Nick
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Posts posted by Nick
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I keep my ginger (root) and garlic in a very small uncovered crock on a shelf - not refrigerated. It keeps for weeks. If it goes by, it just shrivels up. Doesn't mold.
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I deliberately omitted economic factors in my post just above, but since Bux has raised the bursting of the economic bubble, I wonder if there is an aspect that was part of the the bubble itself. I have been thinking if the quick, easy money that people were making, illusory as it may have been, created a mentality in some of the restaurant investors that also emphasized quick returns.
I think the bubble that spread from tech to other areas in the market reached contagion proportions and spread into everything from building contractors to restaurants.
I'm happy that that phase seems to be over. There's nothing like a good shakeout to get rid mouths that didn't know shit to begin with and charged way more than what they were worth.
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I would still make liver at home (my fegato veneziana was the best -- if I had a reliable source of organic veal. Liver is de-toxifying organ and I'm afraid of what I'd be ingesting in the liver of a conventionally-raised animal.
Just came across this while following the Tony Bourdain Q&A.
I used to start craving deer liver when September would roll around. (Some folks here don't wait for the official hunting season to begin.)
We're now told that deer and moose liver contain concentrations of Cadmium above whatever the appropriate health agency now recommends as "safe." There is no safe level of Cadmium. Some people can tolerate more than others I suppose, but that doesn't make it safe.
I bring this up because of Sandra's, " ...I'm afraid of what I'd be ingesting in the liver of a conventionally-raised animal." If heavy metals are piling up in deer and moose (elk, caribou, etc.), who eat the most naturally, what might be happening in the livers of more "conventionally" raised animals?
I have some fresh deer liver in my fridge right now and it's a bummer that I don't crave it like I used to.
Edit: Fresh water fish in some waters in Maine now have enough mercury in them that there are "fish-eating advisories" recommending no more than two small fish a week and no fish for pregnant women. So far we don't have any pregnant men.
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Tonight it will be deer steaks (wild, not farmed), steamed brussels sprouts (from the garden), and roasted Yukon Golds.
Edit: The brussels sprouts are the ones the deer didn't get.
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Maybe I'll write more on these questions later, but for now the "elbows on the table" caught my eye.
We ate at a large round table and I was to my father's right and not so far away that he couldn't reach my elbow with his fork if I put my elbow on the table. Needless to say the lesson was quickly driven home.
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Is there a chance that over the years your own cooking has come to the stage where eating out just isn't what it used to be?
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Note to NickN: The "Florida Seafood" used in the competition before the dessert demo was alligator (!), which is being pushed as a food-animal
No comment.Suzanne, That's really too bad. Southern fish have such a different flavor than northern fish. The batters they make and the way they fry it. It's too bad you didn't get a chance to try some.
I don't know what's with the alligator. The summer before last when someone stopped at my friends' slaughterhouse/ meat shop, alligator came up and he shipped them some - frozen. I think it's still in their freezer.
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I've never made mead, but many years ago when I was home brewing a friend of mine suggested mead and had looked into it. His impression was that it would have to stay in the bottle many years - like twenty. As it was it was hard to let the homebrew wait six weeks. Patience, patience! How we lacked it. We could have started drinking the mead ten years ago.
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Earlier today I fired off an email to my son (28, single, car mechanic - oops, auto technician, good man) and, among other things, asked if he'd been doing any cooking. His reply got me to thinking about what might be happening with everyone else's kids. Here's Tyler's reply -
"As for cooking, nothing super special. I have started trying cooking rice noodles instead of flour made pasta. Its different, will take some more practice, but they are really good when they come out right. Friend of mine is dating a girl from Thailand, so when we go out, we go out to Thai food places, thats how I found out about the rice noodles. Figured they are better than the flour ones. Well right now I am making a steak and some rice pilaf and carrots. I am doing a garlic/butter/Italian herb deal for the steak, cook it in the frying pan for a little while like that and then put the steak on the grill. Talk to you later"
Kids are great.
Edit: I just remembered that there are probably a number of 28 year olds here who are well-advanced in their culinary careers and may look down their noses at this. Sorry if I've offended you with such trivial meanderings.
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So are we still on for tomorrow (Monday) at 11am, by the demo area? At that time, there will be a "Chefs Championship" featuring Florida seafood going on....
Hope you guys get a chance to sample some of that. When I'd visit my father down near Key West we'd often drive a few keys up to a small seafood retailer/restaurant and eat some of the best seafood I've ever had. That southern cooking and southern fish were so different (and good) from what we do up here.
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Good. I was wonderin' after my last PM.
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How things go in circles. I'm right now working on a winch for a fisherman from Gloucester. Paul Theriault (pronounced Terio) in case you came across him. He's a good fisherman.
You won't have to do any hauling to get your lobsters. Just have to kind of keep clear of what's going on and make sure you don't get tangled in the pot warp when the traps go back overboard. You drive, you get your pick. Not out of Nick's lobsters though. I think he's a little grumpy at me already.
Nick, when we get to scallop season I'll see that you get a couple samples (dive scallops and dragged scallops) and we'll go from there.
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Jaymes, Do you know of a place that ships Gulf shrimp (16-20) that's good to deal with?
Thanks, Nick
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I printed out the Ale-Battered Shrimp recipe that goes with it too. Been getting a hunger for some big Gulf shrimp. Maybe this will get me going - if I can figure out where to get them.
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Sounds great!
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Hey Kpurvis. What happened?
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Now, now Dave. I wonder how Kpurvis that started this thread is making out. He was supposed to get the lobsters tonight. Nothing like a little thread drift.
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Speaking of "short" lobsters when I went out with the divers we had to smuggle one ever so slightly undersized one onshore to ensure everyone got one. My status as the only single guy on the boat meant it was mine. It was sooooo good.
PJ
Yep. They sure are. One winter a friend of mine was shrimping and brought me a 5 gallon pail of shrimp and said, " Don't dump this out in front of anybody." There were a half dozen shorts in the bottom.
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PJ - Those were big FL lobster tails. The ones I had at my father's couldn't have weighed more than 1/3-1/2 pound. I can't understand selling lobsters without regard to weight. And that's a low price. What with air frieght, everyone's markup, etc., that's cheap. Maybe they're Canadian lobsters. Around here the boat price doesn't get much lower than $2/# and that's for softshells in the middle of the summer.
There isn't a minimum weight. Lobsters are measured by carapace (sp) length. It varies from state to state. But until you've had a "short" lobster you don't know how good a lobster can taste.
Dave & PJ - I've heard the term "chicken lobster" but I have no idea what they are. Something from further ondown the marketing chain I guess.
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Nick, When you get down here to get the lobsters I'll take you down to a wharf (boat ride or not) so you can experience the exquisite aroma of lobster bait. I doubt you'll forget it.
Sounds like a deal.
I'll get Marge and Nick packed up in the Chevy, so get the water boiling for the lobsters. Marge gets a feature article, Nick gets the lobsters, and I get to smell lobster bait.
Sounds like an idea to me, but check with Nick first. He won the lobsters.
See. Could be interesting. Feature article on how lobsters are caught (boat ride), how they're weighed and graded, put over the side in crates, and finally loaded into a truck destined for.... Good photo spread. Whoever does the driving gets the best lobster. Sounds like a party to me.
You sure that Chevy will make it all the way down here?
Old Maine story... Fella comes to Maine from Texas and tells the Mainer, "My ranch is so big it takes me all day to drive around it." Mainer says, "Ayuh, I had a car just like that."
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Big Florida bugs. $21.99 lb. for the tails. Now all gone. Sob.
PJ
When my father was living near Key West a friend of his, also retired, fished for stone crabs and lobsters. I liked the stone crabs better. Do you like Fla. lobster tails better than Maine lobster tails?
Edit: Of course my liking the stone crabs better may have something to do with the way my father cooked each.
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From the Maine Today review.One note to our server: Try a quick shower and the judicious use of deodorant before beginning your shift.
Maybe the server was earning so little money he/she had come to work from just packing bait barrels down at the wharf.
Nick, When you get down here to get the lobsters I'll take you down to a wharf (boat ride or not) so you can experience the exquisite aroma of lobster bait. I doubt you'll forget it.
RP, I'll take lobster bait over cologne any day. That shit stinks. Of course that's what the uninitiated say about bait barrels.
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this seems like a good packing method. Can you ship me some? But you can leave out that pesky middle layer of lobster.
Sure. Just buds, or a little shake too? Keeps your cost down.
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For last year's annual watershed meeting and potluck I smoked some garlic sausages and bratworst. In case that's not too handy for you, I also made some things I don't have a name for.
Just take a slice of roast beef, part of a slice of swiss cheese, and a sliver of dill pickle. Wrap the cheese around the pickle and the roast beef around the cheese. Experiment with the amount of cheese and pickle until you get the right balance. I used "Old Neighborhood" rare roast beef, Rupp swiss cheese, and Claussen pickles - all from the local Hannaford's. Also, I cut them in half to go further. Quick and easy and no cooking.
Both items were well-received and gone in no time.
Edit: I put the roast beef flat on the board, place the swiss on it a little off center, the pickle on that, and roll up. Then secure it with a toothpick.
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I've recommended Better Than Bullion a couple times here and think it's pretty good for something in a jar. But, for the more naturally inclined, I should mention that it contains, among other things, "sugar, corn syrup solids, hydrolyzed soy protein, dried whey, flavoring, disodium inosinate and guanylate." (Reading from the label.) It does taste good though and is easy to use. One teaspoon per 8 oz. water.
BUT, BUT, I just picked up at the coop, "Imagine Organic Free Range Chicken Broth. Fat free & no MSG." Ingredients - filtered water, organic free range chicken, organic celery, onions and carrots, non-GMO soy protein, organic spices, and sea salt. Comes in aseptic packages of 16 and 32 oz. Haven't tried it yet, but will soon. Here's their website - Soupbroth
In the freezer I've got chicken, duck, and beef stock I've made but I never seem to remember to get it out in time to thaw before cooking. Gotta get my shit together I guess.