patrickamory

Thanks everyone - made instant couscous (medium Tunisian) tonight and it turned out very nicely. It sounds like relatively few people make traditional couscous at home...

As a first-time tagine user, can I correct what I suspect must have been a typo in Paula Wolfert's post? Surely it should read "You need far less liquid when preparing a tagine in an glazed pot." This is what the the writer actually implies, what you would expect from a glazed pot (because the liquid condenses and drips back down into the food), and what I've read elsewhere.

Initial cure and seasoning complete - I used the wood ash. Then put in about another 1/4 cup of olive oil - it just drinks it up. Tonight I'll be cooking in it for the first time... thinking about an Algerian chickpea dish in dersa sauce.

I'm going to make couscous for the first time tomorrow, as an accompaniment to the chickpea dish that will baptize my new tagine. I realize there are threads on this, but they are very old and inconclusive. Unless the subject is buried inside a thread with a different topic title - I did search. Is there a big advantage to making coucous properly, in a steamer (I can cobble together an approximation of a couscousiere), with non pre-cooked product, the oil, the water, and the three separate steaming procedures? Or am I fine with regular instant couscous? Will I notice a major difference in taste or texture? I'm a big fan of not taking shortcuts, and enjoy complicated procedures & doing things the traditional way where possible. But I'll already be doing one new thing tomorrow with the tagine, so perhaps I should just use instant couscous? Opinions solicited please.

You could send that to me and it would all be gone by the end of the month.... I can't believe you don't use molasses! I did use molasses recently for something but for the life of me, I can't recall what it was. I don't bake, so that's part of the reason for the list above.

lochaven I could definitely go for those meatballs. I made yet more beans tonight - this time just anasazi beans from Kalustyan's. For once I didn't do the no-soak - instead a 3-minute boil followed by a 4-hour soak. Then about an hour's simmer with garlic, shallots, Mexican oregano, carrots and salt. Absolutely delicious.

I bought a tagine! After much research and agonizing, I got a 14" Beidi tagine from tagines.com. It arrived and I instantly realized it was huge. Fortunately the nice folks at tagines.com allowed me to exchange it for a 11.5" unglazed Rifi tagine, which just arrived today: The Rifis are not only unglazed but also hand-thrown and quite irregular - the top doesn't quite fit the bottom, which is purposeful, to allow steam to escape (there is no hole in the lid). Now I'm getting ready to cure it. tagines.com recommends soaking for at least 2-3 hours in water, then rubbing the inside with olive oil, and leaving it in a preheated 350-degree oven for 2 hours. However, I also noted Wolfert's recommendation to rub with wood ash. I had my partner bring down some wood ash from one of the fireplaces at his mother's house in Boston (nothing toxic burned there) - at what point during the curing process should I add the wood ash?

Mjx, won't anchovies keep forever anyway? I always have a good jar of Italian anchovies for puttanesca or just adding a bit of umami to a stew... the purpose of the salting is to preserve in the first place. My problem is mustards. I have about 14 of them. Also: mustard oil sesame oil various flours tons of different dals molasses

+1 on the small purple-skinned garlic. I don't know where it comes from (is it Mexico?) but it's nearly always fresher, firmer and more flavorful than typical large supermarket garlic heads. It's also what's sold in Chinatown, Thai groceries, Indian groceries and Mexican markets here. The only problem is that it can sometimes be sprouting, and since it usually comes in a set of 5 heads tightly packet in a long net bag, that can be hard to spot. P.S. Produce in NYC is beyond terrible. It's the biggest obstacle to good eating and cooking here.

Good Mother Stollards AGAIN. I'm completely addicted, and will have to order another four pounds shortly. Rancho Gordo, you have a lot to answer for. Cooked the Russ Parsons way, the Stollards take about 2 hours in my oven, or a little less. Aromatics included carrots, shallots, garlic, parsley and oregano indio. I had a nice selection of Jamaican scotch bonnets, plus a jalapeno, some more fresh parsley, and fresh lime to top it. Truthfully none of these were even necessary. The beans are so delicious they need scarcely anything extra to show their best.

I made my first Vietnamese dish ever, I think... bo kho, a beef stew. It's extremely easy to make if you start early enough. The long slow braise is key. Also the oxtails are critical. Recipe came from Wandering Chopsticks.

Mmmmm, the pollo calabrese looks delicious robirdstx. I'm definitely going to give that a try. And so does that beef wellington dcarch. Wow. Last night I made a full Thai meal at the request of friends - I haven't been making it as much lately, partly out of laziness, partly out of ingredient issues (holy basil lasts 2 days, max, period, whatever you do! THOUGH if it's going in a stirfry, you can saute it and keep it in a ziplok in the fridge. For any other uses, everything is fruitless - covering, refrigerating, freezing, forget it - it just wilts and goes brown faster than any other herb I've ever used). Not having any leftover pastes in the fridge, the whole meal all had to be made from scratch. Even with the help of the wetgrinder, I'd forgotten just how labor-intensive Thai meals are. I served chicken pad prik king with snake beans and apple eggplants (pictured below), stir-fried minced beef with holy basil, and papaya salad with dried shrimp. All recipes from David Thompson. And jasmine rice. And nam pla prik - some people were a bit too generous with that And for contrast, below it is a beef pad prik king I made a few weeks ago, maybe posted a version in the shutterbug thread. It's much more photogenic, but actually was nowhere near as good - harder to get the beef cooked just right (ribeye in this case) compared to chicken thigh meat. It also looks better with the big shiny leaves of Thai basil.. but tastes better with the small retiring leaves of holy basil...

Could it be the pan? I recently acquired one of the smallest sized classic "block logo" Griswolds... perfectly smooth bottom, exactly the right size to hold one pre-made tortilla. Heated over medium heat, flipped a couple of times, every tortilla puffs and browns in just the right places. It's kind of crazy how well it works.

Pozole rojo. The corn came from Rancho Gordo.

We definitely love Najmieh Batmanglij for Persian cuisine, especially the new edition of Food of Life

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/frankies-457-spuntino/ Stick with the original in Carroll Gardens. (edit: once upon a time there were original Italian-American non-new places that had this kind of quality... Andy's Colonial Tavern in East Harlem, when Sal was still cooking, comes to mind. Some are still around, some still have atmosphere, some have "tasty chow". beyond that I can't give unqualified thumbs-up for the cooking unfortunately.)

Runner cannellinis over white rice.

I only use whole dried chiles.

Thanks for the tips all... so ... Can I use alkalize this untreated "Yellow Corn For Posole" to make masa? http://www.purcellmountainfarms.com/Yellow%20Corn%20for%20Posole.htm Or am I still missing something? The terminology confuses me...

I'd ask the question - what is a cookbook? Some books are just collections of recipes. Others are introductions to techniques and ways of thinking about food. Others instruct about foodways and cultures. Still others are books that you read in bed, that talk about how food, eating, cooking and even raising ingredients fit into our lives. I think I'll always have room for the last category, if they are well written.

Thanks Chris, my friend who is an expert on things Mexican just told me the same thing. So what's a good source for dried nixtamlized corn? Or even corn to nixtamalize myself?

No final photos, but I did add a third layer of chili paste towards the end (that's the second day, in the 90-minute re-heat phase, along with some extra water). And a teaspoon of red miso paste. I couldn't resist, and it does seem to just solidify the flavors. A dusting of white sugar at one point too. Multiple tasting, salting, occasional adding of water, and a surprise addition of Mexican oregano at the end. It was fantastic... I think there is no dish I enjoy making more....

Butterbean - thanks - I love it! I live in a small apartment so there is no attic, and any closet is likely to have clothes, detergents, sheets or other non-ham appropriate items. However I suspected that the ham didn't need to go into the fridge even as is - as the Benton flyer in the box instructs. I suspect the FDA or whoever requires them to include that. Really really looking forward to trying this. P.S. How are people slicing extremely thin? Using knife skills, or meat slicers? or one of those beautiful Spanish ham holders?

I think it sounds fine. Let us know how you get on.

Chili stage one (about an hour in). Shortly after this I caved and added some tomatoes. Not many!