hensonville

Gumbo..."old fashioned", "real", "traditional" gefilte fish is just what it says i.e., stuffed fish. The contemporary balls or ovals are what the stuffing used to be. The old version is labor intensive and very decorative. You cut off the head and tail and saved them with some of the bones. You took out the insides and with some of the fish, eggs, onion, and matzoh meal you made a stuffing which you stuffed into the skin which had a little fish still attached. You then poached this in broth made from the head, etc. and soup vegetables. It was served whole. When sliced, it looks very nice because you have the stuffing surrounded by the outside of the fish. I made this once, and it took all day.

Superb nut cakes with no flour. Barley. Kasha. Zucchini. Sugar syrup. And, yes, Barbara Kafka with some time adjustment.

Timo...I wanted to tell you that I have been very pleased with hamentaschen filled with apricot and nuts. Most often I have started with dried apricots, but sometimes I have combined apricot jam with lots of chopped walnuts. Especially if you want a variety of fillings, this is good and very quick.

I must make ratatouille for twenty people. Would you please give me your advice on the method I should use? Do I need to saute everything separately and then layer it...ala Julia? Is there a simpler acceptable manner? Thanks.

Perhaps a coffee grinder would do the trick?

My suggestion: Boil the ground popy seed in milk. Add honey and a little lemon. Yum.

I just made two linzer torten using Trader Joe's 70% chocolate. Everything else was the same as always. The chocolate almost ruined my torten. If it hadn't been for the rasberry jam. they simply would have been bad. So I recommend not using this.

We often make flourless nut cakes...either with hazelnuts, walnuts or almonds. I grate the nuts on the smallest holes in my processor. I often add the juice and grated rind of an orange. In recent times I bake them in the microwave (Barbara Kafka except that I bake them a little longer.) They are very successful!

Has anyone been here? Is it good? Is it festive? Thanks

I happened to have stew at an Irish pub last evening. It was quite good, quite dark, and made with Guinness.

I would like respectfully to add a few historical footnotes. The Normans invaded England. They become the gentry. The Anglo-Saxons became the workers. The gentry ate and the workers produced. Thus, we eat beef from the French boeuf, but we grow cows, from the German kuehe. We eat mutton from the French mouton, but we grow sheep, from the German schaf. We eat pork, from the French porc, but we grow swine, from the German schwein. And so on. The French court and the French aristocracy dominated Europe culturally and, of course, geopolitically with Napoleon. The language of the Russian court and aristocracy was French. Viennese German is filled with French words. The Spanish chateaux are knockoffs of the French. The French dominated in cuisine as well as in many other areas. Thus, every aristocrat was familiar with French...language, fashion, manners. In this country, until recently, a very small portion of the population had access to a university education. Achieving a university education included familiarity with French language, terminology, manners, and food. Many, if not all, people who had a university education studied Latin. Few people travelled abroad. Many among the upper classes went to Europe as part of their education. In the last 40 years, all this changed. Many people attend universities. Language requirements have all but disappeared. And many people travel to Europe. European foods have become common in this country, and many more people have broader tastes and varied aspirations. At the same time, during the 1960s and after, a rejection of class became prevalent. So in some circles, it is an ideological point of pride to reject upper class symbols. The correct pronunciation can, by some people, connote class distinctions which they view with distaste. Where one puts one's self on this continuum is of course a matter of personal choice.

This is my favorite tilapia recipe. Mix cream cheese with quite a lot of parsley and dill. Spread this on the tilapia filets. Roll them up or fold them over. Sprinkle with lemon. Chop and saute some shallots. Jullienne a quantity of zucchinni. Add them to the shallots and stir them around a bit. Add Knorr vegetable boullion disolved in water. Add the fish packets and cook them gently for only a few minutes. Serve with rice. Hope you like it.

Please also consider insurance issues: workmen's compensation. personal injury, liability, etc. It's serious stuff.

Hi. Elizabeth...I just would like to remind you that in the US we have rather severe laws about having people work for no pay. In New York, the penalties are very steep. Just a thought. (Edit note--these posts were pulled from another thread and given its own. By me. Hensonville did not just start this, he followed up on Elizabeth considering a stage.)

I have thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated this thread. Thankyou all. I want now to post about two men I know. (I'll write about myself another time.) They were born in 1927 in New York, one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx. Their mothers cooked and ate with the children; the fathers worked late. The boys were skinny. Meat was boiled to capture the blood, and the skinny boys drank this liquid. They drank a great deal of whole milk; after school it was drunk with cupcakes or Twinkies. They ate a pretty steady rotation of liver and onions, overcooked pot roast, baked chicken, and lamb chops. Canned peas and canned peas and carrots were common. A treat was canned spinach mixed with mashed potatoes. Red Jello with canned fruit cocktail in it was big as was Mytifine Chocolate pudding. They had treats from the bakery as well. They went out to Chinese restaurants on Sunday. They drank only a little and early. Manners were important. I write this because I think it so typifies an era and a group experience of New York of that time. Anyone else?

Yes, I agree that Cafe Sabarsky is a delight. But I do have one objection and would love to read opinions on the subject. I believe that classic pastry names have meaning. So a Dobostorte for me has to have a grillage top and chocolate butter cream layers. A Punschtorte has to be multicolored inside and pink on the outside. A Sachertorte has to be dense and have a chocolate glaze. And so on. If you want to serve a different version, I want you to call it something else. For instance, Dobos a la Larry. But don't advertise it as a Dobostorte. Am I wrong?

Schwarzwalderkirschtorte. But perhaps my favorite was the very pink Punschtorte. There is a very good, inauthentic version served at Sabarsky Cafe.

I mean cook the fat until the fat turns golden...not brown. You have to take it off the heat before it's the right color...like caramel...because it keeps getting a bit darker off the heat.

Okay. Let's take Lichtman's chocolate babka as one model to seek. Am I right that the chocolate was grainy and soft and moist? Do you think the graininess was unmelted sugar? Would someone venture an approximate recipe? And, if we're talking about that neighborhood and its bakeries, how can we leave out Eclair?

I start the small pieces of fat off just covered with water, let it cook until the water boils off, and then cook it longer until it turns a nice golden brown. One step, one pan. Refrigerated in a jar it will keep for weeks and weeks.

The Viennese cookbooks always have a quick, backing powder kugelhupf. But I am only interested in discussing yeat ones. I made a comparative chart of the ingreduents for all the babka and kugelhupf recipes I have at home and boy do they vary! I may have to embark on making one each week, keeping records, and comparing. LeNotre just uses his brioche recipe.

I think the cheese strudel at Zabar's is delicious, but it's not, to my mnd, strudel. Too gooey, too sweet, too flat, and the dough is not crisp enough. LaNina...yes, the chocolate Green's Babka from Zabar. Again, it's delicious, but I don't think it's a babka. Too layered, too high a proportion of chocolate, wrong shape.

Hi, Steve, Yes babka and kugelhopf and savarin are all similar. But there are many different recipes for and types of babka. The babka from Babka was different from any other I know. I am also puzzled by the method for Green's babka, available at Zabar's. Now this one is layered. The dough must be rolled very thin somehow to get the proportion of chocolate. In a wonderful cookbook called Yiddish Cuisine there is a recipe for shikere babka. I haven't tried it. I've gotten a good approximation by soaking a pannetone in rum syrup.

Once upon a time. a long time ago, when I was growing up in Manhattan there were stores called "Babka". They sold a rummy, glazed babka. Very light and yummy. Anyone remember? Any recipe suggestions?

I found two more recipes. Both use rendered fat and say to bake the stuffed necks in the oven for two hours. One has you bake it along with the goose.