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Elissa

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Posts posted by Elissa

  1. Well I did chuck the first batch and start over with my third and last packet of Fleischman's 'dry active,' which sorta gently bloomed. I left that and the cup and a half of flour I had left to rise; when it didn't, I punched it down anyway and let it 'rise' some more - but the dough didn't seem to budge much. The yeast expiration date was 2007...

    As parties will however, this one too had to go on, so I went ahead and made two fluted crusts, baked them ten minutes and filled with the divine herby onion mix, topped with a design of anchovies and oil-cured olives, and baked a spell. Good god if every one at the party didn't yelp with delight when the first and then the second arrived. And tasty they were, if I do say so myself.

    I guess the hardest part of pissaladiere is mustering the determination - all else is really cake.

  2. I've made maybe 10 of these over the last 15 years with always different results. Sometimes recipes call for yeast for the dough, sometimes not. I never seem to keep hold of the recipes I like best though.

    Just started one for today, that called for yeast. However, the yeast however never foamed, so I just threw it in with the flour and salt anyhow. Dumb? Chuck the whole mess and begin again?

    Id like this one to be perfect. Help much appreciated.

  3. Has anyone tried the Saba marinated mushrooms from here? My first are cooling and set to sit for a couple days...but I forgot the honey. I don't care for sweet things anyway, but curious as to if anyone else has tried these.

    Just starters of course, to be served with Paula's greens jam and evoo simmered leeks.

    Don't tell her but I'm doing the Zuni Porchetta for dinner and Hirigoyen's Istara gratin for dessert.

    (HNY PW!)

  4. and how could i forget to mention manchego cheese marinated with olives and herbs? I just started a third batch - this stuff is truly addictive, including marinated arbequina olives.

    Helena, was this the same as you made last I was over that worked so well with thick slices of aged goat cheese?

  5. I use your Slow Med book as a bible. Most of the winter I subsisted on your Herb Jam with Olives and Lemons, incorporating all manner of bitter green: kale, chard, arugula etc. Also had great fun with your stuffed Turkish flatbreads. However today I bought (my first ever) pork loin. I have been wondering if I could ever make a crispy skin myself and tomorrow seemed a perfect excuse: after two Museum of Natural History shows (Frogs and Jordan) why not a picnic?

    While possessed of neither spit nor rack nor thermomitor, I made a salt-sugar-rosemary-thyme-bayleaf-fennel seed brine and into it have submerged my roast to chill. In the am, Ill rub first with your orange zest and garlic paste and then roast (I'm guessing racks are necessary?) with vidalias, shallots, garlic, maybe a small red potatoe or two. I'm not a fan of fruit with meats and will rather serve this cold with chilled roast asparagus, a fennel/radiccio salad and a Catalan chevre. White Burgundy, maybe red Bandol.

    My question: Wells suggests 500 for 20-30 min to get the skin crisped, then another 20 min per lb at 350; baste often she says with the brine. You suggest flour, 5 minutes in hot oil, 45 on 350, turn and another 15. What do you think of her two different temps, verses the flour and then steady 325 you suggest? Would you have said baste with brine but for the compotes?

    Thanks and best to you,

    E

  6. Also, let's face it, there is a lot more wine produced in Europe than there is in the United States. If you looked at numbers alone, the wines of California receive far more coverage than their numbers alone would justify.

    Also, let's face it, there's plenty of reason to be Calivinophobic.

  7. Gluttony, in the Seven Deadly Sins sense, has more to do with a giving over of one's self to the senses (as opposed to giving one's self over to God). It's counterpart in the Holy Virtues is Temperance, referring not only to moderation in drink and eating but also in all temptations of the flesh. Gluttony represents a manifestation of the baser nature of man (flesh); it is a sin because it signifies the failure to aspire to his higher nature (spirit).

    Refer your friend to The Faerie Queene. There's no better summation of what the Seven Deadly Sins are than that.

    (I knew that English degree would come in handy *some* day!)

    What an elegant response, Jensen. I concur.

  8. There's some sense in which gluttony hasn't anything to do with others though: seems to me it's quite possible to be greedy about food for its own sake. When we eat to fill up parts of ourselves that are empty emotionally, when we eat to assauge hurt or pain, that can be both gluttonous and sinful, not agaist God or mandates or others, but sinful against what our own higher selves know would suffice.

  9. A dear friend is contributing to a book about the Seven Deadly Sins. He has asked me to solicit responses to the following questions:

    What is gluttony? How do you define when an act of eating becomes gluttonous? How can you tell a gourmet or a gourmond from a glutton?

    Is gluttony a sin? If so, how bad a sin is it? Are there any defenders of gluttony?

    If gluttony is a sin, is there another sort of eating that is virtuous? What or where is virtue when it comes to eating, preparing and contemplating food?

  10. The French government wants to raise tax on red wine by 300% in a move to lower the country's social security deficit. Prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is expected to make a decision by the end of the week.
  11. Ming Dynasty, on the southwest side directly under the Manhattan Bridge. Been there a year, but I went first for lunch today: pan fried scallion dumplings for which i'll soon return. Eggplant - not normally my dish - id also recommend and tofu skin with pork: divine. All for $7.

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