michael_g

They had a stack of a dozen or so at the fishmonger's in Maplewood. I only read a few pages, but I've always enjoyed Edible Boston and am new to the area. Exciting!

I think they're talking about U.S. lemonade -- sweetened, diluted, iced lemon juice -- and not the Ireland/UK lemonade -- such as Appletizer and Grapetizer, which are more like our light sodas, 7-Up and Sprite.

While not French in the least, I've enjoyed them in quesadillas with mild cheeses, like queso fresco or blanco. Once we used a not-too-ripe brie with good success. Last time I saw them at the market (July 2006, Brookline, MA), I ran into someone planning to stuff them with lobster -- must be good.

We discussed the "vodka watermelon" briefly after, on a whim, putting cubes of watermelon in G&Ts. Frankly, the latter is delicious: we used Tanqueray. Part of what made it so good was the succulent sweetness of the watermelon, but the bubbles of the tonic and the aromatics in the gin definitely brought something to the table.

We were there Sunday and it wasn't that bad -- found a spot in a 3/4 full parking lot pretty quickly. It was a bit tough to navigate their narrow aisles with a shopping cart, but it wasn't terrible. I read somewhere that the lot was expanded recently. I'm going back Thursday morning with my grandfather, so I'll see how it is then.

A few nights ago we smoke-grilled a turkey leg: just some wet hickory chips at the end of a grilling session, for thirty minutes, maybe an hour. (You can tell that we're exacting perfectionists, can't you?) I'm not sure if we remembered to take a picture before, er, devouring it, but we had an intense pink ring, 1/2" or more. The meat tasted pretty smoky, too. Is a dying grill hot enough to produce this? Could something in the spice rub (there was no curing salt) do this? Or, like snowangel mentioned, maybe it has something to do with turkey meat in particular.

It's not that the juice has no pectin, but that it's simply insoluble, according to this fun article. If you insist on making your own pectin, you should check out this patent. There's a lot of talk, but they've essentially patented the "hydrolysis of lemon peel at 85C to 90C, which is then dried and ground". That is, put lemon peel ("flavedo" only -- no pith) in nearly boiling water for one to five hours. (Longer isn't necessarily better; they say "preferably less than 5 hours".) Then dry it and grind it up -- voila, "pectocellulitic substance". Or, pectin with left over lemon peel bits, whatever you want to call it. They're even kind enough to document how you can make jam with their pectocellulitic product. Their first method is as follows: 2400 g lemon peel without pith, 'comminuted to a particle size of 3/8" or less' (chopped up into bits 3/8" or smaller) 600g tap water 1. Heat to 86-90C. Hold at temperature for three hours, stirring continuously. It will become a "thick slurry". Gross. 2. Spread the slurry as a thin layer on sheets and oven dry for six hours at 55C. A pilot light in a cold oven might do the trick, if your oven doesn't go that low. 3. The slurry should dry into "flakes", which should then be ground extremely finely, to a powder. (They say a 149 micron sieve, but my sieves don't seem to be labeled with that kind of information.) What you have is now pectocellulitic powder. Now you can probably scale down the pectocellulitic powder recipe. They don't say how much powder it produces, but I bet 3kg of lemon peel and water dries and grinds down to a hell of a lot more than the 3.7g of powder you'll need for the following recipe. I think you can scale it pretty freely, so long as you heat it for long enough. The key to the invention is that the plant tissue itself is of low enough pH (3.7-4.3) that it can, coupled with heat and water, break down the plant tissue and release the pectin. Maybe go to a science store and pick up some pH paper? Anyway, let's make jam! They seem to have a penchant for strawberry jam, as that's what their jam examples all make. Here's the first one, but there are a four other jam recipes, all variants of the first. They mostly use a little bit more pectin. 450g crushed strawberries 20g + 530g sugar 3.7g pectocellulitic powder 2.5ml citric acid (50% solution, w/v (weight/volume? no idea)) 1. Bring the strawberries, small quantity of sugar, and the powder to a rolling boil. 2. Add two thirds of the large quantity of sugar, and bring it back to a boil. Add the rest of the sugar. 3. When the mixture boils again, add the citric acid. I'm not sure how you can be sure of the concentration of the citric acid, but I bet the juice of a lemon would do the trick here. They say that "jam color, texture, and flavor" were comparable to commercial products. So there you go. 3.7g seems like very little pectin for a jam to me, but they say that "surprisingly, the pectin and pectocellulitic compositions of the present inventions have a greater gelling activity than commercial pectins". They go on to say why: this powder has more pectin in it. (Golly!) The one problem with all of this is that it's patented, so you can't sell the jam (or pectocellulitic powder) you make without getting Ehrlich's permission or paying royalties, at least not for the next ten years. If you do try this, please post pictures!

My girlfriend and I went to A. Russo & Sons in Watertown for the first time earlier this week. All I can say is, "wow!" I love the layout: just produce on stands, with all of the packaged stuff underneath. No aisles, no harsh overhead lighting. Great prices: by the basket, peaches were $0.98 a pound, and they are unusually sweet for this early. A lot of the stuff was unexpectedly local -- onions, for instance. Sadly, nothing seemed organic. They have Indian mangoes (at $2.98 a pop, I think, so we got some Haitians of the same variety that smelled just as good). Not to mention all sorts of Asian vegetables: two different kinds of bitter gourd, for example. We got some flowering chives, which were delicious chopped and tossed with pasta, served with a lamb shank (from Whole Foods). I didn't get a look at their fresh meat section, if they have one. Their cheeses and meats looked good, too. The loaf of "rustic bread" we got was tasty and simple. We talked about framing the receipt: 5.34 pounds of peaches, $5.23. 2.89 pounds of Favas, $2.83. 0.74 pounds of blueberries (in a little case), $1.98. A ripe plaintain for $0.35. 1.4 pounds of tomatillos, $2.77. Four artichokes at 0.45 pounds, $3.50. We got produce for a week for a little under $35, all of it fresh and beautiful. Anyone else been there? Tips on good things to get, or perhaps why this is all too good to be true? EDIT: Fixed the ampersand.

Ooh: I happen to be in town tomorrow. I wonder if it's too late for reservations...

"Explosive crunch"? Are you eating these with the shells on? (I'm not horrified, just curious!)

China Pearl does good dim sum, which can get as funky (snails, chicken feet, etc.) as you like. The Butcher Shop is a charcuterie with a good reputation, though I haven't been. Savenor's is a grocer that has a lot of game meats, if you don't mind cooking your own. Edit: the above are all in Boston. In Providence...hmm. Local 121 on Washington St. has quail on the menu and a fantastic corned beef. (I don't know if it's house corned, but it's awesome.) There's also La Laiterie and the Farmstead, with great cheese and cured meats.

That's a good looking recipe and a great photo. Do you have any idea what the baking soda and blanching do? I've never seen it before.

Swordpicks? Ha! My great-grandparents had the same swordpicks. And they weren't fencers at all, in fact, far from it: one was a rabbi, the other, well, a rebbitzin. I remember them fondly, and have no idea what happened to them. My mother always had to keep us away from them, lest we duel and lose some appendage.

Harold McGee mentions that adding flour to the batter will stabilize it. The gluten network, he says, will form around the foam, so when the foam collapses, the souffle still stands. I don't think you'll be able to avoid a little bit of collapse, though, particularly if you're leaving an uncooked center. And adding flour will probably make it look (and taste) different, too. I dunno...there's probably something industrial that'll do it. Good luck!

Like everyone else, I hate hate hate peeling favas. It always tears up my fingers, but it's definitely worth it. There's also something satisfying about tearing the top off of the bean, squeezing it at the bottom, and popping it out of its little casing. As for the Provencal dish, I've always done something similar, substituting oregano for thyme and throwing in a bit of stock to thicken it into a summer stew -- once it reaches the boil, it only needs to simmer for five or ten minutes to let the flavors meld. I serve it with a crusty baguette and some shaved cheese sharp enough to stand up to the favas. Last time, it was pecorino, but anything sheep-y or goat-y should do. Maybe a soft cheese: unripened chevre crumbles? One thing I've always liked about pairing favas and artichokes is that the tangy sourness of the beans seems to match and mellow out the astringency of the artichoke. I was lately thinking that adding some milk or cream might even further subdue the mixture, since it lessens the astringency of artichokes, too. Maybe just a drizzle on top? A final question: what do you do when your guests have never eaten fava beans before, and may or may not have the rare but fatal allergy?

Well, they were fine for a walk-in dinner on the 5th, but not so open that the menu on the door matched the menu inside precisely. (The only difference that sticks out in my mind is that the burger went from $8.50 to $10, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were others.)

My girlfriend and I went two nights ago after having tried to go on the Sunday before Memorial Day, when they were closed. I liked the decor, but found it a bit intimidating. (Full disclosure: we're recent college graduates.) We sat in the main room -- the bar looked more comfortable. Even with two thirds of the tables filled by the end of our meal (around 8pm, maybe?), the noise wasn't bad. They've clearly learned from the mistakes of Red Stripe. We ordered small plates and split the dandelion greens and spinach salad. First was the roasted garlic. A little plain, with a mayonnaise-based bleu cheese dipping sauce. The roasted garlic had neither salt nor pepper, but was otherwise fine. The dipping sauce was, well, meek -- would have been better with a riper cheese and a cream-based sauce, I thought. The salad came out next, and it was delightful. A nicely poached egg on top of greens (dandelions perfectly wilted); the dressing was very mustardy, with bits of seed hull left in. (A few too many stuck in my teeth, which doesn't seem to happen to me with whole-seed mustard usually.) I was surprised they resisted the urge to throw in lardons or some other bacon, but the salad stood on its own without it. The last two small plates were the best, I think. The spicy fried smelts were great -- a simple spicy batter and some sort of home made tartar sauce. The corned beef was incredible. It tasted fresh and very un-watery, with a really good meaty texture and pepper flavor. They were served with crostini that were so toasted we could barely break them with our hands or teeth. Dessert was the brownie parfait -- really good ice cream, a nice brownie. The only problem was that the chocolate sauce was slightly grainy. My favorite part of the whole evening was at the end, when the waitress asked how the meal was. We told her it was good, mentioned the (fairly small) problems we ran into. She nodded and mentioned how everyone had been so honest about their meals. It only makes sense, though: it's certainly the sort of place I'd like to see succeed. We'll definitely head back later this summer to see how they're doing.

Harold McGee differs when it comes to color (On Food and Cooking, p. 369): "External signs of quality are a substantial heaviness for a melon's size, yellow skin undertones indicative of chlorophyll loss and thus ripeness, and a solid resonance when thumped." Just happened to be reading that page today. Before having read this, I'd always gone for the more vibrantly colored melons. Taste test?

I usually wear one only when baking (flour everywhere) or frying (spattering). As a Capetonian, you'll appreciate what it says: "May the Wors be with you!"

Just for posterity, there's a great recipe for kaufu (as they spell it) in Saveur issue 100, page 72: Si Xi Kaufu, "Four Happiness Wheat Gluten". They quickly stir fry one to two inch pieces of wheat gluten, and then add peanuts, two tablespoons each dark soy sauce and sugar, mushrooms (wood ear and Chinese black), and some dried-mushroom liquid. Ten minutes on low heat lets the gluten absorb most of the liquid, and it's then served "hot, at room temperature, or chilled, garnished with cilantro". The picture is fantastic looking, but not up on their website (yet?).

The girlfriend and I are considering the Christmas goose, but being Jews, neither of us really know where to begin. First, we're having trouble sourcing one. I live in Providence, she lives in Boston. We've found an okay price for mail-order at Finger Lakes Gourmet; any ideas for where we can get one locally? Second, we need to decide on a recipe and a menu, but the suggestions in this thread seem like enough reading material to come to a decision. It's difficult to decide between the elegance of a whole bird and the deliciousness of a confit of the legs and the rare breast. Either way, potatoes in the fat, cabbage, a berry jam (cranberry, red currant?) seem like they'll be part of the main. Any ideas? It'll probably just be the two of us, so we'll either end up (a) enormously fat, or (b) with a lot of leftovers.

One of my favorite South African vineyards, Blaauwklippen, had an excellent Zinfandel in 2003. Nice spice, beautiful color, eminently age-able. And, while I'm at it, good morning!

Boy, given that I'd recommend it for nothing, I'd love to know what you like about the place. My daughter is insisting we go there tomorrow for our blended family first-day-of-school breakfast; five'll give you ten that it's still lousy. ← I was a little glib, but I've always enjoyed the omelets and gotten great service. French toast with strawberries is good -- in the season. The hashbrowns have been underdone from time to time, or so says my girlfriend. But the coffee is good and ever-flowing, the omelets well-rolled, and the staff friendly. I mean, no lobster benedict, but... Then again, I've been gone for a year, so I may be letting the glow of the past wash over my memory.

If you're willing to go to Seven Stars, why not truck out to the Modern Diner on Hope (well, East, past Blackstone) for a little bit of lobster benedict? Rather a lifechanging experience. I'd also highly recommend Brickway on Wickenden for, well, everything. Loui's on Brook is classic greasy spoon stuff, with the cheapest breakfast I've seen outside of the Midwest. Any other favorites for breakfast? How does CAV stack up? My girlfriend loved XO Cafe, and we have plans to go, probably next weekend or the week after. What's the general consensus on Haruki (East or otherwise) vs. New Japan (on Washington, near Cuban Revolution)? I've always leaned towards New Japan, with its quiet feel, excellent service, and fantastic fish. The chopstick cabinet for regulars seals the deal on the atmosphere. Haruki was good, but I find gold leaf unsettling as a garnish.