Fugu

It may seem strange to find fresh sardines in Switzerland but my memories of working in Geneva were the beach parties on Lac Leman. The sardines were just given a squeeze of lemon, sea salt and olive oil and grilled over coals. The fish were not cleaned, tasty but messy eatin'.

One tip you will seldom see in cookbooks is using soya sauce or fish sauce or both to replace plain salt. One celebrity Chef, whose restaurant has been voted best restaurant in the world in 2004(?) uses soya sauce and fish sauce in his bolognese sauce. These salty condiments/sauces add umami to your dishes. Another underutilized ingredient is MSG, just add a pinch or two to add Umami. The Chef that I mentioned above is Heston Blumenthal and his book, In Search Of Perfection. Now that you know some cooking techniques, just add new ingredient and be creative until it tastes good.

For practical reasons, the professional kitchens I've worked in, always use clarrified butter. Line stations always have clarrified butter containers constantly fed throughout service. Butter balls, pats and curls that are leftover from the diningroom are recycled and used as clarrified butter for service. In a pinch, I would use melted whole butter but the whey is held back depending on the consistency and final use, ie. as a glacage on fish or as a bearnaise sauce. What I am waiting to see is someone explaining which method is actually the classical way and not what they prefer. I've already checked a number of recipes online and came up with softened butter, clarrified butter and whole melted butter. From a working cook's point of view, clarrified or at least melted whole butter is the best method.

Approximation is fine once you have enough experience in making sauces but you still have to start with a recipe. In a professional kitchen, recipe cards are there for cost and quality control. Consistency is what makes a restaurant great. Making adjustments to fix a broken hollandaise is easily avoidable if it was done right the first time. As for the butter, the fat content is irrelevant, classical hollandaise uses clarified butter.

IMO, I would follow the recipes from French classical cooking books. Ignoring the given measurements and proportions of some mother sauces can result in disasters. Try using a improperly prepared hollandaise as a glacage and you will see a pool of grease instead of a nice deep golden brown glaze.

I suppose this needs to be said since not everyone is a knife nut. I've experienced no degredation on my knives. I've been working with this ZDP 189 along with the Gekko, Masamoto, Hattori, Hiromoto and S1 Nenox, since receiving them before Christmas. The knives have been used to slice, paysanne, micro diced, brunoise, chiffonade, julienne and allumettes, everything from jalapenos to onions, supremes of citrus fruits and even removed parmessan rinds, there are no signs of rust or chips because they are "Hard" and "brittle". Only careless and sloppy cooks have rusty equipment. These are all based on my experience with these knives and not based on an article that someone else wrote. Edited: to make the response more non Klingon like.

The Japanese chef I apprenticed under insisted that I use large knives as part of my training. His reason was that if I am able to confidently use large knives, any knife would never be an issue. He was right, I prefer large gyutos and sujihikis in 270mm -300mm lengths. I would get larger knives but they would not fit my knife case, max. fit is 11.5 inches.

Wrapping the seared tuna with a plastic wrap, once cooled, will help hold it together when it is sliced.

Back when rice cookers were not yet invented, the pots used to cook the rice in develops a rice crust on the bottom. This crust is cut into portions or left whole, it is then deep fried until puffed. The small pieces are used as a garnish and the whole round piece is used as a serving vessel for various stirfrys.

Just as a side note, the tendons have an inner and outer portion and when the outer core of the tendon begins to cook, it contracts and the inner core gets squeezed out and sometimes pops out of the pot...Freaky!

Fried cod tongues are popular in Newfoundland.

The tendons I get at the local dim sum place is reddish in colour and not seasoned enough for my taste and sometimes tough. This is how I cook beef tendons. I buy uncooked tendons and simmer them with my braised brisket(I use meat from the beef legs, not brisket) but I give it a minimum 30-40 minutes simmering headstart, since they take longer than the beef to soften. The usual star anise, ginger, soya sauce, garlic, onion, xioshing wine, sugar, salt and orange rind. Throw in some daikon for veg. The reduced sauce of the tendon and beef stew is already thick from the gelatin. For a thicker stew, use a corstarch slurry. Good with hofun noodles or rice or on wonton noodle soup.

For cold buffets, the way I cook and store shrimps(100 lbs. a week), I do not ice them after poaching. When I take them out of the court bouillon, they are still medium rare but they keep cooking as they cool. The cooked shrimps are stored in the chilled court bouillon that the shrimps were cooked in and they will keep well for days. This method maintains that "crisp" texture and have deep shrimp flavour. Brining might just water down the delicate shrimp flavour.

Tea eggs, leave them in the spiced tea blend for a minimum of 2 days. Add them as a garnish to soups, as a snack, add as a garnish to braised pork adobo or serve them as a cold appetizer with jellyfish.

I recieved my ZDP-189 along with a Gekko nakiri from JCK yesterday. It took no more than 5 days to get here. No added tax or duty was charged at the post office. Out of the box, the ZDP-169 and the Gekko nakiri looked like a pieces of jewelry, just beautiful. The Cocobolo wood on the ZDP and the mahogany on the nakiri handle only adds to the beauty of the knives, no burrs, no sharp edges, good for small hands, balance is good as far as Japanese knives go. I put both to work preparing for Sunday brunch with my nephews and my brother. No visible signs of rust or stainning. The Nakiri is sharpest knife I've ever used but the ZDP-189 needs a little time on a stone, this is in contrast to the beautiful Gekko Nakiri's scary sharpness out of the box. Both knives are a work of art and would recommend it them to anyone. I may get another ZDP-189 but it seems that it is sold out again, along with a Hattori wa-gyuto.

Pouilly-Fume is a classic wine pairing for smokey foods.

A dollar? I pay $130 for the ones on 888 Dundas St. and the quality of their bao has gotten progressively poor. I am not sure what it is called if it is not filled with char siu? Filling is ground pork, salted egg, lap cheung and shiitake mushroom is called __ bao?

Pretty strong mix of herbs for chicken. You may want to consider a puree of veg. like parsnip, canellini beans or fava beans as a sauce served as a bed for the chicken. You can try a white wine beurre blanc or a hollandaise-one of the 5 mother sauces of Escoffier's- or beef jus. These sauces are similar to mother sauces and will play well with those strong flavoured herbs.

I recently began collecting large format wines and I need help with some relatively inexpesive wines. I read that Bordeaux produced some exceptional wines in 2005. There are Jeroboams of Chateau Ducla 2005 Bordeauxs, Chiantis and a few double magnum Super Tuscans available at the nearby wine store. I understand that large format wines are better at cellaring and I am curious if this Chateau Ducla is in need of cellaring or drank now?

Funny, that weave pattern on the bacon looks exactly like stents used by doctors to open clogged arteries. Keller's BLT was reminds me of the street food I had while I was in Peru. Best darn Sanguchon I ever had.

Does ice wine benefit from cellaring like sauterns? I can never get a straight answer from the people at LCBO or at Vintages.

Bread wetter's anonymous? I've always done this with stale baguettes but was ashamed of being called too cheap. This method works for frozen or stale char siu Bao as well, the only difference is, I nuke it in the microwave. Comes out fresh as if steamed recently. Does not work well for regular bread, gluten gets tough. Yes, I am a closet microwave user as well.

Top sirloin roast.

Do they really taste like fries? I may try and make a poutine out of this roasted cauliflower with foie gras, from the book Au Pied De Cochon, for Christmas.

Wow Sheetz, those taro puffs are beautiful! I'll try out the recipe posted above, thanks. I just wanted to know some feedback from those who had tried your recipe. Thank you and to everyone who responded. I appreciate your generosity.