OliverB

hmm, I guess I can't edit the post. But regarding your criteria, I can't think of anything that you can't order, except things that you're not allowed to bring in. And risking bringing them in is not worth it IMO, just eat/drink lots of it there, return often. Well, except those locally picked and prepared things, that you probably can't buy one village over.

truffles if you like them. Easy to find in Italy. I'm sure you can find Balsamic in any quality, from cheap to $1000 or more per bottle. Greece some wild oregano. I sometimes get that via my sister in Germany who gets it from friends that live in Greece and collect it themselves. Wonderful. Sadly you can't bring cheeses or meats or breads, but that's pretty much first thing I buy when I'm in Europe, and lots of it. I don't go on vacation to loose weight :-D High quality espresso from Italy, if you like that and have a machine for it - or one of those Bialetti (spelling?) stove top makers I love. Some dried peppers if you like spice, there are plenty you just can't get here. Spice mixes. The best curry I ever bought comes in a spice grinder from an Austrian company of all things. Super fragrant and tasty. Throw out the bubble wrap and use pasta bags instead :-) beech wood or other locally used wood if you have a smoker. Explore the local markets, dried herbs from a farmer, maybe something pickled, things like that. Anything commercially available you can pretty much order online nowadays. I look at the local specialty stores and see what I don't know, take that.

Mostly I warm them with the food I put on them ;-) Other than that I use the oven, but I rarely remember. I like the wet towel in the microwave idea. Not sure about the dry plates in microwave though, as far as I know you're not supposed to run those empty and an empty plate would still seem "empty" to me? Also microwave safe dishes should not get warm at all in there. Check your manual, warm plates are not worth shortening the life of the machine.

either :-) But if you just make this for yourself and family, why not try both and compare? I can't imagine it would taste any different, but maybe blending/pureeing will mix the flavors together even more? Mine taste different since I would add butter or cream after pureeing, which doesn't work that well with a watery soup. It's also a different presentation, to me a blended soup with a little bit of garnish is more "fine dining" and a soup like in your photo speaks rustic to me. I love both, so I don't care, but at a fancy restaurant or if you make a multi course fancy dinner, the blended one is probably the way to go. A drizzle of olive oil or cream on top, etc. If you serve a crunchy roast with roasted vegetables, I'd go rustic. Now I want to make that side by side comparison myself!

lemon chicken breast? Low sodium soy sauce in a marinade? I find it's possible to replace salt with lemon juice or even vinegar and still get great flavors. Something fried in rendered bacon fat should also not have too much salt and if you use little, just to coat a pan, it's not quite no fat, but sure low fat. Still will add the smoky flavor. Of course, you can also make chicken or pork with a sweet glaze, pineapple juice, apple juice, etc. There also is some kind of salt replacement you can buy, though I've never tried it. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) can also be used. A bit of acidity covers lack of salt IMO. I'm sure there are also books and recipes online for low/no salt cooking. Trader Joe's sells a spice mix they call South African Smoke, it has a bit of salt in it, but not very much. Mostly chili pepper, basil and a lot of smoke flavor. I bet you could cook a chicken breast without anything on it and then grind some of that on to still have a very tasty dish.

so on the gas powered one up there, there seems to be a "snout" or what you want to call it on one side, is that so you can push cooked things on a plate or similar? That would be very handy, compared to my 14 inch wok. I have a wok burner (big kahuna or what it's called) and the wok does not have a long handle. I use two Ove'gloves with it, which works, but a contraption like this would be easier, just push off what's done. Interesting. Hmmm, a friend of mine is a welding artist....

it's so flexible, you can throw in some mushrooms, mix up the olives (our safeway has a great olive bar now, I love to mix and match and try different ones) and while probably not authentic, you could add some chicken, shrimp, fun things like that. I also sometimes use other cheese like gouda if I don't have feta. Fennel is also very good in there, nice and crunchy and fresh.

I tend to skip the peppers, kids don't like them and my wife doesn't like them since we had our kids, and I'd probably not use the mustard. Just oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Maybe oregano, fresh if you have. Mint can also be nice or fresh thyme, that's really good with the cheese. Break/crumble the cheese, toss with a bit of olive oil and thyme, maybe a bit of pepper. Red pepper flakes if you like a little kick. Fun stuff :-)

anything that's left over from a roast chicken goes in the pot, with not much thought at all. It's all good :-)

I'd just roast it. Prick the skin all over with a needle or fork, so the fat can run out. Roast it following any of the many recipes online. Don't invite too many people, despite the size, there's not that much meat on them. Made one two or three years ago and it had about the amount of meat you'd get from a chicken, despite being twice as big. I think I had orange pieces in the roasting pan. If you have a pan with a grid to raise it, use it, otherwise use some veg or orange underneath to lift it out of the fat bath. And yes, keep the fat, probably the best thing about a duck :-)

thanks, I have to try that! It's delicious :-)

quick chicken and rice. this can go curry or Asian with a marinade (bottle). I prefer thy meat, but breast work as well. slice into 1/2 inch or so pieces, add marinade or curry (or just s&p or...) and put in frying pan, cook rice. I often add a dash of Turmeric to rice, mainly for the nice color, not enough to taste it. It's actually what we'll have tonight. In summer you can grill the meat. Add a quick salad (usually arugula and/or spinach here). This can be put together in no time and varied easily. Of course, there's also always the pasta with ketchup thing though :-)

Nice! I have to look into the mexican market for some fat I guess. My mom used to make what we called "Grammel Fett" (German or Austrian), which was basically cubed fat, rendered and left on the stove until the remaining parts browned and got all crunchy. That was then cooled in jars and used as a spread on bread, with some salt added. Utterly delicious! She has not made that in decades since fat is "bad", but I have a sudden craving for that now! And I just have to say it again, this site is fantastic, but if there was only Andie here posting those wonderful stories of the past it would be worth a hefty bookmark! I really enjoy your stories Andie, you should put them in a book! Thanks for sharing all this wonderful kitchen wisdom with us!

I did this once a year or so ago, when it showed up here. I don't quite remember, but I think I had it in the steamer basket or on top of some sliverware. Then I put the lid on the pot and tied it down with a bungee cord just in case. Nothing exploded. Once I was done I had the cans sit on my counter for a while before I put them back in the pantry. Where I think they still are, probably good to throw out by now, LOL. But the cans did not bulge, looked the same after. So that part seems rather safe. I'd still tie the lid down again, just to avoid a crazy mess. But since I'm not really into sweet stuff, I probably won't do this again. Made it out of pure curiosity back then and never found a use for my "product".

thanks all, goo input! I agree that what I'll be getting might not always be large enough, but for now it should do. I might get a pressure canner someday, which I could then use for larger stock operations. I rarely make lots of stock right now though, I use a chicken carcass if we had a whole chicken, make a soup or a bit of stock the next day, but I don't make sauces all that often. I'll post eventually with an update, once I worked with the set I ordered.

I either use a ptouch too, or I put a piece of regular scotch tape on and write with a sharpie on that. Easy to peel off :-)

thanks Jaz, that's exactly what I needed to know! I have limited space for canned things, and make stock occasionally when we have a whole chicken, but I don't do much with sauces (actually not sure why, something I need to look into more). But with the colder season coming, something for soups, beans, etc is probably more practical than a giant pot. Off to update my wish list :-)

same boat as others here, I'm going to put one of these on my xmas list. Most likely Kuhn Rikon, I like other things they make and they seem great quality. And come in a wide variety of sizes. Unfortunately. And even different sizes for the same empty space it seem, tall and slender vs more wide and not so tall. I doubt I'll pressure can in one of these, if I'd want to do that I'd most likely get a dedicated pot at the hardware store for that. So, for a family of 4 and "normal" cooking, what's good? I'm kind of intrigued by a set that comes with 5-1/4-quart pressure cooker and 2-1/8-quart pressure fry pan, both can be used with the pressure lid. But is 5 1/4 enough? If I make stock, I make it from one chicken (leftovers) or maybe two, I don't use stock that much and have limited freezer space. (yes, despite a chest freezer in the garage....) But is the 5 1/4 big enough for soups, beans, stews? I'd prefer this set if they'd have a larger pot in there, the small one seems like it could be handy for all kinds of things. Or should I go with the 7.4 quart? Seems like a very large pot, but I can't really judge it. Since you can't fill these as much as an other pot. If you could get only one, the set or the 7.4 quart, what would you select, and why? Thanks!

maybe there's a better place for this, but I don't know where, so feel free to move it or be moved by it :-) Wishing everybody on this great forum a Happy Halloween! We're having a slow and low cooked beef roast with some salads and bread, before we head out to face the nightmares and monsters abound. Hope you have a great one as well! Booo! Oliver

great input and thoughts here, thanks! Don't want to derail this from straight up cooking, but thought the discussion fits better here (since it's about cooking with) than in the other thread just about the book in the cookbook section. I'm looking forward to cooking some things from it, this damn nice and warm California weather is keeping me glued to the bbq for now, but eventually we'll get a couple cold and/or rainy days I'm sure. And MCAH as well as Heston's book are waiting impatiently for that :-)

I haven't cooked from the book yet, though I received it this week, but it seems like there are a lot of comments here that seem to be rather critical, which is surprising. Too much butter, no wine flavor, not sure I'll do this method again, etc. Not something I usually see in cooking with (....) threads. Did they overdo things here? Complicate things more than necessary? I'll have to get a pressure cooker first too, it seems. Not bad, wanted one for a while, but noteworthy to those that don't have one and are on a limited budget. I want to make that carrot soup, compare it with the French Laundry version.

as long as it looks good, the bag is still sealed, and once you thawed it it doesn't have "freezer smell" to it, use it. I tend to use things lie that in more robust ways, bbq, stir fry, something with lots of extra flavors, just in case the meat isn't at it's glorious best anymore. But I've used meat that was frozen for a quite long time with no ill effects and could not find any flavor problems either. Definitely don't throw it out until you thawed it. If really in doubt do as stated above and fry up a small piece, and cut off freezer burn if you find some.

I recently planked a nice salmon filet for the first time, meaning cooked it on a piece of cedar (you can get those easily nowadays, even at the safeway meat counter). Cooked at 400F per instructions, had just a bit soysauce and pepper on it. Grill sat directly on the fire ring, no plate setter or anything in between. Best. Salmon. Ever. Really, I've never ever eaten salmon THAT good! Perfectly cooked, juicy, just the right amount of smoke from the plank (which pretty much turned to coal on the bottom). Just crazy delicious, if you've never cooked on a plank, run and get one. The wood is soaked in water (I added a bit salt and lime juice) for about an hour or so, so the fish first gets steamed then smoked ever so lightly. Have a spritz bottle handy to extinguish any little glowing parts once you take it off the grill, serve directly from the plank. Don't have time to post a photo right now (did that get any easier by now?) but it was gorgeous to look at with a nice golden brown sheen. The little left over we ended up with was mixed into cream cheese the next day, eaten on everything bagels. Best ever lox spread! This weekend I hope to roast some quail with grapes and little onions if I get to it. recipe from the paper this week. I still have my Weber, but nothing beats the BGE :-)

I think it was Williams Sonoma (or maybe SurLaTable) that had a Tagine with a recipe book for quite cheap in a nice set not too long ago. That might be a good investment, especially if you want to experiment more with Moroccan, which I believe the book was about or at least covered to quite some extent. I might have seen this a year ago (pre xmas) so it might be a good time now to look for it. Wait, I just looked, it's Surlatable.com and they still have it, Tagine, book and some spices for $60. they also have Tagines by LeCruset and some other company with a metal base, personally I'd stick with the completely earthenware original though. And those are really quite cheap and probably a lot of fun to play with. Definitely on my shopping list :-)

one of the best things I ever bought for the kitchen and it saves hundreds if not thousands of bottles that would go in the trash each year from me alone. That all by itself is worth the investment. Not having to store cases of water also frees up quite some extra space and I don't have to lug that stuff around anymore. They have some natural or what they call it mixes now, ginger ale is quite good, rootbeer too I'm told by my kids (I can't stand that stuff).