FoodMan

Homemade gnochi and oxtail ragu. Braise the oxtaile long and slow with carrots, onions and celery (finely chopped) in lots of red wine. Serve it with gnochi, lots or fresh thyme and shaved Parm. FM

I want to buy a French cookbook but I am not sure where to start. Should I buy Julia Child, Jaque Pepin, or Robuchon. I am leaning towrads getting "Le Quisine De Robuchon" (sp??). Any recommendations would be appreciated and please specify the name of the book in addition to the author if possible. Thanks FM PS: I've never owned a French cookbook.

Wow... I do not normally get the New Yourker but I will make sure to pick up a copy ASAP. It sounds like a real packed issue. Can't wait to read the Mario article. FM

Alton Brown has this pork brine recipe in his book: 1tbs juniper berries 1tbs whole black peppercorns 10 whole cloves 1.5 cups kosher salt 1/2 cup molasses 2 quarts water I have not tried it but I will soon. Let me know if you do what you thought about it. FM

I totally agree with Fat Guy and Jin, and can honestly say I have not used bottled patsa sauce in years. Cheaper and much much tastier to whip something simple at home with the $.99 canned tomatoes than buying those sweet bottled brands. FM

well there you have it. i mistyped "pekin" as "peking" in that post. please accept my apologizies, as i did in fact add to the confusion rather than help. pensively yours, tommy No problem Tommy. This really was an interesting discussion. I kept it in my background and refreshed often while working because I wanted to know what the final conclusion was. I'm getting ready to head home now I have a pot of slow cooked RB&R waiting in the crock pot. later FM

they are referring to the species know as peking duck. they are *not* purveyors of the chinese dish. i'm outta here. Tommy- You did not clarify anything. It seemed you were contradicting yourself by stating that "Peking" is a preparation method and above by saying it is a species or breed. And you did not specify if Pekin and Peking are the same or not (I did see your earlier post). However A BIG THANKS for making this discussion/argument/learning session interesting. better?

Thanks for the great clarification g Johnson. I really thought Pekin and Peking are the same thing. It seems that your cantonese duck pic did not make it right though.

Rigatoni (or Penne) tossed in a sauce made with sauteed eggplant, slivered garlic, chopped canned roma tomatoes. right before serving I toss in fresh basil and cubed fresh mozzarella (the slightly melted mozz is divine with the eggplant and pasta).

I typed Peking (with a 'g') Duck in yahoo search and got two results. This is one of them: http://www.reichardtduckfarm.com/ They claim that they are purveyors of superior Pekin (no 'g') duck. What are they refering to?? Is Pekin and Peking different?? Now I am seriously confused. FM

I do not know where to begin. I put olive oil on vegetables to roast, it is the main ingredient in all my salad dressings (I know that some think it overpowers the other ingredients but I love it), I love to dip my homemade bread in it with some kosher salt, pepper and herbs, I toss some pasta in it with some oil packed white tuna and olives, drizzled on top of fresh mozz and basil. Just to name a few. I would appreciate some pointers on what Olive Oil brands you fellows use and where to get them (Websites or stores), I know that a couple of e-gulleteers are olive oil mechants. Thanks FM

I think that Peking/Pekin/Beijing/Long Island ducks are one and the same and they refer to a "breed" of ducks. Where as Cantonese is more like a style of preparation, sort of like "chicken cacciatore" is hunters' style chicken "cantonese duck" is Cantonese style duck. My 2 cents, FM

Of course. Cucumbers = Cukes. Thanks for clarifying it. I thought they were some kind of weird vegetable in the squash family.

kalamata olives are a definite in my raw tomato sauce as well as basil and oregano. I do not blanch or remove the seeds from the tomatoes. Let us know how it turned out. FM

This might seem like astupid question, but what are Cukes?? Thanks FM

I think you are right. I did not really mean to brine the chicken for this long (actually it was supposed to be about 8hrs). It's just that we got invited to two dinners in a row and I did not get to cook my chikcen till Monday. I was actually scared it will come out too salty after 48hrs of brining, but it was pretty darn good. I would like to brine some pork chops next maybe. FM

Spice brined chicken served on top of a warm lentil and Urud Dahl salad. I brined the chicken for 48 hrs. it came out very moist, tender and juicy. I am sort of new to this whole brining thing but I will certainly do it more often. Have a look:

What exactly is gomasio??? Is it some kind of sesame and salt paste?? What do you use it for?? I'm very interested in knowing. Thanks FM

last night I decided to use up my duck confit that I made last week. So I sauteed the duck confit, red onions, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes preserved in olive oil, and garlic (from the confit) in some duck fat and served it tossed with homemade black pepper Pappardelle with lots of fresh thyme and grated Parmeggiano on top. It was so good (the slight tang of the sundried tomatoes went great with the richness of the confit) that I decided to make it my first e-gullet picture : FM

Last night it was one of my favorite Italian dishes, homemade gnocchi and meat ragu. FM

Saturday Dinner: i bought a whole duck, cut it up into four pieces (removed the breast from the bone). I reserved the bones for stock and rendered the fat (about a cup...yumm). I made some plum sauce with plums,ginger, cloves and star anise. I cooked the breasts by searing them to get the skin really crisp and then basted them with some of the plum sauce. I served the duck sliced with some wilde rice and drizzled it with some more plum sauce. Fantastic. As for the duck legs, thighs and the fat ----> Duck Confit with garlic and thyme. So now I have about 2 cups worth of yummy duck confit that I want to make into raviolis, but I am not sure what kind of sauce to use with the raviolis, and I do not even have a ravioli recipe for Duck Confit. I'm thinking something simple since the Confit is very flavorful. Any ideas?? thanks FM

I do recall the basic technique. I wish I paid more attention, but at the time I just took it for granted I guess. Basically the first step is to dry the roses in the sun. Then to extract the rose water she uses a small distilling setup made with two special cast iron "pots" (open ends facing each other and sealed with some sort of clay) on top of each other. the top one has a cooled pipe through which the rose water runs to a small pot at its end. huh... I guess I remember more than I thought. Hope this helps Are you going to try it Steve? If you do don't forget to send me a bottle, right now I have to use store bought rose water. FM

As far as I know the pink ones with smallish petals are the most fragrant. My grandmother has several bushes of these roses surrounding her garden in my native Lebanon. I have never seen these roses in the US (probably because they do not look as pretty as the long stem/big petals ones that we see at the flower stores). She uses the roses every year to make home made "rose water". Oh boy I cannot describe how good the whole house smells when she makes it. hmmmm.... memory lane she never made rose petal jam though FM

Last night : A pasta dish from my own concoction and from what I had at home. I made a parsley/rosemary pesto (very little Rosemary) with Almonds instead of pine nuts, EVOO, Parmiggiano Regiano, and a squeeze of lemon. I also had some home made oven dried herbed tomatoes, three chicken breasts and about half a pound of soft Chevre. I made the pasta sauce by frying some thinly sliced garlic, added the tomatoes after slicing them then the pesto and last but not least the goat cheese. I added some boiled rigatoni with some of their cooking water to the sauce and tossed the whole thing together. In the mean time I baked the chicken breasts with some OO and some dried oregano. When done I sliced them and served them on top of the pasta. The sauce was exceptionally rich and delicious. According to my wife "this was a keeper". We also made a dessert which was somehting we tried for the first time and it was kinda terrible (I knew the recipe did not make too much sense when we started). We decided not to talk about it and to try it again using a different technique/recipe. I will post it once we succeed. Later, FM

Steve- Congrats on your win!! I never tried blending the two fats, that actually sounds like a pretty good idea that I might try out. As for my All-Butter pie doughs they turn out great as long as I use very chilled butter (In hindsight they might have been a little flakier if I use your suggestion and combine Crisco and butter). I do cook for vegetarians --not vegans-- once in a while and butter is never a problem. Thanks for your input FM