Jinmyo

Pizza pie. Pita bread. eGullet madness.

Rice.

Potato steaks (Large baked potatoes cooled, peeled, and cut lengthwise into one inch thick pieces. Fried crispy in EVOO and garlic.) with creme fraiche, chives, lumpfish caviar. Lobster bisque (frozen lobster meat). Large (U 10) shrimp, grilled with chipotle. Sauteed baby spinach with much butter. Salad of tomato and red onion tartare (heh) bound with ricotta and served on wonton wrapper crisps, dot of good balsamico.

David, brining flavours the flesh and draws moisture.The flesh is tenderized because of the breakdown of proteins, not the addition of moisture.

Yes, chicken should be dry. It can be given a spritz of lemon juice in the oven, but it should be dry going in except for oil, butter etc. And certainly very dry when being dropped into 360 degree fat.

One of the ways in which I make fried chicken is to poach the pieces in buttermilk with peppercorns. Remove them, refrigerate on a rack until ready for use. Then double dip in seasoned flour and egg, fry. This way I only need to get a good crust and don't have to think about cooking the flesh through. Sometimes on the other hand I brine then double dip. Sometimes I use cornmeal and panko in the flour.

Nina, a butty is a sandwich. So saying a "butty sandwich" is like saying "mesclun mix". Not done.

So how's it going?

Leek and potato soup of course, of course. Leek and gruyere fritatta. Leek and mushroom gyoza. Leeks that have had chicken roasted atop them. (Discard chicken.) Can go on and on.

Quite.

I have the Babbo book. While I don't use recipes, I like to read them. It's good to know that they actually work. tokaris, that Moosewood stuff is crud. I've eaten there. Spotty, unhealthy crowd. Fresh herbs. Big deal.

This sounds interesting. Can you tell me more?

No. 1 said both of the things I had to say. So I've got nothing to say except to say that I've nothing to say.

"We're from...France."

Bravo.

Finis. /all exit stage left

Nice to have you back, Soba. Nice meals. Pork gyozas with red wine vinegar. Barley cooked with porcini liquer and sliced porcini, dressed with a touch of porcini oil and fresh rosemary. Racks of lamb, pan roasted, very rare and very seared, with a Dijon sauce made from the jus and some Soave. Salad of edamame and mint with microgreens.

Yow.

Sa ho thick rice noodles with dried shrimp and scallops in a chile broth with watercress and peanuts. Roast pork belly chopped and mixed with scallions and mint served on large won ton wrapper crisps. Fresh deep-fried fish cake made with pollack and lobster meat, sliced and topped with wakame paste (reconstitute in dashi and clam juice, process, squeeze) and gomasio. Assortment of pickles: mustard greens (with mustard), kimchee, bamboo shoots with chile, mushroom slivers with sesame oil.

pjs, how many kinds of beans are there? Of toastable bread? Of sauces? It's a big world.

In Ottawa here, crawdads are available frozen. As are langoustine. Both headless. I wonder if there's any point in trying either in a gumbo-ish dish.

Sorry about the pirate, Colonel.

Miss J, a truc from T Keller: use the back of the knife blade and run it across the skin to remove excess water.

Arrrrr!!

One of my favourite simple things: Nice trout fillet, very very dry, skin squeegeed and salted, seared in grapeseed oil. Flipped flesh side down for twenty seconds then back onto the skin. Dash of sake in the pan then cover for a minute. Served atop gohan (Japanese white rice) with much gomasio. Toasted squares of nori. Miso shiru. The fat in the trout is so perfect. Why don't they make troutbutter?