FrogPrincesse

I've been hosting the Easter family meal for a few years now. I love it as lamb is more fun for me than turkey. Last year I served an herb-stuffed deboned leg of lamb; in the previous years I made a 7-hour leg of lamb, and many other leg of lamb & rack of lamb variations. I was considering lamb shanks this year, but got a specific request for rack of lamb and am happy to oblige. I haven't finalized my menu yet but here are my ideas so far: Small nibbles- smoked trout with golden beets, duck carpaccio I will serve a punch of some kind with this. I just put my hands on a few bottles of Batavia Arrack that I will put to good use. Ravioli - TBD. Last year I did Babbo's mint love letters with lamb sausage, and I would like to make ravioli again (feeling ambitious!). The main course (by popular demand) will be a mustard-crusted rack of lamb, very traditional. The side vegetable dish will be based on whatever I will receive in my farmers' market bag that week. Maybe some sautéed artichokes, baby potatoes & leeks. Dessert - most likely a baba au rhum and something with chocolate (truffles?). I cook lamb quite frequently but never the shoulder, so I won't be able to help you FoodMuse.

This is fantastic. Thanks for documenting your trip so thoroughly with these amazing pictures. This brings back wonderful memories. I've been to Kiosko Universal a few times (and sat exactly where the lady is sitting in the second picture), and would love to have these beautiful razor clams again.

Got a few things at Hi-Times last week...

I'm on a roll... I've made two more batches of the brownies, the chocolate pot de crème, and the Bahamian rum cake. The prep for Robert's Absolute Best brownies takes less than 20 minutes, only uses one pot, and bakes in ~ 25 min, so it's my new go-to recipe for last minute dessert requests. The chocolate pot de crème is another recipe that takes less than 20 min to prep, and bakes in about 35 min. It's all about the mouthfeel - a thick chocolate cream explosion. The Bahamian rum cake is a little more involved but really worth it. It's very moist and has a delicious flavor from the rum, coconut milk, and shredded coconut. Edited to correct the image link

Really? It's interesting that it's presented that way. My husband had this dish at Zaytinya over a year ago when Mike Isabella was still working there...

In addition to the above I would recommend Nine Ten for local & seasonal upscale food, in La Jolla Cucina Urbana for rustic Italian-Californian fusion, a great place to mingle with the local crowd, located in Banker's Hill between downtown and Hillcrest Whisknladle, another fun & casual Italian-Californian restaurant, located in La Jolla Cafe Chloe downtown for casual French food Sea Rocket Bistro in North Park for local seafood (including sea urchin) Bali Hai on Shelter Island, which has been recently renovated, for a relaxing tiki experience (think Roy's with vintage tiki cocktails and local ingredients)

I just tried this technique for the first time using cannellini beans (and salt added right from the start). They came out beautifully however they took about 2.5 hours to cook. Could the cooking time be a variable of the type and the age of the beans?

Junipero gin. Not able to find Lemon Hart 151 in San Diego yet so I am considering driving up to LA to grab a few bottles before they disappear.

I've been continuing the chocolate festival with a few other recipes from Ready for Dessert. The Chocolate Chips Cookies are great. They are chewy and the chocolate chunks melt when the cookies come out of the oven (I chopped semi-sweet chocolate bars). I made a couple of logs that I baked over a few days. I have a pretty good brownie recipe that I've been using for years but I decided to give Robert's Absolute Best Brownies a try. Well, I now have a new favorite brownie recipe. I was out of nuts so tried them with just the chocolate and I could not get enough of the wonderful texture and intense flavor. The real bonus for me is that it's a mess-free brownie that is easy to slice and doesn't fall apart. Lastly, the Fresh Ginger Cake does not contain any chocolate, but you could think that it does because of its rich flavor. I was a little nervous having never used molasses, and because of the relatively large amount of oil in the recipe. The cake is very moist and the fresh ginger flavor is obvious, with cinnamon in the background. Even my four-year old daughter, who claims not to like "spices", approved.

+ 3 Atomic Cocktails: Mixed Drinks for Modern Times (gift from a friend) The Sweet Life in Paris, David Lebovitz Ideas in Food, Aki Kamozawa, H. Alexander Talbot

I've used liquid smoke to make kalua pig & duck. The meat (pork "butt"/shoulder, or a whole duck) is rubbed with salt and liquid smoke (I used Wright mesquite), wrapped in ti or banana leaves + foil and then cooked in the oven. The foil bag containing the meat is placed in a roasting pan containing water, and the pan itself is wrapped in foil. This technique is described in Alan Wong's New Wave Luau, and is supposed to mimic cooking in a traditional imu underground oven.

Missed one - The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection, Michael Ruhlman

+ 12 cookbooks and food-related since January Sam Choy's Polynesian's kitchen The cooking of provincial France, M.F.K Fisher (Time-Life) Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing, Michael Ruhlman, et al Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, Michael Ruhlman Tartine Bread, Chad Robertson, Eric Wolfinger Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Delicious Cheeses, Ricki Carroll Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes, David Lebovitz The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones, Anthony Bourdain As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, Joan Reardon Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat, Grant Achatz, Nick Kokonas Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, Gabrielle Hamilton French Cheeses, EyeWitness Handbooks

At my local Bristol Farms I recently got charged twice for the same item. It was a fairly pricey smoked paprika ($10/unit). I did not realize until I got home. And then I saw that it was going to expire in two months... Now I verify everything much more carefully when I check out. Edited for typo

Nice to see that egullet is mentioned in the opening sentence of the article!

My local Bristol Farms now carries a pretty extensive selection of Fee's bitters, including rhubarb, cherry, plum, chocolate, grapefruit, peach, and a few others. I already have the old fashioned bitters. Are there any others that are highly recommended? Edited to correct typo

After > 9 months of hesitation, I finally took the plunge and moved the book from my "Wish List" to my shopping cart, and placed my order. Estimated delivery April 22, 2011 - May 13, 2011 I hope it was not too late to get the first printing. I am excited!!

Neighbors, what neighbors?? Seriously, it's been quite a feast at our house and we are indeed very popular with our friends and neighbors. We all love chocolate so this book has been great so far. I've actually tried my first non-chocolate recipe from the book last week. It was the Orange Pound Cake. Pound cake can sound boring to some, but it's a great classic that is just perfect with coffee. This particular recipe had a great flavor thanks to the orange zest. I liked the fact that the glaze gave it an extra zing and kept it moist. Also the cake actually got better over time as the glaze permeated it. Here is a picture.

There have been a lot of great suggestions already. That sounds like a great party! The menu from this upcoming Vintage Vic's Dinner event at Trader Vic's has a few classic tiki dishes that you may want to consider as well.

Chris - my mom always serves sauce veloute with white asparagus. It's a perfect pairing. I believe she uses the cooking liquid from the asparagus for the sauce.

So far Racines is my favorite of the flourless chocolate cakes in the book. Here is the Gâteau Victoire

I've continued my exploration of the flourless chocolate cakes in Ready for Dessert with the Gâteau Victoire. Five ingredients for this one - chocolate of course, heavy cream, rum, eggs, and sugar (no butter except what is needed to butter the pan). I decided to skip the bain-marie again and cooked at low temperature (212F) until the batter set, which took about 2 hours. The texture of the cake was similar to a light ganache, very rich and creamy. Another great recipe! Because of its soft texture it's a little hard to cut with a knife. The books recommended to slice the cake with dental floss which was a great tip.

For ski trips we always have duck confit (prepared in advance and just reheated & crisped in the oven) with potatoes sauteed in duck fat. Another favorite meal is raclette or fondue. The raclette can be simply made by slicing cheese into a pyrex dish and melting it in the oven if you don't have the specialized equipment. Serve with potatoes and dried meat.

I finally tried the broccoli soup. I used 1/2 regular broccoli + 1/2 romanesco broccoli (both from my CSA bag), and feta, walnuts & good fruity olive oil as the garnish. At first it tasted a little bland but I found that with a little extra salt & pepper, the flavors really popped. It's great and so simple. I can't believe how Gordon Ramsey is using Sainte Maure goat cheese as a ganish in his . How decadent!!

In California, Bristol Farms sells Scharffenberger cocoa nibs in 6 oz packages. That's where I got mine. I've been on a buckwheat kick lately. It was chandeleur last week (aka crepe day!) and I made galettes bretonnes (savory crepes with buckwheat). I had some buckwheat flour leftover, so I made the Buckwheat Cake from Ready for Dessert last night and am enjoying a slice this morning with my cappuccino. What a delightful cake. It is very unassuming but the mix of buckwheat and almonds is fantastic. The almonds really enhance the buckwheat flavor. Even though the batter seemed a little dense, and I managed to forget the baking powder and added it at the very last minute, the cake turned out very light and delicious. I imagine that it's a good recipe if you are gluten-intolerant as it does not contain any flour. I took one shortcut and used almond meal since I had some already, instead of grinding sliced almonds. We had it last night with Cara Cara orange supremes. It's great. I want to try it next with the Tangerine Butterscotch sauce that is recommended in the book.