Chris Hennes

Is this the one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_puffball

Oh, how could I neglect morels!!! I first had them a few months ago, simply sauteed in butter and a little thyme. Wow. I am jealous of your foraging skills!

Inspired by the new banner (hopefully a new society sponsor?) for mushrooms, a quick search revealed a couple of region-specific mushroom topics in Canada and Japan, but strangely, no general mushroom topic in the Cooking forum (though there is a mushroom recipes thread)! As a mushroom lover myself, I think this should be remedied immediately (apologies if I missed it in my searching). The great thing about living in Pennsylvania has been the wide selection of fresh mushrooms. At Wegmans yesterday there were almost a dozen varieties, including my personal favorite-of-the-moment, the Maitake (also called the "Hen of the Woods" I believe). There must be hundreds of varieties I have never tried.... what are some that I should seek out? What are your favorite mushrooms?

Paper, and that's a good idea: it would be a really easy experiment to conduct and would be fairly definitive (at least, taking into account my ability to discern the difference...). I think I still have a metal filter hiding someplace, as well. I am using a burr grinder, but it's a cheap one. I still like it better than a blade, but that's a convenience and consistency thing, not a quality thing. I push a button and a few seconds later, out comes the perfect amount of grounds, every time. No muss, no fuss. I would love a Rancillo or something, but that is pretty hard to justify on a grad student budget!

How so? I find the biggest difference when using a french press versus a drip/perc/etc. is the ability to heat the water to over 200 degrees, and to let it steep for four minutes. I haven't noticed a taste difference since I started filtering, except with the dregs. My "cup" is a 16 oz thermos, so it's not quite a regular cup, and the inch may have been an exaggeration...

Does anyone else out there post-filter their french-pressed coffee to get rid of the "sludge"? I have read various comments on eGullet about the relative merits of the sludge, but I'm not a fan, I think it makes the bottom of the cup taste like over-extracted, grainy, nasty, um... sludge. I am using a coarse grind, but with a cheapo grinder, so I end up with a lot of fine particles, so I send the finished coffee through one of those Melitta one-cup filters before I drink it. Do you all enjoy the sludge, or toss the last inch of coffee, or what?

Definitely: I do this dish with ground pork a lot, but this had a much clearer pork flavor (there was also a lot of pork in there!). I fried the pork and long beans over high heat for a couple minutes so both got a nice crispy texture, instead of the pork dissolving in with the sauce. Admittedly, I had already pre-sliced the pork on my meat slicer so the dimension in one direction was already set. The matchstick cut is easy and seems to work well in many dishes. The glaze is one part dry sherry to two parts soy sauce, with some white pepper, red pepper flakes, and dry mustard powder added. This is based on a recipe in one of the 2007 Cooks Illustrated issues, I think. I saute the beans and pork over high heat for a few minutes, add the mushrooms for a few more minutes, toss in some minced garlic and ginger, saute till I can smell the garlic, then add the glaze. Toss for a few seconds to coat, and serve piping hot over sticky rice.

NoNiceTime that swordfish looks great---one of my favorite fish, easily. Still working my way through the pork roast from last week: tonight's entry, Chinese long beans, pork and oyster mushrooms in a soy-sherry glaze.

Youch...that is more expensive than most of my grad school textbooks! And no "Search Inside" link, either. Do you have it? Is it readable?

That's a good point that I never thought of---it is the butter that causes it to firm up when cold. I never really questioned the functioning of the curd...

Are you looking for something at room temp, or is refrigerated OK? The lemon curd I use, from Friberg's Professional Pastry Chef, seems to be firm enough to make quenelles with under refrigeration, anyway, though I haven't tried it myself. The only thickener in it is the egg: 8 eggs to 360 ml of lemon juice, plus sugar and a little butter.

I subscribed for a couple years, but I just couldn't stand the tone of the newsletter. He was just so ebullient about everything... it got really annoying, really fast.

I still enjoy ICA and Ace of Cakes. Really, since finding eGullet I find myself far more interested in hanging out in my own kitchen rather than watching FN anyway, so I don't think anything was lost .

doctortim what kind of olives did you use? My wife is a huge puttanesca fan, but I haven't been interested lately because last time I used Picholine: clearly, a mistake. Too buttery, too sweet. They didn't work well at all. Should never have strayed from the Greek cracked I usually used...

It looks like the Heritage Foods price is the same, and HF has free shipping (or rather, it's rolled into the price...). But of course, HF only sells the ribeye and strip loin. Thanks for the heads-up on Heartbrand, I'll have to add them to my online meat sources spreadsheet.

I had a last-minute change of plans tonight as my wife's flight into town was diverted (after it was directly overhead! Too much fog to land ). So, dinner alone again tonight. Scrounging in the fridge, I had leftover pork roast, leftover rice, and some lovely Maitake mushrooms, so it was fried rice again.

hummingbirdkiss those peanuts look great. I love fresh peanuts (and tree nuts, for that matter). I was just scrounging the fridge for lunch today and ended up with these pork quesadillas:

That is my understanding as well, but I'm not expert on the matter. I loved the Wagyu I had the one time I had the opportunity, but it ended up overshadowed in memory by the scallops of an earlier course. My wife's job interview is Friday, so we'll see how that goes...

I'm not sure how useful this would be without a good understanding of how the original formula changes with time. The GC/MS will certainly show differences, but I'm not sure we can pin them down to "freshness" vs. "recipe". I don't have any experience with analyzing that type of results myself: do you?

This week from Heritage Foods comes a breed of cattle from Japan that I have never heard of. From the newsletter: So, apparently it compares to the Waygu we are more familiar with, and certainly the prices seem in line with that! Anyone familiar with this breed? Tasted them?

In my opinion, the key to getting the proper McD's fry experience is to get them when they are as fresh and hot as possible. Lunch rush seems to be a good time. They degrade so quickly over time, I think they are inedible after 5-10 minutes post-frying. But right after, if you get a good batch? Hell, yes!

Those look great, Jim. Toss on a lime wedge and some avocado and I'm in heaven...

Fries must be a pretty personal thing: I don't like Five Guys fries at all. Bland, undercooked, meh. Burger King changed their fries a few years back (must be going on a decade now, I guess)---they are at least better than they were, and are consistently crispy. I am also partial to Arby's homestyle fries. Of course, this is all coming from a guy who thinks the frozen Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Crinkle Fries are awesome...

I like it for certain thick purees because it's easier to get them through the food mill than through a strainer. It's also good for anything that you don't want to beat up with a machine (potatoes, etc.). But I don't use it as much as I'd hoped. If it hadn't been for a W.S. gift certificate, I probably wouldn't have gotten it. It's a cuisipro, and it's excellent. ← I don't mean to say I don't use it at all, just rarely. I prefer a ricer for mashed potatoes since I'm generally only cooking for two. I find it slow and inefficient for making tomato puree compared to a food processor and strainer. And those were the two things I bought it for! So for me, the $50 probably would have been better spent elsewhere. If the OP has stuff that require it, great. I just caution against assuming it's going to be this wonderfully useful gadget, when for me, at least, it hasn't worked out that way.

Count me as a vote for the CuisiPro, with the caveat that, in all honesty, I just don't use it as much as I thought I would. A food processor or blender and a strainer are more effective for most of the things I thought I would use it for, so it really just ends up taking up space in my cabinets. I would suggest evaluating what you want to use it for carefully before spending the money. I love gadgetry, but I didn't really need this one, in the end.