Chris Hennes

She does, but you know me... not a big fan of making substitutions if I can help it!

I'd heard that canned brands vary widely in quality: do you have any brand suggestions (if I have a choice)?

Here are some of the ingredients that I can't find locally (yet!): Chilcosle chiles Yerbasanta Chilhuacles negros Avocado leaves (fresh) Hierba de conejo Chiles de agua Cuitlacoche Taviche chiles de Onza chiles Chapulines Piojito Costeños chiles Iguana Moste leaves Chilpayas Chiltepines Chayote leaves and vines Some of these chiles may be hiding in plain sight, but other stuff, like the iguana or chapulines, I have no expectation of being able to get locally. The Chilhuacles negros in particular seem to be a pricey and difficult-to-source item. Anyone have a good place for getting their hands on those? Presumably to get things like chayote leaves and vines you pretty much have to grow the chayote yourself: has anyone seen these in any markets, even in Oaxaca?

I'm still working out sourcing issues: apparently we don't have a large Oaxacan community here in OKC. As rancho_gordo mentions, this is really a no-compromises book.

I made that veal marengo again for dinner tonight, though out of necessity I changed the garnishes: instead of potatoes I served it over egg noodles, and instead of onions I made brussels sprouts. I also cooked the mushrooms using the "wet and crowded" technique from Cooking Issues rather than the more conventional technique in the book. All of this worked quite well, in particular the mushrooms. If you aren't familiar with that technique, you can check it out here. It's as easy as can be, and really results in wonderful mushrooms.

Cocadas Horneadas (Golden Fresh Coconut Candies) (pp. 326–327) Ah, fresh coconut: nature's most annoyingly inaccessible ingredient. I mean, I love any excuse to use a hammer and a drill in the kitchen, but damn if I don't make a mess doing it. The recipe says you can use dried coconut flakes, but where's the fun in that?! The ingredients list is pretty short here: these are basically just sweetened coconut mounds held together with the smallest amount of binder possible. They are flavored with just a touch of cinnamon, and were not overly sweet, which I definitely appreciated. I'm not terribly fond of the texture of coconut on its own, but "it is what it is."

Thin it with cream until it's liquid-y, then add that to hot milk: the most ludicrously decadent, awesome hot chocolate ever.

eldereno, that flan is definitely on my short list, it looks and sounds fantastic!

Hachis Parmentier (pp. 258–259) I meant to serve this last night, but neglected to survey my potato situation beforehand. Fortunately the recipe mentions a couple good stopping points, so I simmered the beef yesterday and then finished it today. I used Mexican Chorizo (the only sausage in the house at the moment), which I suspect is not exactly traditional here. And I used beef stock rather than bouillon. So, I guess this is more like "Inspired by Dorie" rather than actually the exact recipe in the book. Nevertheless, it's hard to go wrong with tender beef and good sausage topped with mashed potatoes and gruyere. This recipe was a bit more involved than some of the others in this chapter, but its still great for a fall weekend, and not difficult: just a bit more time-consuming.

Linda, that looks fantastic. It may be 85°F here today, but to hell with it, I'm making soup for lunch... Celery-Celery Soup (pp. 65) This is another easier-than-pie pureed soup: you basically just simmer the vegetables in chicken stock until cooked (under a half hour), puree, and serve. The sweetness of the apple and celery root were nice, and I really liked the addition of the curried croutons (I made mine with the leftover brioche from last weekend) as suggested in the "bonne idées" sidebar. And yeah, I put on a LOT of croutons, I love the things. I really love celery, and wouldn't change a thing in this recipe: if it's cool where you live (and if you like celery... I know some don't) I strongly recommend making this soup.

According to this article, Whole Foods has started putting color-coded labels on their seafood indicating whether it is being caught/raised sustainably/responsibly/etc. This is on actual seafood in the store, apparently: so for example, the display where they are selling Yellowtail Flounder has a big red "AVOID" sticker on it. WF says they are keeping those species for sale to pressure their suppliers to make changes. Has anyone seen these labels in practice? Do you think the campaign will be effective?

From this (extensive) article at fastcompany.com: McDonalds is rolling out a $2.4 billion redesign of their dining spaces. The theory is that the new look gets people to eat there more often, and buy more (and more expensive) food when they are there. What do you want to see in a redesigned McDonalds eating area? How would you design the space to make you want to eat there (assuming, of course, that you like the food already, since presumably you wouldn't be there otherwise!).

Mine too. Haven't been getting much work done this afternoon...

The whole notion behind all of Keller's cooking is that "fine" is not good enough. What's the harm in seeking perfection, or hell, even just something different? Beef prepared this way has a vastly different texture than the traditional technique, it's simply not the same end product. The omission of the curing salt should not be taken lightly: it's good that you have refrigerated the beef up to this point, if you had tried to cure sans the TCM at room temp you would definitely have to discard the beef. The TCM changes both the flavor and the color of the finished product, so be aware that what you wind up with is NOT going to be Keller's recipe. Personally, I'd order me some curing salt ASAP (it's only a couple dollars at butcher-packer.com) and add it now, then finish the curing process in the fridge.

I'm not so sure this counts as an "extra" four months: presumably the delay is actually caused by something that requires that time.

Crispy Shrimp Tacos (pp.192–193) Basically your prototypical "taquito" (at least, that's what they call them in those boxes in the frozen foods aisle): some kind of saucy filling wrapped in a thin tortilla and deep-fried until crisp. In this case the filling is shrimp in a tomato sauce. Honestly, these tasted a bit "white bread" to me: good, but not interesting. I also made the savory tomato broth on the following page as a dipping sauce, which was OK, though I left it too thick, I think: it was a bit heavy. I really think these would have been MUCH better served exactly the way he mentions in the description, plated with the broth poured over them and topped with pickled vegetables. I'd very strongly recommend going that route if you decide to make them.

Are you implying that there is something wrong with a bacon-wrapped cart? Talk about appealing to hipsters!

IMO Colicchio is in denial over the slide of the show.

There's a recipe for white pozole in Bayless's recent Fiesta at Rick's: I posted about it here, but there's not much to look at since it's assembled at the table.

Hung is a prep machine: amazing stuff, that only served to highlight how dull this season was, with its relentless focus on trying to make the competitors seem interesting since their food was not. I'm not sure if my ennui here is just because last season was so great, or if this season really was as colorless as the finale seemed. I'm hopeful that whatever this gimmick is that they are hinting at for next season is a good one, because I'm afraid that maybe the show's whole format is getting tired. The incoming competitors know too much about what a winning strategy is, and that makes the competition boring.

Mine shipped from Amazon.com yesterday, I'm really looking forward to it.

The chat room is now open. Log on here!

Fresh Orange Pork Tenderloin (p. 273) Go-With-Everything Celery Root Puree (p. 354) This could hardly have been simpler or more delicious. I was a little unclear on what shape my pieces of pork tenderloin were supposed to wind up (cutting a small tenderloin into four pieces along its axis yielded roughly cube-shaped pieces of pork). The pork is seared over high heat, then the pan deglazed with orange juice. Onions, orange zest, and cardamom are added, a lid is put on, and the dish is gently simmered for ten minutes. It's finished with a few supremes of orange, and served over a bed of celery root puree (which was also excellent). The whole process takes around half hour, so this is a great weeknight meal option.

REMINDER: Top Chef chat room tonight during the FINAL episode! See this post for details. Chat Room link. Also: who is going to win this thing? The previews made it look like Angelo gets ill, which doesn't bode well for his mental stability. He makes some poor decisions on a good day, I hate to see what he does when he's sick. I still think he's the best chef in the bunch, but that doesn't mean he's going to win.

I'd actually suggest Katie Loeb's Aviatrix rather than the Aviation: it's a bit sweeter, which goes over well with my guests. Replace half the maraschino in the aviation with St. Germain.