FoodMan

if they're frozen baby limas i don't see why that wouldn't be a perfectly acceptable substitute. sure it'll be a little starchier and less sweet, but what the hey, a green bean is a green bean... ← Well, I have to disagree with the "green bean is a green bean" comment. Fava beans have a very distinctive flavor, a pungent one like nothing else. On the other hand, if Edamame that taste nothing like Fava are ok, I see no problem using Lima.

Man, I checked my local Middle Eastern grocer for those and they have non. I still have a couple of different ones to visit and see if they carry them. I just have not been able to bring myself to use edamame yet! BTW, what is the difference between Pizza Bianca and Focaccia? They seem more or less the same to me based on several recipe I've seen. ← I just caqme back from lunch and I stopped by another middle eastern store on my way back. They DO have frozen favas! They carry a brand called Sadaf, and it is available in "single peeled" (with the thin membrane around each bean intact) and "double peeled" (the individual beans have no skin oin them). the "double peeled" ones looked a little freezer-burned to me, so I picked up a bag of the other ones. I should give them a try this weekend and see how they work out.

Do you have any Whole Foods near by or any other "natural" foods store? they should carry cherries with no sugar added in their bulk bins.

Man, I checked my local Middle Eastern grocer for those and they have non. I still have a couple of different ones to visit and see if they carry them. I just have not been able to bring myself to use edamame yet! BTW, what is the difference between Pizza Bianca and Focaccia? They seem more or less the same to me based on several recipe I've seen.

Also, Robb Walsh visited Dolce Vita earlier and enjoyed it. Here is his article, How Sweet It Is

I have not been yet . The problem is it is nowhere near my way, and it only opens for dinner, so some planning and babysitter arangements are needed. It definitly is on the top 5 places I am itching to try very soon. Kevin, maybe you can visit Houston and let me know...we can meet there.

more or less. I did have a minor overflow in the beginning of the boil, but nothing major maybe about 1/2 a cup that I replaced promptly. It did take much longer to cool down than I expected even in an ice water bath. My fermenting vessel is a large glass jar that I use to make flavored liqours, and is resting in a dark closet with a clean cheese cloth covering the mouth with a rubberband. So it is easy for me to see how everything looks. I think it is working just fine, the wort smells very good and I noticed this morning that there is already a thin layer of foam forming on the surface. That is a good sign, right? I cannot wait to see how it comes out, fingers crossed....

Thanks for the very speedy reply!

Chris, Do you mean the 50 minute mark is when I add the rest of the Malt extract? That ia when the second hop bag is added, not at 10 minutes. The water is almost boiling so hopefully u are viewing this....

It's not a bad restaurant but the food is a little boring and stagnant. For the money any other one listed here is preferable like Mark's, Noe, Bistro Moderne or the new Tony's. If you are a little more adventurous check out "Laidback Manor" for Avant Guard cuisine and report back. For excellent Thai, Vieng Thai is not to be topped. There is a thread bout it here. Check it out.

I would think that should work fine.

Homer-style: cheese with bread all fried up and tpped with capers and garlic..... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Welcome all our new members. We hope to see more of you on the Forums. Thanks Matty for this idea (why didn't I think of that?)! I will probably do that as well rather than buying a new stockpot right off the bat. Besides, I like dark beer . Chris, what is the best way to transfer the boiled cooled (cooled to a little over the ideal temp of course) liquid to the fermenting jar/container. I was thinking about using a sterilized measuring cup for most of the volume and then to just pour the rest of it once the pot is easy to pick up and manage. Is that good?

Hathor, that whole meal looks perfect! I so want some lamb on a spit now. Did you say those fried beuaties are called "carcofi alla romana"? Shouldn't they be "carcofi alla Guida"? The Romana ones are the braised ones, right? Am I being nit picky? I go back to work now....

Order the appetizer sampler next time around. Everything on it is excellent especially those small fried pies filled with meat or cheese. BTW, I did make it to Lili's a while back with a co-worker of mine and I did enjoy it. The food was pretty good and the lentil soup they had on special was a good example. I also enjoyed the personal free Lebanese coffee service at the end of the meal.

I would guess the same thing as well. One reason might be because fat still has "other" stuff in it like water, proteins and so on that either evaporate or gets strained out from the rendered fat.

I forgot to add that it was a pain to get rid of the air spaces when filling the casing with the Mortadella mix. I kinda massaged and squeezed the stuffed casing to get rid of all of them. Then I rolled it very tight and tied it with butcher string.

Actually no. I tossed it down the sink this morning and all it grew was a couple of spots of greenish mold. Maybe my kitchen is more sterile than we expected . I am a little behind on the brewing BTW. I need to buy a big enough pot sometime this week. the one I had was smaller than I thought.

I should probably credit the creative genius behind that title: Ian? ← Funny...and IMDB search for "Lumberjack Facials II" returns no results. Must be a real cult classic

No, none of the plates are that fancy. Not Italian, more like Swedish . I believe the orange bowls are from IKEA. As for the square white plates, I think my wife bought them from a lady at her work who sells "Pampered Chef" products from a catalog. The olives are so more than worth a shot, they are addictive. All you have to do is saute some garlic, saute the olives in the garlic, then add the tomato sauce and simmer for a few minutes. That's all.

It truely was a fantastic show last night. The food at "au pied de cochon" looked like nothing I've ever seen. That is a meal I want to have before I die. Oh those roasted pigs' heads with crackling skin, the foi gras in everything, the duck in all its forms.... The episode is definitly one of the best, high up there with Sicily. It did not have a single dull moment...well maybe the hockey scene was a little boring. Now the seal eating took me by surpirse. I did NOT expect that! I have to agree with Tony, it was and I dio mean this in the best possible sense like watching a scene from a horror film with the whole family dining on the flesh of something or someone. At the same time they had the sweetest most serene, warm and satisfied look on their faces while raw seal-blood caked their lips. It is very difficult to describe. I wonder how much tony knew about the whole seal-feast beforehand and how much he was surprised with? Keep up the good work.

Lazio/rome thread really kicks butt. I love everyone's meals. Pontormo, that ragu sounds divine. Kevin's lamb looks fantastic as well. My Sunday Roman meal consisted of: - Olives in tomato sauce. I am not sure if this is Roman or not, Mario does not specify in his intro. It seemed to me that it belongs right at home in a Roman Trattoria though. I served it with a sliced fennel bulb dressed with some olive oil and salt and pepper. Plates like that really showcase what I love about Italian food. So easy, so simple and utterly addictivly delicious! I pretty much at this whole plate while finishing up the cooking since my wife and olives do not get along too well - Rigatoni (no bucatini to be found anywhere) al Amatriciana with homecured pancetta...so many of you made this dish, do I need to say more? - Langue Agro Dolce, sweet and sour veal tongue. One of the websites on Lazio named this as a Roman dish and Mario has a recipe for it in Molto Italiano. I made beef tongue back when we were in Piedmont, remember? This was much better. Tangy sweet with cipolline onions, tomato sauce and carrots. - Dolce was Profiterolls (pate a choux buns) filled with coffee mousse. I actually forgot to take a picture of these beauties. They were very good. Are they Roman though?

I decided to try my hand at an emulsified sausage and made the mortadella. Mainly because it is one of my favorite cold cuts and i wanted to see how close I can come to making the real deal. I followed the recipe exactly and paid extra attention to the temp. I froze all tools, grinder, food processor, bowls..... I used the processor to emulsify the meat and boy do I need a bigger food processor, it still worked with no major problems though. Unfortunatly when I was mixing everything I found out I only had half the required quantity of powdered milk. I know this is there for the protein content and I even debated for a second if I should add a couple of egg whites to make up for the missing milk powder. I decided against that and finished the recipe as is. For casings, I used fibrous inedible casings, and split the mixture into two casings. As far as I could tell the mixture did not break, there was no crumbly texture, no fat pooling in the casing and the finished product sliced perfectly. I think the missing 35 grams or so of powdered milk contributed to a slightly softer texture than the ideal Mortadella though. am I corect in this assessment? The taste was very good and I am very happy with the end result. I did miss the more pink Mortadella color and a certain tanginess that the store bought one has. Any idea how i can get these two aspects into this recipe? I think a boudin blanc is in my near future... here is the emulsified mixture: the poached sausages sliced

We stopped by for a lunch at Simposio last week and had a very good experience. Efficient and friendly service is the topping on the cake at this place, especially for a busy lunch. We started off with the fried calamari appetizer. Easily the best in town. The squid was very tender with a very slight chew, not rubbery. It had the lightest, crunshiest batter I've had on fried calamari. The batter did not overwhelm and the taste of the squid came through. Their specials sounded very good (veal chop, lamb, elk, fish...) but we both decided to go with lighter (on the budget and on the stomach since we both had to go back to work) dishes, namely pasta. My wife oredered the Strozzapretti that she enjoyed so much last time. I ordered the Panzerotti (sp?), little ravioli's stuffed with sea bass and served with a creamy lemon zest sauce. The raviolis were very good but the edges, where the two pasta squares are sealed were a little tough. From watching way too much Molto Mario, I deduced they might've used egg wash instead of water to seal the little pockets. The waiter did not know. We also split the Strudel with pear and apple and cinnamon ice cream for dessert. It was as good as a strudel can be, flaky, buttery and not overly sweet. BTW, I saw a couple of other tables order the veal chop, and next time I am getting one of those beauties.

Yeah forgot about that! (the menu wording), probably because I've only been there once a long time ago. It is beyond cheesy.