Magictofu

Rob, did you cook your octopus? How did it turn out?

I finally cooked mine in a morel cream sauce since I had a lot of small bits that would not have looked as nice on a plate without a thick sauce to cover them.

It looks very "clean" for an aged piece of meat, you probably have a very good butcher. Marlene, would cooking 2 roasts take twice as long as cooking a single roast? My guess is that it does not. I've only seen minutes per pounds for large birds like Turkey which I always considered somewhat accurate since birds are more round than long. Again, I'm definitely not a roast expert, far from it...

Was is really dry aged? Was is trimmed before being vac-packed? As for smoking, correct me if I'm wrong but since the thickness of the meat does not change whether you cut it in two or not, shouldn't this roast take about the same time?

Hard boiled eggs in the center of your stuffing can be quite nice too. The trick is to cut the extremities of each egg and align your eggs so that you end up with a very long egg. This way, each guest will have a slice of egg with yolk in the center. It works particularly well when you cook the stuffing separately or when you debone the bird before stuffing it.

You can make a killer appetizer with fresh anchovy filets. You just have to marinate them in a bit of lemon juice, olive oil and your favorite herbs. Let them sit in the marinade for about an hour so that the acidity cook them partly (a bit like ceviche). Serve with bread to soak up the dressing. You can do something similar and equally good with cooked anchovy filets, 10 minutes in the marinade is plenty.

In my case, it would have to be "cipaille" one of the many variety of tourtière. The best ones are multilayered meat pies made with wild game.

I love sweetbread and bought 2 packs at the butcher store yesterday. I plan to turn them into appetizers for the holidays. I have found quite a few recipes that seem delicious... sage and brown butter, riesling sauce, etc. What is your favorite way to cook/eat them?

Could you explain how you intend to smoke this roast? ← Sure. I haven't done one this size, but have done a 9lber on the smoker. We use apple wood, sparingly, and smoke it at 200. When we did the 9 lb, it took a little over 3 hours, then we seared it on the grill afterwards. I'm thinking maybe 4 1/2 hours for this one, but who knows. It will be very very cold up there, so it could take a little longer. No rush, as long as we eat before midnight! We do use a thermometer, so I'll be able to monitor in terms of timing for other dishes. ← I know very little about smoking and BBQ, does this mean your roast will be far from rare but closer to, say, BBQ ribs?

I was very curious when reading your post so I did some research This website (french) shows you how to find them on a young duck: http://chefsimon.com/ricanar.htm From the description, it seems that they are close to veal and lamb sweetbread.

Could you explain how you intend to smoke this roast?

I will be cooking two beautiful racks of venison in a few days. My plan is too cook them fast in a hot oven, and maybe add a pine nut or pistachio crust. I will take them out of the oven when they reach 125. Any pointers? Advices? I plan to make a sauce to go with them. However I am not too sure what kind of sauce it will be. I still have quite some dried mushrooms from last years mushroom picking season which are quite tempting (particularly the morels) but a port reduction sauce or a sauce using cranberries is also tempting. I don't have any recipes yet and wold love to read your suggestions. P.S.: I promise to report back.

"clam sausage with a little salt pork may be good" This is one of my favourite combination... never seen it in a sausage form but I assume you would need some breadcrumbs to absorb the extra moisture from the clams. These would be expensive sausages too!

Lamb from NZ is generally pastured as lamb in many areas in North America is fed on grains. I also prefer NZ lamb to the generic "local" lamb but I am sure you can get even better local lamb if you seek it out. I personnaly don't like very young lamb and tend to prefer pastured lamb.

Six out of ten is not great but I did have some outstanding arctic char sausage in a restaurant a while ago.

You are probably right. Either way, how bad can it be if we grill the octopus before serving?

If you want something a little unusual, why not make fish sausage?

Did the same with mine and they were fine.

Bacon rules. And until two weeks ago I had rainbow chard growing in my garden. I'll write it down and check out chard availability in Ottawa. ← If you want coloured chard, check out the Herb & Spice Shop on Wellington St. They have amazing veggies that you can't find anywhere else. If you want me to scope it out for you, let me know. ← They even have it at Loblaws from time to time.

Depending on the type of tourtière on the menu, you might want to go with something light. What about a vegetable terrine or some kind of aspic? These are fairly traditional réveillon fare that might well fit the bill. I remember seeing pictures of truly amazing vegetarian terrines in some of Charlie Trotter's book.

Chard is definitely available in Ottawa but like everything at this time of the year, it's imported.

The name of the recipe is "barbecued octopus with yukon golds"... you might be right that a step is missing... where is the BBQ?

I just looked at the book. The first step of the recipe consist in frying the octopus in a hot dutch oven until it has released all its liquid. I assume the color comes from this process. But then it is supposed to simmer in its own liquid for 1 1/2 to 2 hours... this is the part I don't get... if cooked on all side in a smoking hot dutch oven, how can we get enough liquid to do that?

Restaurant supply store or garage sales.

Pam mention that there is a difference between a trip of mesh as opposed to a whole sheet. This is the part that I do not understand. I am still wondering how these bags compare with the tilia brand bags.