JAZ

Oh yeah -- forget coffee, tea and chocolate too.

You're kidding, right? First, the easy points: Where do you think your spices come from -- New York? Is there olive oil produced within a hundred miles of New York? You'd have to give up cheeses from Europe (or California, for that matter); any wines from farther away than 100 miles; sushi -- in fact, rice, period. Forget Scotch or Cognac. And, do you know where the wheat for your flour comes from? My guess is that it isn't from within a hundred miles. The cane or beets for your sugar? Probably doesn't come from New York. Second, even for ingredients that can be grown or raised within a hundred miles, you have to investigate them -- if they're from a supermarket, chances are they aren't local. If you're lucky to have access to a farmers' market, you have a head start, but it still means no emergency trips to the local corner store for a pint of cream -- probably not going to be local. Third, unless you're sure of the ingredients your favorite restaurants use, better not plan on eating out. I'm much luckier than most -- I live in California, and I could get a lot of products that are grown or made locally. But if I lived in Southern Utah (for example), it would really suck to stick to foods grown within a hundred miles.

This sounds like a great idea. I think your menu ideas sound good -- fairly simple but tasty. If you haven't taught cooking classes before, I think one of the main things to plan out is the timing. When I taught my first class, I went way over my time limit, just because I didn't really take into consideration two things: the questions I got during the class, plus how long it would take to actually make things. (And that was after I'd been assisting with classes for a couple of years -- I thought I knew enough, but assisting is one thing; teaching is another.) The second class I did much better, and by the third I had it down pretty well. But if I'd just done a dry run of the first class, I think I could have timed it much better. So I'd suggest doing a trial run of the first lesson on a roommate or friend -- just so you get a feel for actually doing the demonstation parts of the classes. It sounds as if you're planning to teach this as a hands-on class, right? Will you have help cleaning up? Will the students clean, too? Teaching a class is pretty tiring, and if you have to clean everything up alone afterwards, you'll be exhausted. So get a volunteer or two -- maybe offer a free class to someone if they help you clean up. If you can get someone to help get everything prepped before the class, do that too. Those are the first things that come to mind. I'm sure I'll think of more as the discussion advances.

I have used my LC for risotto, and I thought it was okay, until I used a copper bottom saute pan (and then a copper one, which is even better). But soups can work really well in coated cast iron, depending on the soup. Long cooked ones work well -- the ones that are halfway to stew, for example. Same with curries; it depends on the style of curry. But it's not the best material for everything, by any means. Basically, if you need fast temperature control, cast iron is the wrong choice. If you need slow even heat and good heat retention, it's the right choice.

Huh, that is interesting. I would think that between the guys from Tommy's and Jacques Bezuidenhout, (last seen concocting incredibly expensive libations for Harry Denton's Starlight Room and recently featured in Cocktailian,) they would at least manage to get the bar right. ← I was at Tres Agaves in March for a tequila tasting/class sponsored by the Museum of the American cocktail and had a great time. I hadn't been there since, but a friend of mine has been wanting to try it so we went for drinks last week. I can't really speak to the food issue, because we only got a couple of appetizers (which I thought were good) or the service, since we were sitting at the bar, but I thought the drinks ranged from above average to really good. We started out with a house margarita (it was swamped when we got there and it seemed like the easiest way to start) -- I had mine up and my friend had hers on the rocks. They use Arette Blanco tequila in their house margaritas; I'm more used to reposado tequila in margaritas, but I'm trying to branch out to blancos, because it seems they're a more traditional choice. Anyway, it was good -- a bit sweeter than I prefer, but I like my margaritas on the sour side. Then when it calmed down, one of the bartenders, whom I know, made us a tall drink with Don Julio blanco, lime, agave nectar (I think) and a new pineapple agua fresca they'd just gotten in. Since we'd just gotten our chips and salsa, these drinks were great for putting out the fire (the runner misidentified the hot and medium salsas, or we misunderstood him -- in any case, the hot salsa is very hot.) With our food, we had a cocktail created by Jacques, which contained Grand Centenario anejo, agave nectar and a very nice sherry, the name of which totally escapes me. I never would have thought that sherry and tequila would be a good match but this is an exquisite and intriguing drink. Jacques already won a cocktail competition with it, and is due to travel to Spain soon to try it in an international competition. All this being said, we were sitting at the bar, and I do know both Jacques, who manages the bar, and another of the bartenders there. Except for the first drink (the house margarita) we simply asked them to make us "something interesting." It could be an entirely different situation ordering drinks at a table. I'd say that regardless of the food, it's worth going for the drinks. At least if you like tequila.

The matte black enamel (in the Staub) does, I think, do a better job browning. It's also more durable and thus less likely to chip (although I've only chipped one LC pot in 20 years). On the other hand, I find the hard enamel of the LC much easier to clean. I'd come down on the side of LC for that reason, but either one will be good for your uses.

I picked up some Pete's Wicked Ale on sale a few days ago, and I have to admit I'm disappointed. I used to drink it pretty regularly, and remember liking it. I'm not sure if it's changed or I have, but I'm finding it pretty boring and one-dimensional. Not bad, but not great.

If you read through the "I will never again. . ." topic, you'll find all kinds of stupid coffee-making mistakes. The ones I, personally, have been involved in include virtually mistake you can make. I've forgotten the water; I've forgotten the coffee. I've forgotten the filter (although I've always caught that one before brewing). When making coffee in my sister's coffee maker for the first time, I didn't put the lid on the carafe -- it wasn't really that I forgot, but with my coffee maker, it didn't make a difference, so it didn't occur to me that it would with hers. But hers had a drip-stop function, so that without the lid, the little lever didn't drop down, so the water just backed up in the filter and went everywhere but into the carafe. My best (or worst) error, though, involved the coffee grinder I used to have, which was a cheap burr grinder of the sort that shoots the coffee out sideways into the container. Here's something to keep in mind: if the container is not snapped into place, the coffee will shoot out sideways all over the kitchen.

Incanto Cortez

Is this it? CLICK Or similar? ← Very similar to that one. I actually got mine from a "Realime" advertisement, although I never used Realime, just regular lime juice. Mine calls for twice the amount of tequila -- 4 tablespoons, which, since the filling isn't cooked, is quite a bit. I like it that way, but you want to use good tequila if you use that much.

I used to have a recipe for a Margarita pie that was kind of like a key lime pie flavored with tequila and triple sec, and poured into a crumb crust made with pretzels (for the salt). It was always a hit.

You hear so many stories about that sort of thing, most of which then turn out to be false, that I'm not inclined to believe it without more than the one report for evidence. I have eaten at TGI Friday's fairly recently. I was at the Minneapolis airport, waiting for my delayed flight, and it seemed the best option -- at least they had good beers on tap. I got some potstickers and a salad. The potstickers were good, better than I've had at some Chinese restaurants in San Francisco. The salad was huge -- the portions are really ridiculous at chains like this -- but it was good too. Yeah, it's not my first choice, but I can think of a lot worse places to eat, especially in an airport.

It just occurred to me that back in March during my Foodblog, I promised to report on cleaning the Emile Henry pot the second time. Oops. I did follow through with my idea to do a side by side comparison of Le Cresuet and EH -- I made a sort of cassoulet, which started out on the stove top and ended in the oven. (click here if you're interested in the comparison.) Anyway, this time the Emile was much easier to clean -- there was a ring of cooked on food around the pot, but it came right off. Interesting to note: A guy I work with had an experience similar to my first one with his pot. He actually burned the milk when he was seasoning the pan, and only got it clean after soaking and scrubbing, and finally boiling water in the pot several times. This leads me to wonder if it's something in the milk that's so hard to clean, since he had his problem with milk and I had mine with a yogurt-based sauce. As I mentioned in my blog, I did find the clay EH to be superior to the le Creuset for retaining liquid, which was great for the cassoulet. I think I'll continue to experiment with it. And it'll definitely be my bean pot from now on.

Given the fact that you're making it for a specific use, I'd either use some of the herbs and spices you'll use in the jambalaya or just leave it plain.

Yes, that's my experience too. Vinegar-based dressings last longer.

Oh, but if you say that, you have never had Chocolate Velvet Cream Pie, which combines the best of chocolate mousse, chocolate ice cream and chocolate cheesecake, all in a chocolate crumb crust. Chocolate Velvet Cream Pie is the reason chocolate was invented.

That seems to be a fairly standard practice, and in my experience, it's really the only thing that works. Make sure you state explicitly that the food will be tossed containers and all so people know what to expect.

Another point to keep in mind is the ratio of oil to acid in Julia's recipe as srchb posted above. She calls for 1 tablespoon of acid (lemon and vinegar) to 1/4-1/2 cup of oil. At those proportions -- 8:1 up to 16:1 -- you probably don't need sugar. But I think a more common proportion for vinaigrette is maybe 4:1 oil to vinegar, or even 3:1. At those proportions, the addition of sugar is an entirely different proposition -- if you're not balancing the vinegar with additional oil, sugar seems to be a alternative way to do that.

I don't really have any suggestions on the "Fine Dining" side, but I would hesitate to put Zuni in that category. It's a great restaurant, but probably not what you're thinking of -- it's probably more in the casual bistro category. Other places to consider in the first category would be Delfina and Incanto.

I only caught the tail end of it when it aired, and finally got a chance to sit down and listen to it. I, too, am very interested to read the book (and maybe re-read Visser's book as well for comparison). Pollan will be on West Coast Live next Saturday. The show will be broadcasted from the Ferry Building and will include interviews with some of the vendors as well.

Elizabeth Schneider, in Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, has a recipe for a dressing for vegetables, fish or chicken made from blanched sorrel blended together with an avocado, buttermilk and scallions. Other than that, she has several ideas for salads and soups, including a potato and wild sorrel soup. She also mentions a recipe from Jerry Traunfeld's The Herbfarm Cookbook that uses a sorrel cream sauce in a smoked salmon version of eggs benedict -- it sounds really great.

I added my recipe to RecipeGullet here. Erik, the pan is a Mauviel professional sautepan. It was fantastic for the risotto -- I loved how responsive it was to changes in heat. Now I just have to polish it!

I'm sort of embarrassed to admit this, but a couple of times a month (on average), when I feel like soup but don't really want to cook, I end up buying a grilled chicken taco at the taqueria on the way home (grilled chicken, rice, black beans and extra salsa). At home, I open a big can of chicken broth and a small can of green enchilada sauce, simmer them together and then add the contents of the taco (minus the tortilla) and some frozen corn, if I have it. Garnish with the crumbled tortilla chips I get with the taco and the extra salsa.

I've always used arborio as well. Maybe I'll pick up some carnaroli and give it a try.

Risotto with Smoked Salmon, Leeks and Marsarpone Serves 2 as Main Dishor 3 as Side. Instructions from Risotto Cook-off 1/4 c butter 3/4 c diced leeks 1 c arborio rice 1/2 c dry white wine or champagne 1 c clam juice 5 c water 1/4 c finely minced fresh dill 1 tsp lemon zest 3 oz smoked salmon 1/4 c mascarpone cheese 1/2 tsp kosher salt 1 T finely minced chives Bring the clam juice and water to a simmer in a saucepan. In a heavy sautepan, melt the butter and saute the leeks until softened but not browned. Add the rice and stir until coated with butter, about 1 minute. Add the wine and cook, stirring, until the wine is absorbed/evaporated. Ladle in about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the hot clam broth mixture and cook, stirring, until that is absorbed. Continue adding the hot broth a ladle at a time, stirring with each addition until the broth is mostly absorbed. When the rice starts to soften and seems about 3/4 of the way done, add all but about 2 tablespoons of the dill. Continue adding broth and stirring until the rice is firm in the center, with a creamy exterior. This will take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, and will probably take about 5 cups of the broth. When the rice is done, fold in the rest of the ingredients except the chives. Add salt to taste. Garnish with minced chives. Keywords: Main Dish, Rice ( RG1703 )