John Rosevear

She'll try to stop by later this week for more discussion! Oh, excellent! That book is actually on my Xmas list, so if Santa is kind I'll have it in hand shortly.

Oo, I just got the Culinaria France book and haven't had a chance to crack it yet. I'm definitely looking forward to your holiday adventures here, Chris. Is the Daube de Boeuf a la Gasconne from the Wolfert book? What's special about the Gascon style?

I've had an awful lot of "Szechuan" restaurant dishes -- even in otherwise pretty good places -- that clearly hadn't had even a single Szechuan peppercorn so much as waved over them. I suspect that some places think that the numbing will weird out the average American, and they might be right.

I haven't yet sorted the details -- that's a project for this weekend -- but here's the general direction. I wanted something that felt festive, was reasonably fun and accessible, that balanced the needs of a couple of fussy guests, and that was not not not my family's traditional Xmas meal (a replay of Thanksgiving dinner, with turkey and et cetera.) A goose, by request. Perhaps braised with chestnut and sausage stuffing, as per Julia Child; Côtes de boeuf, done Ducasse's way in a not-too-hot pan, with bearnaise; Something that is not mashed potatoes (a gratin Dauphinois has been requested, though I'm not sure it's quite the right thing -- I generally make the "Madame Laracine" variant from Patricia Wells' "Bistro Cooking", going rather heavier on the gruyère than she does); Chestnuts and onions braised with stock and Madeira; Something green -- braised escarole, perhaps. Dessert, soup, wine, yet to be determined.

I would not even attempt this except on a very large (so as to have the heat properly indirect), gas (so as to minimize the smoke flavors) grill, something like a 6-burner Weber Summit or similar, preferably with a double-layer lid that retains heat well. I'd use a pan set on the grates -- I'd essentially be trying to recreate an oven. I've done this (not with a Wellington, but with roasts), and it works, but even with the best grills it's kind of a fussy process -- keeping the temperature steady is dependent on things like ambient air temp and wind direction that one never considers when cooking indoors.

That extra bit of citrus-oily bitterness is obviously a bigger deal in some drinks -- I can't imagine a vesper without lemon peel in it, for instance -- than in others. And I do generally like the way it looks. But I'm intrigued by Andy's comment and will leave the peel out of my next Sazerac, just to see.

I've broken too many Riedels in recent years and have been on the lookout for a good everyday glass that's a little more affordable (and maybe a little more durable). These look great - we'll give them a try.

...and a critical part of making the whole thing accessible to ordinary folks.

You are missing that "any other chef" of that quality was not on US TV at the time, and those techniques simply were not available to most Americans except via Julia Child. And while she may not have invented the chef-on-TV form, she is absolutely responsible for its current popularity -- PBS's long list of cooking shows past and present, not to mention Food Network et al, would not exist if she had not shown the way.

At $300, the Technivorm already counts as "serious cash" (if not "ludicrous cash") for a drip coffeemaker, particularly when something like a Capresso MT500 or a Zojirushi makes similarly good coffee (yes, the water gets just as hot) for half the price or less... and particularly when you need to spend another $70-$400 for a decent burr grinder to really take advantage of any of these machines' virtues. The Technivorm has more snob value than most coffee makers, but is the coffee really better? But yeah, "best coffee you'll get at home" way overstates it... a French press or an Aeropress or a Bodum Santos, properly used, will outdo any drip machine for a fraction of the cost.

Last year I braised them with butter, stock, and Madeira for about 40 min or so, then let the liquid boil off and rolled the onions around in the pan to brown/glaze them a bit just before serving. Huge success. The Madeira -- which I used only because it was the closest bottle to hand, as I was doing this on the fly while dealing with something else -- turned out to be an inspired touch.

I have done it, both with my own compound butter (garlic, the usual herbs, a bit of shallot) and with a 1:1 mix of Kerrygold's herbed butter and good unsalted butter. It works, though I've found that it works best if the butter's a little soft and you can mush it around a bit so that it's more or less evenly spread across the breast.

It is worth buying. Everybody needs a bottle of Luxardo Maraschino. The rose liqueur intrigues me... I'm with EvergreenDan, I'd try an Aviation variant with (a tiny bit of) that and maybe Hendrick's?

Not the goop, really? If anyone should be goop-inclined, there's a good recipe for restaurant-style Crispy Orange Chicken in Stuart Chang Berman's "Potsticker Chronicles". I only make it a couple times a year, but it's one of my kids' favorite things ever. It's a bit higher-class than the food court stuff, but I wouldn't call it "authentic Chinese" -- more what you'd get at a good takeout place. In the event someone's interested in trying it, here it is. Note that (as in the original) no actual oranges are involved, just a last-second splash of orange extract. 1 lb boneless chicken breasts cornstarch to coat BATTER 1 cup cornstarch 1/2 cup all-purpose flour SAUCE 1 cup chicken broth 3 TB black or mushroom soy sauce 2 TB dry sherry (or Shaoxiang wine, presumably) 1 TB light soy sauce or Kikkoman 4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced 1 TB finely minced ginger 1 TB sugar 1/2 tsp white pepper 1 tsp chili paste (or to taste) 1 TB cornstarch mixed with 1/4 c cold water 3/4 cup sugar, or to taste (I use considerably less) 1 tsp orange extract 4 cups oil for frying 1. Slice chicken lengthwise into 4 pieces, then cut crosswise on a 45 degree angle to create 1/4" slices about the size of a silver dollar (sic). Dust these pieces in cornstarch, shake off excess, and lay out on a cookie sheet. 2. Make the batter: Mix the flour and 1 cup cornstarch with 1 cup cold water. Batter should be fairly thick but not too thick to stir. 3. Heat oil (in a wok or dutch oven or deep-fryer) to 350F. Add the chicken to the batter, stir to coat. Deep fry the chicken pieces in batches without crowding until crusty and white, 3-5 minutes. Drain. Return oil to 350F and fry a second time until golden, 1-2 minutes longer. Drain. 4. Make the sauce: Combine sauce ingredients in a wok over high heat. Bring to a boil while stirring. Add the cornstarch mixture. Boil until thickened. 5. Immediately add the chicken pieces to the sauce and very quickly toss until the chicken pieces are all coated with the sauce. Continuing to stir and toss the chicken, add the sugar gradually, pouring from about 12 inches above the wok (a helper is useful here, or quickly alternate sprinkling and tossing) as you toss the chicken underneath. Once glaze has formed, splash the orange extract over the chicken. Toss several times to mix. Serve immediately.

I think companies like Garagiste give (some of) those small producers a market they might not have been able to find 10 years ago, sort of a wine-geek's version of a CSA. All hope is not lost -- in fact, it's possible that things are improving.

When I was in college in the 1980s the local "good" liquor store carried regular ol' Mondavi cab (not a discount line) for $18. The chard was $12 or $13, IIRC, and the sauvignon blanc was under $10. (We drank a lot of the latter). Name-brand wine prices have been outpacing inflation for a while now, up and down the quality spectrum... and yet today we can still get something like Black Box's syrah ($20 for 3L), a completely serviceable everyday red in a by-the-glass dispenser package. To me, the wider availability of affordable everyday wine that doesn't taste like shoe dye or salad dressing makes the occasional splurge on something like a first-growth a lot easier to swallow (so to speak). I have had good (in a few cases great) vintages of Haut-Brion, Latour, Rieussec, L'Evangile, Le Montrachet (Louis Latour, but still), and other stuff-of-myth-and-legend wines at dinners with friends over the years, where the wine is a focus and we all learn something from savoring a glass with a well-paired meal.

As did I. I rarely use her recipes anymore, but I learned an awful lot from that book. Worth seeking out. More generally, in addition to the above, Irene Kuo's "Key to Chinese Cooking" is also a top-notch basics-of-Chinese-cooking text. Very much worth having. It's out of print, but used copies are readily available.

Yes. Not just cold, but (assuming I've been sufficiently organized to plan ahead) a day or two old. I use regular American long-grain, wash in several changes of water, cook in a rice cooker (using a bit less water than the cooker's instructions recommend, no salt or oil), spread it out on a half-sheet pan to dissipate the steam and let it cool, then scoop it into a covered container and refrigerate. This gives the best texture of any method I've tried.

I'm no Alsace expert but I've never had a bad bottle from Trimbach... that's my default nowadays when I go that route. ETA: We've tried Gewurtz a couple of times as well -- it tends to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing, with the majority of our crowd falling on the "hate" side. The Riesling has tended to be a safer choice.

My local wine pusher usually puts a decent Alsatian Riesling on sale for under $20 for the week or so before Thanksgiving. It's not a bad match for a traditional turkey. We've also liked pinots and lower-end white Burgundy (aka low-wood chards), and in some past years I've brought one bottle of each of the above to our big family shindig. I haven't yet decided what I'm bringing this year, but it'll probably be along these lines unless I run across something more interesting.

Mine too. "Huh. It's just rum. A bit hot. What's the fuss?" Mixing it was more interesting.

I finally bought a bottle of Cocchi Americano. Having a Vesper right now, and suddenly it all makes sense... or maybe this is just a particularly aromatic strip of lemon peel.

Everything I've ever had from Domori -- which includes most of their "Criollo" and single-origin bars -- has been seriously, seriously good, with amazing texture and complexity. Awfully hard to find on a regular basis, though.

And that's exactly what I made tonight, with the homemade char siu. Peanut oil, no soy sauce. The flavor of the char siu in the oil was the key I'd been missing. It was excellent (and yes, gluten-free, though that's probably another thread). Thanks to all.

I thought that MSG was a no no for gluten intolerant folks. No, it's fine (well, as fine as it is for anyone). "Glutamate" isn't wheat gluten.