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This is not un-common in Fine dining. You just learn to use a variety of spoons (including 2 spoon technique), moribashi, spatulas ect and of course your hands.

Ardberg Uigeadail is really good. My everyday drinker is Bowmore 12, From probably my favorite 'house' bottom to top.

I remember my mom buying fresh chorizo in natural casings from a Mexican butcher at an Persian market in Westwood then hanging it in the laundry room for at least a few days and up to a week IIRC. Really good.

you aren't eating all of that oil, just cooking with it. Let the steak or meat rest on a quarter sheet pan with a rack after for a couple minutes and you are ready to go.

Your pictures said it much more eloquently than I could have. More oil will give the food a much better contact with the heat allowing you a more even sear. Especially if you are using less than ideal (or flat) food service equiptment!

lol, the rumor i heard is that the Bacon Shake is vegetarian! I haven't been recently but maybe I'll take one for the team.

For Chinese or food 'from the Chinese province of San Francisco' I would heartily recommend Barbara Tropp's China Moon cookbook. There is a lot of good technique in there and fun easy to crave recipes.

Hmmm, maybe I enjoy the content of the pictures and how they relate the food and the culture rather than the technical aspects of the pictures.

I've been wanting to eat his food for a while, Have you made anything from it yet? I'll nominate 2 books that I don't actually own but think have great pics: Thai Street Food by David Thompson and Oaxaca al Gusto by Diana Kennedy.

sweet potatoes and beets come to mind as good choices. LOL I remember frying sweet potatoes with out drying them and watching them turn into shrinky dinks Turned into a good size for an amuse bouche not so great for chips though!

I fillet it like taking the skin off of a fish yellow side down on the cutting board, and with a sharp flexible knife like a boning knife, take off as much of the white as you can. Doesn't have to be perfect myer's aren't that pithy anyway.

Most Peterson books that aren't topic-specific are excellent for this. He's quite a teacher. I recently picked up a secondhand copy of his Essentials of Cooking, and I'd recommend it to anyone ready to graduate past Bittman or Joy of Cooking. It teaches how to cook, not how to make dishes--there's not a single recipe in the whole book. And probably the most beginner-friendly of any of his books (I have several) but useful for the advanced cook as well. That's one of the ones I learned on Way back in the day!

FCI's Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine. Its easy to read and understand, with great and clear pictures. Cooking by James Peterson is another winner and will grow with you I LOVE Adv Bread and Pastry BUT would NOT recommend it for anyone other than Pro's and Very adv Amateurs. Gisslen Professional Baking is a better start. Heck I wouldn't recommend AB&P unless you are fairly competent with the concepts in Gisslen's ProBaking

If you are just putting in the lemon peel you shouldn't be adding any salt even w/o blanching. I make preserved lemon aioli all the time some time with preserved lemon puree, sometimes with brunoise of preserved lemon. It's always with home made PL's and have never had it break for any reason other than rushing too much and no using good technique. After all you are filleting the PL and removing the white and pulp right? The yellow shouldn't hold enough salt to cause a problem??? I am not saying salt won't break the emulsion but you shouldn't have enough salt on the PL to cause a problem even if you use excess salt in the curing process.

Do you do anything to the lemons before using them in the aioli? Do you make them yourself or buy them? Yes, I do blanch the brunoise preserved lemon very quickly. Regarding salt content, I also curing them entirely surrounded by salt with only a little bit of lemon juice. I am 100% sure that lemon or curing technique is not your problem. One thing that I've noticed is that olive oil does not maintain emulsions as well as oils with less solids, though I have no scientific evidence to back that up. You should not be using olive oil in a basic aioli anyhow. I would stick to grapeseed oil or canola and drizzle VERY slowly for the first bit of oil and then speed up as the emulsion gets going. Mayonaisse technique is your problem here, not ingredients. I agree that it is probably the oil. When I want that olive oil flavor I'll add it just at the end where it will have the biggest flavor impact. Most of the French olive oils are pretty mild that would have been used traditionally for aioli anyway. I use sunflower or grapeseed oil as they make a very stable emultion. You can always add the preserved lemon after the emultion is formed. I was always taught to fillet the preserved lemon once they were cured and store covered with oil.

Exactly. So regional classes are out, but what about a good bread-baking class? The San Francisco Baking Institute Is prolly the top baking school on the west coast. http://sfbi.com/weekend_workshops.html

Sure, Ben Ford of Ford's Filling Station uses the pizza roller for his flatbreads. You should be able to do it with other doughs as well.. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Flatbread-with-Shrimp-and-White-Bean-Hummus-351889 ps.. they freeze great par cooked for quick meals

I have learned a lot from this thread and make a pretty good Harissa know but I was wondering about the version from moulin mahjoub. It is really nice and I would love to make something similar. Any Ideas on how to go about it? Arturo

If you have access to a good coffee shop with knowledgeable sales people just ask for a low acid coffee, it is a common question and they should have recommendations. A good Central American for example are usually lower in acid as opposed to a Kenyan which are excellent but often have a brighter acidity.

I'm sure your correct about homoginization and all that. Except that this was a tested recipe that did work. Since he is the chef and the technique is novel it makes sense for the OP to test the recipe and if it works or not at least you learn something. Even if its that he doesn't know a thing about pastry.

ROFLMAO!! I love that southern politeness. You have to be able to read tea leaves sometimes.

And it tastes even better at 3$ per lb wholesale Most of the time I love it seared crusty in a black pan to mid rare but One of the older post mentioned tartare, Hanger makes excellent Beef Tartare.

Prolly use Black Cardamom which has an incredibly smokey aroma. Easy peasy.

I don't know whether it is proper to link to another forum here, so i won't, but ChowHound has a very passionate thread on this subject. Of course if you like it do what ever you want (unless you have to serve it to a Russian). Personally I find the history of dishes very fascinating and try to respect tradition with out being tied down by it.

That IS what family meal is all about. It shouldn't surprise anyone that a restaurant not making any money isn't going to spend a lot on feeding their employees. When you have that high caliber of cooks, the meals should be simple to tasty with a premium placed on good technique. Of course good high quality scraps and left overs you have a better chance at a good family meal.