FoodMan

I added a stick of cinnamon to the stock. I also used a spice mix from my grandmother's stash. She calles it "Kamunah", basically it has -all whole spices- black pepper, dried rose buds, caraway, cumin, allspice, marjoram and a few others I think. I grind it in a mortar and pestle and use it on lots of stuff, like pan seared steak and Kibbeh. Elie

Use a thermometer Edit: And the drippings in the pan make a wonderful sauce. Elie

Looking forward to that, the return of Brian...oh and the PBS show sounds interesting too. Elie

Susan- check out this thread for more details about this. Very similar to Israeli couscouse but with larger "beads". Elie

Of course, the chicken! I cannot believe I forgot to mention it. I tried the roasted chicken as well and it came out fantastic. Here is a picture of it still in the pan: hazardnc, I make pots du creme in ramekins as well (have not tried the Bouchon ones yet though). They might not look as cute as the ones in the book but they taste good. Elie

Last night's dinner was Moughrabiyah: As you can see this recipe had both beef and chicken in it. The chicken was boiled and then cut up and broiled to crisp the skin. The beef was first seared then also simered in the chicken cooking water. The dish was flavored and colored with "burnt onions", basically onions caramalized till almost burnt and then a few cups of stock are added. The result is a deep brown liquid strongly flavored with onions and drippings. This liquid is the one used to cook the Moughrabiyah. Elie

Friday: Penne with tuna and tomato sauce. Made it with good solid tuna packed in olive oil. Saturday: Chicken Larp, served -very untraditionally I guess- on top of galss noodles that have been tossed with palm sugar, tamarind and fish sauce. Topped the whole thing with peanuts and chillies. Maybe untraditional, but it was heavenly. Dessert: Thousands of miles from Thailand, Southern Spice cake with Thick Caramel frosting. This cake is divine if u like your desserts sweet and love caramel. The thing even gets better with age as I am still eating from it today. Sunday: Moghrabiah Dessert: Per the wife's request, I baked chocolate walnut brownies Elie

Daniel- Thanks for sharing these recipes. Can you elaborate more on the origin of these preparations? Are they restaurant recipes or have you experienced them at someone's home? Elie

brngckn- Both look great! what size is the Pave? My wife requested Brownies for dessert tonight so naturally I turned to the Chocolate Walnut ones to give them a try: They came out very good, with perfect texture. However I thought they were a little too mild. I like my brownies more chocolaty. This could be attributed to the fact that I am not using the recomended chocolate in the recipe. Next time I will add more chocolate. My wife on the other hand enjoyed them very much!! Elie

I tried several from this book and I pretty much loved all of them especially the quiche which like it was mentioed above gets better with age! -Quiche with bacon and onions -Cauliflower Gratin (No one could belive this was cauliflower and kept saying "REALLY, but it' so good!!") -Macaroni and cheese gratin, also very good -Trout with almonds and green beans, classic and good -Profiterolles (sp?) with ice cream and chocolate sauce. The puffs came out perfect. The trotters are on my to-do list, so please keep us posted if anyone manages to make them. Elie

So, It's only my wife, my one and half year old and I as well . I guess we do eat more bread than the average family. Typically one or more of those is gone minutes after it leaves the oven, consumed with some good butter and sprinkled with salt. Mine used to come out thinner than I liked at first, but like I mentioned earlier I now divide the dough into 4 baguettes instead of 6. This makes for a better baguette, IMO. Elie

Great thread! I'm still pretty new to cooking Thai food at home and my reference has been David Thompson's book. I spent a good time reading through it before attempting anything since like someone mentioned it could be pretty intimidating. Some recipes I've tried so far include : Pad Thai (of course ) Mussaman Curry (Lot's of work, but amazing. the best I've had) Green Curry (ditto) Laarb Gai (Chicken Larb, very easy) the soup on the cover of the book, the chicken with mushrooms and coconut (very light and deliciouse, and looks so pretty) I definitly want to make the chilli jam soon and store in jars. It sounds like it will add great flavor to lots of dishes. The book is beautiful, an amazing achievement and I learned so much just by reading the intros and recipes. However, I do have a small problem with serving sizes. He does not specify and mainly says that a dish will serve 4 to 5 people as part of a menu. the "Street Food" recipes are even intended for one person only! What I have been doing is basically doubling or tripling recipes depending on what I'm doing and how I am planning on serving them. At first it was hard but I feel more comfortable dealing with the recipes the more I read them and work with them. Anyone else had this problem with the book? Elie

Was it from Sandra Lee ???? Glad you are still on board Jin. Last night a simple dinner of: Home-cured thin sliced spicy Basterma (Armenian-style cured beef) Hard cooked eggs Homemade multigrain bread salad of celery and other greens in vinaigrette Bannana's foster for dessert Elie

That's all I could find uploaded for now, but I'm sure I have more at home and will try to get to them as well. These are my pain a l' ancienne: Elie

Like Lovebenton mentioned, the potato-rosemary bread is not heavy or dense at all, even though the crumb is pretty tight. It is moist and very tasty. My fvorite use for it is for meatloaf sandwiches. I alwasy make extra meatloaf and bake this bread so I can have the sandwiches. I think of it as having meatloaf with the best rosemary, garlic(which I sometimes do not use in the bread) mashed potatoes . I will post pics and experiences from the book in the future. Let me see if I have a few pics of breads I baked from it in my album. Elie

Welcome! Marcia. PR book is one of my favorites and I bake from it on a regular basis. the pages actually feel grainy now becuase of residual flour on them. Your baguettes look great and I found that dividing the dough into 4 instead of 6 baguattes results in better loaves (fuller, better crust and crumb). Another favorite is his "Multigrain Bread Extraoridnaire", I pretty much bake this one once a week. The Pannetone is great as is the Potato-Rosemary, the buns, the pain de campagne, Pugliese, Focaccia and the Italian Bread just to name a few. Please keep sharing your baking experiences from this book and hoepfully others can add theirs. Elie

This looks great hazardnc, I do agree that it should have a little more liquid in it at the end like zeitoun mentioned, but definitly not soupy. It does look awsome though and I cannot wait to add my pictures to this thread once I make mine. I love the way you compare the two "grains" in the picture, this gives everyone a better idea of what to look for. Your husband has the right idea in eating it with khobz (pita bread). In Tripoli, Lebanon, you would find street vendors selling this dish. The way they serve it is usaully inside a split pita loaf and they add pickled turnips and pickled cucumbers to it. Starch rules!! Elie

Houston Press Dining Section: The Fickle Fez Bourdain tells us to 'not eat fish on Mondays' and now Robb Walsh proclaims "skip the tabbouleh on Mondays" in his review of La Fendee. Houston Chronicle Dining Guide: A Posh Pleasure in Southhampton Alison Cook reviewes Antica Osteria. Cause and Effect Roberta McCinnis reviewes the history of cocktail bitters and tells us why it is invaluable to mixologists. Elie

wow...many thanks for sharing the process. like zeitoun said, 'we are not cooking Lebanese Moloukhiya anymore' . This is a totally different dish and cannot be compared to the one I know. It would be like comparing a spinach lasagna and a Spinakopita(sp?) because they both contain spinach. Elie

Wendy- I saw the recipe in the Bouchon book, but do not remember a picture. what page was the picture at? Elie

I finally made my own bacth of this very popular stuff. I used 6 yellow onions 1/4 Cup Olive oil 1/4 Cup Butter later added, some red wine vinegar and salt. The whole process took about 10 hours (I guess I could've left it longer). I hate to say it but my feeling about the end result are similar to Rachel's. I expected more. What I ended up with is a very strong, sweet oniony taste in fat. Not a bad thing if combined with other stuff but I was not too crazy about eating it alone on bread. I did combine it with a meatloaf mix and I tried it with eggs. Very good. The onion confit tasted a little flat by the end of the cooking time so I added some vinegar to perk it up. Keep in mind that I did not add any additives like glace or herbs. That might help. My other onion preserve is really a marmalade or jam and I love it. It has more vinegar and sugar in addition to whole peppercorns. This is what I slather on bread but never cook with. The confit on the other hand I will use as an addition to other dishes mainly. Elie

Chef, thanks for joining us for this chat. On this site we discussed how resistant to change Italians can be when it comes to culinary traditions. See this discussion about Vissani for example Click Here. It seems that many Italians might not give a chef the kind of respect he or she deserves if they are cooking something that varies from the norm, tradition or "the Italian way". What are your thoughts about this issue? How do you express your creativity and manage to run a successful restaurant? Thanks Elie

Fifi- I heard you talk about this place more than once. But after this report, I definitly want to check it out now. Thanks for sharing the pics. Elie

For what it's worth, I gave the one in Houston a try a while back after seeing the long lines out the door of the Bellaire location. I was not too impressed. Tasted like your average Popeye's or KFC with some different seasoning in there. The side dishes however are certainly unique and can be quiet good. Alison Cook reviewed the place and concluded that it is all in the chicken. Meaning that the chickens in Guatemala simply taste better since they are not as lean and falvorless as your typical American megamart chicken. So by using the chickens available here, the pollo is not that much better than other chains'. However, please give it a try and let us know what you think. Elie

I'm still munching on last week's ganache as well. I'm still here. Elie