JAZ

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 )

A trick I learned from (I think) Dave the Cook's blog was to slice the zucchini, then salt them and let them drain for a half hour or so -- it helps to dry them out, I think. Then blot and roast as usual.

I made risotto with smoked salmon, leeks and mascarpone last night. I decided to use my copper saute pan and was very impressed with it -- it's definitely going to be my risotto pan from now on. Here's the mis en place: 3/4 cup minced leeks (missing from the photo -- they were already in the pan) 1 cup rice 1/2 cup brut champagne (I didn't have any white wine) 1/4 cup dill 1 teaspoon lemon zest 1-2 tablespoons minced chives (for finishing) 3 oz. smoked salmon (approx.) Plus a drink -- makes all the stirring much more enjoyable. Melting 1/4 cup of butter: I sauteed the leeks in the butter for a couple of minutes, then added the rice: After the champagne and the first ladle of broth had been mostly absorbed: I used 1 cup of clam juice, plus about a cup of chicken stock I had leftover, plus 4 cups of water. I ended up using about 5 cups of the mixture. When the risotto was about 3/4 of the way done, I added most of the dill: When the rice was done, I added 1/4 cup mascarpone, the rest of the dill, the lemon zest and most of the salmon (reserving some for finishing): Plated:

What shape pan do people prefer for risotto? I've always used a saucepan or saucier, but I know the Mauviel "risotto pan" is shaped more like a sautepan -- that is, wider with shorter sides. It seems to me that the stock would evaporate more quickly that way, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing. I have a new copper sautepan that I'm dying to use, but I'm not sure if it's the best pan for the job. Any preferences?

Where do you garden? With my propensity to kill pretty much anything green, I promise to stay away, but I didn't know there were community gardens in San Francisco. That's so cool. I have a giant rosemary bush in the backyard, but that grows on its own -- I can't take credit, because I think even I couldn't kill it.

I went for lunch when it first opened -- I was really looking forward to it, but I had the same opinion as Doc. It was okay, but not stellar. The tortillas were great, but that really wasn't enough. And, at around $9 for a fish taco and a beer, I expected a lot more.

I had a nice dinner at the bar at Restaurant Zoe when I was in Seattle for the IACP conference. Good cocktails, and some good wine suggestions from the bartender.

I had dinner last week at Incanto, and this dish was still on the menu. Although I didn't try it (too many other things, including a great artichoke soup) I sat at the bar and watched the salad guy make lots of them. If the asparagus was blanched, it was done whole and, I think, only briefly. (I assumed it was raw, but if Doc thinks it was blanched, he'd know.) Anyway, the cook took a small handful of whole asparagus stalks (green and white) and sliced them lengthwise on the big deli slicer, then tossed with the vinaigrette.

I do understand that; I've seen it often enough. But even though I'm not a bartender, I am in a customer service job, and that attitude is just so short-sighted it makes me crazy. I work in a cookware store, and I want customers who just walk in the door and buy sets of copper cookware or expensive knife sets or a $1000 John Boos kitchen island with no work on my part. It sucks to spend a whole bunch of time with someone who after all that ends up buying a $14 cast iron skillet, and then wants it gift wrapped. But, hey! That's my job, and here's the deal -- customer service jobs suck some of the time. You don't like that? Don't work in customer service. Of course bartenders want easy tips -- that's a given. But, I'm sorry -- they work in a bar, as a bartender. Their job is to make drinks, not just pour shots of expensive vodka. And depending on where they work, if they refuse to make the "difficult" orders or ignore the "difficult" customers, I think it's going to catch up with them. At least I hope it's going to catch up with them.

I've only done this a couple of times (the second time was for my blog), but the trick is to cook them long enough at a fairly low temperature, so they become nice and tender. They won't fall apart the way they do when braised, but they should pull away from the bone pretty easily. Mine have never been quite as good as the ones we did at the Pig Pickin last summer, but I'm not sure if that's because I do them in the oven and those were grilled, or just that we were all really hungry, or if they really were more tender.

I really don't have a lot of respect for this kind of attitude. I've seen the bartenders at Flatiron Lounge bang out one labor intensive specialty cocktail after another while completely slammed on a weekend night. ← I have no respect at all for this kind of attitude. (Anyone else wonder if this guy's boss read this quote, and what happened if he or she did?) Perhaps it hasn't occurred to him that if he refuses to make requested drinks often enough, pretty soon he won't have any customers to pour Grey Goose for, and he won't be making any tips at all. The whole tone of the article bothers me. Really, complaining about having to use sugar and fresh lime juice because they make your hands sticky? Please. Get another job.