FoodMan

I am a big fan of this book and made several things from it. Even that coconut banana bread (the one they label for Pam) turned out good. Yes it was denser than the regular variety, but the coconut added nice moisture and taste. I would not say it is my favorite, but certainly pretty good and different. Here are other things I tried: - the Country baguettes, made with different kinds of flour including buckwheat and have stuff like flax seeds in them. These are fantastic and quiet a change from plain white baguettes. - Their recipe for Onion rye is the best I've tried. I always make one loaf and freez the second. I try to make this whenever I know I'll be curing some salmon pastrami-style - Montreal bagels, good but I prefer the NY bagels from the BB Apprentice - The Date Travelers cookies are the best example of the Lebanese Ma'amool I've seen. I always use their dough recipe. - Robin's whole wheat bread makes regular apperances, it's a favolrite all purpose sandwich bread - The Portuguese Mountain rye is good and looks cool, but does I did not think it was worth the effort - You have to try those Beirut Tahini Swirls...addictive! - I also made those Greek biscotti like cookies with spices in them. - The white bread recipe was nothing special. Skip that. - The chocolate cake in there with tthe thin layer of frosting also is pretty good. - Pain Au Son, the French bran bread is excellent and keeps well. It is also a regular on my baking rotation - Irish soda bread is a good quick bread - Forgot what the "official" name for this one is, but it is the puffy "King's" pancake, shredded up and doused with powdered sugar. I love serving this as a quick dessert with homemade plum syrup. - The Seville orange marmalade is the one I use to make mine. I've had this book for a couple years, bought it for $9 at Half Price books and it was so worth it. The stories and commentary alone are worth that much. I know I made more stuff than that, but I cannot remember it all .

I believe it is the same one. If am not mistaken it is a 1.5 quart capacity.

Melissa, no one can make their pastry look as good as Patrick's! That's why I did not post any pics of my rum soaked vanilla cake either. Although it did not look ugly, just looked like a plain square cake...

It's fall, and I wanted to make a pork terrine. So, I made a recipe from Ruhlman's Charcuterie book. Well, I did modify the recipe just a tiny bit, but the mehtod, seasoning and procedure is from there. click here for more details and more pics in the Charcuterie thread My Pork Terrine with a Pork Tenderloin Inlay and dried Sour Cherries I served this with onion jam, mustards, cornichons, home baked baguette and a glass of red wine. Certainly the best and best looking terrine I've made so far with a perfect taste and texture.

When the weather changes, for some reason, I get in the mood of making a nice pork terrine. Even though it is eaten cold, something about the whole process and look just makes sense in the fall. So, from Charcuterie I made the "Pork Terrine with tenderloin inlay" with few minor modifications. Since the first terrine I made from this book only filled my terrine mold about 3/4 of the way, I made about 1.5 times the forcemeat this time, to make sure I have a nice even square. That was a good idea, and the amount of meat was perfect. My other modifications included adding dried sour cherries (an idea from the venison terrine in the book) that were soaked in homemade Vin de Noix. I added the soaking liqour to the rest of the liquids in the recipe. I also decided to use some shard leaves to line the mold with in addition to the plastic wrap. That is meant to give the terrine a more attractive look. That also was a good idea, only I should've squeezed the blanched leaves a bit more to make sure I do not have a pool of chard liquid to be drained off at the end. The recipe worked out perfectly and my terrine never shrank which means that I certainly worked my temp controls correctly (cold, cold, cold) and the emulsion held up because of that. This time I also did include the teaspoon or so of Pink Salt and it really made a huge difference in how attractive the sliced terrine came out. Taste was outstanding as well with perfect seasoning and a perfect texture. Even my 3 year old son could not get enough of this and he had already eaten his dinner. He kept asking for more "chicken". No, it did not taste like chicken, but any meat product that is not fish, to him, is chicken. Here are some production pictures Finished Terrine after being weighed down and refrigerated for a couple of days Served with some onion jam among other things not pictured I still have about 1/4 of it left, so that's tonight's dinner

Thanks for the recipe Michael (we'll call it "Tongo's British Porter"). I will certainly use it. The only difference in my setup is that there is no way I can do a full boil. The most I can boil is 3.5 gallons. The rest will have to be added in the fermentor. Thanks again.

the squash does look great. Why did u not like it? taste or texture? I've found that these larger dark green squashes could be very starchy and are more suitable for stuff like gnocchi or puree or soup or a dessert. As opposed to the sublime smooth butternut squash. BTW: my torta was very nice and juice...probably due to the fat in the sausage .

I am a little late here, but I did test the recipe for Paula's book The Cooking of SW France and really like Russ said, removing the skin from the neck in one piece was quiet easy. The end result was delicious. BTW, the easiest place in the US to find duck necks...er...with the ducks attached to them since they can be used too is at Asian markets.

Great finale for the year! I have had the Splendid Table book for a while but have not used it as much as I would like because we have been cooking other regions this year. The Piadina certainly caught my eye along with that cheese mixture she creates for it. The Ada Boni book has a Tuscany chapter (not sure how extensive since I still have not recieved the book) and the weather is cooler so it should be perfect next month.

Mike- I made about half a recipe, shaped them roughly by hand and I cooked most of them that same night. There was about a half pound left, that I formed into one thick Jimmi Dean-like sausage, wrapped well and froze for future use.

Fantastic food everyone. I have to say Umbria has been as much of a pleasant surprise as Liguria was to me. Unfortunatly, I just have a little less time to throroughly cook Umbrian as I did Ligurian. My latest Umbrian meal was inspired by the Testa bread recipe and sandwich picture in the Della Croce book and by Hathor's post a page or so back. I made my own take on an Umbrian sausage-cheese-greens torta. I think my bread needed to be a bit thinner maybe. I used homemade sweet Italian sausage, based on the recipe from Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn. Here are the links frying in the pan, you'll notice that I did not bother stuffing them in casings in order to save some time. These are light years better than any store bought links that pass for Italian sausage in my local store and are so easy to make (well, honestly grinding/cleanup is a bit of a hassle, but it is so worth it adnI did that the night before) For greens I used Rapini sauteed in olive oil and garlic with lemon. For cheese, a provolone. And here is the Testa bread from Della Croce's book cooking on my Testa aka heavy nonstick skillet. This meal was fantastic and I could not believe I put it all together, including mixing the sausage and making the bread, in about an hour on a weeknight! My wife already has plans for me to make a quick version of pizza using this bread. The possibilities are endless. BTW, what region are we doing next? I won a new copy of Ada Boni's book on eBay for $4 (great deal huh?) and I am expecting it this week. I sure would love to use it next month.

Perfect, thanks! I like the tasting test. There is no harm in mashing all grains together though, right? I do not think there is, but figured better be safe.

In doing some research for my own Porter recipe, a question occured to me that I really have not though of before. What is a good rule of thumb to distinguish between a grain that is meant to just be steeped Vs. one that needs to be mashed? In the tutorial, Chris says grains that do not carry the label "Crystal" or "Cara" need to be mashed. Is it that simple or is there more to it? I am assuming that there is no harm in mashing a steepable grain but the reverse is not true, right? Take this English Porter recipe for example, I think all the grains with the exception of the "1 lb. medium crystal malt" need mashing, but it would not hurt to mash that too. right?

Chris- Do you mean that after bottling say half the porter, the rest is left in a vessel and wood chips are added and allowed to steep for a week then bottled? Michael- Thanks for the recipe. The one you posted sounds good, but I would certainly appreciate it if you can find the other "maltier" one. I can do either a mash (like the last recipe I made) or steep. I also prefer to make a 4-5 gallon batch at a time. Thanks.

Everyone is baking such lovley stuff, those thumbrints and the coconut apple cake look perfect. This past weekend I made the rum drenched vanilla cake. I made half a recipe for only one cake, but I think the whole recipe would still have been perfect to fill my loaf pan, this one filled about half. I did make the syrup and "drench" the cake with it. The funny thing is we had a couple of friends for dinner and they along with my wife remarked about how "ordinary" the cake looked...until they tasted it that is. Both texture and flavor were outstanding and went great with some whipped cream and strong espresso.

Anyone tried those Sarlat potatoes yet?? If not, do so ASAP. I made these as a side for a roast chicken recently and they were simply amazing. So much so that there were no leftovers for the rest of the chicken! I used my Lodge cast iron skillet to make these and the slices had the best crunchy crispy edges. The last sprinkle of garlic and parsley really puts them over the top.

I definitly would like to tackle that Porter, like we talked about with some wood chips in there. Any ideas how to do this? Do you have a formula you've tried.

Exactly, I agree with you as well Chef. I think Italian food is also very regional as Chef Batali likes to remind us often, but restaurants serving it (good or bad versions) are everywhere ion the US. However, my thought is we have much more Italian than Spanish due to the existense of a much bigger immigrant population from Italy in the early 20th century compared to Spanish. This in turn supports your reasoning that we simply do not have as much Spanish chefs as we do others.

I got to pop open a bottle of the latest batch and it did not dissapoint. This was a pretty gold color and very crisp and clear. The bitter hop edge is certainly very very mild. As expected I did not have much of the tangy flavor since I did not use a saison yeast.

Chef- In the US we have relatively few authentic Spanish restaurants as opposed to say Italian restaurants or French ones. It is true that Spain and it's food (besides tapas) is gaining popularity and I am very happy about that becuase it is a remarkable cuisine, but still in a city as big as Houston, you will find maybe one or two Spanish restaurants, and even those they mainly emphasize tapas. In her book, The New Spanish Table, Anya Von Bremzen attributes that to the extreme regionality and ingredient specific dishes that can be only found in Spain. Meaning that many Spanish dishes cannot be made properly outside of their hometown. Do you agree? If not what is your take on the subject? I'll reserve my opinion of her statement till you post yours Many thanks for taking the time to join us Chef!

For what it's worth, the food was not that good. I've been to the Houston one a couple of time before it closed and the best thing they had were the thick cut French fries. The steaks on the other hand were gristly and chewy and never cooked right.

I made two things this weekend: I had a few egg whites in the fridge that I wanted to use up. So, a quick flip through the book and I stumbled on the Almond Cocoa Meringues. I whipped up a batch of the stuff. Mine did not have the nice peaks that the picture shows, probably because my egg whites were still cold when I whipped them, but over all these were crunchy, chewy and chocolaty. For Sunday dessert, to follow a French inspired meal centered around a roast chicken, I made the Far Breton cake. It sounded so inticing and fallish AND it had prunes in it. We were not dissapointed here, this cake/custard hybrid is a sure winner I even had some for breakfast today. I really cannot praise this elegant cake enough, it tastes and feels like a cross between a cake and a custard and the soft almost jammy tea-soaked dried fruit in it add an extra layer of texture and flavor. The toasted almonds are my addition on top, just to add still more texture, but the cake is awsome as is.

Good point, I see what you mean. She could've omited it and instead placed a true unique Umbrian antipasto instead.

His recipe is very simple, the sliced squashes are brushed with a paste pounded in a mortar made from cinnamon, fresh sage, dried hot chile, salt and olive oil. Then the squash is raosted till soft at a high temp (~450F). I also made a paste in the mortar but omitted the hot chile since my wife cannot eat it and added black pepper and a tablespoon or so of honey because it gets so nice and caramalized. If you notice even the seeds are roasted alongside the squashes, they are very good eaten whole or if you know how de-shelled. The peppers are really fantastic, give them a try. I used salt packed anchovies but olive oil packed ones are ok too. Even my fish phobic mother in law enjoyed these, and I thought I would be the only one eating the pepper slices with anchovies on them.

Kevin- I see what you mean by saying "coconut". This is actually the icing "skin" that was broken in places to allow the sprinkles to adhere better. Last night's dinner: Red bell peppers are abundant at the market this week, so I picked four up and roasted them. I served them as an antipasto following a recipe in Della Croce's book. Very very simple and addictive on top of toasted Umbrian bread. The peppers were topped with mint, lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and anchovie fillets. Main course was also from Della Croce's book, garlic and herb marinated deep fried chicken. Fried chicken is great but add sage, garlic and rosemary and it is out of this world with a fantastic crispy crackly skin due to the flour and egg dip. I actually had to restrain myself from marinating the chicken in buttermilk first, something I do not believe any Umbrian would apporve of Winter squashes are here, undoubtedly my favorite winter vegetable. Here is my interpretation of Umbrian roasted squash (Turban and a mottled Acorn) loosly following a recipe from Jamie Oliver's Italy book. The squashes were painted with a paste made from olive oil, sage, honey and cinnamon. I could eat those for dinner on their own. BTW, don't peel these and the skin turns lovely and crispy. Dessert was also from Della Croce, Rum and Orange infused rice fritters (I think she attributes these to the feast of St. Joseph). They don't look like much but they tasted like eating deep fried very good rice pudding.