patrickamory

Franci, I love bluefish. I think it's underrated.

I like tripe with a spicy Italian tomato sauce...

Franci - can't believe I missed your post! Glad you made the duck - did it turn out well?

Beautiful crabs Chris. Great to see you back Kim. Awesome food everyone. Italian-American spaghetti with meat sauce (hence deliberately not tossed before serving).

I have to agree with rotuts here.

basquecook: mind sharing your source for the frozen chiles and your green pork chili recipe, if there is more to it than what you described?

Chiming in a big late, since you're already started, but yes on char siu for sure. Or for an easier Chinese preparation, try red-braised pork (hong shao rou). Prawncrackers has an especially delicious version floating around on the threads here somewhere...

kaby, stunning chuck meat. Where did you source it, if I may ask? Are you based in the US, or elsewhere? Wonderful marbling - it reminds me of the meat you see at Korean butchers and Korean bbq restaurants.

Glad you guys enjoy it! It's actually pretty simple except for three aspects: 1. You have to start 3 days in advance 2. You have to have a completely clean and cleared-off fridge rack that you don't mind putting raw meat on 3. You have to have a completely clean oven rack that you don't mind putting raw meat on - and cleaning it up after! Here's the recipe, adapted from The Four Seasons by Tom Margittai and Paul Kovi: 2 ducks - mine were fresh, a bit over 5 lbs each, rinsed, dried, giblets reserved, excess fat from the cavities pulled off for the marinade: 1 cup light soy sauce 2 tbs honey 2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed 1.5 tsp black peppercorns rind of 1 tangerine or half a large orange, julienned 2 garlic cloves, peel left on, each cut in half 1 oz ginger, peeled and thinly sliced Clear off a rack in your refrigerator, clean it, and place the ducks on it next to one another, not touching, so the air is able to circulate freely around the ducks and dry them. Place a pan below the ducks to catch any drippings (there will be some). Leave in the fridge, undisturbed, for 3 days. Combine the marinade ingredients in a jar and mix thoroughly (it may be difficult to get the honey to dissolve into the soy sauce). Cover tightly and shake vigorously. Place in the fridge for 3 days, shaking well once daily. On the day you plan to eat, 3 hours before dinnertime, remove the ducks and the marinade from the fridge. DON'T PRESS ON THE BREAST - it will leave little black dots where your fingers were when it emerges from the oven. Using the point of a sharp knife, prick the ducks all over except on the breasts. Place a rack over a pan and place the ducks on the rack, breast side up. Make sure the marinade is well mixed. Strain it, discarding the solids and reserving the liquid. Now brush the marinade all over the ducks - be sure to cover them both as thoroughly as possible - and spoon the remaining marinade into the cavities. Allow to dry for 15 minutes. If there are any marinade drippings on the bottom of the pan at the end, scrape them up and put them in the cavities. Then, arrange your oven racks so that one is at the lowest level and one directly above it. Make sure that the upper one is clean - the ducks are going to rest directly on them. Fill a pan large enough to catch the drippings from both ducks with 3 quarts of water, and place the pan of water on the lowest rack. Now preheat the oven to 350F. Place the ducks side by side, not touching, directly on the oven racks, and allow to cook undisturbed for 90 minutes. Remove both ducks very carefully (this is tricky), decant the cavity juices into a bowl, and place them on a carving board to rest for 15 minutes before serving. The juices can be served as gravy or used as the basis for a number of sauces using the reserved giblets and other ingredients. Optional steps: place tea leaves in the pan of water. And/or sprinkle ducks with a tablespoon of ground Sichuan peppercorns before resting.

David, your ribs look amazing. Another run at the Four Seasons Crisp Duck (Margittai/Kovi era). Ducks drying in fridge, day one: Ducks drying in fridge, day three: Marinade after three days (shaken vigorously each day) - honey, soy, unpeeled garlic, ginger, tangerine peel, whole peppercorns, crushed coriander seed: Ducks, pricked, marinated and roasted for 90 minutes directly on the oven rack over a pan of water: Served with wild rice and green beans.

Hors d'oeuvres including leftover Christmas ham, followed by a chicken and butternut squash khoresh. Cheeses from lower left are Chollerhocker, Langres and Roomano (a Dutch cheese similar to aged Gouda but from a different family of cheeses) The khoresh used as much saffron as we could find at the house where we were staying, plus pomegranate seeds and cilantro, and plenty of butter.

Well, it arrived. Still made in Italy, but despite the photos on the Fante site, it is now stamped O.M.A.C. rather than Macina Legumi. It otherwise appears identical. It's a bit tricky to use but I successfully pureed and de-seeded tomatoes for marinara. Chickpeas next!

Made a Thai meal at friends' house. Curry pastes pounded at home first! Som tum two ways - one with salted crab (you can eat them like potato chips), one without, and jungle curry of chicken.

Bugs??? I love slivers of garlic in a long slow roasted leg of lamb, for instance.

Is it time to start the first Dinner! 2014 thread?

Franci, I've never seen that here. What is the country of origin? If it's Asian it's worth checking Chinatown or Flushing groceries. Otherwise, as mentioned above, I recommend Elephant brand from Thailand. $10 for a 10-pound sack in Chinatown, with the date of harvest clearly marked.

Is classic Jewish corn rye chewy? Black baltic rye? If so then I love chewy breads.

Thanks to annabelle and DiggingDogFarm! I will report back after I first use it. Btw, there _was_ a used one on eBay but the description said to rely on the pictures, and the item didn't look entirely unbent or clean to me in the photos. So I'm glad I found a new one. Made in Italy. Still says Macina Legumi on it. (I don't have a pot rack and probably don't have the ceiling or wall space for one, but I'm going to have to find some kind of solution to kitchen storage issues soon, especially if I buy the ricemaker/slow cooker andiesenji recommends.)

DDF: Aha, that explains it! Ordered. Thanks!!

DDF: Yep, saw Fantes mentioned somewhere... they no longer seem to have it.

So it looks like they no longer make Macina-Legumi, the new Foley stainless steel mills are made in China and get bad reviews on Amazon compared to the classic models, and per above the OXO and Rösle models are not sturdy enough either. The Moulin is still made but also has a high proportion of 1-star reviews on Amazon for the difficulty of replacing disks, insufficient sharpness and poor manufacturing quality. Surely there is an alternative to spending $162 on the Eurodib X3 if I want to buy a new mill?

I've been interested in one for removing chickpea skins... I don't know how frequent that would be though. annabelle, is it always desirable to remove skins and seeds from tomatoes when making sauce? I know Indian dishes usually require skinning, which I do by cutting a cross in one end and then blanching and peeling by hand. But sometimes don't you want the acids from the skins and seeds in a sauce? This hadn't occurred to me.

Prawncrackers, to echo basquecook: ridiculous. That does indeed look like the beef of dreams. What on earth is a dexter? Christmas ham: Served with braised leeks:

Oh my gosh Baron those look incredible. Lovely photographs too. Where did you source the Maine herring, or is it local to you?

Tilda basmati (not Tilde, as I mis-spelled it above) is really great, and comes in very convenient resealable blue plastic sacks. The seal keeps pantry weevils out. Kalustyan's is a few blocks from here and we shop there all the time, but I would not use them as a source for non-Indian rices if there are alternatives. Their own-brand jasmine rice, for instance, is nowhere near as good as the Elephant sacks I get in Chinatown, and even that is not on the top brands recommended by Kasma Loha-unchit. Also, as much as I love the place, Kalustyan's is extremely expensive. They are a one-stop emporium with a national reputation and the prices reflect that. For any Indian staples, right next door Foods of India (Sinha Trading Co.) you'll often find the same rice, ghee, whole spices etc. at 50-75% of the cost. The people and the ambiance are not as friendly, and they don't have the wide selection of non-Indian/Pakistani foods, but you can't argue with the price. No idea whether they ship though - I'm going to guess not.