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Magictofu

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Everything posted by Magictofu

  1. I am also puzzled by the reputation of English food. Being French Canadian, "my" traditional cuisine is heavily influenced by English food. The Brittish gave us most modern Roasts, extraordinary meat pies, great stews and braise... My guess is that the French/English rivalry played itself up in the culinary world and ended up in a great defeat for the English in the afterwar period. Not that French food was inherently better but that it got more attention accross the world including in Brittish kitchens. I love simplistic theories!
  2. Bump! I have a ton of Tuscan Black Kale in my garden and we now get frost every night. It won't take long before all the plant finally die. We love bean and kale soup, kale and bacon as well as kale and pasta. What else can be done with sich a nice but tough vegetable? Is freezing the best way to preserve it?
  3. French Canadians in Quebec also preserve herbs and vegetables in salt. We call this "herbes salées" and it is usually added to soups and stews. Many people add Kale to their recipe, it stays green. Recipes varies from region to region. Remember that when making your own recipe, the technique is more important than the recipe itself. If you read French, here are a few recipes: http://www.recettes.qc.ca/recettes/recette...=2828&rdj=&pub= http://www.banlieusardises.com/delices/archives/001682.html http://www.servicevie.com/01Alimentation/R...2500/2542b.html http://recettes.ameriquebec.net/archives/r...alees-de-zet.qc Here are a few recipes in English: http://homecooking.about.com/od/allherbrecipes/r/blherb6.htm http://www.rona.ca/project/~?sort=2&page=1...887+4294964771+
  4. I think this is because of previous rumours about the book and the possible availability of home versions of sous vide equipment. That being said, Bouchon is much easier to deal with than French Laundry in a home kitchen.
  5. In my garden, ground cherries grow next to carrots, onions, dill and asparagus. I don't think they go so well together.
  6. Eat the meat rare (or raw). Add butter or other fats on top of the meat and baste constantly. Do not freeze the meat.
  7. From this, should we understand that grass fed makes tastier stews and braises while grain fed makes more tender steaks? ← Don't confuse the meaning of the terms "grass-fed" and "grain-fed." That makes it sound like "grain-fed" cattle are fed a diet of grain throughout their lives, which is not usually the case. Generally, cattle are born and raised by a rancher/breeder that lets them feed on grass in an open pasture until they are yearlings, at about 12-14 months or so, and around 800 pounds. Then they are sold at auction to feed lots where they are fed corn for a couple of months until they are sold to the processors. The feed lots are those large pens that you see when you're driving along the highways in cattle country. They're not born and raised in those pens, just finished. They eat the corn, which doesn't digest as readily and easily as grass, and they don't run as much as they do in the open pastures, so the meat marbles. Cattle are herd animals, so those pens are not a hardship, as evidenced by the fact that when you see cattle in their large pastures, most often they are grouped together in one part of it. And the finishing process only takes a few weeks. So when you read "grain-fed," most often you are talking about "grain-finished." I should add that at least that's the way it used to be. My father was in the cattle business for many years (rancher/breeder of Black Angus and Whiteface), but he sold out about 15 years ago and it's possible things have changed. And it's also possible, of course, that my memory has gotten kind of fuzzy. ← I do not live in cattle country but some farmers still raise cattle, particularly when high income is not an issue. Here, while hay remains a part of the diet of the animals, most are fed a supplement of grain throughout their lives. This means that they are not entirely grass fed or grain fed but that grains is fed to the animals everyday. There are farmers who will grow their animals mostly on pasture and hay and often finish them with supplemental grains for about a month. Some among them don't even bother with grains but they tend to sell their meat through alternative distribution networks.
  8. From this, should we understand that grass fed makes tastier stews and braises while grain fed makes more tender steaks?
  9. This could turn out to be a delicious experiment too!
  10. Now that's something I'd like to see -- hopefully something more than upside down "disco fries". ← It's actually a bite-size appetizer. The crust is made of flaked potatoes and it is filled with cheese and gravy. The recipe, in French, can be found here: http://curieuxbegin.telequebec.tv/FicheRecette.aspx?id=65
  11. 100% grass fed usually means lean. Often, farmers will 'finish' their beef for a few weeks with a supplemental dose of grains while letting them continue to graze. That could probably be called an hybrid approach. That being said, the season the beef is being killed is said to influence the taste and marbling of the meat... I forgot which season is better though. Some breeds will also develop better marbling than others.
  12. The other way around is to freeze uncooked homemade pasta. They can be cooked frozen in less than 5 minutes. You can then add whatever sauce you have available. This way, you can have a variety of sauces and use the same pasta.
  13. Homemade noodles freeze quite well by themselves but I am not sure that the result will be as good if frozen and reheated with a sauce.
  14. It's a pleasure to distract you from the election results (it seems it will be more of the same thing anyway). The comments I have read about HFW's recipes were not necessarily about this recipe but about those found in his books, in particular many people felt they wasted whole hams by following too closely the ham recipe. As such, I would probably stick to a short cure rather than the maximum of 10 days and increase the curing time according to my own taste the next year.
  15. That is a lot of liver! You could make mousse but it does not always keep well. You could pan fry them and make various sauces to go with them (e.g. mustard and cream, port wine and shallots, deviled sauce...) I guess you could even make liver sausages with it. Good luck!
  16. I did not try this specific recipe but his cured meat recipes are known to be heavy on salt (very long cures). I think this is partly due to the fact that he does not use saltpeter or pink salt. You might want to look at the bacon thread, I found a great deal of useful advices there.
  17. One thing I particularly like to have in the freezer are small portions of onion confit. When you are hungry, put one portion in a bowl that can be placed in the oven with either water or broth, top it with croutons and cheese, then bake in the oven, and you got an almost instant retro-chic French onion soup. You can also put them in a foil packet with chicken and a bit of butter and wine and you get something delicious in no time. Defrosted and mixed with cream cheese, sour cream or yogurt, it becomes a great dip... not a meal in itself but sometimes it is close enough. There are a number of similar flavour boosters (e.g. pesto, sundried tomatoes, ...) that can easily tansform the usual weeknight bland into tasty dinners. What is particularly interesting here is that these things won't take too much freezer space and meals can be assembled in a few minutes and placed in the fridge with basic instructions for your partner.
  18. This might not be what you are looking for but we tend to cook large meals and freeze the leftovers in individual portions.
  19. Edible simply means that you can eat it without suffering too much inconvenience and ideally gaining something in terms of taste or nutrition. I don't think one should look further than that. However, you raise an interesting point by suggesting that not all that is edible should necessarily be eaten in a world of expanding food offering and choice. I am the kind of people who thinks one's palate is not fixed at birth and that what appears as disgusting at first can turn out to be thought of as a delicacy after some exposure (coffee comes to mind). To be objectives in our food selection however, I believe it is more appropriate to destroy the many food taboos that prevent us from experiencing the true diversity of food around us than eliminating food that we consider less palatable (particularly when others truly enjoy it). That being said, I have nothing against rot... I love cheese, wine, stinky tofu, etc.
  20. The 'wild chef' shows are shorter versions of the French 'Martin sur la Route' shows (available on DVD). Interestingly, these shows skipped some of the best bits of the French shows (e.g. general tso bobcat, BBQ squirrels, the historical context discussions...). I am guessing Food TV thought it was a bit too hard core for their viewers or that the jokes were not politically correct enough (e.g. general tso bobcat) or hard to export. I think this show would be a hard sell in the US considering the strong French accents of the two cooks (something politicians got us used to in Canada) and the provocative nature of some of the dishes. That being said, this show, and particularly the French version, is a piece of food tv anthology. So far, my favorite episode is the moose hunting one
  21. I think plating should always be a second thought... not something that inspires the dish itself... That being said, I really like the way restaurants use barely set jellies in tiny colorful bits to cover the base of the plate. Each jelly (made of herbs, vegetables, stocks...) slowly becomes a sauce as it melts in contact with the food. It works particularly well for lighter dishes in the summer. I'm sure I can easily grow tired of it when everyone ends up doing the same thing though.
  22. Never thought about freezing them... I did think about pickling them though. I might try to freeze some next time and will report here later.
  23. There are different style of chinese hot pot. Our favourite is sichuan style with a very spicy broth using a lot of chiles and sichuan pepper. We usually have two broth, the hot 'mala' broth just described here and another one, typically chicken broth with lemon. We particularly like using lamb and rolled up "tofu skin" in our hot pot.
  24. BUMP! I now have to deal with an enormous amount of swiss chard from my garden. I will use some of the greens for various recipe but I am running out of ideas for the stems! My favorite way to use the stems so far is simply to steam them and serve them cold or lukewarm with a vinaigrette (mine is heavy on shallots and is sweetened with honey). I will make a gratin tonight but might need more suggestions.
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