APPS411

A good lunch place with a great sampling of NO cuisine is Mr. B's Bistro. Very reasonable and always packed around lunchtime. Famous for their BBQ shrimp. Messy but real good. I third the Upperline vote. It has become a recent favorite of mine. A good creole/french contemporary mix. Very pleasant staff and away from the french quarter which is nice for a change. Wasn't too impressed w/ Bayona. Emerills Delmonico has a decent menu. But stay awa from his signature place. Great decor but never had a good meal there except for the fried calamari app.

What about potato leak soup. Love that stuff. I do it w/ a little bit of cream and finish w/ a drizzle of white truffle oil. And a fish stock based watercrest soup w/ a few oysters thrown in at the end.

Had a great meal at Upperline a few weeks back. Towards Tulane down St. Charles ave. Set in an old house. Nice and casual. Moderate pricing. Creole contemporary French cuisine. Interesting decour. The owner was very nice. Even remembered our names when we left. I can't even remember a name after a 5 min. phone call.

The traditional recipe that I explained is native to Sicily.

Sounds to me like a traditional long slow cooked Sunday dinner tomato sauce. The oil layer you see is what come out of the meatballs, country ribs or sausage. Was the color slightly on the dark side? My grandmother and mother make it all the time. They usually start it at about 1pm on sunday afternoon and don't serve it till roughly 5pm. It just sits, partially covered and simmers away. They start off with a good amount of chopped onions and olive oil, sautee them up with a very small amount of garlic and maybee a little bit of dried oregano, S & P. When the onions begin to carmelize they add the cans of tomatoes. They use a mixture of sauce and chopped. But if you don't like chunks, just go w/ the sauce or strained cans. Halfway through the cooking they would add some meatballs, country pork ribs or short ribs, ham hocks, and sausage, all previously browned. After about 3 to 4 hrs over a slow simmer you can notice a few phase seperations. The first layer is the oil from the meats. The second layer is a very thin and watery tomato sauce. And the third is the more dense tomato chuncks w/ the meat. Is that what your talking about? You don't have to be too detailed w/ the spices due to the fact that it will cook for so long.

I used to serve a cold seared beef asian spicy slaw as an appetizer. Pepper and sear beef, slice into thin strips against grain. Shred some nappa cabbage with a hand schredder, slightly salt and cabbage to rid of some of the water. I used to make a easy dressing out of fresh grated ginger, crushed garlic, diced jalepeno and scallions, a little bit of rice vinegar, water and believe it or not... green tomatios. I know, not asian, but the slight bitterness works great. Lightly pulse in a blender and toss w/ the chilled cabbage and beef strips and some fried shallot slices to add a crunchy texture since the cabbages is limp after wilting. Make sure you use enough fresh jalepeno to give it enough kick.

Braise, Braise, Braise!!! Season w/ salt, white pepper and EVOO sear till golden. Add a few chopped plum tomatos, smashed garlic cloves, sprigs of rosemary. A small amount of cabernet and some beef, veal or lamb stock. cover and braise for 3+ hrs. Good stuff!

For a dinner party I did a Tuna Tartare brushcetta. To the cubed tuna I added quartered seeded cherry tomatos, diced scallions, a very small amount of chopped ginger and a little bit of toasted sesame oil, olive oil, S & P. Tossed it with a little bit of watercrest and putt it atop grilled peasant bread rubbed w/ garlic cloves. For a little extra flavor, some people liked it drizzled w/ a wasabi cream. Wasabi powder and sour cream, make a great heating and cooling effect. No Pic, sorry.

How could I forget a good old Bacon, Egg and Cheese on a poppi hard roll. At 4am after a long night of drinking, from any diner will do.

When I think of favorite sandwich cravings a few come to mind, bear w/ me please. Grouper Sandwich, Pan seared grouper on lightly toasted simply kaiser roll w/ sliced red onion, tomato and bibb lettuce, w/ a smear of remoulade w/ a few capers added. They slice there home roasted turkey paper thin, on a poppi seed hard roll w/ lettuce, tomato, onion, light spread of mayo and a chopped up proscuitto and parm stuffed hot pepper for a little extra flavor. Favorite is from Rossi's deli. I think what makes this sandwich the best is the temp of the turkey. Since it's freshly roasted they keep it in a mid temperature warmer to maintain the juiciness. Fried Soft Shell Crab Poboy on flaky French baget fully dressed w/ a few shakes of hot sauce. They best is from Parasols in New Orleans. What could be better? Italian Beef Sandwich. Fond memories, chopped or shredded braised beaf w/ grilled onion and provolone on a Italian hoagie roll w/ extra gravy or au jus. Used to get it from a deli called Assenza's that burnt down a few years ago. Often imitated, never duplicated. Chicken Parm from Ronzoni's, my buddies pizza joint. Da best! Vietnamese sandwich flaky light French bread Slicked smoked texas brisket on thick white bread w/ some spicy sauce And of course a basic BLT on toasted sourdough always does the trick. I could be totally satisfied w/ a sandwich for every meal!

Parasols on Constance St. off of St. Charles has my favorite huge soft shell crab poboy. They put like 3 crabs on that thing for like $7. For a great reasonable lunch, go to Mr. B's Bistro in the quarter. You get a fine dining atmosphere, and good New Orleans fare at a very resonable price. And I second the Cafe Du Monde idea. Great beignets and chicory coffee or rich hot chocolate for less than $3. Can't go wrong.

my favorite is coconut cream pie, but it got voted off the island a few years ago.

I went over memorial weekend. Had a good meal at Blue Point located downtown. Decent oysters, not a large selection though. Really good lobster bisque. If you make it up to La Jolla Cove, go to George's at the Cove. I know it's a household name restaurant for La Jolla but it was acutally really great. The price is very reasonable for La Jolla and everything was done very nicely. Real fresh ingredients. (Not that there should be any excuse being in San Diego of all places.) I went for lunch. Get there when they open (i think 11am) so that you get a great upstairs outside view seat of the cove. I had a wonderful thai lemongrass soup w/ clams, mussels, calamari, salmon, conch, and some other local fish. They also make a great bloody mary, w/ home infused vodka. I think the best think that I had was a taco in tijuana from some street vendor. I think it was some kind of organmeat, but I don't speak the language so I'll never know. But when you see a bunch of locals crowding around a street vendor, you pretty much know it's going to be good.

seal some cut veggies(zuchini, squash, red onions, mushrooms) in a aluminum foil pouch with a few butter pats, S&P and fresh herbs. Toss it near or slightly on the fire for about 10 to 15 min. Poke a few holes in the top towards the end of the cooking in order to evaporate some of the steaming liquid from the veggies so you don't have a watery mess.

Oatmeal packages various teas tuna pouches condiment packages tabasco banana

I would go with Kettle One or Van Hoo. They are very neutral and will take on outside flavors very easily. As for infusing. I've been meaning to try to duplicate a infused vodka that I had in a bloody mary in La Jolla, CA. It was infused with (I think) bell peppers (red and green), fresh horseradish slices, radishes, and maybee some tomato water. It was some good stuff. While drinking the bloody mary, you could taste the bell peppers as if you were biting into them.

I use the shells to make a stock. Then I use the stock as my added liquid to gumbo. I put the shells in pot w/ tap water and bring it up to a simmer, let it simmer for 30 minutes, turn off the heat and let it sit for and hour or so. Put through a strainer and crush them up a bit in the strainer to get all the good stuff out. The combo of head fat and spicy boil seasoning adds a great depth of flavor to the gumbo.

With beef of course all reds work fine, but with prime rib I like to limit my selection to the milder reds w/ less tannins and slight less body. Perfectly cooked (rare to MR) Prime rib with a light jus, unlike a filet or sirloin has a very silky texture and extremely delicate mild flavor. A flavor that a bold wine could easily overpower. A nice french pinot noir is always my first choice. Also a spanish rioja is a a great compliment. Syrah, cabs are too much in my opinion. However if you would like to stick w/ something a little bolder like the infamous cab, I would go w/ a meritage. Estancia makes a great one for about $27. The slight addition of merlot and cab frac in the blend seem to smooth out some of the body of the cab sauv, without sacrificing flavor.

Jaybee, If you would like a real soft, fresh ricotta to eat by itself, then I would suggest making your own. It's really easy and is exceptional to eat simply, as you described w/ a drizzle of honey. The resulting texture is silky smooth. The method is simple. You add a small amount of acid (Lemon Juice) and salt to room temperature milk. Let the milk coagulate and pour into a strainer lined w/ cheesecloth. Place the strainer over a bowl in the frig for a few days and thats it. For best results use a good quality whole milk from a local farm. Ultra pasturized does not yeild the a great texture. And be sure not to add too much salt. I made that mistake the first time I made it and once all the water drained out, the salt quantity was too high. I don't have the exact recipe in front of me to tell you the exact amount of lemon juice to add per the quantity of milk. But a quick search online should give you some ideas. Variations in the temperature of the milk at the time you add the acid and the quantity of acid added will yeild different textured results. Some recipes will tell you to squeeze out alot of the remaining liquid. But for a real smooth, creamy, silky end product, I would advise you to just let it drain in the frig w/ a quick stir every few hours. Enjoy.

Here's how I make my dough. Fill a measuring cup w/ with a little less than 1 cup of luke warm water.(about 1 Tbls. less) add a package of active dry yeast, a tsp. of salt and a Tbls. of olive oil. Mix with a wisk for a minute to acivate yeast, and mix in oil. Pour 2 cups of all purpose flour on the counter and make a gravy pool as you would for making pasta. Pour the water/yeast mixture into the center and stir w/ a fork slowly bringing the dry into the wet. Be careful not to break the walls till the end or else you'll have a mess. When combined I usually knead it for about 3 minutes. Let it double in size and its all set. Some people say to knock it down and let it rise a second time. I've tried it both ways and haven't noticed a difference. Another tip is to get a good crisp brown bottom you must preheat your stone. Some stones don't recommend doing this due to there structural integrity. I have a very thin clay, handmade stone which is glazed on one side. I heat it up to as high as my oven will go and slide the pizza on. It takes about 8 minutes for a medium thick pizza to cook. Putting you pizza on a cool stone and then throwing it in the oven, caused too much moisture to be trapped between the stone and the dough. You have to get the pores of the stone open prior to get good results. Masonary bricks work as a fine substitute for a stone as long as you slowly bake out the trapped moisture out on a low temp grill first. Or else they will burst as a result of the steam trying to escape too rapidly. Good luck,

I like to add a little bit of the juice to whip cream and serve it atop warm caramel apple tarts. The juice can be quite tart so be sure to add a touch more conf. sugar when making the whip cream.

Rainbow trout is way too delicate and sweet for a spicy preperation. You would be covering up all of the great characteristics of the delicate fish. I grew up w/ a trout stream within walking distance and can recall bringing back about 5 wild brook, rainbow and/or brown trout back each time I went fishing. There are a few preperations that we enjoyed the most. Bring about an inch of water to a boil in a large skillet. Flatten out the trout such as you would butterfly a chicken. Place it in the water skin side up for a min. or so just to cook the skelletal inner belly area. Let it cool and then you can remove the bones from the inside. Then we would stuff the deboned trout w/ a stuffing made from onions, breadcrumbs, cilantro, white wine, canned crabmeat, few drops of worcheshire and a few lemon slices. Bake the stuffed trout and the skin will peel right off after baking. This method works better for the larger trout. The other way was just to dredge the butterflied deboned trout in a mixture of flour and white pepper and saute about 5 minutes on each side in a hot cast iron pan w/ butter. This works better for the smaller ones. They crisp up better. Simple is better for trout.

I like to make a simple herb Vinaigrette. To a container I add EVOO red wine vinegar and a few drops of balsamic for sweetness. Roughly 2 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, because I like a bit more vinegar kick. I don't measure . Exact measurements in recipes are just one persons opinion of taste, so why is there taste superior to yours??? Then add a tiny bit of dijon, small squeeze of lemon, cracked S&P, and some dried oregano. Yes dried. I take the oregano flakes and crush them to a powder in the mortar and pestle. Helps spread the flavor better. Put top on container and shake it up. Great w/ mesculine and crumbled maytag. Also like roasted garlic balsamic vinaigrette w/ heavier greens like romaine and endive. To a blender I add balsamic vinegar, a bunch of roasted garlic cloved and a few raw cloves for a slight bit of bite. Some cracked S&P, sometime some fresh tarragon leaves. Blend it up smooth, and drizzle in oil. I use both canola and olive. Reason being, that this dressing tastes better after a day or two in the fridge and and pure olive oil coagulates in the fridge, which will prevent the flavors from spreading throughout the dressing. Made a nice mango, orange, cilantro, ginger Vinaigrette over the summer which came out good too.

My father makes the best green tomatos ever. He presses them overnight w/ some vinegar and jars them w/ oil and garlic cloves. Great anipasta or on sandwiches.

I've dusted them w/ a mixture of salt, a little cheyene and very little bit of cinnamon, and slow roasted them till they get a light brown. They were good. I used them to top a autumn squash stew.