Marlene

I'll take it if you don't want it. I can see several uses for it, mostly what's been listed here. Browning lots of pieces at once, sauces etc. There's been a few times when I would have killed for a pan this big.

Now see, I loved the Caribbean Pork Shoulder!

I did the Bon Appetit short rib recipe tonight, although I altered the quantities drastically and used Molly's method of low, slow and covered. My adapted recipe here First, these are the beautiful short ribs my biker butcher guy from Whole Foods did for me. He didn't put the bandsaw all the way through. I suppose he would have had I asked, but I really wanted an excuse to use my new cleaver. These of course had to be tied, but oh my they were lovely ribs. I didn't document the whole process because I mean really, it's mostly the same, brown, saute, add liquids reduce a bit, cover and braise. At the end, I strained and defatted the liquids then added some grainy mustard and then a paste of flour and butter. Then I put the ribs back in the sauce, turned to coat them, covered them and put them back in the oven until I was done the mashed potatoes. These were truly amazing. The combination of honey, wine, port and mustard makes for a very rich but deeply flavourful sauce. This is a definate winner .

Short Ribs, with Port, Wine and Honey This is heavily adapted from a recipe in Bon Appetit. 1-1/2 c dry robust red wine 1 c tawny port 1-1/2 c beef or chicken stock 1 c carrots, chopped 1-1/2 c onions 2 cloves of garlic, chopped 3 T olive oil 1/4 c red wine vinegar 1/3 c honey 1 full head of garlic cut in half 1/4 c grainy mustard 1 T butter 1 T flour 6 meaty short ribs 2 or three inches long Tie the ribs tightly. Brown them a few at a time in a heavy dutch oven, in the olive oil. Remove ribs to a platter and add the carrots, onion and chopped garlic and saute until soft and starting to brown. Add the red wine vinegar and scrape up brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Add the wine, broth, port, garlic halves and honey and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes and then add the ribs back to the pot, meat side down. Cover and place in oven at 240. Check after half an hour. If it's bubbling a lot, turn it down 5 degrees or so. Braise for 4 hours turning ribs a couple of times. When they are done, remove the ribs to a platter, and strain and degrease the sauce. Return the sauce to the dutch oven and bring to a boil. Add the grainy mustard and gently boil for a few minutes. Make a paste of the butter and flour and add it to the sauce. Boil gently until thickened, whisking constantly. Return the ribs to the pot, turn to coat, recover and heat in oven until ribs are warmed through again. Keywords: Main Dish, Beef, Easy ( RG1449 )

Never has a duck crossed my kitchen, but I'll take your word for it.

So I guess everyone will cringe if I tell them that I threw away that fat cap from my chicken stock? oops.

It was the same bartender, yes. And when I told them, of course they apologized profusely and promptly send me the same guy the following year.

Actually it happened twice. In the same night. To the same managing partner. But yes, I have had words with them about their staff..

That's what I'm trying to do here Rochelle, branch out a bit with the starters. Most of the people are fellow partners at Don's accounting firm, a few clients, and a few of my clients. My clients tend to be a bit more adventurous, but really, it's a room full of accountants. None of the menus sing to me just yet, although I'm liking the idea of the butternut squash soup in shooter glasses and I really like the mini potato pancakes. On everything else, I'm pretty open to suggestion though. Certainly caterer #1 is pretty open. I've used both caterers before and both have pros and cons. Caterer 1 has done our Seasonal party for 3 years. The food is always outstanding, but sometimes I get staff who are either clueless (read the bartender who spilled a drink on the managing partner of the firm) or have attitude. Caterer #2 catered our summer party, which was of course much more casual. The food was good but not as good as caterer 1, but their staff really shone. I'm waiting for Caterer #2 to re quote then I'll post any revisions and prices for both.

I have a revised menu from Caterer #1: Hors D’oeuvre Butternut Squash Soup Shooter Mini Potato Pancakes with Caramelized Onions, Roasted Garlic, Cheese and Sour Cream Vegetable Spring Rolls Hand rolled with a curried pineapple dipping sauce Stuffed Artichokes Artichoke bottoms with sun dried tomatoes and Asiago Cheese Sesame Crusted Chicken Brochettes With a miso dipping sauce Pork Brochettes With a Maple Walnut Glaze Buffet Dinner Bread & Rolls & Butter FOUR Salad Selection Traditional Tossed Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Three Rice and Avocado Spicy Black Bean & Corn Roast Ontario Turkey A de-boned turkey rolled with an apple sage stuffing. Carved on your buffet with a side of cranberry sauce and a rich demi-glaze Tournedos Stephanie A tender fillet bordered in puff pastry, topped with Bearnaise Sauce Potatoes Romanoff Oven roasted potatoes with a creamed celeriac stuffing. Glazed Carrots with Honey Desserts Mini Caramel Crunch Cakes Brownie Tower Chocolate Dipped Strawberries Domestic & Imported Cheese Display Coffee, Decaffeinated Coffee & Tea Station Soft Drinks, Juice Selection Lemons, Limes, Olives, Onions, Cherries Shortly, I'll post a price comparison as well.

Today the eGullet Society is pleased to announce a major expansion to its volunteer program and the creation of a new volunteer group: eG Specialists. The Society could not function without its volunteers, who for more than four years have taken responsibility for everything from administration to content initiatives. Over time, however, many of our members have expressed a desire to contribute content but without taking on the administrative responsibility of forum hosting and moderation. The eG Specialists program provides a way for members who have demonstrated a depth of knowledge and a commitment to the Society's mission to deepen their participation. As members, they have already contributed great content. The eG Specialists program recognizes and enhances these contributions. For example, under the eG Specialists program, a member who frequents a local farmers market might commit to writing a weekly market report. Someone with a great interest in local restaurants might take responsibility for a weekly report of restaurant openings, closings and chef changes. The opportunities are limited only by the imagination: draw a weekly cartoon, keep your fellow members apprised of sales and bargains in your region, help expand the scope of eG Calendar events listings, report on new book releases, or just about anything else that could work as a regular report, column, or service. Specialist content is collaborative in nature, and specialists will work closely with eG Forums and other staff to bring even greater depth to the Society’s content offerings. In some cases, the Society’s resources are established, for example our team already receives many press release distributions that could be directed to a specialist interested in covering restaurant news. In other cases, part of the specialist’s role would be to develop new information resources and contacts. Our food media digesters have already been contributing excellent, recurring content for years now. Our first move, then, will be to designate our digesting team as part of the eG Specialists program. We are appointing a leader for the digests group and will create a collaborative online workspace for digesters to share their ideas and approaches to the project. In addition, we will have specialist groups for Daily Gullet editorial volunteers, eGullet Culinary Institute instructors and research specialists, RecipeGullet specialists and eG Forums specialists. Please join us in welcoming our media digesters to the eG Specialists team. In addition, over the next several weeks, we will be working to bring interested members into the other divisions of the eG Specialists program. Those who are interested in taking the initiative should contact Marlene Newell ("Marlene" on the eG Forums personal messenger system or mnewell@eGullet.org on e-mail). What was a small group of food lovers is today a culinary arts society with thousands of members and many times that many readers around the world -- a virtual crossroads of the global culinary scene. We believe the eG Specialists program represents the next step in the evolution of the eGullet Society, and we hope all will benefit from it.

We're gearing up for our gala seasonal party. This is a caterered affair and I'm currently trying to chose between two different caterers and menus. The menus are: Menu 1 Hors D'oeuvres Cold: Asiago, Proscuitto Cheese twists mino corn bread muffins with jalapeno chicken salad stuffed beef tenderloin medallions Hot: Mini spring rolls mini baked potatoes wiwth procscuitto, scallion and parmesan beef roulade - cracked pepper and teryiake Main Tournedos Stephanie (fillet bordered in puff pastry topped with Bernaise Sauce) or Prime Rib and: Tortellini Alfredo Lyonnaise potatoes Pesto Pasta Mixed green salad with raspberry vinagrette Dessert & Coffee, Tea Cheese tray Platters of : mini caramel crunch cakes brownie tower chocolate dipped strawberries Menu 2 Hors D'oeuvres Cold: Parmesan rosemary crackers with herbed cream chees mini corn muffins filled iwth turkey and cranberry honey mustard chicken bites Hot: mini potato pancakes beef satays bacon cheddar quiches mini chicken fingers Main: Individual Beef Wellington or Prime Rib rolls wrapped in sage stuffing baked in burgandy wine sauce Roast Turkey Romanoff Potatoes Rice Pilaf Red pepper pasta salad Dessert, coffee and tea Chocolate Wreath Cake Imported cheese selection mini seasonal pastries, including mince meat, cranberry tarts, etc. Please note, I did not select the items on either menu. These are choices given to me by both caterers. I can of course make substitutions etc. Which would you choose and why?

Yeh the Bayless is awesome in my opinion.. Just found a photo of the last time I made it.. I am ready to call it a day and start making this stuff.. Now the question is, do I serve with cheese fries, tater tots, or spaghetti.. Either way i am a happy man.. ← This looks amazing. I guess chili is on my list this week.

I have to admit, I was a little concerned about it melting as well. And I didn't want it melting onto my oven racks.

I forgot to include in my method that I do heat the milk/cream mixture and I let it infuse with a split vanilla bean for 40 minutes. I also do strain it before pouring into ramikins. I will try just whisking the egg mixture by hand though. That makes sense!

Well I"m always up for showing my mistakes! I used my recipe although I'm going to try Wendy's next time. I beat the eggs and sugar together using the paddle attachment instead of the whisk this time. Then I added the cream/vanilla mixture and whisked that in by hand. Set the ramikens into a pan and filled half way with boiling water. I tried to wrap with plastic wrap, but I wasn't getting a good seal so I gave it up. I started these at 325 convection bake, and checked them about 10 minutes in. One of them was starting to brown, so I immediately lowered the oven to 250 regular bake. At the end, some of them were a little brown: A close shot of one of them at the end of baking. I've got those bubbles around the edges that Steve was talking about. Rats. I'm sure these will taste fine, but I'm out to perfect this, so I'll be trying again tomorrow using Wendy's method.

Excellent. I'm off to try this. I'll report back. One more dumb question never having used a water bath. The hot water should come half way up outside of the ramikens?

Thanks Steve, that really helps. I don't have a hotel pan, (oh good, another toy to add to my collection!), but I do have a roasting pan, would that work? What if I start at 250 convection with plastic wrap over the whole thing? I have checked my oven with an oven thermometer and it is on temp.

Possibly, although I used 7 egg yolks to 2 cups heavy cream and 2/3 cup whole milk. they were baked at 200 F for about an hour. I used my stand mixture to beat the egg yolks and 1/3 cup of sugar until they were pale and thick and then I added the cream mixture that had been infusing with a vanilla bean. I can honestly say I've never used a bain marie to bake custards. They were baked at 200F for about an hour, and even then I could tell they weren't setting right.

I had a major problem with my creme brulee custard yesterday. It was way too runny and didn't set. I'm going to try it again today, but I wondered if I could/should use convection when baking something as delicate as a custard?

I'm sort of amazed at this recipe. It also calls for 3/12 cups of onions and 2 1/2 cups of carrots. That's kind of a lot. I'm going to try this on Thursday, but it will be the first recipe I've totally revamped!

wow. It says 350 for 2 hours and 15 minutes. I think if I do this, I'll reduce the liquid until I think it looks right then proceed

the recipe calls for 8 3-4 inch ribs (or about 3 1?2) lbs. ther is also 2 cups of chicken broth called for. I'm just thinking that this is all sounding like a lot of liquid to me. now it does say to boil the wine port and broth for 10 minutes, so I guess it will reduce some in that period of time but not a lot I wouldn't think.

Your plating skills are better than mine! That looks awesome. I'll be adding that one to my list to try. In the meantime, I've got Molly's pot roast in the oven braising. It will be tomorrow night's dinner. I also found a great recipe to try for short ribs, altough they are not Molly's. It's in Bon Appetit this month. It's a little expensive as it involves a full bottle of port and a full bottle of wine, but it sounds good. the one thing I can't figure out is that it calls for the dish to be put in the oven uncovered. I can't say I've ever heard of a braise being done uncovered. Any thoughts?

My griddle came with my range, and it straddles two burners and is cast iron. I love it.. Although I guess that doesn't help you much does it?