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helenas

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Posts posted by helenas

  1. breakfast from the fridge: crispin apple, forgotten piece of smoked tetilla cheese and stale country bread.

    decided not use butter: roasted apple slices in evoo with some sugar and they caramelized nicely; and put the grated cheese below and on top of apples: came out pretty nice - the smokiness of the cheese was not overwhelming, and apple got some flavor with caramelization.

    applesandwich27hi.gif

  2. chanterelles/aged gruyere gratin - cheese, pan browned sliced onion and mushrooms sandwiched bw two layers of thin italian country bread slices: mixture of eggs/creme fraiche/milk pored over and baked in the oven - oh so good and oh so unbearably rich...

    chanterellesgratin11km.jpg

  3. OK so I was all set for gnocchi today. I had bought potatoes, asking the potatoguy at the market for "not too floury not too waxy" ones. Then I saw the Kabocha squash I had bought a couple of days ago. I decided to make pumpkin/potato gnocchi.

    Potatoes were boiled in their skins, pumpkin roasted in the oven. Both were nice and dry when I mashed them. I decided to be brave and not add an egg.. only flour. I added enough flour to make a dough that was soft but not very sticky. Shaped the gnocchi.. I thought they looked very nice.

    Ofcourse the cooking was the hard part. I fished them out as soon as they floated to the surface, but by then they were almost dissolved. In the serving dish they collapsed together into an orange mealy mush. Sauced with enough sage butter to make an old shoe edible, we ate them anyway.

    But not a succes. What went wrong?

    oh no: i was meaning to make kabocha gnocchi tonight - i even googled out this lovely article: Masterful gnocchi: An Italian chef demonstrates the secrets of making those feather-light dumplings . (the recipe does call for an egg)

    and to adrress the comment by somebody on this thread that kabocha produces too much moisture, i thought that it's the driest squash, is this not true?

    anyway reading about your disaster made my thinking of switching to pumpkin spaetzle tonight :unsure:

  4. i made some buttered twice-steamed couscous the night before and it was good to be literally eaten on its own, and i didn't even use a lot of butter, maybe just a tablespoon for two servings. Added a stick of cinnamon and several brunches of thyme to the steaming water.

    Incidentally there is a nice article on the subject in today's LAT: Marrakesh express

  5. I wonder if it would be successful with other types of meat, we have a huge amount of game around at the moment.

    good question - i mentioned to my husband when we were enjoying the dish that lamb shoulder mightly be uniquely suited for tangia...

    and i like Adam's idea of using bean pot for making tangia - now i have more reason to get one :biggrin:

  6. In Paula Wolfert’s very good “Good Food from Morocco” she describes tracking down a speciality of Marrakesh – “Tangia”. When she eventually found somebody that could make the dish for her, it turned out to be a meat stew cooked in a pot overnight in an oven. The ingredients were listed as: shoulder of lamb, saffron, cumin, garlic, preserved lemon, oil salt pepper.

    Paula's book and description of tangia inspired Clarks to offer Tangia recipe in their excellent Casa Moro book: and both books inspired me to make this dish on Sat;

    used thick shoulder chops, the spicing was cumin, garlic, preserved lemon, cilantro, onion and butter, the cooking vessel was my favorite cazuela and the dish spent in oven 4 plus hours: enough to produce mind bogglingly silky meat...

  7. i sort of forgot about the book but a recent issue of australian vogue had a recipe for apple cider braised pork belly adapted from Molly's, with couple of changes to the original - one cup of stock is substituted for one cup of semi-sweet applce cider, and mirin is used instead of dark? (mushroom? - i don't remember and don't have the book with me) soy sauce.

    I also compared the recipe to my favorite aromatic pork belly hot pot from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's MEAT book:

    Adding two easy steps that Stevens skips:

    1. simmeering pork pieces for some 5mins to get rid of most scum (widely used technique) at the beginning;

    2. straining the cooking liquid at the end (nothing unique here either);

    one gets such an esthetically pleasing sauce...

    anyway i really recommend trying the dish using an apple cider :)

  8. thank you - this is parsley:

    the list of ingredients is very short - just pumpkin, garlic and parsley - everything is finely chopped, good splash of evoo and couple of hours in low oven;

    it's so good - i will try it soon with hubbard - Whole Foods carries many interesting baby winter squashes!

  9. Susan, of course - Brent's description will keep me trying - i get the crispy part, it's the hop one that i'm missing :unsure:

    in the meantime after numerous tastings i'm ready to add Three Floyds Pride & Joy Mild Ale to the hall of beer fame...

  10. ok i got the book couple of weeks ago: working the Pilsner section:

    among recommended we particularly liked Bitburger, oked Jever and disagreed on Grolsch. Still on the hunt for Christoffel Blond - anybody spotted it in NJ/NY/MA?

    speaking of pilsners and other lagers here is an article by Steve Beaumont - Don't Forget the Lager:

    "Among the community of American beer aficionados -- better known as "beer geeks" -- there exists certain pieces of wisdom broadly accepted as gospel. "Hops good, more hops better," is one such maxim. "Ales are always superior to lagers," is another." (says the author of "Premium Beer Drinker's Guide: The World's Strongest, Boldest and Most Unusual Beers", the book that doesn't mention any of those pilsners :biggrin: )

    But i still don't get the appeal of Victory Prima Pils :unsure:

  11. Barilla Plus (besides multi-grains, fiber and omega-3s it tastes nice and has a decent texture, quite a surprise for commercial pasta) angel pasta with pan wilted/browned juliened baby zucchini , mussels, parsley and green yuzo kosho.

    zucchinipasta39ud.jpg

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