Shaya

Very pretty presentation, Trufflelover. Wendy, I've been envisioning presenting some latkes that way. I even have some duck fat that I brought back from Montreal. Do you recommend it for these? I found some beautiful Thai basil today, so of course I had to make Thai curry. Thai Red Curry with Chicken, Eggplant and Peppers - very hot and tasty Sauteed Bok Choy with Ginger, Garlic, Lime and Fish Sauce Stirfried Udon Noodles with Chicken - for the little guy

Welcome to the Dinner! thread, Insomniac. I really love the meal you made for your husband. It's looks so rich in textures and flavors. You even got gorgeous color on your peanuts in the som tam. It looks like you have a seafood red curry and chicken green curry, am I right? And can you describe the Haw mok pla a bit more? Really great, hope to see some more of these meals from you (but no pressure or anything ).

Thanks for showing us that chicken. The timing was fortuitous. My sister called last night around dinner time (as she often does) and asked if I had any ideas of what she could do with lemongrass. Within minutes she had the instructions for your chicken dish and she later told me it was a big success!

Hiroyuki you have just made me very hungry for tempura. You have done some great work on this thread. Your food and explanations are just wonderful. Tempura can be tricky - from the batter to the frying, there is room for trouble. We used to make it with our friends years ago, and I recall the trickiest part was not allowing the batter to turn golden - this goes against the goal of all other deep-frying we do. But it's worth it in the end. My kids really enjoy it when we go out for Japanese food. My little guy loves the sweet potato and my older guy loves shrimp. I would like to make a meal of it - what do you suggest I serve with it to round out the meal? A question regarding the shrimp - do you make the cuts on the inside of the curve, and do you make them in the direction of the head?

Mark, as the daughter of a wonderful Jewish father who would be 87 if he were still here (we lost him 4 years ago) I have to say you are really close. My Dad was always first one up on weekends, always making omelette surprise, with lemon zest, stinky old bits of cheese, tomatoes and parsley. He also went through a big salami phase, where he'd buy it and leave it out on trays to dry it out - for him the drier the meat the better. But Salami and eggs together? No. I wonder if this is more of an Ashkenazi dish rather than Sephardic?

Happy Birthday to you...I love to see people celebrating their own special occasions in a big way, and this is some great cooking. I have very little experience with gelees, and I notice they played a large role in this dinner - is this a new kick for you?

What a great blog this is, Bruce. I love the photos of your boys cooking, and the step-by-step of you at the stove is just perfect. Great looking crab cakes, too. I look forward to seeing you make crabs - I wonder, will you add an Asian twist to them? I have lots of family in the area (Olney and Mannassas, VA) but I don't ever remember eating as well as you and your family.

Oh my goodness, Chufi, those look amazing!

Nishla, I love that dinner. It looks so clean and fresh but also hearty for a starch-lover like me. Hathor your chard-potato dish sounds great. I don't remember seeing Franci's version - I must look it up. Last night was my friend's last night here. It's always hard to say goodbye, so we decided to end her trip with another great meal. Started off by securing the cutest piece of yellowfin tuna by calling up my fish guy and having him hold it for us. When we got to the store we didn't see any other great-looking seafood so we decided to make one of my friend's specialties, a sort of sukiyaki-meets-shabu shabu. Into a flavored beef broth we dunked shiitakes, yam noodles (shirataki), scallion, bok choy, sweet potato, daikon, carrot and enoki mushrooms. Oh, and of course paper-thin slices of beef. What a face on this guy... He came out of the bag looking like this, honest! Tuna Served Two Ways, acording to personal preference; I had mine raw: Salad of Frisee with Sesame Crusted Ahi, Citrus-Ginger Dressing Salad of Frisee with Sashimi, Citrus-Ginger Dressing Fondue Dunking Sauces: Sesame-Peanut and Soya-Vinegar

I made my homemade ravioli yesterday. These are filled with some beautiful baby spinach, two types or ricotta (hard/sheep's and soft/cow's) and parmigiano reggiano. We also had sauteed Italian sausage with sauteed escarole. With some black and white banana bread from Dorie Greenspan's great new baking book.

I have so admired the baking that has been going on in this thread. I am not much of a baker at all, but I have been reading this book and I must say I just love it. This week I made some breakfast scones which have made my mornings (literally) and the chocolate banana bread. It was a big hit. I wonder what to try next...

Megan your risotto looks delicious. I love all the renditions of Bruce's Szechuan chicken. It's on my list too! Chufi that is a gorgeous Asian meal, the rolls and the soup look so tasty and beautifully photographed. We've been in an Asian mode here too. My best friend surprised me with a visit this week. I had the components ready for several dim sum items, so we made an evening of it. Homemade Char Siu Bao Sauteed Greens Shrimp-Stuffed Eggplant Sandwiches Chinese Braised Duck, Shredded, Served with its Braising Liquid and Homemade Mandarin Pancakes Homemade Shrimp Dumplings being snatched up by Buzz Lightyear and Mr. Incredible Banana Beignets with Chocolate Surprise- these are from Giorgio Locatelli's new book - awesome!

Dan, thanks so much for bringing this book to our attention. I've been savoring it over the past week, it's a great read. Sometimes I detect a bit of a biased attitude or snobbism which I find mildly disturbing; however, it reminds me of how I must sound to some of my non-food-obsessed friends when I make emphatic statements regarding ingredients or technique. This week I made the Chocolate and Banana Beignets, they were awesome.

The motor on my Artisan mixer burnt out the 2nd time I used it when I was mixing dough. It cannot take anything too heavy, and needs to be used on lower speeds if the dough is a bit dense.

That looks absolutely amazing.

judiu, you have a keen eye; actually ours was supposed to have a pile of minced parsley on top, but otherwise it's just a matter of presentation. Klary, yes, I just wilted half of the leaves and left the others raw. I couldn't decide on one way or the other so I decided to mix. Bruce, that chicken does look amazing, it's now on my short list.

Oh, Nishla, wish I could have been with you for that amazing seafood feast. It is so rare that we see such fresh seafood ready to be eaten.

Ann, I forgot to mention that your lobster dinners look fantastic. I love grilled lobster. And Hathor, your butter-poached lobster looks amazing. We had lobster prepared that way at the French Laundry, and even though my husband is 7th generation Nova Scotian, even he agreed he had never TRULY had lobster before. Dinner tonight, well, it somehow came together thanks to yesterday's dinner. Have you ever almost been defeated by a piece of meat? Yesterday I struggled with this darn piece of beautiful milk-fed veal leg I had. I just could not figure out what I wanted to do with it. I went over a dozen ideas in my head but nothing appealed to me. By mid-day I was really starting to resent the presence of this pricey piece of meat sitting in my refrigerator. Then at 5:15pm (we eat at 6:00) my sweetie said he was coming home on time for dinner. That was all I needed to get a jump-start. I cut off some nice pieces to make some thin scallopine. Then I made a pasta with grated zucchini, anchovies, green onion, chilis and olives. Worked like a charm, everyone was happy, and my little guy ate anchovies! Then I took the extra meat bits, cut them up small and braised them slowly with some onions, wine and stock. Figured I'd find something to do it some other time. That's where tonight's dinner comes in: Salad of Warm and Cool Radicchio with Balsamic Honey Glaze, Pears and Chevre Slow Braised Veal and Beef over AnnT's Spaetzle Kiddie Version At the end of dinner I said to my husband, what a relief to have conquered that piece of meat.

Ann, gorgeous lamb, wow. Megan, I want those potatoes. You are getting me geared up to make my gratin dauphinois, I can feel it... Chufi the tortellini look amazing. I agree with regards to cracking; I roll out to the third-last setting on my kitchenaid and I've never had a problem with cracking. Domestic Goddess, I am working on writing out proportions for the sambousaks and will pm you when I've got them!

Oh, Shaya, trust me...we all look forward to your meals! I love osso bucco, when our son was little he would beg me to make 'that soft meat'. I have a question: what does the paper under the lid do? I used that technique for the first time making octopus over the holidays. I just followed the recipe, but I didn't understand why I was doing it. ← I know exactly what you mean about "soft meat". The first time my little guy asked for meat was when I made some veal involtini that were slow-braised; that night he asked for meat, and then more and more meat. I think it's really easy for them to chew and handle at a young age. I put the parchment under the lid for a few reasons: I had a lot of meat to fit, 9 pieces inside my huge le Creuset, so I wanted to keep the steam and liquid inside the pot and really as close to the meat as possible so it would be sure to cook it all. I had really browned the meat well at first, so I wasn't concerned with getting color at that point, only cooking it all well through, and this turned out to be a really efficient way to accomplish this.

If you're looking for teas from Marriage Freres (as I have been for the past 9 months since my Parisian supply ran out) you can now find them at La Maison d'Emilie on Laurier. They have a few flavors in tins and a few more in bulk.

Wow, Nishla, what a treat. Thanks for sharing. Regarding the dates, the fresh dates we get here come on a branch, and are more yellow in color, and more oblong in shape than round. I'm not sure what variety you have there. From the photo it really looks like a green apple.

Thanks for the welcome back, it's always nice to know you're loved . I know, Chris. I had never seen such beauties either. With my family the priorities are that the food be clean, not greasy and not fatty. Somehow we grew up without so much as butter on the table, let alone on the pan. So my sweetie de-fatted the shanks before we tied them up. I pretty much used Marcella's version with a few modifications in technique: mirepoix, herbs, zest, stock, wine, gremolata at the end. I also braised in the oven with some parchment pressed against the meat, tucked under the lid. When they were cooked, I strained and defatted the braising liquid, added some more wine and stock and reduced to a nice sauce.

I was home for the holidays and managed to make it here for dinner with my husband. We really enjoyed our evening. The service (by Jean-Francois) was extremly attentive, polite and helpful. We also enjoyed our meal, and while we ate quite a lot, I did not feel at all over-stuffed at the end of it. We had wine pairings with each course, which has become our favorite way to enjoy these mulit-course meals. First off we really liked the atmosphere created by the natural-looking setting and the comfy club chairs. There is also a heady smell of cologne permeating the room, and it is unclear as to whether this is from the clientele or simply part of the ambience created by the restaurant. Free from kids for a few hours, we decided to open the evening with martinis, lemon zest for me and olives for him. The service was so discrete, at one point we both marveled at how his olive pips had made a disappearing act without our even noticing. We started with the seared fois gras which was accompanied by a juicy roasted pear and topped with a piece of pear leather, which complemented the texture and richness of the foie perfectly. This sat atop a puree of white beans, and there was daikon and pomegranate for a cooling counterpoint. I loved this dish. A muscat accompanied this course. Next my husband had the much-touted roasted scallops, served on fennel puree with lemon creme fraiche. He said he could have eaten a whole bowl of these. He had this with a Quebecois seyval blanc. I had the bluefin tuna in a broth with daikon and truffle oil; somehow this dish was not for me, neither in texture nor in flavor. I had a nice glass of riesling to pick me up out of it though... For the next course we had a bottle of Thibault Liger-Belair, a nice wine from Bourgogne. Then I was in heaven again, with the risotto with suckling pig, foie gras shavings topped with a pork cracklin - this dish was incredible, and honestly the first risotto I have loved outside of my own. My husband equally enjoyed his ris de veau; this was perfectly prepared, crispy on the outside, creamy-textured within, surrounded by beautiful little mushrooms (straw perhaps) thinly sliced potatoes. We did wish that the potatoes had held up their crispiness, however the overall dish helped us to forgive this detail. We also allowed ourselves to be talked into ordering the vegetable plate for the night, and we were very happy that we did. It added another dimension to this last course, with the sweet flavors and creamy textures. It consisted of: (1) saute of king eryngi mushrooms and baby spinach; (2) puree of parsnip (our favorite); (3) orange beets; and (4) white beans and wild rice - the beans were far too al dente for my liking; the under-cooking just didn't allow the creamy warm flavor to come through, in my opinion. Cheese plate followed, with the crispy hazelnut bread so tasty I asked for some to take home to the kids. And we finished off with the hazelnut-praline eclair with praline ice cream. A beautiful meal, though be forewarned, it will burn a little hole in your wallet . A great place for a special occasion.

I've been away awhile, home to Montreal, where I did a lot of cooking and a lot of eating. I got out for two great meals which I shall describe on these two threads: Le Club Chasse et Peche and L'atelier. I also made some of the meals for the family. One Night we had: Spinach Salad with Feta Dressing - my Mom had eaten this at a restaurant recently, and she loved it so much she wanted to reproduce it at home; I happily obliged, and it was great Two Lasagnas: Bolognese Ricotta-Spinach Alinka's Chocolate Cookies This was another night's menu: Risotto with Saffron, Pancetta and Mushrooms Osso Buco - with some of the most beautiful veal shanks, from the Charlevoix region of Quebec. Percy's Molten Lava Cakes with Hagen Dazs Vanilla - a HUGE hit; my brother in law went for seconds, and then thirds the following night Another day I made some of my favorite snacks: Sambousak Mal Tawa - filled with chickpeas, onions and spices; this is something my Grandmother has always prepared for me to bring back on the airplane, but as she can no longer really cook, I've taken the torch from her, happily.