FoodMan

Ponrtormo- If you say the pasta was not worth wasting good homemade stock into, then it is not The book so far as I could tell, is fun to read, informative and with several recipes worth trying. I would just say it is not for a beginner or for a person who blindly follows a recipe. You need to use your common -or cook's- sense when required.

I tried to catch up a bit this weekend and started off with the Sweet raisin and Honey rolls from the FT book. It seems to me like Chef Trabocchi is really in love with the very 'generous' amount of eggs he puts in all kinds of stuff. The resulting dough here is so wet WITHOUT adding any extra liquid to it that I needed maybe like a cup and half extra flour to make it semi-workable. The end result tasted good especially served for breakfast with a smear of homemade ricotta and honey, but the texture was not as good. Due to the extreme wetness of the dough the gluten did not seem to quiet develop and the rolls has a very soft and crumbly texture to them.

Great stuff Chef. I only have this dish along with the stuffed intestines when I'm in Lebanon made by my grandmother. I doubt I'll even try it on my own! She also adds chickpeas to her mixture and lots of onions. I am pretty sure her version does not include lamb or goat's feet though. These are usually served along with the boiled head. Thanks for sharing the pics and the recipe.

Pontormo, I'm glad I read this now since I was planning on making this pasta tonight. Now...I'll have to find something else to cook . Kevin- best of luck in the next few months. They will be over soon. I've not been doing much cooking lately since We were away on vacation last week and this week the baby had a double ear infection . All is better now and hopefully I'll do some cathcing up soon.

Actually Houston

Cool, thanks Russ. I guess the mother's condo is a little too stained with the several bottles of red wine vinegar that passed throuhg it .

I've used the accidental mother from the very first post here a few times already to make excellent red wine vinegar. I am ready to harvest some more vinegar this week and add some wine for next time. The mother though, looks a bit different this time. IT's much darker in color and it sunk to the bottom. Is that any indication that the mother is dead? How can I tell if it is still active or not?

Scott, I have used shrimp as a binder. Blend a few shrimp to a paste like consistency. I suggested this to a Chef friend. She was aghast because that would increase their costs. Tim ← Chef Michel Richard in his new and utterly fascinating book "Happy in the Kitchen" does the same thing...and wraps the cakes with corn kernels using plastic wrap....oh then they are steamed and lastly pan fried. The result looks fantastic and sounds great. I have not tried it yet though since I got the book a couple of weeks ago only.

Charitycase- glad it worked out for you. Agalarneau- These look perfect, both color and texture. I wish I could only taste them.

Yeah..I've had those cucumber prok ones too. I agree they are good. I think the only difference bewteen the Dan Dan and the Szechuan is that the first one uses sesame paste and the other peanut paste...or is it the other way round.

Speaking of Food Trails, check out Robb Walsh's Taco Truck food trail. I am eating sweatbreads tonight!

That place is great...I pick up food there for a quick weekday dinner all the time. BTW, they are another branch of the Xiong's Cafe on Bellaire. ← Xiongs is the same menu right? What else have you had at Old Place? ← It is identical. I've had the in order of preference: - Pork and cilantro dumplings (best dumplings I've ever had anywhere) - Szechuan dumplings - Scallion pancakes - Spicy szechuan noodles - Spicy beef noodle soup with dark broth - dan dan noodles - Pan fried pork dumplings - pork and leek - Pork noodle soup with cabbage (this was very salty and barely edible and I never ordered it again) I forget if I've had anything else or not. Although a Chinese friend of mine highly recommends their dumplings with the broth in them...forgot the proper name for them but I've never tried them.

Yes, I agree that the guy on the phone was rude and he could've handled it differently. However, Why should we treat restaurants any different than other service sectors? Many people who posted here seem to believe that old and tired adage 'The customer is always right'. That is just not the case. LEt's take an example, namely Hotels! try and cancel a hotel res. the same day and see what's going to happen. It does not matter if they have 'walkins' up the wazoo. They will charge you money for it. Saying that the res. was cancelled at the exact time it was made for is really not doing the restaurant or hotel or dr office a favor. Restaurants operate on very small margins and whether we like to believe it or not, sometimes losing one table too many can mean the difference between turning a small profit or incurring a loss. If this same situation happened to me (I do have 2 kids under the age of 4) I would not like it. I would not like being lectured to, but on the other hand I will completely understand that I was certainly at fault as well. That is why many high end places actually do take a cc # and bill the card if you do not cancel early enough or just not show. In this particular case the restaurant owners should either make it clear ahead of time that this will happen and take a cc or simply not complain about it to the customer if a cancellation happens. I firmly agree with one of the previous posters, neither the customer nor the restaurant in this case was totally 'clean'.

That place is great...I pick up food there for a quick weekday dinner all the time. BTW, they are another branch of the Xiong's Cafe on Bellaire.

Judith the Stocafisso looks fantastic! I am still hesitant to make it at home because my wife is a bit averse to strong fish flavors. But you say that was very mild. correct?

Disclaimer: I've never tried this but if you must... Parboil the two beans seperatly until they are soft enough to eat but still pretty crunchy, almost like the crunch of a carrot and certainly not as soft as a boiled potato. Proceed with the recipe as directed and good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

very nice Franci. What did you serve it with?

It is important, but the favas can be bought peeled. That is what most people do. Look at your local middle eastern market and they should have them.

1st Ed.: 12 oz. tenderloin + 4 oz. salt pork + 4 oz. fatback = about 33% fat? 2nd Ed.: 12 oz. tenderloin + 4 oz. pancetta = about 10% fat? That's quite a cutback on the fat. Has anyone tried it? ← hmm...good point. I could've sworn Paula said to omit the fatback, but looking at your formula above I think the Pancetta should replace the salt pork and the fatback was simply omitted in the ingredient list by mistake. I do not have the old edition so I had no basis of comparison. Sorry about that.

Doc- I am not ChefCrash, but Pontormo is correct. By hummus, he meant chickpeas. The word Hummus in Arabic is Chickpeas (aka Garbanzo beans). As for Hummus bi Tahini which is sometimes refered to as hummus especially in the US, well that's another topic and I think we have a whole thread for it in the Middle East Forum. We can discuss it there. If interested here is the taratoor sauce recipe I use for Falafel. Hope this helps.

Well they're two different legumes with two different tastes and textures. I don't know what else to tell you other than to give them a try and decide which you like best. ← Exactly! If your taste fava beans after being soaked you'll notice their distinctive taste. For me it is indispensible. Chickpeas alone make an ok falafel, but the taste is just not right. I know this does not exaclty answer Pontormo's question earlier, but In Lebanon the two legumes are always BOTH used to make the Falafel so that's what I'm used to and that's what I like. Once again, do give both versions a try and see which you like best. As for Ceci (chickpea) flour, I would never use it. It will give the falafel a homogenous, smooth and doughy texture. They'll more or less be Sicilian Panelle by that point. Falafel needs to have a nice slightly corse texture to it. See Chef Crash's post for a great looking recipe and amazing pictures. I really must make soe soon...right after I replenish my supply of homemade pickled turnips (I ran out last week after using the last bit in shish tawook sandwiches...but that's another topic)

Of course it rocks! Bacon, sausage and corn mush. I so wish I can have that for breakfast now actually Last night's very simple and fast (well fast if you do not count the hours that went into makign a huge vat of stock on sunday) Marchigiani dinner: Supa di Riso e Spinaci (Spinach and rice soup), the recipe is from Fabio Trabocchi's book. I love using Arborio rice here since it retains it's wonderful slightly chewy texture and shape. I used frozen spinach as I almost always do when cooking the green. The garnish was extra virgin olive oil, parm cheese and chile flakes. Note: If you are planning on making this recipe, cut down the amount of rice to 1.5 cups. I had to add more stock to make it more soupy using the full quantity of rice.

Oh well...he cannot eat it. You need a whole lot of teeth to eat this. The dessert is traditionally served for visitors or family members and such. It is not meant for the baby to eat. And thanks ChefCrash.

I've done this several times, in an adaptation of Paula Wolfert's Toulouse sausage recipe from The Cooking of Southwest France (the first edition calls for salt pork but the 2nd edition actually calls for pancetta, which I'd tried, out of necessity, before I picked up the 2nd edition). I use 80% fresh pork shoulder and 20% pancetta. It makes a truly distinctive and delicious sausage, which works especially well in cassoulet. The main seasonings are garlic and black pepper with a little bit of mace or nutmeg. A bit of white wine mixed in at the end, while creating the primary bind, will take them over the top. Just be careful of the salt because when using 20% pancetta, you don't need to add nearly as much as when you are using 100% fresh pork; maybe only about a teaspoon per pound, or so. =R= ← I just looked at Wolfert's 2nd ed. recipe for Toulouse Sausage - there seems to be a typo. It calls for pork tenderloin and pancetta, but the directions say grind the "tenderloin, fatback and pancetta". There is no mention of fatback in the ingredients. I assume the 1st edition has the correct recipe. How much fatback should there be? ← Yes it is a Typo and I spoke with Paula about it way back when I first got the book. Basically the fatback needs to be omitted.

So glad you enjoyed this risotto and so happy you noticed my picture