Chris Hennes

Sure, it's a very simple sauce, just a few teaspoons of curry paste, a clove of garlic, and some ginger. You start that frying in a little oil, then add coconut milk, lime juice and fish sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce to your preferred consistency, fry the fish, add the cilantro to the curry, and serve. I like to keep it light so you can still taste the fish.

Note from hosts: now that the ban has been lifted, discussion has moved over to the "Chicago Foie Gras is Legal Again" topic.

Tonight I made Tilapia filets with the Coconut-Red Curry Sauce from the March 2005 issue of Cook's Illustrated (recipe here if you have online access). This is another of my favorite CI recipes, along with all of the other sauces for fish in this article. I actually completely ignore their advice on how to cook the fish, which is the bulk of the article, and just use their sauce recipes. In this one I double the amount of curry paste and add a little cayenne pepper. I usually make a full batch and freeze 2/3 of it (without the cilantro): it reheats perfectly, and I get three two-serving meals out of the recipe. The whole meal takes about 20 minutes to make, including prep, so it's really great for nights when you are in a hurry. Just remember to put the rice on first!

Well, I'm not sure what any of that means, but it would be wonderful if by "cheap" they meant sensors that were affordable by mere individuals. I'd love to be able to check how hot a batch of chiles is before adding them to a salsa, etc. The current method results in the loss of all too many tastebuds...

Today's CIA SmartBrief included a link to an article in the Chicago Tribune about brewers adding some harder stuff to their repertoires. The article goes on to highlight a number of different brewers who are moving beyond their beers to include a few specialty gins, whiskeys, etc. I haven't exactly been on the lookout, but I haven't noticed any on the shelves at the local state store. Has anyone tried any of them? Are they worth seeking out?

I have a similar problem, but in this case, cast iron's ability to hold heat comes in handy... I set up a fan in my window, pointing out, and open the window on the other side of the apartment so there is plenty of flow. Then, I heat the skillet up really hot, take it off the burner and go over to the fan with it, and put the meat on directly in front of the fan. Works like a charm, and gives me a workout at the same time ! Cast iron gets really heavy... sometimes I put a trivet down on a nearby chair to give my arm a rest.

I spent several days this past week scouting markets and grocery stores in the Norman and Oklahoma City area. Please, let me know if I missed any notable ones (I really did not find an adequate substitute for the local Wegmans here in Pennsylvania), or if you do not share my opinions of these . Forward Foods (www.forwardfoods.com, 123 E Main St., Norman, OK 73069) Excellent selection of cheese, grains and legumes. Otherwise a typical organic foods store. Native Roots (www.nativerootsmarket.com, 132 W Main St, Norman, OK, 73069) Highly locavore-oriented organic foods store. The Earth (309 S. Flood, Norman, OK, 73069) Excellent selection of dried spices and herbs, otherwise generic organic foods store. Wright's (Multiple Norman locations) Some locations are better than others, but tend towards small and dingy. OK produce section but the rest seems a bit scary. Homeland (www.homelandstores.com, Regional chain) Some of the newer locations are reasonably nice, though the produce selection is not particularly good. Dodson's (1305 36th Ave NW, Norman, OK, 73072) Better produce than the other organic places, it is still mediocre at best. The rest of the store is a fairly large, but still generic, organic foods store, with an absolutely frightening selection of "nutritional supplements." Norman Farmer's Market (Cleveland County Fairgrounds, 615 E Robinson St, Norman, OK) Operates Wed. and Sat. mornings from 8-12, this is a pretty nice market for a town of this size. Almost entirely locally-grown produce so not great selection. Wheeler's Meat Market (www.wheelersmeatmarket.com, 1524 SE 44th St., Oklahoma City, OK 73129). A bit odd, but promising, butcher shop. They have some pre-cut beef and pork, but my hope is that they can do special orders. OKC Farmer's Public Market (www.okcfarmersmarket.com, 311 S. Klein Ave, Oklahoma City, OK, 73108). A much larger market than the Norman market, there are several produce stands that do not limit themselves to locally-grown produce and so have quite good selection and price. Most are open 6-7 days a week, normal business hours. Weighted towards Mexican ingredients, so very good dried chile selection. Crescent Market (www.thecrescentmarket.com, 6409 Avondale Dr., Nichols Hills, OK 73116). A strange little market has a decent meat counter that might be worth visiting if in the area. South of the Border Meat Market (Western between SW 29th and SW 30th). A Mexican market with a good meat counter and fresh tortillas, and a reasonable selection of Mexican ingredients. Chinatown Supermarket (1228 NW 27th St., Oklahoma City, OK 73106). Fabulous selection of Asian ingredients, though the produce was nearly all pre-packaged in cellophane, which I found odd. They also had a wonderful seafood selection, including live crawfish, blue crabs, tilapia and lobster, al reasonably priced.

Having just spent a little over a full week in the Norman/OKC area I had the opportunity to sample a fairly large number of local restaurants. My explorations were generally concentrated in the Norman region, though I did venture into OKC for a few meals. I include the addresses of the particular places I went since even chains sometimes differ depending on the location you end up at. Bear in mind that I am a sucker for BBQ and Mexican, so my opinion may be a little more positive overall towards those places. Also, with the exception of the first place, which I have visited in many cities many times, I only visited each of these places once, so they could have been having a good or bad day when I was there. I will add updates later in this topic as I continue to visit and hone my impressions. On the Border (National chain, www.ontheborder.com, 3000 William Pereira, Norman) A fairly nice Mexican-styled national chain, OTB's food is better than you might expect. In particular I like their fish tacos, and they have good margaritas. I have been to this place (in other locations) a number of times and consider it a good, safe choice. They have locations across the country. Ted's Café Escondido (Local chain, 700 N Interstate Dr, Norman) Ted's is an OKC-area chain "Okla-Mex" place. The food was OK, and the service was very good. I found the margarita too sweet, but our server offered to add more lime juice to it, which helped a lot. The chile relleno was tasty, but over-sauced. La Baguette (Local chain, www.labaguette.com, 1130 Rambling Oaks Dr #100, Norman). A local chain with three locations, La Baguette is a kind of odd place. When we walked through the door at 8:30 a.m. on a weekday it was deserted. Completely empty. That never bodes well. We were at one of the newer locations, which had a display case for the pastries next to a full-service bar (which I assume opens later in the day...). It was laid out like a sit-down breakfast place, but apparently is not, at least, not really. They have a few "menu items" that they display on a board that was not present when we came in, though the woman behind the counter put it out when we asked. At any rate, the food was acceptable, but this is clearly a chain having trouble making the transition from a single location. They probably need to stick to their core competencies of producing good pastries, and ditch the rest of the "concept." Of course, I've only been there once so far, so hopefully things will improve on future visits. Johnny Carino's (National chain, www.johnnycarinos.com, 970 Ed Noble Dr., Norman) Generic, low-end chain Italian-American. The food was OK but uninspired: go to Olive Garden if this is what you are looking for. BJ's (Regional chain, www.bjsbrewhouse.com, 330 Ed Noble Pkwy., Norman) Much more interesting than I was expecting, BJ's was going for the microbrewery/sports bar look and feel. They may have carried that a bit too far, but they have a large, varied menu and the few things my wife and I tried were all quite good, and reasonably priced. Abuelo's (National chain, www.abuelos.com, 17 E Sheridan Ave, Oklahoma City (Bricktown)) OK chain Mexican in Bricktown. Nice building with good service, but the food was as generic as it gets. I ordered some sort of combo platter, all of which sort of blends together in my mind. If you're in Bricktown I'm sure you could do worse, but you could probably do better, too. Tarahumara's (One off, 702 N Porter Ave, Norman) In stark contrast to Abuelo's, Tarahumara's was a terrific Mexican (or perhaps "Okla-Mex") restaurant. I tried the carne asada taco which was basically perfect, a delicious quesadilla, and a chile relleno that was far better than the one I had at Ted's. The portions were generous, the prices low, the service good, and the place was packed at 2 p.m. on Friday when we were there. If you are ever in Norman, go here. Iron Starr (One off, www.ironstarrbbq.com, 3700 N Shartel Ave, Oklahoma City) Billing themselves as "Urban Barbeque" I was expecting something a bit more upscale, though I suppose that compared to a normal BBQ joint this place is upscale. I had reservations for 7 p.m. and was seated as soon as I showed up at about 6:55 p.m. As seems to be a trend in OK, our server was friendly and attentive, and happy to give recommendations. He recommended the BBQ chicken, and while I virtually never order chicken out, I decided to go with it. I also got, at our server's recommendation, the mac'n'cheese and the "dutch oven" sweet potatoes. All were good, but nothing was phenomenal. The cornbread, on the other had, was terrific. For dessert we had the chocolate bread pudding and the peach crisp, both of which were quite good. Next time I'll give the ribs a shot. The Wedge (One off, 4709 N. Western, Oklahoma City) We drove past this place in NW OKC while scouting the area for grocery stores and markets. A sort of upscale pizza place with a big wood-fired oven in the minimal kitchen, we started with "The Wedge Trio," a platter of hummus, artichoke dip, and tapenade, served with freshly-baked flatbread. The tapenade was very coarse so was a bit messy, but all three were very good. For our pizza we ordered the "Napoli," a combination of Asiago, walnuts, and pancetta. The pizza was delicious: the saltiness of the Asiago and pancetta perfectly set off the sweetness of the lightly-candied walnuts, and the sauce had a good bit of spiciness to it that worked very well. The crowd was weird, but it was about 3pm Saturday afternoon, so maybe at a more normal mealtime there are fewer children running around. It doesn't really seem like the kind of place to bring a gaggle of kids. Rudy's BBQ (Regional chain, www.rudys.com, 3450 Chautauqua, Norman) This place didn't look promising at first: the one we went to (in Norman) was attached to a gas station, and looked like a generic chain place on the outside. But it smelled like smoke, so we went in anyway, and good thing we did. The barbecue here was very good: well-balanced flavors, good level of salt, good variety and all of it well done. I sampled the brisket, turkey, pork tenderloin and the sausage, and ended up ordering a half pound of the brisket (everything is sold by the pound here) as well as some creamed corn. The brisket is among the best I have had: very tender and juicy, lots of smoke flavor, just the right amount of salt, and nothing getting in the way of a great beef flavor. The creamed corn was also very good, and again the prices were great, including under $2 for bottled beer. The Deep Fork Grill (One-off, www.deepforkgrill.com, 5418 N. Western, Oklahoma City) DFG bills themselves as a bit higher-end than any of the above restaurants, so we decided to give it a try. It was a Sunday night, Mother's Day, at 8pm, and not many places are open Sunday nights here, so I was surprised to find it only about half full, with an odd crowd. We were not given a wine list and I wasn't interested in wine anyway, so I can't comment on that, though we have heard their wine selection is good. I ordered a Manhattan, but the bartender was apparently either on break or pissed off at our server, because it took nearly 15 minutes to arrive and when it did was poorly strained and ungarnished... we were off to an inauspicious start. While we were waiting for our drinks we placed our order: a cheese and fruit tray to start, and I ordered the duck breast and my wife the sole. My wife also ordered another glass of wine, which was delivered promptly this time, and the server grabbed the original glass and dumped the remainder of it into the new glass, which was now very, very full. Apparently they have some training/management issues here... Well, that fruit and cheese tray never appeared, but our entrees eventually came out, and the duck was quite good. Well seasoned, well cooked, and with at least some bits of crispy skin. The mashed potatoes were pretty good and the grilled vegetables were tasty if a bit bland. My wife reports that the sole was also quite good. When we alerted our server that our appetizer had never come out at first she didn't even remember our ordering it, though eventually it dawned on her that she had forgotten to enter it. She apologized profusely and promised to "bring us something special" for dessert. Apparently, "special" here meant homemade ice cream with a little bit of chocolate and caramel sauce drizzled on top. The ice cream was icy and uninspiring, and to add insult to injury when delivered our server announced that it was "way better than any cheese tray." Hah! Must be a pretty bad cheese tray! I love cheese and am at most lukewarm on ice cream, so this was perhaps not an intelligent remark on her part. I requested a dessert menu and noticed a rather large Scotch selection including some I had never had, so I ordered a "Macallan Cask Strength with a splash of water." In retrospect this was a mistake: I generally order Scotch with a splash, and assume that the inclusion of the splash implies "neat." Apparently, that is not the case, because I got a glass completely full of ice. I hate ice in my Scotch, so I sent it back: I didn't specify, but they didn't ask, so I felt justified. Overall, the food was pretty good, though not exceptional, and the service was terrible. We did notice other tables being served significantly more promptly than ours was, so we are inclined to give them another chance, provided we don't wind up with the same server. She seemed kind and well-intentioned, she was simply poorly trained and not particularly competent. The Mont (One-off, www.themont.com, 1300 Classen, Norman) I think every college campus has one of these: the mid-scale bar/burger place just off campus with outdoor seating and not enough parking. In Norman, The Mont is that place. We went after the University let out for the summer, so it was actually very pleasant. We sat outside on a perfect day and enjoyed a competent but not brilliant meal. I had the daily special, beef tamales, which were pretty tasty. We also ordered the queso, which was generic, but not bad. The salsa was surprisingly good, clearly made in-house. Service was good and prices were relatively cheap. During the "off-season" this seems to be a pretty good place to grab lunch if you can nab a table outside. It has consistently been voted the number one restaurant in Norman, which is complete BS, but it's not bad either. Cheever's Café (One-off, ww.cheeverscafe.com, 2409 N Hudson Ave, Oklahoma City) Owned by The Good Egg Group, who also own Iron Starr BBQ and Red Primesteak, Cheever's is an upscale "business casual" restaraunt located in what was once a flower shop: the cooler in the middle has been converted to wine storage, and the whole place has a neat vibe to it, especially after dark. We ordered the lobster cakes to start, and then I had the seafood tamales as my main course. Both were good, though the lobster cakes didn't really have a lobster flavor to them, so I felt they might have been a bit overpriced and could have just as well been crabcakes or even fishcakes and not lost anything in flavor. The tamale was very good and everything on the plate worked together quite well. For dessert I ordered the huckleberry parfait, which was very good, and my wife ordered the peach shortcake, which she liked. I will definitely eat here again. The Diner (One-off, 213 E Main St, Norman) We ate breakfast one morning at a place in downtown Norman called "The Diner." True to form, almost everyone inside was a regular, everyone was chatty, the food was served fast and fresh, and was your basic Southwest US diner fare. I had the Huevos Rancheros, which were good, definitely worth trying again, and my wife had biscuits and gravy, which were OK (nowhere near as good as the Down Home Diner in the Reading Terminal Market, but you can't have everything...). The Diner in Norman is far better than its equivalent in State College, PA, so if you're in Norman for breakfast some time, skip the chains and hit the Diner instead. Bella Vista (One-off, 5801 S. Western) I tried this place on the enthusiastic recommendation of the folks over at www.eataroundokc.com: apparently, we have differing opinions on restaurants, because I really can't recommend the place. It is a prototypical Italian-American restaurant complete with gigantic portions, and oversauced and overcooked pasta. The sauce was decent, though on the sweet side for my tastes, but certainly nothing to write home about. The meatballs were tasty, but I prefer them to have a bit more tooth. The service was good and friendly, but since we were literally the only people in the restaurant that was not surprising. It is possible that some of the other items hold more promise: I suspect the lasagna is good, for example, but I doubt that I will be back.

Doh! OK, no wonder I couldn't find a place called Chilenos! I heard about Tacos San Pedro over here.

OK, I'm flying out today, and I need a check on Ted's Chileno's -- the only "Ted's" I can find via Google is "Ted's Café Escondido." Is this the place, or is it any good? It's a chain, I guess, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad... Any other hits for great little Mexican places? My Spanish is weak, but I can probably get by OK if necessary. Low class, high class, and anything in between? I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! ETA: Aha! I get it, the suggestions was for "Ted's" or "Chilenos". Doh! But where the heck is Chilenos? And what about Tacos San Pedro? I read a glowing review elsewhere.

It has to do with the ratio of sugar to water in the solution: very sugary solutions are inhospitable environments for mold/bacteria to grow, in general. I suspect your 3:1 honey syrup simply doesn't have enough sugar in it, whereas pure honey does. I typically make honey syrup 2:1, and store it in the fridge, though to be honest I never tried leaving it out on the shelf. I also add vodka for shelf-stability to things like grenadine, but I don't know how much is actually required, and it probably depends on how much sugar there is (more sugar needs less vodka, I would guess).

Absolutely: it's among the first things I will be replacing once I move this summer. I am hoping to have enough space to put in an entire "charcuterie station" where I can bolt things down and set up a more-or-less permanent work area. I just eyeball it, and I'm pretty bad at it. That's what I meant by "lapse"---I didn't intentionally change the length, they just got shorter and shorter as I went along . I have done both (actually, I didn't use strings, I just draped the sequence of links over dowels), but I came to the conclusion that the final result was basically the same either way, and putting them on the rack is simpler, so that's what I do now. But I have a crappy smoker at the moment... it is probably different if you've got a Bradley. Edited to add: Yeah, my counter had a screwy shape that makes it difficult to clamp things to, though I do manage with the pasta maker, so maybe I should try harder. I should note also that I had another one of the Hungarian Paprika Sausages yesterday for lunch and decided my initial impression was correct: they just aren't very good. I threw the rest of them away. In my opinion the recipe needs a lot more onion and garlic, and less paprika.

We have Jimmy John's here in Central PA, and there was one near me in Iowa when I lived there, and in Minnesota when I lived there, so I guess they are all over the place. I agree that they are way better than Subway, especially their bread. I'm especially fond of the #9: Italian Night Club, which I prefer on the standard French-style roll rather than their other bread. I also appreciate the "attitude" of the signage in the stores: a little snarky .

I would think that going for a sort of Carnitas-style would work for just about any fatty cut of pork: is there a lot of marbling? There are a bunch of carnitas recipes floating around the Forums, and of course there is the recent Cook's Illustrated article (which you can then give us a report of!). I have a huge hunk of pork belly in the freezer that I've been toying with using for tacos (well, part of it, anyway!). I wonder about using a sort of Mexican-themed seasoning for making a quick bacon: the tacos would be almost like BLTs then.

This is my observation as well. The ethnic stuff isn't too authentic. But typically, they are pretty good versions of non-authentic cooking. In many cases, probably better than what you can get at your supposed "ethnic" restaurant. So many of those are for far from authentic, too. I would definitely agree that CI's dishes are "inauthentic," as they are clearly designed for the U.S. palate (or more precisely, the palates of the twenty or so "testers" they are always talking about) using ingredients readily available in conventional U.S. grocery stores. We can debate the value and definition of "authenticity" forever (over on this thread), but I don't think Cook's Illustrated has ever claimed they are reproducing an authentic recipe: the whole point is that they think there is something wrong with all the recipes they found ("authentic" ones included!). This is their particular conceit: there is always something "wrong" with the dish, that they can then "fix," even if the "fix" is just using more readily available ingredients. But I don't think this is different from any other cookbook, it is just made more explicit in Cook's Illustrated.

I wonder how much of this is perception, and how much is reality. I wonder what folks would say about the CI recipes if they weren't each preceded by a page-and-a-half of pseudo-scientific* detailed analysis, and instead started with something like, "Here's a recipe handed down to me by my great-grandmother." ← That is an interesting point, Josh. Of course, it is hard to separate one's opinion of the article from one's opinion of the recipe, but I appreciate the reporting of the iterations they go though, and I use that information to guide the iterations I then go through. Almost all of the CI recipes I am posting about have been tweaked in one way or another, just like all the recipes I post about from other sources. I personally feel like I have a better ability to tweak the CI recipes due to the detailed articles, but of course others' mileage may (and does!) vary. For me it comes down to hit rate: I am not willing to tweak a poor recipe to meet my requirements, only to make a decent recipe a good one. And to my tastes, CI provides a consistently high percentage of easily-tweaked, decent-to-start-out-with recipes, as compared to almost any conventional cookbook (there are a few notable exceptions, of course...Zuni comes to mind). I personally believe it is up to the cook to add soul to the dish: you can't get that from a recipe, no matter how florid the prose or exotic the ingredient list.

Sunday evening I had dinner at a chain place called Les 3 Brasseurs (maybe translates to "The three brewers"?). It was a microbrew-pub sort of place. The choucroute platter was acceptable and reasonably priced, and the beers were surprisingly good. Maybe not a place to take a date, but after a nine hour drive I was not feeling adventurous, I just needed food. If you find yourself in the same position, you could do worse. I had dinner Monday night at l'Express and it was very good, so add my recommendation if you are looking for the "French bistro" thing while in Montréal. In particular the steak frites was excellent (very, very beefy-tasting beef, flank steak in this case, I believe). I thought the Baba au Rhum was a bit dry (before dipping in the sauce, of course), but a decent Scotch list made up for this flaw, in my mind . It was jam-packed, and very noisy, but as long as you know what to expect, not offensively so. Beware the fact that the only signage is the tilework on the sidewalk at the entrance, so make sure you know their address if you are new to the area. This was not an inexpensive meal, so be aware that if you're looking for a bargain, this isn't it . On Tuesday I went to Café du Nouveau Monde. I was not terribly hungry so my wife and I split a fondue/charcuterie plate, which was a bit uninspired, and the cheese was grainy. The taste was good, though, and it was cheap (which was the point---after l'Express my wallet needed a break before launching into ADdC). For dessert I had an apple tart of some kind that was good, and again, reasonably priced. This is probably a worthless recommendation since I didn't try any main dishes, but for the price, the quality and service were reasonable. Wednesday was Au Pied de Cochon, which of course needs no further recommendation...

I ate at Au Pied de Cochon last night, and it was quite good. I had the Cochonailles, the Plogue à Champlain, and the Pouding chômeur, as well as several mugs of the Pied de Cochon beer. The cochonailles was marvelous, absolutely some of the best charcuterie I have ever had. I thought the Plogue was tasty, but much too sweet (take this with a grain of salt, of course: I don't care for sweet entrees). The Pouding was very good, and was actually somewhat less sweet than the plogue was! The service was laid back but not poor, and the place was hopping. We had 8:00pm reservations and were seated within a few minutes of that time, and it was basically packed the whole time we were there. I don't know how different the atmosphere is on a night when the Canadiens win, though . A few words of warning to tourists: first, there is no signage at all, so make sure you have the address written down, and second, the floor is very slippery. We watched one unfortunate guest take quite the spill on her way in. Tread with care!

The recipe calls for medium grain, but I used basmati since all I had on had was short grain and basmati. You need to add a little more water, but I think it still turns out well.

Tonight's dinner was Arroz con Pollo, a.k.a. Latino-style Chicken and Rice, from the September 2006 issue of Cook's Illustrated (recipe here if you have online access). Of course, they believe the answer to this question is "yes," and proceed to demonstrate what they've come up with. The trouble is, the article seems to think that the recipe can be made in about an hour. Perhaps the professional cooks in the test kitchen could make this recipe on an hour, but it has taken me almost two hours both times I have made it, and as far as I am concerned, two hours is well over my "weeknight dinner" limit. Maybe I just chop slowly, but the prep work for this recipe takes more than the minute or two they seem to allot it. That being said, the end product is delicious, and well worth the two hours it takes. This is another recipe that I make with white meat (my wife's preference) rather than the dark meat the recipe calls for. I don't know how much I am losing in the process, but hey, it tastes good! (If you make it with white meat, skip the step of simmering the chicken for twenty minutes before adding the rice) The biggest key to this recipe is making a quick "marinade" to toss the chicken with just prior to serving. I dunno about you, but I call these post-cooking marinades "sauces." Surprisingly enough, adding a sauce to the chicken adds flavor !! Who knew... Without further ado, here 'tis:

I have one, but I never use it! I usually just put some peanut oil in a 5 quart stock pot. Especially with fish, where it cooks so quickly, you don't need that much oil, in my experience. I use about a quart of oil in my 4.5 qt Le Creuset: maybe an inch? I heat it to about 400 F, drop in the fish "nuggets," the temp drops to maybe 350, but by the time the thermometer has registered that drop, the fish is done. That much oil will run $3-$4 where I am if you buy it one quart at a time, and it made enough fish for about a dozen tacos and could have made more. The per-unit cost isn't too bad.

I make tacos at home all the time, but in the spirit of the cookoff, tonight I'm pushing the envelope. I've never made fish tacos, though I have them out all the time. So, without further ado... Fish Tacos, step-by-step First step to fish tacos is beans! Can't have tacos without beans... can't have beans without pork fat. That's the leftover pork skin from my last batch of bacon: Next up, the tortillas: I make them with masa harina since fresh masa is not available where I live. I am not exactly a tortilla pro, so I follow the instructions from one of Rick Bayless's books. You use two different pans, one at medium-low heat and one at medium-high. After pressing out the tortilla it goes on the medium-low heat for 15 seconds, then is flipped onto the high heat for 30 seconds or so. When it gets flipped the final time, still on the high heat, it puffs up like a pita if everything has worked out right: Next up, the salsa. Since tomatoes are not exactly in season I use canned tomatoes (don't cringe, they actually work pretty well!). This is sorta based on a recipe from Cook's Illustrated... Now, the final prep before frying the fish: I'm using red snapper tonight, battered using a simple flour and baking-powder batter for an extremely light, crispy coating. Finally, the assembled taco:

Is that just an egg wash on there? When I first glanced at the photo it looked like a caramel coating!

I really like their German Chocolate Cake recipe: it's the best I've run across (I make it a layer cake: it's really tall and impressive-looking!). The spinach lasagna I was a little less fond of. It's good, and I would make it again, but it has a certain sweetness to it that I thought was a little odd. I am going to have to play around with that one some more. I haven't tried it---have you made it? Did it turn out as well as promised?

I'm still at the point in the season where as long as they don't send one of my top four home, I don't much care who goes. I would like to see Stephanie hang on for a little longer, but the rest of this week's losers? Meh. Get rid of all of them at once and let's have some multi-week challenges between people I actually care about . It would be fun to have Padma say to a group of losers: "Well, you guys were ALL so awful this week that you can ALL pack your knives and go home."