SethG

No one asked me to write a quince blog, but here I am, reporting anyway on my continuing quince adventures. The dulce de membrillo was a treat. It is almost all gone now, sadly. I was kinda floored at the pairing with manchego. Who thought that up? So good; so unlikely! I may try it again, but stop at jam instead of continuing to the candy stage. There's a million things upon which one could spread quince jam. Last night I made a braised pork chop recipe in which I substituted quinces for pears. They tasted great.

I hope you like it!

Thanks for these entries, bratt23! In addition to what you've already read, you ought to check out Malawry's Diary of a Cooking School Student. I'm sure you'd enjoy it, if you haven't seen it already!

I'll try to do the fish and broccoli sometime later this week. Sounds good. I don't have the new Wolfert book but I've been sort of exploring her books a lot lately. I bought Mediterranean Grains & Greens recently, and checked out the Eastern Mediterranean book from the library. I haven't made anything from that one yet, but it looks great.

Sorry for the delayed response, but yeah, I'd like to try this too! I don't have the Vogue issue in question, but I can pick it up. I have Complete Techniques, and I can PM/email you what it says. I don't have the Julia book mentioned.

Sunday night: A leek tart, and a salad of radicchio and other mesclun greens (leftover from last week but still good, miraculously). And we had pork chops too. Braised with vinegar, honey, and quince slices.

Thanks so much for participating in this Q & A! You've done more than any other mainstream writer to debunk the phobias promoted by the nutritional establishment-- particularly needless prohibitions of healthful fats, salt, and alcohol. But as recent research seems to confirm more and more of what you've been saying for years, it also seems like there's no easy answer. We in New York City can't, for example, simply eat a lot of duck and drink a lot of wine, and assume we'll have the same low rate of heart disease that they do in the Perigord. It seems there are a number of other factors-- vegetables eaten with the meal, sedentary vs. active lifestyles, portion size, and numerous other things-- that would play into any serious attempt to control one's own risks of this or that terminal condition. My question for you is this: do you believe that one should try to "eat healthy?" If so, do you? And what does this mean to you? Does this mean that you should limit your intake of any particular, delicious thing, such as some (but not all) animal fat? Or in the alternative, is it enough to debunk the nutritional fads of today (as you so often do) and try to simply keep a balance in one's life of all things? And a related follow up: if you're familiar with Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook, I'd like to know your opinion of it. Thanks again!

Where is it? Click on "show all" when you see the clickable smiles menu to the left of your text box in the reply window. Then you can select it.

See here. This link is not to the NY Times, who will charge you a fee to see the article, but instead to another site that provides the article as a Word document download. The culprits are the Dept. of Agriculture and the Med. Fruit Fly. While searching for the article I saw on another site that some importers freeze the fruit, import it (legally), then thaw it out and sell it as if it were fresh. Mr. Apple has high hopes for irradiation. Edit: I'd love to taste one myself! I never have.

Oops. I guess I knew that already. Now that I know where the blushing emoticon is, I think I'll be getting a lot of use out of it.

That's the article I was thinking of! I thought Witchel unintentionally revealed himself to be much more difficult than Steingarten, and a lot less fun.

R.W. Apple had an article in the NY Times a few months ago that said it's illegal to import them to the U.S.

You know I'm there, dude. And I do love cod. But I've never fondled it.

It's funny, I do trust him for his recipes. He was my tour guide for my recent attempt at Thompson's Turkey, and while I took issue with some of Steingarten's decisions, he was generally very helpful. And I recently made his potato gratin (from his second book), and it kicked ass in a major way. But if you read between the lines in his own work, you can tell he's much more of an experimenter (and prose stylist) than a natural cook. There was a profile last year in the NY Times in which the author (I forget who) described the food he was served by Steingarten as rather hit-or-miss. And Amanda Hesser claims Steingarten gave her food poisoning. (And stole a story from her to boot! She's his friend, so she can accuse him of these things.) When he writes about food prepared by others, I have to trust his judgment because he's so much more experienced than I am, and he writes so persuasively. He convinced me that I'd never had an MSG headache, when I was previously pretty sure I had. And Bond Girl: I think all of his writing-- or almost all, anyway-- has been for Vogue, hasn't it?

Thanks for that very enjoyable article, Francis. Speaking of baked crepes, I've enjoyed on a few occasions two different kinds of baked crepes. Marcella Hazan has a section on crespelle (this is just Italian crepes-- she allows her readers to use her batter or any crepe batter they prefer) in her Essentials book. There's a wonderful recipe for a mound of crepes, filled very lightly with tomato sauce, prosciutto, and mozzarella. This dish is both surprisingly light and decadently rich, as any dish featuring a mound of buttery crepes would have to be. Then there's Julia Child's mound of crepes, from Mastering the Art. This one features alternating layers of spinach and mushrooms, and three different cheese sauces, including a smothering topping of Sauce Mornay. Nothing light about this recipe. Julia calls it "amusing;" to me it was overwhelming. My wife loved it. I thought it was delicious, but I couldn't eat more than a few bites, it was so rich.

Julia Child recommends a "lager-type" beer. I used Brooklyn IPA, which was close enough. I thought Guinness sounded interesting.

Sat. nite: Beef & onions braised in beer; buttered egg noodles; and steamed broccoli. And I forgot to mention earlier that my wife made a Payard lemon tart last night. There's still some left over for later tonight.

So that's where it is! My face is red.

Friday night: roasted pork tenderloin, stuffed with prosciutto, breadcrumbs, rosemary & thyme; roasted asparagus; celery root & apple puree.

I'm a Jardin Bistro fan, but I don't know if it's the place to sit for several hours. It's a popular date destination. A nice place in Chelsea that I never see talked about on eGullet is L'Acajou, at 53 W. 19th Street (btwn 5th and 6th Aves). They have a good bistro menu that I believe includes hangar steak, and I'm no expert but I think they have a good, relatively reasonable wine list. I'm not sure about the mussels, though. They're open until 1 a.m., they're very friendly and casual, and they are happy to let you sit at a banquette for hours, enjoying leisurely service. Edit: welcome, ieatfire!

Isn't this one of those books that is best err..."borrowed"? Did anyone actually buy it? I was tempted, but not out of any sympathy for the SLA. I just thought it was the most audacious, and downright goofy, idea of a fundraiser for a criminal defendant that I'd ever heard of. I asssume it's out of "print" now since the website where it was for sale no longer exists.

Although I'm hurt that no one reacted to my non-serious suggestion above, I will perservere and make a serious suggestion: The French Country Kitchen, James Villas. The prose is as valuable as the recipes.

So I made dulce de membrillo Wednesday night, using Jackal10's eGCI instructions, and it couldn't have been simpler. It was hard work pushing the quince paste through the sieve, though. My wrist hasn't been so sore since Julia and I had to make a gross of quenelles for a practical at Le Cordon Bleu. Ah, the old days, meeting Louisette and Simone for aperitifs in Montparnasse; debating Hitchcock with Francois and Jean-Luc... but I digress. I'd post a picture, but my membrillo looks just like Jackal10s. And my post is premature, since I'm letting it dry a little more before I cut it up, roll it in sugar, and eat it with Manchego. But I tasted a glop of it hot from the pan before it dried, and it was delicious. Quinces! What have I been doing with my life?

Thanks, maybe I'll do it another time.

The flavor was fine-- that wasn't the problem. And my wife, who is rather picky about what constitutes correct mashed potatoes, gobbled them right up. I found them a bit too loose, even though I made the exact weight of potatoes specified in the recipe. Next time I'd use less buttermilk, or mix it with some cream, or use less liquid and more butter.