Bond Girl

Come on guys! The fun is in seeing the caricature....and in enjoying the experience. I love going to places like that because it's almost like being in the theater where you are a participant.

I think I am going to try my hand at a Jamalaya. Do any one of you have a basic recipe? How much sausage to rice ratio? And do you have to chop them or you can juts slice them? And, what else is in there besides red beans, rice, tomatos, celery, onions and garlic? Do you put cayenne or roast chili pepper? And, are there any cajun seasoning required?

Now that I looked it up, it is designed by Tony Chi.

I've seen pictures of the inside, I think it's designed by Tony Chi, but I might be wrong. It looked kind of stogey in the pictures, so I didn't pay much attention to it, but now I'm really curious. I will call up some of my more connected friends to see who has the unlisted number. It will be kind of fun to see what exactly is the application process. The whole thing may be well worth every penny of the $7,000.

How different is andouille from tasso? Fistfullaroux, would you recommend using tasso in gumbo over andouille? I am determined to perfect my Gumbo recipe!

Cool! Can't wait.

Jason, thanks for the Jambalaya tip. As far as I know it, it's andouille sausages sliced, red beans and rice, is there anything else that should go in there? some chopped up tomatoes maybe? I may also try doing Dave's recipe of tomato cream sauce over linguine when I have people over. Dave, do you put cajun spices into the sauce, or do you stick to the usual Italian herbs and spices like oregano and bay leaves? BTW, the Cornbread idea is awesome!

In a recently received gift basket, I got a large package of Andouille sausages from D'Artagnan. Since I limit my rare occasion of meat consumption to fish and shellfish, I have no idea what to do with them except as flavoring agents in Gumbo and Paella. Does anyone have any ideas? I don't mind cooking them, I just don't want to eat them.

I've tried it many times with limited success, but the version in Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweet seemed to work erlatively well.

what I loved about Amma, is the balance of spices that is prevalent in all the dishes we had. During my first trip to Amma, I bratishly asked for a dsh of green chili, but the food hardly needs help at all. In respect of Pan's question of "Robust Spicy-ness", the food at Amma is like a well executed version of a complex symphony with the perfect blend of harmony and counter points.

More information on Asiate. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...=0entry372501

Thanks jim, I will try it this weekend since we are having a snow storm.

Jim, will you share your recipe?

Betts, will you share your recipe? I love macaroons.

Hardcover definitely! I'm hard on my cookbooks, so they have to withstand being spilled and splashed upon by bizarre concoctions.

Suvir, congrats! A review well deserved!

I would also like to try the Julia/Pepin one as well, does anyone have these two books?

As I was flipping through the December issue of Vogue last night, I came across an article on Lobster Souffle by Jeffrey Steingarten. The piece talked about two different lobster souffle recipes that supposedly reminded Steingarten the one he had as a teenager in Paris, that had set him on the course of gastronomic discovery. One of them involved taking the souffle mixture from Jacque Pepin's Complete Technique and the Lobster preparation from Julia Child's Cooking with Master Chef and the sauce from either and putting it together. The other was developed between Steingarten and Didier Elena (executive chef of Alain Ducasse), which you have to send away for the recipe. The whole venture supposedly takes about 10 hours. Has anyone ever tried this? The dish sounds fascinating and I would would be willing to give it a shot on some weekends but as I don't have either books from Julia Child or Jacque Pepin, I have no idea what he was talking about. I've sent away for the recipes and is stiill waiting but anyone else who wants to try it and compare notes with me can send an email to lobstersouffle@earthlink.net. source: vogue article December issue

chili powder, red beans, lentils, soaked bulger wheat, lots of pailla chili, and charred poblano chili, jalepeno, and may be a bottle of negra modelo.

They are never eaten out of hand, unless you like extremely hard fruits that are tasteless. But, I love keeping Quinces around the house because the smell warms up the room on a cold winter day. You can cook it with a sugar and some lemon and make a jam out of them, you can make them into a compote with some cinnamon and cardamon and serve them over ice cream, or you can cut them into cubes, par-boil them and stir it with some onions , apples, and rosemary to make a nice accompaniment to a firm fleshed fish (my friend also have tried this with quails and chicken). By the way, a tea made of boiled quince peels, cinnamon and lemon with some honey is the best thing for a bad cold.

One version of the Taiwanese fried rice uses ketchup to gve the dish a sweet tomatoey taste. I don't particularly like it, but it is very popular. Ketchup is also frequently used as part of a mainade for those ribs you get in Flushing, though I think that is more mainland China than Taiwan. There is a Malaysian Chili crab that uses a lot of ketchup and thai chili to give it a sweet spicy taste. Not exactly chinese, but more Malaysian Chinese.

Okay, I admit I succumbed to the lovely balance of that cab franc and had more than my doctor would have allowed me to have on medication, but the wine worked so well with the food that I couldn't help myself. My salmon with truffles more done than I would have liked, but it was not bad by any means, I'm not sure if I would have put black truffle on the salmon either, just a little bit too much flavor there. The whole thing sits on top of spinach with a red wine reduction sauce. It was not inventiive but good comfort food for thanksgiving. As for dessert, I had the toffee cake with cinnamon ice cream. Like the entree, the dessert was comfort food and exactly what I was looking for with a cold on thanksgiving. I must mention that the best part of the meal was the company. I'm grateful for Suzanne and HWOE for inviting me, because without them, I would have been home ordering chinese takeouts. This is one of the more memorable holidays because I had great conversation and good food, for me, that is what Thanksgving is about.

There was a thread that I started a while back about Butter. Supposedly, the butter you get depends on what the cow had been eating, so butter produced in the summer has a slightly more herbal taste than butter prooduced in the winter when the cows are feediing on dry stock. Most US butter has a fat content of approximately 80%, whereas french butter taste richer and better because it has a higher butter fat content. I haven't try English butter, but I think the Irish Kerry Gold actually came pretty close to the french variety. From there, you can get into a whole world of Artisanal butter. I prefer Isigny and Kerry Gold for spreading on bread and Plugra for baking. If you really want to splurge, the Vermont Butter (86% butter fat content) is good all around, but really expensive. This is something you will need to experiement yourself because what I discovered over the summer, when I was on my whole butter tasting experiement, was that what taste good doesn't necessarily translate well to baking or cooking. At the end of the day, it's a matter of personal taste. So, have fun and let us know what you find.

Tabla's watermelon mojito is amazing. About the only thing I'd go there for.

My insignificant other is still amazed at the fact that "how can a person who is obviously in her late forties, and works in the food business, not know the difference between real maple syrup and sugar syrup?" My favorite incident is in Cape May when "freshly squeezed " orange juice turned out to be "Tropicana". The waitress even showed me the "freshly squeezed" label on the carton.