David Ross

One of the unique ingredients in the Turkey Noodle Bake are the noodles. We usually use thick egg noodles in this type of casserole. The Good Housekeeping recipe calls for 'thin noodles.' I use little egg noodles that you can find in the Jewish section of the grocery store. The noodles are usually used for chicken soup, but they are really delicious in this casserole.

I know that I tend to post food that is a bit 'fancy'-but trust me, I love simple food just as much as the more complicated stuff. And that means a good casserole on a weeknight: Turkey Noodle Bake from the Good Housekeeping Cookbook, circa 1950:

You're seeing some candied green cherries. The Great Northern recipe calls for currants, candied cherries, candied mixed fruit and candied pineapple. The recipe calls for both walnuts and almonds. I think next time I use this recipe I'll add some molasses for extra sweetness and to get the cake really dark in color. My Father's Aunt Pearl, the baker of his WWII fruitcake, was of Scottish heritage as was your Grandmother! We trace our ancestry back to the mid 1600's in Scotland. They eventually landed in New England and made their way to Missouri in the early 1800's. From there they came by wagon train over the Oregon Trail, settling in Southern Oregon. I suppose that Scottish background and Pioneer spirit taught Aunt Pearl the value of using dried fruits and probably a good measure of Scotch Whiskey to create her wonderful fruitcakes. On my Mother's side of the family, her Aunt Bertie was the fruitcake baker. Don't you love those old-fashioned names? Pearl and Bertie-the fruitcake bakers. Aunt Bertie and my Grandfather Ralph were of Russian descent. Their 'American' last name was 'Pink,' but we think it was short for a longer name like Pinkowski. We are not sure, but we think their parents left Russia in the mid-1850's and eventually settled in Twin Falls in Southern Idaho. Their Father, my Great-Grandfather Max Pink, owned a large company that processed sheep pelts and wool. Idaho was once the home to some of America's largest flocks of sheep. Aunt Bertie was a wonderful Jewish cook. And while she specialized in fried chicken and watermelon rind pickles, it was her fruitcake that stirs loving memories of her kitchen. She was a teetotaler, but that didn't stop her from sending my Grandfather to the liquor store every year to buy her booze for the fruitcake. I am quite sure that what she didn't spill into the fruitcake spilled into a glass by her bed. I think Aunt Bertie shared the same sensibility and pioneer spirit that Aunt Pearl had when it came to baking fruitcake-using simple, preserved fruits and nuts to create a delicious Christmas cake.

What was the best dish you had at a restaurant in 2007? While the setting ranked #1 on my 2007 list-Guy Savoy at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas-and the event certainly ranked at the top-the one-year anniversary of Savoy at Caesar's-and the guest list memorable-Chef Savoy in the kitchens, Frank Savoy in the dining room-it was one simple little bite that garnered my #1 ranking. One wonders how 4 pure ingredients can give one such pleasure- Foie Gras, Black Truffle, Buttered Brioche. This decadent little delight was served on silver skewers as we sipped vintage Rose' while awaiting the call to dinner. When I dream, I dream of that succulent nibble.

Sorry, I should have been more clear on my earlier post-I buy the regular Foster Farms chickens and they work just fine in the rotisserie. I don't buy Tyson chickens-overprocessed and they don't give good results. Foster Farms produces chickens here in Washington State. They sell a couple of types of chickens in my market-one is the basic chicken, the other is labeled as free-range/organic. The basic chicken is about a dollar per pound cheaper than the free-range/organic. Because the basic chicken gives me good results in the rotisserie, I don't spend the extra money to buy the free-range/organic bird. As far as brining, I don't go to the trouble for a chicken that I'll be cooking on the rotisserie. I'm not a fan of the brining technique in general, whether it's to add moisture OR flavor. I just want basic roasted chicken flavor and the rotisserie gives that result by what you can call "a self-basting prophecy." Hope that answers the questions better.

Sorry, the only 'thermometer' I use is my finger and the value of having roasted a lot of chickens on my rotisserie so I sense somehow when it is done-yet still juicy. I know the food safety folks want our chicken to be around 165. I don't know if my rotisserie chickens are 165 or not, but they are always done yet still juicy in both the dark and white meat. I don't let the chicken sit for very long before carving, maybe 5-10 minutes but not 20. I like the chicken to still be pretty hot when I carve it, and if I let it rest 20 minutes or more it cools down too far for my tastes. I'll sacrifice a bit of juice running out by carving it at 5 minutes after it comes off the rotisserie spit if I can have hot chicken meat. The roaster chickens I buy are usually in the 4-5 1/2 lb. range. I do try to buy Foster Farms chickens from Washington where I live. Not the organic, free-range, but not a mass-produced Tyson chicken. The Tyson chickens often have small cuts in the breast skin from over-processing. And those small slits in the skin will dry out the breast meat during roasting. I don't think you need to brine the chicken ahead of time for added flavor. The mere art of rotisserie cooking with its self-basting should be enough to produce a flavorful bird.

The drip pan is just like a small broiler pan. I rub the chicken with olive oil and then season it. As the chicken rotates, the olive oil, rub seasonings and natural chicken juice and fat, continually baste the bird. I find the trick to getting a deep-golden bird is to roast it for about 1 1/2 hours. The instructions on the unit will tell you to roast a chicken for about an hour. Unfortunately, I find that will result in a chicken with pale skin. So going a bit longer gives a golden, crisp skin and yet the meat is still moist. It's that self-basting that makes the meat so moist. I get plenty of juice, and browned bits, dripping into the drip pan. But to make the chicken jus, or gravy, I'll add a bit of additional chicken stock to the pan drippings, maybe boil that down to concentrate the flavor, then strain it. That's the sauce you see in the photo. Thanks.

My Tarte Tatin is a combination of my own pastry recipe combined with a recipe for the apples out of the Saveur Cooks Authentic French Cookbook. You cook the apples down on day one, let the apple cool overnight which brings the apple and caramel together, then you layer on the pastry and do the final baking on day two. Apples 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces 10-12 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut in half 1 ½ cups granulated sugar Pastry 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour 1/3 cup cake flour 1 tbsp. superfine granulated sugar ½ tsp. salt 1 stick unsalted butter, chilled, cut into pieces ½ cup Crisco shortening, chilled, cut into pieces ½ cup ice water Heat oven to 400°. Heat a 10-12" round and 2-3" deep heavy ovenproof non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add butter to skillet and melt. Add sugar to skillet and stir with butter until sugar is melted. Remove from heat and arrange apples side by side in skillet. Place skillet in oven and let cook for 1 hour or until apples are soft and puffy. Remove skillet from oven and let cool to room temperature. Cover skillet with foil and refrigerate overnight. This lets the apples cool down into the caramelized sugar. To make the pastry, combine flour, cake flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and stir to mix. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter and Crisco into small pea size bits. Mix in enough ice water with a fork until the pastry comes together. Form pastry into a ball and cover completely with plastic wrap. Refrigerate pastry for at least one hour before using. To complete the Tarte Tatin, heat oven to 350°. Take the the skillet and the pastry from the refrigerator. Roll out the pastry to 1/8" thickness. Gently place the pastry over the apples in the skillet. Trim edge of pastry so that about ½" overhangs skillet. Press in edges of pastry to inside of skillet. Bake skillet in oven just until pastry is golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. To unmold the Tarte Tatin, place a plate over the top of skillet and carefully turn over the skillet. The Tarte Tatin should easily invert onto the plate. Cut into wedges and serve warm with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream.

I love gooseberries-a fruit that isn't used enough. Can you give details on the recipe?

An experiment that seemed to work out pretty good-Large shrimp that I marinated in Smith and Wollensky steak sauce. I had chilled the leftover roasted squash risotto from dinner the other night, cut it in rounds, then sauteed it in olive oil for a 'risotto cake.' The base is just spinach sauteed in olive oil and then a slug of apple cider vinegar.

Hopefully these photos will convince you to buy the Ron Popeil 'Set it and Forget it' Rotisserie. It is quite simply a fantastic contraption. It will give you incredibly juicy, tender chicken. I also use it for game hens, pork ribs and prime rib. It is well worth the price. It's a bit odd to think that the man who sold spray-on hair in a can could also invent such a wonderful piece of cookery equipment-but it works great. The second photo is the chicken plated with swiss chard with bacon, mashed potatoes and chicken jus.

Tonight I started with a Salmon Bisque. I used a recipe I got off the internet and not my own recipe. Didn't turn out to my liking so I decided not to post the photo. I plan on using my own recipe to make a lobster version of my shrimp bisque for the holidays. I'll post that one for you. But the main, oh man was it delicious-Roasted Squab with Huckleberry-Balsamic Glaze served with a Roasted Squash Risotto. I added a small amount of ricotta salata along with the parmesan and that extra tangy-salty bite from the ricotta really punched up the flavors. Do you ever make a dish at home and you just say "damn that is good!" As good as you might have in a restaurant? This was one for the must-have-again file.

I wasn't able to make the trip at the last minute due to some family obligations and our other dining companion-John Curtas aka The Dining Advocate and KNPR restaurant reporter, was suffering from some sort of bug he picked up while on a dining trip to Hong Kong. Alas, we were unable to be there, but we are girding up for the next trip. Great photos and reviews and when we do meet in Las Vegas, I'll definately be going to the places we had planned on.

From what I see in the pictures it looks like you have 'Salt Pork'-basically a cut of pork brined and cured in salt yet still basically raw meat. That's basically how most bacon is cured before smoking. The cut of pork and how it's cured can determine whether it's called bacon, pancetta, prosciutto or salt pork-but in today's food world the lines between what cured pork is called can get fuzzy. I would recommend you soak the cut in some water for about 30 minutes to leech out some of the salt. Then chop it up and use it in your Fall soups and stews. You can use it raw right in the soup or saute it first so it renders some fat and gets brown and crispy. You are right in realizing that what you have isn't the same type of pork belly that we've been talking about in this thread. The pork belly I use is raw, unbrined, uncured, cut right off the hog and sold in my Asian grocery store. The fat makes it tender and juicy and gives us that beautiful crispy outer skin. Any type of curing of the pork belly would probably not give those same results. You can certainly store whatever meat you don't use right now. But I would wrap it tightly or shrink wrap it using a foodsaver type of machine/bag. I wouldn't let it go longer than a week in the refrigerator. Even though it's salted and cured, the meat can go bad-sort of like strips of bacon we leave in the fridge for a couple of weeks-starts to smell a bit off. Let us know how it goes for you.

My Mother ONLY makes creamed onions for Christmas dinner-NEVER for Thanksgiving. She says that "the Pilgrims didn't eat creamed onions" and that is why she doesn't serve them on Thanksgiving. I don't know what history book told her that Pilgrims didn't eat creamed onions, but she's made them for around 55 years for Christmas dinner. She still makes them and they are delicious and taste exactly the same every year. While I use small pearl onions when I make creamed onions, Mother only uses medium size yellow onions. I actually prefer the bigger onions because I think they have more taste than the pearl onions. She peels the onions and then boils them a short time. She makes a basic white sauce with butter, flour and whole milk. She's always seasoned the onions with salt and nutmeg and in recent years she got a bit chi-chi and started adding white pepper-not something housewives used in the 1950's. She doesn't add any cheese. She combines the onions with the white sauce and puts it in a glass bowl and bakes the onions until the sauce is hot and bubbling. The glass bowl fits in a silver outer serving bowl and when the onions are ready, they are brought to the table in that glorious serving dish.

Williams-Sonoma used to sell a dried foccacia stuffing mix with Herbes de Provence. It made the best stuffing I've ever had. Unfortunately, they no longer offer it. My guess is it was probably not real popular or they had problems with their supplier. It was privately labeled for Williams-Sonoma, so I don't have a supplier I can go direct to. I can always make my own foccacia and then cube it and dry it for stuffing-but I'd rather find a company who makes it and offers it for sale online. Any ideas?

You might try Whole Foods. I was at one in Portland just last Friday and they had a nice display of poultry all the way from Cornish Game Hens, to Poussins, Fryers, Roasters, Stewing Hens and Capons. A size of chicken for anyone.

Since Kim Chee can be very strong, and hot/spicy, I would only add a few tablespoons for each cup of rice. I would keep it a rice dish with mainly rice and only a bit of Kim Chee for added flavor and texture. You will have the rich/sweet beef on top of a base of mild rice studded with spicy, crunchy Kim Chee. You could also try a Chinese style rice. I like to add diced Chinese sausage and some reconstituted dried Chinese black mushrooms to short grain sticky rice. That would be a take on steamed Chinese sticky rice wrapped in lotus or banana leaf-and your dish would be Korean style Beef on Chinese Sticky Rice.

Its fun following your progress Dr. J.. I really enjoy watching your ideas for plating and you definitely are on the verge of creating your own style.. What is a creme fraiche cheese sauce? What kind of cheese? Also when you say vegetables cooked with brown sugar and dill? how is it cooked.. There doesnt appear to me much carmelization on the vegetables.. Also, you should get a smaller ring mold or mold for the rice.. It looks like a lot of rice and its not bringing to much color or brightness to the plate. What kind of rice is that, looks very short grain? A polenta would certainly brighten the plate up. Also for the radish and capers, though pretty, I dont think it added much a complimentary flavor to the dish.. Maybe a sauce complimenting the korean marinade or dots of a sweet potato puree around the plate would look nice. I dont mean to be critical, I feel like you are looking for a discussion on your food.. ← Dr. J. all of your photos have looked really good and it's obvious you have a love of food and cooking, which is a love we all share. And I agree with Daniel's comments about presentation and plating. We'll all be better cooks learning from each other. I always try to use a garnish that accents a flavor or ingredient in the main dish. For example, if I did a lamb dish with rosemary in the sauce or in the marinade, I'd garnish the finished lamb meat with a sprig of rosemary. I probably wouldn't just put a sprig of rosemary on a lamb chop for color if I didn't use rosemary somewhere else in the dish. Following on my idea of using garnishes within your dish of Korean style steak (which by the way looks delicious with that nice dark outer crust and perfectly cooked interior), if you didn't use capers in the dish, I would leave them out of the garnish. However, radishes are certainly appropriate as a garnish because they would give that dish a crisp, clean, peppery flavor accent. You might want to take the radishes a step further and try pickling them with some Rice Wine Vinegar and a bit of ginger-sort of like making your own pickled red onions. That would give an Asian flavor to the radishes and act as a cool counterpart to the rich beef which probably has a sweet note in the glaze on the beef. An idea on your bed of rice would be to add some Korean style vegetables (maybe some kimchi), which would give the rice a bit of color and certainly some more flavor. I agree with Daniel that a ring mold is very helpful when creating a base on the plate. Keep your photos coming.

That is a beautiful salad! ← Thanks, it is really easy to make. I left the skin on the pear, took out the core and then sliced it on a mandoline. You don't need to poach quail eggs-regular chicken eggs are fine. I just saw the quail eggs and thought they'd be fun to use for presentation. I poached them about 2 minutes. I think the thing that took the longest was simply frying the bacon and then cutting it up. Easy salad but great taste. Thanks.

Tonight was a Northwest menu with French accents. To start, a classic French bistro dish: Frisee Salad. I added some daikon sprouts to the salad and dressed it with an apple cider vinaigrette. I added applewood smoked bacon and these cute little quail eggs I found in the Asian market. I poached the quail eggs just for a few minutes so the yolks would still be soft and ooze into the salad. I normally make this type of salad with bleu cheese, but the cheesemonger at Whole Foods recommended I try some ricotta salata. She was spot on-the ricotta was salty and tangy, yet milder than a bleu cheese so it didn't overpower the other flavors in the salad. I sliced some Bosc pear for a sweet and crisp note to the salad. The main dish was a roasted rack of pork with a rub made from juniper berries, black pepper, sage, thyme and garlic. I'm partial to juniper, not only because I like gin but because our family ranch in Central Oregon had a number of juniper trees. The scent of juniper is something you never forget, and I think a perfect accent to pork. I served the pork with roasted fingerling potatoes, broccoli rabe and these huge, fresh chanterelles from Oregon. The sauce was a bit over the top-mustard cream-but the mustard was a nice tangy counter balance to the other rich flavors. Had a nice 2005 Oregon Pinot Noir from Maysara Vineyards of McMinnville, Oregon. Enjoy.

Marlene-I just turned 50. I should have hired you to fly out West to prepare this EXACT meal for my birthday dinner. Wonderful.

This is my favorite photo of the year on eGullet. A child, a smile and the joy of cooking. How wonderful. I am sure you are a very proud parent. Thanks for posting.

What a wonderful topic and so appropriate to this time of year-Fruitcake! Aside from my Mother and Father and long gone Grandparents and Great Aunt Bertie, I'm alone among other family members and friends in terms of my love for fruitcake. I guess I knew I would find comfort in knowing other eGullet friends would share my passion for fruitcake and I wouldn't hide my fruitcake addiction from the outside world. I prefer the traditional, dark-style fruitcake. I use a recipe that was used for many years by the chefs aboard the Great Northern passenger trains. Here is a link to a piece I wrote for fun a few years back about my love of fruitcake, the tradition of fruitcake on the Great Northern and the special memories that fruitcake holds for my family. There is a link at the bottom of the page to click that will take you to a page with the Great Northern Railroad's famous fruitcake recipe: Great Northern Recipe I'm going to show you some photos of the fruitcake I'll be enjoying this year. But I won't start with photos showing you how I mix the batter and bake the fruitcake-I'm going to show the photos in 'reverse' order. In other words, we'll start with what the fruitcake looks like when it is ready to serve, and work backwards by showing the prep photos in coming days when I make a new fruitcake that will be ready for Christmas 2010. Why show the finished product first? Well, I'm a traditionalist and when that comes to fruitcake that means you bake your cake years in advance of serving it. You let it sit, or 'stew' as Aunt Bertie would say, wrapped in layers of cheesecloth and placed in a airtight container stored in a deep, dark, cool recess of the pantry. Every few months you douse the fruitcake with a good slog of booze. And that is my key to memorable fruitcake-letting the cake age and steep in liquor for at least a couple of years before cutting it into thick slices. In fact, Aunt Bertie was said to serve fruitcakes that were often 10 years old. Now don't wince at the thought of eating cake that is older than your toddler. My opinion is anything soaked in more booze than goes in the party punch bowl won't spoil. Mold just doesn't grow on my fruitcake-not when it's liquored up with a bottle of brandy and a few slugs of Kirsch or Grand Marnier. I hope you enjoy the fruitcake story and these photos. I am sure it doesn't look appetizing to a fruitcake hater. But I am sure that fruitcake afficianados will enjoy the photos: