KennethT

I've always fantasized about having a patio garden... right now, I have no outdoor space, but I make do with a southern facing windowsill with a lime and lemon tree, and various herbs, oh and some lemongrass... My biggest fantasy is to have a decent outdoor space where I can put in a greenhouse - and grow all kinds of stuff - plus, it's great to go into the warm steamy greenhouse in the dead of winter!!!

anyone know where I can get cocoa nibs in manhattan? I figured I'd try NY Cake and Baking but I don't want to take the trip if I don't have to.....

yeah, I'll be getting a bunch for Mardi Gras regardless.... I hope they're bigger, but if not, oh well.... I'll be down in NOLA in April - I'm sure they'll be nice by then!!

The Louisiana Crawfish Company - lacrawfish.com - is currently selling live crawfish - I think they started a few weeks ago... right now, they're on the small side though - typical early season crawfish - but they're still tasty.... I'm hoping they get a bit bigger by Mardi Gras...

I'm looking to get some andouille, boudin and tasso for some upcoming treats for my ex-NOLA wife... I've gotten some andouille from Poche before and it's great... but was wondering how it compared to some of the other brands out there - Comeaux's, Richards, Tonys, etc... Also, which are your favorite boudin and tasso??? I've heard Cochon Butcher makes some great stuff - I'll check them out the next time I'm down there - probably in April.... but does anyone know if they ship?? Thanks!!!

For crawfish, I love the Louisiana Crawfish Co.... www.lacrawfish.com I think their prices were a bit better than Cajun Grocers, and their product is fantastic... and really great service too... I just ordered some early season crawfish last week - FEDEX damaged the box - out of my 10# order, probably 7-8 pounds came dead and crushed... this was a first for me with lacrawfish - but I emailed them, and they were happy to give me a refund or store credit.... very easy to deal with... Usually, when their crawfish come in, they're big, lively and very tasty - with only a couple of dead ones in the whole 10#.... They also include a pack of their boil (which is really really good) plus a can of creole seasoning which between the two make a great crawfish boil.... I just add some garlic cloves and a couple of halved lemons to the pot in addition to the boil....

The best things to use are necks, backs, wingtips and feet - they have the most connective tissue (which turns into gelatin)... using whole chickens would be great for making a soup or broth, since the meat gives nice flavor... but typically, I like my stock to be more neutral in flavor - so I don't use meat... but to make a broth I like to add wings as my main meat source..

How do you usually do the tuna? How different would you like it to be?

Does anyone know where to get food grade closed cell foam tape for making temperature measurements with a needle proble? I know some people have used the closed cell weatherstripping, but I'm a bit concerned that there may be some toxic stuff in the adhesive... Any thoughts or suggestions?

I agree - the major downside is that my pressure cooker isn't nearly as big as I'd like it to be... but since it's very easy to make and doesn't take much active time, I'd rather do it more often this way than make more at once in the traditional way. I just wound up finishing my latest batch of chicken stock last night - defatted and portioned... I like to call it clear liquid chicken... out of the refrigerator it was so gelled that I could almost cut it with a knife ... not quite - but it definitely wiggled and jiggled!! Here's my yield: 17 cups stock from approx. 7# backs and necks, plus about 2# mirepoix simmered at full pressure for about 40 min... yes, it's a pretty measely yield - but I don't have that much freezer space, and my pressure cooker isn't nearly as large as I'd like and haven't had a chance to get another... That came from filling the pc as high as I could - I think I only left about 1.5 inches empty space at the top of the pot - wihch is much less than manufacturer's directions, but I guess it was ok since I didn't have hot liquid chicken magma spewing out of the release valve...

I dont know about hooking Jeffrey up with a farm but I use him as well and he is a great butcher but I do wish he had more meat variety as well. I usually just go to the greenmarket and get stuff from there if I am being picky but its way more expensive sadly, i cant imagine how much more it would be if sold through a middle man like Jeffrey. ← I use Jeffrey also... he's great... I wonder how much more he'd be - I'm sure he'd get much better pricing from the farm than we'd get at the greenmarket - becasue at the greenmarket, they're selling retail and the prices will be higher. Selling wholesale to Jeffrey and him reselling it would probably wind up being very similar prices, so long as he has enough volume to buy wholesale. The last I spoke with him, he said he didn't carry a lot of artisinal stuff because he didn't have a huge market for it - but he said he would love to if he had more call and more people asking for it...

I completely agree... also, brining only adds water and salt so that, when overcooked, it still retains some moisture - but, if cooked properly so that you don't have lots of moisture loss, you don't need the extra water - in fact the extra water is bad since it will dilute the flavor of the meat. McGee wrote about this in his Thanksgiving Turkey article a few months ago I used to do a pork tenderloin, marinated overnight in a whole can of chipotle puree, on a very hot grill - I usually cooked it to about 135F in the middle of the thickest part... which required turning every 4-5 minutes and got my tiny NYC apartmnet kitchen really smoky... the thick middle came out tasty, but not spectacular - a nice crust with a center of medium-rare - but a good 1/4" of interior underneath the crust was overcooked... and the tail was completely overcooked throughout... Now, I do it slightly differently - I add 2-3 T of chipotle puree to a vacuum bag, add the pork and seal.. leave in the fridge overnight... It then gets CSV at 135F (57.2C) for however long it needs depending on thickness - usually I leave it in for about an hour or so... after the hot bath, I baste it with the puree leftover in the bag and torch it until I get my crust - and it winds up being medium-rare throughout - even down to the skinny tail... there's only about 1/32" of over-cookedness underneath the crust....

Thanks for your input - I didn't think there was a concern - but I was curious if anyone knew why Pralus was saying what he was saying...

I have a question for all the technical experts out there - Douglas Baldwin, Nathanm, I hope you're out there! I recently stumbled onto a paper which summarized a two day seminar given by George Pralus in David Bouley's test kitchen back in April, 2006. Some of the things Pralus was saying is a little contradictory to what I had learned from this thread, and from what I get from the 2005 FDA food code.... Pralus put a graph on the whiteboard showing temperature safety zones... 50-55C - danger zone 55-60C - tolerance zone 60-63C - start of pasteurization zone > 63C - assured pasteurization zone It was also stated that heat treatment only kills vegetative forms of pathogens if the core temp. reaches 60C. I've been routinely doing flank steak for 24 hours at 55C - granted my lack of problems is not statistically significant.... Can anyone shed some light on this??? Thanks!

I love Coops... we go there on our first night every time we go since we usually get in around 10:30 or so, and it's a few blocks from our hotel... they have an awesome jambalaya... but I don't know if I remember their gumbo - if it's on the menu, I'm sure i've had it, but I can't remember it... I'll definitely give it another try when I go back... It's funny - my wife and I have a preference for Crystal hot sauce over Tabasco - but they have Tabasco on the table... turns out - they keep Crystal behind the bar for anyone who asks...

My wife and I go to NO usually once a year - she grew up in River Ridge, but now we live in NYC... when we go, we usually feast on oysters, boiled crawfish, gumbo and jambalaya for a few days before heading home.... but the last few times we've been really disappointed by the gumbo we've had - most of it was pretty flavorless and looked like it was thickened with cornstarch!!! Any locals know of some great gumbo out there?!?!? Thanks!

I second the slow cooker method.. it takes a while - but it is completely unattended and you can do a bunch at one time and save them for later...

Many times, you want to use wine in a recipe not only for the flavor, but also for it's acidity - so, I wonder if the powders or extracts would deliver that, or if you'd need to modify the recipe to add it in another way...

There also Armato Ice on 88th St. between 1st and 2nd... 212-737-1742

I've been to Tet a few times - most of the menu is pretty good, and better than most Vietnamese in NY... but, the one dish that shines is their Bun Cha, which is the closest I've had to when I had it in Hanoi... it's not a perfect replica, but it's pretty darn close... they actually use the pork patties, rather than just a dried out, thin grilled piece of pork chop. The sauce is pretty authentic also... To make it a bit better, imho, is that they need more greens for dipping (lettuce plus herbs), plus to make it perfect, they need slices of pork belly and some kind of pork loin slice in addition to the patties...

In the past, I've filled porcelain spoons with small bites of ceviche... also, a dessert spoon was a play on the thai dish mango with sticky rice - but I put the sticky rice in the bottom of the spoon and put a mango puree over the top...

Before investing in the stovetop smoker, I used to do it in a wok with a rack and some aluminum foil.... not hard to set up, but once I started doing it enough, I figured it was good to invest in the real thing... What I did was put the shavings in the bottom of the wok (line the bottom with alum. foil first or your wok will turn black) then cover with another piece of aluminum foil... put the rack above that to hold what's being smoked (ie the pork) then cover the whole thing with a foil tent... my stovetop smoker company (Cameron's) recommends using a burner of 5-6 - it starts smoking in about 5 minutes...

I love doing a pre-SV smoke for doing BBQ.... works great for ribs.... the other weekend, I did a SV version of cochinita pibil after watching Rick Bayless do it in a pit in the ground... since I don't have any ground, or a pit, I figured doing it SV was the next best thing... Took 2 pounds of boneless pork shoulder and coated with achiote/lime juice marinade... then wrap in banana leaves, and smoked (in stovetop smoker) over a combo of hickory and oak for about 30 minutes - in hindsight, I might smoke it a little longer next time... Then into the bag, and into teh 180F waterbath... I think I left it in there for about 8 hours, but I'd have to check my notes to be sure.... When finished, I pulled it and it was really nice - super tender, but not mush, with a suble smoke flavor, and subtle flavor from the banana leaves, and a lot of the fat rendered out... Then I reduced the liquid in the bag (pork juices, achiote marinade and some fat), and poured over the pulled pork and let it sit in the warming oven until my tortillas were ready... Put that in a corn tortilla with some pickled onions and some habanero salsa... heaven...

I like SeanDirty's idea of the Robuchon variant... but one of the things that makes the Robuchon dish so great is that he uses (or used to use - I haven't had it in a while) bric pastry, rather than filo - it winds up a bit crisper, and doesn't fall apart... it may be hard to find the bric dough if you don't have a middle eastern or indian market around... Also, Robuchon serves it with a relatively thick basil puree for dipping... Another idea (if you want to knock off a great restaurant theme) is from Le Bernardin from a few years ago - they did a great shrimp ravioli - in the ravioli is the shrimp, duxelle of wild mushrooms, and served with a foie gras truffle butter sauce... it's freaking crazy good - but it's expensive to make... Eric Ripert puts the basic recipe in his book "A Return to Cooking" but he does it with crawfish rather than shrimp...

I definitley agree... the NYC 3* restaurants do not compare to most of the 3* in Paris or France in general. I, myself, am usually disappointed with NYC 3* places, and I live there!