scubadoo97

Prior to my Grandmother passing away in 2001 at the age of 94, one of my cousins spend time with her to watch her prepare many of the family foods she made for holidays and everyday fare. My cousin also asked all of us to submit recipes to add to the book. The book was published a year after my Grandmother passed away. It is filled with all of her recipes we still cook today as well as many that were submitted by her children and grandchildren. It also has many photos of our very large extended family. It is a special legacy and we use it often. Tomorrow I will gather with my aunts and cousins to prepare many of the Syrian recipes that we use for the up coming Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah. We remember her fondly as we try to recreate the many special dishes she made and have to think that she would be very happy to know that these dishes still help to bind her family together. We have extra copies to pass to our children and hope that one day they too will carry on the traditions of our family.

Paul, I'd say a little bit of both. Many restaurants just don't devote enough attention to great coffee service using fresh high quality beans and they are not willing to provide fresh brewed coffee on demand. This is their fundamental disadvantage. Instead they have the big Bunn drip brewers and depending on how fast it's used can sit for a considerable time and scorch. I'm not saying it can't be done but it's not likely to happen. I've been to restaurants that provide individual coffee service using French press pots. I don't know the quality of the beans, how it was roasted or when it was roasted but at least it's a first step.

The microplane. Inexpensive and used quite often for zest, to grate a light fluffy mound of cheese or to quickly and finely grate ginger or garlic to a paste.

Coffee service at even a fine restaurant is dismal and even the coffee at "espresso bars" in many places is really bad. The latter is a product of the consumers love for frozen syrupy sweet coffee drinks and training that doens't go much beyond what the average consumer wants.

Khalal fresh dates at the Middle Eastern market.

One of my woo moments recently was finding fresh tumeric in an Indian market. It was a big wooo!

When I was spearfishing my typical catch was grouper, snappers, there are several species that live on the reef and hogfish along with an occasional sheepshead or cobia. My typical table fare now will include salmon, tuna, grouper snapper, wahoo, cobia and mahi. I love spanish mackerel, it's great on the smoker, but don't see it in my fish markets and unless I'm going out fishing for them they are not available.

Adding the onion peel will give a nice color to your stock

I would agree they are over represented. I happen to think a red bell pepper or paquillo sauce is excellent.

I started out making gravlax but found that after a couple of days of curing that the texture got a little gummy. Tried brining and liked the texture better. What works well for me but is just a little more work is a combination of both. 24 hrs dry cure and then follow with a wet brine for no more than 12hr and then refresh. This gives a firmer but yet creamy texture.

Very similar to my method. I have gone to just rinsing without the soak and have not noticed any problems with salty taste issues and I've even started scoring the skin side to let more brine in. I'm typically brining for about 12 hours but this is with skin on. Often I'll brine overnight and then in the morning rinse and dry then smoke later in the day. How does the maple hold up flavor wise in the finished product. I ask because I've done it and didn't notice much difference in the end. My last batch I added a bunch of freshly ground coriander to the brine. I did notice a mild coriander taste in the fish.

got that right Paul

Excellent news jmolinari. Can you elaborate on your curing methods. we are heading to the beach for a couple days with friends. I'll be making another batch of Nova lox to take with me to share along with some other seafood goodies.

Celeste, that is my perfered method of cooking a chicken. Indirect heat for anywhere between 40min to just over an hour depending on the heat. I might flip to get help render some more fat out of the skin but this must be done with care since even over indirect heat flare ups are possible.

Chris, check out Gators website on Japanese knives and steel composition and resource information. http://zknives.com/index.shtml "19C27 - Sandvik steel, very pure alloy. Popular with Japanese knifemakers, referred simply as Swedish steel. Often seen in Japanese kitchen knives, where it is hardened in the range of 62-64HRC. Alternate designations: 19C27(Sandvik)."

Beautiful salad. I want to know how you keep the red beets from coloring all the other ingredients?

The Devin Thomas knives are certainly the ones I lust for at the moment.

I have not personally purchased from them but there is a lot of positive feedback on foodieforums and knifeforums, two boards with a high number of Japanese knife enthusiasts

The ProQ is pretty nice. Very similar to another, the A Maze N smoker. The gel packs work really well. I smoked my salmon 2-3 hours yesterday in the smoker which is on my Lani facing due west. It was cloudy but the ambient temp in the smoker with out the ice packs was around 90* With the ice packs it was 65* and the fish was ice cold when I removed it from the smoker. I have used a tray of ice set on the shelf below the fish but even though it brings the temp in the smoker down I've had some superficial cooking of the exterior flesh. Laying the fish down on the ice foam packs has worked like a charm. Oh and breakfast of smoked salmon was thoroughly enjoyed this morning. So easy to make and great way to start the day

I'm not smoking to preserve but just to impart a mild smoke flavor to the fish. My fish was wet brined and I'm not looking to dry it out. I like the silky texture of the fish done this way I smoke in my electric smoker but use a homemade smoke generator so my smoker is turned off. To allow me to smoke in your balmy temperatures I set my fish on ice packs. Actually they are the jell/foam type pack that I place in a zip bag and then place the fish on top of the ice packs. This has kept the fish quite cool during the smoking process. We usually eat the lox throughout the week but it could go a bit longer Here is a picture of my cold smoke generator set into the side of my smoker. It has an air supply to keep the wood chips burning and pump the smoke into the smoker. An in line check valve will help to increase or decrease smoke output.

Go for it! I have a side of Atlantic farmed salmon resting in brine at this very moment. I used a good dose of salt, dark brown sugar, ground coriander and dill seed to make the brine. I'll cold smoke it tomorrow or Saterday after it's had a chance to dry in the fridge.

My Weber Silver gas grill came with bare cast iron grates. I followed their instructions for initial seasoning. The instructions said to leave residual food on the grates and that when you reheat the grill that the oils in the food will help to re-season the grates. With their other grates they suggest you burn off old food residue at the end of cooking. No matter which way you do it, if you heat the grill to the level to burn off any food residue you will burn off the seasoning. I use to keep a small tub of Crisco handy and after a high heat preheating and good wire scrub down I would rub some Crisco on the grates before adding food. I think it was the rusting factor in between use that finally lead me to replace the grates. I ended up getting stainless grates which I just rub with oil after preheating before adding food. If and when I replace these I will most likely try the porcelain coated cast iron.

I have yet to buy a high end blender but I can say with certainly that I've spent about as much as a VitaMix on cheap blenders over the years.

Emily, that looks wonderful. I want to dip right in

This is not the only thing I've seen pre measured and packaged. I ran across a salsa in a bag. Onion, tomato, cilantro, peppers etc. all in a bag and you just toss them into your blender of food pro. Instant salsa gonna get you