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There's a feature in this month's Cook's Illustrated on frittatas.

Refried Beans Serves 3 as Main Dish. I'm from Boston. 1/4 lb bacon, chopped 1/2 c olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 5 cloves garlic, chopped 32 oz can pinto beans cotija cheese Brown the bacon in the olive oil. Add the chopped onion and slowly soften (about 10 minutes). Crank up the heat a bit, add the garlic. Fry for about 30 seconds and then add the beans. With a potato masher, crush almost all the beans. Bring the mixture to a simmer and reduce to whatever consistency you like. If you want, you can add a squeeze of lime or lemon. I don't think it's really necessary. Serve with bits of cheese on top, alongside yellow rice. Keywords: Main Dish, Side, Beans, Lunch, Dinner, Mexican ( RG1222 )

Refried Beans Serves 3 as Main Dish. I'm from Boston. 1/4 lb bacon, chopped 1/2 c olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 5 cloves garlic, chopped 32 oz can pinto beans cotija cheese Brown the bacon in the olive oil. Add the chopped onion and slowly soften (about 10 minutes). Crank up the heat a bit, add the garlic. Fry for about 30 seconds and then add the beans. With a potato masher, crush almost all the beans. Bring the mixture to a simmer and reduce to whatever consistency you like. If you want, you can add a squeeze of lime or lemon. I don't think it's really necessary. Serve with bits of cheese on top, alongside yellow rice. Keywords: Main Dish, Side, Beans, Lunch, Dinner, Mexican ( RG1222 )

Fantastic, thanks!

On the episode of Jacques Pepin Fast Food My Way entitled "Dining Al Fresco," Pepin prepared a dish of raw sea bass he called "gravlax," but was unlike any type of gravlax I'd seen before. It was more of a tartare. The official title is "Sea Bass Gravlax With Cucumbers," and I'd assume it's in his book (which I'm having trouble obtaining on short notice). Would anyone with the book be willing to list the ingredients or PM me the recipe? As a broader inquiry, does anyone make something like this? Here's what I remember: + cubed fish + oil + mirin + cubed cucumber + chopped chile pepper + salt This was all mixed up (with some other stuff) and served as-is. Thanks!

Tres Leches Cake Serves 8 as Dessert. 3/4 c granulated sugar 5 egg yolks 1/3 c milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 pinch salt 1 c all-purpose flour 5 egg whites 1/4 c granulated sugar 1 can condensed milk 1 can evaporated milk Preheat oven to 350 °F. Beat egg yolks and 3/4 cup sugar until pale and doubled in volume. Stir in milk, salt, and vanilla. Carefully stir in flour until it is just incorporated. Whip egg whites until they form soft peaks, and then whip in the 1/4 cup sugar. Fold the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture. Pour into 2 greased and floured cake pans, or you can use a single 10x12" or similar rectangular pan. Bake about 30 minutes, but start checking after 25 or so. Pull it out when it just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan. Let cool slightly, and mix together the canned milks. Poke a lot of holes in the cake, and soak in most of the milk mixture. Reserve about 1/4 of the milk mixture if you want to keep the cake moist, but not soggy. I think this is best after sitting for an hour or two in the fridge, and tends to get drier after 24 hours. Serve with lightly sweetend whipped cream. This recipe is adapted from one on AllRecipes. The original calls for cream in the soaking liquid (unnecessary) and baking powder in the cake (makes the cake too stiff and eggy). Keywords: Dessert, Cake, Mexican ( RG1215 )

Tres Leches Cake Serves 8 as Dessert. 3/4 c granulated sugar 5 egg yolks 1/3 c milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 pinch salt 1 c all-purpose flour 5 egg whites 1/4 c granulated sugar 1 can condensed milk 1 can evaporated milk Preheat oven to 350 °F. Beat egg yolks and 3/4 cup sugar until pale and doubled in volume. Stir in milk, salt, and vanilla. Carefully stir in flour until it is just incorporated. Whip egg whites until they form soft peaks, and then whip in the 1/4 cup sugar. Fold the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture. Pour into 2 greased and floured cake pans, or you can use a single 10x12" or similar rectangular pan. Bake about 30 minutes, but start checking after 25 or so. Pull it out when it just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan. Let cool slightly, and mix together the canned milks. Poke a lot of holes in the cake, and soak in most of the milk mixture. Reserve about 1/4 of the milk mixture if you want to keep the cake moist, but not soggy. I think this is best after sitting for an hour or two in the fridge, and tends to get drier after 24 hours. Serve with lightly sweetend whipped cream. This recipe is adapted from one on AllRecipes. The original calls for cream in the soaking liquid (unnecessary) and baking powder in the cake (makes the cake too stiff and eggy). Keywords: Dessert, Cake, Mexican ( RG1215 )

Why would someone buy this? It's way cheaper to buy purified capsacin (from peppers) from a chemical company, and you actually get a guarantee of a certain degree of purity.

TiVo'd and watched the First Installment last night. Absolute fluffy junk. Probably the worst part about it was how little actual FOOD there was in the whole thing. I would've readily put up with the sappy, hackneyed narration if there had been any detail in the treatment of the foods. The Italian guy at the beginning, pointing out that the mozzarella is from buffaloes, not cows, is just about as detailed as the whole show gets. It all goes downhill from there.

That's a myth. There's plenty of tryptophan in lots of "common" foods, and turkey isn't so much crazily higher in tryptophan that it would really make a difference. Eating a load of white starch, on the other hand. And about MSG in "non-traditional" foods: I've found MSG to be really out-of-place in some foods. Combining it with many Indian flavors yields unpleasant results (as I've found when frantically trying to make a boring spice job more exciting). MSG really provides a lot of extra meatiness to stocks, but I went overboard the other day when doing a gumbo and the stuff had a slightly "too-intense" flavor.

Last year I showed up to my university's chili cookoff with a couple pounds of top-quality chuck, a variet of whole and ground dried chiles, and a sack of masa harina. I started cooking before anyone else even arrived, and ended up producing a really top-quality (and expensive) chili. Of course, my only competition turned out to be two guys with hamburger, canned beans, and chili seasoning packets. I won the $25. Though I do have to mention that their chili, in its own way, was just as tasty or tastier than mine, especially when endowed with lots of shredded cheese and sour cream.

So raw and overcooked would both be equally bitter, but slightly cooked should taste nice? That seems weird. And in what way would my besan taste bad if it were old? It certainly has a bit of a "funky" flavor to it, and it almost tastes like tea, but I didn't know if that was normal or not.

The thing I've got that's very bitter is black cumin. The seeds are like cumin but smaller. I'm familiar with nigella and this isn't it. The recipe that calls for kala jeera is here: Missi Roti

Darn... these are Moho brand, and it's hard to find other brands around here... though there are plenty of Indian stores. I'll try another one.

The other day I set out to make some roti and grabbed a recipe off the internet that called for 1/2 teaspoon of kala jeera (black cumin seed). I picked up a bag of the stuff from the local Indian grocery and started cooking without having tasted the seeds. Before adding the seeds, I fried them in oil for a few seconds, as I normally would with spices. I took a bite of one of the finish breads and it was far too bitter to eat. A taste of the plain seeds revealed that they're horribly, extremely bitter. Even after 10-20 seconds in hot oil, they retain a very bitter taste. Is this normal? And how am I supposed to make them taste less bitter? Or are they supposed to be extremely bitter?

"Authentic" Tiramisu Serves 7 as Dessert. This is based on Mike Janke's family recipe. I tweaked the ingredients slightly to fit a loaf pan and provide a slightly more pronounced flavor. As he points out on his webpage, tiramisu really requires espresso, not coffee. It is much more flavorful and rich, and since you don't want to use too much liquid in this recipe (it will cause sogginess), you want that concentrated character. I use a Bialetti Moka stove-top pot to make my espresso. One full load from the 9-cup type is enough to make this recipe, and I'd guess that a full 6-cup load should be just enough as well. Since the eggs are raw in this recipe, I like to use strictly grain-fed eggs. Go to your local health food store and find the most expensive, organic, free-range, pampered eggs you can find- they'll have the lowest risk of salmonella contamination and you can skip worrying about eating them raw. And it doesn't hurt to wash the shells before you crack them. As for brandy, I use Pisco. It's inexpensive and has a really nice fruitiness that goes well with the mascarpone. I've also used bourbon, which makes the dish taste a little flatter. I've used domestic (U.S.) mascarpone and imported Italian for this recipe, both of the type that you can get in a tub in the supermarket, and I didn't like the domestic at all. It provides a savings of almost $5 per recipe, but the product is thick, chunky and dry. Stick with the Italian product for a smooth, moist consistency. This recipe is to be made in a deep loaf pan. 10 fl oz Espresso 3 fl oz Brandy or cognac 3 T Cocoa powder 500 g Italian mascarpone 4 Large eggs 4 T Sugar 21 Savoiardi ladyfingers Bring the eggs to room temperature and cool the espresso so it isn't piping hot. Separate the eggs. Don't worry about making sure your bowls are super-clean- you can even get a little yolk in the white. Beat the whites until they are thick, light and frothy, but have not quite started to form peaks. Beat the yolks with the sugar until they've lightened in color. Add the mascarpone, a little at a time, and mix very well. Add half the liquor. Fold the eggwhites into this mixture. It will be fairly loose. Don't worry about the eggwhites not being stiff enough. Add the other half of the liquor and one teaspoon of cocoa to the espresso and place it in a wide bowl. Start assembling the dish by dipping savoiardi, sugar side up, into the espresso mixture for just a second, then removing them and plaing widthwise into the loaf pan. The savoiardi are extremely absorbent, so don't leave them in the espresso for too long or they'll get soggy. Use a teaspoon to drip tiny drops of espresso on the cookies, about half a teaspoon per cookie. On top of the first layer of cookies, place half of the egg mixture. Place another layer of dipped cookies and drip espresso on them. Follow with the rest of the egg mixture and a third layer of dipped cookies. Drip espresso and then sift the remaining cocoa powder evenly over the top. Cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight. This step is critical because the savoiardi will slowly absorb all the extra liquid from the filling. If you eat the tiramisu before it's sat at least 5 hours, the filling will be loose and sloppy, and the cookies will be dry and unpleasant. After sitting overnight, the dish has a fluffy, consistent texture. Keywords: Italian, Pudding ( RG1113 )

"Authentic" Tiramisu Serves 7 as Dessert. This is based on Mike Janke's family recipe. I tweaked the ingredients slightly to fit a loaf pan and provide a slightly more pronounced flavor. As he points out on his webpage, tiramisu really requires espresso, not coffee. It is much more flavorful and rich, and since you don't want to use too much liquid in this recipe (it will cause sogginess), you want that concentrated character. I use a Bialetti Moka stove-top pot to make my espresso. One full load from the 9-cup type is enough to make this recipe, and I'd guess that a full 6-cup load should be just enough as well. Since the eggs are raw in this recipe, I like to use strictly grain-fed eggs. Go to your local health food store and find the most expensive, organic, free-range, pampered eggs you can find- they'll have the lowest risk of salmonella contamination and you can skip worrying about eating them raw. And it doesn't hurt to wash the shells before you crack them. As for brandy, I use Pisco. It's inexpensive and has a really nice fruitiness that goes well with the mascarpone. I've also used bourbon, which makes the dish taste a little flatter. I've used domestic (U.S.) mascarpone and imported Italian for this recipe, both of the type that you can get in a tub in the supermarket, and I didn't like the domestic at all. It provides a savings of almost $5 per recipe, but the product is thick, chunky and dry. Stick with the Italian product for a smooth, moist consistency. This recipe is to be made in a deep loaf pan. 10 fl oz Espresso 3 fl oz Brandy or cognac 3 T Cocoa powder 500 g Italian mascarpone 4 Large eggs 4 T Sugar 21 Savoiardi ladyfingers Bring the eggs to room temperature and cool the espresso so it isn't piping hot. Separate the eggs. Don't worry about making sure your bowls are super-clean- you can even get a little yolk in the white. Beat the whites until they are thick, light and frothy, but have not quite started to form peaks. Beat the yolks with the sugar until they've lightened in color. Add the mascarpone, a little at a time, and mix very well. Add half the liquor. Fold the eggwhites into this mixture. It will be fairly loose. Don't worry about the eggwhites not being stiff enough. Add the other half of the liquor and one teaspoon of cocoa to the espresso and place it in a wide bowl. Start assembling the dish by dipping savoiardi, sugar side up, into the espresso mixture for just a second, then removing them and plaing widthwise into the loaf pan. The savoiardi are extremely absorbent, so don't leave them in the espresso for too long or they'll get soggy. Use a teaspoon to drip tiny drops of espresso on the cookies, about half a teaspoon per cookie. On top of the first layer of cookies, place half of the egg mixture. Place another layer of dipped cookies and drip espresso on them. Follow with the rest of the egg mixture and a third layer of dipped cookies. Drip espresso and then sift the remaining cocoa powder evenly over the top. Cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight. This step is critical because the savoiardi will slowly absorb all the extra liquid from the filling. If you eat the tiramisu before it's sat at least 5 hours, the filling will be loose and sloppy, and the cookies will be dry and unpleasant. After sitting overnight, the dish has a fluffy, consistent texture. Keywords: Italian, Pudding ( RG1113 )

College cafeteria, Sunday morning: Bacon double cheeseburger, fries with loads of mustard and ketchup, V8, water, glazed donut, coffee with cream and sugar.

Another vote for salmon. But just the cooked kind. Raw or smoked is pretty alright.

Caffiene has an astringent flavor; I've heard companies explain that they caffeinate their beverages for flavor purposes, because they would never try to addict their customers. Anyway: 1. I definitely find that canola oil has an unpleasant fishy flavor... I avoid using it, for this reason. 2. I love smoked meats, but I find that smoked cheeses have a strong fishy flavor... they remind me of a really fishy smoked salmon. I was served some sort of gratin potatoes with smoked cheese and I couldn't finish more than a couple bites.

badthings, that Cell article looks pretty fascinating. I have full-text access to the journal, so I'm gonna bookmark the paper now and read through it at my next convenience... I'll try to put any important points in a new post on this thread.

Some interesting observations on this issue: There's a paper "Salt enhances flavour by suppressing bitterness" by Breslin and Beauchamp in Nature 387 (1997). The authors suggest that salts "selectively filter flavours." The paper is rather short, but introduces an interesting concept. For those of you without a subscription to Nature (heh), you can view an abstract here: http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf...387563a0_r.html

I've actually found that a scoop or two of oxyclean in a load of laundry will do for a lot of stains (in combination with my normal detergent)... and other times I've just made a paste, rubbed it in, then let it sit, then put it in a minimal amount of water in the washer, added some more oxyclean, run the washer for a few minutes, then let it sit for like 6-10 hours, then run the rest of the cycle.

Wouldn't this just be to crisp them up a bit for pickling? I don't think it has anything to do with their edibility (which, as far as I know, is cooked-or-pickled-only).

OK, so maybe it wasn't spilling food on myself so much as on other people, but I think it's worthy of mention: One day in high school freshman Spanish class, we all had to do presenations on some part of Hispanic culture. These two girls brought in hot, sticky, sweet, goopy fried plantains and walked around the room with a tray of them. Each student, sitting at his desk, was supposed to take one... I took one and immediately put it in my mouth, before the girls had walked on to the next person... I somehow managed to let it go down the wrong way, immediately coughed, tried to keep my mouth closed but didn't completely succeed, and sprayed coughed-up plantain goop all over my hands and desk. And on this girl. For a freshman, her composure was remarkable. I kept waiting for a brutal comment but she just wiped herself off and walked away. About getting out food stains: Nothing gets the job like a little OxyClean (or generic equivalent).