helenas

LA Times review of the book in Babbo Boys Unravel the Joyful Anarchy of Italian Wines

Jinmyo, your dishes are awesome, as usual! If you don't mind, could you tell more about the last dinner? Have you used dry porcini? And croutons, were they used instead of bread crumbs?

Yesterday i cooked the Green Lentils ( same as Le Puy, but grown in Idaho) i ordered from chefshop.com. Really great stuff, not bland and hold their shape. Anybody knows about where to get tarbais beans in US?

When do we go? And have you seen the the article about Alain Vavro in the april issue of Food Arts? The article has couple of pictures of his gorgeous tableware. He also created some collections for Villeroy & Boch.

Cabrales, You can take a train from Penn Station to Red Bank, and i'll drive you from there to Manalapan or Princeton. It's only one hour in the train

tommy, what about this flavor tents for wood chips, is it a complete BS? I guess so, since i have a cedar plank, that to my mind doesn't add too much (if at all) flavor to things roasted on it. And i did checked the epinion.com, no CharBroil aficionados and/or haters. As for cast-iron, the Weber model i checked seems to come with porcelain-covered stainless steel. Is cast-iron an option?

Vanilla was definitely a winner, with the mocca being close. I was disappointed in raspberry flavor, though.

Sorry for revisit, but here is the spec of the Big Easy CharBroil, that you can get at Costco for only $370 (against the comparable Weber's $700?): - 40,000 BTUs; - 11,000 BTU Heatwave™ rotisserie burner and one-piece spit rod; - Smoker tents included on every burner to hold wood chips; - Porcelain cooking grates; I mean, buying Weber, are we paying for the name. What's the big deal to make a good grill?

There is a couple of Batali's recipes on foodtv.com where he just puts 1-2 ounces of dried porcini into duck stew (veal is also good). it's a great technique, which gives a rich flavor to the stew and where mushrooms keep their flavor, and somehow the sand seems to dissapear. BTW, couple of online stores, aw well as Williams-Sonoma carry porcini of the very good quality, and they don't contain a lot of sand.

here is an article including a picture of Loquat Jason, i think you mentioned that you've lived in Israel for half a year. It's very popular there and is called "shessek" in hebrew.

Weber Genesis Silver We're going to buy this model. The price is right, a lot of BTUs and positive reviews on epinions as well as amazon. Since we never had a grill before, i'm looking for your advice. Are there better models within the same price range? There were couple of Jenn-Air and Char-Broil models in our local Lowes, that looked good, especially Char-Broil but i couldn't find any reviews on internet. Thank you, helena

Sure, cabrales: mocca, raspberry, passion fruit, vanilla and chocolate

I bought nicolettes today, and i agree, it's a great stuff. According to the sales lady, everything in Wegmans patisserie is Herme's recipes.

Steve, Is this book a unique case even in the professional culinary library, or you can name some other examples of books that can live up to this description?

Sorry, i'm confused, is it for restaurant or BBQ picnic?

As i mentioned on "Field Trip" post, i would love to, especially since i can take dog Cherry, and Mr Helena will have some meaningful destination for his bike ride.

From Batali's partner Bastianich, not to be missed, Vino Italiano, already available on another crowded bookshelf near you.

Rachel, you're not an idiot; you've just missed parts of the "Smoking in the Thearter" saga. Who's an idiot here, is myself, since only now i realized that portulac and purslane are not the same thing!

We gathered mushrooms all the time back in Russia, and even back in Israel. Here, i was surprised to find that it's not popular, at least according to my friends in NJ. Seriously, are you ready to have us (me, Mr Helena and Dog Cherry, if allowed), joining you?

Steve, Our Wegmans does carry nicolettes in different flavors, but they're not marked as related to Herme.

What cookbooks are of most use in your kitchen lately? My vote is for "Think like a chef" and "River Cafe Cook Book Green". Both have so many cooking ideas for spring!

I'm just curious, if any egulleters are growing/eating this stuff? Actually, Paula Wolfert has couple of purslane salads in one of her books. I also vaguely remember, that back in russia there was some canned marinated portulac. But here i've never seen it being sold for eating, although nurseries carry it for rock gardens, as it's so pretty.

Does anybody mail order artisanal pasta? What kinds?

cabrales, chocolates in our wegmans are available by piece, as well as in boxes of three different sizes, the smallest one ( about $6) being the most popular, and this is what i tried once. I decided that the next time i will buy in pieces, since i didn't like all the tastes. All chocolates were very fresh, i just don't like dark chocolate that much. The fruit and nuts ones were pretty good.

actually it was covered twice, but i couldn't find the threads. anyway i'll repeat my posting: i shop at zingermans.com, tienda.com and chefshop.com on a regulat basis. All of them provide a great service. I had a disastrous experience with farawayfoods.com though.