Mottmott

Paprika in my freezer from a 1970's trip in Europe. At that time it was hard to find really good paprika here, so I bought LOTS. Interestingly, it has not lost it's zip! Also, I've long ago forgotten why it was so special then or exactly where I bought it. Can you guess that I haven't moved in a long time?

This summer I started making fresh pasta and love it. I'm especially keen on ravioli as one can just invent fillings depending upon what's on hand. Also, for live alone cooks, they're perfect as they freeze so well. It's lovely having these little quick dinners waiting in the freezer next to a pouch of homemade soup. A salad, good bread, and you can have a great meal in minutes when you don't feel like "cooking." First, when I make ravioli, unless it's a simple cheese filling, I like to keep the "sauce" simple and complementary to the filling. For example when I made beet ravioli, I tried it with the poppy seed and butter sauce I've seen several recipes for - bleh. How annoying are those little seeds! But then when I used an infused lemon olive oil a few drops of lemon juice, and some herbs (chive, I think), it was just right. The subtle lemon fragrance and the sharpness of the juice countered the sweetness of the filling. Many fillings don't require a "recipe" as such for the home cook. Professionals may need them for consistency, ordering, etc. But for home cooks some tasty leftovers can be inspired fillings. When I had some leftover braised short ribs, I sauted up some shallots mixed in the shredded ribs, a little of the juices, maybe deglazed along the way with some wine. Again a simple oil, herb, and cheese was enough to enhance the ravioli. Today, I have some leftover raddichio and onion that I cooked up last night as a pasta condiment. It was a little bitter, a little sweet. My guess? it will make a really neat filling with a little oil, cheese, and herbs over it. And of course, add almost anything to ricotta that's flavorful (duxelles, incredible) and you can make stunning ravioli. At home, I think ravioli offer a wonderful way to experiment with try out flavor combinations. That said, I'm always open for others' recipes. The peas above sound very tempting. I haven't yet tried any dessert ravioli, but it's on my radar. Edited to add an afterthought: I'm trying to control the amount of fatty meats, such as beef, that I eat. But I don't care to give them up altogether. A few ounces of meat filled ravioli does not seem as meager as, say, a 3 ounce piece of meat might appear on the plate.

Thank you all. And yes, I did mean stew only in that it had a bunch of variable ingredients from version to version.

That is such a fantastic idea! With just the two of us, I always end up with a ton of leftover meat. This would be a great way way to serve leftovers yet not have them look like leftovers The raviolis would also freeze quite well I imagine. ← Yes they do freeze well. (on a sheet pan, then bag them works for me) And as for serving leftovers this way, they're a feast fit for your favorite guests. My always appreciative but seldom effusive DIL could barely contain herself over how good they were. Just keep the sauce simple and complementary if the filling flavor is already complex. I live alone, so when I make braised meats or other volumetric dishes, it's some for company, give some away to family, and freeze. I hate eating leftovers day after day! Next time I do braised meat, I will also try using it as empanada or meatpie filling.

Thanks, I am half thinking of participating in the bibimbap cookoff and would like to taste it beforehand. I have the impression it's a bit like stew in that it has many possible ingredients and many variations. Still I'd like to taste at least one version before running about for ingredients and equipment.

I want to try this in a good restaurant version before I try making this at home. Any suggestions?

This was great fun and I hope you will continue to post some Parsi recipes. One doesn't see a lot about that cuisine. I confess I hadn't expected to enjoy the Reading Terminal tour as much as I did since I'm there nearly every week, but I stride purposefully to some regular destinations, in and out as fast as possible and on to the next errand! It's my substitute for the supermarket. Hope your aunt is doing well.

Did you check oven temp with a thermometer before you put the rugelach in? My oven beeps that it's at temp about 10-15 minutes before it is actually there. And are you sure your oven thermometer is properly calibrated.

For me, the most efficient way is to freeze soup in ziplock bags flat on a sheet pan til solid. I use different sized bags depending on it's later use and freeze in 1, 2, or 4 cup amounts. Then, so I do not have a gazillion little bags slipping out of the freezer onto my feet, I collect all the chicken stock bags into 1-2 large bags, all the beef into another, etc. They can be filed vertically in tubs that you can simply pull out of the freezer to sort through to find what you want. It's a little like storing books in a library, though I don't use a dewey decimal system. There are lots of advantages for me in this system: conserves space, ease of finding what I've frozen away, reduces freezer burn as you can express almost all air from the bag, quicker to defrost than when frozen in blocks, and I can always break off a couple Tbs of the thinly frozen stock when I don't need a full cup. If you're interested, I can give the minutia on the easiest way to freeze liquid flat. And no, once it's frozen, it won't leak.

Home baker here: No amount of detail is too much. I want weight and volume measurements. I want specificity. What kind of sugar, flour, and even the brand of chocolate. I want technique in detail, illustrations or pictures if possible. We all know that all too often two or more people following the "same" recipe get quite different results. Some of that comes from differences in the materials chosen. For a very basic example: salt. One tsp of typical fine iodized salt in a round can, Morton's kosher salt and Diamond kosher salt all have different weights. We could run variations on this theme endlessly with ingredients. I've seen debates over using cane sugar vs beet sugar. When someone says walnuts, toast? don't toast? Tell us. Without boring y'all with the details, I've found, for example, pastry requires very specific techniques to get particular results. Work the dough differently, different result. Give me the setting on a KA and the amount of time to cream the butter? I'm okay with that level of detail. If I already know how to do something, I can just skip your detail. But if I don't it's a big help to have it. If a recipe is super specific, I can always choose to ignore some of the details or make changes.

I did my first braise of the season (shortribs), winging it with red wine and dried porcini, spices, etc. It was great. But I will get this book. Your report on some of the recipes are seducing. But what I want to suggest to those who make their own pasta, try using some of your braised meat as ravioli fillings. I sauted some shallots, then added hand minced shortrib meat and some of the porcini chopped finely. I served it with a simple splash of evoo, cut up some chives on top and sprinkled with parmesan. Somehow these little pasta encased bundles (about a heaping tsp) of meat seemed even more intense than the typically larger serving had been. I'm sure it would work equally well with many of the braises you've written about, perhaps even the veggie braises. And I plan to try this with empanadas, too.

In additon to checking out the pie demo mentioned above, I strongly recommend using Beranbaum's Pie Bible. Her obsessive attention to detail may help you figure out what you need to do to tweak your trials into Grandma's pie.

Amy, Your pie is beautifully browned. Did you use a wash on it or just bake it til it colored properly? As for the processor: Persevere! It's worth developing your technique using the processor - it makes dough making so much easier. I use the processor all the time and have no trouble with overmixing. This last time my gd used the leftovers to make "cookies" topped with sugar and cinnamon. Those little suckers puffed up to 4 -5 times the thickness of the dough as nothing weighed them down. Partly that was because I didn't let her smoosh the dough together but showed her how to stack it in layers before rolling it out. And, as a matter of fact, sometimes when rolling it out for a tart I will fold the dough into an envelop and roll it again, much as one would for puff pastry. It makes more layers and there's no law that says you can't import a technique from one dough recipe to another. First I use frozen butter, second, I cut it up into different sized pieces so that they do not all get cut down equally, then I add the butter in two batches, PULSING a only a couple times before adding the second and then pulsing a couple more time. (Open the processor to check the butter/flour meal and you should find a lot of little peas sized pieces, though the rest has become more like cornmeal. Lastly I dribble in the ice water to bring it together. My processor has a small opening, so I stick a funnel in it and am able to dribble the water towards the outer margin instead of having it all land at the center of the blade. I think this means it takes less time to bring the dough together. I then dump the flour/butter mixture onto the middle of a piece of plastic wrap. At this point it is pretty loose, though if I pinch it together it does stick together well. I use the plastic to pull the dough together into a cohesive mass in a relatively thin rough approximation of the shape I will finally roll out (about 1" high). I also take advantage of the plastic to firm up the edge to eliminate that raggedy bit when you roll it out. When I finally roll it out after refrigerating, I can clearly see the little knots of butter in the dough. My hands hardly touch the dough itself before I begin rolling it. This is very technique heavy when describing, but not complicated to do. It takes me longer to get the mis en place together than to actually form the dough. And much longer to refrigerate than anything else. Read - or reread - RLB on her techniques and notice how she has the dough refrigerated after every step. I found that doing this makes a big difference. I will, when I have the time pop the filled shell into the fridge for awhile before baking. Lastly, I find that while baking this makes a big difference for me: I start off the tart/pie (I occasionally do make pies) on a sheet pan directly placed on a pizza stone to eliminate the mushy bottom. I leave it there 15-20 minutes, before raising it to the middle. And if it looks like it needs it, I'll raise the tart to the top at the end. If I'm making a thin rustic tart I may do the whole thing on the pizza stone.

How long does it take to preheat for baking a pie? I strikes me that in this time of a potential doubling (or more) of nat'l gas prices, this oven might pay for itself for those of us living alone who make small amounts often. I find my GE Profile takes at least 30 minutes, per the oven thermometer, to come to temp even though it beeps ready at about 20. And I confess, I'd probably go for the one with a rotisserie. The one thing I liked about an electric stove I once had was its rotisserie.

I find the Akoori very attractive, whether for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It looks scrumptious. My only problem is I'm cilantro averse. I do try it from time to time, but can't seem to wrap my taste buds around it. Not exactly soapy, but it adds a shrill note to most dishes I don't like much. What would be the best, or at least most acceptable substitute? Parsley? perhaps mint? Thai basil? Is cilantro an ingredient indigenous to Parsi cuisine? In fact, I'd be interested in a kind of overview as to what are the mainstay ingredients of that cuisine. For example, a constellation of garlic, olive oil, olive, pasta, polenta, tomatoes, eggplant would be part of what says Italian to me. Add putting fruit to savory dishes and a few more spices and I think N.Africa. What is the constellation of ingredients that say Parsi to you?

I promised an update once I had the DeLonghi AD1079 for a few weeks, and here it is. So far, I've used it to: Rotisserie a chicken: Came out nicely browned and moist inside. The instructions are a bit off compared to the actual configuration, which is that the rotisserie skewer goes from the front left to the rear right (in other words, it's not straight across the middle as you might expect and as one page in the manual depicts). The other thing that's not quite clear is that you load up the skewer with the assembly leaning to the front left, then push the rack in, then tip the assembly to the right rear to drop the skewer end into the motor. Seems kind of kludgey at first, but it ended up working well. The instructions say it can handle up to a ten pound item, and I think that's about right. A bird any bigger would probably scrape against the heating element at the top or the rotisserie pan on the bottom, whether it's trussed or not (I trussed my six pound chicken and had probably 2 inches of clearance top and bottom). Make pizza from scratch using the pizza function: First attempt was so-so as the bottom of the crust ended up very hard. The second time, I ignored their advice to oil the pizza pan and sprinkled corn meal instead. That worked much better and the crust was crunchy but not overly so on the bottom and chewy above. The mozarella I had was only of mediocre quality, so for the second pizza, I also ignored their advice to sprinkle the cheese only in the last few minutes of baking and put it on from the beginning. I liked it better browned, but a good quality fresh mozarella I would put on near the end. Convection bake a frozen pizza (Stouffer's French bread) with pizza function (on the "P3" setting, as instructed for frozen): Came out better than any one I've baked in my regular oven. Very crispy on the outside, but soft and steaming hot inside. Convection reheat fried food: I had a few shopping stops to make after picking up a fish & chips from the only place around here that makes a good one (with fresh haddock; a picture on the wall seems to indicate the owner's pals with someone in Gloucester). I arrived home 45 minutes after picking it up, so it was a good test. When I've reheated in the normal oven, I've usually done 300 for ten or twelve minutes. The results there are only okay, and the fish dries out very quickly. In the DeLonghi, I loaded it up cold, picked convection bake at 300 for 14 minutes (about 4 to get to temp), and was very pleasantly surprised with the result: The fish was piping hot throughout, crisp on the outside (almost -- almost -- as if fresh from the Fryolator), but still moist inside. Fresh at the restaurant = 9 out of 10; reheated in regular oven = 6.5; reheated in DeLonghi = 8. Convection bake a potato while ribs were slow braising in the regular oven: Also came out very crispy on the outside, the way I like it. My regular oven (which I should mention is electric) has never produced such a crispy skin, and if I tried, I believe the inside would end up mealy and dry. Keep warm: Again, works well and seems to keeps the temperature +/- 10 degrees of the advertised 140 (usually gravitates towards 150). I've used this feature on food a few times and have also used this cycle to warm up empty plates for serving. You can also put plates on top, but the surface is slightly curved, so you have to make sure they'll stay. Dehydrating: Still waiting for the dehydrating rack to arrive, so I haven't tried this feature yet. Other features: Haven't had occasion to use the broil or defrost functions yet. Controls, display, signals: Seem fine to me. The manual isn't very good at explaining the various beeps, but the oven seems to beep when it has reached the intended temperature, when it stops, and a few minutes before the end of the pizza cycle (telling you to put the cheese on, I imagine). The beeps aren't very loud -- I've missed the end beeps once or twice when the a/c in the next room had turned itself on. Cleaning: All racks and pans, even the bottom "crumb" pan, come out for cleaning; the top heating element swings down for cleaning access. The "Durastone" surface that lines the entire inside and the pans does seem pretty easy to clean, but I've learned that you should avoid the dishwasher for the Durastone pans (the wire racks are fine in the washer, though). My dishwasher is a very good one, but it seemed to just bake stuff further onto the pans. I found that a no-scratch scrub sponge for use on stainless steel (often blue in color) with a little baking soda was the right cleaning method for baked-on stuff. Arm & Hammer has a convenient shake bottle these days that I keep at the sink next to the dish detergent. The only interior part of the oven that's a bit difficult to clean is the right-hand side, where the fan is -- there's a lot of venting there and things seem to stick more. However, should it get nasty (mine hasn't yet), the panel is held on with three easily accessible screws and takes about a minute to remove (I've done it just to see). Kitchen heat: I'd estimate that the Delonghi heats up the kitchen maybe one third (possibly one quarter) as much as the regular oven, and the heat seems pretty localized to within several inches of the oven. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the oven; I've used it 3-4 times a week for the last month (the regular oven 1-2 times a week in the same period, and I did see my electric bill drop a couple-three bucks), and it has yet to disappoint. The refurbished one I got was definitely used by others before me, but it was nicks and dings only, and you have to peer at it for a bit to see them. If you'd prefer a brand new one, I saw just last week that Costco is now selling them new for $180 (however, I did not see them today at the Nashua, NH Costco). That's only $19 above what I paid for mine with shipping; if Costco had them a month ago, I think I would have gotten a new one there instead. ← Thanks for all that detail. It's very helpful. I once had a rotisserie in my oven and I did like roasting on it. Tempting enough that I might brave the mess. Do you ever bake? It would be helpful to know how it does. I sometimes make large batches of cookies, scones, empanadas, etc. and freeze them before baking. Then I feel silly preheating the oven for 30 minutes to bake just one or two scones! And I'd love to know how the dehydrator works for you (when it comes). All in all, it sounds like a great tool for a single person or couple.

Yesterday I made a rectangular tart with some farmers market apples of varieties I'd never used before. I didn't know how much moisture they'd throw off. I took some of them and precooked them, filling them nearly to the top of the case, then I thinly sliced 4/5 (depends on size of apples) halves and slightly fanned them on top. These halves rise well above the top of the crust, which is quite pretty. And even though they shrink, they still give some dimensionality to the top. There is also the contrast of texture between the bottom apples which were like a thickened sauce and the top apples which were quite firm to the bite. At the end I glazed them with a fruit glaze after taking them from the oven. When I use an apple I know, like a Granny Smith, I find that I can simply dice and season the layer on the bottom without cooking them or using a thickening agent. I've really come to prefer making (and eating) fruit tarts to pies. My personal preference is threefold. First, it halves the amount of fat I take in with each slice. No small consideration given how much butter I use. And second, I prefer having a greater fruit to crust ratio from a taste point of view. As the bottom crust in pies is too often not worth eating, I take special care with it by sealing it against moisture (a fruit glaze is my preferred method as it adds another flavor) and then I start off the tart on a pizza stone, finishing it on a top shelf. Lastly, I find I can pack a more intense flavor into a tart than a pie. It's as though having the fruit exposed to the heat directly makes the texture better, more baked than steamed. And the top glaze can be a additional flavor element. On this last tart I used quince. I gotta get me one of them diggi-cams!

Do yourself a favor and check out Weavers Way Coop at Green and Carpenter in Mt Airy. You'll find more to your liking than just fresh fish. I've been a member there for a zillion years. Even for a poor student I think the $30./year membership will be more than paid for by the savings. The work requirement is hardly burdensome, only 6 hours a year per adult in a household. You will get better than supermarket quality for less than supermarket prices and sufficient variety to all but eliminate the need to shop elsewhere (even for pets). They carry organic produce, chicken, meat, and dairy at much better prices than the supermakets. They also carry conventional groceries. All produce is labeled for it's origin. You can find excellent artisan bakery bread, cheeses, nuts, grains, etc. and other "luxury" foods, including tubs of freshly made pestos, various salads, and deli, etc. Some items are made specially for WW. They get their fish from Samuels, bread from LeBus, Metropolitan, an Night Kitchen, their cheese, olives, etc. from (I believe) Claudio's, and carry Bell & Evans Chickens, and D'Artagnan duck breasts. When I supplement the coop's offerings it tends to be the farmers'or Italian markets, the Reading Terminal, TJ's, or WF (non-hormone, antibiotic meats). Now that my old cat's died and I no longer need Gerbers' baby food meats, I hardly ever go to the supermarket except to stock up on Ivins Halloween-available-only gingersnaps at Acme or to lay in a store of the StoneGroundWheat crackers the coop's discontinued carrying.

No, no, no. If we don't keep pork sandwiches quiet, they'll be all over the city and mostly mediocre. Fewer means better where you find them.

My nine year old granddaughter and I made dinner together tonight. She's suggested we cook together on Fridays when she doesn't have homework. We made ravioli stuffed with shortribs I had made a couple nights ago. She made the dough in the processor and then kneaded it by hand. We caramelized some shallots together, I deglazed it with red wine, added the beef and porcini that was pulled apart by hand (not minced) with some of the juice, reducing it to remove excess liquid. After we'd formed the first batch, her mother dropped by and we gave her some to take home. When we finally assembled dinner, Missy also wanted to try the beet ravioli I'd made and frozen, so I added a couple of those. We had a simple "sauce" of oil, grated parm, and a sprinkling of chives. We accompanied this with a composed salad of mixed heirloom tomatoes, beets, & lima beans (she passed on the limas) that had sprinkled with balsamic and maldon salt. My sweet gd was swooning with pleasure over it all, the best dinner ever, she said. And and all the better for being made by two. (This was only the second time we'd made ravioli together though we often cook together.) We finished dinner off with the apple tart we made. On the way home, she was setting up the menu for our next dinner together. Her choices: cream of broccali soup, roast chicken stuffed with lemon, garlic, herbs and chocolate. mousse. We'll do gnocchi at a future time.

At the Philadelphia Art Museum Cafeteria you can get a reasonable lunch at the cafeteria. It used to be outlandishly bad, but has improved so that you can now put together a salad that will include roasted veggies and some chicken for a reasonable price. Desserts suck. With so many excellent Phila restaurants, I've never tried the museum's.

I hope you're right that writers, artists will get a fair shake. If they own the copyrights, I don't see how publishers can waive the writers' rights. If the publishers own the copyright, the writers have already lost their rights beyond whatever their contracts entitle them to. It's all in the fine print, I suspect.

There's the duck, where's the eggs? Looks spectacular.

If you go online you can find a schedule for the PBS and Public Broadcasting stations in your area, usually.

Although I agree with the sentiment, I have to disagree with the logic. Most of the poor, though deserving, can not afford a computer and internet connection to enjoy these e-books. US CENSUS BUREAU: -- Nearly 9-in-10 family households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more had at least one computer and about 8-in-10 had at least one household member who used the Internet at home. -- Among family households with incomes below $25,000, nearly 3-in-10 had a computer and about 2-in-10 had Internet access. -- Two-thirds of households with a school-age child had a computer, and 53 percent had Internet access. -- Single-person households were the least likely to have a computer (30 percent) or Internet access (24 percent). In households with two to four persons, 58 percent had a computer and 47 percent had Internet access. -- Households in the West were the most likely to have computers (57 percent) and Internet access (47 percent). Those in the South were the least likely to have computers (47 percent) and Internet connections (38 percent). I agree that the segments of society that can not afford to buy the book should not be restricted access to art due to their income but to openly share these books in an unrestricted manor is not the answer. I am willing to bet that for every 1 person truly deserving access to this information, 50 people who could easily afford the book would access this as well. The reality is that the people who could afford the book would benefit, and the people that couldn't would still be out in the cold. My other beef is that libraries are public institutions that for the most part have the publics best interest at heart. Google on the other hand is an IPO who's sole interest is growth and profits. They will undoubtedly try to get away with offering what they can (at minimal expense to them) to keep their stockholders happy at the expense of the creators of the materials they offer on-line. If a company is going to profit from someones work, they should at least reimburse the creator of the work. ← No argument. My reference to people's right to participate in the culture is strongly dependent upon libraries being available to everyone. As far as I'm concerned, the web seems best suited to disseminating information accumulated in books, magazines, journals, not in formulating it. Books, for me, are the touchstone. Nevertheless, I would hope that more poor families had computers and web access. Fortunately most libraries do have online capacity as well as books. My fear is that as books are available online, library purchasing budgets may be cut back. In principle, I'm for anything that spreads knowledge and culture widely. As for Google's project I actually haven't formed a real opinion (yet) as I've not explored what it's all about. If it is exploitative, I would think that could be controlled. I do appreciate your research on computer availability. I had no idea that it's use in homes is still so restricted. Perhaps the dearth of computers among singles may reflect the elderly who are intimidated by new technology as well as constrained by their income limits. By "access" do these figures mean only in the home or do they also include at school and in libraries? As for the well-to-do also having access to books online not buying books, does library access stop the affluent from buying books? Indeed, sometimes I will buy a book after I've read a library copy as I discover it's something I want on my shelf for reference or rereading. And I will sometimes buy more than one copy so I can give it as a gift to someone else, too. Many of us share Deborah's love of cookbooks and won't be without them. And with my other book-buying vice, art books, I am sure the web will never supplant the physical book. I probably wouldn't even read those online, though I do sometimes find it convenient to google up some images that aren't available on my own shelf. For example, I was reading a history of cathedrals which had limited illustrations and it was handy to be able to check out some of the churches that were not pictured in the book itself. There as with recipes and pictures of some dishes, the web can be a valuable supplement to books. I don't believe it can supplant books.