SethG

Looks like this blog is a place where only previous bloggers have the courage to tread! So many good ideas, and all of them solicited by me, but it's too late. I went shopping and bought short ribs. It looked like it might turn out to be cool and rainy there for a while, but then it turned sunny and hot on my way home. I have purchased food and eaten food, but I gotta run. I'll be back in a while-- I have lots of stuff to say!

Hathor: My sourdough starter sometimes gives me the silent treatment, but usually we're on good terms! You know, my wife and I got engaged in Tuscany in 1999, and during that trip we just couldn't get used to the saltless bread. It always tasted flat to us, no matter what we put on it. Is it the same in Umbria? (We took a day trip to Perugia, which we enjoyed very much, but I can't remember if we had bread there.) My own opinion, based on limited experience, is that an American baguette can be fine. It won't be exactly like the French version because of the flour. But there are numerous sources of good recipes. The baguette I made last night was actually from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vol. 2. I'd read many testimonials to the recipe, so I wanted to try it out. They created their recipe after some tutoring from Professor Calvel himself. I thought it worked fine (and the kneading and shaping instructions are especially good), but their recommended amount of yeast is too high for the slow rises they purport to prefer. I ended up throwing the dough in the fridge for a while to slow it down-- and actually, Julia et. al. give you very good tips on slowing down or speeding up the dough. The recipe I've tried that I liked the best was the Classic French Bread recipe in Baking With Julia, which was contributed by Danielle Forestier. What Americans call French Bread is just regular white bread, given two rises, a shaping and a proof, and then a baking in a steamy hearth oven. What makes it successful is controlled, slow rising and good shaping. And a baking stone helps. Can you make French Bread in Umbria? I don't really know what the flour is like there, but "00" (Italian refined white flour) is weaker in protein than American flour. It might be close to French flour, but to get "French" results you might need to add some of the "improvers" the French add in minute amounts, like vitamin C or fava bean flour. The recipes I've used and liked were designed to work with American All Purpose flour, which is higher in protein than French and Italian flours, producing stronger gluten and absorbing more water. That's a very long-winded way of saying I'm not sure! But I know you can do fairly well in New York.

Funny how great minds think alike! I bought the radishes because I remembered that Fergus Henderson had some sort of radish recipe in his book. And I insisted that the guy who sold them to me leave on the tops. He looked at me like I was nuts. And that recipe (for the bottoms) involves.... eating them with butter and salt, just as bleu' suggests. Which I've never done. So I'll try that a little later. It will be hard not to be the kids' primary caretaker any longer. (We've hired a babysitter, who's just started. So I'm sort of on vacation. I'm trying to stay out of her hair as much as possible. It's very awkward. I've never been anybody's employer before.) But I don't think I'm the type to stay home with the kids. I used to think I was, but with two it's so much more WORK. I do less work at work. Anyway, this morning my Biga looks good: I'm having some Moka right now. I'm about to have my third little cup. I have a six cup model that I regularly drain over the course of a morning. My Moka habits are awful. I often leave the thing uncleaned until the next day. I keep drinking the stuff long after it's cold. Sometimes I fill a cup and microwave it. I hope Craig Camp isn't reading this. Craig, you've created a monster. But I love my Moka. And after my daughter had some cereal this morning (she got up at 5:40 a.m., ugh), we shared a bowl of cherries: It's so good to see them back in the stores, and their price dropped by half in the past week. Leah's been asking for them since last autumn. More later. Beef and beer. Interesting. I was thinking maybe braised short ribs. Do you think that would work? Edit: I forgot two things: 1. Of course, Suzanne, let's have lunch next week! 2. Bread is a great thing. If I can make it, anyone can.

You guys can find me over here.

I'm it this week. And who am I, anyway? You could check out my bio, if you really want to, but really all you need to know is that I'm not professionally involved with food, although more and more I wish I were. I have amassed nearly 1000 posts here in (I think?) pretty quiet fashion. I mostly take from eGullet-- I learn new things every day, and I'm very grateful. I live in Brooklyn, with my wife Robin and our two children, Leah (2 years old) and Nate (almost 7 months). I am a lawyer, but for the past four months I've been on a leave of absence taking care of the kids. This leave of absence ends June 1. That's right, we are at the beginning of my last week of freedom. (Incidentally, I did a sort of half-blog for a while about new stuff I was learning to make while on leave. You can find it here.) When my leave began, I wanted to tackle a bunch of disparate projects, but eventually I became primarily obsessed with baking bread. I began baking every day, and I eventually got my own sourdough starter (whom I call Ringo) up and running. This daily bread-making has become part of my identity now, and it's going to be tough to part with it. Once I return to work, my daily baking is going to have to end, so I've recently been baking more than ever, trying to cram in what I can before I go back. So this week you can expect some bread from me. And I'll try to show you a few things about how we live here in Brooklyn, U.S.A. We will be traveling later this week. We'll be leaving Wednesday night to go to my mother's home in Maryland. My mother knows not of this eGullet business (at least, so far as I know ), and it might be best if this remains the case. So you may not get much in the way of food photos while we're in Maryland, but I'll give you some reports that you might find amusing. So, on with the blog already! Oh, by the way, I've been instructed to tell you that if you reply to the blog, you're fair game to be tagged as the next blogger. And that you have a moral obligation not to say no! I was apparently the very last choice to be tagged for this week. (They said it was because I live in NYC, where so many of the bloggers have lived, but really...) I've always been picked last since I was a child, so I'm okay with it. But don't put some other loser in my position! Say "yes" when you're tagged! Take it for the team! (Now will anyone dare reply? ) Okay, so dinner this evening was (drum roll, please)....... tuna salad. Behold, mortals! See, I made this poached chicken with aioli on Friday, and there's just a ton of aioli left over, which I love, but I'm having a hard time getting rid of it. Yesterday I assembled a bunch of cooked and raw vegetables for a sort of veggie "Grand Aioli," and tonight I briefly entertained thoughts of a Bourride, but it was so hot out, and like a jackass I had the oven at 500 degrees already for some French bread. The thought of turning on a burner was just too much, at least until we put in our stupid air conditioners. (See Note 1, below.) So it's just a tuna salad sandwich, not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's also got a little extra: it's made with homemade aioli on homemade bread. It tasted pretty good. I also put together some Biga (a firm batter of flour, water and a little yeast that will bubble all night, creating flavor for future breads), which I'll use Monday and Tuesday. I got my hands on some actual Italian "00" flour (their white flour), so I thought I'd make a Pugliese and maybe some durum wheat bread with my "00" Biga: For tomorrow: I dunno. I can never plan ahead. My wonderful wife got me this great gift for our anniversary: It's the seven quart Le Creuset (we have an oval five already, I think). Give me some ideas. What should I make in this pot? If I like your idea I'll use it on Monday or Tuesday! Also: I got these beautiful radishes at the greenmarket on Saturday: I dipped some slices in aioli yesterday. What else should I do with them? Put them in a salad? I haven't the faintest idea. Help me out. See you tomorrow (or later this morning, really). It's late. Note 1: This is what most of us New Yorkers do, by the way. We take down our air conditioners in the winter because otherwise we'd freeze, and we store them in closets, or in the corner, or wherever we can, and then when it's hot again we risk our backs picking them up and we install them in our windows, blocking our pathetic views of alleys and neighbors in their underwear. Glamorous, huh?

Well, Mary, I responded to you already by PM, but I'll be happy to accept the nomination here publicly as well! I have travel plans Wednesday night, but I figure a lot of people do too, so I may as well take one for the team. I'll try to pack a bunch into the next few days! I will begin later this evening.

Maybe Kirsten will, but I don't think I can help, as my pebble bread was such a failure. Hearing no suggestions for this weekend, I just sort of let it go. But we should plan something for next weekend, right? I'll suggest something if I hear nothing from y'all in a day or two.

I hesitate ever to disagree with Jack, but I doubt the yeast is the culprit. The recipe has plenty of yeast (arguably too much!) and I freeze yeast all the time with no problems. I think his other advice is more on target. Make the dough as wet as you can-- try to resist the urge to add more flour. Don't make it so wet that it won't hold together, but wetter in general is better. And if you're kneading by hand, knead a long time. As the dough develops, the color will lighten and it will become less sticky, more elastic. It is nearly impossible to overknead by hand, so don't worry about going too far. These steps will get you a lighter loaf.

I made a very timid foray into Fergus Henderson's world last night: Boiled Chicken, Leeks, and Aioli. No offal in sight, but very nice. His aioli is incredibly strong, but to my surprise it made a rather ordinary poached chicken into something really great and unpretentious. The leeks, simmered in the chicken broth, were fantastic, but I expected that. Edit: God, that Fergus recipe makes a huge pile of aioli. We had wonderful chicken sandwiches today on homemade ciabatta with aioli. Then for an early pre-dinner graze I put together a vegetable "Grand Aioli" with asparagus, artichoke hearts, green beans, radishes, carrots, red peppers and zucchini. But after much dippin' in we still have a ton of aioli left. Any other ideas? The stuff is real good.

I don't know if you're right about your "98th percentile" figure (and I suspect you're not, at least with regard to Nobu), but even if you're right your use of this statistic to place Nobu and Per Se in the same price category is sophistry. They are not in the same price range. And of course there's a wine list at Nobu. I don't think the cuisine is as suited to wine as it is to beer or sake, however, and I don't think that opinion is out of the mainstream. People are clamoring to get into Nobu. Sure. But experience tells me that the demand is nothing like that at Per Se. My wife and I have gone to Nobu next door on many occasions and gotten in in a very short period of time. I have also achieved reservations at the main restaurant without much trouble. My contention is that popularity shouldn't determine whether it is a good value. Nobu is popular; popularity doesn't disqualify the restaurant. But in any event it doesn't have the frenzy about it that Per Se does.

Rich, could you explain your inclusion of Per Se? I haven't eaten there, but if you include restaurants where the food is so fabulous you'd pay any price, I'm not sure your method has any meaning. I understand the relative bargain lunches at fine restaurants that people are listing, and places like the Tavern at Gramercy Tavern that are always a good deal. I just don't follow the inclusion of Per Se without more information. I've always thought that Nobu was an exceptional deal, whether at lunch or at dinner. Part of it is that beer and sake don't set you back as much as wine, but I've also found that you walk out of there after eating world-class food for far less than you'd pay for such food at a French restaurant of similar quality. Edit: I see, having taken a look at the Per Se thread, that there is a "value" discussion going on over there. The gist of the "Per Se is a value" claim, however, seems to be driven by the idea that they could charge an infinite price and still have people lining up to eat there. This may make whatever price it charges justifiable, but I don't think this is a good definition of a "best value" restaurant. A "best value" restaurant, I would posit, is one which is undervalued by the market, i.e., a place where you can get a certain experience at a lower than expected cost.

This will sound stupid, but I just read the second and third installments of the class and I just feel compelled to thank the three of you again for your hard work. Inspirational.

Dinner?? I sure hope this means your pastry job doesn't require you to be in at some ungodly hour in the morning! (And, by the way, this makes you lucky, right? Don't most pastry chefs come to work at 3 a.m.?) Please keep the reports coming. They're very entertaining, even to non-professionals.

I suppose we can arrange a merge. No need for two topics when one will do. EDIT - done. That's THREE topics. And thanks, Degustation.

Haven't been here in a while. Tonight was in honor of Carb Awareness Day:

Well, my Pebble Bread was a complete failure. I don't think we ever saw a report from Kirsten on hers-- how did they come out, Kirsten, if you're out there? The Pebble Bread calls for a 24 hour sponge on the counter. It's supposed to get sour, but mine got way sour. I think my kitchen got pretty hot yesterday, what with the focaccia I baked plus a loaf of whole wheat bread. So I dunno, maybe my sponge got so acidic that it undermined the bread later, but for whatever reason it didn't really rise enough, and when I shaped it and cooked it anyway, it just kind of stuck to the pan and got saturated with oil. My first attempt was a complete throwaway. My second made it to the oven for a broiling, and then when I took it out I was actually able to dislodge it from the skillet in one piece, although it wasn't easy. Then I tasted it, and it was soggy, oily, too sour. A mess. Maybe I'll try again some day. (Here's the sick part: I ate it anyway! I kept tasting it, thinking about what went wrong, and then I noticed it was all gone. Yuck. I feel ill.)

I was kidding, people.

Okay, fine. You sold me. I'm not willing to forgive them any more. But this newfangled metric stuff-- do we have to insist on that too?

I got a fun one today, at a used bookstore in Brooklyn: Alice's Restaurant Cookbook, by Alice May Brock. A first edition hardcover, sadly without the "recorded introduction" by Arlo Guthrie. It is full of wisdom: "A container is a container. Just because it held shoes last week doesn't mean it can't hold shrimp salad this week." On "foreign cookery:" "Don't be intimidated by foreign cookery. Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy Sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good. Now you are an international cook."

You read my mind, Susan. I really might try to spend a week's vacation later doing a stage (is that what real restaurant people call it?) in some bakery, if they'll have me. But I don't think I'll ever become a professional. The hours are brutal! And I already chucked everything once (when I was single and debtless) to go for my dream job. Chucking one impractical dream job for another just seems flighty, doesn't it? Anyway, enough about me. Let's talk about my focaccia! I'm not posting a pic because it really looks almost exactly like the others already posted. I thought this was very good, but I don't think I'll be all that interested in making it again. I'm not that into dried fruit. I didn't think it was a time-consuming or difficult recipe, by the way. It just took some planning ahead.

So that's why the Sahara in Brooklyn has big signs outside saying "This is the one and only Sahara restaurant in New York..." or something to that effect. Sounds like they're unrelated, and that the Brooklyn restaurant is none too pleased about the rival in Manhattan.

Now that I know this I don't feel quite as strongly. As long as the home user is given the info to convert the volume measurements in the book to weights, I'm okay with it. It'd be more convenient if it were right there in the recipe, but whatever. The fact that they use 4.4 ounces to a cup just shows how fickle these measurements are. Most books (including Baking With Julia, which every home baker should own!) use 5 ounces to a cup, and my hero Peter Reinhart uses 4.5. Seems like the professionals can't even agree how many ounces a cup will be when scooped correctly! Folks in the UK, whose baking books have always used weights, must think we Yanks are totally daft on this issue. It is little known in the U.S. that most American cookbooks in existence here in America also used weights until the late nineteenth century. There was a slow deterioration in the quality of recipes, and then Fannie Farmer, who is credited with standardizing the use of reliable measurements in cooking, actually solidified the asinine use of volume measurements in baking with her very popular cookbooks a century ago. This according to The Taste of America, by John and Karen Hess.

Pan, Mayan sweets are another sweet onion similar to Vidalias. I've purchased them in NYC at the Brooklyn Costco (ten pound bag, of course).

My focaccia is rising on my baking sheet right now. Unless I burn it, I expect it to look like the other two pictured. I also have my sponge going for the pebble bread. I'll fry/bake those tomorrow. I go back to work June 1, sadly. Any ideas for this weekend?

I had a very pleasant lunch in Sahara's back garden yesterday. My friend brilliantly suggested we make a lunchtime run to Totonno's. Not so brilliantly, we failed to check beforehand if they are open Tuesdays. (They aren't.) But we recovered well. I've never been to Turkey, so I can't say the restaurant makes you feel like you're in Turkey, but spacious back deck with its grape vines certainly makes you feel like you're not in New York City. We shared a delightfuly smoky eggplant salad and good lamb kebab. I thought the pide bread was fine but nothing to write home about. My friend assured me it tastes just like the stuff in Turkey. The real deal at Sahara is only available for takeout. You can get a big kebab sandwich on the pide bread with other stuff jammed in for something like $5.95. If you sit, you're stuck with entrees in the $10-15 range, although that's not such a bad place to be stuck. I think this restaurant, which is pretty spacious inside as well, would be a great place to hold an eGullet "Brooklyn Mobilize!" party some day.