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Batard

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Everything posted by Batard

  1. Turns out that Padama really does love her some burgers. In one of her cookbooks she talks about her love for bacon cheeseburgers and how her mother could smell them on her when she was young. And in a People Magazine interview she says, "I grew up a vegetarian. Then, because I grew up in the states, I started slowly eating meat. First it was bologna sandwiches, or pepperoni on pizza. As a teenager, [my friends and I] would always go have burgers. I would scarf them down!"
  2. My local supermarket has started introducing some very economical cuts of beef over the past few months, I guess to help people make ends meet during the recession. I found a boneless neck roast at the market, which is a boned out veal neck tied into a roulade. First time I've ever seen veal neck sold like that, naked and unafraid. I bought it immediately, not knowing quite what to do with it, but thinking of Bourdain and Fergus Henderson and knowing there were possibilities. The roast is about two pounds. My first instinct is to unroll it, stuff it with ??, tie it all back up, and braise it. But since there seems to be an incredible dearth of recipe ideas out there, I was wondering if anyone had any creative or ethnic ideas for this cut? What would the PA Dutch, or the Spanish, French or Italians do? Thanks for the help.
  3. We like them lightly grilled and wrapped in some prosciutto-type meat; the smokiness plays nicely with the ham. Asparagus, poached eggs, and some shaved parm-reg is one of our favorite light suppers.
  4. Batard

    Arm Roast

    It's not an unusual cut or anything, but most people prefer the shoulder roast, which is cut from just behind the arm roast, because it is boneless. The arm is part of the shoulder primal, so a lot of it gets sold. I think the reason you rarely see it packaged as a whole arm roast is because it is cut down and sold as beef stew or hamburger. Which is sad because it makes an awesome braise.
  5. You're right about the Blue Laws. Paramus Township has it's own set that are more restrictive than the rest of the county. Some of them seem quite odd, as you've discovered. Thanks for the feedback; that's one of the few WH's in NNJ I haven't visited yet.
  6. Batard

    Red Olives

    We have a large local Italian market with at least a dozen types of olives, and they always have the large, red-dyed Cerignolas. One thing I notice is that some trays of olives are all exactly the same color, while others seem to have a variety of hues. I am guessing that the olives that appear color cloned have probably been dyed. Is there any quick and dirty way to identify dyed olives?
  7. Some Whole Foods have them, some don't. I also see them frequently at Korean and Japanese markets (look for "Maitaki").
  8. I can't comment specifically about NYC, but I often see Hen of the Woods at the larger Whole Foods stores here in NNJ.
  9. I was disappointed because I shopped there all the time. But it was pretty obvious a couple of months ago that they would be closing, because they weren't getting any new inventory. And all this time, that liquor store has sat empty. Who's paying the rent? Agree that we don't need another crappy pizza joint in Lyndhurst. There's already one on every corner, like sad little clones. Now the old Blockbuster by Shop Rite is turning into yet another pizza place. When will someone finally see the light and open a place that serves a decent pizza? Everyone I talk to in Lyndhurst is dying for one quality pizza place to open and everyone is aware that most of the pizza in town sucks. A good pizza joint like Brooklyn's Brick Oven Pizzeria in Hackensack would clean up around here.
  10. It's unusual to see Thermapens on sale. That gets me thinking that they trying to reduce inventory for some reason. Am I being overly suspicious, or is something going on with the company?
  11. At least some thoughtful preparation and labor went into the food, so there is certainly some justification for that markup. In the case of wine, there is no such justification.
  12. I cook every day, but since I'm not in a rush or under pressure, I rarely cut myself. But when I do, 90% of the time I'm drinking wine. Ditto for burns.
  13. Batard

    Veal stock

    Tim, I'm looking at the second extraction details in TFL right now. The first extraction takes 5-6 hours. Keller then recommends another 5-6 hours for the second extraction, and then another 8-9 hours to reduce the combined stocks "to concentrate color and consistency." That would seem to add at least another 13 hours minimum to the process. Of course, TFL is not the only way of doing things. McGee says that 8 hours should be enough to get maximum extraction from veal and beef. Yes, you might squeeze that last little weak bit of gelatin and flavor from the remouillage, but that seems like saving lemons after you squeeze them, so you can boil and extract yet more flavor from them. Actually I think you would get more real flavor out of recycling the lemons than you would out of the remouillage.
  14. Batard

    Veal stock

    I made the FL version exactly once. As a home cook, the remouillage just adds too much extra pain and labor to the process to do it regularly. I try to concentrate on getting maximum extraction the first time around, which means it spends a lot of time in a low oven after and fat or scum is ladled off. It's might be worth comparing the method used in Bouchon with Sokolov's in Saucier's Apprentice. The differences in method can be instructive (and Sokolov also skips the remouillage).
  15. I haven't seen blowfish at a NJ fish market in well over ten years. But if you find them, it will probably be in season, e.g., summer. A real shame. But I too would like to know where to find them.
  16. Casey has had a change of heart. Today she hates reporters and just loves Carla: "I’m a fan of Carla’s and as disappointed as her fans are that she came up short. I’m more disappointed that my great experience with a fellow female chef of Carla’s talent would be damaged by such reckless and unprofessional reporting." More love from Casey here: http://www.chefcaseythompson.com/wordpress/ And it looks like D Magazine stands by its reporting. From the food editor:
  17. I can't say for sure if it's available in the US, but my wife says it's almost impossible to find outside of Yunnan. Apparently the Han and Cantonese aren't big on milk products.
  18. Additionally, the guest judge is not going to know how the cheftestants performed in previous episodes, so it would render their opinion meaningless. When the judging is based solely on the just the meal at hand, the guest judge is as much in the loop and has as valuable an opinion as all the other judges. If other episodes were taken into consideration, guest judges would not have the background on which to base their decision.
  19. Isn't farmed salmon worse, in terms of both health and quality, than wild salmon? A lot of studies "prove" that farmed salmon has a greater prevalence of mercury and other industrial chemicals than wild salmon. I'd cite a source, but there has been so much research done that I think this is common knowledge.
  20. By that definition, couldn't Gazpacho also be called a salad? Of is the important word there "tossed"?
  21. German potato salad is served warm, but isn't billed as such. It has bacon/fat in it that gets unpleasant served cold.
  22. I'm glad you asked this question. I remember when friends from China came to the US, they asked me what a salad was, and I gave them the usual answer: lettuce, tomato, onion, etc. But then when we got to this, I couldn't explain what made this a "salad": Actually it was a conch and squid salad, but you get the idea. Hopefully, this thread will clear that up for me.
  23. Starkman, when you "Asian" I'm not sure what you mean, but I don't know of any one book that attempts to list every ingredient used in all of Asian cooking. On the Internet you can find plenty of glossaries broken down by cuisine. If you are looking for Chinese ingredients, for example, you can find a glossary here. For Korean ingredients, here. Etc.
  24. $120?? All it does is 'slow poach' the eggs. Can't you do the same thing in a coffee thermos? This is a awfully funny in a very sad sort of way ...
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