weinoo

I've been boycotting the B & B restaurants since the revelations came out. I can't wait for him to divest totally from those, as I miss the occasional meal at Otto. At a dinner party here a few weeks ago, someone questioned why I still had a book or two of his on my shelves. Good question.

Pork tenderloin, sautéed asparagus, fresh horseradish. Pork was cooked sous vide, dried and seared in a hot pan. Cook's Illustrated recipe/process.

This topic hasn't been broached in a while, so I figured I'd start a new specific thread, to hear about what you all are doing with pasta these days. Significant Eater and I recently returned from a trip to Florence and Rome, and whenever we travel, I get inspired to cook like we ate "over there." So since traveling to Italy means pasta at practically every meal for me; not for the main course, but as a primi, and I'm making lots of pasta at home these days. Oh, I mean pasta sauces, which I use on high-quality dried pasta. Our first night in Florence, I had what I consider the best sugo di carne I'd ever tasted...in that case, on pappardelle. And I'm trying to replicate it, getting close but not quite as good as that one. It's an involved process, and I'm pretty much following a recipe from what I consider an iconic cookbook I own, Giuliano Bugialli's 1977 work, The Fine Art of Italian Cooking. I saw some beautiful beef at the store yesterday, so I bought a hunk and stuck it in the freezer for a while, to make it easier to hand chop. The prep for this dish took like an hour... The sauce contains said beef, olive oil, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, parsley, red wine, tomato paste, tomatoes, dried porcini and their soaking liquid, stock as necessary, s & p. After a few hours of almost covered simmering, it ends up like so... I like to use it on penne or mezze rigatoni, (Setaro brand, in this case). It's better over the course of the next day or two, so we didn't have it last night, but it sure tastes good. And you?

So, after a trip to Rome in February, I am back working on pizza bianca, and this attempt wasn't bad. It's about a 70% hydration dough, mixed in the food processor, and rested in the fridge for 48 hours. Baked in the CSO, for about 18 minutes.

What I'm really enjoying on our new Wolf range is the low end/simmer capability of the burners. They're sealed, of course, but dual stacked, and when you turn the knob all the way counter-clockwise, only the lower of the two levels lights automatically...it has basically two sets of controls, one for each burner level. I have yet to use the broiler, but I do also enjoy these full-extension ball-bearing racks, which have a capacity of 50+ pounds each.

I have a problem with this, and that's that I really don't like when I invite people for dinner, and they ask what they can bring. That's your problem...mine is figuring out what to make for dinner, and what we should drink with it. However, we do have friends with nice wine cellars, and sometimes we'll discuss a course or two, and if they offer to bring something to go with that course, I'll quite readily agree. We have been known to bring flowers and/or an orchid, however.

I'd bring wine, cheese, pecans, and dessert as well. Don't forget the napkins! Overthinking? Do you think?! Never is a bottle of wine an incorrect gift, in my opinion. Unless you're going to a bris. We are often invited to friends' homes for fancy dinners. I know that they're opening very good wines to pour with dinner. If they stick the wine I bring into their wine fridge, I'm not insulted, and nor do they feel bad.

I'd say we order dessert at our regular places like 25% of the time. But at special places we go to once every couple of months, every time; these are places with dedicated pastry chefs, so why not see and taste what they're doing? When we have dinner parties, I tend to follow the mains with a cheese course, and then dessert.

More: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Premier-30-in-3-91-cu-ft-Battery-Spark-Ignition-Gas-Range-in-White-BFK100OP/203358112 https://bensdiscountsupply.com/ranges-stoves/gas-ranges/off-the-grid-propane-or-natural-gas-ranges/ This one looks kinda cool...https://www.amazon.com/Thor-Kitchen-Freestanding-Professional-Convection/dp/B0100A3H54/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=appliances&ie=UTF8&qid=1512115341&sr=1-4&keywords=gas+range&linkCode=sl1&tag=coastpc-20&linkId=58514478265b3eed05beab8e27befb0a https://www.amazon.com/NXR-DRGB3001-Pro-Style-Convection-Stainless/dp/B00NN13VAY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1474267243&sr=8-1&keywords=NXR+Professional+DRGB3001&linkCode=sl1&tag=coastpc-20&linkId=8842905614566b5c819fe887d2fc01f0

Check this out, @Shelby Lehman's http://products.geappliances.com/appliance/gea-specs/JGBS04PPMWW

You are in a quandary. I think the only gas ranges with basically zero electronics are that Blue Star and the Wolf I bought at the high end, and some other really low end stuff that'll just drive you crazy.

Imagine if Escoffier had an Instant Pot! But that's not chicken stock. And it says to boil for three to four hours, which would also make a fairly lousy stock.

I don't know about that, Paul. We were taught (and we were taught classic French technique) skim, skim, skim. Bocuse says nothing about blanching. Eric nada. And Tom says: Maybe those culinary textbooks you're referring to have been updated to reflect ancient Chinese secrets .

When I saw how much schmutz used to come off of those bones, I certainly understood the reasoning behind the methodology.

I remember when I first started teaching myself about cooking, it was with Chinese food, back in the day. And a few of my first Chinese cookbooks taught that the proper way to make a chicken stock was to bring the bones to a boil first, dump it and rinse the bones, and then start your stock.

I make chicken stock any number of ways. But I still find the way I learned in cooking school, French classic, unroasted bones, mirepoix, bouquet garni, 4-5 hours stove top, skimming, to be about the best tasting. The MC method is very good. And lately I use the IP (I do use mostly older birds and parts), making sure to do a natural release (i.e. if I'm correct, that means letting it cool by itself). This stock is also very good, and saves a few hours.

After a test run, this time I think I nailed the coda alla vaccinara. Upped the tomato content, and also ran them through a food mill before using. Primi for this dinner party was mezze rigatoni all'Amatriciana. Antipasti included anchovies with sweet butter on crostini, grilled artichoke hearts, mixed Italian olives, prosciutto, nuts. Cheese course after the main. Dessert simple poached anjou pears and whipped cream. Served with crusty bread (bakery bought), and broccoli raab almost cooked to death. There was some wine drank (missing the bottle of Crémant du Jura). With the leftover broccoli raab, and Hudson River Valley duck sausage gifted to us by a dinner guest... Supper the next day was orecchiette with the aforementioned sausage and raab. Salad on the side of thinly sliced celery, celery leaves and parsley.

I think it's the best chicken I've ever tasted in the US. Great texture, flavor. That Fermier Rouge I bought at Union Market is also good, but there's obviously no match for the freshness of a bird you buy at La Pera; as a matter of fact, you actually should wait 24 hours before cooking the bird from La Pera, so it relaxes after slaughter. My memory says $2.99/lb. for the Sasso chicken, and they give you a card that gets stamped for every bird you buy - buy 10, get one free!

The must have 5 or 6 different types (breeds?) of chicken for your dining pleasure. I'm pretty sure all the birds he sells are "organic," but whether that means anything any more is a matter of semantics, I guess. I buy the Sasso bird, and learned about that particular chicken after seeing a couple of articles about it. Grubstreet Sasso Watkins Poultry

Bourbon - a rock.

I love my original MC line of all-clad. After many, many years, the pieces I had which were non-stick, weren't any more. So I sent them off to all-clad, and they happily replaced them with updated versions of their non-stick, which are nowhere like those pans of 30 years ago. But I still have my stainless lined, original MC pans, and they're just as awesome as when they were new. Made in Canonsburg , PA - as opposed to, you know, China. I do have a set of those Tramontina non-sticks, also bought quite a few years ago - oven safe to 450F or so, and they don't make those any more. Simply used for eggs. But yes, it's all about technique - not only the correct temp, but leaving stuff in the pan without futzing around with it, and it will release itself. Just like on a grill. the real deal...

Or call. They carry the Sasso birds.

Good to know, @KennethT, if I ever decide to use FD. Interestingly, La Pera Brothers also delivers.

Otway or Olmsted in Brooklyn. Wildair on the lower east side. Bacaro is a very nice room, with good enough food and reasonable prices. they also have a good happy hour, with some $1 snacks and inexpensive wines and a cocktail or two. You could have a drink and some snacks at the bar upstairs, and then head downstairs for dinner. Otto, if you're not boycotting B & B. Just keep in mind that at $75, all in, you're looking at about $60 pp, before tax and tip. If you have glass of wine each, that'll knock you down to about $45 pp for food, all in.

Will do. There are 4 locations (3 in Bklyn) with a 5th coming soon (also in Bklyn). The French breed chicken I bought there last week was quite good.