FoodMan

Topic has been moved here from the "Middle East and Africa Forum" Elie

I'm with chefzadi, pronounciation could vary a lot. I would recommend trying "mog-ra-biya". Elie

Ore- Thanks for sharing the experience and the photos. Everything looks awsome. Elie

Seth- I am afraid we might have to restrict your access to this thread if you do not bake something before next weekend . Seriously though, you are correct, the mousse can be made in under 30 minutes. This includes melting and cooling the chocolate. Elie

Not exactly a recipe from the book, but I did stuff those crepes with the bittersweet ganache from the book. Elie

Here are my chocolate macarons from the Herme/Greenspan book. I am very proud of those since after trying several recipes this was the only one that worked, and they absolutly delicious. I think I have some of my failed attempts further up in this thread. To remove them I used the steaming method recommended by the recipe. Elie

Absolutly awsome thread, I learned so much in the last 30 minutes. I have never steamed couscous, but now I am so psyched to try it. Thanks all. It is both apporpriate an quite funny that Moughrabiya (translates to "Moroccan" not "North Africa", since in Arabic Morocco is known as "Maghrib" ) is mentioned. I say this because I bought bag of the stuff recently and I am planning on making the dish and post about it as part of the not-very common middle eastern dishes threads. The grains are a bigger than the regular couscous but smaller than chickpeas, more like pearls. I actually have seen it being refered to as pearl couscous in some restaurants. As to how it relates to Israeli couscous, I am not sure. But I would assume they are more or less interchangable although the Israeli one seems a little samller. The versions I had were cooked with beef chunks and chicken pieces along with lots of onions and spices. It truly is a wonderful dish. Elie

Finally uploaded about several days worth of dinners: Monday- Roast chicken following the very first recipe in Bouchon. Made a reduced red wine sauce from the pan drippings Steel cut oats with peas and plenty of butter Dessert: Chocolate Souffle with Vanilla ice cream and berry sauce. Teusday- Chicken fried rice. Used up the leftover chicken from yesterday's roast. Wednesday- Picked up some Pho soup from a Vietnamese place on the way home from work. Thursday- Meatloaf Mac and cheese Dessert: Chocolate and banana crepes Elie

These are perfect looking Madeleins. Alas, I have no Madelein pans so I cannot try them anytime soon. Elie

chefzadi- Welcome to egullet! Your comment brings up a good point concerning "hummus". In Lebanon when oprdering this dish you would not order "hummus", instead you would order "hummus bil tahini" (translation : chickpeas with tahini). If you simply order "hummus" it will be like telling the waiter at Chili's that you want a side of "potatoes". My reply was really to the way this dish is known in the US, as simply "hummus". In Algeria would the dish you mentioned simply be called "hummus"? Elie

For gulf coast seafood, my all time favorite has to be Good Co. Seafood. The one on Westpark and Kirby NOT I-10. For wonderful fried chicken and chicken fried steak, give "Barbeque Inn" a try. I was there last Friday and their Southern Fried chicken is the best I've had anywhere. Hickory Hollow in the hights has some great bbq as well as very good chicken fried steak. Welcome to Houston, Elie

And if you have one of those Mexican tools for whipping the hot chocolate, you get a great foamy topping for your cup of hot chocolate. I think it is called a molinillo. I got mine in San Miguel last year and love it and love the way it froths up the chocolate. an aside, I worked with David Guas when he was one of the guys in the bake shop at the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans. Nice guy. ← We do have a millinillo as well, a gift from my father in law who bought it in Colombia. However, I prefer using a blender to make hot chocolate like PH recommends. It is much faster and produces excellent results. I also use the blender to make outstanding Mexican hot chocolate (from Oaxacan chocolate disks) that comes out very frothy and smooth to serev with churros (This I think is from a Rick Bayless book). Elie

Bilrus- That looks very good. Corax- Claudio Roden cooks hers in stock instead of plain water and I adapted her recipe for mine. Except I used water since I think the dish should be vegetarian. Also my mom never used stock. The recipe goes somehting like this: saute a chopped onion in olive oil till barely starting to color. Add 1/2 cup lentils and toss. Add about 1.75 cups water and cook till the lentils are almost cooked. Add 1 cup (more or less) of bulgur, mix, season, cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. The dish is done when almost all the water is evaporated. Elie

nothing really major in today's W&D. However I thought it has a couple of interesting tidbits: We have a complain from Ms. Hurtado that the portions in restaurants are too big, while Ms. Miles complains that they got served too little of a portion. Going back to Ms. Hurtado's comment about recieving "rude comments" when asking for a Kid's menu. A kid's menu!? Are you kidding me, she is 26 and if she asks for a kids menu during my table-waiting days she would have gotten a no as well. Besides she claims to order salads and I've never seen a kid's menu with anything but crappy fried stuff like chicken tenders. Yeah, a waiter is going to waste an hour of his time waiting on a 26 yr old who ordered the $2.95 kid's cheese enchilada. Get over it lady and order some real food. The last comment by Mr. Hix is also strange. Besides the fact that IMO he is dead wrong about Gran Marnier not belonging in a Margarita, what is his comment doing here? Did Mona Shoup run out of "Whines"? Elie

This is an interesting thread. In Thompson's "Thai Food" he lists sweet soy sauce (Kecap Manis) as an ingredient in many recipes. Is that simple soy sauce that has been sweetened with molasses or otherwise? Elie

I gave the mousse a try tonight, since it is so simple to prepare and I always have extra egg whites in the freezer. I have to say that I was a little skeptical at first but the result was nothing less than stellar. Once the mousse is plated it is very "airy" and foamy. However after resting in the fridge for an hour or so, we get this (My chocolate desserts always seem darker in the picture than they really are!) it settles down a bit and turns into a luscious, creamy pure chocolate confection. It definitly is different than the whipped cream mousse I am used to, it's lighter, less cloying and more chocolaty. I had two of those ramekins myself . I will be making this treat often. Elie

Andi, my birthday is in April. A nice wedge of aged cheese will make a splendid present Elie

I honestly never use those canned products. I do use canned chickpeas to make hummus though and using a food processor I bet it takes the same amount of time as does the canned paste and tastes 100 times better. the two brands you named though are certainly my favorites when it comes to Tahine or other staples such as rosewater. Elie

I believe Alton Brown already claimed this one Elie

hmm...no one said she is the anti christ or that Americans cannot cook French food as far as I can tell. Like someone else mentioned...oh wait it was you ..."They're dumbing down the food" and targetting the mass market with no regard for programming diversity or real food. They are doing what any other corporation does, making money any way they can. Elie

What she said... and if Ray's "boeuf bourguignonne" is what is considered French Cuisine, then it really is a sad sad day. that's why my new favorite food shows are on Discovery Home channel. Elie

This sounds like a great place and with very reasonable prices. I will have to check it out next time I'm in Austin. Elie

legourmet, this was awsome. Especially the Terrine. Elie

Patrick- Thanks for clarifying. See, what I am getting at is the following. Is it common to make a chocolate mousse in this method? or is this a PH adaptaion in order to make it light in texture and more intensly chocolaty? Since there is no cream, I would think the chocolate flavor would be even more pronounced. Elie

The mousse. Is it a mousse or an unbaked souffle? To explain, when I first got the book my wife looked at the cover and said "ooh, chocolate souffle". So I flipped through the pages and informed her that it was a mousse not a souffle and never even read the intro or the instructions until today. PH does not use whipped cream in this confection but rather only whipped egg whites creating an airy "mousse". It just sounds like it would taste and feel like a souffle (it sure looks like one). Now, I have not tried this recipe yet but I am very intrigued by it. A mousse is supposed to have whipped cream or it is not a mousse. right? I just thought this might be an interesting topic for discussion. Anyone thinking about trying this? or already did? Elie