour Let the roast rest undisturbed in it's shell for 20 minutes then crack open Remove the meat, Loosely tent and rest for another 10 minutes I don't know if I can tell you where I got this from, because of copyright, but it is on the inter-tubes, I promise. (Yea, it's that one site, the one that you just mentioned!) At nearly $3.00/doz for eggs and $5.00 for a box of koshering salt, it would add considerably to the cost of the Round. Might as well use a better cut of meat at that point. edtd for copyright concerns.

You'd think that all the noise being projected into your head was meant to distract you from something. edtd for spelling, grammar.

I learned somewhere, from some cooking guru, that one shouldn't be afraid to put soy sauce into all sort of things you wouldn't normally associate it with. Spaghetti sauce, french onion soup, chili, what ever. One of my favorite marinades for beef has since become, half light soy and half white wine. No one's ever once said "This tastes Chinese."

BadRabbit, there are a great many corporate shareholders who rely upon our belief that FDA regulation is useless and ought to be dispensed with. Then they can put white chalk in a carton with some sugar and some lecithin and call it "product".

Utterly lacking in ingenuity, tonight's dinner was straight from the Daily Gullet. Nero Wolf's scrambled eggs with Copper River Salmon. Unable to wait for Meijer, I got the Fish at Giant Eagle for 19.99/lb. I used the heat of the eggs to cook the fish. Herbs from the garden, no sauce.

Columbus Ohio: Costo says: "Don't have it, don't know" Meijer says: "We'll have it Memorial day, ~20.00/lb." Whole Foods: Has it how of course, 21.99/lb. The Anderson's: Doubts they will be getting the Copper River Run, Doesn't expect wild salmon until June. I think I'd rather give my money to Meijer to than Whole Foods, as Meijer is local and I believe they are a Union Shop.

I would so much like to see Andiesenji's eggs go head to head with Nero Wolf's, that I just might do it myself.

I've got some sort of Kenmore. I'm not at home so I can't check the model, but it's a better one, that I got for a good price at the Sears Outlet. Never the less. I am so tired of pots that are only 85% clean. And god forbid there is egg on something, like a spatula. I may as well wash it by hand, because I'll be washing it again after I unload it from the machine. Am I getting something wrong here, or is this to be expected? As for getting the dishes dry. The heated drying function seems to me like an extravagant waste of energy. Left alone dishes done after dinner are dry by the next morning anyway. I've been using powdered and liquid detergent, and Cascade and Finish brands, randomly and can't seem to get a handle on which might be best. Any ideas?

I think you've got it precisely right. The home cook is not making the same dish 15 times over the course of a night, or 5 similar ones simultaneously. We don't need to use 50% of our counter space and 25% of our clean dishes for prep. What are you going to do while the turkey breasts brown? Stand there and gaze approvingly at your mise en place, or string your green beans a la minute, when you need them. Do it the other way, and you've spent the hour before you are ready to work, decanting slicing and dicing. Then when it's time to cook, the turkey breasts will not be so impressed that they cook any faster for you. You'll stand there for another 45 minutes, waiting for your food to cook. There is a lot of noise about how the home cook (or private chef even) is not up to the standards of the restaurant chef, because we are sloppy about mise en place, but don't let them fool you. A million home cooks have done it this way for a thousand years because it works.

Lots of different answers because there are lots of different solutes and solvents. As we learned in Chem 101, "Like dissolves like." One of my favorite solvents, that I had not seen mentioned is Alcohol. Denatured Alcohol from the home improvement store, or grain alcohol, or vodka if it's all you've got.

I've been thinking a lot about Adria since I read the Sorcerer's Apprentices. I happened to be reading it simultaneously with Fat Guy's trip to El Bulli. Which really was a trip. I have, so far, decided that Adria is not a chef he is an Artiste. He believes he is working in a Renaissance atelier, those stagieries are his apprentices, there to grind his pigments make brushes, and clean up spatters on his perfect canvasses. We look back now and we say that we have no idea if a painting was done by Vermeer, or The School of Vermeer, that's just the way the master wanted it. The apprentices are there to learn to imitate the master, begin by scrubbing rocks, work your way up to oxidizing fish scales, or what ever. "Don't copy" Don't Copy?!? Please, yer killing me Ferran.

Rachel Ray wishes she was controversial.

Can I use polenta meal instead of grits or will it be essentially wrong? I'm not a very good rule follower. Yesterday morning I made Kongee with steel cut oats (I liked it, anyway.)

So, what's the difference between grits & polenta?

Forgive me for not knowing where I read it, but just last week I read a pretty cogent argument for the home cook not to bother with a mis en place. Because we do not have 3 of the same entrees going at the same time, plus six other things, all at the same station, it makes sense to prep the next thing while the first thing is cooking. This doesn't mean we should prep nothing, but it gives you something to do, to dice your celery while your potatoes and steak are cooking. It prevents you from having to dirty 10 prep bowls and then sit staring at a pot waiting for it to boil. Overlapping tasks saves the home cook time, rather than costing it.

My Italian mother explained that this was the dinner prostitutes made, quickly, before work; using what ever ingredients were found in the cupboard. Hence puttanesca is more of an approach than a written map. What would necessarily be around: garlic, oil, anchovies, capers, red pepper flakes, a splash of wine. What might be in the larder: fresh tomatoes, onions, olives, soprasetta, It often sat before it was eaten because false eyelashes had to be applied, or a customer had arrived. On the other hand if she was ready when it was ready it could be eaten a la minute.

I recall reading, maybe in the French Laundry Cookbook, about the extraction of Chlorophyll from plant material, to create a very vivid green. I looked up "chlorophyll extraction" on teh googles, but found mostly chemistry class sort of applications. . . but I swear I know it's out there somewhere, start with Keller if you can. Marya

I have to sadly admit that I had a craving for Peanut Butter Capt'n Crunch, bought a box and ate the whole thing in two days. They were more addictive now than they were when I was twelve. Something must be wrong with me.

This is the precise reason I left New Jersey and never went back. Mind you I love my home state, from the beaches to the mountains, from the farms to the wet lands, small towns, big cities; everything a person could want. . . except for a sense of a culture of it's own. New York city sucks every bit of the life out of the Garden State. An up and comer either migrates there or leaves the tri-state area all together. What we do here artistically may be beneath Manhattan's notice, but I remember the days when one went to "The City" only for CB-GB's and it's attendant narcotics. A little humility please, Empire State.

I am so glad that you point out that 20 or so years ago McD's & BK had respectable burgers, I might have thought I was crazy. Having gone off on the "food snob" train I hadn't had one since, until earlier this year, on 45mg of Prednisone. All I wanted was a McDonald's Cheeseburger. How was I to know that what I really wanted was a 20 year old McDonald's Cheeseburger? I was crushed and annoyed all at once.

I'm pretty convinced that I live in the worst place to get Pizza east of the Mississippi; Columbus Ohio. There is a tradition here of cutting round pizza into squares, not that the edges pieces have any crust on them anyway, as there is a tradition of covering pies edge to edge, with too sweet sauce and an obscene amount of toppings. Does the surface need to be literally paved with pepperoni? Still, I'd rather toil away an afternoon making my own pizza than go to Domino's.

There, indeed, is the point. Here in the United States we have very few 'professional' waiters and waitresses. The pay structure simply can not support that as a life's work. This point is further illuminated in that restaurant staff have some of the highest drug use and alcoholism rates of any line of work. I am sure that I am not demeaning any wait-staff, by suggesting that is it rather distasteful to discuss how solicitous the help should be, w/o crossing the line into disinterest on the one hand or obsequiousness on the other, while at the same time not mentioning that the work is grueling and the pay miserable.

I know Steve, and you're right, but there were nights, walking out with a net of about 12% (we're talking about 1989 here), having done everything humanly possible, that you just felt violated. Marya Good idea. Many of us are lawyers, doctors, salespeople of all kinds. Some of us are freelance writers. Whatever we do, most of us are probably not farmers or factory workers. Our livelihoods depend on serving the needs of our clients. I assure you that even lawyers making a million dollars a year feel a little like prostitutes when their clients make demeaning, unreasonable demands. And I also assure you that it's not the slightest bit credible to compare it to actual prostitution. ←

When I was in college I waited tables for only a few months at a time at only a couple of places, before I realized that it was the most vile demeaning work in the world. You may say that it depends upon where one is working, but I assure you that the difference between a fine dining establishment and a diner is merely the difference between being a call girl and a whore. Waitressing is a kind of prostitution that involves a level of self abasement far beyond mere sex for money. While we sit here and discuss what, precisely, is the tone the servant class should take when inquiring about our meal, they wonder if they will have groveled up enough tip money by the end of the month to make rent; no insurance, no pension, no job security, and hardly a salary at all. Let's keep things in perspective, shall we?