patrickamory

Anna N (sandwiches with wonderfully fatty meat), BKEats (mini-burgers on Martins potato rolls): what could be better than that. Tonight I had an extremely bloody rare crown mallard at a London restaurant, bit of grapeshot in, just lovely with some Côte de Nuits and then a 1998 Vega Sicilia - a really perfect winter meal. Started with langoustines with homemade mayo and some charcuterie lardo coppa etcetera. No photos I'm afraid.

Huge thread on this somewhere...

Franci, in the New York area you can get Murray's chicken, which is produced humanely and naturally by a cooperative of farms upstate. There is some quality variation, and huge price variations depending on where you buy it. Then there is label rouge chicken available from some sellers at Union Square Green Market. This is true pasture-raised chicken produced in the manner Michael Pollan describes in the Omnivore's Dilemma. I haven't had the USGM ones, but I have had them from Meadowmist Farms in Lexington, Mass., and they are a whole different experience. Closer to goose or heirloom turkey for me, or poulet de Bresse that I've eaten in Europe (though these weren't the bluefoot breed - still superlative, even frozen). Thanks for the Crepes: "one of the telltale deep styrofoam packs where the plastic overwrap doesn't touch the meat." I know exactly what you're talking about, and have had horrible experiences more than once from these. Oddly, the well respected Pat La Frieda ground beef in New York is sold in these. I had one of those be off as well. I don't buy his ground beef anymore (though I'll eat it at Shake Shack or Minetta Tavern)!

gfweb: you are right. In New England, chips would be the rule and what I would prefer.

I love potato chips as a side for club sandwiches (in NYC fries are the rule however). That little paper cup of coleslaw and a pickle wedge are de rigueur.

I'm addicted to these meaty, earthy, creamy Royal Corona beans. I slow-cooked them John Thorne style in clay for hours, with just enough soaking liquid to cover, plus a half-cup of olive oil, salt, pepper, basil, bay leaf, a bit of Mexican oregano and a couple mild dried red chiles.

Late on this one… just finished Michael Pollan's "Cooked" and enjoyed it very much. And though it's really a philosophical and autobiographical text, I've dogeared some pages to refer to in the kitchen.

Unbelievable 90-post thread in one day. Nothing like club sandwiches to get eGulleteers going! (P.S. 3 slices of toasted bread, must be cut into 4 triangles, may contain ham but never cheese, PLUS any type of meat if specified in the description + B, L, T. The order of ingredients is beyond me but I agree with whomever said the mayo must be spread on the bread. In my family, the tomatoes would always be salted and dusted with fresh-ground black pepper.)

Yup, strike a balance.

Fuschia's vegetarian dry-fried green beans, served with red-braised pork.

All you people making heartwarming dishes during this cold snap that has struck most of North America - they all look so good!

I like peeling garlic too much to buy pre-peeled cloves.

Norm, that chili looks delicious. I'm an aficionado of chili recipes. Care to share your Rx (at rotuts might say) ?

Wonderful meals everyone. Shelby that boudin looks so appetizing. Homemade, or from that Louisiana source you posted about? I made coq au vin… It's 16F (-9C) here in NYC, I realize that might not sound so cold to some of you, but we don't have cars! This was great for the weather. Sorry for the second photo, something was acting up.

re: bacon fat. If you're talking American bacon, chances are very high that it has been smoked, which would give a specific flavor to the rendered fat, so different from lard IMO. If you're talking about bacon that has only been cured (not smoked)… the fat rendered from it still might have a specific flavor.

Kim no bell peppers. And yes Benton's is something wonderful. We had one of the hams the summer before last and had it sliced paper-thin at the island grocery store (no doubt breaking all sorts of FDA regs) and ate it like prosciutto.

rotuts, slow-roasted at 170 F for 5 hours… then about 20 minutes at 450. could have been 200 for the first bit. checked internal temps with thermopen.

Going backwards in time, for New Year's Eve we had slow-roasted leg of lamb.

I posted my results in the Dinner thread.

As mentioned in the Hoppin John thread, I made a back to basics (and slightly deconstructed) version of the dish, based on this fascinating article. The point of the piece is that the original dish depended on only three main ingredients - heirloom beans (red beas, not black eyed), real slow-smoked country bacon, and old-fashioned southern rice varieties, all of which have become debased by industrial agriculture over the past century. Using the best ingredients possible, a lot of the other additions which have accumulated in more recent versions of the recipe might not be needed. So I went to work: - I had Anson Mills Sea Island red peas in the freezer, so those went to soak on New Year's Eve. - And I was able to buy a half-pound of Benton's country bacon, sliced thickly, from the Meat Hook in Brooklyn. - That only left the rice… I've eaten Anson Mills's Carolina Gold rice (not to be confused with Carolina brand rice) and it was heavenly. Expensive as hell though, especially with the shipping. And not to be found anywhere in NYC on December 31st. So here I had to compromise. What I chose to do was not to cook the beans and bacon in the rice - I've done that before with supermarket rice, and there's just too much of a risk of the rice turning into a soggy, gooey mess. The old-fashioned Southern method of boiling the rice with water and then drying it out in the oven so that each grain separates seemed to complicated in the context of Hoppin John. So I cooked the rice separately… but used the leftover bean soaking liquid instead of water, and served the beans/bacon combination and the rice on the plate in two dishes so that it could be combined. I didn't do true purity: I added some salt, bay leaves and pepper to the beans, and fried onions in the rendered bacon fat and added those too. Served with lime wedges and bottles of Marie Sharp's habanero sauce. I suspect that similar additions were assumed by the writer of the 1847 recipe mentioned in the article but who knows? This turned out well… nothing left… long slow prep. I need to write down exactly what I did.

Dispense with the tomato! Inspired by this article, I made a version of Hoppin John this New Years with little more than the three original ingredients - rice, red peas (beans) and Southern bacon. Details to come in the Dinner thread.

I went to Nakazawa and was not blown away at all. Not really a fan of 15 East either.

Those of you in New York State or nearby, seek out Ronnybrook Farms yogurt.

Apparently a New York steakhouse technique, perhaps originally Peter Luger. For whatever reason, we find that cutting it up and reassembling it gets us to perfection (and it really is). Also much easier to check doneness. There is a video online somewhere.

Hi all, catching up a bit here with a couple meals. Dry-aged porterhouse, Burmese chile sauce, and Burmese chicken with limes and garlic.