barbhealy

A looong time ago I read a review on tamis that gave reasons why one was better than another -- stainless vs wooden -- and I THINK they preferred a wooden one with a nylon mesh because the nylon was finer than steel and produced a silkier puree. I don't know whether that's true today or not -- I've seen some pretty fine-meshed strainers -- but I'm on the verge of buying a tamis and I can't find the article I refer to above. Looking through old threads I found one where a food-mill-like strainer was mentioned as an alternative to a tamis for making mashed ptoatoes but what does that do with the seed of something like a raspberry? Don't they crush the seeds and release bitter juices? If you have sources for tamis I'd appreciate that too -- I'm having trouble finding one of any type, stainless or wooden, that isn't 16 inches wide!

It used to be my favorite Chinese restaurant in the world....especially their Toffee Bananas, prepared table-side. I've tried Googling it but nothing comes up.

The recipe was so good I copied it onto a file card and put it in my recipe box. I just looked it up and there is no vodka in the recipe only white wine, which, I suppose, could be replaced with vodka..... It was in the October 1984 issue on page 70 and was called Linguine with Paprika Sauce. I found it online here: http://www.recipe-ideas.co.uk/recipes-2/Li...ika%20Sauce.htm The accompanying article was interesting, if I recall, so it would be worth tracking down the issue, if possible. I have it, but 20+ years of 5 diffferent magazines are all jumbled together now and it would be near impossible to find.

First, my apologies for resurrecting an old thread but I've just discovered it and it reminded me of a pasta dish I made from Bon Appetit years and years ago that was just pasta, vodka, olive oil and paprika. So simple yet unbelievably delicious. I’ve also always loved the gulyas my Austrian mother used to make but I thought it was because of the onions. I now I know it was probably the paprika. I’ve always bought my spices at Penzey’s (they’re only a few blocks away) and their website says the ‘sharp’ paprika is merely sweet paprika mixed with cayenne so I now mix my own to control the heat. Fortunately, we’re having dinner at the Adobo Grill this Saturday which is just down the road from The Spice House so I’ll be stopping by there on our way and will certainly come home with a selection of goodies including paprika. Thank you so much for this thread – I LOVE these kinds of 'taste-test' projects. I've also found several recipes I’m dying to try!

We all know people who won't eat certain things and generally classify them as preferences. For me the reason why is what pushes the 'preference' over the line into neurosis. I, too, won't eat meat with bones because, as a kid, I had nightmares featuring bloody skeletons of slaughtered animals talking to me and bemoaning their plight. Eating meat on a bone (or seeing a vein or other evidence that the meat was once alive) reminds me of those dreams and I would rather not go there. I also think different pasta shapes taste different and prefer cavatapi to any other even though I KNOW there is no reason why I should. I've eaten tongue (without knowing it) and it tasted good, but I can't knowingly eat it because of what it is. Ditto for tripe, heart, and brains even though none of them have bones. I CAN eat (and adore) sweetbreads and foie gras (if they're meticulously cleaned). I can't figure out why I differentiate. The best reason I've seen in this thread so far is the one about chickens not washing under their arms! In fact, the next time someone offers ME wings, I'm going to use it! I'm also going to remember the bit about it being polite to not clean your plate. Great thread, BTW.

[ The three-pronged tool on the left is a mystery to me. It has a thick, heavy SS handle but isn't long enough to function as a pickle or olive retriever. It is also very, very sharp. Could that tree-pronged tool on the left be a potato holder? My german friend's mother used something similar to hold hot boiled potatoes while she peeled them.

We have several Swiss Diamond and love them. After a year, they're still non-stick and clean up easily. I wish All Clad would use the swiss diamond finish on thier pans. The Circulon Professional pans we had all lost their non-stickness and became impossible to clean so I gave them away. DH liked the rings, though, because when he did use oil, they kept it evenly distributed in the pan.

Thank you, Suzy! I just PM'd you.

Oh... yes, if it were me, I would be pissed if I did you a favor and you trashed me in public.

I don't think the name of the restaurant is relevant at all. What you are asking, I think, is whether a special request, agreed to by the chef, should cause such a discrepancy in the overall quality of your meal. I know that when *I* make changes to a tried-and-true recipe the results can be disastrous! While it may be physically easy to omit the wine from the sauce, if the sauce is made up ahead, and the chef must disrupt his routine to stir up a special version sans wine, then it might very well have resulted in the rest of the meal sitting around waiting, especially if the chef 'remembered' to make the special version after the other dishes had been plated. Also, eliminating the alcohol, while it might have been easy to do, could have had a negative effect on the overall balance of flavors. I've never worked in a restaurant so someone who understands the pressure that a chef is under, especially a 4-star one, would be better able to answer the question, but I suspect that your 'extenuating circumstances' might very well have been responsible for the unsatisfactory meal, especially since there were changes made to 3 of the 5 courses. If it were me, I would return to the restaurant (soon) and order the same 5 courses. If they're up to par, you can mention the discrepancy to the maitre'd and see if they admit to the trouble they had accomodating your special requests. JMHO....

My Robot Coupe RC3500 food processor. I love the fact that the lid is NOT used to turn it on and off and, I think because of that, it's still working after 25 years. I've washed it by hand for all those years which I'm sure is why it's still with us. The Bodum 4-cup borosilicate glass pitcher I broke 3 years ago. They discontinued it shortly after it was released for some reason or I would have bought more of them. It was the perfect size and shape -- elegant but useful -- and I've never seen another one I liked as much. The small wooden tongs I bought at Pier One 20 years ago. They are lightweight and the tips are thin, not like the fat unwieldy ones they sell now, so you can winkle them under something or stick them in the toaster without fear of electrocuting yourself. I've already repaired them twice -- they keep getting shorter -- but I refuse to let them go! My Delonghi convention toaster oven. It makes 6 perfect pieces of toast (all at once) and it's big enough to hold 3 pork tenderloins or an 8-cup casserole but takes up hardly any room on the counter and is efficient to operate. DH uses it, rather than the microwave, to grill sausages and heat leftovers because it's so easy to use and clean. I've had it almost 25 years, too. The new models are all much bigger. That's all I can think of at the moment....

I would use olive oil if it were appropriate for the dish, but if you need it to taste like butter, that wouldn't work. And some margarines are about as good for you as vegetable oil, or even contain olive oil. ← Wow! That stuff sounds good! I always thought of margarine as a hydrogenated product containing mostly chemicals. I'll have to look for that EarthBalance even though we use very little butter. I use olive oil for everything but baking.

I agree. If guacamole is on the menu I'll buy two more avocados than I need AND the premade stuff as a backup in case all the avocados are unusable. The premade is passable if you doctor it with the things you'd put in if you made it from scratch so, basically, I use it for the 'avocado base'.

"For the love of God" is exactly the reason, at least if you keep kosher... ← I'm not Jewish, but I thought butter/dairy was OK. It was just mixing it with the wrong stuff (meat) was bad. Is butter really not Kosher? ← You got it right. Butter/dairy is perfectly okay -- as long as you're not using it together with meat products in any way, shape, or form. A lot of people, if they're having meat, will use margarine to smear on their bread, or to cook with, instead of using butter with that meal. So if you're having meat, you're not putting butter on your vegetables. (Although I'd rather do a lot of things with my vegetables rather than put margarine on them.) ← Why don't you use olive oil? It's good tasting and it's good for you. Margarine is neither.

Most tap water contains contaminants I'd rather not consume so we use bottled water for everything -- coffee, pasta, rice, anything that's ingested. If we could afford the Sylvan system, we'd have it in the house, but until I can convince DH it's worth the money, I buy Ice Mountain, whose distillation process eliminates more than most (if you believe their website). If anyone uses the Sylvan system, I'd love to hear your opinion of it.

What a fascinating travelog! I enjoyed every word of it and have just ordered 2 of Diana's cookbooks (no, I'm ashamed to admit, I didn't have them). Thank you so much for the inspiraton!

I have Irene Kuo's 'The Key to Chinese Cooking', Tropp's 'The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking', and the Time Life series' 'The Cooking of China'. Of these, the one I use the most is Tropp's. I also love her 'China Moon Cookbook' which is her restaurant's variations on classic Chinese cooking. The biggest problem, for me, with both the Kuo and Tropp, is that there are next to no pictures. Tropp's descriptions are excellent but I still like to see pictures. The Time Life Series books have many pictures but their recipes not as extensive as the other two. The Costco in our area (outside Chicao) just started carrying the Culinaria series which have more pictures than any other book I've seen and they are FASCINATNG reading, giving you an in-depth insider's view of the country's culinary scene. There are a few on Amazon at the moment, but none on China.

LOL! We sat through a 90 minute 'sales pitch' from this place yesterday morning (DH got a great deal on lift tickets in return) and boy did they get an earfull on the kitchen! Needless to say, we didn't buy. Unfortunately, I didn't make the pork. The rest of our group came here to ski and no one was willing to drive me to Silverthorne or Frisco (we had rented an Expedition which I was not authorized to drive). I was willing to make the dish in the condo's roasting pan but they (the other couples) also kept forgetting that I needed 3 days and by the time they agreed to take me to the grocery store for the meat it was too late. So I made a tomato bisque (which DH calls miracle soup because everyone raves over it) and found other ways to spend my time (I don't ski). Although it seems like they deliberately saobotaged my efforts, I suspect that no one wanted to force me to cook in a kitchen they knew I hated, since there are so many good restaurants here and we were not obligated to "eat in". I WAS disappointed but I understand the desire to eat out when you're travelling so I didn't make a fuss. Ultimately, it's their loss as they didn't get a chance to taste 'the best meat ever'. I'm glad you will, though, as I see someone has posted a link to the recipe. I would never have violated Paula's copyright without asking and wouldn't have known how to request her permission. I suspect I also would have felt funny asking as I might have put her in an uncomfortable position. What is the law in that respect? I know I am not authorized to post it here but could I have sent the recipe to individuals? I generally send my recipes to all my invitees so they can determine whether they're allergic to any ingredients and, if they choose to bring wine, know what foods we're serving. Am I out of line? I always scan the page so the author gets credit. On the subject of the pot, although I did not buy any heavy cooking equipment, we are driving to Aspen tomorrow to spend a week with some other friends who will be driving back to Chicago so, if I HAD found the perfect vessel, I would have taken it to Aspen with us and then 'sent' it back to Chicago in our friend's car. I had forgotten about this option until I mentioned my dilemna to the people we're meeting and they reminded me that I could give them our excess baggage. There are definitely benefis to driving.... Thank you to everyone who responded, though. I will be making this dish many times and may try different cuts of meat just to see how they fare. I'll be sure and let everyone know if I do. Thanks again! Barb

I will do that. And, if they have it, I'll buy a cheap knife. But, what if I can't find a better pot? Can I use the enameled one?

That is frustrating. My best friend's father owns a condo in Frisco, and from him I've seen the other side of it: he says renters wreck the kitchen gear so it isn't worth putting good stuff in there. OTOH he doesn't advertise the kitchen as "gourmet"... We just know to figure that the knives will be dull. Back in the days before knives were banned from carry-on luggage, I used to pack one. ← Yes, it was the description as "gourmet" that threw me off! The other condos we've rented had abysmal kitchens but we looked at a fractional ownership unit in Vail that had a gorgeous kitchen and since this one was a timeshare I thought it would be a bit more "upscale". I am definitely going to let them know they need to change their website. The problem is that most non-cooks have no idea what a gourmet kitchen is - this one has a glass-top electric stove and granite countertops which is probably responsible for the description. Even thought it was described as "gourmet" I figured the knives would be dull and brought a handheld sharpener but I never expected that there wouldn't even be one to sharpen! I bought a small ceramic one yesterday. I'd never used one so it wasn't money wasted. Now I"m trying to talk DH into driving me to pottery place....

Ann, they TOLD us the condo had "a gourmet kitchen" but it's a POS! There is only the minimal, everything is cheap (the handle on the frypan broke this morning when we tried to flip the fritatta), and all of it is worn. There are a dozen steak knives but no paring or utility knife! Because I thought the equipment and tools would be decent, I only brought foodstuffs (spices, arborio, stock, etc...) that I didn't want to make, buy or thought I'd have trouble finding. Our friends mailed in a raclette grill so I could have sent a pot but it's too late now as we're already here! I did see pork loin at the market so I might end up using it. It will be dry though, won't it, even though it's cooked in oil? I just realized that even if I found a shoulder, I don't have a knife to clean it with! I bought a small ceramic one yesterday but I don't know whether that will work. I suppose I could use one of the steak knives.... The flavor of the dish WAS one of the things I loved about it so maybe the loin is the best way to go....

LOL! I DID think of that! I went to the little cooking store on Main (Cookin'Cowgirl I think) hoping that I could buy a pot, use it, and then have them ship it home for me (we cannot carry it with us - we're already overweight (skiis etc.) and flying) but they didn't have the right size. I have so many pots at home I don't want to buy just anything anyway. Is there a place nearby where I could pick up something really unique, like a hand thrown clay one? Thanks for the tip about the outlet - I will definitely check it out!

For Christmas this year I made Paula Wolfert's Coddled Pork from The Slow Mediteranean Kitchen and it was the best meat I'd EVER eaten! We are vacationing in Breckenridge this week with 2 other couples and my husband wants me to make it for them but, in this rented condo, there is no heavy pot! There is an enameled roasting pan, can I use that instead and, if I do, should I modify the recipe at all? Also, IF the local grocery doesn't have pork shoulder (I know, I know, I should choose another recipe but DH keeps asking for this one!) is there another cut I can use?

We are trying to do something different at our family gathering this year (we normally serve Fondue) and were wondering what other cultures serve for Christmas dinner. If you have a regional tradition, would you mind sharing it? For instance, what is a typical German Christmas dinner like, or an Italian one? My sisters inlaws are Chinese so I can't go that route, which would be like bringing coals to Newcastle, but any other culture is fair game. Thanks, Barb

I just bought a selection of specialty salts: Murray River pink flake Himalayan pink (fine) Salish - alderwood smoked sea salt, coarse dark grey crystals fumee de Sel - cold smoked in chardonnay wine barrels Hawaiian Alalea red, coarse crystals Hawaiian black lava (coarse crystals blended with charcoal) We are having a candlelight dinner party on Friday and I was hoping to serve a selection of finger foods that would highlight each of the salts unique qualities. However, I am having trouble finding recipes! Does anyone have a book or other resource that might help me? Or, recipes you've tried and liked? If all else fails, I will hardboil some quail eggs and sprinkle each with the different salts. Boring, I know, but easy and effective. Thank you! Barb