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Everything posted by SethG
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Having recently made pithivier at home, I am intensely jealous of yours. I think four of mine could have fit inside yours. How did you get that rise???!!! Good work all around, congratulations.
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fruit. (including tomatoes.)
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Tonight's episode of MTV's Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica included a very special anniversary dinner at none other than Tavern on the Green. Nick & Jessica loved their steak. The episode made me happy for Jaymes all over again.
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Mind telling me where? I recently did a little experiment where I went from store to store in Manhattan's Chinatown asking for them. Invariably I was told "no, they're illegal." But maybe I look like a narc! Is there a secret password?
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I have to agree on the endorsement of Demel's. But there are so many more tempting, more complex desserts than Sacher Torte in Vienna (and in Budapest, for less than half the price!). The best reason to visit the Hotel Sacher is to relive The Third Man, one of the greatest movies ever made. What would you serve at a Third Man party? Parrot?
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You might think this is weird, but I've been craving chicken salad, and a few days ago I had some really lousy chicken salad. And I've been wanting to make mayo at home again for a while. And I've been really wanting to do some baking, but I haven't really had time. So tonight I poached some chicken breasts and legs, and made chicken salad with homemade basil mayonnaise, served on homemade white bread (from Baking With Julia), which was the only bread I could make quickly enough for an after-work dinner (and even white bread was pushing it). It was really quite delicious, and it was such a wholesome feeling to have made both the bread and the mayonnaise in the sandwich! And I served a salad of green leafy lettuce (was it Boston lettuce?) and dandelion greens with a simple vinaigrette.
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Well, I couldn't wait any longer to try something from Baking With Julia, but I didn't have time for challah, so tonight I made the simplest, quickest recipe in the book: white sandwich bread. And though I'm nobody's poet, I thought it wasn't half bad. You'll notice a crease in the top, created I believe when I shaped the dough into a rectangle after the first rise and plopped it in the loaf pan. I think I stretched too hard and broke the outside layer of dough underneath. When I flipped it over to put it in the pan, I saw the tear I'd created, but I decided not to care. It only affected the appearance. I used half King Arthur all-purpose flour, and half King Arthur bread flour, and it ended up quite hearty. Next time I make the white bread I might use only all-purpose flour-- I think the KA all-purpose may have more protein than a lot of other all-purpose out there. I also used SAF-instant yeast and dispensed with the five minute soak at the beginning. A question. I started off using my stand mixer (a KitchenAid 5 quart Heavy Duty lifting-bowl model), but switched to hand-kneading when the bread hook almost immediately had to really struggle to move the dough. I thought I smelled an overheating metal/plastic smell, so I turned it off. Is this to be expected? I thought the KitchenAid could handle anything.
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These great reports are making me want to get started. I may make mine during the week.
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Thank you for sharing that amazing story.
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Oops. I made it today. Now that you've made it, do you have any wisdom you'd like to share that you wish you'd known before you started?
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It's been a fun weekend for me, dinner wise. I've been so busy this week I haven't really had any time to cook. My wife SWISAIK (She Who Is Seldom Allowed In Kitchen*) made a nice pasta with a tomato sauce with ham and chile pepper flakes on Tuesday, I guess it was. She put in about twice as many chile flakes as she meant to, but I thought it was great that way. Last night (Friday), I finally got to cook after several days of deprivation. My wife's sister and her companion were arriving from the airport, and I didn't have much time, so I made: my default roasted chicken (rosemary, lemon and garlic); steamed broccoli with butter; and something new for me, a fettuccine with lemon sauce from Ruth Reichl's second book. This sauce contained large doses of heavy cream and butter, so it would've had no excuse if it sucked. But it didn't suck, it was really very very nice. I also made it with Meyer lemons, which I'd never actually cooked with before. My reaction to the Meyer lemon phenomenon: eh, they're okay. Today (Saturday), I made a spinach quiche (more cream, what could go wrong?) and leek & potato soup for lunch, and then for dinner, my in-laws came over and I made: roast leg of lamb, made in a simplified version of a Paula Wolfert recipe: by forming a boned leg into a sausage-shaped roast and tying it, larding it with garlic, rubbing it with salt/pepper and a little oil and duck fat, letting it sit a while, then roasting it. And adding a shallot/vinegar reduction to the pan juices and basting with it. It was delicious. Cooked very evenly, beautifully rare throughout. And I made a celery root/apple puree and buttered green beans. And SWISAIK made a lovely salad. And for dessert we had the second of the two mediocre pithiviers (puff pastry surrounding almond buttercream) I made last weekend. Like its twin, it did not rise as much as it should have, but it tasted pretty swell. Somewhere in there, I wanted to bake a loaf of bread, but I never got 'round to it. * It's not that my wife's an incompetent cook-- she's good. I'm just very possessive of the kitchen, and she's pretty happy with that.
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I like the fact that we've yet to make our first loaf of bread and people are already thinking about our next book! As for the Bread Bible, we've heard a number of people say they own it, but no one's actually said much in its favor yet. My vote would be to try stuff from Baking With Julia for a while, then think of other options if we get bored. What about Beranbaum's previous book, The Cake Bible? Does anyone like that book? I have't heard much about it. brngckn: If you're in Phoenix now, you can still make challah with us. We're doing it the weekend of Jan. 24th.
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Boy, people are really fond of Baking With Julia!
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I think I'll wait. You seem to be fishing for an excuse to buy more books, Ellen! By all means, get it and let us know what you think.
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Bloviatrix, we'd love to have you along whatever recipe you use. How do you like the Bread Bible? The cover is certainly enticing. Edited to fix Amazon link.
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I always assumed their 'cue wasn't legit because I don't think they can possibly have a pit (or the equivalent) in that storefront-- but Eric Asimov says the pork is "box smoked." I leave it to those who know to say whether this is real or fake 'cue. I've had the chicken (pretty good), the ribs (pretty average; they need the oversaucing they get), and the pulled pork (which is vinegary and very good, in my uneducated opinion). If I remember the sides correctly, the biscuit is quite good, the mac 'n' cheese and slaw are average, and the fries are nothing to shout about. I live on the other side of Grand Army Plaza, in Prospect Heights. There's a good jerk chicken place called 3D's over by my place, on Washington Ave near St. John's, but not much else that's notable. 5th Avenue is pretty much where it's at, and you should check out the restaurants there. My wife and I lived just off 5th from 1999 through the end of 2002, and watched the street just explode with life. It continues to move so quickly that we're surprised every time we return to the 'hood. We preferred some of the restos on 5th to the best of Smith, although your recent post on Smith included restaurants we've never been to-- both streets keep changing so fast. On 5th, we really like Convivium, which is between St. Marks and Bergen. The owner Michelle is really a lovely person and they serve very good pan-Spanish/Italian food, with an outsized local Zagat rating to match. We were into Al Di La until we realized that their menu will never change at all. We got bored. We also really like the Bistro St. Marks, which is where St. Marks meets Flatbush; this is the restaurant we go to most frequently when we have the chance to run out for an hour or two. I believe its owner/chef was formerly connected to Bouley in some fashion. We also had a great meal last week at Blue Ribbon Sushi Brooklyn, but it was expensive and it was our first dinner out since our new baby was born in November. So take it for what it's worth. Outside of 5th, we've found some of the French bistros to be perfectly acceptable, like Patois, the original Smith Street pioneer, and A Table in Ft. Green (I think on Lafayette). Oh, and in your area, my favorite Middle Eastern place for the past 11 years has been a storefront called Fatoosh, on Hicks just North of Atlantic Ave. We haven't been to the Grocery. Sorry for rambling off topic. Move this to the other thread if it's more appropriate over there!
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Yeah, something like that. And if any of us have any questions about the recipe before we start, we could post them here, too. We may be getting ahead of ourselves, but brioche might be a good next choice, since it is similar to challah..... And Bloviatrix, what do kosher bakers do? There must be some usual substitute for the milk.
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I have been meaning to stop in Torres' shop on my way in to work one of these days, but I've been too busy to check it out yet. Soon I will make a report. I may not have a worldly croissant palate, but I'll at least have a strong short-term memory of the local options. In the meantime, while Torres awaits, I've been visiting Ceci Cela daily. I found their croissants to be very good on my first visit, and in each subsequent daily test, I have rated them as about the same. But I will continue to visit and to check the quality of the croissants, in an effort to confirm Bux's contention that the product is in decline. The first time I notice any slippage, I will inform the membership. I will consider it my duty to keep eating these croissants until something changes. This morning I couldn't help myself; I also got the almond brioche. Very nice.
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I've been to Biscuit several times, and for what I imagine to be totally fake 'cue, it's very enjoyable food. Glad to see you venturing further into Brooklyn! Across Flatbush from Biscuit, in an oddly shaped storefront, you'll find very good Jamaican spicy beef patties. Get one served in the thick sweet bread for a tasty, carb-heavy $2.00 meal. Seems like Brooklyn dining is just not on the radar screen here on eGullet. I expect you to change all that, JJ. people like me-- parents of young children-- don't get out enough to keep up anymore.
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Maggie, here are some other recent purchases I haven't told you about: Baking With Julia, James Villas, The French Country Kitchen Paula Wolfert, The Cooking of Southwest France, and Su-Mei Yu, Cracking the Coconut.
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So at least six or seven of us plan to bake challah next weekend, all thanks to eGullet. If that's not a mitzvah,* I don't know what is! Never mind that I'll make mine on Saturday, most likely. I don't consider it work. *Mitzvah=good deed/blessing
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Do you fail to see the irony in the implicit generalization you have made about New Yorkers and your presumptuous judgment of individuals' reactions to a terrible tragedy, all in the middle of a thread about how we should try not to make our opinions about food into a value judgment about other people?
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I'm pleased at the response, especially from so many members, new and old, with whom I've yet to be acquainted! Seems like a pretty strong Baking With Julia consensus. For anyone reading this who doesn't yet have the book, one of the things that's nice about the book is that the recipes came from dozens of different experts-- many of whom are famous bakers and/or teachers/writers on their own. I'm reconsidering my idea above that I'd like to start with sourdough. I assume that not everyone has easy access to starter, so maybe I should just do that on my own or save it for later with a group. How about challah? We've had a couple endorsements of the recipe already. I've always wanted to make it, and it is in the chapter containing the easiest breads. Seems like a nice place to start. As to when, I'm open to whatever. Maybe not this weekend, but next? I don't want to scare anybody off with my enthusiasm! Again, these are just ideas. I'd welcome any others. If many of you have made challah and want to start with something different, or more challenging, I'd like to hear it.
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Just to be clear, I wasn't thinking we'd be very rigorous about doing every recipe, or doing them in any particular order a la Julie Powell. We don't have to be any more ambitious than we want to be! But it's nice if we all have a common book or recipe we can refer to.
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Shopping for a space flight at PathMark
SethG replied to a topic in eGullet Q&A with NASA Food Scientist Vickie Kloeris
Sounds like Sandra Lee would be right at home on the space shuttle! NASA might want to consider taking a look at her "semi-homemade" cuisine. Edited to add: this comment is intended to criticize Sandra Lee, not NASA. Astrounauts obviously have severe restrictions on what they can take into space. I just thought these limitations might make space the one appropriate place for her preservative-laden creations!