rane008

Thanks everyone! This is great advice. Franci - is this basically salt cured foie? I'm very interested in this! I've decided to do 4 plates, each with a different preparation (poached, seared, terrine mi cult, and ?), so this could be the last. Am I correct in that it seems this is uncooked?

Hi All, My mother's birthday is coming up and she asked that I make foie gras for her, since she's never had it. I've ordered a Grade A - 2 lb. whole liver from Hudson Valley, and was wondering if I could get some ideas for preparation. My plan is to do 3 or 4 composed plates. I'm thinking of doing the Gewurztraminer poached foie with pickled cherries and the seared foie with lobster and fig, both from the French Laundry cookbook. Anyone else have some good ideas? She's up for almost anything, so let me know what you think!

SLB - I live in the SF Bay Area and that price doesn't surprise me at all. That said, I still think it's ridiculous. Try to get in good with your butcher, though. I have a deal with a local, organic butcher and he only charges me $2/lb for leaf. I just rendered 5lbs of it a couple days back, yielded about 2.2 qts.

Yeah that's what I was thinking of. Oh well.

This thread is fantastic, just finished reading the whole thing. What I love about BBQ is that it marries pork and pork fat with its best partner: smoke. This is something that Asian treatments tend to leave out.

I may be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure I've seen these pots at Cost Plus World Market. May be worth a look?

Older version of Joy of Cooking is a great idea. You can find a recipe in there for almost anything. However, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned James Peterson's Cooking http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-James-Peterson/dp/1580087892/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425405334&sr=1-1&keywords=james+patterson+cooking From a practical perspective, it has excellent and extensive illustrations and photographs for all sorts of techniques. Check it out.

Normally I enjoy most TJ's products, but recently I bought some of their whole wheat naan (a product I used to love), and was thoroughly disappointed. The bread was dry and bland, whereas it used to be moist and flavorful. Would not recommend.

The enemy of a good sear is external moisture. To minimize any surface water, I salt the scallops and let them sit for 10 minutes. This will help draw out some water. Then dry with paper towels and put on a wire rack over a sheet pan and leave uncovered in the fridge for 2 hours. This will develop a "tack" on the surface--it's a sticky substance the caramelizes well. For the actual sear, clarified butter is normally used, though I've used regular olive oil and grapeseed oil in the past. Cast iron is preferable since the addition of the cold scallops won't cool the pan significantly. Get the oil pretty much smoking hot, add scallops, don't crowd, work in batches.

Polenta. I much prefer my polenta made with only water, salt, and mounted with butter at the end.

Thanks for the insight. Was thinking they were tin. Still want them (the set is $150), but I want to have more flexibility with the cooking temp, as well as no need to resurface.

Title says it all, really. I'm looking at a set of pots on my local CL and wondering if they are tin-lined or SS. Attached is a picture of them.

Honestly, I like doing the bind on the burger for several reasons: It makes working with the burger easier It evenly distributes the seasoning It spreads some of the fat from the short rib around the grounds for better self-basting And I just like the texture more. Not working the beef, well you can do it that way, but if you are grilling, it's very difficult to prevent the burger from breaking up. I'm curious as to why everyone here is so into it.

This is the one to get: Check out the reviews, or take it from me, it's a fantastic rack (no double-entendre intended). Price point is excellent as well.