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basquecook

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Everything posted by basquecook

  1. Ha! Nori sounds like a really nice idea. Or maybe like nori strips in the slaw. They were really lovely. Looking forward to reading about your efforts.
  2. Unexpected guests came over last night. What to do, serve them leftovers. I figured since the crawfish were alive the day before, why not. We made a salad: Rye Toast, herbs from the garden, lettuces, radish, egg, blue cheese, pickled pepper. Simple dressing Served the same thing over rice. Added a different sausage and threw in new beans. Gave the broth a squeeze of sour orange to brighten. Defrosted a berkshire pork chop and was going to serve with deep fried brussel sprouts in a sriracha honey dressing but, a las, there was too much food. Vacuum sealed the porkchop and put back into the fridge. Served the sprouts.
  3. Fried oyster sandwiches last night. Coated the oysters with a little bit of polenta in addition to a fine corn flour. It added a nice crunch, almost like a falafel type fried oyster. It allowed the oyster to really be present among the slaw and bun. I may have added a deep fried Chinese Sausage to mine. Drink and eating, does not make for fancy plating or good photography! Neither does hipstamatic. Made a version of a crawfish boil. A take on the Hot N Juicy Crawfish and Boiling Crabs of the world. Stock used crab boil, cayenne, beer, celery, onion, chives, ginger, soy sauce, butter, a boat load of garlic, white pepper, green pepper, black pepper and bay leaves.. Let that cook for a couple of hours.. Cooked potatoes in the broth and removed, then added these little Chinese Sausages, 3lbs of crawfish, a pound of head on shrimp, green beans and then the cooked potatoes. It was pretty damn good.
  4. Sounds great. I really did not mean to bother you or get you so riled up. I hope I gave you proper clarification as to why I could have possibly thought that we ate at the same place.
  5. Haha, a real conversationalist.
  6. Plates. The plates looked familiar. They are kind of distinctive, no? Plus you are eating with a fork, so I assumed it was a chain.
  7. I was, the place looked familiar to me. Heading out to China in a couple of weeks.
  8. It really was so delicious. The shell was super crunchy, super pork.. I would call it beautiful.. Great for a crowd. For the sides, we served a dal, a basic salad, a truffle risotto from a box of food samples Miss A brought home, deep fried brussel sprouts with sriracha and honey, roasted sunchokes, roasted fennel and golden egg potatoes. I am so full.. Tonight, we are going to put the remaining roast on a meat slicer and see if it makes good sandwiches. We took it out when the center was 122. We then kicked up the oven back to 500 and covered the outside with some drippings.. You know when you feel like you don't get enough skin, there was no problem with this guy. I had enough green sauce was tarragon, oregano, chives, celery, parsley,garlic, salt packed capers and sardines, lemon, vinegar, olive oil.
  9. The place you went to didn't happened to be called, the Banana Leaf? I have been to on in Yangzhou and one in Canton. I am assuming they are all over the place, looked similar.
  10. Last night, a few roasted branzinos. propped them up on lemons, did the necessary slicing, to ensure the filet falls away from the body after roasting. added tarragon and garlic. roasted at 450.. served over a quick dal. toasted mustard seeds, added butter, garlic, cumin, turmeric, tossed into the boiling yellow lentil, added bay and hot pepper. to start i made a green curry: coconut milk, green curry, lime juice, hot peppers, fish sauce, brown sugar. threw in some cherry tomatoes, then roasted sausage, added three live blue crab that were just cut in half, then potato, then carrots, cauliflower, then mussels and at the last moment sliced squid.
  11. will let it sit until Sunday.
  12. We were staying with friends this weekend in a house full of kids. While people were out on the beach, I was able to make a quick pasta for the kids. Happened to notice they had ricotta cheese in the fridge and I had a pasta maker in my trunk. Happy Kids.
  13. Thank you Patrick. I have a deep fryer built into my counter top. So, when i am home and it's just a few pieces, I just toss the chicken into the deep fryer. It has an electric temperature gauge but, the heating element comes from the bottom so, if left unturned it would burn one side. That is also why I kick up the temp to 355, so the element doesn't have to do too much work once the chicken is thrown in. I turn every three minutes or so. It would most likely be easier using a large enamel cast iron pan because it would be more even heating. You wouldn't have to turn the pieces or be so concerned. But, then you would have a large steaming pot of hot oil to deal with while, I just put the cover back on and let it cool.
  14. Thanks, Kim. Dinner last night: Started with marinated shrimp in ginger, scallion, garlic sauce. Cooked in sesame oil, then added butter, soy sauce, shaoxing cooking wine, more scallions. Pre-cooked. They were big shrimp. Then we made a smoked trout salad. Dressing was a red wine dijon. Poached egg and rye toasts Homemade pasta with bay scallops, peas,guanciale with lots of tarragon tossed in. Pasta was 12 egg yolks. Plated: Duck breast with roasted brussel sprouts tossed in sriracha honey. With a simple Anson Mill polenta. Fun time last night. Miss A and I arrived home at 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon, did a shop and had dinner ready by 630. I like this photo our prep station
  15. Simple fried chicken for the little one last night. Soaked for a day in seasoned milk. I like to fry my chicken at 325 to 330. I kick the oil up to 355 when i place the room temp chicken in. But, then bring it down to 325. Exactly 12 minutes and it's perfect. From the milk, i dip it in seasoned flour. Salt, a lot of black pepper, then white pepper, a little mustard powder, a little cumin, cayenne, paprika. Press it hard into the flour So easy, with such great results.
  16. We arrived at Husk Easter Afternoon without reservations. We were met by a really lovely staff who was more than happy to sit us outside on the beautiful old house's second floor balcony. As I was wearing jeans, a tshirt, ratty old sneakers and a sports coat recently purchase from the Salvation Army, I was needless to say, not the most well dressed person. We started our meal off with a couple of really lovely cocktails. What first arrived the presented us with homemade rolls..These things were outrageous. I believe we ate two sacks of these guys. Benne or an early form of sesame seeds are a popular thing down in Charleston. Particularly at Brock's two restaurants there were examples of Benne on several items. Served with a side of butter lightly flavored with a smokey pork. The bread came out hot, buttery, salty and delicious. If he came out with a place that just sold different things on these rolls, there would be a line around the block. Another plate of local clams. As I mentioned before, some version of roasted clams in a cast iron pan seems to be on every menu in Charleston. This was a very lovely version. Oven roasted tomatoes, some corn bread, a pork based stock. Done very well for such a simple dish. Far from earth shattering But, what was earth shattering was, these guys.. I know a certain person who is going to end up having these lettuce wraps served at his wedding soon.. These were really cool. Pig ears cut into strips and then fried. Served with pickled cucumber and onion on butter lettuces. A little bit more of that benne seed. The ears were hot and cripsy and added a nice burst of pork flavor.. Damn. Quail with cheese grits, some greens and a fried egg.. This fried egg thing. I get it, but, I don't get it. Not everything needs a fried egg. Or perhaps you think everything needs a fried egg, that is cool too. Fortunately, the egg was done so well, i was able to just lift it off the plate.. Cheese grits were really nice, the quail was cooked perfectly as was the kale.. It was nothing earth shattering, just a really nice plate of food. Quail was moist, partially deboned. The catfish dish reminded me of what I don't like about catfish.. The after taste finishes really flat.. Like, no flavor at all. Which made me question whether or not it would hold a marinade. Which then makes me go buy catfish and try to marinate it with different things. The catfish was fried to perfection. It had a very nice crust.. It was sitting on some really delicious things.. On the plate itself there seemed to be a cooked down tomato sauce and butter. It was thick and buttery. Almost like a tomato butter paste. On top of that was a nice tangle of cabbage, beans, and perhaps apples.. I can't remember now.. But, it was light and refreshing despite the fried fish and the tomato butter. This showed the kitchens skill.. And what was arguably the best thing we had at Husk, arguably because, it was really the pig ear lettuce wraps, or the cabbage and tomato butter combination, or those freaking amazing rolls, was the dessert. It was the Arnold Palmer dessert or something to that affect.. It was essentially pound cake treated kind of like a tres leches that was soaked in a lemon and sugar mixture and then topped with a benne crumble and ice tea ice cream.. We loved this dish. It reminded Miss A of her tres leches (though her cake is much better). Smart thinking, love the play on the common item and of course keeping it very Southern. A really lovely place, in a gorgeous setting, with my amazing wife.
  17. basquecook

    Salty Snacks

    I love these guys.. Salt peanuts with dried chiles and sichuan peppercorns. So good
  18. made a quick batch of meatballs for the little one. served with another few of the cheese ravioli i made.
  19. beautiful. those do look pretty perfect. nice feet on those suckers.
  20. Wouldn't the butternut squash ravioli also have ricotta and egg in the filling or are you using a different filling.
  21. I would lay a towel down in the freezer. Put them on top of the towel in the freezer for say 30 minutes or 45 minutes until they are fully frozen, then take them from the towel into a plastic bag. I just made ravioli with some leftover pasta dough last night. I froze what I didn't eat for dinner.
  22. very beautiful things here. Simple ravioli for the little one tonight. from left over 12 egg yolk pasta dough. filling was ricotta, parm, mozzarella, salt, sugar, pepper and an egg yolk. froze the rest. Tomato puree with salt, sugar, garlic, pepper and a little shot of milk. Topped with cheese.
  23. I made this for a couple of friends two nights ago. Butter lettuce, poached egg, buttered rye croutons, home cured and smoked fish sturgeon jerky, a light sherry dressing.
  24. I have been reading through Passion for Piedmont. I love the area and actually got married right outside Barolo duing truffle season. I have been there a few times. I found a lot of these recipes to be very lovely. There are some nice agnolotti recipes, the basic tajarin dough, lots of anchovy recipes. While it's not comprehensive, it is a definitely a very nice book. I have made a few things from the book but, never actually followed it to the letter. For example, I really enjoyed the idea behind, the squash and cauliflower with anchovy dressing but, went in my own direction. There are basic bagna cauda recipes too. The few occasions when I found myself in Bra, I went to the Slow Food University over there and had a couple of meals. There has to be a book that they put out?
  25. In all seriousness, anyone from New York knows, NY has the best and worst of everything.. It has the most expensive piece of meat you can probably find and then there are mid range, all the way down to the cheapest crap in the world. Being that I may eat steak once a month and our cost came out to 15 bucks a person, I wouldn't say that is any reason to move across the country.
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