David Ross

This is my recipe and I don't ever vary from it, no egg. I personally don't like the gumminess that I get with adding egg. I've tried substituting lard for the Crisco but I didn't like the heavier texture and flavor of lard so I stick to Crisco. I never mix my pie crust by machine. Like others have said-it's a matter of technique-trying to get the right 'cut' if you will. In other words, you want the right size of clumps of fat (about the size of baby peas/butter and Crisco) so that the fat will melt into the flour during baking. I cut the butter and Crisco into the flour using a pastry cutter that is probably over 100 years old. I want to be able to control the texture of the dough and I found that a food processor or a mixer doesn't give me as much control. I find that making pie crust dough in a food processor cuts the pieces of butter into basically grains of sand and that leaves me with a crust that falls apart after baking. After I cut the butter and Crisco into the flour I add only enough ice water to form a ball of dough. So the 1/3 cup is only a basic guide, sometimes I use more ice water sometimes less. I wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and let it set in the refrigerator four about an hour. Then I roll it out or shape it into tart shells by hand. I try not to add too much flour when I roll the dough out because I don't want to change the texture of the finished pie crust by adding too much flour. Here is a recent photo of the pie crust-tender, crisp yet light and flaky with a rich, buttery flavor. I added toasted hazelnuts to the dough. The filling is smoked cheddar pastry cream and poached apricots. Pastry Crust (makes two 9" shells) 2 cups all-purpose flour ½ cup cake flour 1 tbsp. superfine granulated sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 stick unsalted butter, chilled ½ cup Crisco shortening, chilled 1/3 cup ice water

I hope someday you all have the rare experience of eating a fresh-baked huckleberry pie. The aroma and the taste of that first slice of pie will forever be stored in your food memory bank-only to come back to conciousness each year when you tuck into another slice of huckleberry pie. You know, I've been thinking about those darn grizzly bears. We sure can take their lead-they love fresh salmon, especially the roe, and they can't get enough fresh huckleberries. Follow the bears. They know a good thing when they eat it. (Hopefully not human berry pickers).

A wonderful comparison to be sure-Old MTV vs. New MTV. And Old Food Network-with shows about cooking, vs. New Food Network. I almost gagged last night when the 'new and entertainment maniacal' Food Network did a 'live' show from the South Beach Food and Wine Expo and I saw Giada and company. Poor gal couldn't boil water for her pasta. Maybe she'll have better luck bantering with Matt, Meridith and Al. And back to that 'Old' MTV-most kids watching 'TRL' today on MTV probably have never seen one of those classic music videos introduced by Nina Blackwood. Rock on.

Sorry, no buffet at The Venetian. When Sheldon Adelson built The Venetian is was reported that he said he'd never put a buffet in the building. Why I don't know-buffets are very popular and draw throngs into the casinos. Adelson is apparently a control freak and was very involved in the design and decor of The Venetian so maybe he felt a buffet would water down the Venetian theme. Whatever, it probably wouldn't have made a difference to the customers-they'd probably eat up an Italian themed buffet. Right now I would rank Wynn number one and Bellagio number two for gourmet-high end buffets and Bally's Sterling Brunch on Sundays as the 'over-the-top' buffet experience. I think the Sterling Brunch is in the $75 range right now and the lobster, champagne, rack of lamb and prime beef are what put it in the Las Vegas showgirl-gaudy-gilt range. There are lots of comments on Las Vegas buffets at egullet so start searching and reading for others opinions. But if I was truly a player at the tables, I'd put my bet on the buffet at Wynn.

I've mentioned in some of the other recent Las Vegas dining posts that my friend, John Curtas, is not a big fan of the new David Burke at The Venetian. I'd count John as probably the top critic on the Las Vegas dining scene. He's got the insight that only a resident critic can put on his resume. I find it refreshing to hear the voice of a local in addition to the posts from my fellow egullet writers who travel to Las Vegas to dine. John has years of experience writing and commenting on restaurants and he does a regular segment on KNPR radio about the Las Vegas dining scene. You can hear Podcasts of his "Food for Thought," show by going to the KNPR website. I haven't been to David Burke myself, so I'm not qualified to give you my opinion about dining with David in The Venetian, but knowing John is an accomplished critic, I think you will find his current piece about his dinners at David Burke informative-especially those of you planning trips to Las Vegas. You can find John's piece on the John Mariani site-just click over to the current Virtual Gourmet Newsletter. John's piece is the first one and he comments about David Burke, B & B Ristorante and Rao's.

The dove looks and sounds delicious. Would your recipes work as well with quail?

You can easily smoke the tomatoes using your gas grill. Just put some wood chips in a foil packet and place it over the hot part of the grill. Put the tomatoes on a cool part of the gas grill. Shut the grill and the heat will start to cook the tomatoes and the chips will start to smoke. It's basically the same method I use on my charcoal grill. I put the whole tomatoes in one of those disposable aluminum pans and drizzle them with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. I smoked them in my Weber kettle grill with a charcoal fire for about 20 minutes. I soaked some alder chips in water and added them on top of the charcoal and put on the top of the grill. I smoked about 8 large tomatoes. The skin of the tomato had started to crack so they were easy to peel. Then I cored the center and removed any seeds. I put the tomatoes in a food processor and added a bit of olive oil, chopped fresh basil, salt and pepper. On occasion I put the pureed tomatoes into a saucepan over medium heat and add a bit of tomato paste. This helps to reduce the tomato soup and thicken it up. Then I strain out the solids and chill the soup in the refrigerator. You end up with this intensely flavored cold tomato broth. For the cucumber salad I started with your basic cucumber that I peeled and seeded. I use a Japanese slicer to cut the cucumber into strands that sort of look like cucumber spaghetti. I add some dill, salt, pepper and a bit of rice vinegar to the cucumber strands. It adds a nice crunch and another flavor to the tomato soup. I learned the method of butter-poaching prawns out of Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook. I use this method a lot. It is a wonderful technique of cooking prawns, lobster or scallops. The prawns in this dish were tender, juicy and had a delicious silky coating of butter. I've often heard a story about the reason this butter-poaching works so well is because seafood lives in water-aka a liquid-and as such, it should be cooked in some sort of liquid-like butter and water-to keep it moist. I combined about two tablespoons of water and a stick of butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. The water keeps the butter from browning. You let the butter melt into the water and add raw prawns. Then you gently swirl the prawns around the saucepan, basting them with the butter/water bath. I used extra large prawns in the 8-10 per pound category. The prawns were done after about 4 minutes. This is a really great late Summer dish because it uses the last of the Summer's tomatoes. In our area of Eastern Washington, September tomatoes are the best because they are so sweet and tender. It's a refreshing and light dish, even with the added richness of the butter-poached prawns. Let me know how it turns out for you.

I might have good news for you and there is a glimmer of hope left for you to enjoy a huckleberry pie in New York City. I was at White Box Pies in Spokane this morning. I bought a fresh huckleberry pie for $20.95-the usual price we pay here for huckleberry pie each year. I told the baker that I had been corresponding with some folks in New York who were wondering about huckleberry pie. She said they ship them all the time! I forgot to ask her if they are shipped fresh or frozen. She said as long as there are pies they will ship them, but she is worried that she will sell out of huckleberry pies early this year because of the small crop. The huckleberry crop this year wasn't good in terms of the size of the crop-but the flavor is just as good as always-tart, yet sweet and with that unmistakeable perfume of wild huckleberries. The shop is closed Sunday and Labor Day on Monday. If you are still interested in a huckleberry pie, you should call them at 509-927-8850 on Tuesday morning. Here are some photos for everyone of the pie I bought today. Next week I'll post photos of my own huckleberry pie in the dessert forum.

I bought a case of the most beautiful peaches yesterday. The peaches are from an orchard in the Yakima Valley-it is in the central part of Washington on the East side of the Cascade mountains. I'm not sure the exact variety but I really don't care-they are huge, tender and juicy. I bought them at my local produce stand. This year I canned the peaches using a 'Spiced Peaches' recipe out of an old Betty Crocker cookbook. I've used this recipe before and it's really good. If you are a fan of home canning, the old cookbooks have tons of wonderful recipes. The peaches are really good in the winter with pork chops and also really good for breakfast or in peach desserts. I'm not a great canner in terms of packing the fruit in the jars. I sure won't win any ribbons at the State Fair for presentation, but the taste is really good.

In Eastern Washington, this is the best time of year for produce at our farmer's markets-we still have days in the 85-90 range, but it is cooling down a lot at night. So our produce is still ripening and getting sweet during the day and then starting to slow down the growth cycle at night. I always say September is our best month for summer vegetables and fruits. I made a Smoked Tomato Soup last night with some huge, fresh tomatoes from over in the Yakima Valley. I smoke whole tomatoes in the barbecue and then skin, seed and puree them. I add a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and some chopped basil. Then strain so that all is left is smoked tomato juice. I served the soup chilled with a salad of cucumber that is tossed with dill and rice vinegar. I served the cold soup with some butter-poached prawns. Then a New York strip, Shoestring Fries and very sweet yellow corn from the produce stand. I don't like that funky 'bi-color' corn-I think the yellow corn we get is the sweetest and has the most pure corn flavor. Lots of butter on the corn.

To my original point-which was to ask the question as to whether or not Giada's appearance on The Today Show minimalizes her impact as a cook on Food Network-in my opinion, the answer is yes. And while I realize that the Food Network is as much about commercialism, entertainment schtick and marketing as it is about food and cooking, I think that the more the talent is promoted into mainstream media like The Today Show, the more that it dilutes Giada's impact as a cook on Food Network. That's just my opinion and I'm not saying it's a shared opinion or a fact. Do I care? Yes and no. In the grand scheme of the American food and restaurant scene today, Giada appearing on The Today Show probably doesn't make a hill of frozen lima beans of difference as to the way America will eat in the next 20 years. I think a discussion thread on eGullet about finding Huckleberries in New York City that I have been a part of for the past week is far more interesting that what low-cut dress Ms. Delaurentis wore on this mornings Today Show. That's just to give you a perspective on my true interests in the world of food and cooking. If Giada is successful and the Today Show hires her as one of the hosts of the expanded show this Fall, then hot tomatoes for her. On the other hand, I do care, but not a lot,about a Food Network personality moving into the mainstream bowels of network television. There is a part of me that doesn't like it. I care because for once, just once, I'd like to see a cook on Food Network be true to the serious side of food and cooking and leave it at that. Just a simple show ala Rick Stein's Food Heroes on BBC America. That's all. A simple show and a simple cook who doesn't care about 'standing out on The Today Show plaza' greeting the fans of Chris Brown, the latest hip-hop boy toy. Is it wishful thinking on my part? Yeah, probably, but I suppose it's o.k. to wish isn't it?

There should be fresh huckleberries available in late September, even with this Summer's smaller crop. If you don't find fresh berries-there should be bags of frozen berries from this year's crop available. Here are some sources to try-just do a Mapquest search for directions: -Kootenai County Farmer's Market in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, on Saturdays. It is only about 5 minutes off the I-90 freeway. -Spokane Farmer's Market in downtonw. Right off the I-90 freeway. -Green Bluff grower's market and store. They also sell fresh and frozen peach pies and have fresh peach ice cream. -Small produce stand at the corner of Argonne and Sprague in the Spokane Valley, only a few minutes off the I-90 freeway. -Yoke's supermarkets sells frozen huckleberry pies from the Green Bluff grower's/farmer's market. They are about $19 a pie. They are in the frozen case by the frozen desserts.

6 of my girlfriends and I just ate at Davidburke earlier this month and LOVED it! I had eaten at davidburke & Donatella in nyc which is why we decided to check it out. From the decor to the excellently priced wine menu, flawless service (even making us the signature nyc dish that was not on the menu, of ostrich scrambled eggs with lobster served back in the huge egg shell with creme fraiche and caviar). Since we were a large group we decided to order5 starters, 3 salads and 4 entress plus the cheesecake lolipop tree for dessert. add 1 bottle of white burgandy and 2 bottles of very nice CdP and we each paid $145 including tax and tip. I would absolutely go back, I can't imagine why your friend would be so turned off about it. ← Thanks, a first person restaurant review is the best kind of review. Once I hear John's comments on Burke I'll let everyone know what he thought.

I didn't get specifics from John Curtas as to why he didn't like David Burke at The Venetian. John's got a piece that he's written about Burke that should be appearing on John Mariani's site soon-with a pointed review of Burke's place in Las Vegas. I do know that they have made some changes in the kitchen staff and the place is only a few months old so that isn't a good sign. There are plenty of other good dining rooms in Las Vegas so maybe let the dust settle and then give Burke a try next year-if they get the bugs worked out. When I find out more I'll let everyone know.

The Alladin Hotel is now a Planet Hollywood Hotel. However, I think they did retain the 'Spice Market Buffet' from Planet Hollywood. I can't attest to the buffet as I haven't been there for about three years. At that time it was good, not great, and cheaper than Paris and Bellagio. While many of the food selections-i.e., chilled shrimp, prime rib-may be the same at the buffets, each has its own character, style and differences in food. Right now my top buffet choices are Wynn, Buffet at Bellagio, Cravings at The Mirage and Dishes at Treasure Island. Cravings is not as expensive as Wynn or Bellagio. And a small detail I love at Cravings-the big glasses that they use for ice water, with a twist of lemon. It's pretty hard to top a big glass of ice water in Las Vegas. The set up of Cravings is a bit difficult at the salad station as you have to ask the cook to prepare your salad for you-they don't have a lot of pre-made salads that you can just choose from without dealing with a cook. On three recent visits in the past year, I found some of the stations were not even open-and that was at the height of the dinner hour. It's dissappointing to go to say the Asian station looking for some potstickers only to find the station either closed down or only offering sushi. Dishes is a fairly new buffet-I think Treasure Island opened it about a year ago. Treasure Island by the way is now referred to as "TI." It is no longer the theme of a family-oriented pirate cove. They still have the pirate theme, but think of the outdoor pirate battle now being called "The Sirens of TI" and you get the idea. Dishes buffet is styled to be enticing to the younger, hipper crowd that TI is targeting as their core customers. It is very good for breakfast. Cheaper than Wynn or Bellagio and those tiny little donuts are marvelous. The cook will dip it in chocolate and add some sprinkles for you. Very decadent. Between the high-end buffets at Wynn or Bellagio I prefer Wynn for the quality of the food but Bellagio for the larger selection. Bellagio has very good fresh seafood, salads and often serves wild game meats like venison or elk. Recently I've enjoyed their fresh sardine salad and Korean kimchi salad with octopus. Quite unique for Las Vegas buffets. The setting at Wynn in the garden room area of the buffet is beautiful. That's the main dining hall as you enter the buffet. The buffet line and food areas are a bit cramped but the quality of the food is really good. While it may sound odd for a high-end buffet, their fried chicken is the best I've found at a buffet. And their dessert station is the best in my opinion-tiny little bowls of floating island with caramel sauce-an old-fashioned dessert that you can't ever find at a restaurant. And their cupcakes with mounds of pink frosting!

Boy, I am jealous, I would eat too well if I spent a month in Las Vegas. A tip would be to call Wing Lei ahead of time. Tell them you will be there on Friday and give them your name and reservation time. Mention that you would like the 'seasonal' tasting menu if they are offering it. The seasonal tasting menu would be more unique than say the Peking Duck tasting menu. I contacted the restaurant prior to my dinner in May and requested a seasonal tasting menu and they were more than happy to oblige. I was served a menu not printed and offered to other diners. Fleur de Lys is a different dining experience than L'Atelier. Fleur de Lys would be more formal in terms on sit-down tableside service. What is fun about L'Atelier is sitting at the counter and watching the chefs create your dishes. So choose between the two based on what kind of experience you are looking for. The cooking at both is good, but at L'Atelier you'll get many more small courses for the money. I'd try Bouchon but only for breakfast. It is a beautiful setting to have breakfast with fresh pastries out on the patio. Check out some of the different threads about the restaurants in Las Vegas, there are lots of great comments from your fellow egullet foodies. I'm not too good with the local restaurants but there are plenty of others who can chime in on that. Have a great time, (when you aren't working). You are going to a great, great, restaurant city.

I'd call myself a huckleberry expert, and there is no substitute for them. They only grow wild and have never been harvested successfully on a commercial basis. The plants have to be in a high-mountain environment to thrive, and it wouldn't be practical for a commercial venture. I doubt the US Forest Service or the Weyerhauser Forest Products Company would like to see a bunch of huckleberry farmers wandering through the woods. And another problem with a commercial venture is that huckleberries can only be picked by hand, one at a time. The commercial 'scoopers'-those small shovels used for raking berry plants like blueberries, are really not recommended for huckleberries. It probably wouldn't be economical for a commerical huckleberry operation. Our berries are selling for around $45 per gallon bag this year. That's a nice source of extra cash for the folks who sell hand-picked berries at the markets, but imagine the mark-ups that would have to be put in that $45 per gallon cost by a commercial operation. By the time that gallon bag got to market it would probably be double the cost. Our local paper ran a story last Sunday asking huckleberry pickers to not use raking devices because they strip the branches and bushes of the plants which can inhibit next year's growth of huckleberries. However, if we pick huckleberries by hand and take care not to tramp down the bushes and the forest, the plants do just fine. Many families in the Northwest have gone to the same 'secret' spot in the mountains to pick huckleberries for years. So I don't agree with the guy from Oregon who once said it was 'immoral' or illegal to pick wild huckleberries because it could lead to their depletion. That's not really accurate. If huckleberries are picked by hand and the plants are respected, they'll grow back every year. And try telling an 1,000lb. grizzly bear that it is immoral to pick huckleberries. You'll be the entree after their dessert of huckleberries. I'm lucky to live in Spokane because right now there are probably 7 or 8 farmer's market stands that are selling huckleberries and even one grocery store that has fresh huckleberries. There are both frozen and fresh huckleberry pies at a few stores in our area. But as a huckleberry purist I avoid the jams, jellies, candies and huckleberry cordials this time of year. This time of year we only use them in fresh pies and freeze the rest to use throughout the year. So if you have about a week or so and don't mind the price of gasoline for your car, you might just have to head West out of New York city and get on I-90 to Spokane and head to the farmer's market or a local produce stand. Now that would be one expensive bag of huckleberries!

I wish I wasn't a few thousand miles away or else I would drive a huckleberry pie over to you. I'm not sure if your restaurants in New York will serve many fresh huckleberries this year. I know that we, the Northwest, sell a lot of our huckleberries to the Northeast restaurant trade and our supply this Summer is going to be lower than last year. We had a very hot early June and a scorching July. That didn't bode well for our huckleberry crop. They grow at high mountain altitudes and they prefer a warm daytime temperature but cool nights. The hot summer basically scalded the berries. Our local newspaper even reported that the bears are a bit crabby right now because they aren't finding their normal diet of huckleberries and are causing some extra problems for campers. We always compete with the bears when picking huckleberries but this year it seems the struggle is more intense. Last year I bought a gallon bag of fresh huckleberries for $35. This year the cheapest price I have found is $49.95. Such is the cycle of supply and demand. If you can't find a huckleberry pie in New York, give these folks a call in Spokane, Washington: White Box Pies, 509-927-8850, 520 S Pines Rd # 4, Spokane Valley, WA 99206. I don't know for sure, but they may ship frozen huckleberry pies. They are serving fresh huckleberry pies right now and they are usually in the $20-$25 range for a whole pie. Good luck.

Thanks. The original idea was going to be to stuff the braised beef into little ravioli pockets. Well that idea didn't go far. I sure wasn't going to stuff a couple hundred ravioli on a hot Saturday afternoon. The braised beef on top of the pasta turned out just fine.

Last night was a beef and mushroom ragu over pappardelle. I had a chuck roast in the freezer that I was aching to cook, and although it's still hot outside, I was getting edgy for some cold-weather comfort food. I braised the beef in red wine for about 12 hours at 250 in the oven. I added some brown crimini mushrooms for the last hour of braising. I had this little Mom and Pop Italian grocery store on my list of stores to check out and I'm glad I finally went there. They had tons of different imported pastas and I bought this thick pappardelle. Not exactly a hot August nights type dinner but it sure was good.

This is a good site for checking out Las Vegas menus. Most of the menus include prices to give you a general idea of what the cost might be. http://www.menusearch.net/lasvegas/

When I was in Las Vegas in May I went to a seminar about the dining scene in Las Vegas that was hosted by Barbara Fairchild, Editor of Bon Apetit, and on the panel were Alan Richman, Max Jacobsen who writes for Las Vegas Life magazine and John Curtas. Both John and Max bemoaned the fact that as residents of Las Vegas, they wish for the day when there are more local, neighborhood restaurants. There are some, but not a lot, which is very unique to a city with a couple of million residents. Ling-if you are renting a car, you may want to drive over to the Chinatown area. It is to the west of the strip, only about a 10 minute drive from the Wynn/Treasure Island/Venetian area. There are some good Chinese restaurants that have reasonable prices. Personally, I don't go to Las Vegas to seek out local type restaurants. I go there because it's a playground of fine dining all within a few short miles on the strip. Like BryanZ mentioned earlier, I'd save my money and do it right by going to some of the better restaurants in the large strip resort hotels. I can't think of anyplace else where you'll find so many great dining choices in such a compact piece of real estate.

David, you know John Curtas?? I never met him ... yet. ← John is a great guy, very friendly and probably the top restaurant critic in Las Vegas. An attorney by trade, he does a regular show called "Food for Thought," on KNPR, the local public radio station. You can catch podcasts of his shows on their website. John also does a lot of food writing. By the way Ling, I'd advise against going to David Burke's new place at The Venetian. John did not give it very good marks in a recent column. In fact, he basically told his readers and listeners to shy away from the place.

Oops, I meant to say 'Stack' restaurant at The Mirage not Mix, the Ducasse temple at Mandalay Bay. Both Fix at Bellagio and Stack at The Mirage are trendy hip dining spots that attract a younger crowd. The food is good, even though some of the presentations can be a bit overly done. Casual, loud, fun and in the not too expensive range.

BryanZ is right when he mentions that there aren't a lot of fine dining options in Las Vegas in the price 'B' category. Unfortunately, if you want a good dining experience these days you'll pay for it, especially in any of the fine dining restaurants in the big strip resorts. I would avoid Olives-even with reservations you still have to wait sometimes for your table. I find the staff overly impressed with themselves and the fact that they are working in a restaurant owned by a celebrity chef. I don't think the food is better than average. If you don't mind the trendy, young Hollywood crowd, Fix at Bellagio and Mix at The Mirage, both owned by the same company, offer good American fare. It is not as expensive as the finer dining spots at Bellagio, but it's not cheap. There burger sliders, prime steaks and seafood appetizers are pretty good, and the cocktails are really popular. Bradley Ogden can reach very close into the price range of L'Atelier and nearly into the reaches of Guy Savoy and Robuchon. But it is probably the top restaurant in town for New American style cuisine. I know that Boulud Brasserie at Wynn recently lost their head chef. I haven't checked with my friend, John Curtas the dining guru of KNPR in Las Vegas, but I know that Bould was closed earlier this summer for remodeling and I believe a bit of retooling before welcoming the new chef. I am sure if Boulud hired the chef they are talented, just something to consider. You may want to try The Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay. It doesn't sound to fancy, and it certainly isn't in terms of the decor or the scope of the menu. But if you are in the mood for a Kobe burger with a slab of foie gras on it, or a burger of grass-fed beef with a nice cheese on it, you can't miss. Don't forget the 'Two Hot Tamales' of the early days of Food Network programming, Mary Sue Miliken and Susan Feniger. Their Border Grill at Mandalay Bay is really great. Not too expensive authentic Mexican. And even at dinner, sitting on the outside patio is quite nice. For a nice dim sum lunch or casual Chinese dinner, try 'Noodles' at Bellagio. It's stuck back in a corner but is very good and not too expensive, certainly not nearly as expensive as the fine dining Chinese restaurants in town. I prefer the pastries at Lenotre in Paris Las Vegas over Jean-Phillipe Patisserie at Bellagio. The other pastry shop at Paris is also quite good. I always stop by one of these three pastry shops to take a treat back to the room for a very late night sweet snack. There are just so many different options, take some time to search the web for menus and prices before making your decisions on where to go. You can't go wrong with these wonderful opinions at eGullet about Las Vegas dining. Have a wonderful time and let us know if you have more questions.