FoodMan

BTW, forgot to ask, what kind of ice cream maker did you buy? Elie

My first reaction . Cornstarch in ice cream is wrong, in gelato is even more wrong. I think it might taste ok but the texture is not going to be right. now going back to your questions : 1) Labneh will work fine, I've tried it based on Alton Brown's recipe Here. Just adjust the flavor to eliminate the ginger and add as much Nutella as you like. 2) Steep the herbs in the milk/cream and like it was mentioned before, do not over do it. The flavor should be a little strong before freezing, since the cold ice cream will taste a little duller than the unfrozen stuff. I would go with a custard base, but that is my own opinion and I have no reason to back it up but personal taste. I just love the custard texture. 3)Do you have the Bouchon cookbook? He has several recipes for interesting ice creams in there including pear and prune. I have not tried any yet, but they sure sound good. I have absolutly no idea about the tea ice creams. For some reason they strike me as a little tricky. 4) For gelato you need more egg yolks to make a pretty thick custard. One recipe for Vanilla Gelato by Mario Batali uses 10 yolks and makes heavenly creamy gelato. His book Babbo also has a couple of good recipe for gelato. 5) I tried the milk ice cream that you mention, and I failed . Mainly because the "mahlab" that is essential for this is very expensive and almost impossible to find. As for other fruit flavors, they are mainly sorbets. I have to recommend my latest favorite ice cream, it's also from Alton Brown, banana ice cream. It is very easy and totally addictive. Try it with some caramel sauce. Hope you have fun experimenting with the ice cream maker, I sure do. Please keep us updated (especially if you crack the secert of the arabic gummy milk-mastic flavor) Elie

You certainly have to try this again. It is one of my favorite dishes and if you made it right it should not be "clumpy" at all. Rich, creamy and delicious, not clumpy. Also, why on earth would it cost you $70?! Is it just a figure of speach? The ingredients are pretty much standard for a mac and cheese dish (macaroni, milk, flour, Gruyere, thyme, bread crumbs... am I missing anything?) Elie

Welcome to The eGullet Society For Arts & Letters inespm! This is a pretty cool idea. I am sort of new to cooking with Tapioca, so far I only used it in a Vietnamese dessert along with coconut milk and banana, I think I undercooked it here though. I also tried it a Thai soup with crab and duck, this was spectacular. However, I really like your idea. It can be used for so many things. I am assuming u are using the small pearl tapioca, correct? Do the larger ones absorb flavor the same way or wil they take much longer? Elie

That's what sold me, too! Also, it was the prettiest stove on display (I thought). Fun to cook on/in, especially after 17 years with my 1972 Harvest Gold monstrosity. ← LOL...I guess all builders use these stoves. I also have the same one. I am enthusiastically following this thread Bill, I cannot wait to see how it turns out Screw the FTV Challenge, this is much better . Sorry, I do not have much to add to help, since I do not own this fantastic book even though it has been on my wish list for a long time now. Elie

I'll play. Here are my guesses: Djeghlelou bsal Tomatiche: Escargot with onions and tomatoes, tomatoes making the main sauce constituent. Djeghelou b'zaatar: Escargot with zaatar as the main seasoning - I suppose in a lemony or buttery sauce? At first I thought boudjeghelou bel qedid would be escargot with flour, i.e. coated and fried, but now I've remembered that flour is daqiq - consonants reversed. New escargot?? No clue here. I'm still trying to get my throat wrapped around 'djeghlelou'. It's something to practice while I'm driving, so nobody has to listen to me. Competent Arabic speakers may feel free to laugh at my guesses. This is fun, even as I blush. Edited when I remembered the word for 'flour'. ← Please don't feel bad...my Arabic is fluent and I can pretty much guess what you guessed. Djeghlelou is a word I certainly never heard before, we call escargots "Bizak" in Lebanon. So, I am stealing the definition for the first 2 from you- Djeghlelou bsal Tomatiche: Escargot with onions and tomatoes, tomatoes making the main sauce constituent. Djeghelou b'zaatar: Escargot with zaatar as the main seasoning Boudjeghelou biyad: With eggs maybe ? or in white sauce? Boudjeghelou bel qedid: hmm...could be with some kind of dried meat. Boudjeghelou be Dersa: I am totally stumped here. I have no idea what Dersa might mean. Does it have something to do with teeth? Elie

From today's digest: I guess according to him and if you have time, it is best to pay the few extra dollars and get a better dish at Vincent's. Then again, fast-casual is what it is, we get what we pay for, and if the Olive Garden regulars venture into this Houston restaurant instead of the "all you can eat soup and salad" then it has served a noble purpose. Elie

Houston Press' Dining Section Less Price, Less Spice Robb Walsh reviews the new Madola fast-casual place “Pronto Cucinino”. Houston Chronicle's Food Section Good as Gold Peggy Grodinsky reports on this practically Houston native fruit that no one seems to want to eat, the wonderful Loquat. Houston Chronicle's Dining Guide Handmade to Please Alison Cook reviews the friendly neighborhood Mexican restaurant Romero’s Las Brazas on HWY 6 North: “Mainly, though, I love this place. I admire the sweet servers, male and female alike crisply dressed in white shirts, black ties and long black aprons. I adore the two gentlemen who play guitar on weekends, sitting calmly near the front of the room and never — how civilized is this? — trolling for tips. (Remember them on your way out.)” Elie This thread is for food media DIGEST entries. If you want to discuss one of these news items, please start a separate discussion thread.

This should be great! Recipes I'd like to start with include at least one breakfast item, a chili recipe from the several available ones, maybe fajitas, and a couple desserts (flan is one for sure). Huevos Rancheros sure sound good for breakfast tomorrow... Elie

I've heard of this before but never had it, has anyone had any experinece with it before? Is it also prepared in a similar way in other countries of the Middle East? ← Yes, and it's gross! Sorry, but I always felt it was really mean to cook so many little birds for one rather unpleasant bony little meal. I'd rather hear them outside my window in the morning...my dad's cousin was a hunter and would make that dish occasionally. My dad and I always refused to eat it. Ah well... ← It really is a matter of perspective. You think they are cute, many memebrs of my family think they are cute too, but taste VERY good after being fattened on figs in the summer . Ducks are cute as well, what about bunnies,....that's a different subject though. Growing up I went hunting with family and friends, it is a big deal and the little fat birds (I mean solid white fat) are a delicacy. NEVER order them in a restaurant becuase like you said they are nothing but a bony meal. I even heard that restaurant birds are nothing more than sparrows caught in nets . I cannot verify if this is true or not, I can only say that they are a totally different creature than the hunted ones. My current point of view is this: the damn things are tasty, but really not worth the effort. They are definitly not hight on my "to-have" list when I visit Lebanon. Now, wild quails, are a different story. They are so much fun to hunt and taste better than almost anything else. Elie

You know, I bet we can get a nice brown crust on it if we just run it under the broiler after it is cooked and removed from the pan. Elie

Last night’s dinner was more or less based on Keller’s recipes. I tried the bavette with shallots and wine jus. Since I only found decent sirloin steaks I used them instead of the outside skirt he recommends. I also added some chopped mushrooms to the shallots. The end result was excellent, juice and definitely simple to prepare. I also added a knob of herb butter that I had on hand. I served it with Bouchon’s bib lettuce salad and some sautéed potatoes (potatoes are not from the book, just simply sautéed in butter). Elie

That thing does look awsome. I am glad someone tried the loaf method, since this is my only option as well. I wanted to try this as soon as I saw AB prepare it on TV but was a little turned off by the lack of a rotiserrie. Not anymore... Elie

Sunday: Chicken breasts with homemade red mole sauce Mexican rice Chunky salsa and corn tortillas Monday: Leftovers from last night, also had some sliced olive sourdough bread around and finished it up with some cheese Teusday: Sirloin steaks topped with sautéed shallots and mushrooms, herb butter and served with red wine jus Butter sautéed potatoes Boston lettuce salad with Dijon vinaigrette Dessert: Chocolate meringue “cookies”, vanilla ice cream, drizzled with chocolate ganache. Elie

I made a batch of the sourdough bread this weekend. Divided into two loafs, one plain boule, and one batard with olives. Both are excellent and very flavorful, but that olive one was so good it was pretty much gone by the next day. Today’s breakfast was PR’s Cinnamon Rolls. I highly recommend those they are soft, flavorful and very addictive. Elie

This conversation is officially closed to anymore questions. Thanks to all who participated. I would like to thank Chef Tycer for taking the time to answer our questions as well. Chef Tycer will still log in to answer any still outstanding question.

Well, if 4:1 is the ratio then 1/2 a cup rice seems very reasonable since the recipe asks for 3.75 Cups of milk. This means that we should use at least 0.75 cups of rice. no? Of course we still have the chocolate to consider, but I'm not sure how. BTW- the only variation on the recipe that I did is not using Valrohna (sp?) chocolate. I don't think this should affect texture very much though. Elie

So, I tried the rice pudding this weekend. Dorie said to use 1/4 cup rice instead of 1/2. However since Docsconz had a problem with that I used 1/4 cup plus 1 large Tbsp Arborio rice. I think we need more rice. While the end result was not exactly "soupy", it was not as set as a proper rice pudding should be. It certainly did not look like the picture. I had some rice and raisins settling in the bottom but again not as bad as Doc's case, so I did not need to blen them. The taste was excellent, no complaints there. But more starch is needed. Has nyone even tried the full 1/2 cup? Maybe we should try using 1/3 cup and see if that helps? Elie

I just tried the CM Dijon mustard I bought last week. I tasted a small spoon alone and put some on a sandwich I'm having. I have to say, I am not impressed with this one. It lacks the pungency, depth of flavor and kick of my usual brand that I buy in a large jar from WS. This one has more of a tangy taste than anything else. I like my Dijon pungent, and I can almost eat this one with a spoon without getting my eyes watery. When this one is over I will definitly go back to my regular brand again. Elie

marka, marqa or mar'aa in Lebanon usually refers to sauce, cooking liquid or broth. as in "would you like more chicken marka with your burgul?". to break mthe word Tabikh further: Tabkha (or Tbikha) is a stew of some sort. I sort of explain this, to the best of my ability, in my eGCI class. Tabikh is cooking in general Tabakh is a cook Elie

Thank you very much for sharing. It looks very exciting, and I am glad to hear you had a great time. I actually will try -hard as that may be- not to check on this thread too much. Sort of like avoiding movie reviews of a movie that you really want to see . Maybe it is just me, but I want my experience to be as unexpected as possible next month. Elie

Chef- looking back at past week's comments, here are a few posts that have not been adressed yet: from PAN from ZEITOUN from CHEFZADI from RON THE PIRATE

Due to a work emergency Scott missed Teusday and Wednesday of this week's chat. He has gladly agreed to extend this chat till next Teusday, the 12th, to make up for lost time. currently Chef Tycer is at the Texas Hill Country Food and Wine Festival, but will log in to continue the chat Sunday night or Monday morning at the latest. He would also love to discuss highlights from the TXHCF&W festival with our members. So, let's keep the discussion going. Elie

Any idea what this year's menu price is? same as last year's? Elie

This bread is beyond awsome. Why on earth have I not tried it yet?! I need to fix that. Any tips or hints we should know about? Also, Marcia congrats on a great looking sourdopugh loaf! Did u follow PR's (not PH's ) recipe for basic sourdough to make it? or did u use some other one? Elie