FoodMan

My six month old just got his first tooth. To honor the occasion, I made Snay-ni-ya. This dessert made of boiled wheat kernels , sugar, nuts and other flavors is traditional and served in Lebanon to guests when a baby gets his first tooth. To clarify the name a bit. It is basically derived from the word for tooth (Sin). So, Snay-ni-ya roughly means ‘related to teeth’ or ‘tooth related’. If anyone has a better translation for this, please be my guest. The main thing here is to get some peeled wheat. It can be found at any middle eastern grocery store and some health food stores. Regular wheat can be used but will make for a tougher and more…er…toothy result. This is the peeled wheat This can be served at any temperature hot, warm or even fridge cold. I prefer it slightly cold or a bit warm. Snay-ni-ya 1 Cup pealed wheat 1 Cup Sugar 4 – 5 Cups water ½ Cup pealed almonds (halves or slivers) ½ Cup walnut pieces 1 Tbsp rosewater 1 Tbsp orange blossom water - Soak the wheat in cold water for 12-24 hours. - Drain the soaked wheat, place in a pot with the sugar and 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for about 1.5 hours adding more water if necessary to keep the mixture loose. - When the wheat kernels are soft and chewy, add the nuts and more water if necessary and simmer for another 30 minutes. Add the rosewater and orange blossom water. Taste and adjust any flavor (like it sweeter, add more sugar, want more flavor add more roswater….). - The mixture should be on the ‘soupy’ side, NOT like a porridge. Serve hot, cold or at room temp.

Very nice Passatelli-ini Hathor. I bet it tasted great. I am hoping to cook something this week since I will be out of town starting Thursday. Maybe a soup or something. I was actually a little disappointed that Trabocchi does not have a traditional recipe for Vincigrassi. He does say that the 'real' one has liver and giblets and such. The one he provides is adjusted for our American sensibilties with ground veal and such. Then again I can always add some giblets and other things on my own. Also I am not too sure if I'll use his pasta recipe with 16 egg yolks!!

Here is my recipe for Falafel from the class I wrote about Lebanese cooking for eGCI. I use it everytime and the results are always great. I think the key is the proper ratio of chickpeas to dried fava beans.

Fantastic overview Judith and wqually great pictures. Well, After that and the other comments about Le Marche, Fabio Trabocchi does not have much to add. The only fact not mentioned yet is that Le Marche is made up of four natural regions divided by rivers (sounds great already). The regions are Pesaro Urbino, Ancona, Macerata and Ascoli Piceno. All these regions however still share Le Marche's rich and various seafood, great truffles, varied produce (tomatoes, fennel, garlic, lavender, rosemary, peahces, plums,...) and excellent farm raised animals and wild game.

Will do Kevin.

Looking forward to trying some things from "Cucina of Le Marche by Fabio Trabocchi". I got it this month and many things look very promising.

(like my wife's latest project? a chalkboard in the kitchen...I sure do ) Ok, now the bigoli. Thanks to Kevin's problems and experience (sorry Kevin), I decided to make them on the drier side to avoid sticking. I pretty much followed Mario's recipe from "Simple Italian Food" but was more liberal with the whole wheat. The resulting dough was pretty dry and tough to knead, but I persevered and kneaded for a good 10 minutes. Then let it rest for thirty and started extruding them in my manual meat grinder. I also made sure to keep sprinkling corn meal as I went along to avoid sticking and I think that helped as well, but honestly I do not think they would've stuck because the dough was not on the moist side. The diameter of my meat grinder dye is more than twice that of a KitchenAid, so making 12 inch long Bigoli was not possible. Mine were about 4-5 inches on average, still a good length. When all is said and done here are the pain-in-the-neck issues with making these, but none are too serious: - The dough is TOUGH to extrude manually. It gave me quiet a workout - Cleaning the dough that remains stuck in the holes of the metal dye is annoying and time comsuming I served the Bigoli with a Duck and Mushroom Ragu. The recipe is from the same book. Since I was short on the duck legs I added some muschrooms in there. The end result is like no pasta I've ever had. Very distinctive taste and texture. IT had a full earthy whole wheat flavor and a rough slightly chewy texture. My wife like it very much as well and said it works great with the hearty ragu. I agree. Now, I'm thinking of making a form of extruded spaghetti using the same method. Think it'd work? Extruding the Bigoli Finished Bigoli A close up to give you an idea of the unique texture these things have Last night's dinner Served Kevin give them another try and make sure your dough is on the dry side. They are worth it. Dessert. Maybe not truely Venetian, but on the other hand some form of Ciambella is made in several regions. No? This one is from Marcella Hazan's Essentials book. I had banana that needed using. So, I caramelized them and served them with the sliced cake and cream (I'm guessing this combo is definitly not Venetian , but sooooo damn good)

All I can say is wow...I've been pretty busy and unavailable these past few days and I come back to spread after spread of awsome looking food. Weinoo, that is a great spread especially those skewers. Too bad you did not enjoy the polenta cake. We kept on eating it for breakfast till it was finished. Franci, as a bread lover, that Fugassa is just too much. I can almost smell it! Kevin, that risotto has to be one of the best things I've seen on this thread. I keep going back to look at it. Really perfect. Now, on to the Bigoli. I am still going to make them and use your unfortunate experience to learn form and see what I get. I've been wanting to make them for so long, if I don't even give them a try it'll keep on bugging me. So, in the next day or two I'll try the bigoli. Pontormo...you guess right.

Well, like evrything else, liking a place more than the other is highly subjective. We love Hugo's because...well...what's not to love? The food is excellent, the atmosphere and service are very good but not stuffy, the prices are very reasonable for the level of food and service, margaritas excellent and they have one of the most lovely dessert menus in town. As for Tex Mex, my pics are also for Lopez, Picos on Bellaire, Gringos on 59 and Guadalajara has some good fajitas and combo plates. Like Jscarbor said El Tiempo can be quiet good too.

Ah! I just noticed the link I 'placed' in my original post was not ...there. Sorry. Check it out now and follow the link to the appropriate thread for more info. And no this risotto is no joke .

Abra- I have more info in the nappropriate thread right here about the risotto. I'd be more than happy to give you more details in that thread if you need to as well.

well, the Italian is from the recipe...the other two are done following the books template garlic sausage recipe but the flavor improvised.

Gratuitous posting of pictures of homemade sausages: Garlic-Thyme Italian Chipotle Mole All sauteed with onions and vinegar and served with green apple risotto

Green apple risotto with homemade sausages. Click here for more info and pics.

Dinner from Wednesday (Just got the chance to download the pics): The whole idea here was to try out this green apple risotto from Mario Batali's first book. When he first saw it served in Venice, he thought it was a new fangled thing that his hosts were trying. Apparently though, it is quiet typical in the Veneto during apple harvest season and it is very delicious. Since apple and pork is a match made in heaven, I was hoping to serve it along side a pork loin...maybe cooked in milk Venetian style. Unfortunatly -or maybe not- I had no time to buy and cook a loin in the middle of the week. Then I remembered a recipe from the Passione website for sausages cooked with oinons and vinegar from the Veneto. Guess what! I have a selection of homemade sausages (Italian with fennel, garlic-thyme and the decidedly un-Italian Chipotle-Mole). So, I did have apples and pork after all. It was quick and simply divine. Just ask my 3 year old who kept saying "this is soooo gooood". I have to admit the Chipotle-Mole sausage was definitly not suitable for a Venetian meal, but it still tasted good. My wife's plate, with the three different kinds of sausages. Can u guess which is which? She opted for no onions for some reason...so I had to show you my plate... Is that too much risotto for one person? Technically, yes, but...

Franci- That Guanciale is beautiful...almost a sacrilage to cook it! Pan- Sorry to disaapoint you buddy, but the cake is nothing like a bread pudding . It is pretty dense and a little crumbly due to all the polenta in there. Still very good and keeps for days though.

Fat and heart health: Is it a good rule of thumb to say that the softer the animal fat is the healthier it can be? Basically lard (pork fat once rendered) is nice and soft at room temperature, where as beef fat is very much solid. This means beef fat is more saturated, ergo worse for your heart arteries than lard. Similar comparisons can be made with duck fat versus butter.... I know I've read this in a couple of places including one of Jeffrey Steigarten's books and it makes sense, but would like to think what everyone's take on it is.

Again, I haven't tried this myself, but I am aware that in lots of commercial apricot liqeuers, the apricot pit is what adds some of those lovely almond flavours into the mix, makes things abit more interesting. ← For the 'lovely almond flavours' though, you have to crack/crush some pits in there. Simply leaving them in won't do the trick.

Yes, parboil it I would say, and leave the skin on unless the recipe tells you otherwise.

Thanks to Peter, I am really wanting to try some of these again! My local middle eastern store sells them canned. Anyone had those canned? Are they any good? Do I treat them the same way as fresh ones but with shorter cooking time?

Pontormo- Thanks for the compliments. You have to try some of Marcella's desserts in that book, especially those simple, ver Italian "dry" cakes. I loved her almond cake, walnut cake and the olive oil cake as well as this latest polenta one. Kevin- Yeah the Meyer lemon tree is very prolific and everyone thinks it produces oranges since the fruit is so big! Wanna trade some lemons for figs ?

Just a minor quibble. This is the second time Himalaya is refered to as Indian. It is not, it's Pakistani and while excellent, they have no buffet. For a good Indian Buffet my top pick goes to Mayuri in the plaze on Fountainview and Westheimer. Mexican food marginal in houston? I also disagree. Other than the many good Taquerias (I trust Jay Francis on his recs too BTW ), if you want a nice white table cloth Mexican dinner head down to Hugo's on Westheimer. cbionic, are you confused yet?

These pictures are fantastic Peter. It's been many years since I've seen these, but I could've sworn the variety I used to have in Lebanon was much darker in color. More like a tan or light brown, rather than white! It might be due to different soil/environmental conditions I guess.

Everclear should work just fine. As for timframe...well I would guess you'll only be able to tell by tasting some, but give it at least a couple of weeks.

In your area also you'll find Bistro Moderne in Hotel Derek on Westheimer. I've heard very good things about it from both local and national press. For very well made Italian food, check out Simposio or Da Marco. I believe both have their own thread here in this forum. Tony's is great and pricy. Cafe Annie...is pricy and I was never a big fan of it.