High Priestess

Here in L.A. there is a store called the Jordan Market, a small boutique in a Persian neighborhood. Once a year, (now, as a matter of fact) they have huge bins of pomegranate seeds, the whole store is gorgeous with them. Bright magenta flats of seeds among other flats of almonds, dried apricots, spices, etc. So... I would freeze your seeds whole, then take some time finding great Persian cuisine recipes. Joyce Goldstein has a couple in her "Back to Square One" cookbook. They are: Duck with a persian sauce of walnuts and pomegranate Quail with orange, marsala, and pomegranate Roast pork loin with orange and pomegranate priestess

Thank you so much everyone. This is great and I can't wait to begin my journey. I will definitely buy my books via the amazon link at egullet. Thank you again, -Priestess

Hi everyone. Can anyone recommend a great book about cheese? I'd like to expand my knowledge. I love cheese, and there is an amazing cheese shop here in L.A. But every time I go in I find myself buying the same five or six cheeses because I don't really know what I'm looking at. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Priestess

Hi! Sorry I keep misspelling your name, I just noticed there's only one "r". -HP

Hi Suvrir, Please tell us how to make it!! It sounds fabulous. Also, what did you serve with it? And what kind of wine went with it? I always have trouble pairing wine with Indian food, and usually end up serving beer by default. -priestess

Soba my love, My dream kitchen can be small. My current kitchen is super small and I still cook ten courses for thirty five people every passover, and never have a dinner party for under fifteen, even though I try to. I think two or three ovens would be great. Two really big ones. My grill is right outside the kitchen, but if I didn't live in L.A. I would want some kind of indoor grill. And a wood-burning pizza oven. And a super big freezer. A really big one. And really big frige and cold-storage. Okay. I guess my small dream kitchen is getting larger... I would want a huge food processor from Chef Toys, they run about 1500 dollars. The eleven quart cuisanart is not big enough. And a mandolin, and a meat grinder (which are good even for making heirloom tomato soup), and huge stock pots, the kind we used at the restaurant where I used to work, and a big wooden counter for rolling out pastry, and lots of professional knives. And super fancy stovetops with eight burners, and an industrial mix-master and an industrial ice-cream maker and pastry oven. And a spit-fire rotisserie... I'm beginning to think I'd like a restaurant kitchen for my own kitchen... But, really, the most important thing, not to sound super-cheesy, is that all my friends always hang out in my little while I'm cooking, (until I scream at them to get out) and it's those people, man, that make a kitchen a kitchen. Friends are definitely, definitely, the most important part of a dream kitchen. Lots of friends hanging around, talking, laughing, drinking wine... Which reminds me, I would absolutely want a climate-controlled wine room. Not in the kitchen, but since we're dreaming, I'm adding it. -priestess

Hi! There's a cookbook called "License to Grill" that has a couple of interesting ways to grill turkey. The cookbook is kind of a "Southern Man" vibe. But I love Southern men. And they know how to grill in Alabama.

Hi! There's a cookbook called "License to Grill" that has a couple of interesting ways to grill turkey. The cookbook is kind of a "Southern Man" vibe. But I love Southern men. And they know how to grill in Alabama.

God, Soba. Now I'm craving one. The best ones, or I should say the only ones I remember were in grade school in Barrington Illinios when it was snowing outside. They'd be piping hot, and yes, the bun was cheap and would always fall apart. They would melt in your mouth, and were just the perfect combination of savory and tangy and juicy and dripping. When you were finished you always felt so sated in that sixth grade kind of way. Not tired, but full and happy. I never eat crappy food anymore, but the memory of a midwest sloppy joe makes me want one, and makes me remember the Christmases there, and snow days, and these things called slush mugs where you would put grape fanta soda into this special cup and it would turn to slush. And hot chocolate. And getting your tongue stuck to icicles and your mittens stuck to the frozen metal chains of the swings in the playground. After that we all want to middle school and listened to Peter Frampton and Rod Stewart and developed burning crushes on boys and all that. But during the lunchroom sloppy joe days, I don't know, things seemed clearer, like the sky seemed really black and the stars were really white and the snow flakes were really big and wet and they stuck to you. If I were going to make a sloppy joe I would have to have one just like that, cheap bun and all.

Hi Fat Guy. For me it's all about the waiter or waitress. If they're not cool and have an uptight vibe rather than a mellow vibe it really bums me out. Here are some examples: Waiters who: -are bitter -don't care about food and wine -have, as Woody Allen would say, "absolutely no sense of humor" There is nothing I like more than going out to dinner, and I'm always super grateful to be there. So, for me, I just want my person helping me to be happy, too. Not in a fake, corporate way, but genuinely as themselves. I waited tables for many years and I would actually get excited when someone ordered a great bottle of wine or some entree they had never tried before, because I loved food and wine too. So it didn't really matter to me that I was the waitress as long as we were talking about wine and cooking, etc. Having said that, sometimes you just have a really bad night and you just come off wrong, or a table will upset you, or whatever. Waitresses are human beings, not machines. But as long as the waitress or waiter has gratitude in their heart, I'll put up with almost anything. If they're uptight or rude, which you can always tell in the first few minutes, I would totally go somewhere else.

Hi. I don't really like any donuts, but as a fellow traveler I say make the drive to try Krispy Kremes. Otherwise, you might always wonder. And, you'll get to see some more of the midwest on the drive. Seeing more of the midwest might sound like torture to some of the other egullet contributors, but it's actually really sensual and beautiful. There's an incredible smell of rain in the fields all the time, black dirt, tractors, really green and yellow corn and wheat fields, etc. Anyway, you probably won't find very good food in the midwest farmlands, but once you hit Chicago there's some excellent restaurants. I'd go to Blackbird for sure. But, back to Krispy Cremes: My friend Joanna developed such an addiction to them that she had to make a promise to herself only to buy one when the sign in the window said "hot". Otherwise, she leterally has to drag herself away from the donut shop. When I was traveling in India, I sometimes took a bus for hours just to see or taste one thing. But it was worth it, you know? So I say, Krispy Cremes for you!

Dear Snow, You must try rose petal or rose geranium petal (even better) icecream. It's made with real flower petals, obviously organic. It's great on a warm, fresh strawberry tart in summer, or just beside a bowl of fat, assorted summer berries. I used to work in a restaurant where we served chartreuse ice cream, and I think that's my absolute favorite. We made vacherin out of it by scooping it between two merangue wafers and then drizzling it with super dark, bitter hot fudge. Even just thinking of chartreuse ice cream vacherins makes me happy, oh my God they're so good.

Hello, Fat Guy. The chef I mentioned is called Daniel Boulud, not Bouland. And, I looked up his recipe and he actually calls the shallots compote, not confit. So, it was my misphrasing, not his. If you're going to give anyone a sarcastic reprimand, you can give it to me. -Priestess

Hi, Helena. Fennel confit (I use olive oil rather than duck fat and it still turns out) is one of my favorite things to make with grilled salmon or hens. I've also served it beside grilled lamb with a nice bottle of rose and that was great, too. The recipe is incredibly easy: Core some farmer's market organic fennel bulbs and slice thin, vertically. (I reserve the leafy tops to make fumee, but that's a different story...) Add a big splash of olive oil to a heavy sautee pan and when it's hot add the fennel. Make sure to use a really big pot or pan so that the fennel is in a thin layer. If not, the fennel will steam. Sprinkle with some fleur de sel, white pepper and a tiny, tiny bit of ground nutmeg if you want. Stir the fennel around occasionally as you sautee. It will turn out all soft and carmelly. Drain all the extra oil before you serve. Last night, I made shallot confit and served it over seared albacore. This is what I did, it's a modified version from Bouloud's: 3/4 cup shallots chopped fine 3 cups full-bodied red wine fleur de sel, fresh pepper great quality french honey. Throw the shallots into the wine and reduce, reduce over medium heat until you've got a syrupy marmelade. As you're reducing, add salt, pepper and honey to taste. In Daniel Bouloud's recipe you use 1/2 pound shallots, 2 cups red wine, 1 cup port, and no honey. This is not really a confit because there's no fat, but, anyway, it was great.

Fat Guy, check this out: The night before, buy a beautiful leg of lamb and have it butterflied. Marinate it with chopped fresh organic garlic, lots of chopped fresh rosemary, a couple of handfulls of dried lavender buds, fruity olive oil, cracked black pepper and fleur de sel. grill it rare, with the outside edges medium rare. have it for dinner with white beans with fresh thyme and sage, eggplant and tomato gratin, and maybe some other green like wilted beet greens with currants, red onion and fresh mint. THEN: (here's the best part) The next day it's even better, the cold lamb, that is, when you eat it open faced on a La Brea bakery baguette with fresh, soft, young goat cheese, arrugula, and either fresh figs or fig balsamic vinaigrette. OR: I especially like cold lamb sprinkled with fleur de sel, just by itself on the plate, with something hot on the side like roasted cauliflower soup drizzled with white truffle oil, or an eggplant roasted whole, then split open and sprinkled with a vinaigrette

Hi, Suvrir. I recently served Coffee-Cardamom Pots de Creme for dessert at one of my dinner parties; they were elegant and soulful at the same time. To me, anyway. I think they would be excellent for your friend's party. The recipe is in Daniel Boulud's cookbook.