SethG

Unless I missed it, no one's mentioned tall food. Tall food, now that's a gimmick! But it's a New York contribution, baby! Bada-bing!

I did make the menu tonight (including the salad and everything), and I'll reserve comment for after the rest of you have also done it, but I do want to point out for anyone else who uses this link for the chicken recipe that garlic is NOT in the list of ingredients. Then in the narrative of the recipe, you are asked to add the garlic. Garlic, you say?? I quickly diced up two cloves and added them.

I honestly didn't remember who was involved in the discussion of New Way. You all must think I'm a flatterer! It was actually Torakris' endorsement I remembered in particular.

Entry #1: "Snowangel, I know you love the lake and all that, but aren't you freezing? It's a little late in the season. Why don't you head back up to the cabin and shuck some corn for later?" Entry # 2: Some occasions are just made for Kikkoman.

Done. Thanks Erin-- I did also take a look at the book this morning at the store. While I was there, I saw that Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook is out in paperback. I don't own this book, but I have read some very earnest testimonials about it here at the "G," and after flipping through it today I can easily imagine myself working through it. It seems like such a sensible, non-puritanical approach to cooking both for good taste and good health-- and page after page contained dishes I wanted to make. I'm not proposing that we replace Jules et Jim, but it's another book to think about for the future.

I'm sure, Heather. I'll be fine. I hope you feel better... especially so you can focus on the lesson we're all sharing! No one picked up on my suggestion that I could hold off on comments until we've all cooked the menu-- I don't know if you want me to do that or not, but I raise it again to ask a different but related question. What do you guys think we should be looking to achieve here once we've cooked the menu? Should we evaluate whether we... ... learned a valuable technique? ... liked the dish? ... were satisfied with the book's presentation of the dish? Will we be troubleshooting the recipe for those of us who might experience an unsuccessful night? Should we talk about our own different ways to make a similar product? I'm not trying to limit what we can talk about. More the opposite. I want to hear things we might want to think about that I haven't come up with myself.

Thursday dinner: Once bitten, whatever. Went back to Thompson's Thai Food. I've been craving the shrimp salad I made about a month ago, full of chiles, shallots, lemongrass, and young ginger, with a citrusy dressing equal parts lime juice, mandarin juice and fish sauce. Last time the shrimp took me forever and didn't come out right, so I just poached them ahead of time tonight. Worked out great. And he has this chapter full of street food at the back which includes tons of stuff that seems workable for weeknight dining. I made stir-fried beef with chillies and holy basil. Very quick garlic, salt and chile paste, fry it up, add beef, soy, a touch of sugar and basil, and you're out. And jasmine rice. The bird chiles I bought today kicked ass, by the way. Yum.

Ach, don't bother. It sounds like a hassle. I'm the one who ordered it instead of buying it in the store. I can make it to the bookstore tomorrow to take a peek at the recipe. Seriously, forget about it.

Hey, Erin, Heather? I never got that potato recipe-- if one of y'all could PM me, I'd appreciate it. I hope it doesn't involve too much typing. I think I will be making these dishes Friday night, but I'll reserve comment until Saturday or Sunday. Or whatever you want me to do. Is that okay?

There's a recipe in Thanksgiving Dinner, by Anthony Dias Blue, for Chestnut soup. The author and his wife describe it as one of the best things they've ever eaten.

Ditto. Seth, getting to know eGulleteers as individuals, not just the food-obsessed, is a wonderful side benefit to this forum. Veer away! You guys are the best.

Schaffer: "The one beer to have when you're having more than one."

I didn't mean to veer us off-topic. This is the last thing I'll say about it. Due date: November 1. But if (s)he's as early as our Leah was (s)he'll be born, um, yesterday.

Thanks, Erin. I try to mention my pending arrival at least once in every thread! It would be great if someone could PM me the potato thing. I've tried to find it on the web and have failed. (And I have bought the book, so it isn't stealing.) I may skip the salad. I'm going to try to sneak a peek at the book in the store before Saturday, too, to see what the pictures add. I'm psyched about this, by the way. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Well, you learn something new every day. It turns out pickled, preserved, and crystalized ginder are all different things, with preserved and crystalized often substituted for each other in recipes. See here. Pickled ginger is made with vinegar, preserved ginger with sugar. My face is red. I don't think it harmed my stuffing, though. And it didn't sound any stranger than a lot of the other stuff that went in there. I'll try to find the right stuff for next time, though.

Tuesday dinner: pork chops sauteed and deglazed with white wine eGCI stock, shallots and garlic; leftover mushroom risotto; and broccoli

Thank you, Dave, but (spatchcock) I found the recipe (spatchcock) on the (spatchcock) web... just point yer clicker right here. Now anyone can play along. Big caveat: if you hope to learn about cutting up a raw chicken from this lesson, you'd be better off with the book, since the link I've found does not include the pictures. (Spatchcock.) Edit: And another thing. Having read what's contained in the excerpt I found, I think I'm going to love this book. Edited a second time to delete pedantic nonsense.

I don't have the book yet, as you know, but I may be able to figure out a way to join you nonetheless... Even if I don't join you on this particular lesson, cutting up a chicken may be the one area where I feel like a pro (except for this business about the wishbone). If I figure out some way to join you in this lesson, I may want to do it on Friday; we have company coming. It might be most practical if we all do things on our own schedule but within a few days of one another, so we can report our thoughts in a timely fashion. Doing everything the same day would obviously be optimal, but is that ever really going to happen? Edit: I just saw your posts about Saturday, after I submitted the above. I could figure out something else for Friday and join you on Saturday, too. Count me in, provisionally.

I think I said somewhere above that I think the shell did seal in moisture; the white meat was still moist even though it was probably cooked too long, and the dark meat was just great. But Thompson says the turkey's supposed to be so tender that just talking to it will make it fall apart. That wasn't my experience. The dark meat was close to falling apart, but not the white meat. And I think it's supposed to flavor the bird, but I don't know if it really did that. The ginger comes in a glass jar; it looks like the stuff that you get on the side when you go out for sushi. It's in slices, and has an peach/salmon color. The jar I bought said either "preserved ginger" or "pickled ginger" on it. I think that's the right stuff.

Come Thanksgiving, I think I'm going to make the stuffing, then cook it seperately from a brined turkey, or stuff the brined turkey; I haven't decided. But I think I will skip the coating and basting. I'm going to go for the best, moistest turkey with gravy to enjoy with the Thompson stuffing. Although I dunno, I keep thinking about trying it all again, this time roasting it mostly breast down and using less paste..... the basting really wasn't that much work, but then again, I want crispy skin. Whatever. The shorter answer to your question is that your plan will probably work out fine. Steingarten suggests something similar in his turkey chapter, involving a high temp quick roasting of the turkey with the stuffing beside it in a bowl. He says you should cover the stuffing well and roast it for a couple hours.

Uh, yeah. I was just kidding around. Sorry.

Hey good luck, and report your results! If your local supermarket has an "international" section, you'll find the ginger there. Otherwise you should be able to get it at any asian market.

Don't forget the butter! You're right, I forgot the butter!

I saw that Tower book at Borders today, but resisted pulling it off the shelf. If I buy any more cookbooks my wife may commit me. (Not that my cookbook collection rivals any of yours, I'm sure. It's just that I bought four or five within the last couple weeks.) So I ordered Jules et Jim from Amazon today, and I'll try to hide the box when it arrives. I would've bought that at Borders, but they were asking list price and I knew I could get it online for half that. KatieLoeb says my cheapness is the secret of my success with the ladies; I can't risk losing the mojo over one lousy book! So if we begin to work through Jules et Jim, I may not be able to join you for a week or two. By which time I'll have a new infant in the house (God willing), but I'll still have to cook, right?

I want to report that I tried out mags' squash puree and Jaymes' bourbon pecan pie over the last few days. Both were winners. I think both will make it to my T-Day table this year. The pecan pie tasted exactly right. But now that I know that a pecan pie is filled with several sugars and syrups, and NOTHING ELSE besides pecans and eggs, I may have slightly smaller portions in the future. Especially if I want to stay so sexy.