JAZ

If he's the type who likes to read about cooking, he might want to read through some of the eGCI courses before he gets to your house. (eGCI)

Erik, I had the same reaction when I tried it with Meyer lemon juice -- it really doesn't stand up to the other flavors. The drink is very different with regular lemon juice -- still not one of my favorites, but it's much cleaner tasting.

We're planning a special dinner for eGullet members and guests at Incanto in January. The dinner will feature a flight of Italian wines selected to match the four course meal. Here's the relevant information: Date: Monday, January 9, 2006 Time: 7:00 pm Place: Incanto Restaurant 1550 Church St., San Francisco [Public transportation: the J Church Muni streetcar stops about two blocks away] This dinner will showcase the unique seasonal, Italian-influenced cuisine of Incanto, with Italian wines selected to accompany each course. The chef will talk about the courses and the wine director will discuss the wines selected. Exact menu will be set at a later date; it will be posted in this thread. Incanto Restaurant has garnered much discussion both in the local SF press and on the eG California forum (click here and here for a couple of eGullet discussions of the restaruant). It's known for a reliance on local, seasonal ingredients with an emphasis on using the whole animal. The wine list is exclusively Italian, with wines selected to complement the dishes from the kitchen. Cost: Fixed cost of $45 for four courses (plus tax and 20% gratuity). Optional paired wine tasting for $17-$20 (to be determined before the event). Total cost would be $57.75 without wine. With wine, the top price would be $83.50. The dinner will take place in the private Dante Room, maximum occupancy 16. Reservations can be made by posting in this thread (first come, first served). Because space is limited, reservations will be limited to one guest per member. We'll keep a waiting list, and if there is enough interest, we will try to plan future dinners (perhaps quarterly). Payment to be made in advance (right before the dinner is fine) by cash or check. Any additional beverage or food ordered will be the responsibility of the person(s) ordering and can be paid directly to the restaurant at the conclusion of the dinner. If you have any questions not answered here, please PM me and I'll try to answer them. Hope to see you at the dinner! -------------- This event has been organized through the eG Forums by members but is not sponsored by the Society or its eG Forums. The event is open to all participating eGullet Society members, contributors and their guests. By participating in this event, you confirm your understanding and acceptance of the eGullet Events Policy (click here), to which all eGullet Society members have already agreed.

I have the Boulevard book. It's beautiful, and the recipes do sound like you could really make them at home (I haven't tried any of them yet). I like the fact that the each "reicpe" is for an entire plating -- not that you have to make all the elements, but it gives you an idea of how the restaurant does its presentation. On the other hand, the layout could have been better, given this element. The sub-recipes aren't really broken out completely, and some of the recipes go on for several pages. This means that at the top of the recipe, you have a list of the ingredients for all the sub-recipes, then you get pretty extensive overall notes on the dish (which is a great addition, in my opinion), then you get the instructions for each of the sub-recipes. It's going to mean a lot of page turning while cooking, which is a bother. I'd still recommend it despite this flaw.

Le Crueset will definitely heat up on an induction burner; I've used it on one. I'm trying to remember if I've ever left a piece of LC on an induction burner for a long time, and I think that I have, but I wouldn't swear to it. Sorry -- I guess that's not much help.

The Orka "Squid" combination basting brush and bulb baster is one of my favorite gadgets. When I first saw it I thought it was frivolous, but when I had to brush oil on three sheet pans of crostini for a class, I realized how handy it can be. The photo doesn't really make it clear, but the brush top comes off so you can fill the body of it with marinade, oil or whatever; then you can draw up additional liquid as needed. The removable top also makes cleaning easy. At less than $15, they're affordable too.

Another interesting book that focuses on vegetables is The Anatomy of a Dish by Diane Forley, which is not only beautiful, but very informative as well. In addition to recipes and general ideas, she includes all kinds of charts on everything from "Parts of the Plant and When to Eat Them" to "The Plant Kingdom" to "flavor charts" for the various families of edible plants.

Eggnog already made the Forbes list for most fattening holiday foods: fattening holiday foods As I posted in that thread, it's really hard to evaluate their claims when they don't give a serving size. Anyone can see that this list of ingredients will total way more than 335 calories, but since that's the case, what constitues a serving? Half of that? A quarter? They don't say. And in what universe does a Margarita have twice as many calories as an eggnog?

I missed this the first time around, but how seriously can you take an article that suggests vanilla vodka and Diet Coke as a substitute for a pina colada?

I wonder where the author gets his or her information on calories. My usual source cites 65 calories per ounce of 80-proof alcohol (of any sort). Not to mention that when you look closely at the "recipes" the article cites, they're ridiculous: Maybe some misguided souls make margaritas that way, but a well made, normal-sized Margarita is more like 2 oz. tequila (say 140 calories), 1 ounce triple sec (I'm guessing, but I'm willing to put it on the high side and say another 100 calories), plus an ounce of lime juice (negligible calories -- maybe 15). I think both of these Forbes articles are insulting to the reader: they're distorted, they rely on scare tactics and questionable statistics, and they willfully disregard the option of moderation.

Last spring a friend and I picked up some cardoons at the farmers' market, just because they were there and looked interesting. We ended up making a composed salad of the cardoons (blanched) and potatoes (boiled) with a white wine vinaigrette with anchovies and lots of garlic. Topped with chopped Kalamata olives and parsley. It was great -- I really liked the cardoons. To me they tasted a lot like artichokes. The recipe we followed is from Vegetables From Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider. It's a great book for ideas on unusual vegetables.

I have an old one from Sunset's Bread Cookbook that might be similar. Are yours pan rolls? Mine only take one rise, but they're really light and fluffy. They call for a lot of melted butter in the pan before you plot them in, and then a lot more poured over the top after they rise. If this sounds like it's similar, I'd be happy to share it.

I'm not sure what a "traditional" Scotch glass looks like -- I've have Scotch served in everything from a rocks glass to a brandy snifter. But these are what Riedel makes for single malts. Personally, I like the shape and feel of another Riedel glass for sipping whisky -- the "Viogner/Chardonnay" glass in the "O" series. Although I'm not crazy about these glasses for wine, the Viogner O glass makes a great glass for other things. I use it as a rocks glass, and for sipping spirits.

I have a skillet made by Look that's coated with their nonstick coating on the outside -- the key is that only the sides are coated; the bottom is uncoated aluminum. Maybe that's how the All-Clad pans are constructed.

Did anyone else happen to notice that the ingredients listed for each of the dishes were for an entire dish (1 12-lb goose, etc), and the serving sizes weren't mentioned? Makes it difficult to interpret their figures. I mean, I wonder how much goose you'd have to eat to reach 784 calories? My usual source, Food Counts, lists roasted goose (with skin) at 346 calories for 4 ounces. So I guess they're thinking of a serving of 9 ounces or so? Likewise, they list 300 calories for creamed corn -- I see creamed corn listed at 80 to 120 calories for a half cup. Apparently they think a serving is a cup and a half?

You may think I've given up on my resolution to follow recipes, but that is not the case. I've just become a little more selective in choosing recipes to follow. My latest was gazpacho from La Cocina de Mama by Penelope Casas. For those unfamiliar with the book, it's a collection of family recipes from some of Spain's best chefs. But before I get to the recipe, a little background on my gazpacho quest. I first made gazpacho from a recipe in a magazine way back when I started cooking. It was the fairly common tomato-juice-with-pureed-and-chopped-vegetables type of recipe: a sort of V-8 on steroids. It was a good and serviceable recipe, and there is nothing wrong with it, except that it's not terribly authentic. (As I came to discover, most gazpacho recipes out there are not terribly authentic.) Then, after years of making the same recipe with the occasional minor alteration, I tasted a fabulous gazpacho at a short-lived Spanish restaurant near my office. No chunks of vegetables floating in V-8; this was a thick puree with perfectly blended flavors and a haunting undertone that I knew on some level, but couldn't quite place. I had it as often as I could while the restaurant was open, which turned out to be not nearly long enough. The truly sad thing was that it didn't occur to me to try to analyze the gazpacho while I could. I had to rely on my memory, which was not very complete. So I began a search for a gazpacho recipe that seemed similar. None were -- time after time, I'd see the same variations on V-8 plus diced vegetables. Sometimes the recipes would call for thickening with bread or almonds, and I tried a couple of those, but they still didn't seem to be what I remembered. When I saw a new Spanish cookbook, La Cocina de Mama, I automatically checked the index for a gazpacho recipe; there was one. It was different from any others I'd seen -- no cucumber; no onion, even. Tomatoes (lots of tomatoes), one red bell pepper, garlic, a small chunk of bread, sherry vinegar, olive oil, plus a dash of salt and sugar. An optional dash of cumin, and that was it. I bought the book, and picked up two pounds of tomatoes at the farmers' market. As it turned out, the recipe couldn't have been easier -- prep consisted of quartering the tomatoes, cutting the bell pepper in chunks, and chopping the garlic. Throw half the tomatoes and everything else except the olive oil into the food processor. Puree. With the motor running, add the remaining tomatoes. (I have to say, I don't get the rationale for this step, but I was going to do it exactly as written, so I did.) Then pour in the olive oil slowly so the whole thing emulsifies. Strain, and you're done. The result was a silky smooth soup that tasted like the essence of summer. The cumin provided that remembered undertone of flavor -- barely there, but spectacular with the tomato. The only flaw -- a minor one -- was the sugar. The tomatoes I used were not very acidic, and I wondered about adding sugar. But I was determined to follow the recipe exactly, so I tossed it in despite my misgivings. The soup was, as I expected, too sweet, but that was easily remedied with a touch more sherry vinegar. The second time I made it, I omitted the sugar, and the soup was perfect. My only regret was finding this recipe at the tail end of summer, so I only made it twice before the beautiful vine-ripened tomatoes faded from sight. (This is not a recipe for anything less than spectacular tomatoes.) Now I'll have to wait until next summer to try it again. After all that, was it the gazpacho of my memories? Not really -- that soup was thicker, more coarsely pureed than this one. But on some deeper level, it was what I was looking for. And maybe there's a time to give up a memory.

I can't remember when I last updated my count, so I'm guessing here. At the very least, I've acquired Secrets From a Caterer's Kitchen, La Cocina de Mama, Candies, Truffles and Confections, Boulevard, Proscuitto, Pancetta Salame (the latest from Pamela Sheldon Johns), and Rick Tramato's Amuse-Bouche, which I found on sale for $5. So that's six.

Also, don't forget that butter can contain quite a bit of water, which can make a big difference to the texture of the cookies. The only time I tried to sub butter for Crisco, it was a disaster.

I use stainless lined pans as well for sugar, although I used to use my Le Creuset when that was all I had. I agree that caramel is one of the easiest things in the world to clean up. It might seem like that crusty sugar glaze will never come off, but really hot water does it every time. (If your tap water isn't hot enough, just fill the pan with boiling water.)

I have more counterspace in this kitchen than I've ever had before (which isn't saying much) but I still don't like it cluttered up with stuff. Balancing that, though, is the fact that I also hate to have to drag my bigger appliances (stand mixer and food processor) out of a cupboard everytime I want to use them, plus the amount of cupboard space they take up if stored. My answer is a microwave cart, positioned at the end of my counter, which holds my blender, mixer and processor. They don't take up the prep area but they're easily accessible. On the counter itself are only my coffemaker and grinder. Ideally, I'd like to not have them out, but they're small, and since I use them every day, it's just too much trouble to get them out and put them away every morning. The microwave, which is tiny, sits on top of the fridge -- not terribly convenient, but I rarely use it, so it's fine. The only other appliances I have are a toaster (it gets used most every day, but I never leave it out) and an ice cream maker (it doesn't get used often enough to vie for microwave cart space). Oh, and a couple of blade coffee grinders that get used for spices -- they stay in the pantry.

Drewe's doesn't have a huge selection in their shop, but they can (and will) order for you. I'm not sure about goat, but it's worth a call. Drewes Brothers

Why not use the same ingredients you're marinating the tuna in to make the dressing for the greens? And I agree about skipping the marinade for the filet and finishing it with a compound butter.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, I notice the same wild discrepancies in the price of limes. Fortunately for me, the produce store a couple of blocks from my house usually has them for 10-20 cents apiece (5-10 for a dollar). I can occasionally find them 20 for a dollar at the Hispanic markets. Two for a dollar is pretty standard at the big chain grocery stores, which is strange, because even the little corner market on my way home from work sells them for 35 cents or so. Most of the limes I buy go into cocktails, although some of them make it into marinades, salsas and salad dressings. Sometimes I zest them before juicing and use the zest to make simple syrup.

Daniel Patterson talks about Northern California cuisine -- its merits and limitations -- in the New York Times Style section. To the Moon, Alice? (I believe free access is limited to a couple of days.) Is he right? Has Chez Panisse ruined culinary creativity in the Bay Area?

Over in the Fall Cocktails thread, Audrey Saunders posted this recipe for the Velvet Harvest, which calls for apple schnapps.