snowangel

You could go "fancy" and have smoked brisket... I did a party with smoked pork AND brisket last summer, and in addition to offering rolls, BBQ sauce (click here for the ultimate sauce recipe) and slaw, I offered tortillas, salsa, guac, etc. If you want to know more about smoking pork butts or brisket, let us know!

Dave, this topic got me thinking about smoked duck meat Posole. With smoked duck skin cracklings as a garnish. The leftovers alone would be worth the dish.

Peter, here's a link to the carnitas topic.

Tonight was the Chicken and Dumplings. What a lot of work (probably wouldn't have been so much work if I didn't try and fit it into shoveling over a foot of snow). This was a delicious dish, but I took no pictures, because it was sort of a visual disaster. My comments: There is not nearly enough liquid. The dumplings stuck to the bottom of the pot, so I just added more stock. So, as I flipped them over, bits and parts sort of fell off the dumplings, which served to thicken, although I did go ahead and add the cream/egg yolk mixture (figured it was a good idea since I added a mess more stock than the recipe called for). The addition of the lemon zest and nutmeg to the braising liquid is brilliant, and made this a most tasty dish, although unattractive. Would I do this again? Yes. But, I'd braise the chicken ahead of time, and just reheat when it was dumpling time.

The next blog starts on March 4. I offer two photos, but no other clues because you all seem to so good a guessing correctly!

I used the method described in this article, and it worked like a charm.

What about lobster bisque?

Thanks, Bruce. And, I do think, in the spirit of the Aisan cook, like most cooks everywhere, it is all about making do. No spareribs? Country-style ribs for $.99/lb? No brainer, I'd think Andrea's mom would say. Yes, Jasmine rice. In my circa 1981 rice cooker. The rice cooker was a wedding present, and has not yet let me down. I only buy new crip jasmine, and I actually want to look into the bag to make sure it doesn't any brokens (perhaps why the little old ladies at my Asian market love me). I don't need fuzzy logic when it comes to the cooker. Just something that will work for over a quarter of a century. Do you normally cook jasmine?

Thanks for bringing this topic up again! I have had a couple of more huge successes from this book. Last week, I happened onto a 4 pound sack of fresh mussels, and my eye had been drawn to the recipe for mussels with bacon, lime and cilantro. My only quibble with the recipe was the quantity -- 3.5 pounds of mussels to serve 4 people? Paul and I polished off most of the four pounds! The addition of the bacon, lime and cilantro left them light, but the brininess still came through. What was leftover made an absolutely delightful breakfast for me! And the scones. I made a batch, and froze a bunch of them, which have made wonderful breakfasts, as welll. Yes to the addition of the ginger. First successful scones I've made.

I always have shallots on hand. And, as I dug in the pantry for some today, I was reminded at how astounded I am at the differences are between those I get at my mainstream supermarket and the Asian market: The supermarket one (on the left) is just over 2" wide, as a point of reference, and is not nearly as purple as the ones from the Asian market. Now that the farmer's markets that populate the Twin Cities are sporting lots of Asian vendors, I see lots of shallots in the summer, and they are of the small, purple variety. What's the difference? Different variety? Different cultivation techniques? I like the taste of the little ones better, but I can't quite put my finger on it...

I now have In the Vietnamese Kitchen It is a wonderful book, well organized, and full of great recipes, information and history. Thank you, Andrea, for photo'ing some of the herbs! But, as I decided to cook from this book today, and didn't feel like heading to the market, I headed to the deep freezer with The Book in hand. Now, my photo is positively embarrassing in light of what Bruce shows us: Pork riblets simmered in caramel sauce. So, I didn't have any pork riblets, but I had some country-style ribs. And, I didn't feel like firing up the Trusty Old Kettle, so I just seared chunks of the country-style ribs in a skillet. Along side, the water spinach stir-fry with oyster sauce. Except, I used regular spinach because a call to my local Asian market revealed that they only had two bunches of water spinach, and the young lass (who spoke excellent English) said that "my mother wouldn't use these." And, on the side, a favorite -- a Thai salad of cuke, shallots and birds in a vinegar and sugar syrup. The cuke salad was the saviour. This pork/caramel dish was VERY rich, and the cuke dish really cut this richness. As a side note, I had 1.3 pounds of country-style ribs, and it was more than enough for the four of us who would eat dark foods.

Interesting this comes up today. I was busy getting a load of stuff ready to go to Goodwill, and pulled this grater thing out of the cupboard (it was a white elephant gift at a Christmas party a couple of years ago), intending to give it away, but I just had to see how it would work on a hunk of parm. And, you know what? It worked very well. It has two blade thigies -- one smaller-holed (the one I used) and one larger. Grated with ease, and there doesn't seem to be much to go wrong with it. It has been retrieved from the Goodwill pile and in a cupboard now.

We take a short break after Al Leung's blog before the next one. Stay tuned for a teaser, but we will head East (or West, depending on where you live)!

I am rather fond of a variation of Marcella's tomato sauce where the onion isn't diced, but halved, and there is a big fat lump o' butter. But, buy tomatos? I'm known as the tomatoe S--T in the 'hood, and I just take what I have growing, and what the other folks don't know what to do with. Toss them in the freezer (yes, whole, skin on). When it comes time for some Sauce, fish a few out of the netherworld, and the skin just washes off under hot water, and once they are in the pan and thawed, the tongs take care of removing the "core." Good thing my neighbors favor growing way more basil and roma's than they could possibly think of using.

Well, a lengthy cleaning of the fridge revealed some creme fraiche, so I used that. I'll report tomorrow when we actually eat it. Stay tuned for details, but, given the weather, I'm sure I'll need another substitution tomorrow!

A gratin.

So, it's a nasty day here today, and I'm not risking life and limb for a cup of cream, for a cooked dish. Can I just use some milk with a mess of butter?

That is truly shocking. I also would have expected them to be familiar with perogies - aren't they made in every church kitchen across Canada? (or is that only on the Prairies?) ← Shock here as well. But, did they like them?

Nancy, does smoking turkey in a Weber Kettle count as "covered cooking?" Smoke that turkey! You'll be uber-chic, and the leftovers are much more versatile!

Pet peeve number bazillion. Just how big is a medium carrot, onion, shallot or garlic clove? A handful? Just how big are your hands? Medium dice? Medium to who? I can't remember what recipe I ran across that called for "thinly sliced chives" without any sort of quantify.

I'll toss in "Modern Art of Chinese Cooking" by the late great Barbara Tropp. She taught me how to buy things, how do make many things, most notably pleating potstickers! It's a no-nonsense book that has tons of information. I'll also second Bruce's recommendations of Hot Sour Salty Sweet (which is as much of a travelogue as a cookbook, so you get a sense of why this is this and that is that) and Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. I find it very helpful, when exploring a cookbook of a cuisine that I'm not familiar with to have some history, some sense of the area to go along with the recipes. (Oh, and pictures or drawings of the ingredients can be more than helpful.)

Why do recipes instruct a person to scald milk?

I nabbed my grandmother's wooden spoons because everyone else was more interested in other things. One of them has a really long handle -- perfect!

Sunny, I'd start by checking books out of the library and seeing where it takes you. Is there a particular Asian cuisine you are looking for?

A recent cupboard cleaning revealed not one, not two, not three but FOUR containers of cream of tartar. One so old it bears a price sticker of $.11. I'm on a mission (to get rid of stuff that's old, that is).