patrickamory

The original Frankie's in Carroll Gardens is excellent, especially if you eat outside. I don't think you could possibly consider it old-school or "New York Italian," however. It's thoroughly modern, and great. I was never crazy about the Clinton Street branch even when it was serving Italian. Never thought it came close to measuring up to the Brooklyn one. Have not been to the West Village offshoot yet. There are some off-the-beaten path midtown and uptown places that do serious Italian that's not red-sauce that are more New York to my mind... Grifone and Lusardi's come to mind.

Tamarind halibut, a delicate dish from Kerala with tamarind, onions, coconut milk, curry leaves, dried spices and chiles: They had nice wild whitebait at the fishmongers too so I got that and floured it a la Richard Olney: And then rapidly deep-fried it and served it with fried parsley and lemons:

percyn beautiful panini. dcarch Amazing potstickers! i've rarely seen homemade ones look so toothsome.

I tried making my own from ends of bottles of wine, using the advice from The Art Of Eating. However it quickly developed a mold cap that grossed out my partner and that was the end of it. It did smell rather awful.

I totally agree. People are getting into trashy, low-quality balsamics and using them, essentially as sweetening rather than souring agents. I'll take a cheap red wine vinegar anytime. (Actually, I prefer them even to proper aged balsamics - I think I've been completely turned off the balsamic flavor profile by the crappy cheap ones.) As a side note: in NYC, at least, you can't even get oil and vinegar on your hero sandwich anymore without it being "balsamic." The real Italian places like Faicco's, and (RIP) Italian Food Market switched over in the '80s during the balsamic revolution, and probably can't even remember that they used to use red wine vinegar. Cheaper places still have the latter, but the rest of their ingredients are crap. </rant> sorry, this whole balsamic thing drives me nuts.

This is pretty much exactly what I did, and below is how it turned out.

More Persian cooking. A potato kuku (sort like a frittata): Mixture for lamb meatballs, with ground lamb, onions, chickpea flour, ground cardamom, saffron in rosewater, salt and pepper: Tahdig, made with kaffir lime leaf: Finished gondi (meatball soup), soup made from lamb bones, turmeric, onions, and ghee:

Ponte's is not much good these days. Bamonte's in Williamsburg is pretty tasty if you order right. Same for Ecco on Chambers Street. I enjoyed Parm fine but it's definitely an evolution from the classic, and the same goes for the rest of your suggestions (I haven't been to Piccolo Angolo for 10 years, so I can't speak authoritatively on that one). Have not been lucky enough to eat at Torrisi yet. And underrated, forgotten place is Marchi on East 31 Street. Literally lost in the mists of time. They only serve one meal, and it's been the same since 1925 or whenever they opened. About six courses, starting with crudités, through cold cuts, a salad of tuna with capers and chopped celery, homemade lasagna, fish, chicken, and desert made out of these rather tasty deep-fried lemon crostoli with powdered sugar. It's spread among several rooms of old attached townhouses, and though it can comfortably seat maybe 250 people, you might be the only ones there. I think the food & the experience are great, but not everyone may agree. Not expensive at all for what it is. Ask for James, and get him to tell you his stories of his acting career in heavy metal videos, etc.

Yum Bruce. Sodsook recipe?

SobaAddict - were you inspired by David Tanis's article on stracciatella in this Wednesday's Times?

Really enjoying FrogPrincesse's delmonico steak and Kim's lamb... not to mention Kim's mother's potato salad. I'm a bit behind here, but we had Persian food three nights ago. The jujeh still on their sword-like skewers: Another tahdig (of course!), but prepared by a slightly different method: Side dish was simple - leeks with butter and chervil: The kebabs on the plate with the lovely fluffy rice: (My involvement in the cooking was strictly limited to the leeks.)

Thanks guys! I'm going to take rro's advice. Already pounded the cutlets. Filling will be red miso paste, chopped apple eggplants and possibly some thai basil (might use it to season the outside instead).

I realize that to most people thinly sliced chicken breasts are "Chicken," but I mainly cook whole birds or bone-in thighs. I bought these by mistake, and I have absolutely no idea what to do with them that won't dry them out. Any recommendations? They are decent quality - Murray's. I know I'll be serving them with a side-dish of chickpea and preserved lemon tagine.

Ah, got it. Thanks andie.

So seabream, how did it go with the Mussaman? Have you made it yet? We're all waiting with bated breath!

As long as the liquid doesn't smell like furniture polish, you are good to go. I believe someone asked in another thread, "But what if your furniture polish smells like lemon?" Mine smelled lemony but not "off". They were definitely fine.

robirdstx Beautiful pizza. Do you use a pizza stone? Made my first dish with homemade preserved lemons last night. Moroccan in inspiration but modern in execution (although mostly cooked in the tagine). Chervil chicken with preserved lemons: I browned the chicken in an All-Clad pan and deglazed with white wine. The chicken then cooks slowly in the tagine with zest of lemon orange in addition to the preserved lemons. At the end, you remove the chicken and whisk the sauce with crème fraîche - I wonder whether this was really necessary - it added a certain creaminess that might not have been needed. Still tasty though. The finishing touch, which really makes the dish, is a gremolata of raw minced garlic, fresh chervil, fresh thyme, and more orange and lemon zest - it makes the flavors brighter and they really pop. No dried spices at all. An interesting recipe - I plan to play around with it. It was entirely consumed almost instantly - eight chicken thighs for two people!

From my first batch! They turned out good. I'm going to use them to make an adaptation of this recipe.

Per request, here's how we made Batmanglij's sggplant khoresh recipe (khoresh e-bademjan) 1/4 cup ghee 2 pounds boneless chicken thighs 4 medium onions, thinly sliced 2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced 1 tsp sea salt 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper 1 tsp turmeric - fresh grated if possible 1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon 1 tsp good saffron - that's 3 grams - finely ground and dissolved in 4 tbs rose water 6 canned tomatoes, chopped - we used Danicoop San Marzanos 1 cup sultana raisins (sub for unripe grapes) 1/4 cup lime juice 9 slim eggplants - these are the long slim eggplants you find in Asian markets 1 egg white Batmanglij's recipe calls for a Dutch oven. We used an unglazed tagine instead. Preheat oven to 350F. In a pan, heat 3 tbs ghee over medium-high heat and brown the chicken, onion and garlic. Move to tagine, add salt, pepper, turmeric, cinnamon and saffron-rose water, and slowly bring to low simmer over heat tamer on medium heat. Add tomatoes, raisins, lime juice. Cover & simmer over low heat for half an hour. Peel eggplant and slice into halves, soak in salted water for 20 minutes and pat dry (don't rub). Brush eggplants with egg white. Heat 3 tbs ghee in a heavy pan on medium heat till very hot. Brown eggplants on all sides, and drain on plate lined with paper towels. Add eggplants to the top of the tagine mixture, cover and continue simmering over low heat for 45 minutes. Check for doneness on the eggplant - continue if necessary till eggplant is cooked and tender. Adjust salt and lime juice if needed. Serve.

I'm sure it will be delicious. Remember your flavor balancing at the end... only add half the fish sauce it calls for and adjust just before serving. Keep us posted!

An old standby... spaghetti with tuna, from Marcella Hazan.

Todd, Thompson gives the Thai for heavenly beef as "neua sawarn". Here's how I made it. - 1 lb beef (Thompson calls for rump, I used a heavily marbled cut I got in Chinatown that was simply marked "steak" - it resembles what the Koreans use for bulgogi and galbi, so it may have been sirloin or from the rib), cut into 1/2" strips - 1 tbs chopped coriander (cilantro) roots (use 1 1/2 tbs chopped stems and leaves if roots not available, but try to get cilantro with roots attached - it makes a difference) - large pinch of salt (I go heavy here) - 2 tbs chopped garlic - 15 white peppercorns - 4 tbs palm sugar - 3 tbs light soy sauce - 2 tbs coriander seeds, lightly crushed - vegetable oil - enough for deep-frying Slice the beef. Pound the coriander roots, salt, garlic and peppercorns into a paste with your mortar and pestle. Mix paste thoroughly with palm sugar and soy sauce in a large bowl. Add beef and rub the marinade into it thoroughly with your hands. Marinate for 3 hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge, turning periodically. Press the crushed coriander seeds into the marinated beef. Preheat oven to warm. Place the beef strips on racks over trays to catch any drippings, and dry the beef until almost all the moisture (but not all) has left it. That was about 3 hours in my oven at this time of year. Bring vegetable oil to 325-350 F in a deep pot. Deep-fry beef strips in batches. Maybe about 30 seconds per batch, or to taste. Remove beef from oil to plates lined with paper towels. Serve with chili garlic sauce, nam pla prik, and sweet Thai chili sauce.

Hi guys, The heavenly beef comes from David Thompson's Thai food, and the eggplant khoresh from the new edition (25th anniversary edition) of The Food Of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij (confusingly the old edition was called The New Food of Life). The recipe was not in the first edition. Batmanglij re-created it from descriptions of a dish dating from around 1400. Obviously the tomatoes are a more recent addition. Glad people are enjoying the meals.

Wow, you're going for the Mussaman? One of the more ambitious curries! I've never made that one. 3 cups of cream is a lot of cream. Three coconuts yielded just over a cup of cream this time. But as I say, it varies a lot - coconuts have different amounts of meat inside, and the meat is more or less creamy (i.e. infused with coconut oil). Usually one coconut yields about 3/4 cup of cream, in my experience. You have to allow for the possibility that some of the coconuts will be bad, so overbuy. I bought 4 coconuts for this recipe, and 1 was bad. You will often have lots of milk left over, especially from the second pressing. But again, it depends. The recipes often tell you to reserve the milk and moisten the curry as it cooks. You have to play it by ear. Depending on the consistency of the paste, and depending on the quantity of the meat and vegetables, you may end up using quite a bit more milk. Some curries are supposed to be almost like soup, with a nice sheen of coconut oil floating on top. I've never tried freezing my coconut milk. I'd look to see what Kasma has to say. I have bought frozen shredded coconut for southern Indian dishes and it was nothing special. But at least you'd be avoiding the floury, gloppy texture of the canned stuff.

See pictures of last night's meal in the Dinner thread. That pork curry is sublime. And if you can do the extracting of the coconut milk, fairly straightforward as Thai dishes go - the paste is pretty simple. Holy basil you can never count on, even here. The one place I know in Manhattan that has it often sells out. And other places mis-label Thai basil as holy basil - they are so completely different in reality! If you grow it successfully, let me know. That would be the ticket, because it really lasts for such a short period after it's been picked.