weinoo

Just received my order from Sahar Saffron. Came with a gift of the Greek stuff. Looking forward to playing around...

CK's profile notwithstanding, most of the time their recipes work.

I don't use the Wolfert method, but a number of years ago Cook's Illustrated (March, 2010) came out with their no-stir polenta method. In it, they add a tiny amount (say 1/8 tsp.) of baking soda when the polenta is added to the boiling water. If I can find the recipe, I'll post it. Their web site states:

And that schnitzel at Cafe Katja that I mentioned above is now on the regular menu. It's good.

Last year's IACP conference included a demo of just this theory...

Tell that to Mr. Birds Eye .

Le Verre Vole (Le Bistro) in the 10th - last month my wife and I had a very nice dinner there. It's a wine shop slash restaurant; the wines they offer are unique and priced nicely. Lots of fun watching the young staff handle the place with aplomb. Reservations essential.

I bought mine already PID'd, from Dave at HiTechEspresso. Going on 4 years without a problem (other than a squeaky steam knob). Perhaps look at what he uses. Obviously, the other important issue is...what type of grinder?

Bumping this up, as I'm thinking of ordering from Sahar Saffron. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with their product. They sell a wide range of saffrons and have a nice, easy to navigate site. Is there currently a restriction on buying/importing Iranian saffron?

Tell us your secret, Michaela .

I tend to like to bring back lighter things than wood . Always on the lookout for dried mushrooms -- most are 1/2 the price I pay here...make sure they're from the country you're in, however. Interesting dried spices/herbs are always fun. I think the coffee here, now, is light-years better than what they serve at most places in Italy, so I eschew bringing back coffee. A pound or two of whatever cool salt they're selling in the supermarket. Same with a few cans/jars anchovies. Honey. A bottle (per person) of some hard-to-find, not imported booze.

Well, the ham hock turned out to be just a flavor enhancer - there was barely any meat on them bones, and what I picked off I basically ate while I was doing the picking . I don't understand the "half and half" theory. If I'm going for a purée, then I want the whole darn thing served as a purée, otherwise it's still just a rustic soup, no? In any event, what I ended up doing with this batch was to run it through my food mill, in theory making a lovely purée. However, there was still some tiny textural thing going on after doing this so to make a totally smooth purée, I think the soup needs to be run through the blender first and then through a food mill, or maybe even a chinois.

So I'm making this Split Pea Soup... And I'm wondering about serving it just like it comes out of the pot? Of course I'd remove the ham hocks and add the meat on those trotters back to the soup, but I wouldn't purée the soup. Or, to be a bit more sophisticated, I can run the soup through a mill or blender to serve it as a fine purée - and make a garnish out of perfectly diced ham or crispy bacon bits - something along those lines. I guess the same question could be asked about any number of soups made from pulses or legumes. Bean soups, lentil soups, etc. Normally, at home, I'm pretty lazy and just serve the soup as it is. But when traveling recently, we had some fine vegetable soups and legume soups that were served as purées and they were delicious. And they taste like a whole different thing, all smooth and almost airy. Anyway, which do you prefer?

I make SV confit duck all the time (admittedly not from the MC@H recipe) and the method you describe sounds very strange. SV for 24 hours with that much salt in the bag? Surely they mean to ask you to leave the legs in salt for a few hours, then wash it off and confit for 24 hours? If done correctly, SV confit is a great alternative to the normal method. Much less wastage of duck fat, cleaner, and more convenient. And it tastes no different - dare I say better. That's a big dare! Though I enjoy the duck confit I make sous vide, I've always felt that making it in the traditional manner offered a more distinctive, dare I say more delicious, confit.

Man, you are not having good luck, David.

Getting a good lunch on the lower east side will be easier starting next week, as it looks like Cafe Katja will be starting lunch service on Wednesday.

For Swedish meatballs, I think IKEA's are very good. But that's not necessarily a frozen dinner, unless you're on Atkins .

Recently, I had a dish at Mintwood in DC - wild Scottish pigeon breast, surrounded by a mince of the legs, thighs and innards, wrapped in savoy cabbage and then wrapped with a slice of uncrisped bacon. It was awesome!

Those look great - I did see that recipe in Les Halles - a bit more complicated than what I'm looking for right now!

I might've responded to this before, but I have a fair amount of books. So many, in fact, that a bunch are in storage - which I think is silly. Anyway, yesterday, a close family member who is in the "food biz" gifted me with a few of the books she happened to receive this year: I'm very excited about at least 3 of them: Thai Street Food (which is huge) Vietnamese Home Cooking My Pizza

Anyone have any great recipes for the cooking of any of the above birdies? Of course, what I can get here in NY is generally farm-raised, and probably tastes more like chicken than game. But while in Paris recently, I dined on some delicious birds; in particular, my pigeon at Spring was great. The breast cooked sous-vide was perfect. So how do I go about this?

The Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Boca is pretty good, and has enough of a menu to make most everybody happy. As a matter of fact, I even started a thread about it a few years ago.

This is awesome, David. I'm very interested in how the different dinners go with vicodin.

I know - this is what I found strange. Stouffer's is kinda from that same era as Swanson's. But the newer generation of stuff has actually gotten better.

Now, now - I know what you're thinking. Weinoo eats frozen dinners?! Well, not really - but my wife, who spends part of every week in Washington, D.C., has them occasionally for dinner. Let's face it - they're easy and ready in minutes (I sound like an ad). Of course, I do most of the shopping in D.C., which means I'm usually the one who buys these various frozen dinners. And by various, I mean the choices are endless. From Healthy Choice to Amy's, from Lean Cuisine to Organic Bistro to Saffron Road, a walk down the frozen dinner aisle in Harris-Teeter or Whole Foods makes my head spin. And yesterday, in the interest of science, I decided to give one a try for lunch. I picked Saffron Road's Chicken Biryani, described as "tender chunks of chicken baked in basmati rice, topped with caramelized onions in the classic Hyderabadi style." For those who don't know (e.g. me), Hyderabadi cuisine is cuisine that: .Okay...whatever. It (the frozen entree) was actually pretty decent. I mean sure, it has a lot of sodium in it (590 mg), but it was tasty and the rice and chicken had some flavor and weren't egregiously overcooked. So, my question is this: Do you ever have frozen dinners for, ummm, dinner? And - what are your favorites?