FoodMan

What about the pink pickled Trunips? In Lebanese joints these are indispensible in a Shawarma or Falafel sandwich. Pickled radishes on the other hand are not used. Daniel...how does "aioli sauce" taste on a shawarma? It just seems a bit over the top to me .

yeap, basically the Tuscan Kale (Cavollo Nero) costs about $3.99 a bunch, the regular kale was on sale, 2 bunches for $2.99 AND it was in a much better condition than the pricier one (looked fresher, the leaves nice and perky...). So I went with regular kale.

I baked the Almond Scones for breakfast this morning. My wife loves almost anything with almonds in it and I had promised her those for a while since she's seen the picture. They did not dissappoint at all, very delicious. The texture is a bit more crumbly than a typical scone since the dough is almost 50% almonds (a very good thing). They are also not too sweet, so a couple of these babies smeared with some apricot preserves and a cup of black coffee is perfect for breakfast. My wife had to make me put the last five away so that she would not finish them off. So, I guess she liked them. Mine are on the right Do not forget, the eG Spotlight Conversation with Dorie Greenspan is going on as we speak this week and will be over by tomorrow. Jump in and join the conversation by posting a new topic or following up on Dorie's comments.

mmmmm...bangers and mash huh? . Can you give us more details?

How could Kale, bread and beans be so damn good? I used the saltless bread I made to prepare Tuscan Kale and bread soup using a recipe form Paula Wolfert's "Mediterranean Grains and Greens". She asks for Cavollo Negro of course, but the regular organic kale was on sale at Whole Foods and looked in a much better shape than it's much more pricy Cavollo cousin, so I used it. This was our dinner on Monday. For last night I followed Wolfert's recommendation in the same book and made Ribollita in the style of Siena. Basically the leftover thick soup is placed in a baking dish, topped with red onions (shallots in my case), drizzeld with olive oil and baked. The top turns nice a crispy wile the interior remains fluffy and moist. I love those meals that keep on giving for a very small investment. I served this topped with grated Romano.

I stan d corrected then. Don't know if a slow roast would work, but it might. I think you still have to keep them medium rare though. Cooking a tender cut like ribeye to well done will render it tough and tasteless because it has very little connective tissue. So, a dry slow heat to render some of the fat out but not cook the meat all the way through might work.

Pontormo's right; a google search leads to exactly what I was mentally picturing at sites like this one. Whether it's Tuscan is another matter . . . You know, I was really half-*ssed about that meal with the ribeye. I'd always seen those bad boys at CM and thought that with all their fat they might make a great braise and so bought one on a lark. Certainly for the price they were I probably should've reconsidered. ← I know exactly what "bad boys" you are talking about . They are still a ribeye though and braising is not a good idea. I would think they would fare much much better as a Fiorentina (since they are so thick) cooked rare and sliced thin, even though they are not the trditional T-bone one should use. BTW, now I am really craving a sweet crostata...er...I mean tart...

great looking food Kevin. Why did you use a Ribeye for a braise rather than a cut like chuck? The latter would make it taste much better. I see what you mean about Crostatas, but the true name for these free form pies I think is gallete. Corstatas I believe in Italian are more or less tarts.

Dorie- To your point, it is mainly the Chefs who practice Molecular Gastronomy the ones seeking the copyright and/or patent for their recipes. Chefs like Jose Andres and Wilie Dufresne want to patent certain techniques that they developed and that makes sense.

Kevin- With Tuscan bread it is more than experimentation. I actually do like it every so often. This is the first time I use this recipe though and I like it more than my regular one, the one from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. The loaf that we still have more than half of is the big round one, and it is dryish. The more the better to make a kale and bread soup today or tomorrow. Oh, yeah I also froze one of the torpedo shaped ones. we'll see how that holds up.

Saturday's Tuscan Dinner: While cooking the dinner, my wife prepared these Crostini. Using the saltless breead I baked and the ricotta cheese I made that morning. Very simple grilled bread topped with the cheese and arugula dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. The bacony things in the center are thin slices of home cured lardo (made from the belly not back though). These were so good we were at the risk of eating too much and ruining our dinner. The salty lardo worked very well here since both the ricotta and bread are very low in salt. For main course I prepared a recipe from Jamie's Italy (Jamie Oliver that is, and yes I am a big fan ). He said he had it in a trattoria in Florence...so that makes it Tuscan, right? The dish is Pork chops stuffed with a sage, butter, dried apricots and proscuitto. The chops are pan seared and baked on top of potatoes that have already been more or less cooked, so the pork only bakes for 10 minutes or so and stays moist. The potatoes are baked with some good home cured Pancetta as well. I did brine the chops even though the recipe does not ask for it. I pretty much always do with pork chops. All in all the dish was very tasty, moist and worked with the cold weather we had this weekend. We drank some decent Chianti with our dinner.

What a gorgeous looking dish Klary! I can almost taste it. Well, I debated whether I should include my post about the saltless bread as part of my Tuscan dinner or not. NOT, it deserves its own post no matter what Pontormo says . The loaves came out so good after a long rest in the fridge before baking and using a long fermenting sponge. I used the recipe from Carol Field's The Italian Baker and made both the white flour variety (the large round one) and the one with some whole wheat flour (the torpedo shaped ones). Seriously Pontormo, you should give these another chance.

Pretty much everything at some point originated with other people. I believe that indeed there are really very few new things "under the sun". what is your take on Chefs copyrighting their recipes since they invented them? We had a whole big debate in the forums about this and there was a recent article in Food and Wine about it. At what point do you feel that a recipe is truely yours as opposed to other professionals'?

Hello All- This week we are having Dorie for an eG Spotlight Conversation. Dorie is there right now discussing everything from baking to collaborating with Julia and Pierre as well as any other subject that relates to her books and career. This is why she is not posting in this thread this week. Please join us in the eG Spotlight Conversation with Dorie Greenspan forum and post your questions or post followups to Dorie's answers. Remember this is a "Conversation" so followup posts AFTER Dorie posts are very much encouraged. See you there.

Welcome to this eG Spotlight Conversation with Dorie Greenspan. We are all looking forward to the next few days with you, Dorie. I'd like to kick this eG Conversation off with a question I have been thinking about. Looking back at your collaboration with prominent chefs, who would you say was most challenging to work with a-Julia Child ? b-Pierre Herme? On the other hand, what was the most valuble thing you learned from each of them? Thanks so much for taking the time to engage with us in this eG Conversation.

About Dorie Greenspan Dorie Greenspan’s first award winning book was Baking with Julia, published in 1996 by Wm. Morrow. This important collaboration with Julia Child was the first of several high profile collaborations, including two books in collaboration with the brilliant French pastry master Pierre Herme, and another with Daniel Boulud. Her latest, Baking: From my Home to Yours, published this year by Houghton Mifflin is a compendium of baking recipes from simple to fancy and complex. Dorie’s primary culinary education has been in the kitchens of the great chefs she has worked with such as Pierre Herme (with Dorie, at left), Jean George Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud. She also attended Ecole Lenotre in Plaisir, France and took classes at La Varenne in Paris, France. Her first job in the culinary world was as an apprentice baker at Soho Charcuterie in New York. Her career also includes a five year stint developing the James Beard Foundation magazine as editor and work as a consultant and producer at the early Food Network. She was an unofficial food writer and recipe translator, tester and food stylist for ELLE Magazine when it launched in the US for 3 or 4 years, during which time she worked with Daniel Boulud, Jean-Louis Palladin, Christian Petrossian, Alain Ducasse, Michel Rostang, Paul Bocuse and Roger Verger among others, providing her with a fabulous introduction to the chefs who were re-making French food in the ‘80s. In addition, she has written numerous articles for the New York Times. Currently, Dorie remains a special correspondent for Bon Appetit magazine as well as a regular columnist for the magazine’s “Tools of The Trade” column. She also appears four times a year on Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s Splendid Table on NPR as the "Gadget Goddess." She has lectured on pastry and baking, as well as French food and culture at a number of venues, including The Smithsonian Institution, The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, The French Culinary Institute, The 92nd Street Y, The James Beard Foundation, Alliance Francaise and The American Embassy in Paris. Dorie is an active member of several culinary organizations. She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and was a founding member of Bakers Dozen East. She has served on the scholarship committee of the James Beard Foundation and the board of Les Dames d'Escoffier. Dorie divides her time between New York City, Connecticut and Paris, France. She is married and has one son. Dorie has been a member of the eGullet Society since 2002. She is passionate about her subject, enjoys engaging Society members in discussions about baking and pastry and is generously informative in her posts. More on Dorie and baking from her books in the Forums: Baking: from my home to yours. Cooking with Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme. Baking with Julia, recipes. Dorie's books on Amazon: Paris Sweets: Great Desserts From the City's Best Pastry Shops, nominated for a James Beard Award. Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme, nominated for both IACP and James Beard Awards and won the Mazille Prix at Perigeux for the Best Cookbook in the English Language for 2001. The book is a bestseller in France under the title Mes Desserts au Chocolat (Agnes Vienot Editions). Desserts by Pierre Herme, nominated for a James Beard Award and won the IACP award for Best Baking and Desserts Book as well as the award for Cookbook of the Year. It also won a Food & Wine Best of the Best Award. In France, the book is called Mes Desserts Preferes (Agnes Vienot Editions) and it is a bestseller. Baking with Julia: Sift, Knead, Flute, Flour and Savor, which won awards from both The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) and The James Beard Foundation. Daniel Boulud's Cafe Boulud Cookbook A Fig Cake for Fall The Most Extraordinary Lemon Cream Tart Lennox Almond Biscotti Applesauce Spice Bars From Baking: from my home to yours. Photographs by Alan Richardson. Photo of Dorie Greenspan with Pierre Herme by Barbara Rihl.

<br><div align="center">An eG Spotlight Conversation with Dorie Greenspan November 6 - 9, 2006 </div> The eGullet Society for Culinary Arts and Letters is honored to have Dorie Greenspan, one of our most highly regarded food writers and an active member of the Society, join us this week for an eG Spotlight Conversation. Dorie is a multi-talented professional and is passionate about baking and pastry, as well as French food and culture. She has worked with and learned from leading chefs such as Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Pierre Herme. Author of “Baking with Julia” and “Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme, " Dorrie has just released her eighth cookbook “Baking: From my Home to Yours”. For more information on the career of Dorie Greenspan, please see About Dorie Greenspan. Please join Phyllis Flick (Felice), Patrick S, Pam Reiss (Pam R) and me in welcoming eGullet Society member Dorie Greenspan as she fields questions and discusses her career, collaboration with many prominent chefs, books and baking! To post a question, click "New Topic" at the top of this forum. Each question will be its own topic. Once a question has been posted, we ask that the membership refrain from any additional posts or commentary until Dorie has had the opportunity to respond to the post directly. Once Dorie's response is up, the topic is open for in depth discussion by all members, and we warmly encourage followup conversation. Please note that this eG Conversation may be moderated, and your question may not appear as soon as you post it. Also, we may edit new topic titles for clarity. Welcome, Dorie and let’s begin this eG Spotlight Conversation! <br><font size="-3">Photo by Fernando Bengoechea</font>

I agree about the bean bread. It was oddly sodden and heavy and lacking in flavor. I never tried it again.

Make "Michel Bras' Stuffed Onions". I made them last year for xmas and they were a big hit. ← That's next on my list of "to trys." I love onions and have other onion dishes up my holiday sleeve typically. (A pissaladiere and Judy Rodgers' super pickled red onions.) If the Stuffed Onions turn out really well, I'll bump the onion tart. Sometimes I'll make sweet/sour cippolini for the holidays, but I like that better than my family does. ← Yeap, love onion dishes as well...I like it when people are surprised that onions are not just there to be used as a base, they can stand their own. For this Thanksgiving I am debating making those onions again or an Onion Gratin that looks great in Jamie Oliver's new book. That's a discussion for a different thread though.

A quick pasta dish to kick off Tuscany in my home. I did not follow any particular recipe, like Kevin Tuscan cooking is pretty intuitive to me..or at least what I think of as simple Tuscan. The dish consisted of a wide dried pasta (it had frilly edges...Ricciatelli or something like that) dressed with sauteed mushrooms, swiss chard, homemade Italian sausage, parmesan cheese and chili flakes. Tasted great, was ready in under 30 minutes and it seems Tuscan. As I type a few loaves of saltless Tuscan bread are proofing...

Make "Michel Bras' Stuffed Onions". I made them last year for xmas and they were a big hit.

← Jason- FYI, this is NOT the same book as "A Tuscan in the Kitchen". I've seen this one for sale at Half Price Books several times for under $10 but never bought it. You can say it is more of a modernized-Tuscan-inspired recipe collection. It looks very pretty and fancy, but I just was not too interested. Thought you'd like to know before buying it...Anyone has this book and cares to comment?

Great. I am really looking forward to trying this one! I will post any comments, notes or any more questions here.

Makes sense Michael. Just to be sure the change from 3 to 5 lbs of DME between the two recipes is intentional, correct? Is it meant to boost the gravity more? Thanks again. Also for reference, here is the final recipe for a 3.5 gallon boil in one place: 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. Munich Malt 1 1/2 lb. Crystal Malt 80L 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 lbs Light DME to the runoff. Hop additions About 2.75 oz. Northern Brewer @ 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.

Thanks again Michael, but how exactly do I do that? Use more hops or boil them a bit longer?