patrickamory

Odd, one thing I rarely sensed from Sifton's writing was boredom.

I was afraid someone was going to ask that I didn't keep a record of it! I think it was Fromage des Clarines, but that is a style and not a maker... it comes from the Jura border so break out your Arbois and vin jaune... and if you're in NYC, request it at Artisanal! edit: I'm certain now the maker was Jean Perrin. Please get it at an affineur who knows how to age cheese... that said, it IS available on Amazon

Hi sheetz, Here are the ingredients I used: 1 1/2 lbs fresh boneless pork belly with skin 2-inch piece of fresh unpeeled ginger, crushed slightly 2 scallions, white & green parts, cut in to 4 sections 2 cups chicken stock (just a homemade stock I had in the fridge) 1 tbs Pearl River dark soy sauce 2 tbs Yu Yee brand Shaoxing rice wine 3/4 tsp salt 3 tbs brown sugar 1/2 of a star anise (4 segments) 2 dried red chiles (not in Dunlop's recipe) I will definitely try refrigerating & reducing more next time, thanks for those tips. I wonder whether the Pearl River & Yu Yee brands were not the best for the sauce? djyee100, thanks for the link to the other thread - going to check it out now. Patrick

Chicken soup. Two chickens were used - one to make a roasted brown stock from an old Gourmet recipe (it makes fabulously tasty stock), and the second for the actual soup. Unfortunately, it wasn't a huge success. I should have used 100% stock for the liquid rather than diluting it with water. Some more aromatics might have helped too. This cheese from Artisanal, on the other hand, saved the meal. We were instructed to eat at room temperature and simply scoop it out with a spoon. It was sensational - almost as assertive to the nose as a washed-rind cheese (which it wasn't), incredibly complex, creamy dairy and hay flavors melting in the mouth.

Red-braised pork. My first attempt at making Chinese food in a few decades. I cook a lot of Thai and Indian, but never Chinese. However I was enraptured by Fucshia Dunlop's book of memoirs about learning to cook in China, and then I bought Land of Plenty. So I invested in a Joyce Chen wok (from the recommendations on Serious Eats - a bit heavier than I expected), seasoned it, went to Chinatown and bought the few necessary ingredients I didn't already have (pork belly from the Chinese butcher - it came with a few ribs attached which I marinated, dried and deep-fried for a Thai snack), and Shaoxing rice wine, and then made Dunlop's recipe for red-braised pork (hong shao rou). Everything appeared to be proceeding nicely, and the dish certainly looks correct (see photo ab0ve), but I wasn't blown away by it. I greatly enjoy fat of all kinds, but it just felt a bit too fatty, and not just in the pork belly but in the sauce. Maybe I should have degreased or reduced the sauce more? And the dish felt strangely underseasoned for a Chinese dish. I THINK I've had red-braised pork in good Sichuan restaurants but perhaps not, and maybe I was expecting a more assertive flavor profile, like many other dishes from the region. The only other things I can think of are that the pork belly was not the best, or the Shaoxing rice wine was an off brand (Yu Yee brand - only $2.19 for 750ml). My partner quite enjoyed it by the way, but I thought something was missing. Any suggestions or advice?

FG - just a few questions about your Bertazzoni (I love the looks too) - - gas burners - sealed or open? - grates - removeable if you wanted to get, say, a wok closer to the flame? - output of each of the 4 burners? is this customizable? - computerization - how dependent on the computer is the operation of the range? Thanks in advance. I agree with eternal that there are no high-end ranges that get universally positive reviews. People report horror stories with every single brand so far as I can tell! In the latest Consumer Reports, they gave a Best Buy rating to a model from LG. I associate them with consumer electronics, not kitchen equipment. Burners are sealed which I don't like. One does go to 17k btu which I like. Like all lower-end ranges, the whole thing seems to rely on a computer, which portends future maintenance issues. And of course it's nowhere near as attractive as a Bertazzoni, let alone a Bluestar or even the higher-end GEs. Still, I'm tempted for $800.

Definitely salt my steaks (usually dry-aged usda prime grain-fed strips from Ottomanelli butchers in Greenwich Villlage) before cooking. Usually only a couple minutes before, if that. For an inch-and-a-half thick strip, 1-2 minutes on each side in a cast-iron grill band an inch away from the broiler flame produces perfect rare to medium rare, crusty on the outside and juicy on the inside. They are heavenly. YMMV.

Last year we did a heritage breed turkey for the first time (Bourbon Red I believe). It was excellent but gamey and somewhat tough (not dry - but tough like rare partridge at Rule's!). We dry-brined it. This year I'm going to do that with a standard Bell & Evans turkey. I don't like the texture wet-brining imparts to white meat.

Let me know how it goes with that Christmas gift! Also once you get it, the various uses to which you put the Millser. I have a feeling I've barely scratched the surface.

This is the company that made my bamboo board... it's not precisely like this, but the main body of it is: http://www.amazon.com/Totally-Bamboo-Kauai-Cutting-Board/dp/B00012V15K I find it stable and heavy enough not to move while using it, while nowhere near as heavy & unmaneuverable as my thick walnut end-cut board (and I have to do a lot of shuffling in my kitchen due to very limited counter space).

I paid way too much. Had I searched under the transliterated name, I could have bought the whole thing for $79.05 plus shipping. It would have been even cheaper a few months ago... the yen has skyrocketed against the dollar recently. It should be about $50-60 plus shipping. Air shipping from Japan is reasonable... I'd budget USD $20. All of the above prices are in USD obviously. I ended up paying closer to $130 all in, with all the auction site fees and domestic shipping plus international shipping I don't regret it, except that I could have paid less, had I known a bit more. Benefit from what I learned! P.S. I've never been charged customs duties on anything I've imported to the US... I know Canada is much stricter in this regard... but perhaps you can offset this with a better exchange rate, since the CAD is so strong at the moment.

Wow, I have to get rid of my bamboo cutting board? I really enjoy it, it looks nice, and it doesn't seem to take more of a toll on my knife than my heavier walnut end-grain board does

Waverley Root! I've just been reading all about him in A.J. Liebling's "Between Meals." Not to thread hijack, I've been following this avidly. We make a bolognese that pretty much starts from Marcella Hazan and doesn't go MUCH further... we've experimented with cream and gone back to milk, we've experimented with 4-hour cooking times and gone back to 2 hours. And we've alternated between adding pancetta, ground pork and ground veal. Very interested in trying some of the ideas from this thread - especially the umami ones - while staying as close as possible to the Hazan ideal which has delivered us so much eating pleasure.

Tonight I mostly had leftovers - jasmine rice with red curry chicken. But I had all the ingredients to make spinach pachadi, so I prepared that as a side dish. I didn't have onion, so I substituted red shallots, which worked well - maybe even better with their slight sweetness. The tadka is composed of black mustard seeds, dried red chile and fresh curry leaves.

I've never used the Magic Bullet, though I've heard mixed reviews. The Millser is extremely well-made, down the thickness of the glass used in the containers and the power of the motor. It feels indestructible in fact. It's such a pleasure to use I'm searching for excuses to grind things!

Nope. See my post above and Slkinsey's, about melting point of tin. FYI this was actually meant for me, and about cast iron not tin lined. And it worked - did about 4 hours at 350 degrees and the surface is smooth as silk. Toasted some spices nicely in it today. Griswold #3 did I mention that?? Block logo. A beauty.

Full report, with photos, in this new thread.

Thanks to Blether's recommendation in this thread, I was able to obtain an Iwatani Millser directly from Japan. This is a versatile small mixer/blender, perfect for a small apartment like mine. I was seeking something to help prep roughly chopped ingredients for Thai curry pastes, and I didn't want to spend the money or sacrifice the space necessary for a full-size Indian mixie. The Millser actually can do a ton of things, from mincing garlic to making smoothies, and is exceptionally well-made. The 800DG model that I bought has a footprint smaller than a regular US blender - almost as small as a coffee grinder. It comes with three different containers. The blade unit screws on to the bottom of each container. You fill the container with whatever you need to blend, screw on the blade unit, and invert it on top of the Millser. The smallest container is very small indeed - it will mince 3 bird chiles or 2 cloves of garlic with ease. The motor is extremely powerful - the torque feels similar to my 14-cup Cuisinart. The pieces come apart easily and are easy to clean. I'm not clear on whether they're dishwasher-safe because all the instructions are in Japanese. Note: I ended up buying this through a Japanese auction proxy site with great difficulty and extra expense because I didn't realize that that Japanese transliteration of the Japanglish "Millser" actually equates to "Mirusa". If you google "Iwatani Mirusa," you will find export sites that specialize in selling overseas such as Rakuten. Note 2: I'm not worrying about the slight voltage difference (100V compared to 110/120V in US), but you can easily buy a step-up transformer if it bothers you. I'm attaching some photos below. The complete setup: the three containers with tops (the large and medium ones are glass, the smallest one is thick plastic): The Millser with the medium container attached: A section of the instructions - can anyone translate? Another section - I'm assuming that the "O" means it's OK, compared to "X" for not OK - I like that! Enjoyed the illustration of the small fish ready to go in: This shows how the blade mechanism comes out: Close up of the blade mechanism from beneath: Medium container loaded with roughly chopped lemongrass: Container full of lemongrass, screwed into the mechanism and ready to blend: About three seconds later, minced lemongrass, perfect to go into the curry paste: In case you can't tell, I'm crazy about this thing. Thanks Blether!

Couldn't be more different than Sifton (whom I knew in college, and liked) - but it's maybe a refreshing change to have less of the sociocultural setting and more focus on the food. And of course, given Eric's background, the wines. This restaurant seems like an inspired choice for a review too - it's blocks from my office, I'm pretty educated about what's out there, and it totally slipped under my radar. And what could be prettier & more tantalizing than that photo of the whole fried rouget? Asimov would not be a bad choice for next permanent reviewer... better, I suspect, than whomever they do choose.

In NYC, they can usually be found fresh at Kalustyan and Eataly, and in season at Bangkok Center Grocery and the Thai produce stand on Bayard just west of Mott. Out of season BCG has frozen ones... but I've found that Kalustyan has them fresh nearly year-round. $1.75 each there.

Another vote for the Four Seasons. The Grill Room might have more of the masculine ambience you're seeking than the Pool Room has. The restaurant is mentioned several times in Mad Men but has not yet been featured in it (surprisingly, since it is probably the most intact interior of the period still surviving).

Update: took an artist there for lunch today. Complete success. First off, the bread was superb - chewy and just salty enough. Really really good. For appetizers we split the black label Parma ham with salami and figs - superb meats and perfectly fresh figs, the grilled eggplant croquesttes, and the arugula, radicchio and parmigiano salad. All great. I had the lasagna bolognese, and other people had fiochetti with cheese and pear, the tagliolini with crab (not something I would have advocated ordering), and the trenette with clams and green olives. Everyone extremely happy. I will go again. Thanks for the recommendation - so good to find another decent lunch meeting place near us.

No photos yet, and I've only had a chance to use it once - on the three Thai bird chiles required for the second paste in a jungle curry. The Millser reduced them to mince in about 3 seconds using the smallest bowl. So far, so good.

It's the zest that's usually used, along with the leaves. An essential ingredient in a few Thai curry pastes. The actual lime itself is incredibly bitter and contains very little juice. I've only come across one recipe where the juice is used, for a royal salad, also containing clementine juice, in the first David Thompson.

I love sweet small cold-water shrimp. I hope the fishery isn't under threat - and hope that stocks are not in trouble.