FrogPrincesse

Honkman, I really pains me to read this about NINE-TEN. I would really give them another chance. I've had many great meals there including this one documented last summer. Jason Knibb, the head chef (teamed with his pastry chef, Jack Fisher), recently faced Bobby Flay in Iron Chef America (battle caviar). Unfortunately, he lost but I thought his performance was really solid.

Kouign Aman, I just saw your post. Here are my impressions on The Noble Experiments (with pictures) from my Foodblog last summer. Needless to say, I LOVE this place. Anthony Schmidt, the bar manager, has become a friend. He has won the Bartender Challenge two times now and is truly talented. Note that they now accept walk-in customers, so we sometimes go on the spur of the moment and bypass the (somewhat annoying) reservation system. It is really a treasure to have such a fine establishment in San Diego. If you are at all into cocktails, you must visit this place!

Thanks for bringing this up to our attention, this is interesting. My first thought is that the number of recipes they use for their evaluations of cuisines that are not North American seems quite limited. See page 7 in this document- more than 40 000 recipes for North America but only a few thousands for the other four cuisines evaluated. For example, with about 2000 recipes for "Western European" cuisine, that would mean about 10 cookbooks (assuming 200 recipes per cookbook). But their definition of Western European cuisine includes 9 countries so that's only about 1 book per country. So you have to wonder how accurate these conclusions are. I though that it was a little odd to see vanilla as a main ingredient in Western European cuisine, for example. It would be interesting to see if the same conclusions still hold with a more complete online database such as EatYourBooks, for example.

My brother-in-law will be taking care of the turkey and vegetables this year as usual, and I am taking care of the rest. This is a great arrangement as my in-laws insist on having a traditional turkey meal for Thanksgiving AND Christmas, and I want nothing to do with it. I've been trying to convince them for more than 10 years to try goose or duck instead but have been unsuccessfull so far. We will be starting with homemade saucisson sec (French salami, recipe from Charcuterie) and Terrine de Campagne (country pâté) served with cornichons and whole-grain mustard. Then we will have a root vegetable soup with a green apple and duck prosciutto garnish (the recipe is from Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef), followed by gravlax with a green salad. For the gravlax, the salmon is cured in gin, salt, sugar, juniper and allspice berries, coriander, lime zest & fresh mint). I've been doing the Charcutepalooza challenges this year and this will meet the requirements for the December "Showing Off" challenge, with a total of four charcuterie items. For the dessert, I will be bringing a cake from a local pastry shop.

A punch sounds like an interesting option. I always wonder how hard and fast one should try to stick to specific types of liquor in a recipe. So is Myers or perhaps Coruba dark rum adequate here? Appleton I tend to think of as more of a "gold" rum unless you get to the higher end stuff like the 21yo which I probably wouldn't want to put in a punch anyway! Are there other "Jamaican" dark rums I should consider for this punch that are reasonably available? Or perhaps a dark rum that isn't necessarily Jamaican would do? Personally, I've been very happy with Appleton 12-year in this recipe. For large batches, I've used the very reasonably-priced Whaler's rum from Trader Joe's with good results. I am sure that other rums would work well in this punch.

thampik, This was just meant as a inspiration. I am sure that you can create your own punch recipe based on this idea.

FrogPrincesse, you can wrap the whole kaffir limes individually in plastic wrap, and keep them in the freezer. They will last at least a year (I've been told). Cut off as much peel as you need at any time, and put the lime back in the freezer. That's how I keep my kaffir limes. The limes are most commonly used for their peel in Thai curry pastes. Thanks for this great tip, djyee100! Your dates look beautiful. I love Medjools too. I am not so familiar with the other varieties but now I am intrigued! I tried the yuzu limes in a mojito tonight but was somewhat underwhelmed. Their flavor was a little too subtle to play well in that drink I think.

A Sidecar sounds like a good choice. I would also recommend a Punch. For example, a variation on the Fish House Punch. It's delicious and you can prepare everything in advance and have fun with you guests instead of being stuck at the bar!

Thanks for the suggestion Honkman, that sounds good!

I got a couple unfamiliar citrus recently that I am not sure how to make the best use of: kaffir limes (the fruit, not the leaves), and a couple of yuzus. I am considering using the juice in cocktails. I read somewhere that I could zest them and freeze the zest for a later use. Any other ideas/tips? I also got three gigantic watermelon radishes (green skin, pink inside) in my CSA. I've sliced them thinly to use them in salads but barely made a dent in my supply. I've been cutting the rest in little chunks and eating them as a crunchy and refreshing snack. In the same CSA bag, I got a bunch of small Japanese white turnips that I was convinced were radishes, so I just ate them with butter. Thankfully they were extremely mild.

Balboa Park does has a few olive trees, however I don't recognize the painted curb or the hardscape.

It's time to post about my latest baking adventure with David Lebovitz. During a trip to Paris earlier this year, I went to the excellent baking supply store G. Detou and picked up a giant bag of "sucre perlé", aka beaded sugar, with the idea to make chouquettes, which are little sugar puffs. Six months later, the bag of sugar was still languishing unopened in my pantry, so I decided to give it a go. Having had success with gougères last year, I realized that chouquettes were just a sweet version of the same thing. The recipe I chose was from The Sweet Life in Paris, Chocolate Chip Chouquettes. What I like about this recipe is that it's a one-pot recipe which is extremely simple. The most involved part was making sure that the chouquettes were completely covered in pearl sugar before baking them. Also chouquettes are special to me because they remind me of my great grandmother who used to buy them on Sundays as a special treat. I had not had them in years since you never see them in bakeries here (not even French bakeries). Here they are before going into the oven. Here they are out of the oven, nicely caramelized. They are great as is, and best the day of. The next day, they make a great vehicle for ice cream, for a delicious twist on profiteroles.

Hard to say, but since this looks a lot like the produce I've been getting recently in San Diego, I am going to guess Kouign Aman.

No pictures unfortunately (soup is not that photogenic anyway), but I made several soups from the books that are worth mentioning. Yellow Tomato Gazpacho This twist on the classic gazpacho is a great summer soup. It combines yellow tomatoes and cucumber. The soup has a hint of spiciness from jalapeño peppers. A garnish of diced sweet pepper, onion, and cucumber adds crunch, together with halved red cherry tomatoes drizzled with good olive oil. Recipe available on Food and Wine magazine here. Chilled Red Pepper Soup with Sumac, Basil and Lemon Yoghurt This is another chilled soup. It's interesting to see how she develops flavors from a few simple ingredients. The onion is cooked slowly, then the peppers are added and caramelized with sugar and sumac. Water is added and the soup is simmered for a while. The soup is garnished with basil (she specifies opal but regular basil is fine too), and yoghurt mixed with lemon juice. Kabocha Squash and Fennel Soup with Crème Fraîche and Candied Pumpkin Seeds The soup is made from roasted squash and fennel bulb. The aromatics are fennel seeds, onion, thyme, chile de arbol. For the liquid she uses chicken stock and sherry. The garnish is crème fraîche and candied pumpkin seeds. I could not get the pumpkin seeds to candy properly (they were very hard and unpleasant so I ended up not using them). Even without them, the soup was very nice. I served it for Thanksgiving last year. Recipe here on Google books.

Speaking about Swiss chard and greens, there is another recipe in the book that makes good use of them. It's the Mussels and Clams with Vermouth, Cannellini Beans and Cavolo Nero. The flavor profile is Italian. Cavolo nero is black kale (also known as dinosaur kale), but this could work very well with other types of greens. The broth is deliciously flavored with onion, fennel, garlic, chile de arbol, rosemary, thyme, and my favorite part, dry vermouth (I use Noilly Prat) which adds an extra note of fennel/anise. Serve with plenty of crusty bread. Recipe here on Google books.

Very good point. I've been pronouncing Noilly Prat "NWAH-Lee praht" rather than "NWAH-yee praht" based on that "rule", and that's how I heard people say it in France. But I am not sure which one is right, it just sounds better to me that way. In France, pronunciation is often a source of confusion and a source of endless debates, so there is always a chance that there is no consensus on that there either. We should check with the French Academy which is the final authority on these very important matters.

Here is another savory tart recipe, the Swiss Chard Tart with Goat Cheese. I made it for my foodblog back in July. I used feta instead of goat cheese. It's an excellent use of chard that I often get in my CSA in the summer. In the recipe she garnishes the tart with a pine nut and currant relish before serving. Recipe here on Google books. I made it as a gratin as well instead of a tart, and it was delicious too.

Thanks Heidi. I think you would be very happy with this book, especially knowing that you live in LA. In the book, she has several recipes for savory tarts which are variations of the Alsatian tarte flambée, or Flammenküche. These are easy to put together as long as you have puff pastry in your freezer. (I realize that traditional Flammenküche does not use puff pastry, but this is a nice twist). Young Onion Tart with Cantal and Applewood-Smoked Bacon The bacon (I used home-cured bacon) is fried in a little olive oil with young onions and thyme. A mixture of crème fraîche, ricotta (I used homemade), and egg yolk are spread onto the puff pastry, then slices of Cantal cheese are added and finally the bacon mixture. This makes a great appetizer to share, or a light meal with a green salad.

For my Fooblog in July, I made this very tasty Summer Squash Gratin with Salsa Verde and Gruyère, which is a clever way to impart flavor to a vegetable that does not have much by itself. Details about the preparation in my post here. Recipe here on Google books.

Another hearty dish: the Lamb Osso Bucco. Lamb osso bucco or shank can be used. The preparation requires a little planning since the lamb needs to be marinated overnight with garlic, thyme, lemon zest, rosemary, black pepper, and olive oil. It is seared the next day, then braised in the oven with white wine, stock, and vegetables (onion, carrots, fennel). At the end, she removes the meat from the liquid and turns up the temperature to brown it. I deviated from the recipe in the final garnish and used gremolata when she calls for tapenade (my husband does not care for tapenade). Also I ran out of steam for the preparation of the accompaniments as this was just a very nice weeknight meal. She serves the lamb on top of a ragout of haricot verts and fresh shell beans, which sound lovely for what she presents as a summer recipe. However, since I made the recipe in the fall, I served it with boiled new potatoes. The meat was really spectacular. Recipe here on Google books.

A dish that seems a propos for the colder weather we are currently experiencing in San Diego: Corned Beef and Cabbage with Parsley-Mustard Sauce. Earlier in the year I made a corned brisket for Charcutepalooza. After it was fully cured, I prepared it according to the recipe in Sunday Supper at Lucques. The beef is slowly cooked with the aromatics (onions, cloves, bay leaves, thyme, chiles de arbol). Then it is removed from the broth and crisped in the oven before it is sliced. She cooks the vegetables (carrots, turnips, potatoes, cabbage) in the broth, but separately from the beef, to make sure that they are not overdone, with the potatoes cooked first. The parsley-mustard sauce, which also contains shallots and vinegar, adds a bright note to the dish and reminds me of the whole grain mustard we traditionally serve in France with pot-au-feu. Complete recipe here on Google books.

On the dinner thread a while back I talked about her phenomenal burger recipe, the Grilled Pork Burgers that I've nicknamed triple pork burgers. It's impossible to go wrong with ground pork, chorizo, and diced bacon. Also the seasoning mix of sautéed shallots and garlic, roasted cumin, thyme, parsley, and chile de arbol is especially flavorful. Then she tops the burger with Manchego cheese (which I was not familiar with before the book and now love), arugula for a touch of bitterness, and aioli (my husband decided he preferred barbecue sauce so that's what you see on the picture). They are juicy and super flavorful. The recipe is available here on Google books.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a Kabocha squash and was looking for something new to make with it, after trying David Lebovitz's excellent pie and a number of different soup recipes. I first heard about Kabocha in Sunday Suppers at Lucques. In the book, before going into the seasonal menus, she discusses her favorite ingredients for each season and explains that Kabocha is one of her favorite varieties of winter squash because it's so flavorful. I decided to make her "Pumpkin" Cake with Pecan Streusel. It is inspired by traditional pumpkin pies but she recommends using Kabocha or butternut squash (hence the quotation marks), which are less watery than pumpkin. It's a cake, so there is no crust per se. However the batter hardens at the bottom of the pan and forms a type of crust. The cake is flavored with traditional spices such as cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and also vanilla bean and honey. I will likely use vanilla extract next time as I found that the vanilla bean got lost in the mix, and prefer to reserve vanilla bean for applications where it is better showcased. My mold was a 9-inch mold instead of the 10-inch specified in the recipe, so the cake was a little thick. The topping gave a nice crunch to the cake. The recipe is currently available on Google books, here.

This wonderful book does not have a dedicated thread yet but does deserve one. One of the things I like about the book is its use of seasonal produce. Obviously I am very lucky to live in California and have access to the items that the recipes call for. Some of her favorite vendors mentioned in the book are even vendors at my local farmers' markets! (Schaner Farms for example). The book is organized by season and has a number of menus (for 6 people). I rarely prepare the whole menu but it's good to have ideas of dishes that go well together. I found that if I followed the recipes as written, including all the accompaniments, the recipes were somewhat involved but not overly difficult, and led to exceptional results. So I try to follow her recipes as is for dinner parties. However, for everyday cooking I do tend to simplify the recipes a little, meaning that I don't prepare every component of the dish or shorten the times required to marinate meats, for example. Last month I made the Grilled Duck Breasts with Roasted Grapes. The duck breasts are seasoned with juniper berries and thyme and then very simply cooked on the grill, which I had never done before and resulted in very flavorful meat and crispy skin (and also much less mess as I am used to when cooking duck breast on the stove). I used a muscovy duck breast which was quite large (about a pound) and ideal for this preparation as it stayed very moist. The grapes are roasted in the oven. In the book she serves this dish with crème fraîche and a potato-bacon gratin. This was a weeknight dinner, so I opted to skip that part to stay on the somewhat lighter side. Instead, I served it with roasted chestnuts on the side. The full recipe is available here.

This is the salt concentration in water, not taking the meat into account. For example, use 30 grams of salt per 1 liter of water.