FoodMan

Gorgeouse looking food Wendy. I love that egg especially. I love baking lovely Neapolitan style pizza at home, it truly is one of the most satisfying activities/dinners for my family. This past Sunday I made: The always present or my wife will kill me Margarita pizza Homemade Italian sausage, mozzarella and mild cheddar. This is my 3 year old's favorite. Homemade ricotta, home cured pancetta, zucchini (not home grown ) and a good drizzle of fine extra virgin olive oil. This was the first time I’ve tried this…a sure repeat. Duck confit, roasted garlic oil, and smoked Gouda. A little too much confit on this one made it a bit salty and it bugged me why the Gouda did not melt/meld properly. It was still very tasty. Leftovers for Monday's lunch and dinner.

I had some homemade apple sauce leftover from a Pork Schnitzel dinner recently. The apple sauce also had some orange zest and juice in it, but I decided to make the applesauce spice bars anyways. Just like everyone commented about them these were terrific! very moist and quiet addicitve for dessert or breakfast with a black coffee.

You know, her original show (country Kitchen or something), while I never found it informative or inspiring was not bad. Single mom, ownes restaurant, cooks southern country food, makes it big enough to have her own TV show. Not bad. But that Paula's Party is unbearable and I could never watch a complete episode, not even as background noise. In one word, I think it is DISGUSTING. Her crazy overacted mannerisms and wierd sexual references are seriously sickening. Let's not get into her "tasting" of that stuff she calls food. They are trying to market her as a female Emeril, she tries to act accordingly and it is just sad.

Bottled the porter last night. It tasted very good, with a clean mildly roasty flavor. I do wish that "roasty" taste is more pronounced though, but we'll see how it all tastes once it's fizzy and aged for a couple of weeks.

Hello? Isn't Chris Cognac already doing this? And didn't Rachel Ray do this on "$40 (and bad tips) a Day"? Or Rachel Ray in "Rachel Ray's Tasty Travels"? Or Paula Deen's sons in "Road Tasted"? Or Bobby Flay in "FoodNation with Bobby Flay"? Or Mario Batali in "Ciao America with Mario Batali? Or Alton Brown in "Feasting on Asphalt"? Or Dave Lieberman in "Dave Does"? Or Al Roker in "Roker on the Road"? Or George Duran in "Ham on the Street"? What's next? "Paula Deen Hits the High Seas" where she tastes all the buffets on a Carnival Cruise ship? Talk about beating a dead horse...it's turning into a one-concept network. The lack of ingenuity and innovation seems to be more and more evident with each new show. ← It really is baffling why we need another "let's check out the eats in Des Moines" show. ...hold on there we don't need it but FTV does. They've said it so many times before, they are shooting for the lowest common denominator. PERIOD. They'll keep making this mind numbing jusnk as long people keep watching it. Same reason why we'll have SAW13 coming out in theatres in 2010. People pay money to watch it! I'd rather watch re-runs of Good Eats than any of these shows above. I do enjoy Iron Chef America as well actually. But for a travel/food show with a host I actually think does it right and dares to head to more interesting locals and bitch about the shitty stinky shark in Iceland and dumb "daiquiries" in Porto Rico it's No Reservations on the Travel Channel.

I am normally not too adventurous with my "cocktails" and I certainly never invent any. I enjoy a sazerac, a negroni, a julep and of course a martini every so often. However in the last issue of Food and Wine they had a small snippet about using marmalade in cocktails and how mixologists are trying different things with them. Along with the snippet they had a recipe for a “Marmalade Sour”. I forgot what restaurant bartender invented it, but I can check when I get home if anyone is interested. In any case, it sounded so good and I have a jar of homemade Seville orange marmalade in the fridge and my Meyer lemon tree is full of ripe lemons that I decided to give it a shot. WOW! That was some good stuff. I’ve been having one a day for the past three days . Here is the recipe from the magazine. I do not however have Cachaca on hand so I used Grey Goose vodka. I am now thinking of buying me a bottle of Cachaca to see how it works out. 2 oz Cachaca ¾ oz fresh lemon juice 1 Tbsp citrus marmalade 1 egg white Splash of orange bitters Splash of simple syrup Shake with ice vigorously, strain into a cooled martini glass and drink straight up.

Thank you for the compliments Mike. the buttermilk cooks for quiet some time in the soup so the effect on texture is not too obvious (I guess it ight be if I make the soup with no buttermilk and compare). So, for me it is mainly the slightly milky tangy flavor it adds to the soup.

Abra, u are right it's become customary to get my feet wet in those regions by baking a bread. It's no different here in TAA. I baked Rye Bread from Bolzano following Carol Field's recipe in The Italian Baker. Her recipe is pretty different than the one linked to in Pontormo's email above, it uses no dairy, fat or eggs and it starts of with a sponge. I am intrigued to try the recipe Pontormo linked to as well to compare. This might be difficult though because this recipe made a spectacular bread. It was very flavorful with a pretty moist crumb for a rye bread. Here are the shaped loaves right before baking on hot bricks Apparently I forgot to take a picture of the whole loaves when they came out of the oven...they did look very nice. Instead I have this Dinner tonight was the Barley Mountain Soup (Zuppa d'Orzo con Salsiccia) from L R Kaspar's "The Italian Country Table". I did not have any smoked hocks or Speck on hand, so to make up for that smokey cured pork flavor I used the skin I saved from my homemade bacon and a thick slice of homemade pancetta. This worked out very well and I also poached 4 homemade Italian sausages in the soup then sliced them up before serving. LRK lists a quart of buttermilk as an optional ingredient. I used only two cups of buttermilk in there and was pretty pleased with the result. Overall a very simple, rustic and satisfying bowl of soup especially served with the rye bread. The ingredients before adding stock and water Dinner

this could partially be the problem prasantrin. Overmixing makes the dough elastic and it might shrink when baked, hence the breaking and slipping. Also I'm guessing the non-stick pan is helping the dough to slip. I use a food processor too when making it since I have no stand mixer either. Although I always use all the water and the dough comes out perfect. So, maybe the flour is a bit off with you. Do u measure it or weigh it? I always weigh it, so if u have a scale try doing that. Make sure when u put the dough in the pan, you do not stretch it into place but lay it in gently, especially in the corners. Last tip I would give you is to make sure it is very cold/rested when blind baking it. good luck, this quiche is worth all the work.

Thanks Chris. I do not want he porter too fizzy. So, based on your link and on this table at the bottom of the page looks like 3-3.5 oz corn sugar is perfect.

A question about priming this, will 4 oz be enough to prime the five gallons?

Here is the new recipe I used with all the edits: Tongo’s British Porter Recipe yields 5 gallons from a 3.5 gal. boil. In the mash tun: 1 lb. Pale Ale Malt 2 lb. Dark Munich Malt 1lb. Crystal Malt 55L 1/2lb. Crystal Malt 105L 12 oz. Chocolate Malt 6.5 qts. heated water. Mash for 90 min. at 152F (I'd recommend doing a mash-out before sparging. Somehow- either by removing some of the mash, bringing it to a boil and returning it, or by just adding some additional boiling water- get the mash up to 168F for 10 minutes. It stops the enzymes from converting and makes things flow better). I'm assuming 1.027 per pound per gallon, or 77% efficiency, fwiw. Sparge with 9-10 qts at 168F until you get close to your limit Add 5.75 lbs Liquid light malt extract to the runoff. Hop additions About 2.75 oz. Northdown @ 8% (or 20 AAU (2.5*8)) - for 60 min. (You need as close to 22 AAU as possible, so if alpha acid content is less than 8% buy more) Add 1 1/2 oz. East Kent Goldings at flameout. Ferment with London Ale WLP013 from White Labs.

Thanks guys...I'll give the beer about 10 - 12 days then and check on it. Since I have no Hydrometer, measuring the gravity is not possible. So, I'll probably just have to bottle it then.

Click Here for the Alison Cook review in the chronicle Click Here form the Robb Walsh review in the Press Both very positive, especially Cook's. Now Jscarbor adds his rec as well and these pork belly popsicles and foi gras bonbons are sounding better than ever. I got to check it out soon.

Thank goodness no more Betty! She was the biggest pain in the a** on this show. Marcel can cook more than three Bettys combined. Yes he could be irritating and needs to lay off the damn foam, but he has more sense than most of them.

Finally brewed the Tongo Porter this past Sunday. I did have a couple of alterations to the recipe, the biggest one was using 5.5 lbs of light liquid extract instead of the DME. This was done based on the brew shop owner advice. According to him, since this is a real dark brew using a liquid will not hurt and will save me some cash. BTW, Tongo he said your recipe looks great and should have some good "kick" to it. Other subs were due to availability (or lack there of). I will post the altered recipe when I remember to bring my notes with me. Concerns: The fermentation period when the airlock was actively bubbling was relatively short, probably 24 hours. Does that sound right? and do I need to wait 2 weeks before bottling still? I had to move the fermentor bucket yesterday from one room to another and some water from the airlock fell into my beer. Now I am freakign out and worried it might cause contamination! Should I be worried? Should I check on the beer at all?

We visited Simposio again for a small get together last Friday and again had a great experience. Yes, I do agree with some of the comments that the “laminated” menu is a bit uncreative, but the stuff they do, they do very very well. I had a traditional Osso Bucco that was cooked till tender but not mushy with a full red wine flavor. The risotto it was served with was just perfect. The rice cooked till it retained just a bit of texture and the dish was served with a metal pick to get at all the nice soft marrow. Other dishes I sampled off other diner’s plates included great rare-cooked venison chops with mushrooms and asparagus, another risotto with asparagus and seafood, a fresh buckwheat pasta with crab meat, and the one of the most perfectly grilled fillet of striped bass I’ve had. I really think one of the keys to getting a better meal here is to order from the Specials list and avoid the desserts which I still think are mediocre. Although our table still got a bread pudding and some profiteroles and everyone enjoyed them. The service was attentive, professional, accommodating (making a small pizza for my son even though this is a lunch item only) and very knowledgeable.

I did not bother using amesphos, which is a type of phosphate I think. I also used fresh garlic not garlic powder. The cake was good but not great. It was a matter of texture, the apples retained a bit too much crunch and I think would've benefited from being sauteed first instead of just added to the batter raw.

Thanks Kevin and everyone else. The pork skin is pretty easy tp find in Houston. you can actually buy it at Fiesta stores for example. In my case however, I went to the HEB in chinatown on Bellaire and bought a whole pork belly to make pancetta and bacon and I used the skin from that belly (it needs to be skinned to make pancetta). The Cotechino I cooked was about 1.5lbs and at a gentle simmer it took about 35-40 minutes to reach the proper temp. Please post your results here if you do find Cotechino and cook it tonight (or maybe I can fedex u the remaining piece I have ). I did debate making the beef wraped one, but wanted a more simple approach for my very first time cooking it. What are we doing in January? Veneto is it?

Some recent Cahrcuterie efforts, using my brand new Grizzly: I made a Cotechino for New Year's celebration dinner. I based it on Len Poli's recipe but used fresh garlic and no Amesphos. I also made half of the recipe and stuffed it in an inedible fibrous casing. This sausage is outstanding with a lovely texture. Here is the original recipe click here and here for much more details and pictures in the Emilia-Romagna thread. Based on the garlic sausage master recipe I made an improvised Chipotle-Mole fresh sausage. Taste test of a small piece confirms this a real winner a bit spicy and smoky with a touch of bitterness and a good flavor of cumin (well maybe some more cocoa would not hurt ) Chipotle-Mole Formula I used: 2lb pork butt 1/2lb fat back 3 gr toasted cumin seeds 2 gr Mexican oregano 18 gr kosher salt 2 gr balck pepper, ground 6 gr minced garlic 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar 1 tsp cocoa 1/2 tsp cinnamon 2 dried chipotle chilies soaked in 1/2 cup water (this is pureed and added at the end along with the vinegar) Here is a picture only folks on this thread would appreciate My garage fridge and it's bounty of cured meats. It has smoked bacon, rolled pancetta, Cotechino, Chipotle-Mole sausage, and sweet Italian sausage. Oh, and jars of deliciouse bread and butter pickles from Charcuterie too. HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

Cotechino - Part2 - New Year's Holiday Dinner Well this was supposed to be New Year's Eve dinner but then we thought we had plans for NYE so instead it ended up being the day before NYE dinner. In any case this was still a phenomenal end of year dinner and a perfect cap for E-R for us. Cotechino has a texture like no other sausage I've eaten, all due to the collagen rich pork skin that goes in it. You know all that good lip smaking goodness in a good braise, well it's here. It is at the same time tender and firm and the flavor is mainly garlic, nutmeg, white wine and a few herbs. I only cooked one of the two sausages, the other is in the freezer to be cooked sometime soon. I decided to prepare the Cotechino two ways, plain boiled with braised lentils and sliced, rolled in parmeggiano cheese and pan fried. I served that with potatoes cooked with butter, milk and thyme. Both my wife and I could not decide if one way is better than the other as proven by the fact that we had no leftovers On to the pictures. First off the sausage is poahced till it reaches an internal temp of 155F. The skin is then removed and it is sliced into disks Served with lentils (Puy lentils, tomatoes, herbs, stock..) Based on a Batali recipe, the other disks are rolled in grated parm and pan fried. The potato recipe is also from Batali (he serves it with a Zampone). The dark stuff drizzled on it is a balsamic vinaigrette and it works great with the fatty sausage. Dessert, a Bolognian Torta Di Mele (apple cake) with Almonds and Raisins. I am testing this recipe for Leitesculinaria.com. The recipe is from the book Biba's Italy and is pretty good. Served it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. (I also had a very nice picture of the whole cake but for some reason the file seems damaged...oh well, I have to many pics as it is) HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

Cotechino - Part1 - Production As promised I made a Cotechino sausage for the first time this month. I prepared it early last week and kept it in the fridge till yesterday (Saturday). I apologize if these are more pictures than you bargained for, but someone asked for production pictures and I am really proud of how good this turned out. Click Here to see the recipe I based my Cotechino on. The meats (pork butt, pork fatback, blanched pork skin) Seasoned meats ready to grind Grinding In the stuffer I chose to stuff the meat in an inedible fibrouse casing instead of beef middles I made half of the recipe, so I ended up with two links of about 1.5 lbs each

I second that Kevin, whatr a wonderful Neapolitan-inspired meal! I really have to finally get off my butt and try stuffed calamari one of these days. As Alton Brown puts it, these suckers are practically shaped to be stuffed .

Great minds..... I wanted to make bread pudding or French toast with the leftovers figuring it was too big to finish off. WRONG! we barely had a small wedge come next day.

Abra- While I understand your frustrations, you have to realize how spectacular your dinners look. That torta and the Barozzi chocolate cake are just heavenly. I really think writing recipes for stuff like the Tortellini torta is tricky, I had similar issues with my Timpano when I made it for Campania. Very, very well done and thanks for sharing. I almost feel ashamed sharing my simple Saturday night dinner after Abra's extravaganza, but here goes. Saturday was a busy baking day for me, I was more or less responsible to bake a few breads and a cake or two from X-mas eve at the in laws house. I still managed to make a quick meal from The Splendid Table. I used her recipe for Balsamic Glazed Beef to cook a nice piece of flank steak under the broiler. It came out perfectly cooked, nice and juicy. The marinade had red wine, garlic, herbs and olive oil. The contorno was the Sweet Squash For Yum Kippur. I made this because I had a butternut squash on hand and because it was so darn easy. Bake the squash, mush up the flesh and saute it with onions, lemon zest and orange zest. This easy dish was perfect and a certain must repeat. The Dolci was definitely very easy, the Pampepato (Christmas Chocolate Spice cake) I made on Sunday. Per the recipe instructions, I sliced this like a loaf of bread instead of wedges into thin slices and served it with some whipped cream. It was pretty tasty, strong and the chocolate went very good with all the spices and candied peels. For a cake that has no dairy or fat of any kind it was dry, but not as dry as I expected. It made for very good snack through out the weekend as well (very good with my morning espresso too). Getting the glaze on to let it set Started cutting then remembered to take a picture That's the best I could do to give you an idea how the inside looks