FoodMan

I am so loving this latest ice cream I made tat I had to share it. It's the best ginger ice cream I made so far, "Triple Ginger Ice Cream". I made it to serve with Alton Brown's fruit cake, but it is fantastic on it's own with lots of flavor and that unique ginger spiciness. Click Here for the recipe

Triple Ginger Ice Cream Serves 10 as Dessert. This is the best ginger ice cream I have made so far. I made it specifically to go with my fruit cake, but it is excellent on its own or sandwiched between Amaretti cookies. It is full of ginger aroma, flavor and hint of spiciness. 2 c Whole Milk 2 c Heavy Cream 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled 3 strips of Dried or Fresh Orange zest 8 Egg Yolks 9 oz Sugar 2 tsp Dried Ground Ginger 1 tsp Vanilla Extract 2 T Chopped Crystallized Ginger - In a sauce pan heat the milk, cream ginger and zest until it barely gets to a simmer. Turn off the heat and let it sit covered for 30 minutes. - Strain the mixture through a sieve into another pot and bring up to a simmer again. - In the meantime whisk the egg yolks, sugar and ground ginger together in a bowl. Slowly temper with the hot milk mixture and pour the mix back into the pot on gentle heat. Keep stirring until it thickens to coat the back of a spoon, but DO NOT let it boil. It should take maybe 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. - Pour the custard through a sieve again into a pitcher or bowl and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. - Churn in an ice cream maker and add the chopped crystallized ginger during the last 30 seconds of churning. Enjoy! Keywords: Dessert, Intermediate, Ice Cream ( RG2079 )

Cookwithlove- You mentioned the Lebanese Manouche and other breads a few times. When I was in Lebanon this summer I picked up two books. One is Saha which you already have and the other is this book. 'Man'ouche' is a wonderfully written and pictured book about all kinds of Lebanese pies. If you can get your hands on a copy you will not regret it.

New Years day dinner: Started off with tortellini stuffed with butternut squash, then tossed with the traditional sage butter and topped with a grating of homemade amaretti cookies. I was going for the small 'bellybutton' shapes here and I was pretty happy with the result. The taste was fantastic as well. My wife pretty much ate only this and hardly any of the secondo. Then we had Cotechino wrapped in Beef. Homemade Cotechino sausage par-cooked and wrapped in beef round then braised in red wine (recipe from Splendid Table). Served this with lentils. This was also a real winner of taste and different textures, also the fatty sausage works great with the lean beef. Dessert was very simple. Some of those amaretti cookies with homemade gelato and raspberry sauce. Sorry no pic of that, but here are the just baked cookies Happy 2008 everyone!

Wow, didn't know they offer this $22 lunch. I definitly would like to give it a shot. Thanks for the pics, but I do agree about the liver portion size. I can never eat this much liver!

My stupid DVR did not pick it up either!! Probably cause it's not called No Reservations. There seems to be a rerun on Wednesday, so I set it for then.

exactly ← I see. Thanks. I've never taken the temp for the chocolate when I use the heat pad method to 'temper'. Maybe mine is lower than what he recommends, so it works fine. I'll make sure to test it next time.

I, like you, thought the same thing. This was going to be more like a stiff applesauce. However, Richard here uses equal amounts of potato and beets (by weight), but instead of the waxy yukon gold we normally associate with potato puree he specifies 'baking' potato. So, the final product is actually sturdy enough and starchy enough to be called a potato puree. I doubt anyone would not know that this is a creamy potato puree flavored intensely with beets (no butter or cream here either...just olive oil and some balsamic). I bet the same thing will be true with the very green potato puree he has a recipe for (basil and chives I think).

I just finished watching this episode off of my TiVo. Really, not nearly as complicated as I thought it would be. Of course, I haven't read through this thread to learn about other techniques, but his looked pretty good. And the suggestion to make Moon Pies? Oh yeah... I gotta try that! (and really, I want to try his melt the chocolate with a heating pad and keep in temper method) ← Hmmm... did you notice that his chocolate was totally NOT in temper? I'm not saying that you can't do it with the heating pad, but you'd have to keep a pretty good eye on it, though. ← The only marshmallow recipe that I've liked so far is the one from this thread. After seeing Alton though, I have to try his too! Those moon pies did look awsome as well. How could you tell it was not in temper? He advised using this method before, not sure on what show, to 'temper' or more like to keep the already tempered chocolate tempered and it works great. I've used it before several times to create hard chocolate crusts on desserts or to cut shapes out for decoration. I'm just and amateur home cook so I am not saying you are wrong. I'm just curious how you could tell it was not tempered just by looking at it.

terapinchef, I love your setup! especially the creative use of the phone book LOL. My Winter Ale came out great as well. It is perfect for sipping, mildly roasty and a touch sweet. I do think it also is stronger than what I've brewed before (could be all in my head though) since it is supposed to be a STRONG ale. Only downside is that I think it needs a bit more carbonation...not much, but a bit more would be good. Here is a shot of a recent glass

I really need to make a whole meal from HitK..anyways I thought this one was so good I had to share it. I am specifically talking about the red beet potato puree. It is just a gorgeous way to use this underutilized vegetable. It looks great and tasted fantastic. Here I served it with pan seared mahi mahi and spinach balls cooked in butter (these are inspired by a French Laundry Cookbook dish).

I followed Mr. Ruhlman's directions for this sauce, with two differences: I used red wine instead of white (because I had it and also because I was using the sauce with beef) and I reduced the sauce a bit before adding the butter (because it was way too thin). It was very good; I can see the points about texture, certainly.But I agree with Steven: this was not a neutral sauce. I can't, in a million years, imagine serving it with fish, unless for some reason I wanted to substantially mask the taste of the fish. ← Ah, but you didn't follow the recipe. Use white wine next time. I have made sauce for fish with veal stock, and believe it or not, it works. But not with red wine.You said the sauce was very thin...had you cooked down the stock? It should be practically solid when cold, and fairly viscous when warmed. ← I agree. I am not sure why you would want to serve this sauce that you made, not Ruhlman, with fish! I bet it tasted good with beef though. Almost anyone who has cooked before knows that red and white wine produce very different results when cooked down. I have no opinion of the book itself just yet because I have not read it. I am definitly picking up a copy soon though. Just like someone said upthread, it's like a Coens' film, even the imperfect ones are still worth watching more than once.

Terrine of pork and veal flavored with vin de noix and a little brandy. I made this to snack on while cooking for thanksgiving last week. The definition is made of soaked cranberries, pistachios and strips of veal. I wrapped this one with blanched leeks. BTW, Peter the sous vide idea is good, but not exactly new. Many traditional emulsified sausages (a terrine is more or less that) are cooked by gentle poaching. A galantine or ballotine comes to mind as does mortadella.

Cooking on the Saj is very common in Lebanon. You even find very fancy local chains now serving a variety of Manaish on the saj like the place called 'Zaatar W Zeit'. Their stuff is pretty good, even though it is served in a hip environment that reminds me of Starbucks. The dough is usually hand rolled to be very transparent and then placed on the Saj. What is unique in Labib's case is his method. His dough is very wet and soft and cannot be handled. He told me he has semolina in it as well as whole wheat. It's that process of spreading it AFTER putting it on the wok like griddle that gives his pies a unique and amazing texture.

After reading through this wonderful book for a month, and it is a very good and informative read, I finally joined the party here and made a couple of dishes. Beef Rendang Steamed Jasmin rice Javanese Carrot and Cucumber pickle I made a double batch of the Rendang based on the comments I've read here. I sure am glad I did. This stuff is addictive and utterly delicious. I cooked it maybe 2 hours on the stove top , then due to time constraints (I needed to go to bed on a Teusday night) I stuck it in the oven at 320 for another 2 hours. The next day all I had to do was finish it off in a nonstick pan on the stove top. The pickle worked great with the spicy rich beef dish. I added some cilantro I had lying around to this pickle as well. Good addition.

Qawarma or Awarma is a traditional ancient Lebanese pantry item dating back to the days when mountain residents had to endure all winter with limited access to fresh foods and meats. Just like confit or other charcuterie it is a method of preserving meat for the winter and it is still done today because it is so tasty. The lambs found in Lebanon are typically the ones with a fat tail (liya). The tail alone is a huge lump of fat that weighs several kilos. When the lamb is slaughtered the fat from the tail and other places is rendered and is used to cook minced pieces of the lamb's meat along with spices and salt. This then is kept in crocks under the rendered fat for the winter. Qawarma is used sparingly to flavor soups, mixed with scrambled eggs or labneh, as a topping for Mana'ish or really as a fat/salt base for anything. It is usually on the salty side and has an assertive lamby/gamy flavor.

Labib As you can se, Labib’s bakery is nothing to write home about if you simply drive by. However, this little one man show in the Dekwani area in Beirut is the best new discovery on this trip. My brother kept saying “You have to go to Labib’s bakery for Mana’ish baked on the Saj. They are like no other’s mana’ish.” A quick tutorial might be in order. Mana’ish (the plural of Man’oushi) are a typical breakfast/snack food in Lebanon. Think of them as Lebanese pizza pies. Traditional topping is made from zaatar (wild thyme, sesame, sumac and olive oil), but other toppings include cheese, kishik (fermented yogurt and cracked wheat), Qawarma (lamb cooked in lamb fat = lamb confit?) and Armenian sausage to name a few. These can be either baked in a regular gas powered oven or on a Saj. Both are good, but produce different results. The Saj looks like an upside down wok and is fueled traditionally by wood, but in most cases by propane (or butane?). Oh boy was my brother right! As opposed to almost all other Saj places, Labib’s pies are very rustic. His dough is very wet and cannot be handled and rolled paper thin as is the norm. Instead he removes a ball of dough from the stash and puts it straight on the hot Saj where he uses his hands to ‘form’ it into a roughly round shape. Then he applies, again using nothing but his hands, the topping. The result is a wonderfully light, crispy and airy Man’oushi. I loved these so much I came back the next day to snap all these pictures. Ok, Labib’s menu includes: Zaatar plain, with creamy cheese, with regular cheese (probably salty Akawi), with Labneh or with Kashkaval cheese. Lahm bil Ajeen (meat pie) Sujuk (Armenian Sausage) Kafta Kishik Qawarma (with all the variations of the zaatar one) Cheese, also in several variations and styles and with meats or without Chocolate (usually Nutella) with banana and hazelnut A couple of things to drink. I tried a few of these. My favorites were the Cheese with vegetables (tomatoes/mint/olives all placed in the pie after it’s baked), the Zaatar in the same style and the Qawarma with Labneh (boy is this one rich). You can see a cheese pie in the back and he is working on a meat one in the front here. I am pretty sure the one in the forefront is mine here. It’s half zaatar and half cheese. A finished and sliced pie ready to eat. This was my cheese and vegetable pie. A closer look. This was the Labneh with vegetables. I crave these simple pies on a daily basis…another three years or so before I can have another…

Don't know about the missing flavor Kevin, but the chicken looks great. How much do you have to pay for Porcini in Dallas? I don't think I've ever seen them in Houston.

And where were the peas from? ← A bag of frozen peas

I love this seasonal cool weather! Puts me in mind for good baked pasta dishes. The one I made recently from Schwartz's book hit the spot right on. It is a baked pasta full of mushrooms (dry and fresh...love those dry porcinis), a meaty ragu, peas with pancetta and the whole thing is covered with a rich inch thick snow cap of balsamella. Delicious stuff. The only devaition from the recipe was in using spaghetti instead of tagliatelle and I also used homemade crumbled sausage instead of ground beef.

Wow! That cured up really nicely, good and fatty -- looks delicious. Did you do anything special, or just follow the book's recipe? Any plans for a pastrami in the works? When I made it corned beef, the cure didn't quite make it all the way in. In retrospect, it might be the fault of the kosher meat I used, which is probably less able to absorb the brine. Now that I have access to some better, unkosher meat, I'll give it another go if it ever stops feeling like summer. ← I just followed the recipe. I did notice a very small section, about 1/2 inch wide in the center of the thickest part to which the cure did not penetrate though. Of course Pastrami is in the plans...my wife keeps asking for it actually. I will post once I do make it.

It's that time of year when cooking from this book is most appropriate again (or so it seems to me). I gave the "Poached Chicken Breasts Auvergne Style" a whirl this time around. The result was as beautiful to look at as it is to eat. The broth is indeed spectacular and the chicken is moist and flavorful. Couple of points to note for those who might want to give it a try. First, make real sure to buy a BIG cabbage. You need those big sturdy leaves. The first cabbage I bought ended up too small and I could barely wrangle 4 decent leaves out of. So, I froze the stuffing and tried again the next week with a bigger cabbage. Hey, it proves that the stuffing freezes very well. Second, keep and eye on the cabbage leaves and do not let them overcook. Different leaves have different thicknesses, so they cook differently. As soon as a leaf is soft enough to roll (I did these in batches) take it out and cool it in a water bath.

I added the extract in the beginning.

Ok, here is the recipe pretty much as I brewed it on Sunday. BTW, I love this recipe calculator Chris. It really helped me 'get' how a recipe is built and manipulated! I'll definitly use it again. Looking at the recipe though, my main worry is the IBU. Seems to me like I needed to boil more hops in there. We'll see. Strong English Winter Ale Size 5 gallons Boil 3 gallons color 34 HCU (~17 SRM) bitterness 15.2 IBU OG 1.072, FG 1.022 Alcohol 6.5% v/v (5.1% w/w) Grain: 3 lb. 0 oz. American 2-row 1.5 lb. 0 oz. American crystal 40L 0.5 lb. 0 oz. Dextrine malt (Cara-Pils) 0.75 lb Belgian Biscuit Mash: 68% efficiency Boil: SG 1.120, 3 Gallons 6 lb. 0 oz. Amber LIQUID malt extract Hops: 1 oz. Kent Goldings (FWH) 1 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 60 min.) 1 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 20 min. + 1tsp Irish Moss) 1 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, FO) + star anise/orange zest/cloves 1 oz. Kent Goldings (DH) Yeast: White Labs English Ale

Man, I so want to try this place since I read about it in both the Chronicle and the Press. Seems like a true original and unique new joint. Problem is, it's so damn out of my way. ← No problem, Elie! On your way out to Phoenicia Market, stop in for a quick taste. ← Just got back from lunch at Cafe Pita!! So glad I managed to make it there with a couple of friends. We had the Mezze sampler plate (loved the Soujuk and the feta on it most). The eggplant dip was also very good, smoky and fresh. The one appetizer that exceeded my expectations was the fried anchovies. These beauties were awswome! Not a hint of fishiness on them. Just crispy fresh fish flavor. For main dishes we got the lamb shank and the ground beef paties. Both very good and worht another visit, especially for the price. I'd love to try some more savory pastries next time. We also shared a rice pudding with caramel for dessert. I'd like to also give props to the extremely friendly, knowlegable and efficient waitress (not to mention cute) Viviana. At a place like this sometimes service suffers. Not here though. We all drank the Shockta soda. Pretty good, tasted like Lychee. Was it Lychee?? I did notice that the spicing is very mild. I would've loved a spicy pepper paste with those ground beef patties.