David A. Goldfarb

Some of those vegetables are high in beta carotene, which may contribute to lung cancer in smokers, but not in the quantities that can be obtained by eating carrots, beets, and pumpkin (as opposed to dietary supplements).

A gravy made with roux shouldn't separate. Try adding the liquid a little at a time to the roux, stirring and bringing it up to a boil so it thickens, adding more, and repeating until you reach the desired quantity and consistency. If you leave it on a low simmer stirring as needed, it will continue to thicken until the flour absorbs as much liquid as it can.

I just peel it with a paring knife and work around the nubs. Some people think the nubs are better than the main part, because they are younger, but I'm not sure that's so important. It is important that it be fresh. Very fresh ginger from an Asian market will have a thin, transparent skin that thickens and turns brown as it dries. If the ginger is starting to harden, it will be harder to peel. If I want fine ginger, I'll smash it with a knife and chop with a chef's knife like garlic.

I'm no Jaques Pepin, but this must have been one of the first things I learned to do with a chef's knife, perhaps because my father was good at it, and it seemed at the time like this was the main purpose of a chef's knife, since that was his flashiest knife skill.

I like carrots in stock, but I would just leave them out. The red bell pepper sounds like a good substitute. Without something sweet to balance the celery, I'd leave out the celery as well. Include the skins with the onions if you want a richer brown color (but not if you want a white stock), and they'll also contribute some flavor.

A 1% solution would be useful too, if I were often needing larger quantities, but I'm finding that I'm more likely to use .01-.03g more than .05-.08g, and then if I do need more than .05g, I can weigh it out, mix with a smaller amount of liquid, and then combine with the rest of the liquid. I've been measuring the liquid with a graduated shot glass that's marked in ml, teaspoons, tablespoons, and fractions of an ounce, but we have a bunch of baby droppers too.

Six days, still good. I'm thinking that, if I decide to keep xanthan around the kitchen as a staple thickener/stabilizer, the 0.1% solution is ideal for the amounts of food I'm usually preparing. It dissolves quickly, and basically two teaspoons of the solution is 10ml, which is 0.01g, and the amount that I'm likely to use for up to a quart of liquid is typically less than 0.08g, just to hold something together without changing the mouthfeel. If I need more than that, I can weigh out the dry powder.

In that case, he could just start with a helicopter ride across the Hudson and have a limo waiting to drive him and his client up to Per Se.

James Beard's _Theory and Practice of Good Cooking_ is mostly technique, light on recipes. Specific to bistro style, look at Anthony Bourdain's _Les Halles Cookbook_.

I tried some in a tomato sauce to give it a little more cling. It worked, but I'm also a bit unsure about the mouthfeel. I used 0.02g in about 3 cups of liquid.

That's a great list. I seem to find myself in Chicago with some regularity, just about every year or two. I'll check this thread again next time I go.

I've bought this as "chum salmon"--it's usually relatively inexpensive, particularly if you buy the whole fish, as it's seen as less desirable than king, sockeye or coho salmon, but I made gravlax from it once, and it wasn't bad at all.

Four days later refrigerated in a stoppered bottle, no mold, no odor.

The King 1000/6000 Japanese waterstone and Japanese sharpening technique are so much better than my old double-sided oilstone and the sharpening method I was using before. My knives used to be sharp, but now they're sharp.

Look for Jacques Pepin's first US cookbook (I don't know if he had others before), coauthored with Helen McCully , The Other Half of the Egg, which is a compendium of recipes for only whites and only yolks. I usually use spare yolks for Filipino-style ensaimadas (essentially made from a brioche paste using all yolks), ice cream, and custards, and occasionally other things like thickening a sauce or egg noodles.

Another very elegant place that I hadn't thought of before is Amadeus-- http://www.restauracja-amadeus.pl/index.php?p0=1 I attended a reception there a few years ago, and the food was very good, but I don't know that the catering menu is the same as the regular restaurant menu. As I recall, they served particularly good szmalec, which is kind of a Polish version of rillettes--one of those dishes that I don't think I ever encountered when I visited Poland in the last years of Communism, but which seems to be everywhere in recent years. Regarding mixed reviews at Wierzynek--that wouldn't surprise me. They've got their own dynamic, and they don't seem too interested in contemporary international culinary trends. I haven't been in a few years, but I remember once in 1989 (the last year of the Communist regime) I'd ordered the trout in aspic, and the waiter asked if I wanted the "sos Tatrzański," and in the general confusion of speaking a foreign language that I didn't know particularly well at the time, I was expecting some exotic "Tatar sauce," and of course it was just ordinary tartar sauce with mayonnaise and pickle relish.

Eve's Cidery in the Finger Lakes region of New York is a small producer cultivating cider apples for alcoholic cider and apple wine. They aren't distilling brandies as far as I know, but I wouldn't be surprised if they got there eventually. Meanwhile, I highly recommend the very dry Northern Spy cider-- http://evescidery.com/productview.htm?id=138

Less formal, I like a place called "Chłopskie jadło" ("peasant food"), which has become something of a chain of casual restaurants serving traditional Polish cuisine, but what I've had there is usually good. I recommend the bigos served in a bread bowl. Ask about the guy who grills kiełbasa under the bridge in the evenings. I haven't had it yet myself, but it's something everyone raves about. It's a place to go, say, after a night out at a club.

I'll confess to feeling validated when I read that Tom Colicchio doesn't like okra either-- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine...olicchio&st=cse

Regarding the garlic press, I don't believe it destroys the flavor or that somehow you lose all the good stuff in the press as some people seem to believe, but even a garlic press that's relatively easy to clean is enough of a pain to clean that I prefer to use a knife unless I need to crush a lot of garlic. Some time in the late 1970s my father got a spritz of garlic juice in his eye from a garlic press and I don't think he's ever used one again, but ever since then I put my hand over the back of the plunger when I squeeze just in case.

If you haven't been to Wierzynek, it's one of Poland's main culinary attractions for traditional fine Polish cuisine in a historic Renaissance setting on the Rynek Główny. If you can't get a reservation, you might at least go to the mead cellar on another evening. Hawełka is another fine old establishment on the Rynek, dating to the nineteenth century. I believe the menu is the same or similar at their upstairs room called Restauracja Tetmejerowska, decorated with modernist paintings by Włodzimierz Przerwa Tetmajer. I've eaten at both, and both are very elegant establishments, but I haven't compared menus. You can find them on the internet.

I decided to keep it simple and just grilled in a cast iron grill pan with salt and pepper, adding a little butter and parsley after flipping it, and it worked fine, and there were no overly strong flavors. It holds up well to grilling and should function anywhere tuna--fresh or canned--works. I have several pieces left, so I'll grill all the rest tomorrow and any leftover will go into salads and cold things. I also put the head and bones in stock with the remains of what I think were three black sea bass, and it made a tasty white stock--not oily or fishy at all.

Never baked them before, usually stove top - on low for 45 min or until they're soft and can be easily pierced with a knife. ← Going to have to give it a go, when I make my next batch. ← I do it at 350F in a covered metal casserole for about a half hour. A little salt, too, I should have mentioned.

I haven't tried it yet. I'll post when I do. First I need to get a saw-- sausagemaker.com has some standard models. But in the meanwhile, we're also having some problems with one of the hinges on our oven door, and I'm holding off on any big meat purchases until that's sorted out. It's a fairly new oven, still under warranty, so it's a matter of motivating the landlord to get the receipts together so I can call for a repair.

Elephant Garlic certainly seems like garlic, but it's much milder than the garlic usually used as a seasoning. I remember when they first started marketing it, it was being sold as a vegetable that could be sliced raw into a salad.