FoodMan

It tasted pretty darn good, especially for a first time try. The fat was nice and buttery and a little sweet, the meat was perfectly seasoned and porky. Like I said the areas too close to the skin or that are too thin were a little chewy and dry, though still very much edible. maui420- Without getting into all the "science" behind it, let me put it this way. Do you like salami, Serrano ham, Proscuitto ham, or any number of amazing "cured" meats that you buy from the store or in a restaurant? If you do, then you should have no problem understanding why we are trying to cure meat ourselves. It just tastes good. Regardless of why it was done in the 17th century, the main reason it is done today is to further our enjoyment of food. Elie

I am sort of on the fence about this whole annonymity issue for critics. I agree with most what FG argued about in the book, but I do not think a critic and a restaurant owner or chef have to be close friends for me to get a well written review and informed. I believe if anything I might take that review with a large grain of salt. Not because I do not trust the critic or because he was recognized but because he is a friend of the house. This alone IMHO might skewe his or her perspective, no matter how "objective" they are. An ideal critic would be someone who knows the business, knows food, has a good understanding of how restaurants work and has no hidden agendas. Above all he has to be someone whose recommendations have worked for me in the past. Whether he is known a la Marianni or not is besides the point. Elie

Finished reading mine this weekend, it took me less than a week and I am usually a slow reader. This one was hard to put down and I was sorry that it is not a bit longer. FG's arguments and advise are so clear and well structured and very interesting to read. I've always known the tip system in the US is flawed but could never quiet argue why. Now I can. Same goes for the restaurant guides and especially those "reader's choice" establishments. Now excuse me, I am on a mission to become a VIP at a local fine dining establishment. Thanks for a wonderful piece of writing FG and hopefully a "sequel" is in the works. Elie

I like the price and flavor of Smart Chicken. For the taste and texture they are a bargain. BUT! what's up with the best part being cut off in whole birds? I am talking about the chef's reward, the tail/butt piece. I love it when roasting a whole chicken, but it seems that the SC I buy (the trussed ones) have that part removed. Anyone else encountered this? Elie

When you say something is "Mkhabbass" or is "Khabissa" you are conveying an end product that is mish mashed together without a clear clue of what it is! Perhaps something thrown together haphazardly. So in this case I would guess it stands for something along the lines of "A sticky mish mash" or "A sticky mess". Doesn't sound too appetizing, does it? Elie

I would imagine stuffing those suckers is a real pain . Elie

Oh, of course the olive is not lacking. Neither is the fava bean or the mussle. The way I experienced it, and maybe that is what doc means, is that you eat the dish and the flavor is intense, pure and you have no doubt that what you are eating is olive essence or sharp green favas without the waiter having to explain it to you (actually mine could not remember what favas are called in English, so I tasted it and found out for myself ). Even though the cuisine is highly manipulated the main ingredients still shine through. I think it is Thomas Keller who said "I want to make an Asparagus soup that tastes more like Asparagus than Asparagus"! That is how many of Adria's dishes taste, inlcuding the olive sphere. The fact that it also looks like an olive is an extra nice touch. Elie

These have to be one of the best cookies I've ever made: The "Chock Full of Nuts cookies". I added some chocolate chips to the batter as well. They are amazing, very nutty, rich and delicious. A co-worker ate four of them in one day when I took some to work...and these are large cookies. Another great success are the "Essence of Orange" muffins. Very good with a lovely texture and a buttery-orange taste. The same is not true about the "Whole Lemon Muffins", I made those twice and both times the end result is a mess of crumbly very cakey flat muffins that are almost impossible to take out of the mufin pan in one piece. I am not sure how to fix this one. Another dissapointment were the "jailhouse potato cinnamon rolls". I think the problem is just too much liquid for the flour. Because the dough was very sticky and hard to manage. The rolls lost their shape and texture once baked. If I make those again I wil use 3/4 or less of the required water.

Thanks Elie, A couple of questions though: - What do you think about using mahlab in the dough? Does it change the taste? - In some recipes they use milk as a liquid. My experience is that it makes the though more elastic. Do you prefer water? Greetings Nasser ← I've never used mahlab and I am not sure how it will affect the dough. As for milk...I do not use it either, I think the dough is pretty rich on it's own with water and all that butter or samen. Elie

Been under the weather this past week so I had a lot of "mom's vegetable chicken soup with Ricotta dumplings", well ok the dumplings were my contribution to the family recipe. Saturday: Antipasto of homemade Proscuitto-style ham on top of crusty bread. Spaghetti with a sauce of San Marzano tomatoes, fennel, ricotta and mushrooms Chocolate-Almond souffles with creme anglaise (aKa melted vanilla ice cream ) for dessert. Sunday: My wife rarely cooks and when she does it's usually one of my favorite comfort foods, garlic studded brisket pot roast with carrots and onions. I made the extra creamy and buttery mashed potatoes Today: Leftovers of course! sliced thin, warmed and made into a sandwich on homemade onion rye with dijon and saurkraut. Elie

My homemade Proscuitto-style ham was sliced into, and for a first time try it was pretty good. I can see how a few things might need to be changed for the next go around. The parts closer to the skin were a little too dry and chewy, so a good olive oil rub every week or so might help that. Also using the picnic ham makes for a ham with more sinew in it, so maybe...just maybe I might have the guts to do an actual leg in the future. Here are some pics, I served it as an antipasto on top of homemade bread and a drizzle of olive oil. It was quiet a hit. Elie

I bottled my Vin De Noix a few days ago. I used (mostly) green tinted mineral water bottles (cheap and a perfect size). The flavor was very nice, a touch bitter and fruity with little spice and herb. I was very pleased with the result, but then again I've never had the real stuff in France. Here is a pic of my tasting pour. Now, the bottles will age a few months.

Paula- Unfortunately, I've never heard of this dish either. So, I turned to my reference for regional Lebanese food, Chef Ramzi's book. Looked it up and found it on page 380. Here is a rough translation of what he has to say: " This recipe is similar to the recipe we've seen under the name "babiya" in Mashghara, and under the name of "Hariq Isbaoo" (Burn the fingers) in the town of Ib Elias. This specific recipe is from the town of Dahr El Ahmar in the Rashaia region. It's an ancient sweet dish and can be classified as winter food. 5 pieces Talami bread 2 Cups Samen (clarified butter) 4 Cups Grape Molasses - Heat the molasses and add the samen.Stir until combined - Cut the bread to pieces and add them to the molasses mixture.Stir until all the pieces are well covered with the syrup. Serve hot. " As usual the recipe seems to go overboard with the fat, so some altering will be needed. Hope this helps Elie

I can personally vouch for this recipe, it makes one of the best maamoul dough. Elie

That recipe caught my eye, too. It's a twist on a "straw and hay" pasta dish with lemon, cream, and radicchio using, obviously, the fresh chilies in place of the radicchio. The original recipe is one of my favorites; you should try it in the winter sometime. The radicchio cooks down so it isn't as bitter, but it does help cut the cream and works nicely with the lemon flavors. Glad you're enjoying the book! ← Actually you cannot tell here probably, but I decided to make black pepper fettucine instead of the plain one and it worked out nicely.

I used the recipe from Batali's latest book. Tonight's dinner was crappy Italian food at a crappy Italian chain restaurant . Moby- These ravioli's look pretty damn awsome!

You should've asked them. It's very difficutlt to say but I would guess it's a mixture of cheeses in there. Probably mzzarella is one of them. If the cheese filling tatsed salty then Akawi mightbe another one in there as well. Elie

I've made it twice, both times without the bacon. I highly recommend it. ...wait a second, I did use bacon drippings to grease that pan though .

Wohoo...finally got through this amazing thread! Kevin, I would like to add my compliments for all your work in the past 8 months. I loved reading through it and getting inspired. Currently I am shopping around and would like to get a couple of books about Sicily specifically. Three books caught my attention Heart of Sicily by Anna Tasca Lanza , Foods of Sicily and Sardinia and the Smaller Islands by Giuliano Bugialli and Cucina Paradiso by Clifford Wright. I would like to add something to the homemade Ricotta discussion from ...June is it? Anyways, I've made it using lemon juice and using vinegar and both impart an unwanted flavor. So,my favorite way is the buttermilk way. Boil about a gallon of whole milk with a quart of buttermilk. Once a soft curd forms strain it through cheese cloth. It makes for an excellent sweet Ricotta-type cheese. It seems that your Central Market in Dallas carries fresh Sardines pretty often. I've only seen them once at my Houston store. I will be looking forward to see more of this thread. BTW, the meal I cooked today was very much inspired by this thread, I just had to have Italian! Elie

As part of my mostly Italian meal today, I made the fried rice balls These are absolutly amazing and the recipe works perfectly I also made the fresh Fettucine with Lemon and chili sauce. this was another winner. The picture really does not do this justice.

Time for the thread to get back to life again. I have been baking every week but nothing new until now. I used PR recipe (2nd variation) for white bread and made some amazing sesame seed burger buns. Here is one of them "in action" Also today I made some Pan Siciliano. I've made this once a loooong time ago and I was not that impressed as I recall. I must've done something wrong because this bread is fantastic this time with a very interesting crumb and a tender crust. My loaves do not look as shiny as the book's though, maybe some egg wash will help next time. I served the bread (well some of it) as an antipasto with a dip made with EVOO, capers, garlic and parsley. Elie

I saw Alton Brown's new ice cream episode of Good East the other day and I decided to give his "premium" ice cream recipe a spin. I decided to use his vanilla base and make a Blackberry version. I made a blackberry syrup using a 14 oz package frozen pulp and about a cup of sugar. I added that to the cooled ice cream base. When churning I also addedsome bittersweet chocolate shavings. It was excellent and scooped wonderfully after a 24 hour chill. I will certainly use this ice cream base again. Next time I would make a more concentrated syrup though becuase the berry flavor was not assertive enough. I served it in a Vacherin and topped it with chocolate sauce. Elie

Been away from this thread for a while again so here goes a few dinners... Sometime last week: Chicken Rollades, stuffed with roasted peppers and bread crumbs. Pumpkin gnocchi with spinach and mushrooms Also this past week: One of my entries for the "Build A Better Burger" contest, was this Beef burger with bourbon onion relish, cheddar and smoked paprika mayo. I made the buns myself. The friesare also from scratch. (wish me luck). Tonight's mostly-Italian dinner: Fresh baked Pane Siciliano with an olive oil-caper-parsley dip Roman fried rice balls, these are stuffed with mozz and dried porcini and are VERY addictive Homemade Fetuccine with lemon sauce, chilies and parsley. Charcoal roasted pork shoulder (picnic). this roasted slowly for about 4.5 hours and came out fantastic. It was basted with a mixture of Sherry and stock and vinegar. The best part is that I needed no more than one chimney full of briquettes! I am thinking of doing the Thanksgiving turkey on the grill this year now. Here it is towards the end of the cooking time. Jim Dixon's roasted cauliflower (I added some red peppers also) Dessert, Vacherin filled with homemade Blackberry ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce. Elie

This was the Nocino. Sorry for the confusion. Elie

We returned from vacation and I strained mine yesterday. Having used vodka and first kept it in a covered bowl and transferred it to a sealed jar, the concoction was black as tar. It tasted strong. The flavor is very nutty and interestingly spicy but a bit too much, in my opinion. I want to lighten the flavors - Elie, what do you dilute yours with? ← Added some simple syrup first, then some water until it reached a taste I liked. It is excellent, like nothing I've had before, with a very faint bitter taste and nice floral/herbish flavors. I tried some in coffee and liked it as well. here is a pic of the bottled Nocino. The Vin de noix will be bottled soon as well.