patrickamory

I absolutely adore Marmite. I spread it thickly on toast, bread, anything - no butter. I'll also eat it straight from the jar. Incredible secret ingredient in chili by the way - adds a major umami component.

Nobody?

Just focusing in on the ingredients issue for the moment (I miss the fast food and Continental dishes as much as anybody): Is it possible that the explosion of interest in cooking and preparation - of which this entire website is an example - is a result of the fact that we don't have easy, cheap access to a huge variety of wild fish and seafood, seasonal produce that actually had flavor, real baked goods and pastries with ethnic traditions, professional butchers cutting well-marbled prime meats, and the rest? Maybe the reason that all of us care so much about cooking and food is because it's so much HARDER to get what we all took for granted in those days? I remember my mother introducing me to a real French peach in France in the summer of 1976 when I was 11. The flavor EXPLODED in my mouth, and the juice, of course, dribbled all over my chin. I don't think it's only nostalgia that I haven't had a peach close to that - bought locally, in season, at a farmer's market, or whatever - in recent years, including in France. I will also echo this from abooja: "A predominance of real deal bakeries, and not the par-baked, made-from-a-mix crud that passes for baked goods these days, and is available in most supermarkets. I particularly miss Jewish bakeries. Even if I still lived in New York, I'd be hard pressed to find a decent slice of seven layer cake or, God forbid, an individual Charlotte Russe baked in a small paper cup. People don't value great bakery items like they did in the 70s. This saddens me." YES. And especially an ultra-dense, nearly spherical rye loaf available from Jewish bakers in NYC (such as the Cakemasters chain) known as "corn bread." The crust was so chewy it nearly pulled your teeth out. One of the best breads I've ever had in my life. Impossible to find now. It's been renamed "corn rye" so that people don't confuse it with southern cornbread, but the places that make it, such as Moishe's on Second Avenue, turn out a pale imitation of what they used to make. In many ways we have it better eating in 2011... but the vast majority have it much, much worse. And so much of our effort is focused on trying to recapture what was available so easily back then - at every Stop'n'Shop and Star Market.

HUGE fan of the Good Cook. The photos alone in the meat and poultry books are a guide that few other reference works match...

OK I'm going to try true dry-brining next... I was using Bud's method. What Tim describes is what I used on our turkey at Thanksgiving, which seemed to have good results. With all this said... I'm pretty happy with my chicken, so it will be interesting to see what kind of improvement this makes, if any.

OK, please school me on strops. What would be appropriate for my Togiharu? It _is_ soft steel. That said, it hones up really nicely on the Wusthof. Which is that cylindrical, grooved steel to which you refer. Just a few strokes on either side and it can slice paper again.

One problem with double-blind tasting tests is that we don't usually eat food blindfolded. Color and appearance have a huge impact on how we appreciate food. Does that mean that if we dyed US yolks orange they'd taste better? Somehow I doubt it. I lived in England for 5 years and even the crappiest, overcooked eggs in a pub blew away anything I can get here - including eggs bought on farms in Connecticut or Maine. Rich, full-flavored, egg-y in a way that virtually no US egg can approach. And that goes for battery-reared UK eggs. I will say that when I stay at a friend's house in Vermont, the neighbors sometimes drop off eggs from their layers in the morning before we get up. They are all covered with hay and sometimes some other, less savory bits. They're usually different colors. And they are AMAZING.

I just don't care about it. The whole handwashing / glove thing feels completely like a routine to make us feel better. The real hygiene issues are what happens on the farms, at the meat processing plants, and in transport. That brief moment at the retail counter is unlikely to make any difference. I also believe we live in an hyper-hygienic society where we probably aren't exposed to enough casual germs. Do you think they washed their hands or used clear plastic gloves at the French farmers' markets where Elisabeth David and Richard Olney shopped in the '60s and '70s?

I've been getting mine from Anson Mills. They are NOT easy to cook, and yes I've tried the slow cooker method. Mainly inspired by John Thorne's chapter in Mouth Wide Open for the approach. If anyone knows a way to cook artisanal grits without spending 90-120 minutes stirring, please let me know, because I LOVE them.

Tried dry-brining... did not make an appreciable difference in my recipe above.

Thanks Bud. I believe I've achieved the perfect roast chicken, but I can't resist continuing to innovate, so I will give this a try. You don't re-salt the chicken before putting it in the oven?

Last night I brined some unpeeled gulf shrimp in a basic sugar-salt mixture for 40 minutes to add snap and pungency. Cleaned them and deep-fried them in 350-degree corn oil for 10-15 seconds per side. Served with jasmine rice, leftover spinach pachadi (Maya Kaimal recipe in yogurt), and a selection of pickles and chutneys.

Pickling and shaving!

Yes on that basis I'd recommend Mr. Chow, which I think blows Chin Chin out of the water. But I suspect what the OP was asking about was real Chinese food in the city. Off the top of my head, I'd suggest something like: Wah Fung No. 1 Fast Food - Chinatown Xi'an Famous Foods - Flushing location Spicy & Tasty - Flushing Szechuan Gourmet - 39 St. Oriental Garden - Chinatown (and actually on the Zagat list!) Super Wang, Inc. - Chinatown Cheng Du Tian Fu - Flushing There are other places I've been in the Golden Mall in Flushing that were amazing... but I can't remember the names. I quite like Fried Dumplings on Mosco St. in Chinatown, but it recently got slammed by Serious Eats. I used to love the two 9th Avenue Grand Sichuans, but I get the impression they've gone downhill. Or been overtaken by the Sichuan newcomers. I haven't been out to the Sunset Park / Homecrest Chinatown in years - I was there in the late '90s, and wasn't impressed. But from Sietsema's reports, it's come up in the world (maybe as much for Vietnamese as for Chinese).

For Japanese knives, I think we need to distinguish between Japanese-style Japanese knives and Western-style Japanese knives. I have one of the latter - a Togiharu Inox steel Santoku, and I hone it regularly on my Wusthof steel with absolutely zero negative effects. I checked that this was OK with the Japanese shop where I bought the knife - Korin in lower Manhattan - and they said it was absolutely OK. Of course I also have a two-sided Togiharu #1000/#4000 stone for long-term maintenance, and have taken a course in how to use it. (And could seriously use a refresher. It's not easy.)

Ah, convection. I don't have it, but have used it elsewhere. It's pretty incredible for roasts.

I've been making some dishes from Curried Favors with good results. The spinach pachadi is absolutely delicious. What is the name for the garnish of curry leaves, dried red chile and mustard seeds fried in oil that is added at the end of many Keraland dishes? I also made shrimp thial using chicken thighs - a fantastic coconut-y, onion-y, sour stew. Highly recommended. (Kaimal doesn't specify it, but I was wondering whether an original Keralan recipe might call for kodampoli in the shrimp dish rather than tamarind.)

After a few years of experimentation I've decided I don't like wet brines. They give a strange texture to the meat, and if it's good, the bird tastes less "like itself." I did try a dry brine on my heritage turkey this past Thanksgiving (Bourbon Red) and had good results. But I don't brine my roast chicken at all and it turns out just fine.

I buy fresh coconuts and crack them. Cut up the flesh, pulse them in the food processor with some warm water, and milk the flesh 89 times then strain it. The resulting coconut cream and milk is a different universe from the Mae Ploy and Chaokoh canned stuff.

After trying a million different ways over the past 10 years, I feel like I have arrived at the perfect roast chicken. It's an adaptation of Marcella Hazan's recipe and works for me 100%. Breast and dark meat are perfect. 3 1/2 pound chicken, preferably Murray's sea salt pepper good fresh semi-sharp paprika 2 SMALL lemons trussing needle and butcher's twine Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix generous amount of sea salt with freshly ground pepper and semi-sharp paprika. I use about 1 tbs salt. The final mix should have a decidedly red-and-black tinge. Pat chicken dry thoroughly, inside and out. Rub all over, inside and out, with salt-pepper-paprika mixture. Roll the lemons on the counter with two hands to loosen juices inside. Prick all over at least 20 times with a trussing needle (that means the ends as well). Stuff them both into the bird's cavity. It should be possible to fit both lemons. Sew up the vent thoroughly. Tie the legs together so they are firm against the breast. Sew up the neck as well - should only take a small amount of twine (Hazan doesn't mention this, but from the way she expects the bird to swell up, there has to be something to seal off this end as well). Place bird upside-down (legs down, back up) in roasting pan. Place pan in top third of oven, as close as possible to the top (I use a gas oven heated from the top - temperatures are very accurate). Roast 30 minutes. Turn bird right-side up. Roast for 25 minutes. Turn heat up to 450. Roast for another 20 minutes. Remove bird from oven, allow to rest on carving board for 5-10 minutes. Carve and serve. Note on time: bird requires 20-25 minutes per pound. I find that the above times and temperatures are perfect for a 3.5 lb Murray's bird in my oven. For a slightly heavier bird, I go 30, 30 and 20 on times. I don't find that larger birds roast as well (despite the "roaster" epithet).

Balsamic vinegar is an ABSOLUTE no-no for me. I use a heavy bottomed bar glass and pour in about a quarter-inch of good Italian red wine vinegar. I dissolve a large pinch of sea salt, a huge grind of black pepper, some dried oregano on the bud if I have it. Stir to dissolve spices. Then about an inch of good olive oil (usually Murray's Greek here in NYC, which is raw and fruity), and whisk with a fork. Have substituted lemon juice for the wine vinegar in summer with good results. Also have used good white wine and sherry vinegars.

I could not be without: Ruth Rogers - The River Cafe Pasta Cookbook John Thorne - Serious Pig John Thorne - Simple Cooking John Thorne - Pot On The Fire John Thorne - Mouth Wide Open John Thorne - Outlaw Cook Patience Gray - Honey From A Weed Richard Olney - Simple French Food Richard Olney - The French Menu Cookbook Richard Olney - most of the Good Cook series, especially Poultry and Beef & Veal David Thompson - Thai Food Su-mei Yu - Cracking The Coconut Madhur Jaffrey - A Taste of India Madhur Jaffrey - An Invitation to Indian Cooking Julie Sahni - Classic Indian Cooking Marcella Hazan - The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking James Beard - Beard on Food Julia Child - The Way to Cook Julia Child et. al. - Mastering the Art of French Cooking Miriam Ungerer - Good Cheap Food Laurie Colwin - Home Cooking Najmieh Batmanglij - New Food of Life The Joy Of Cooking - a pre-1990s edition

I'd like to second the recommendation for John Thorne. His books get you thinking about food and cooking - they're not just collections of recipes, and they don't just set food in its cultural context either - they are deeply intellectual, thought-provoking discussions of specific dishes, ingredients and traditions, set in wonderfully evocative prose about his own day-to-day life in Maine and Western Massachusetts. My favorite is Serious Pg, followed by Pot On The Fire. But they're all superb. I'll also second the recommendation for Madhur Jaffrey. I sometimes feel like she's taken for granted compared to other Indian cookbook writers, possibly because she's written so many pan-Asian cookbooks. But her Taste of India (sadly out of print) is an amazing introduction to the regional cuisines of the subcontinent. The photography and text help explain the different ingredients, traditions and ways of cooking - and the selection of recipes, though small, is amazing. Plenty of dishes I've never encountered elsewhere. I think the Kerala section blows the entire Curried Favors book out of the water. Edit: Oh, and Patience Gray, Honey From a Weed! The apotheosis of writing about Mediterranean life and cooking.