OliverB

I just got this book yesterday and I must say, I'm quite intrigued by some (if not most) of the recipes. Does anybody here have this book, and if so, have you used it? I'm tentatively looking for that one book to cook myself all the way through (like the French Laundry, Alinea, etc blogs). From what I've read so far, I can get pretty much everything needed at local Asian markets. I'd be curious to hear from others that might have used this book already, as sometimes books read nicer than they actually work in the end... The book is thinner than I expected, but it's really a gorgeous publication with very good and appetizing photos. Lots of technique photos too with step by step instructions. While I really don't care for the "cooking" show Iron Chef at all, I must say that I'm very impressed by this book so far, and it at least appears that Morimoto was very involved in it's creation. Lots of personal little anecdotes just add to the fun of reading. Oliver PS: I did a search here and could not find a thread about this book, if there is one I'm sorry for starting a new one.

about 40 miles east of San Francisco and I can get all those things. One of the many things I love about this area! But those in less fortunate areas can surely get anything on that list online, which - with a little mid range planning - is probably a lot cheaper than driving to markets anyway. Do let us know about your book though!

my name says it all, I love Olives with one big exception, those poor excuses for a rubber o-ring you can find in cans. I'm pretty sure an actual rubber o-ring from the hardware store would taste better, at least it would have some kind of taste. I can't walk past the olive bar at Whole Foods w/o going broke (10.99 per lb now, if not more!), it's just all so good. Note: if sold per lb, pitted ones give you more olive :-) I'd love to own a store that only sells pickled things and spices :-)

well, just a quick update, and the pages are from Food&Wine Feb09, they had a menu contest and the recipes are the winning ones. Roasted Squash Soup with Maple-Glazed Bananas Rib Eye Roast with Chestnuts and Brussels Sprout leaves Goat Cheese Cheesecake with Honeyed Cranberries The soup is very good and rich (1/2 cup creme Fraiche will do that) and quite sweet. I made it the day before and it turned very thick, I added some more water but it was still more of a cream than a soup. Very tasty though and the banana, pecan, maple syrup and watercress garnish was very tasty too. The watercress gave a nice little bite. I cut my roast in half and ended up with about a 2 inch thick rib steak/roast (a bit over 2lb I'd guess). I made it in some kind of hybrid way, first browned it on relatively low temp, took it out and melted the butter, in goes garlic and thyme, back goes steak. Then it was in the oven at low temp, below 200 until the thermometer showed around 130, then it rested. Turned out delicious, juicy. The chestnuts and Brusselsprouts were also very good, though I'd probably not do the leaves again. Looks very nice (basically using jut the outer leaves, blanched for 20 sec and later added to the pan with the chestnut and Asian pear) but is pretty wasteful as you can't really peel that many leaves off, the core is too interlaced. I'd probably slice them or even roast them instead. It does look very neat though, unusual. The real winner is the goatcheese cheesecake though, that was very very tasty. Very rich too, the amounts they suggest for serving are probably just fine. I had made mine in 4 1/2 inch spring forms and that was almost a bit much. Half one would have been enough. The honeyed cranberries are excellent (even with frozen ones as I had to use) and the candied orange zest is super delicious too. All in all a winner in my books. The garlic/thyme butter is a real nice touch, I'll keep that in my repertoire. At least the cake recipe is online at foodandwine.com, the others I could not find in a quick search. That was fun, today I might make split pea soup, seems the right thing on a rainy day~~

OK, I'll bite :-) From a recent Food&Wine magazine: Roasted Squash Soup with Maple-Glazed Bananas (soup made yesterday) Rib Eye Roast with Chestnuts and Brussle Sprout Leaves Goat Cheese Cheesecake with Honeyed Cranberries (cheese cake done already) I might cut the roast in half as it's rather big for us - or I might make it all and have yummy sandwich meat :-) I made the cheese cake(s) in 4 1/2 inch spring forms instead of a larger one, just for fun. Everything that can be done in advance is ready, not that I'm usually that organized. Still some work left, but most of it should be relatively quick. Still have to write out the plan so I don't forget things down the road ;-) Happy V-day!

how timely can things pop up on the computer! I just bought a rib roast that - in hindsight - is way too big for us, I'll most likely cut it in half and try this method! And if not today, then certainly next time I have a big fat steak in the house! Looks delicious. I usually do the sear and low oven thing, looking forward to a different way. The butter should add a real nice flavor too! Thanks for all the pictures too, nice little tutorial.

interesting, thanks! The Italian Deli here only has them around x-mas, would not have thought of the Asian market for these. I'll check next time I'm there.

Definitely one of my favorite magazines too, I've been subscribing for a couple years now. The most recent thing I made is from their Make it Tonight specials that are currently on the stands: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Potatoes, Artichokes & Lemon. Of course I forgot to take some photos, but ti turned out delicious and looked just like the photo on page 45 or online here: Recipe I cut up a whole chicken and should have left the breast meat out or added it later, it got a bit tough (I thought the moisture of the other things would prevent that) but it all came out very delicious. I added more lemon juice and more thyme. A simple and very quick dish if you don't have to cut the chicken apart first. TJs just did not have any bone in skin on thighs and I figured I'll find a use for the stock I can make with the rest :-) I did leave out the parsley for garnish. Easy to prepare in less than an hour and open for variations. Things learned: watch the breast meat if using - add it later TJ brand artichoke hearts are very good and a super time saver! It gets smoky If you have a whole chicken, don't forget to put the tail end in as a chef's treat! Have the camera handy at all times. happy V-day to all! I'm working on a hopefully delicious menu from Food&Wine magazine :-)

that sounds great too! I love roasting them too. But back to the chestnuts, I managed to find some, but still thanks to all the replies here, some good ideas! I might even add pecan as an alternative today, as I'm curious about the different combinations. Happy V-day to all! Oliver

It's more that - on the rare occasion that I do cook after recipes - I prefer to do it as written. I won't make a big deal of it, my wife might be able to pick some up on her way home tonight, otherwise I have pecans. But you mentioning that world market, we have a cost plus and a pier one, I might just check those, they always surprise me with the oddball things they stock. Thanks all, I think I'm all set now, either chestnuts or we'll go with pecans. By the way, TJ's at least sometimes has roasted chestnuts in shells in the freezer. Those are really quite good, you do have to shell them, but it's pretty easy, as they're all split open. And - at least so far - I've not gotten any with "free meat", i.e. worms in them, which tends to happen with the ones you can sometimes buy fresh in bulk. And it's NO fun to open one of those to find nothing but a - - - well, I'll spare you all ;-)

also sounds yummy, not sure it would work here. It's a menu from Food&Wine magazine and I'm going to have the sprouts taken apart as leaves, some asian pear with the chestnuts (if I can find them). Pecans might work as well though.

interesting ideas, thanks! Oliver

They could be left out, but it's a pretty minimalist dish already. I'm thinking of trying the paste if I can't find the real thing. Thinking that a "spreadable chestnut" might actually be quite good. Of course, I have no idea if there's a ton of sugar or who knows what in that paste, it's in the baking aisle at Whole Foods. I have pecans in the menu already, I guess I could add them here too in some variation and carry them all the way through to dessert. Could be interesting. Thanks!

I'm planning our Valentines dinner and part will be a nice beef roast that's supposed to be with chestnuts and Brusselsprouts, but I can't find chestnuts anywhere. I'll try an other large Safeway and a NobHill and maybe call TJs but I haven't seen their frozen ones in a while. Whole Food told me that they're not in season (isn't that why we can things, so we have them out of season?) and they're all out of the jars. Any idea what I could substitute? They're just boiled chestnuts that will be sliced and plated around the beef. Thanks! oliver :edit: I could find chestnut paste, if anyone has an idea how I could turn this somehow into "chestnuts" or slices thereof somehow, that would be great too. It was in a solid can so I could not see what consistency it has. Maybe if I add chestnut flour - if I can find that? One of these things, see them all the time and when I need them I can't find them anywhere....

well, talk about a timely recipe! I literally just bought split peas and have just about exactly that amount of self made bacon in the fridge! Thanks! And thanks for the continued read! Do you think you could post a photo of just the kitchen? Would be interesting to see.

Oh well, b&n sent me a coupon in the mail and I ended up with my copy now, LOL. I think this will be a very valuable tool to have handy, I often find myself with a something or other in the fridge and either don't want to make anymore what I had initially intended or ended up with more than needed etc. It'll be really neat to look up what combos the book suggests and develop something from there. Actually, it could be interesting to have a thread here, Flavor Bible Based Recipes developed by our members!

Not sure what happened there, mine turned out wonderful, not that I'm an expert, my first ever attempt. I used the quantity from the book scaled down for my 2+ piece of pork belly. I don't have the book handy, but I just reduced the amount a bit. It has salt taste, but is not anything I'd call salty, was in there for 7 days, then I roasted it as I don't have a smoker yet. Definitely edible the way it is, tasted fantastic straight out of the oven. I used a part of it in a pasta dish that was wonderful. I might note that I'm German and usually tend to salt a bit more than the "typical American" probably would, but not ever so things taste salty to me. Though I'd guess personal perception might play a role there. I'm dragging my feet on ordering a smoker, but once I have one bacon will be the first to enter :-)

I don't know if you can have any cheeses like swiss, Jarlsberg, cheddar, or similar that can be sliced? I don't use baking powder in mine, just eggs, flour, and milk. Pour a ladle full in the pan, take a slice or two of cheese and dredge through the wet dough in the pan, flip over and lay it in, making sure it's completely covered with liquid dough. Eventually flip the thing and you end up with a pancake with melted cheese filling, very very tasty! Make some fresh tomato sauce to fold in, just onion, garlic, tomatoes (fresh in summer, canned in winter), some parsley and basil, salt, sugar, red pepper if you like). Put pancake on plate, ladle in some sauce on one half, fold over. Sprinkle with more cheese if you like, enjoy! Hmmm, haven't made that in a while, I think I'll put it on this weeks dinner list! Of course, an other delicious thing with pancakes is Nutella or simply some very good honey. Or you can mix some diced salami and parsley into the batter (and some diced cheese if you like) for an other treat. You can probably tell that I lost my sweet tooth with my baby teeth..... :-)

that is so true! Sadly they are spread very thin, but there were a couple that I still remember very fondly from way back when. Most I would rather forget though. Looking forward to the next post!

do you have any guarantee regarding the heritage? They can write all kinds of stuff in marketing letters, the truth is often a bit less rosy. I'm usually a bit suspicious if things get too far into the "handpicked, carried by mules, processed on centuries old this or that" statements. Not to say that this one is not true of course, and there's no reason that Olive oil can't come from there, there's actually good reason for some really really old trees growing there. Can you order a sample or return it if you don't like it? Then I'd probably get a sample. It could be very good and if the marketing is true, sure would support something more worthwhile than some mega corporation. As for how it measures up, only you can decide. If it's true extra virgin olive oil it'll most likely be quite good. But taste 10 different oils and they all have different characters and if they come from smaller operations will vary from year to year also. Personally I'd be tempted to get some, use it as finishing oil, not for cooking of course. The price is also pretty good I'd say, if the marketing is correct. I pay more in California for Californian estate oil that just had to travel down the road to me.

I don't know about that. Most "fine cooking" or what you want to call it was done by men for a long long time. (Strange as that admittedly is) I think the main thing is that cooking is a high stress and rather dangerous work environment, things hot and cooking all over, sharp knives and other dangerous equipment all over. People jumping over each other and demanding guests impatiently waiting in the dining room Everybody has to be on their toes and give all they got during a dinner service, there's simply no room for slacking about or goofing around. Stress, heat, high humidity, noise, cramped quarters, that just makes for tempers to boil and things being yelled and thrown around. Maybe they just want to make sure you can stand the heat and stay on top of your game, no matter what boils over next to you, the chef or the milk pot? In the heat of the moment asking politely to please make that risotto again is probably not going to happen - or work. I'd be curious to hear from some chefs here though, as I'm just standing outside, looking in. I'm just not sure the gender thing comes much into play here, though some chefs sure have big ego (probably required) and machismo, no doubt.

thanks Chris, great links!

so, my bacon has to be in there for an other day or so, but I'm curious. It's supposed to harden but to me it seems pretty much the same it was a week ago. Will that just change on the last day or so? I'm not overly concerned as it will still be cooked (unless it smells bad...) but just from reading the recipe I'd have expected a bit more hardening. What would I be looking for? Something like cheddar, brie, toast, ripe avocado? Or something as hard as a slab of bacon is in the store? Mine is sure far from that.

I'd freeze it, at least that's what I do when that happens to me. I agree with Sean, the flavor will change if you cook it up now and then put it in the fridge. It will of course also age more just in the fridge, not a problem for a day or three, but what if you plans change again? Happens to me frequently, and it'll be just fine in the freezer

A fascinating read! It would be fun if you could post some pictures of the kitchen if the school is ok with that. Looking forward to the next lesson! Oliver