huiray

Thanks, gfweb. Oops, I suppose some comment should be made about Rittenhouse Tavern...for those reading this thread. My understanding is (as it would be for those in Philly, of course) is that Rittenhouse Tavern closed shortly after Elmi left, and Pierre Calmels took over the space and opened Le Chéri instead. gfweb or others, how is this place?

Yes, Nick Elmi is doing well. Hope to hear more concrete things about his new venture. As for Sbraga - IMO his Top Chef win had a lot to do with his getting Michael Voltaggio as his sous-chef, and Angelo Sosa being sick didn't hurt (his chances, that is).

Chiffonade them, if "large" or "well-developed" leaves. Then use in stir-fries, in fried rice, or in broths/soups - cooking them for 5-10 minutes is sufficient, they retain texture but are eminently edible. I prefer them, like my vegetables, with some "bite" in them in general. Or, in larger pieces/ribbons, cook/braise with other meats like pork belly, not just ham or bacon, and you certainly don't need to cook them till they are mush - in my opinion and personal taste, of course. If you grow them - why not pick the leaves when they are young – say, 2-3 inches in length/size. They can then even be used in green salads as-is; and in my experience, for me, young tender leaves if cooked for more than a few minutes just turn to mush. I've put fistfuls of young leaves (whole) into a simmering pot of broth-soup and turned the heat off after they have just wilted in. (an old post) Some other old posts here, here (scroll down), here, here (scroll down). Many other posts on eG with collards in various dishes, of course. :-)

That would be nice if you ended up in St Louis. (I add my voice to that of Iowa Dee) I am just under 4 hours from there and could see myself making a driving trip there (or something like that) and sampling your food. I like St Louis, at least the main St Louis proper, and the dining scene there. The Missouri Botanical Garden is also such a gem!! How interesting that you grew up in St Louis and still have family there!

An infrequent (rare for me) type of meal tonight. Southern-style food. Take-out from Hollyhock Hill. Fried chicken, fried chicken livers, corn, green beans, mash, gravy, iceberg salad, biscuits. Plus a coule of brownies, not pictured. Yes, there were lots of leftovers. no beans remaining but lots of corn and mash which will probably be set aside (or thrown out - I don't care much for either; these came as part of the carry-out "package"). Some sort of greens/beans will be needed to go with the next meal.

Notwithstanding pleas from folks hoping for your relocation to wherever - what are the essential elements of the place you want to move to, I wonder? If you are to be continuing your approach to your food where you forage for a great deal of your ingredients then there are only so many places you could relocate to in terms of "larger (metropolitan?) markets" where you would be able to wander out into the surrounding terrain and legally retrieve items for use in your menus. Or are you thinking of sourcing such things? Or hiring others to do this stuff (whether locally or from afar) as you get busier with your restaurant activities?

"Cooking with Dog" is a great video series, yes. I enjoy them too - but had not seen the ones "featuring" a stuffed Francis! The offal shown in your linked video ALL LOOK DELICIOUS and very attractive. Reminds me I need to whip up a few dishes with tendon/tripe/liver/etc...

Fresh shrimp simply sautéed in oil w/ scallions & sea salt. Fedelini w/ Fagioli Corallo al Pomodoro.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/130618-best-manhattan-variations/page-4#entry1975926 :-)

Ah, I see. Thanks for the note.

I see from another thread that you will be closing shop in the near future and relocating. I'm wondering - How will this affect the upcoming book? If not anything else, how are you going to be described and what is your biography going to say? After all, I would imagine the text of it has to be "fixed" well before you make your final move, have a new appellation/address/etc... It occurs to me too that you might be in the position of being at a "meet the chef/author" book-signing sometime towards the end of 2016 and having to sign a book that says in the bio that you are the chef at Curious Kumquat when you no longer are? Or will there be the chance to alter the bio before the book is printed, assuming you know the new details in time?

You mean like Portland? https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/1p96r3/homeowners_how_do_you_keep_local_sous_chefs_from http://www.organicauthority.com/foodie-buzz/fail-portland-chefs-forage-steal-in-private-gardens.html http://www.katu.com/news/local/No-herb-is-safe-from-weed-stealing-sous-chefs-says-apt-manager-229651431.html http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/10/29/no-herb-is-safe-portlands-urban-gardeners-cant-keep-chefs-from-stealing-their-crops/ --------------------------------- Wishing you the best, gfron1. Will this affect your upcoming book?

Soup. Enoki, shimeji & shiitake mushrooms (all fresh) plus striped green zucchini in nicely gelatinous chicken broth. Generous chopped scallions scattered in. Cánh gà chiên nước mắm (Fried chicken wings w/ fish sauce). This night's version. Chicken wings sans tips marinated w/ back pepper & sesame oil & chopped garlic for a while. Pan-fried (garlic pieces removed before frying) on both sides, browning sufficiently, remove to paper towels. Reserve oil. clean pan. Some of the reserved oil plus some chicken fat (from stock that was made a day or two ago) went into the reheated pan, fresh chopped garlic, then a mixture/slurry of fish sauce [Red Boat] and turbinado sugar, plus a little sesame oil went in. Cook down w/ stirring (spatula) till caramelizing, then add the reserved chicken wings back in and toss around to coat. Bit of water plus stirring/tossing to adjust for liquidity. Serve. Sliced & chopped scallion dressing. Rau muống xào tỏi (Water spinach/kangkong/ong choy fried with garlic), with some oyster sauce as well. Several bowls of white rice, lightly drizzled with the caramelized sauce of the chicken wings dish (from the excess left in the pan :-) )

I might suspect that may have been so, and that they used fresh unfrozen abalone. (The diver.net article above I linked to talks about cooking fresh abalone really quickly to retain tenderness; so do the relevant articles - from amongst many others out there - I link to below) OR, they used good quality CANNED stuff - which can taste quite fresh. Some additional articles that may be of interest. Note the commentary about fresh vs dried vs canned stuff, and the variation of treatment depending on quality/source/size/etc of the abalones. Also the stuff about not boiling them; or bringing them up to temp from cold rather than dumping them into water already at temp. http://www.hkjebn.com/en/mo/knowledge/dried-seafood http://www.foodcanon.com/2013/02/chinese-new-year-recipes-preparing-your.html http://www.noobcook.com/braised-mushrooms-with-abalone/ http://redcook.net/2010/02/15/braised-abalone-for-chinese-new-year/ http://hungerhunger.blogspot.com/2010/03/abalone-kai-lan.html http://shun-gate.com/en/okurimono/japanese_dishes/okurimono_5.html

Latest batch of chicken stock/broth. This one was done using meaty leg quarter frames from presumably "commercial" chickens (and not pastured or whatever) bought at a Vietnamese supermarket; and with the pieces chopped up, bones cracked, and blanched before simmering in fresh water. Threw in some saved chicken wing tips as well. The color is lighter than with the previous batch using pastured chicken frames, and the color of the fat, not surprisingly, is lighter than with pastured chickens.

Simple dinner. Largely cooked fedelini tossed w/ and cooked down in the pan with the last of the pork mince - tomato - caper - etc sauce from here plus some pasta cooking water. Sliced green zucchini sautéed w/ lots of chopped crushed garlic (Music) ( rice bran oil.

Steamed garlic shrimp. Dressed w/ a quick drizzle of light soy sauce & sliced scallions. Before steaming. Shrimp bought alive. Partly butterflied w/ kitchen shears, deveined, marinated w. good Shaohsing wine & sea salt. Minced garlic treated w/ shimmeringly-hot oil, zapped for about 30 secs. Garlic & oil stuffed into the slits of the retrieved shrimp in an enameled metal dish. Yu choy sum – blanched in oiled hot water & drained, dressed w/ oyster sauce & white pepper. Several bowls of white rice.

Hellmann's changed the formula for their mayo back in the mid 2000's, I think it was – so the memory of it from childhood versus what it tastes like more recently may not match. See here for one web post relating to this... ----------------------------------------------------- Regarding Kewpie mayo: • The stuff made in Japan (like the squeeze bottle I have of it) does not list sugar as an ingredient, and the company's website also does not list it. • The company website and the label on my bottle lists the vinegar as "醸造酢" which really just means brewed or fermented vinegar, plus a parenthesized note that as I understand it means "including apple". As others have pointed out here (and from other websites), it uses rice vinegar (and/or apple vinegar). • Only egg yolks are used in Kewpie, rather than the whole eggs used in all the others. • The other stuff in it includes MSG (necessary for it to taste like Kewpie mayo :-)) but may also include dashi, if one goes by the "recreation attempt" in the article linked to below. • No water is said to be added to it – implying that the other mayos have some added water? Some articles relating to Kewpie mayo: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/10/sauced-japanese-style-kewpie-mayonnaise-recipe.html (this one makes "Japanese style (Kewpie)" mayo; a mixture of rice + malt vinegars are used, plus MSG plus hon-dashi as well as using "Japanese mustard") http://www.grubstreet.com/2012/02/kewpie-japanese-mayonnaise-cooking-dynamite-mussels-recipe.html http://pogogi.com/story-behind-kewpie-and-its-ingredients-mayonnaise http://pogogi.com/what-is-japanese-mayonnaise-and-how-is-it-different-from-american-mayo http://justbento.com/forum/kewpie-mayonnaise#comment-5756 BTW Kewpie mayo is what is needed for okonomiyaki, not a Western/American style mayo. :-)

Salad. Torn-up curly green-leaf lettuce & Napa cabbage heart, trimmed scallions, sliced celery inner stalks, halved artichoke hearts [Reese], blanched french-cut roma beans, rinsed & soaked salted Salina capers. Dijon mustard vinaigrette dressing. Penne [Rustichella d'Abruzzo] with Hazan tomato sauce (from ripe farm tomatoes) & grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Heh. Note that the second link (the starchefs one) states that the abalones were POUNDED. Perhaps this is another case where the old traditional method(s) simply are easier and better in the long run?

Hot Soup. Earlier – Edible amaranth (Tandaljo Bhaji) w/ fish balls [Venus] & soft tofu chunks in chicken stock, plus garlic (Music) & pre-softened dried shrimp tossed in rice bran oil before quenching w/ the stock. Eaten w/ a bundle of Fookchow (Fuzhou) wheat thread noodles (福州綫麵) (Flour vermicelli) softened directly into the soup in the bowl. The soup cooking. The wheat thread noodles. The simplified character for noodle is used on the box. Noodle bundle (these are very brittle in the dry state) plopped into the soup in the bowl. All folded in and softened, about 30 seconds later or thereabouts. (Some of the vegetables were also folded over the noodles for a minute after the pic was taken) Eat. Plus hot tea. Later – The remainder of the soup left in the pot augmented w/ more soft tofu, diluted a bit, and trimmed basil (Italian-type; several generous handfuls) wilted in and the mixture simmered for less than a minute further. Bowled w/ some of the (once-dried) shrimp dredged up and plonked on top. Yes, I like to use basil as a vegetable quite frequently.

It seems that the abalone you have is NOT dried, yes? But, rather, "fresh" but frozen? (How fresh, do you know?) Some additional stuff regarding cooking abalones – although not involving sous vide, they nevertheless convey info (I think) in addition to the previous post in this thread about the times involved in cooking abalone. One web article with guidance on cooking really FRESH abalone: http://diver.net/seahunt/abalone/abalone.htm Note the POUNDING of the thinly-sliced pieces. Note also the commentary about if one cooks FRESH stuff beyond the very brief time recommended one gets very tough stuff. (Like squid and cuttlefish, I might comment) One web article on cooking dried abalone: https://kobikitchen.wordpress.com/category/poultry/ Note the DAYS-LONG period of cooking. (up to a week) (There are many recipes that have a similar time frame for cooking abalone) I took a peek in my copy of "madame choy's cantonese recipes" (Epigram Books) and in one recipe for abalone in oyster sauce where dried abalones were used, one cleans the dried abalones then soaks them for up to two days; blanch then re-clean; then simmer for an hour, shut off the heat and let cool, and repeat several times through the day; leave in the fridge overnight; then repeat the multiple simmering process for 1-2 more days. And this is before the abalone is actually "cooked" in the dish proper. Again, these timings above do not involve sous-vide but may convey info about the nature of the beast. BTW, various circles/cuisines prize dried abalone more than the fresh stuff, as the flavors and aroma intensifies (and change - for the better) when the stuff is dried correctly. Cantonese banquets, when given by a rich host, may have a dish made with fine DRIED abalone in the progression, which would have cost QUITE a pretty penny. Here's one article on abalone at Fook Lam Moon, a premier restaurant in Hong Kong: http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2010/10/18/the-13-million-abalone-stash/ High-grade dried abalone can command ASTRONOMICAL prices, in both E Asia (both China and Japan) as well as in SE Asia. Just FYI.

• Steamed pork spare ribs; with black bean - garlic sauce, julienned ginger, chopped smashed garlic, sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms, some rice bran oil. • Sti-fried baby kai choy (芥菜; large-leaf type mustard greens). • White rice. The ribs before steaming:

Bertoli & Colavita (not Coleveti) are on the list of oils found to fail the standards for EVOO, at least as found in the USA. Here's a couple of links, there are others. http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/oliveoil.asp https://www.templateroller.com/template/2129651/report-evaluation-of-extra-virgin-olive-oil-sold-in-california.html

Fedelini w/ shrimp & capers. EV olive oil, lots of chopped smashed garlic [siberian Red], hot red chile flakes, de-shelled de-veined shrimp, rinsed & soaked Pantelleria salted capers [bonomo & Giglio], just-cooked fedelini [De Cecco], a half ladle of shrimp stock¶, chopped parsley & zest of one lemon & juice of half that lemon, toss, serve. ¶The shells & heads were sautéed in EV olive oil w/ a bit of garlic till orange-y w/ aroma developed then just enough water added and the mixture simmered down to about a ladle's-full worth, filtered before use. Farmers' market romaine & green leaf lettuce & Pink Beauty tomatoes salad. Dressed w/ Alziari EV olive oil, 10-year balsamic, Maldon salt flakes & ground black pepper. Cauliflower florets blanched, drained then sautéed in rice bran oil w/ sea salt.