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Peter the eater

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Posts posted by Peter the eater

  1. I'd be concerned that a chicken gravy would overwhelm the relatively delicate flavor of the lobster: I think your choice to go with a lobster-stock-based white sauce was probably the best one. Did you make those fries yourself? Using which technique?

    Russets were cut on a big mandoline at the smallest setting. They were soaked for a few hours, dried off and deep-fried quickly in veg oil with a bit of lard. They're light and crisp with almost no white inside.

  2. Peter can you say more about that lobster poutine? It looks excellent: how did you make it?

    I steamed a 2 pound 10 dollar lobster for 18 minutes, then cooled and shelled it. Meanwhile I made a white sauce with the steaming juice and added the lobster meat just before spooning over the shoestring fries.

    I tried a few white cheddar curds in the sauce but they didn't help. I suppose a dark chicken gravy with lobster chunks instead of curds could work.

  3. Nice spread Prawncrackers.

    My lobster poutine was a big hit, as was the game hen. People got a half bird with a bunch of roasted roots, minty peas and wild rice from Saskatchewan.

    My baby spinach sunchoke salad, on the other hand, sucked. The dulse vinaigrette was too "marine" and the raspberry juice made the shrimp look like neon pink garden grubs. No photo record.

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  4. Could you use the dulse to make seaweed sables (From My French Kitchen)? It's one of the recipes I've been wanting to try. And if you want to send some my way... : )

    And lobster poutine sounds incredible!

    I like the idea of seaweed cookies. Dulse is the wiliest of ingredients, I just wasted 20 minutes trying to powder it in my coffee grinder. Now the small flakes are soaking in vinegar on their way to becoming salad dressing. I should have toasted them first.

  5. I was hoping to get my dad the supplies for the process, and I'm wondering if anyone might have recommendations? I found taps in 5/16 and 7/16 - would there be a preference? Also, how do you filter the sap? I noticed various filters and prefilters. I thought the taps, sap saks, holders, and some sort of filter. Is there an essential piece I'm missing? He does have a propane burner, but I was kind of assuming he'd do the reducing indoors. I'm wondering if I don't have a good sense of the scale of the project....

    It can be a very simple and low-tech activity, which I like. I forget our tap size, just make sure you have a drill bit that matches. I don't believe a bigger hole produces noticeably more sap because it's all about the tree you choose and the weather.

    We don't filter until near the very end simply because there's always dust, ash and dog hair floating around the open pot.

    Another caveat . . . starting and stopping the boil-down can screw-up the sugar. I forget the chemistry, just that the best quality syrup comes from a swift and continuous removal of water from the sap.

  6. Hey guys, I ran across these at my local Super H, and was wondering ... I'm assuming I can eat these (since they're being sold at a grocer's seafood counter), and if so, how do I prepare them? I am a snail neophyte, but I've got to learn sometime, right?

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    Those look like periwinkles to me and it's timely as I was going to ask if they fall into the snail category. I've loved them in Chinese preparation with garlic and black bean sauce, but I've also added them to Paella and they starred!

    They sure do look like periwinkles, which are sea snails.

    I would steam them through, then use a toothpick to pull out the coil of flesh from the shell while discarding the unpalatable trap door/lid/operculum.

    Winkles are a wonderful vehicle for butter and garlic. The pictures below are raw, just shells, and just meat.

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  7. It seems that a Woodcock is like an English Ortolan.

    Good things in small packages, eh?

    There's no shame in concealing a delicious dinner that features a head on the plate. It's all circle of life good karma.

    <Edited for grammar>

  8. The difference in breast colour is dramatic, I've never seen the meat side by side like that. We get those birds here in Nova Scotia along with partridge and pheasant. You have to go to Newfoundland for ptarmigan.

    What usually happens to the rest of the bird?

  9. Next time you get some, you should try "hong shao rou" or "twice-cooked pork". Both excellent dishes.

    Funny you should say that, I've got this odd book from 1979 called "The Complete Book of Chinese Cooking" from Ken Lo and Grace Chu. I considered their twice-cooked pork recipe and the ensuing egg drop soup, then realized I don't have three hours today to simmer anything. So I Google-imaged crispy pork belly recipes and winged it with the stuff on hand. No photos yet because the camera went with the girls of my household on a Sparks sleepover.

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