CathyL

I like the effect of sugar on poultry, Russ. To me the flavor is slightly hammy, which I guess qualifies as luncheon meat! Usually I stick to simple salt & sugar but for my T'giving turkey this year I did a brine from John Ash that I found in 'Fine Cooking' a while ago - maple syrup, fresh ginger, chilis, garlic, soy, bay, thyme. The flavors are subtle, but delicious.

Last night was our first visit, and we're eager to go back. The decor is down-home funky, filtered through Manhattan sensibilities - as it should be. Noisy, but then every table was full. We really liked the food, beginning with the addictive barbecue potato chips. The hot, puffy fry bread is delicious, although the accompanying chipotle butter (also delicious) was too cold to spread. The chilled smoked foie gras is excellent - brilliant concept, very well executed. I like fat. I shared the Rhapsody in 'Cue combo with a friend. Good thing, because it would have been too much for me. The spareribs pulled cleanly off the bone, with just the right 'snap' (I don't want the meat to fall off), had a rich smoky taste and a nice dry-rub crust; I preferred them to my pal's baby backs. The brisket (from the fattier point section rather than the flat) was tender & juicy. The pulled pork was also well-flavored but I thought the texture was slightly mushy. The hot links are rousingly spiced. Good sides - coleslaw is a bit sweet for my taste, roasted asparagus (I wanted collards, but my pals insisted we order at least one relatively fat-free thing) is great, and I couldn't stop eating the onion rings. Mac & cheese is rich and slightly tangy; the chili would make a Texan frown (it has beans) but it's yummy. No one had room for dessert but we forged ahead anyway. Home-made vanilla ice cream in the hot fudge sundae; beautiful rhubarb crisp, with a perfect sweet/tart balance. And the sticky toffee pudding is unbelievable: caramel so dark and intense it's not even sweet, rich/moist cake, whipped crème fraîche, toasted pecans. We didn't order the toffee pudding; our server offered it with her compliments, "because I heard you talking about it." Service overall was professional, attentive-but-not-too and warm. Danny Meyer stopped by and asked if we'd tried the condiments (dry rub, seasoned salt, barbecue sauce). I told him his barbecue is good enough to stand alone, which is the highest compliment I can pay. The Magic Dust rub is terrific, by the way - I want to try it the next time I smoke a pork butt. After all the bashing Blue Smoke has gotten, I'm happy to applaud Danny and his talented crew for taking a big risk, and pulling it off with their usual style & quality. Ignore the silly dithering about whether the food is 'authentic' barbecue! Go and enjoy.

Wilfrid, quartering the lemons is what I've always done...but Marcella says to leave them whole and pierce them all over with a needle. One would think that Italian chickens are even smaller than our battery-raised birds. So...I'm STILL puzzled. But thanks for the reply! Lullyloo, there's a good article about brining, written by Janet Fletcher for the SF Chronicle in '98. It no longer seems to be available online, but it's been copied onto the site linked below. (Apologies if this breaks eGullet rules...) Ready for Brine Time

Okay, this has puzzled me for YEARS. I love lemon with chicken, but have never ever seen lemons small enough to stuff even one in the cavity let alone two, so I feel I've never done Marcella Hazan's brilliantly simple recipe justice. Am I missing something here? I am also a big fan of butterflying/spatchcocking, which I learned originally from Richard Olney's 'Simple French Food.' It's especially good on my grill/smoker because it's so easy to flip it skin toward the coals for crisping. Stuffiing under the skin is a favorite ploy when I have time - it looks gorgeous, tastes terrific, and people (well, non-cooks) are always so impressed. I like to brine, especially if I have to make do with a run-of-the-mill chicken. For crispy skin and more flavor, I brush a butterflied bird with a mix of Dijon mustard, honey, soy sauce and a little olive oil - then grill or broil.

My family was visiting from Denver, and after several restaurant nights I had the whole tribe over for dinner yesterday. I picked up some wonderful stuff from Layla, our just-reopened Mediterranean place in Tribeca: baba ghanouj, muhammara (red pepper/walnut dip), spicy lavash chips, and carrot salad (shredded carrots, blood oranges, red wine vinegar, olive oil, a little orange flower water). I smoked two silvertip roasts, with a spicy Tex-Mexish dry rub. Accompaniments, in addition to the carrot salad: Yukon Gold chunks, roasted with garlic and rosemary; blanched green beans dressed with soy, rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic & ginger, topped with crisp-fried shallots. Dessert: killer brownies and whole strawberries. A multi-culti jumble, I know, but it's what I felt like making and everything was devoured. We all had a wonderful time...even though a pigeon relieved itself on my dad's jacket while we were sitting in the garden.

I do it all. My husband's only culinary capability is toaster-oven-broiled hot dogs. Once, early in our relationship, I was out of town and he invited a friend over to broil steaks. I still haven't figured out how they managed to dirty every pot and pan in the house. That was the last time he showed any interest in cooking. However, he's VERY good at buying kitchen equipment, and he does the dishes.

Sandra, that sounds yummy. Red pepper flakes are not generic, a recent discovery for me. I'm addicted to the Marash Red Pepper from Zingerman's (doubtless available for less $ in a less cute package elsewhere). It's lively, zingy, tingly but not searingly hot. I've been scattering it on almost everything, except ice cream. Which is not a bad idea...

Pork fat on matzah! Jinmyo, that brings new meaning to the tired term "fusion food." I recall reading an interview with Maida Heatter: she prefers Land O'Lakes for baking.

Steven, thanks for another wonderful report. It made me hungry for brisket! Recently a friend was writing an article about mail-orderable meats and gave me samples of brisket from both Cooper's and Black's. The latter was far superior: moist, tender, just smoky enough. I haven't been to Smitty's and will have to invent an excuse to visit Austin so I can. Condolences on the ceviche debacle. At least Momo got some jollies. Have you and Ellen seen The Osbornes? Kind of like watching a train wreck - it's horrid, but you can't look away. They have a dysfunctional bulldog (as you'd expect from a dysfunctional family), and in a recent episode there was a graphic sequence of said dog puking, with that eloquent pre-puke urp...urp...urp...that bulls do so well. My husband and I howled, remembering our long-departed pup, and I thought of you. Looking forward to the next installment... Cathy PS If you still need someone to accept your Beard award, let me know.

I probably wouldn't do corn on the cob and bread or baked potatoes - too solid/stodgy. But a fresh corn/tomato salad at room temperature, with hot crispy roasted tater chunks, would both be fine accompaniments to grilled lamb. Starch is as starch does.

Roasted corn sliced off the cob, tossed with diced tomato, sweet onion, a little oil & vinegar, some basil. I prefer corn on the cob unbuttered - just salt & pepper. (Or, sometimes, a squeeze of lime & a sprinkle of ground chipotle.)

For saucing pan-seared steaks, nothing beats a good old marchand du vin. Jinmyo's suggestion sounds great for grilled steaks. Guilty secret: I've been using Muir Glen's fire-roasted tomatoes for sauces. I think Muir Glen tastes fresher than any other canned brand (or Pomi), and the hint of woodsmoke is a nice fillip.

Yes, I always use Plugra for baking - and for almost everything else. (Sometimes I buy the French one- Charentes?? - that comes in a gold foil-wrapped cylinder.) Rachel, I'm not sure if Keller's and Plugra are formulated differently, but Fairway sells the Plugra in 1 lb. blocks at considerably less $$ than the equivalent amount of Keller's.

Karen, I started making these meringues years ago (from the dacquoise recipe in ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’). They’re easy, versatile and can be made in advance and frozen. 2 large cookie sheets, buttered/floured 8 oz. pecans (or almonds or hazelnuts), toasted & pulverized with 3/4 cup sugar 6 egg whites, beaten to stiff/shiny meringue with 1/4 cup sugar & 2 tsp vanilla Gently fold nuts/sugar into meringue. Plop 6-8 mounds on baking sheets and spread into dessert-plate-sized disks. Bake at 250 for an hour, or until layers are lightly brown and can be pushed loose easily. Cool on a rack. Wrap airtight & freeze if you like. Set a disk on a dessert plate. Add 3 small scoops ice cream and/or sorbet. Top with raspberry sauce (6-8 oz. berries frozen without sugar, mostly defrosted, pushed through fine disk of food mill, lightly sweetened, a bit of lemon added).

A favorite springtime dinner menu: shrimp in oil & lemon (room temp) good crusty bread grilled butterflied leg of lamb (slathered with a paste of garlic, rosemary, soy sauce, olive oil and Dijon mustard a few hours before cooking) roasted (or grilled) asparagus roasted Yukon Gold chunks crisp disks of pecan meringue, topped with vanilla ice cream and/or lemon sorbet, with raspberry sauce

Does anyone else remember the cake Paula Oland used to do for Ecce Panis? It was chocolate genoise, layered with an airy coffee buttercream, topped with a chocolate glaze. Not too sweet, intensely flavored, nice mix of textures. I still daydream about it. One of my favorite cakes to make is from Simone Beck (her 2nd solo cookbook, I think): a single chocolate layer, baked slightly underdone, the center scooped out & mixed with a cherry compote to make a filling, chocolate/butter glaze.

What a nice end-of-week coincidence! I just discovered this thread, although I've been roasting cauliflower for a year or so and was planning to do it for dinner. I saw the John Ash show and keep meaning to get some pecan oil - how could that not be delicious? Among the seasonings I've tried with olive oil, my favorite is a dusting of curry powder (a good sharp/sweet/hot one) before the florets go in the oven. I think I'll try slices tonight. Usually I roast florets at 450 for 30-45 minutes; they get brown and a bit crunchy but don't turn to mush. Celery root slices are also wonderful roasted. Sometimes I add sliced parsnips.

Steven, I got a Unicorn Magnum to churn out pepper in quantity for spice rubs - it delivers a lot with each turn, and the grind is easily adjusted. Now it's the mill I always reach for. It's a workhorse, and a pleasure to use.

Some already mentioned: Julia Marcella The Cake Bible (especially the chocolate oblivion truffl torte & neo-classic buttercream) Thrill of the Grill Back to Square One, Kitchen Conversations Serious Pig, Pot on the Fire More: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone/Madison Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book Maida Heatter’s dessert cookbooks (all of them!) The Complete Meat Cookbook/Aidells & Kelly Smoke & Spice/Jamisons Simple French Food, Lulu’s Provencal Table/Olney Simple to Spectacular/Jean-Georges (love the pork with citrus & caramel ) Today’s Gourmet I & II/Pepin - slim paperbacks, full of good/quick ideas