Chris Hennes

Yeah, I discovered how well that works last time someone put me in front of a honest-to-god commercial range. Those don't seem to have a "low." Or a "medium." They have "off," "high," and "kill it with fire." Eyeballing it didn't work so well for me. I think the only realistic approach is to do away with the LMH system altogether, and just go with qualitative terms like "tortilla is speckled and opaque after 15 seconds". Of course, some photos of what that looks like would help too. Plus, the fact of the matter is that it doesn't really matter most of the time: "bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low, simmer on low until done" really translates to "bring to a simmer, hold at simmer at whatever setting you need to do that..."

Tamales de Calabaza y Pollo Enchipotlado (Butternut Tamales with Chipotle Chicken) (pp. 224–225) Earlier in this topic cadmond reported on this recipe. First off, there is a LOT of squash in here: 2 cups, for a dozen tamales: it makes the resulting tamale very moist, which in turn makes it difficult to get out of the wrapper and have it actually look good. So, just a warning if you are planning on making this for guests: it's a little ugly! But I found the taste to be very good. The butternut squash flavor was subtle, but present, and its sweetness worked well with the spiciness of the chipotles. Here's the filling before cooking: Seriously, how do you make tamales photogenic?! These were too wet to artfully arrange on the plate, so they just sorta get plopped there... like... well...

Some induction hobs allow you to actually set a temperature. I think that would be the best approach, but it's not as easy as it sounds when it comes to implementation on other range types.

Chris, I don't quite understand what you mean when you talk about the inch of waste per seal. You say "to load another 4 oz of tasso I had to cut off the seal at the top of the bag" but I don't understand how the top of the bag is ending up sealed in the first place. Can you explain more?

Cóctel de Camarón y Pulpo con Jitomates Asados (Roasted Tomato Shrimp-and-Octopus Cocktail) (pp. 104–105) This cocktail sauce is amazing, just about anything would taste good in it. Basically roasted tomatoes, roasted onions, roasted garlic, sherry vinegar, hot sauce, and brown sugar. I had some fresh heirloom tomatoes I picked up at the farmer's market this morning, and I used Valentino hot sauce. For the seafood I used a large-ish shrimp (Bayless calls for small to medium, but I didn't notice that until I got home) and baby octopus. His cooking instructions for both are great, the times were spot on here: the only thing missing is that he never tells you to cut up the octopus. Something tells me he's not putting whole octopus in cocktail glasses! Even using baby octopus I cut them into quarters. If you're not into octopus, make this anyway, with just shrimp: seriously, this cocktail sauce is great.

Linda, I can't quite tell how big those enchiladas were in that photo, but they look pretty full. About how much filling would you say each had?

demiglace, see if this post helps you out. Think "sounds like...".

I just ran across this article on Serious Eats: Aftermarket Insert Turns Your Weber Kettle Grill into Coal-Fired Pizza Oven. It looks like this guy is selling something similar to what jmolinari is doing, minus the gas burner. But maybe you could start with this commercial insert and only have to add the burner?

What is the worst cookbook you have ever seen? Bonus points for example recipes... My nomination is the Blendtec Lifestyles Recipe Book: More than 300 delicious recipes made with one incredible machine (it came with the blender). A few example recipes... Please tell me this one is a joke. "Ice Cream" made with flavored non-dairy creamer? This is also an "ice cream" but apparently they didn't think Tang™ would appreciate the product placement. Have you ever read a normal pancakes recipe? You know, the ones that say "mix until just combined. Do not overmix!"? Then, there is this one. "Put it all in a blender an press 'destroy'."

I hope they basically gave them a fully-stocked pastry kitchen, though I bet there is some emphasis on from-scratch cooking (e.g. making your own purees, not using flavor additives, etc.). Agreed about the failures, hopefully they are spectacular!

Agreed about the salads, almost all salads taste better if you give them time to come up (or down) to a cool room temperature, in my opinion.

I get it, it's sorta like these tamales, which had a bit of sweet corn pureed in the blender and added to the masa. They were an interesting tamale, very different from the more conventional varieties. Next time I'm feeling adventurous maybe I'll try to make tortillas the same way.

I played around with the proportions of that Watermelon Mojito and discovered that Wray and Nephew Overproof has no place in it: stick with more conventional white rums, I think.

Absolutely, a rotovap is must-have for a college dorm. Think of the parties you could have with homemade booze!

So, is this as simple as heating some olive oil in a pan with some garlic? Pretty much, yeah. And salt obviously. And many people also like to add black pepper and sometimes crushed red pepper flakes. But all pantry staples.

Watermelon Mojito Watermelon, mint, rum. What's not to like? I'll probably play around with the proportions a little, but this is a good start.

Aglio e olio (garlic and oil). Experiment with different olive oils, they change the taste dramatically, of course.

You can, but remember that the cure time will be significantly shorter since the chunks are small. The jowls are a bit fattier than bacon, and are also excellent used in sausages: the fat has a nice texture there.

Salpicón de Res al Chipotle (Beef and Potato Salad with Smoky Chipotle) (p. 148) This was an nice tart and spicy soft taco filling. You have to plan ahead a bit because it's served cold and you have to cook the beef and potatoes, but in terms of hands-on cooking time it was pretty quick: it doesn't have many ingredients. I wasn't sure how well I was going to like beef in a potato salad, or potato salad as a taco filling, but in the end the balance was good, the flavors were interesting, and the textures worked quite well. The chipotles (I used three) gave it quite a bit of heat, which I also appreciated. Maybe not an everyday taco filling, but for a change from the routine this was great.

The floor. Have I ever mention my hatred of tile, and grout in particular? I stopped even trying...

When you say "corn kernels" do you mean sweet corn? Or field corn?

a) I applaud Bravo for the later time, I was annoyed as hell it started so early before, and b) I think they had to include every single ingredient.

For me the most important part of dorm eating was the backup plan: what to eat when everything looked awful (which thankfully was only once or twice a week... ). For me, it was the waffles. Like the kind they have at most hotels these days: not the greatest waffles ever, but hot, fresh, and totally edible. Are those waffle irons still common? Or is dorm food so much better now that the backup plan isn't needed?

It's that time of year again: the moment they are out the door, you start plotting what you are going to send them in the first care package... what are you all plotting this year?

As I sit in dorm move-in traffic, staring at all these minivans FULL of stuff... how are you all doing at prepping this year's batch of freshman for cooking in the dorms? Or, if you are one of this year's freshman: any new must-have dorm-cooking toys?