FoodMan

Absolutly lovely Hathor! They look perfect both raw and plated. The filling is still differen t that Mario's filling that I am hoping to get to this month. His is more along the sweet/sour onion and potato filling.

Jeniac - I have made the salmon about 7 times and I am happy with the following: 3 lb Costco Salmon 3/4 cup koscher salt 1.5 cups mixed light and dark brown sugar 1/4 scotch zest of 1 lime. Comes out perfect everytime. Also let it sit at least 2 days after it is done - seems to get better that way.... ← Also I entered the recipe for the awsome Pastrami salmon in Recipe Gullet. You can find it here.

huh?? Did I misunderstand you or are you saying that the bins for boiling are made of plastic??

Awsome chef! Forgot to mention that in Beirut they have a much cooler name for them than "Goat Head", they are called "nifa" . and yeap they are sold by the same shops that sell you your everyday run of the mill rotisserie chicken. This is not considered "exotic" food. Same goes for sheep testicles, but that's another thread... As far as I know, the eyes are not eaten. I sure would not want to eat them.

I stopped by the brew shop yesterday and picked up a plastic (with some cool print on it), an air tight top for it and an airlock. I brewed up a double batch of the rish red ale again and by this morning it is happily clicking away. Hopefully no contamination this time around. Although since I was burned once, I am a little worried about dry-hopping. I am thinking of just cracking the top open in a week, and quickly pitching in the loose hops and putting the top back on so exposure to air is minimal. About the airlock. What do you normally fill it with? I heard to keep it sanitized, some cheap vodka or grain alcohol is better than using water. So that is what I used.

Pontormo, did your culingiones have potatoes in them as well? I am thinking about giving Mario's recipe a try. His filling is mainly onion and potato simmered in a vinegary sauce. BTW, my baked stuffed zucchini were much simpler and NOT boiled (yuck). just scooped out the inside and filled with breadcrumbs, cheese, herbs, garlic....drizzled with olive oil and baked at 400F. Maybe it was not Sardinian, but the leftovers were pretty darn good at room temp.

I have not read all six pages of this great announcement, so first off big congrats Chris. Looks like FTV is moving in the right direction with this show. I'll add my voice to Jscarbor's. Houston as it all, so a stop here when in south TX is mandatory.

Pretty cool gig in Korea. Anyone seen the awsome Korean flick "Oldboy"?? Octopus scene, that's what it reminded me of only a little less graphic. Also that confusion about which part of the chicken was which was priceless. No other show would have that . I really thought this Korean "fixer" was one of the best Tony's had. She really was fun and not just there to be a "guide".

That's the one! Never been impressed. Is there still an outlet open in Houston? ← Yeap, we do have an Arcodoro right across from the Galleria. I don't think their food is bad, but like you I am not that impressed and would rather spend my cash at Simposio or Da Marco.

Kevin, I think the recipe in Molto Italiano simply says to "roll them on the back of a fork", I remembered you guys saying that it's better to have them really pressed against the fork so I did that. Pomodoro/Arcadoro ...Actually the owners have a very good recipe for stuffed eggplant in an older issue of Food and Wine that I am thinking about making again this month.

Pam, This is pretty much the recipe I use. Just add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the dough. It is even better made the night before and let rest/rise in the fridge. Make sure to remove the dough balls a couple of hours from the fridge before baking. For cheese I use a mixture of two or more cheeses usually. One melting cheese like mozzarella and a more flavorful sharper one like mexican farmers cheese, feta, Akawi... But really anything you like should work.

It really depends where you are from and there is no use debating it here. Personally, I pronounce it m'jaderah.

It split when it was in the oven. My best guess is that it's some interaction with the cheap brandy I use when I'm making it. Especially distressing because the thing looks so dang wonderful when you pull it out of the oven. The other variable that's changed is that we're making it -- per instruction -- in a cast-iron skillet, rather than the glass pie plate we've used in the past. ← Interesting, I might try and give it a shot tonight using some good frozen cherries I have in the freezer. I'll make sure to report back if I do.

Klari this looks outstanding. The chiocken recipe has been on my radar for a long time because of the picture in the book but I have not had the chance to try it yet. Same with the cake, I love your picture of it with the cherries. The rabbit compote is very nice and I think next time I want to press it in a terrine pan with a line of prunes in the middle for a more refined presentation.

Thanks for checking Bomdog. I'll check when I get home.

This one, right? An email just went out to the wife as a suggestion.

Well, I honestly followed the recipe here, no tips or tricks. I would maybe adivce to start with a little less flour than recommended and add more as needed. Hope that helps.

Are you sure they are not referring to the inoculation temperature? ← I do not have the instructions on me right now, but yes pretty sure. I can verify when I get back home I guess.

I hate to belabor the point, but the instructions that came with my (non-ice-packed) Bactoferm claim that an ideal temp for the hanging of sausages is something around 78 or so! The book and almost everyone here says that is too high. So, now I am thoroughly confused! Chris this is awsome looking sausage man. BTW, how much is this stuffer? My wife keeps asking what I want for Father's day and that might be an option.

On Saturday we had our first Sardinian meal, Started with a primo of those "toothsome" Malloredus. They were very simple to make and sauced simply with fresh chopped tomatoes, fennel seeds, ricotta and garlic. They were topped with crumbly sheep Pecorino and fresh homemade ricotta. The recipe for the Malloredus and their sauce is from Molto Italiano. Here is a pic of the ready to cook dumplings. I love the color of those things and especially the specks of saffron in there. They were toothsome and not fluffy like potato or ricotta gnocchi, but certainly not rubbery or chewy. The sauced Malloredus in the pan and plated The main course was "Boar in sweet and sour sauce". Unfortunatly my butcher only had boar chops and no boar shoulder, so I followed MArio's recommendation to sub pork butt for the boar in Molto Italiano. The sauce like Kevin's, had vinegar, chocolate, raisins...The meat was also marinated for about 2 days before cooking. A very good dish and not too strong on the sweet or the sour portions. Considering it's ingredients it is no surprise that it reminded me of Mexican red mole sauce. Contorno was a simple dish of stuffed yellow summer squash. Stuffing was bread crumbs, pecorino, herbs and some olive oil. I was hoping to make some fried Sardinian ricotta ravioli for dessert, but I did not have the time between watching World Cup matches

Jelly-like? not sure. There was a thin thin membrane like thing around the hop bag that was floating on the surface. Actually next time I dry hop I will just throw the hops in there with no pag or anyhting since I am not using plugs. BTW, I did not dry hop in my kitchen, but in the spare bathroom where the beer was at.

Well, this thoroughly sucks!!! I was getting ready to bottle my beer about an hour ago and here's what I have : Yes I am very miffed pissed and frustrated, and yes it tastes as bad as it looks and all 4.5 gallons or so went down the drain. It tasted like rotten vinegar mixed with mud! I am almost positive the whole thing went bad right after dry hopping it last weekend. I know that because I tasted it then and it was wonderful with no hint of murkiness or sour/rotten taste and it was pretty much clear. The problem is I am not sure how the damn thing got contaminated. I made sure the hop bag and the shot glass I put in it to weigh it down were boiled and sanitized as well as the spoon I used to taste the beer with. I never touched the beer with my hands. Here is what I observed after dry hopping and what gave me some worries early on in the week: - The weighed hop bag sunk like a rock when I put it in, but a couple of days later it popped back up - Around that same time I noticed the re-appearance of "foam" and a few bubbles. I attributed those to some last yeast activity when it was stirred by the hop bag. - A couple of days ago I noticed the smell was not nice and hoppy anymore, but more sour. I am frustrated but looking forward to our next beer Chris (hopefully soon). I am also planning on buying a bucket with and airlock on it to keep the whole thing sealed and hopefully avoid such mishaps in the future. Any other ideas why this might've happened?

I am so glad I did a search for Bialetti here. I have been abusing my stove-top espres...err...Moka pot for months now and the coffee kept on getting worse. My list of offenses include: - Washing thoroughly with soap - Pressing the coffee tightly - Other times not using enough coffee - Spending weeks without using the pot No wonder my moka coffee is acrid, bitter and harsh. Because of that I spend longer and longer periods without using it. Thanks to all the advice here, epsecially Craig's early "essay" I will start my Moka rehabilitation by: - Making one pot and dumping it out (just one time thing), then making the drinkable coffee - never washing it with soap - using it more often - filling the filter and never pressing the grounds I sure wish the damn thing came with instructions as good as these.

This place is truely an ethnic gem of wonderful affordable food. We went there yesterday again. The owner/chef knows us by now and he welcomed us and immediatly asked if we would like that day's lunch special. We both did and got a plate with chicken curry, beef curry, a chapli patty, basmati, sliced onions/carrots/cucumbers and one of the best fresh naan in town. All for something like $6, and everything was excellent and more than enough for lunch. At the end of course he brought us dessert, mango yogurt pudding with pistachio. I've been here several times and I do not think I've had the same dessert twice! Unfortunatly I did not like this one at all, mainly because the yogurt was way too sour for my taste. The owner noticed and immediatly stopped by and checked, "Did you not like it? Too sour for you?", I nodded. He immediatly says, "I'll get you something else". I tried to tell him not too worry about it and that I was too full anyways...he did not listen. A minute later he returns with a dessert/drink I recognized from this week's episode of Bourdain's "No Reservations" as "Falooda". A lovely sweet milky dessert with jelly like seeds in it and threads of vermicelli. I finished it all to the great delight of the Chef . He later explained to me how time consuming it is to make Falooda and that is why you will not always find it on his menu. If I ever leave my current job I will certainly miss the 5 minute drive to Himalaya

Well, I asked BP about the freezing of Bactoferm. According to them, in a normal houshold freezer that does not go below -10F, it should last about a month only. Ideally you want to store it at 30 below . He said he would not use it if it has been stored at a temp above -10F after a month. Not much of a "freezer-life" is it? I really don't see me using the whole batch in one month so, I will probably still use it later anyways and see if it works. what do u all think? Edit: expert opinion needed, is a temperature in the mid to high 70s too hot to properly cure and age salame/coppa?