patrickamory

We currently have: - Cock glutinous rice (Thailand) - Elephant jasmine rice (Thailand) - Bineshii wild rice from Lake Ojibwe in northern Minnesota - Carolina brand standard American medium-grain rice - Anson Mills "Carolina Gold" heirloom rice - Tilde basmati rice (India) - Bel Aria carnaroli rice (Italy) - Kalustyan's black rice (China) in the house.

Plantes Vertes, jealous of that feast. I got an unusual pasta from an Italian canton of Switzerland, called ternetta. It's a 16-inch long, flat pasta somewhere between linguine and fettucine in width. Fairly dark, quite coarse in texture with plenty of hollows and rough spots to catch the sauce. I made ternetta puttanesca - here are the star ingredients: and the finished dish:

Let me suggest a couple of incredibly useful, but pricey, kitchen items that are not pots or pans: - Ultra Pride+ wet grinder from India. Make iddlys, vasa, your own fresh masa for tortillas, or Thai curry pastes with ease. - Iwatani Millser from Japan. Incredibly useful 3-bowl small blender. I'll also second the recommendation for a pressure cooker. You don't have to spend a ton of money on that one. It opens vistas with stocks and legumes that I'd never dreamed of.

I love the downstairs room at the original Il Buco on Bond Street, which would just about fit into your price range. They book up really early so I'd call asap. It was said to be an inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe - certainly looks that way. And the food is superb. If you're looking for a more contemporary ambience and or modernist cuisine, this isn't for you.

I got a massive assortment of Poilâne breads shipped straight from Paris: the Poilâne round loaf, a rye loaf, walnut bread, cranberry bread and a box of Punitions. I would LIKE the Tiger fuzzy-logic rice cooker / slow cooker that Andie mentioned in the Slow Cooker thread, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to buy that one myself.

Namaa's fatoush for sure The grilled eggplant with yogurt and pomegranate seeds. Best use I've ever seen for big eggplants. We actually had less luck with the hummus. Maybe our tahini wasn't high enough quality? I've also seen that skinning the chickpeas is desirable. Gonna try that next time.

Roast chicken. The rub was a mixture of salt, pepper, half-sharp paprika, toasted ground Sichuan peppercorns and star anise. Served with bread from Poilâne (an early Xmas present).

Bruce, those pasilla-mulato beef tacos look so intensely dark and lovely. I realize the endless procession of bean dishes must seem a little monotonous... imagine the toll it's taking on me! A rather thick rajma:

And here are pics. http://forums.egullet.org/topic/146451-dinner-2013-part-6/?p=1945016

Scarlet runner beans with roasted garlic, cloud ear mushrooms and chiles:

I also usually rub with paprika which roasts to a beautiful red-gold.

taking a cue from something Steve Sando said, I roasted two whole heads of garlic, and used that with some roasted chicken stock, cloud ear mushrooms (don't ask), chopped onions and chiles, the surviving garden herbs and the bean broth. Pictures soon in the Dinner thread.

basquecook - mouthwatering pictures. What's the theory behind the frying chicken at superlow temp?

Thanks all. Interestingly today all the floaters are now at the bottom of the bowl. (Yes, they are RG. Scarlet runners.)

Lamb shoulder marinated in Julia's spice marinade mixture and then grilled on Persian skewers

What sealing? What is "it?" "It" is the perfectly moist, evenly cooked chicken. The sealing is the result of trussing both openings.

When I soak dried beans I usually get a few that float to the top. What do most people do with floaters? Are they a sign of older beans - should they be discarded and not cooked with the rest?

Franci, I gather these are the buns from Modena described here? http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescentina_modenese&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcrescentine%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den They look absolutely delicious... and perfect with salumi... do you add the lard as described in the wikipedia article?

Your question got me to Google the subject. These are the first two articles I found on the subject. I'm sure there's plenty more. http://www.fifteenspatulas.com/should-you-truss-a-chicken-or-not/ http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/trussing-a-chicken--do-i-really-have-to-do-that--174359162.html Hope this helps in some way. Your question got me to Google the subject. These are the first two articles I found on the subject. I'm sure there's plenty more. http://www.fifteenspatulas.com/should-you-truss-a-chicken-or-not/ http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/trussing-a-chicken--do-i-really-have-to-do-that--174359162.html Hope this helps in some way. My gut is that it has something to do with the sealing.

With all due respect to your skills and experience, dcarch, this has never proved true for me. Nor Julia Child or Marcella Hazan. I suspect that there's a bigger picture rather than a hard and fast rule here.

That is truly sad

Whoah Franci. I just looked at Paisano's website and we are headed there shortly for sure.

Huge co-sign on Richard Olney "Reflexions." An odd book by an odd man, but endlessly fascinating about food and wine. The story of him excavating his wine cellar out of Provençal rock, all by himself!

Do not worry about Sheekey being part of a larger restaurant group - it is indeed superb. Do eat in the main restaurant though and not the new bar-restaurant they've attached on the left-hand side - it simply isn't as good. I love the Guinea Grille in Mayfair off Berkeley Square, not just for drink but also for dinner. The steak and kidney pie is wonderful. Also second Hassouni's recommendations of Alounak and Ba Shan (I prefer Ba Shan to Bar Shu, though both are good). St. John remains great - make sure you go to the original in St. John Road near Smithfield Market. Further afield: - Sweetings in the City (weekday lunch only, fantastic seafood served at sit-down counters) - Dock Kitchen off Ladbroke Grove for inventive & delicious wood-oven Mediterranean and North African with a bit of South Asian mixed in - River Cafe in deepest Fulham for Ruth Rogers' delicious, British-inflected Northern Italian - Painted Heron in Cheyne Walk in Chelsea for upscale but really excellent Indian from different regions For more exotic regional Indian cuisine, usually in a much more casual setting, you may need to travel further. Tooting is home to a number of excellent spots.

judiu, chole needn't be chile-hot at all. This one wasn't. I'm always trying new chole recipes; I think my favorite one is not the one pictured above but one from Meenal's Kitchen that also includes chicken. If you decide to try it, read the recipe carefully because the ingredients are not listed in order. "Dhania" is ground coriander seed. Ginger-garlic paste is equal quantities of each, minced and ground or pounded with a bit of water if necessary. For "curd," use full-fat yogurt with a little sour cream. I pressure-cooked dried chickpeas. Edit: would be helpful if I included the link: http://meenalmehta1.blogspot.com/2007/04/murgh-choley.html