Jinmyo

Soba, Oh, I don't know. About a tablespoon. Just rice in a white bowl on a square white plate with sheets of toasted nori next to it on the plate.

Suzanne, to clarify: I'm not Welsh with Italian parents. My mother was Welsh with Italian parents. As to Joy of Cooking. Bland. Can't read it. Glad some people have found it useful.

I think you have some unresolved issues with your mother. Who undoubtedly used it. Hardly. Welsh with Italian parents. edit: Also, 1950s, long before it was published.

I heartily recommend and testify hand on heart St. Jacques Complete Techniques. The Joy of Cooking, while ubiqitous, I have never been able to focus on a line or two of before I feel joyless and glazed, as if I had picked up a housewife magazine from the early 1960s. I feel all kind of Stepfordy. awbrig's, I mean Trotter's Gourmet Cooking for Dummies covers a wide base of fundamentals but is also good at conveying a range of possibilities. Professional Cooking by Cordon Bleu is good as is the CIA's Professional Chef.

Oh, really? This makes much much more sense. I wonder if the beets had been pickled. I knew you could explain. You're smart.

Really Nice, I seem to remember a thread about this. Run a search and you might find some useful information. edit: Oh, and welcome to eGullet.

I don't understand this. Sweetness typically dulls receptivity to other flavours. An amuse should excite the palate instead of console and cushion it. Please explain, please explain, please explain, ple...

With miso soup? Gah.

Liza, great. Chawan-mushi (lobster meat in custard). Chopped chicken heart and shitake gyoza (fried dumplings) with a dipping sauce of shoyu, ponzu, and sake with a grilled shrimp hanging over the eadge of the dipping bowl. Grilled sardines with much ginger in the cavity, a shoyu glaze and bits of very coarse sea salt and lemon zest. Gohan (Japanese white rice) with toasted nori. Salad of a brunoise of blanched dai gai choy with scallions and chiles in iceburg lettuce cups.

How do you like your grits, Nick?

No no no. Grits are great. The polenta of America. Wonderful with sauteed collard greens and slabs of ham.

Beet and tomato bisque. Wilted beet green and chevre salad. Leek risotto (carnaroli rice of course of course) topped with young gai lan (Chinese broccoli) chopped and sauteed in butter. Pork back ribs with a chipotle sauce. Grated celery root, green cabbage, and onion coleslaw with a Dijon and fresh mayonaisse dressing.

I used to use the salmon tins (top and bottoms removed) as forms for the salmon cakes. But the tins I find these days have a rounded edge the opener can't catch to.

It is also great with just about any kind of sausage. Chorizo is particularly nice.

Dave, juk (jook)? Rice porridge? It's rice (preferably Japanese gohan or calrose) cooked in a large quantity of water so that the starches release and create a rice soup. Just a few drops of sesame oil and a bit of ginger, salt and white pepper somehow become explosive in flavour. Add whatever meats or fish or vegetables or nuts and it is extraordinary. Easy. Cheap. Will never ever be bad to you, will always be kind to your system.

TOO LATE!

Congee. Any kind of congee.

That sounds nice, stellabella.

Oh yes, the bacon stays.

Saute finely chopped kale with garlic, puree, rener double-smoked slab bacon, add pureed kale to pan, toss, cover with bread crumbs and slashes of pecorino, under salamander or broiler for a few minutes. Great with a robust fish, lamb, pork, or beef. Chicken stock with a mire poix. Add chopped kale (spines seperated and also chopped very finely) and much roasted garlic. Simmer. Serve poured over a bed bof egg noodles with a poached egg floating in the centre. A potato tuile and some chive oil are a nice touch. Yukon gold potatoes roasted in duck or chicken fat. Saute kale. Toss together and put in oven at 450 for a few minutes. Meanwhile briefly saute chicken livers. Serve livers atop potato and kale mixture with lime zest a bit of buerre blanc. Etc.

I'll just let the chef cook for me. Great menu, Nick. The poussin sounds nice.

Nina, so sorry to annoy you. And I do care about that. And for you. And for Steve P. And tommy. I think it not off-topic to express a wish that acrimony between any of you come to rest in the metaphor of pie. Blondie, surely the mint loveletters are a form of pie. edit: Steve, I was thinking more of a chicken thigh and oyster mushroom galette but banana cream is fine too.

Mmmmm. Very very nice pie. Anyone?

tommy, very nice. Pretty pixures. How about citrus? I know its fruit but I find pureeing then straining whole (skins and all or at least the zest) limes or lemons and a head of roasted garlic, taking the juice and then emulsifying with grapeseed oil and a bit of chile and sesame oils and then seasoning it either towards Western or Eastern flavour profiles works well with duck confit. edit: Liza, that's wild. That's really wild. That's wild.

Can I interest anyone in some nice pie?