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rat

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Everything posted by rat

  1. i'll admit i'm wayyyyyyyyy too lazy to read all those posts, however if i'm cooking at home for friends i have no problem using a good quality canned bean and giving 'em a rinse in cold water. but having said that.....if i'm going to a restaurant and paying good money, i want the chef to be cooking those beans from scratch. that's called integrity! as for the differences between the two, chalk it up (generally speaking) as neglegible.
  2. rat

    Truffle Oil

    rats can't read, silly...
  3. rat

    Truffle Oil

    i agree with that. i'd liken it to a petrolly sorta chemical smell. fake, not natural. strictly on a comparison issue, a fresh sliced white truffle and white truffle oil have nothing in common for me. if you're talking about the subjective quality of liking or disliking white truffle oil, that's different.
  4. it seems to me that aging meat in a small refriegerator woudn't work, although i've never tried it. most home refrigerators don't have fans to circulate the air which actually dries the meat. secondly refrigerators are always humid. meat won't air dry in a humid environment, it rots. standard commercial aging is 14 - 21 days.
  5. rat

    This Horrid Raddish

    what i suspected is now confirmed to be true...... jason perlow is just a nom de plume for peter jackson! i knew it!! cool. hey i heard u were gonna be directing star wars III
  6. rat

    This Horrid Raddish

    where the heck do you live? three mile island!! put the radishes back in the ground, gather up the wife, kids and dog, and walk away.......never look back.
  7. rat

    Truffle Oil

    and an amateur i shall remain then cause i don't go near the stuff. i don't recall where i got that info, but perhaps could have been something ed behr wrote a while back in "art of eating" suzanne, flattery will get you nowhere.....well, errrrrrrrrr......hehe. nevermind
  8. rat

    Truffle Oil

    me no likey truffle oil. not coincidentally, truffles and truffle oil have nothing to do with eachother.
  9. anyone check out craftsteak? what's the reaction?
  10. money in vegas is the last thing a celebrity chef needs. what he needs is full confidence in his staff, the ablility to duplicate himself and a set of steel balls!
  11. rat

    Lamb

    black and blue is different. rare should be warm to the touch, not cold.
  12. rat

    Lamb

    if your going to cook meat to the temperature of rare, it's always a good idea to let it sit out on the counter for a bit. just until the chill has come off it. - your meat will be rare without being cold in the middle - it will cook more evenly. - going from extreme cold to extreme heat can make a piece of meat tough
  13. rat

    Wild mushrooms

    this thread reminded me... in late october i was walking across central park (manhattan) and right in the middle of the great lawn i saw mousseroun growing. i stopped and looked around slowly and they were everywhere! that was very cool. i guess since they stopped letting dogs go on the lawn the mushrooms now stand a fighting chance. i've heard something about a guided mushroom tour in the park. anyone got any info on that? i can just imagine a bunch of egulleters on that trip, driving the tour guide nuts!!
  14. rat

    Chowders in General

    jaymes, another option is just to put the whole live lobster in the boiling water. the reason for separating the tail and claw is that they both cook at different rates. tail meat is easy to extract when it's half raw, but the claws are much easier to remove from the shell intact when they are cooked through. thirdly, when making a lobster stock from the shells and bodies, you want the bodies raw. you won't have 'em like that if you cook the lobster whole. get in there, put on your favorite slayer album and rip up some lobsters!
  15. rat

    Chowders in General

    it is my understanding that by definition a chowder must contain potato, pork product (usually smoked bacon) and a shellfish of some sort (usually calms). in other words a chowder with one of these three things missing isn't a chowder (technically). that's not to say it wouldn't be good however i was thinking that cream had to be in there, but that would rule out manhattan clam chowder...
  16. i'll admit to giving up on restauant coffee. espresso works for me if it's not more than $5. otherwise i'll hit starbucks.
  17. rat

    Chicken Stock (again)

    speaking of escoffier... i believe i read at one time that he pretty much took nothing for granted about what had been "handed down." he questioned everything, threw out his notes and started from scratch! stocks in that regard would probably have been one of the first things he started with from ground zero! project, your asking all the right questions and i believe klc is pointing you in the right direction... if you go through the motions of all the questions you posed, you will then be the egullet chix stock authority! having said that, don't think too much. make it different each time just to see what happens. you'll probably find that for different applications, different methods are required. ie, if your making a stock to be used in a lentil soup, you'll want a light stlye stock. if your making a consumme you'll want a rich broth which will require browning the bones and considerable reducing...
  18. rat

    Storing truffles

    in my opinion, truffles are best used fresh and when in season. submerging in rice and keeping them in a refrigerator works - albeit only for a week at the most. after that point they become soft and eventually rot, as refrigerators are very humid inside. preserving truffles long term? depends on whom you ask... ask a french chef and they'll tell you - cover with madeira, bring to a boil, put in a mason jar, hermetically seal and hold for as long as you like. this applies to black truffles of course. don't ask a french chef what to do with a white truffle, those are from italy…
  19. rat

    Chili con Carne

    from the rat archives - Sweat lots of onions, garlic, sweet peppers (green and red) with cumin seed, fennel seed and dried oregano all in bacon fat. Or just throw ‘em in with a bunch of chopped up bacon. Add beer (something locally brewed to add to the down home party feel) and reduce until almost dry Add red wine vinegar and reduce again until almost dry Add chopped chili peppers of choice – I would use a combination of red chili, green chili, Serrano, pablano and jalapeno (you get great flavor from mixing it up). Stay away from habanera peppers; they’re just too darn lethal. Cook all this down until it starts to brown and stick to the bottom of the pot. Turn the heat down low and go slow so you don’t burn it. Remember, you gotta put some love into this or it’s gonna suck! Add the chili powder at this point and continue to sweat it for about 5 minutes or until you get that awesome smell when you stick your face in the pot. At this point add – Canned tomato of choice Fresh tomato, roughly chopped Tomato paste Bay leaf Meat of choice - Beef chuck or pork shoulder ground up. Cook this separately by itself and drain off the grease. Save some though ‘cause you’ll want to add some back for good flavor. Throw in a couple of whole lemons and limes cut into quarters Simmer the whole thing slowly for as long as you can. 4 hours minimum. The longer the better. Add water here and there if you need to. Don’t let the whole thing get too thick. For the beans, use a mix of cannelloni, red kidney, pinto, navy and anything else you can get your hands on. A variety will mix up the taste and add to the visual as well. Molasses and dark brown sugar to sweeten it up and I’ve even heard of using some chocolate for this too. The sweetness will balance out the vinegar you added earlier. Btw, you may need to add more vinegar if you think it needs some bite. Don’t forget salt!!!! It’s very important! You can make dog crap taste good with salt. (ummmm, at least that’s what someone told me). Just before serving, take it off the fire and stir in - Whole butter Tabasco and worstershire Couple shots of tequila (for 700 pp maybe more like a whole bottle) If you can find something called aleppo pepper (found in Indian food stores) sprinkle it in at this point for some serious kick! Top with sour cream, grated jack cheese and chopped parsley (Italian flat leaf, not curly). Guacamole and chips on the side and your good to go. Stay away from those recipes that use flour, cornstarch or rice. The reason they are there is to act as a thickening agent for the chili so you don’t have to cook it for a long time. There’s no love in that! Make sure to give the little woman the dutch oven from hell for the rest of the week! Good luck.
  20. there is also an interesting piece in the lastest "art of eating" in it harold mcgee (of "on food and cooking") describes how a small producer makes his ricotta cheese near palermo. very interesting.
  21. joe's dairy on sullivan street http://www.splendora.com/NewYork/Savories/...omage/87633.htm
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