Mottmott

Ling, you're sooo right. I didn't have trouble with brown flecks, etc. when I recently made PH's lemon tart, but I found the curd WAY too buttery. (Could your pan not be heavy enough? would a flame tamer help? I made my very first curd in a double boiler many years ago - never again. I made the curd in a ss lined 2.5mm copper evasee that can handle my lopsided gas flame with grace.) I liked the crust, though, so I remade the tart using PH's crust and RLB's curd. It's a bit more lemony that PH's, but still a bit too bland for me, too. I'll try the FC curd you suggest. If that doesn't work, it'll be tweak tweak tweak. (I usually go for some's tried and true as my hips are too curdy as it is.) edited for typo: my curd didn't make a fist

Oops, sorry, double posted; edited to delete.

Sunday’s brunch was my first meal at Lacroix. It won’t be the last. I won’t reprise what’s already been so beautifully covered in word and image, except to add my thanks to Percy for arranging it all and everyone for their good company. I will however compare our meal there with my experience last night at Atlantico’s minibar. I did a spur of the minute spin to DC to see the Cezanne and DADA exhibits. On a why not impulse, I called Atlantico at 5pm to find that they indeed did have a cancellation for the 6pm sitting. If you’ll forgive the stretchy comparison, Atlantico was DADA to Lacroix’s Cezanne. For me, Andres’ food is exciting in a conceptual way rather more than sensual. Whether conceptual art or food, after the first direct encounter with it, I can get almost as much pleasure reading about it or looking at pictures of it as consuming it first hand. Don’t misunderstand, I’m glad I went to the minibar and enjoyed it. I’d recommend it to others. But I’m likely not to go back and I will live on the memory of it much as I live on the memory of Rose Selavy, seldom revisiting it in person. In the case of Cezanne, however, no matter how many times I revisit his work, there is always more to give pleasure. And photos of the paintings are not satisfactory substitutes. Despite the century that separates us from it, some of the work in this exhibit surprised me in some ways. (And if you go, don’t miss the drawings at the quarry and Chateau Noir which are in a little room off the main gallery.) To the extent that one considers food as an art form (as many here do), Lacroix remains firmly planted in a great tradition which includes a response to the changes of time and its new materials and techniques, not merely a mindless redo of the past. Some of his dishes integrate innovative materials or techniques, but in a relatively unselfconscious way. The emphasis is not on novelty and surprise so much as on pleasure for the palate. Andres, on the other hand, seems intellectually determined to break with the past except in witty deconstructions of a a Caesar salad or Philly cheese steak. Indeed, several of his dishes are less cooked than constructed and use raw food intensively. It seemed to me that sometimes novelty and surprise was the primary pleasure, not the sensuous qualities of the dish. Where the food succeed most for me, was in the less self-conscious dishes such as the beet tumbleweed or the conch liquid-filled fritters. Atlantico’s minibar is great dinner theatre. Lacroix’s just a great meal I’d like to revisit. Oh, I confess. Short of time, I skipped the DADA exhibit and checked out the Rothko’s and Turners. I’m sooooo retrograde. Maybe next time. After all, DADA’s history, too, now.

Try poaching pears in port. Michael Roberts has a great recipe for them with the sauce reduced and then served with a roquefort cream anglais sauce as well as the reduced port.

If it's a newer stove, use oven cleaner. If it's and old stove and they're made of iron, nothing you can do except sand it off. Edited to add: If you use oven cleaner make sure you remove them first and don't spray oven cleaner onto the gas flames. I'm sure you're smart enough to know this of course but I just came across the stupidest person on the planet elsewhere online today so I figured I shouldn't make assumptions anymore.... ← I soak mine in a strong solution of oxyclean. Usually afterwards I go over the crevices lightly with a plastic scrubby.

True, all true, but WFM and TJ's have been in Philly for some time now, and there's the Reading Terminal Market to boot. That new DiBruno's has also closed the gap somewhat in terms of specialty foods. Sure, there's no place quite like New York, but your new home isn't too shabby either. ← You forgot the Italian Market. And tell her about the Chinatown bus to NYC for emergencies.

Oh my, I'm in good company with all my jar scraping and empty bottle hoard. And have you ever bought something because you liked the shape of the jar/bottle? I've even picked up a few good tips. So here's one in return. If you go to an art store, you should be able to find, ta dah! a tube wringer . Two gears married in a plastic or metal holder that will wring out every itty bitty bit. A luxury in the kitchen for a tube of tomato paste, but a necessity in the studio where paint can run as much as $60/35ml. --be careful: do not use the same wringer for paint and food. Which bring me to a question. How many of us, wringing our tubes, diluting our dishsoap, piggybacking our handsoaps, and swishout out our jars of tomato sauce with wine (oh I'm guilty, guilty, guilty, too), are also addicted to expensive cookware and pricy produce? My hand is up. edited to add link to tube wringer

I never use substitute butters. When a dish calls for butter, only butter will do. What I have done is to redirect my day to day cooking to dishes that benefit from using olive oil.

I don't make roasts often anymore. When I do, if I can't get one really well marbled, I do lard them. It can make a big difference.

That does it! I've resisted. Another cookbook? where will I put it? Oh, yes the gravlax kickoff almost did me in, but, after all, I have a pretty good gravlax from Samuelsson. Now it's all I can do to not rush out, this minute, to the bookstore to get a copy. Doomed, doomed, I say.

Good question. But it's the old apples and oranges issue, I think. Meats are distinguished less by price these days than by their use. Even bones, which were once give-aways, have a substantial price. I saw them in WF at nearly 2/lb!!! Nevertheless, well marbled boneless steak can be 15-35/lb and good quality shank, shortribs, oxtails, etc. can be had for 5/lb. (Note, I only by non antibiotic, non hormone meats; supermarket specials might be better priced.) It's a question of what you want to eat. Braised short ribs is a totally different dish than steak. I wouldn't want to eat only one or the other. Keep in mind that when you compare a steak with a stew, the stew is a complete meal but the steak requires side dishes that drive up both work and cost. The one can be made ahead, the other requires lots of last minute attention. A braised dish can be doubled and frozen for future use as is. Leftover roasts, though, require a good bit of work to serve up again unless you're content with sandwiches and wraps instead of empanadas and shephard's pie. Also, I find that when I do a braised dish I sometimes willfully drive up the cost. Instead of a simple stew of beef, veggies, and potatoes in water, I drop in wine and stock, dried and/or wild mushrooms, fruits, etc. If I'm going all out I may go so far as to discard the veggies that are braised with the meat and add roasted vegetables to simmer and marry with the meat for awhile before serving. I eat a lot less meat now than I did 20-30 years ago when no dinner was complete without meat of some sort. When I do eat it now, I want it to be particularly good and don't compromise on the either the quality or the amount of work to prepare it. An extra price advantage that the "lesser" cuts have for the budget conscious is that a relatively small amount of meal can spread its flavor over all the other ingredients in a dish so that 3-4 oz serving of meat might be more satisfactory than a 3-4 oz serving of steak, chops, etc. A ham bone with a little meat left on it can make a big pot of bean soup. Try that with a chop.

Is there any other sensible way?

YES!i HATE celery with a passion. dont understand how people can eat that stufff raw wtih ranch dressing. yuck. NASTY. BUT, theres something really good that it adds to soups, stews and anything that calls for mirepoix. ive tried without the celery and foods just taste soooo much better with it. *shrug* dont understand how something so vile can taste so good cooked. ← Totally. I love a simple bread stuffing made with just sauteed onions, celery, lots of butter and some egg. But eat a stalk? Add it raw to salads. Yuck. But, oddly, experiment with using the pale soft inner leaves raw. You may like them in salads or as a herbal touch in other dishes.

How essential is it to use a non-stick pan for the frying? There aren't any non-stick pans in the kitchen I'm using, just big well-seasoned cast iron pans. I have a double burner griddle at home that I was planning to bring as well, and that's got a non-stick surface on it, although it's not really very non-stick. I'm going to have to do the frying in multiple rounds. I was planning to hold the already fried ones on a cooling rack placed in a sheet pan in a low oven. I want them to stay crispy, but don't want them to dry out - would covering them loosely in foil accomplish both goals? Anyone have experience holding these? Does this sound like a good plan? Fifi - you said you had enough leftover to fill a pan that big that deep. How many equivalent pans do you think you could have filled if you didn't eat any of it straight away? (Ie. what portion was left - a half, a third, a quarter?) ← I don't have a non-stick pan and always fry my polenta on cast iron. Works wonderfully. Anyway, well seasoned cast iron won't stick. edited for spelling

Last night, I didn't want to cook, so made a 5:30 res by stopping in at 4:30 on my way to Tower records. There was plenty of room at the 5:30 sitting! I fully enjoyed my meal. And there were few tables free when I left about 6:45. There are often questions about how a single woman diner is treated. And to some extent I judge a restaurant by how I'm treated when alone. If I'm not treated well then, I don't go there in company, either. Both at Django (under both mgmts) & Rx I have always received very good service. Indeed, if anything, they seem more solicitous when I'm alone. I agree with those who feel Django represents a very fair value for a very good meal when compared with other restaurants in it's price class - and a better value than many. What more can we ask for? good food and good service at a fair price satisfies me. Could it be better? What restaurant couldn't be? And how much do you pay for that. I'd be interested in hearing which other restaurants offer more. I'm not being snide, I'd really like to find them. (StudioKitchen doesn't count as it's not a restaurant as such.)

Consider using mirror, especially if your kitchen is small. It not only has the advantage of opening up the room, but it also allows you to see behind you if you have kids, guests, or a TV. It's as easy to clean as glass, and works on interior walls. I think you can even get it in tiles.

I strongly concur with Sam and others who recommended a half sheet pan. I use a couple of heavy-duty but relatively inexpensive ones from Chicago Metallic. A traditional roasting pan is good for poultry, etc., but is too deep for vegetables. Switching to sheet pans made a world of difference for my roasted cauliflower. For a small amount of roasted potatoes or asparagus I'll sometimes use a Pyrex baking dish, but overall I still prefer sheet pans. ← Use a half sheet pan, then.

The 30 day reservation bit was flexible. I've never made one more than a couple days in advance or even the same day. That said, I admit, I've gone mid-week, mostly.

No one can make me feel bad about my cooking. I eat at enough fine restaurants to know that I'm far from a world class chef - and at enough lousy restaurants to know that I'm not half bad . Moreover - my husband and I don't define who we were are by our cooking. It's simply a way to put a decent meal on the table when we don't feel like going out - or when we'd like to have some people over. IOW - we're in the middle - between the home delivery pizza crowd - and the artisan home cooks. Probably like a lot of people here. And I doubt after 35 years of marriage that we're going to change. Still - if I can say something here that might induce someone to try something at home that they're afraid to try because doing it all from scratch seems too hard - I will. Along those lines - I suspect you read Mark Bittman's column in the NYT this week about using frozen veggies for cooking. It was a great column. Because it's easier to keep bags of frozen veggies in the freezer and whip stuff up at the last minute than it is to run to the grocery store at 7:00 pm because you need to find some fresh peas. I in fact not only have a great recipe for spring pea soup from frozen peas - but it calls for all the bits of leftovers (you can mix the bag ends from English peas - snap peas - snow pea pods - whatever). If I ever find Bittman's email address - I'll send it to him. Anyway - enough philosophy - I'm not sure what you mean when you say that the problem with a pie crust is that "the custard is too shallow to cook properly and still maintain a crisp crust." Are you talking about a crisp crust on the pasty - or the custard? I assume the pastry - but I'm not sure. With regard to the ring mold - people here have said that it's 2". Do you fill it all the way to the top? I measured the Mrs. Smith's pie crust filled to the top (which I do) - it's a bit over 1 5/8". Like I said - my instructions (passed down from a friend) call for partially pre-baking the pie crust before putting the custard in. I use frozen pie crusts for several things - including pies - and all the recipes I have call for anything from no baking to complete baking of the crust before putting the filling in (different fillings have different cooking times - but you always want the crust to be as nicely done as possible). As long as we're talking about crust - what does everyone here do with the cheese? I buy blocks of cheese and put cubes in the food processor and grind them up with the metal blade until they're like little pebbles. If there are 20 people here following this thread - I'm sure you do it 20 different ways. How do you do it? Robyn ← You and I are exactly the opposite. You make the filling but not the shell; I make the shell but not the filling. I make the shell for my DIL when she needs one for entertaining. As for me, when I eat that much fat, it better have some sugar in it.

Consider getting a flame tamer. My stove has a "simmer" burner and I still often have to use s flame tamer for simmering some things if they are delicate or if the pot has a small bottom surface, etc.

Make duxelles. Mushrooms and shallots are made to go together. And as a bonus, duxelles freeze well.

Yes, it was fun to make and I'm so glad I get to cross off one of my culinary resolutions for the new year! The bad thing is I used more than half my puff pastry already and I know that means I ate more than a cup of butter yesterday, if you count all the butter and cream in the chocolates, brownies, ganache, etc. I think I will have strawberries for dessert today. ← Ling, you will be happy to read in today's NYTimes that fat may not be as bad for you as has been previously reported.

Tonight? broccali rabe with angel hair spaghetti. I peeled the stems, chopped it into bite size pieces then sauteed it with garlic, topped with parm. My favorite way of eating greens? chard pie with onions & raisins. I plan to try a chard/ricotta tart next. And of course many greens can be added to quiche. I will often turn green vegetables into a soup, pureeing and sometimes adding either cream, gremelata, yogurt/garlic/herb, etc. Also, I find that most vegetable soups benefit from a spoonful of sherry vinegar to tweak it or a dash of cayenne. My most recent green soup adventure? kale. I sauteed the stems with the mirepoix, added chicken broth, reduced, reduced, reduced, then pureed it. Tasted it and found it good as is, but plan to eat it tomorrow with some of the kale leaves steamed into submission as a garnish and some beans, maybe adding a little cream. I will experiment with the leftovers by adding egg and pureed kale leaves making it into a little green custard appetizer. Molly Stevens has a really nice braised endive and prosciutto recipe, and I plan to try Wolfert's Slow Cooking version with Banyuls vinegar next. I find most greens benefit from steaming and eaten as is or dressed with a vinaigreete. Also: cabbage steamed in the microwave becomes incredibly sweet. My favorite way of making green beans? blanching, then either sauteing with garlic or dressing with vinaigrette. Ditto asparagus. And I'll add some of the other suggestions to my list of things to try. Thanks. edited to add: Artichokes, best slathered in butter. Of course, you don't really eat the green part, so does that count?

Yesterday at WF I saw a lovely piece of boneless pork country ribs, a steal at $4/lb. (Turns out it was a steal, they'd mislabeled it and voluneered it to me at the sticker price.) But I need to decide what to do with it. Given the cut, I see long slow cooking, ruling out most recipes for loin or tenderloin, but then.... Right now I want flavor zippiness, not the hominess of pork, cabbage/sauerkraut, potatoes, good as that may be. Besides, though I've been meaning to try out the sauerkraut from the Reading Terminal Market that's been getting such good reviews, it's RAINING outside. I might melt. I could wing it. Boning the meat has produced a relatively thin, flat piece of meat that could be cooked as is or tied into a nice compact roast - suitable even for stuffing before tying it together. Hmm, I have some prosciutto, some nice kale, cheese, olives, roasted peppers, all sorts of dried fruits and nuts, spices on hand. Something tasty could be done right out of my pantry and my head. On the other hand, I don't use my cookbooks enough except for bedtime reading. A shelf-full of cookbooks and the riches of the world online, how to choose, how to choose? How do you choose? Stevens' ABB has enticing Pork Riblets in Vietnamese Caramel Sauce or a Honey Glazed 5-spice Baby Back Rib dish that could be easily adapted for a more homey presentation. Wolfert's Pork Stew with Prunes an Onions? I bet it would be splendid made in my beautiful barely broken in tagine. Bur right next to it is the Pork and Orange Flavored Beans that I've also marked for a future fling. Oh, how to choose, how to choose? How do you choose? And if ever a beautiful piece of pork called to be coddled in olive oil and served with beans and arugula, this one does. OK, I think the on-hand kale would be a great substitute. How to choose, how to choose? Luckily, the limits of my pantry rule out cassoulet because this piece of pork has cassoulet written on it. Maybe a **** chef might have the answer. Well, Keller has almost nothing to say on the subject of pork! (Too downscale?) I won’t be Cooking with Daniel Boulud, whose braised pork and carrots falls into the too homey category for today’s desire. Vongerichten’s Cooking at Home - a jackpot for pork embellished flavors: I could easily adapt his peanut crusted ribs, pork in caramel sauce, or even his baeckoffe of pork. How to choose, how to choose? How do you choose?

Mottmott: I prefer getting the pulp from the whole fruit (maybe the beans you refer to, usually found in bulk or in packets at the Mexican food section), available in Mexican markets. Get 'em when they're soft rather than brittle. The taste is fresher than packaged, frozen or not. You just have to peel the tan colored skin from the fruits and under running water, push the pulp out into a collander. Then pick out the seeds. The pulp is used for all the things the others have mentioned, plus agua fresca de tamarindo. In Mexican joints, it's served from a lemonade cooler machine, but ask whether it's fresh or made with a concentrate. It's good with chipotle as a sauce and many other Mexican/ Southwestern recipes. Mark Miller is a proponent and has good recipes. ← From what you and others say, it sounds like a cup of paste would be a lot of tamarind! I'm not sure I can find the beans here on the other coast, though I'll look. Funny thing: once when in Temecula, I saw some in a market, When I tried to "taste" one, I cracked a molar on the seed and had to cap the tooth. Well, not funny funny. Edited to add: I checked the recipe in Kunz' Elements of Taste again. Sure enough, it calls for a cup. This is a braising liquid for 8 lbs of beef short ribs: 1 c chopped peeled ginger 3 Tbs mango picle 2 cloves garlic 1 cup tamarind paste 1/3-1/2 c dark br sugar 3 Tbs tomato paste 2 cans (28 oz) tomatoes 5 Tbs worcestershire 3 Tbs spice mix (incl: allspice, cloves, coriander, bay, cumin szechuan ppr, blk ppr, cinnamon, salt) 4 cups water So far the 2-3 recipes I've made from this book have been terrific.