tammylc

This month's Ann Arbor Observer restaurant review features two restaurants we've talked about a bit on this thread - Logan and Eve. Both are offering weeknight prix-fixe or tasting menus. The Logan menu sounds like a great deal - $40 for a 5 course tastin menu plus an amuse. $18 for wine pairings. Eve has a couple of different options, depending if you want 3 or 4 courses. Good review, that's definitely inspiring me to get myself to Logan at the next appropriate opportunity. Unfortunately, I can't find the review online, only in the paper edition.

I haven't seen avocado recently - maybe it was a special or seasonal item. I'm with you about the fruity flavors - I trend toward heavy hitting myself. But I will say that the lemon gelato is lovely.

I have consciously started doing the unthinkable - leaving food on my plate. I even did that at the kitchen table at Trio - not because the food wasn't good - because it was - but because I can have a little taste of everything on the plate and then save some room for the six or eight courses still to come.

Twingo's looks great, so I'm thinking we'll give that a try, and pair it with a DIA excursion. Maybe visit the Guardian Building before lunch. That sounds like a good few hours to spend in Detroit. Suggestions are still welcome, as this circumstance is almost certain to arise again. Leonard Kim mentioned a few Royal Oak places below, but said that none of them are "must-go." What do people consider the destination Royal Oak restaurants?

Glad your gelato experience was more to your liking. I think the deli has found that the high sugar content of the Burnt Sugar makes it hard to maintain the right consistency in the freezer case there, so I'm not sure if they're purposefully avoiding having it in stock. But you can get it direct from the Creamery (I saw it when I was there today). Burnt Sugar is my favorite flavor! Although the peanut butter is awfully good too. June 3rd they're having their new flavor kick-off day at the Creamery. You can watch them make gelato, taste the new seasonal flavors, and get a free mini-cone.

Yeah, I think I'm looking for more of a destination restaurant. But the building certainly is amazing, at least from the website.

The advertising for the class suggested bringing a fresh herb or dried spice of your choice. I was one of only two people who actually did that. The rest used flavorings that Zing had on hand - Bonny Doon Framboise, rosemary, mint and I think orange zest. I had planned to do cardamom, but when I went to the store to buy some, they didn't have any whole pods. But I spied the cardamom-cinnamon herbal tea mix in the bulk section, and thought it would make a neat ganache. I don't know if I've tried the Guido Gobino. But the Pralu's sound great - I'll have to keep my eyes open!

I expect most of the people asking the question would be interested in something in the $15 and under category.

I'm making Pecan Crusted Tilapia with Brown Butter sauce for dinner at my community tomorrow. A few people have asked me for a wine pairing suggestion, and I'm curious what others would suggest. The sides are steamed asparagus and cajun rice (not hot-spicy, just flavorful). The brown butter sauce will have lemon juice and probably a fresh herb - parsley or tarragon are what I'm thinking about. Any suggestions?

Okay, here I am with the lunch question again. Anywhere interesting in the Detroit area worth the drive for a weekday lunch? High end, cheap ethnic eats, whatever. I haven't quite figured what else to do with my friend that day, but I'd be particularly interested in suggestions in Royal Oak (since it's a fun place to kill some time just wandering around, and we might go to the Detroit Zoo). Or maybe around the DIA, since that's another possible excursion for the day. Or someplace else entirely - I'm flexible. Extra points for a great food suggestion that's combined with an entertaining activity. We'll be coming from the airport. (No Ann Arbor suggestions, please - I live there.) Thanks all!

You're friend wouldn't happen to be Ms. Rector, would it? The lack of steak was the first thing that Rector noted in her write-up on the restaurant when it first opened about a year ago... No, but perhaps what I'm remembering is said friend posting a snippet of the Rector review. Rest assured, I was told just recently when I called, that they are - on weekdays between Tuesday and Thursday. Hooray - that's happy news! Well, if you do, please post your experience! You know I will.

I still haven't been, but I've reconsidered my previous Logan commentary because, as one friend noted, they don't have a steak on their menu. Which is a pretty gutsy move, really. She's been there a couple of times and is a big fan, although she reports that the appetizers were somewhat uninspired. Alas, from what I have heard they are no longer doing the 5-course prix fixe. Although I bet you the chef would be willing to put together a tasting menu for someone who called and asked... It'll likely be the next restaurant in that price range in Ann Arbor that I go to, for some as yet undecided occasion.

Or we could just make plans to get together some time and make some truffles... Thanks for reminding me about Schoolcraft. I've been thinking I should check out there offerings as part of figuring out how serious I am about switching to a food related career.

Did your friend attend Friday night? I worked with a woman whose name started with A - Alison, maybe? Anyway, she was saying she was taking her half of the ganache home to share with friends. You're right, the raspberry was too subtle - I would add more Framboise last time - we were being cautious. The spice was nice and assertive, though, just the way I like it. In the class we used 62% (I think) Cluizel for the ganache, and 72% Cluizel for the couverture. We tasted Sharffenberger and the Arriba, and I liked the Cluizel the best (damn my expensive tastes...) We used just standard digital thermometers to measure the temperature. At home I used my Polder probe thermometer. Thanks for the kind words. It was a lot of fun, but made me realize that I have really high standards for myself. My husband was making some suggestions about something we should try next time and said "they might not look as good, but that won't matter to anyone" and I realized that no, it did matter to me!

The Carlos VII is unusual, as it is an all PX Amontillado, from Montilla-Moriles near Jerez de la Frontera.

I'm in love with a PX amontillado (Alvear Carlos VII), but I wouldn't describe it as at all sweet or raisiny, as people are describing above. Here's the tasting note (from Ric Jewell) - which has to be my favorite tasting note ever, and perfectly describes the experience of the wine. "The nose implies butterscotch and caramel, suggesting a sweet syrup the palate with quickly deny. On the tongue salt, like soy, and an iodine tinge, like an Islay scotch or a rush of sea water, rise and rush through the mouth until the flavors of toasted hazelnut develop, lingering lightly on a protracted finish."

Yes, I heard about this... how was it? It was fine. The person running it wasn't really a truffle making expert - she's just an enthusiastic amateur. We worked in teams of two, either with the person you came with or, like me, just another random person. We had a little hot plate and a pot and bowl for melting the chocolate. Where did she/the class go wrong (instruction-wise?)... what happened? Did the chocolates bloom?She had us pour the cream onto the chocolate and immediately start stirring, instead of letting the cream and the chocolate stand for a minute (as the instructions said, and is what I know from making ganache myself). So for most people, their chocolate didn't melt fully and we had to put it onto a double boiler to finish it. Mine never fully melted, so she let us make another batch. I followed the written instructions for that one, and it worked out perfectly. A lot of people's chocolate bloomed, in part because the room we were working in just got too warm, and it was a really humid day - not ideal for chocolate making. She told us to go ahead and start dipping when our chocolate was at 92.3 or something (target temp was 90-92), and those were the only chocolates we had that had significant blooming. The way the class worked was that we infused some cream, then made the ganache. We didn't have time for the ganache to set up, so we tempered some chocolate and then dipped pre-made centers that were provided for us. We got our ganache to take home and do whatever with. Because we got to make a second batch when our first didn't turn out great, I had a container of spiced ganache and half a container of raspberry ganache. (For the spiced ganache I used the Republic of Tea Cardamom-Cinnamon tea, which also has pink peppercorns and star anise. It turned out really nice - kind of chai like, or five spice powder.) The round truffles are made with the raspberry ganache, just spooned out with a melon baller. Because of the problems we had with the spice ganache, it was much stiffer, so I cut it into squares. I tempered the chocolate then dipped the centers, then drizzled a little bit of excess chocolate on the square ones for a decorative effect. They both turned out fabulous, although the raspberry ones definitely had the nicer texture - very smooth.

Alas, most cooking classes are 90% talk-and-watch and 10% actual hands-on... anyone know of any hands-on experiences in the Detroit area?u.e. ← I went to a truffle making class at Zingerman's Deli earlier this month that was hands-on. The woman who was running it didn't follow the instructions that were printed on the recipe sheets we were given, causing most everyone to mess up their ganache. But I did learn some good tips, and was able to make these the next day: Tapawingo runs weekend long hands-on cooking classes in the winter off season. I'd love to go some year, I think it would be a blast! It's not Detroit area, but it's Michigan, at least. Tapawingo Cooking Classes

I think you'd get great flavor that way. Personally, I'd still stick with frozen, because fresh are just such a pain to deal with and the frozen ones turn out really nicely. I like your roasting pan idea. And I'm still shaking my head a bout the 40 minutes thing - that's wacky. Other people in my community have tried to cook beef burgundy, and the beef invariably winds up chewy, either because a) they choose the wrong cut of meat or b) they don't cook it nearly long enough. Yet another reason to cook it the day before if you can manage it - no need to worry about coming up on service time and it not being done yet.

That particular issue of Fine Cooking has 4 or 5 variations on the theme of chicken thighs and potatoes cooked side by side. The two I've tried have both been good. They truly are a bargain - so cheap, but with such good flavor and juiciness. I'll take chicken thighs over chicken breasts almost all the time.

Burnished Chicken Thighs with Sweet Potatoes and Parsnips Fine Cooking readers in the crowd might recognize this recipe from a recent issue. I tried it for a dinner party and everyone loved it, so I wanted to try it for common meal. It was a challenge - the schtick about the recipe is that you cook the chicken and root veggies on the same pan, so the juices mingle and make everything taste good. But with a full house (32 meat eaters, 13 vegetarians, and 12 kids) oven space was a huge challenge. We used the two common house ovens, my oven, and my neighbors oven. And as it turned out, we didn't have quite as much food as I would have liked, so we actually could have used even more space (or used the space we had differently). And we certainly had the money to do it - I only spent ~$116 on ingredients, which works out to around $2.85 per person! Chicken thighs are da bomb when it comes to budget buying! And even organic root veggies are still cheap. The shopping list/recipe: Protein 60 chicken thighs (almost two per adult meat eater - should have been two per adult plus one per kid - more kids took chicken than I expected) 7 lbs tofu Marinade 2 jars grainy dijon mustard 1/2 bottle balsalmic vinegar (I thought we had some in the kitchen, but we didn't and I ended up scrounging from neighbors) olive oil, salt, pepper (all staples) Roots ~10 lbs sweet potatoes (should have been more) 5 lbs parsnips (should have been more) Other 2 lbs spring mix 1 bunch parsley 12 slices bacon 2 dozen eggs (for kids) 2 pkgs cheese chunks (for kids) 2 lbs butter (dessert) 1 lemon (dessert) Mix up the marinade and marinade the chicken thighs for at least one hour and up to 8. I think I managed about 2 hours on the chicken and an hour on the tofu. We cooked off the tofu early, knowing we could throw it back in the oven after the chicken came out. Peel and chop veggies. On sheet pans, fill one half with chicken and the other half with the veggies. Sprinkle with s&p. Bake for 20 minutes, then baste and stir veggies. Continue baking, basting and stirring every ten minutes until done (about 50 minutes total). For the vegetarians, we cooked the tofu in baking pans for about a half hour, then 15 minutes again before serving. We just did a standard roast on the root veggies, and that's where we could get some more volume into the process - those pans could have been fuller. The chicken is gorgeous. The skin gets crispy and rich and brown and (the burnished of the recipe title). The veggies get tossed with a garnish of crumbled cooked bacon and parsley before serving. The flavors are excellent, and the bacon parsley garnish totally "kicks it up a notch." Don't skip that step! (The vegetarians just go parsley, natch.) To serve, we put the root veggies on platters, then the chicken or tofu on top. That way there wasn't any confusion about which roots were meat contaminated or not (and we used less serving plates, which I'm sure the dishwashers appreciated). For dessert, I made lemon-cornmeal shortbreads from another recent issue of Fine Cooking. They're totally awesome. Of course, they also required the oven, but that was okay, as I just started early and made them while the chicken and tofu were marinating. I think we were okay on quantity, but I know people would have liked more food. So the trick to doing this one again (and I got lots of compliments on the flavor, so I know it would be appreciated) is to figure out how to manage the volume in the given oven space. One way to do it would be just to cook the chicken and root veggies separately, or to just do the chicken and serve a non-oven-cooked side. Even the same veggies, but boiled and mashed. Or we can borrow another oven - there's a third that's real near the common house (in addition to the two we used), so it would be easy. We could cook up more root veggies separately, and just mix some of those in with the chickeny ones. Anyway, with spring here, I don't expect I'll do another oven intensive meal like this until fall, so I have a long time to work out the details. For my last meal this month I'll be making pecan-crusted tilapia with brown butter sauce, cajun rice and asparagus. And in some exciting news, one of my neighbors is using the common house for his high school reunion this summer, and sent out a call to the community email list to see if anyone wanted to cook dinner for them, in lieu of them hiring a caterer. They're happy to pay catering prices, but he wanted to keep the money within the community if anyone wanted to do it. There will be 40-70 people. The low end is totally in my comfort zone, but the upper end would be a stretch! We're still talking about the menu etc. I'm pretty excited - this will be my first paid cooking gig.

I've made Beef Bourguignon a couple times and talked about it in this thread. Go to "print this topic" and search for Beef Burgundy to find the posts, if you're interested. You don't have my price or time constraints, so the reasons it doesn't work well for me won't apply to you, and I think it sounds like a great idea. The recipe I've used is from Cook's Illustrated, and it turns out quite nicely. In my experience, I've tended towards making several pots of whatever it is I'm making, rather than trying to do one ultra large one. This means that things like bouquet garni can actually just be doubled or tripled or whatever per pot. It also reduces cooking time, as bigger pots of food take much longer to cook. So if Julia's recipe serves 6-8 and you need to cook enough for 80 then you need 10-12 batches. I'd do three or four pots. Doing them individually like that makes it much easier for the home cook who just does occasional bulk cooking - you don't have to make as many modifications that way. I think frozen pearl onions would be preferable to canned. Re. box wine - I know that people like the Black Box Chardonnay - I don't know if Black Box makes a red. Do you have a Trader Joe's near you? You'd probably get better quality wine buying some $3.99 or $4.99 bottles from TJ's without a huge increase in cost. The quality of beef burgundy is largely at the whim of the wine you make it with - better wine makes it better, so buy the best that will work in your budget. (I have a friend who made BB from the leftovers of a mid to high end Burgundy tasting, and he said it was incredible.) Just the usual advice I give everyone - everything takes longer, so be sure to alot yourself plenty of time. Especially for something like BB which needs long slow cooking. I just looked at that recipe, and it's saying to check after 40 minutes?! That's crazy! Expect more like 2 1/2 - 3 hours to get truly tender wonderful beef. Maybe longer because you're doing triple or quad batches.

This sounds so good. Would it be possible to post this recipe???? Thanks ← Brown Butter Almond Cake 1 c almonds 10 tbsp unsalted butter, plus extra for pan 1 1/2 c sugar 1 c cake flour 2 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt (recipe calls for a pinch, but it definitely needs more - 3/4 tsp is what I'm guessing I added - I just measured by pouring some in my hand) 2 tbsp dark rum (I didn't have any, so used Captain Morgan's spiced rum) 1 tsp vanilla 1/4 c sour cream 9 large egg whites, room temp 1/4 sliced almonds Heat oven to 350. Butter a 10 inch springform pan and line bottom with parchment. Toast almonds in the oven (shaking every couple of minutes) until toasty and aromatic, 5-9 minutes. Set aside. Brown butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When brown flecks appear in the bottom of the pan, immediately pour into a medium bowl, scraping pan to get all the milk solids. Set aside to cool slightly. Pulse almonds and 3/4 cup sugar in a food processor until finely ground. Transfer to a medium bowl and combine with flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside. Stir rum, vanilla and sour cream into butter. Set aside. Beat egg whites until they just barely hold peaks. Beat in remaining 3/4 c sugar in a slow steady stream until the whites hold soft peaks. Scoop a large dollop of egg whites into the butter mixture. Into the remaining egg whites, fold half the almond mixture, and when that's incorporated, half the butter mixture. Repeat with remaining almonds and butter, ending with the butter mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Give the pan a spin to even out batter. Sprinkle with sliced almonds. Bake on middle rack of oven until well risen and golden, about 45-50 minutes (center should spring back when pressed lightly). Let cool in pan until warm to touch, about 30 minutes. Remove from pan, flipping onto a rack, and remove the parchment paper. Transfer to a serving plate, and serve warm or at room temperature. You can sprinkle it with powdered sugar if you like (I don't). They suggest serving it with roasted pears with caramel sauce, but I haven't had a chance to try the recipe for that yet.

Oh, u.e. - what night were you there? I'm curious if we were in the same room and just didn't know it. If you were there Monday, I was at the big table by the doorway that was monopolizing Ric all night long.

As I said in my earlier comment, we are mostly agreed. However, I quite liked the seared monkfish liver and didn't find it unpleasant or fishy or livery at all. Mine was mild and sweet, not offal-y at all. Odd.