melkor

Bring it up to a simmer and set it on fire. Matches work, but I use a torch.

I've got no idea where the original idea to deglaze between batches came from - I saw my wife doing it at some point and have been doing it ever since. She probably came up with it on her own. The veg thing comes from one of the recipes in the Bouchon cookbook where it calls for you to make a nest with cheesecloth. I prefer the cheese cloth bag since it's easier and has the same result. I never pass up the chance to set something on fire when I'm cooking. The wine throws more sediment when it's reduced quickly, but that all gets caught when I strain it through a fine cloth. I learned most of the techniques I cook with from reading and watching other people cook - I've learned a huge amount from goofing off with people in the industry. Some of the stranger cooking habits I've got I think are more home grown - like salting the oil before sauteing veg in it. Thanks! I'm happy with how it's coming along. The braising liquid is simmering on the stove, my wife lands at the airport at 7:30 tonight - everything seems to be on schedule. I've got to toss together something for dessert, figure out a starch, blanch some broccoli and carrots for a side, and I'm all set. I'm thinking either potatoes roasted in duck or goose fat or polenta for a starch. There are a few apples left on the tree behind the house so a caramel apple bread pudding seems like a good way to go for dessert.

The lamb is out of the oven and resting in an ice bath. I've discarded the veg and strained the braising liquid over the shanks. Once it's cool I'll remove the shanks and start reducing the braising liquid down to make a sauce. In the meantime, a cappuccino is calling me so I'm off to visit the espresso machine.

Thanks! I like lingcod fish and chips best I think. They're also good roasted whole. I fully support the sauce tasting method used in your home - it's much more efficient than my system of standing in front of the stove with a spoon eating as much sauce as I can under the guise of seasoning the sauce.

Is it still a sloppy joe if I just toss the sauce onto bread and melt some mozzarella over it? ← open-faced... but yes. ← That works. The oven still has the lamb going at 250*F so since my broiler is unavailable the torch will have to do. Not as even as the broiler would have melted the cheese, but since the burned bits are my favorite part, I'm not complaining. Thanks for the suggestion!

Is it still a sloppy joe if I just toss the sauce onto bread and melt some mozzarella over it?

Lunch is on the stove - some sort of ragu made with the last of the shortrib leftovers, some san marzanos from mariquita that I prepped over the summer and froze, shallot, garlic, olive oil, parsley, a little oregano, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. It needs to simmer for a while, then I need to figure out what to do with it. I've been eating a ton of pasta recently - anyone have any bright ideas for non-pasta things to do with my meat sauce?

The start of some braised lamb shanks, they're currently in the oven at 250*F. The shanks are dried and salted, then dried again, browned in oil and set aside. Deglaze with a bit of stock, add the veg (onion, leek, and carrot) and a pinch of salt, cook until aromatic. Stick the veg in a cheese cloth bag along with some parsley, thyme, garlic, whole peppercorns, and some dried chanterelles, tie the bag closed. Bottle of wine into the pot, set it on fire (we need more fire pictures in foodblogs). Once the flame goes out, add the shanks, veg bag, and enough stock to cover, stick in the oven for a few hours until it's done.

The usual latte breakfast, again with biscotti. I started on dinner for tonight - the pictures are downloading now, I'll post them shortly.

Thanks! I don't think I took any pictures of our haul this time - we were all pretty bummed that we only got a few pounds. A good trip yields 30+ lbs of good mushrooms. It needs to rain more down your way so I can start foraging in the hills around Santa Cruz. This three hour drive to mendo is tough to do more than a few times a season.

I don't think there is an equivalent, though I've seen some recipes call for cake flour. Some specialty markets sell tipo 00, but I've been using a mix of all purpose flour and semolina - more AP if I want softer pasta, more semolina for firmer ones (like lasagna or pasta that will end up in soups).

do you shore-fish or fish from a boat? If a charter boat, do you have a recommendation? I want to take my kids fishing (or you could take us ) ← I fish from different charter boats - I like the salmon queen in emeryville and the tigerfish in half moon bay. Both boats are focused on catching fish more than anything else. This time of year is best if the weather cooperates - with each ticket out of emeryville you'll likely come home with 10 rockfish and half a dozen dungeonness crab. Fishing for rockfish is more like shopping than finishing and the fish are fairly small (most are 1-3 lbs) so the kids should have no trouble reeling them in.

I was out voted. Besides, salt house is fairly new - I'm glad I went, but I wouldn't recommend it. I had some pocky with my espresso, I'm back to being a happy camper.

If purple broccoli is even better for you than green, does that mean kids are even less likely to eat it? I assume the same antioxidant causes purple cauliflower and romanesco. The orange cauliflower seems likely to get its color from something else.

Dinner tonight was slightly less successful than last night. My first and hopefully only visit to Salt House - I wasn't able to photograph the food, but that's for the best. They've got it all going - horrible service, sauces are either gloppy or broken with fat floating on top, plating is terrible, the lone highlight is that their desserts are reasonably satisfying. Bacalao and poutine as starters seemed like a good bet, but the salt cod was flavorless and stringy and the fries limp even without the over reduced gravy. Veal breast, roast chicken, and ribs as mains, equally safe bets - the veal breast was a complete train wreck with the dish falling apart on the way to the table. The ribs listed as 'pastrami ribs' on the menu had no signs of even residing in the same building as anything anyone would call pastrami. I didn't bother trying the chicken. An ice cream sunday did a good job of clearing the veal mess from my palate. If you like Town Hall, you'll love Salt House - if you like good food, you'll avoid both like the plague. I'm going to go make myself an espresso. I really really hate wasting a meal.

I'm hopeful that it turns that nasty gray that purple potatoes sometimes get. Nothing says delicious like gray food . I'm cooking them tomorrow for dinner with the lamb shanks I got today - we'll see what happens.

Yeah, like green only purple. I'll go take a picture edit: I assume it tastes like broccoli, I'll find out tomorrow.

Work took me briefly to the east bay today so I stopped in rockridge for some groceries. Lamb shanks from ver brugge; citron, purple broccoli, shallots, and butter lettuce from market hall; and two rustic baguettes directly from the oven at la farine. I only managed to eat half of one baguette on the drive back across the bridge.

I can hook up an OC-192 to your house, but I suspect you wont be happy when the bill shows up. I'm running on a pair of bonded 6mbit dsl lines at my house - 12mbit seems to work ok for me Buy yourself some junk from home depot and office max and you'll be all set to roast outside in the snow.

You can have leftover rose? As long as the rose doesn't make up a significant portion of the liquid in the crock I'd put it in the red one just to keep the color correct in the white crock.

I'm feeling lazy so I'm having cheese for lunch. P'tit basque (boring but tasty), la tur (three milk soft cheese), some random comte, a gouda, and brebiou (soft sheeps milk cheese). Acme walnut bread to go with it. La tur has been my favorite cheese for a while, I seem to be stuck in a rut since I buy it every time I'm buying cheese. The other cheeses are just what happened to look good when I was out shopping for cheese last week.

Dig that crazy espresso cup! Close encounters of the negative kind? What's the story there? I like it! I agree, on all counts. As a transplanted Californian (who understands about getting sick of shoveling snow) I find myself pining for really truly fresh citrus. Enjoy your tomato luxury, decadent though it is. I see upthread I'm not the only one wondering about your avatar... ← The cup is from the Illy collection - they made a bunch of them in 2001, I'm not sure how hard they are to find now, but they're my favorite espresso cups. It's strange that citrus feels like a winter ingredient now - I blame the meyer lemons that are just coming into season. My avatar looks to have the voice I hear when I read what I've written. I'm not yet a crotchety old bastard on the outside, but I certainly am inside.

Breakfast today is a latte with biscotti my wife baked before her trip. While I was making my coffee this morning I was thinking about eating seasonally. All the produce we eat is in season when we buy it, but what of the stuff from the garden? Moving to SF has presented some strange problems with that - our strawberry plants next to the herb garden are flowering, as are the tomatoes! Tomato plants shouldn't look like that in late November. Another plant has some ripe tomatoes on it. In the winter I'm in no mood to eat a ripe tomato, but on the other hand, it seems like such a luxury to have them growing this time of year.

I'll use it at some point this week. I need to do some grocery shopping today since the fridge has nothing interesting in it after we were away for the long weekend.

How cold was it? Around 50*F and windy. Radish (daikon) kimchi? Potato slices? ← Daikon kimchi seems like the most likely guess. Congratulations! Which part of the city do you live in? ← I live in the outer mission - towards Daly City. It's fairly residential out here, though there are a bunch of reasonably good ethnic markets a few blocks away.