Ruth

Citarella is selling fairly large ones for $5.99 apiece. I bought a couple today. You have to check to make sure they are still alive.

Glutinous rice is often labeled as "sweet rice". It is a short grain rice while "sushi rice" or Japanese rice is medium grain like Arborio. You will find glutinous rice only in Asian markets.

The really depressing fact is that the book - obviously written way before "The Restaurant" began showing- is actually very good indeed, carefully written and with innovative recipes that are fun to prepare. I have cooked several dishes from that book and it was definitely not put together in a hurry for publicity purposes. One wonders what will become of Rocco when he inevitably ceases to be of interest to the media; his old customers from Union Pacific will not crowd the doors again. It will take him a very long time to prove himself once more.

Paul has said it all. I make a red wine demi glace reduction and then add either cassis ,red currants or sour cherries. Whatever you do, do not discard the rendered fat. Almost anything you sauter- especially potatoes - tastes better when sautéed in duck fat than butter or oil. It will keep a very long time in your 'fridge and virtually forever in the freezer.

Rocco DiSpirito writes in his book "Flavors" that a boneless chicken breast should be wrapped tightly in several layers of plastic wrap and sealed for 10 minutes in a 200° oven before immersing in a 160° degree water bath for about 45 minutes. Although he implies that you can add herbs and vegetables to the package, this method is obviously much less efficient and certainly less convenient than using the vacuum pack. Moreover, vacuum machines are invaluable in a kitchen for so many purposes (I cannot imagine life without my FoodSaver) that even if you buy one with only sous-vide cooking in mind you will find yourself using it every time you want to freeze something or pack any food item in an airtight container. By the way, FG, Garland now makes an induction cook top with a probe that constantly monitors the temperature in the pan and adjusts energy as appropriate. That is not the model I have but for anyone who wants to spend the $4000 or so required I imagine that it would keep a constant temperature indefinitely.

When it comes to timers the multiple timers are my absolute nemesis. I had a West Bend dual timer for about fifteen years. It was simple to use and I should have looked for the same brand when it died. Alas, I bought a Polder dual timer, followed by a CDN. Both demand so many steps to go from one timer to the next that your food is half cooked before you figure it out correctly. However the Polder temperature probe is fairly reliable as long as it lasts (I am on my third). Still I never rely on one thermometer. I use a Thermopen (absolutely reliable) to check meats and fish and a Raytex infrared for oil, liquids and oven. I also recently bought an oven probe from Williams Sonoma - so far so good. It's not that I am so fanatical about one degree more or less but over-cooked anything reduces me to tears. So now I have timers on my probes and no longer have to worry about setting "timer 2".

I tried a slow cooker but it could not keep the heat low enough. A good induction cook-top will keep the heat constantly low for at least two hours but I agree with you all that specially designed equipment would be required to maintain a constant low temperature over a long period. However, someone cooking at home is far more likely to be using the shorter cooking times and certainly not on a daily basis.

One aspect of sous vide cooking we have not discussed is the difficulty of maintaining very low heat on a gas burner for any length of time, especially without a simmer burner. I have recently solved that problem by buying an induction cook top.

I would add to the above Charlie Palmer an excellent web page with great recipes

Sous vide is the way to go - 40 min preferably vacuum packed or, at a pinch, tightly wrapped in plastic, at 140° F. You can sear them on the skin side before serving. I like to marinate them before bagging - olive oil, a little rice wine, herbs, s&p. Freeze the wine and oil before vacuuming to prevent them from being sucked out into the machine.

That is the final answer. I have never encountered any problem with the quality of foie gras available here in the US. There are so few producers. The only risk is in over cooking. That is a disaster and dry, over cooked was served to me once in a very famous restaurant in London. Otherwise I think that foie gras is one of the easiest ingredients to cook even at home.

I am really confused. 25lbs? I would not consider anything over 15lbs a cochon du lait. I believe that in Europe even 10lbs would be the limit.

That's definitely the way to go. Even the beef chuck is usually too lean these days for any dish requiring ground meat. I grind fat back with my beef as well to make it approximately 70/30

I would definitely recommend Charlie Palmer's recently published "Aureole Food" - an unusually beautiful book with recipes that can be followed as a whole or in segments. Not only is this an enjoyable book to look at and read but the dozen or so recipes I have made so far all came out as planned without problem.

Last year Nicholas Lander wrote about a dinner he had had at Elizabeth's in Savannah. He maintained that he had been served delicious local truffles.I am fairly certain that the article was in the weekly food and wine column of the Financial Times. I asked a number of New York chefs if they had heard of these but no-one had. It seems that they are definitely up to something down South!

What you are doing sounds fascinating Bigorre. Where are you located? Fat Guy, if you can arrange anything I would love to be a part of it. I have been fascinated by sous vide cooking since I saw a demonstration by Rocco Dispirito a couple of years ago and would like to see it done by more professionals

Nathan If you can get hold of the Winter 2003 issue of Art Culinaire (#71) you will find a whole section on sous vide cooking which will show how a number of different chefs use it. Paul Sale cooks a 6 oz portion of halibut at 135° for 10 minutes, frenched chicken breasts at 165° for 25 minutes and oxtail at 165° for 8 hours.. Alessandro Stratta coooks pork belly (after searing) at 200° for 12 hours. There are many other recipes in the issue whuch use the sous vide method. The method is fairly new and I do not think there is any truly authoritative source. We just have to go by the good old reliable trial and error.

I love to cook chicken breasts sous vide (ditto guinea hen, pheasant, partridge). You really do not need a recipe. Pre-season any way you prefer. If you want to add wine or any other liquid seasoning freeze it before adding it to the bag as any liquid will be sucked out when you vacuum. The trick is to get the water in the pan to the right temperature and keep it there for about 40 minutes. I do mine at very low temperatures (around 120°F) as I like to brown the skin before serving and I like the meat to be a little pink. If you buy a cook book you will probably find they tell you to bring the water to 160° (USDA recommended temperature). Your choice. But this is a technique that is fun to experiment with.

I bought a few of those yesterday. I thought they were young garlic but they were definitely identical to the photo. After trimming them a little I sautéed them whole until lightly browned, seasoned them and continued to cook covered over very low heat until they began to soften (about 5 minutes). Unorthodox perhaps but a great accompaniment to our grill hanger steak.

The Romanians have something very similar they call mititei - also know by some as Romanian hamburgers! They can be made with any combination of meats (I use pork and beef) but if the meat is very lean one has to add some fat back or pork fat. They are spiced with coriander or cumin, loads of garlic and hot pepper and grilled to a medium rare. I used to eat cevapcici in Belgrade years ago. They used to cook them through (I don't think the quality of the meat was very reliable) but they too must be delicious grilled rare or medium rare.

He does a crisply breaded flank with citrus vinaigrette, braised legs with lavender scented sauce and saffron risotto, confit rack (in duck fat) and sautéed loin. I used thyme rather than lavender because my husband didn't like the idea of the lavender. There are a lot of great recipes in the book and most are easy to break down into components. His salmon confit in duck fat was the best piece of salmon I ever prepared. There is a porcini dusted monkfish with caramelized fennel. I have not yet done the monkfish but the caramelized fennel was superb and would work with any fish or meat dish for the matter. I have the book only for a couple of weeks and there are a lot more dishes I want to try. It is not a book for the timid as the recipes require time, effort and some experience but I love it and am already planning his "Port-glazed foie gras and tuna terrine" for my next dinner party.

I must confess I just don't get it. Perhaps the first time I tried durian I wasn't quite sure, but have come to love it in recent years. Sure if you let it get overripe it smells unpleasant, like any other rotten fruit, and the odor of the discarded rind is as bad (but no worse) than the odor of discarded citrus rind. I wonder how many of you who are horrified at the idea of trying durian are put off by other people's stories. Try it with an open mind.

That is absolutely the way to go. At the present moment I am in the process of braising rabbit legs. In Charlie Palmer's newly published "Art of Aureole" there is a recipe for "Rabbit four ways" with recipes for each part. Each segment can be prepared independently and it is a very useful guide. I cut up all my birds for cooking as well and never cook chicken or duck breasts along with the legs.

We love okra but I agree that it is not very versatile. I like to cut off the stems and sauté whole with tomatoes (preferably fresh) until crisp tender. Okra alone are good this way, especially if you add a squeeze of lemon juice. I too would like to hear other suggestions but I do not like them (or any other vegetable) when they are cooked to a soft state

Me too. I love that attachment for the Kitchen Aid. It works well and is very very easy to clean. I confess that I do not use it very often as ground meat does not figure on my menu every day or every week but I can grind my meat course or fine - even tuna for tartar for that matter. You can also buy a sausage-making attachment for it. I used to have a dedicated meat grinder but it was such a pain to use and to clean that I abandoned it long ago.