fifi

I was also about to mention that they misspelled her name. ONE "L" please! I did a happy dance when I saw that Alison was nominated. She has brought some real class to the Chronicle.

If you do try it, I will warn you that onions seem to have a perverse habit of being unpredictable as to how much water they contain. (It seems we are seeing the same phenomenon in the onion confit thread.) Sometimes I have had to check in on it and add a bit of liquid (sherry if I have it) and other times I have had to reduce it down to get a decent sauce. With the crockpot running on high, if you are lucky you will get a little caramelization of the onions. Obviously, with so few ingredients and the paprika being the star, the quality of the paprika is important. It is good with garden variety but I am lusting to try it with the newly discovered Penzey's. My favorite way to serve this is with rice to spoon the onion sauce over and a salad with orange sections and a rather plain vinaigrette. That seems to be a combination that I come back to time and again.

Great post, ronnie. Your recipe for chicken thighs is creepily the same as one of my favorites. I made it up years ago. Slice a bunch of onions into the bottom of the crock pot. Salt the chicken and coat it with more paprika than you think is sane. Lay the chicken on top of the onions and turn the crock pot on high and let her rip. It is sooooo much better than it sounds. Lately I have been doing it with skinless thighs and I think I like that better. But I am careful not to remove too much of the chicken fat. I also use a lot of paprika in my rubs. I am a recent convert to Penzey's. I have a feeling it is really fresher and maybe more carefully sourced.

Thanks for picking that up. (I was remiss on my digest duties last week. Haven't played catch up yet. ) That kind of high praise means I will definitely go there.

The batch is done and tasted and all is right with the world. I don't see any obvious differences in taste with the change to chicken demi glace. I am beginning to think that the addition of demi glace is more of a texture thing with the gelatin rather than any obvious taste differences.

Excellent point!

By George, I think you have got it! (Where the hell do we get that saying "By George"? Is that a saying from Georgian times?) At any rate, I think you are on the right track. As to the construction of a burger, I stick with my analysis above.

Hmmmm... I am thinking atop the cheese. If you put the confit between the cheese and the burger it won't hold together and will slither all around. Of course, this is an engineering approach. But I think there is a culinary reason here, too. I would want the confit next to the bread so that any excess juiciness gets absorbed into the bread. As to the type of cheese, I am torn. I instincitvely go for a sharp cheddar. I somehow think any of the blue cheeses might overwhelm the flavors. Jack and muenster are too mild. Yeah, I will settle on sharp cheddar. I am also drawn to the natural affinity of cheddar for sweetness. Oh, how I like a good cheddar melted onto a piece of apple pie. That is one of the few deserts that will get me every time.

There is a thread going on kale that Richard started. I saw some of these kale plants on the garden tour last year. They are absolutely spectacular plants. Have any of you grown any of these? The redbor was particularly striking. I can see it as a feature plant in a conspicuous place in the garden. Shouldn't we plant kale as a cool season plant down here?

I think you have nailed it. I did a pan last night for a snack. I had a few pieces that I had sliced a little thicker and scooped off the other pieces and put the thick ones back in for about 10 minutes. I really think there is a taste shift and it seems to be confirmed if you go back and read the reactions here. Those that did not slice it thinly or left it in florets are going "what is the big deal, it is just good cauliflower". Then they get to the thin toasty variety and go... "wow".

Can someone describe for me what kale tastes like? I really like spinach and kale. I am not too fond of the stronger greens like mustards and collards. What is it more like? I can see that it would be a more "toothsome" texture.

I am lusting after growing some of THESE in my garden next year as part of my ornamental plantings. These pictures do not do justice to these spectacular plants. But, can I eat them?

That Wendy's chicken mandarin salad may be my next choice. If you keep clicking, you get to the specs on the individual salads and you can chose your options and recalculate the nutritional information. Very cool.

I was about to post a wisely developed recipe but realized that I have never cooked kale. Odd. I was thinking of chard. If this were my first attempt, I would fry off some bacon in a deep heavy pot then add the kale and wilt down. Then I would put that in the gratin. I don't think you want to heap up all of those leaves in a gratin and hope that they wilt down on their own. (I had one of my infamous visuals of you trying that.)

hillvalley... immediately call 911 and have your nose checked. Did you use nice strong onions? Remember, sweet ones like vidalias just don't have the flavor profile. They are meant to be eaten raw. Or maybe you just have good ventilation.

I am starting yet another batch. 6 big white onions 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup EVOO 1/2 cup chicken demi glace about 1/2 tsp each kosher salt and white pepper thyme and bay leaves And I will add the 3 T sherry. (Thanks for only using 3 T, Marlene. That means I get to drink the rest. ) I usually try to change only one thing at a time (chicken instead of beef demi glace) but the sherry just sounds too good.

I am glad you enjoyed Topwater. I tend to expect service mix-ups on Saturday or Sunday. The place gets really crazy and someone inevitably doesn't show up. I try to go on off times on weekends. It is a casual, laid back kind of place and I enjoy hanging out for a couple of hours. If the service is also laid back, it is at least friendly and enthusiastic. Anyway, you should plan to go when Captain Benny is fishing. The seafood comes in fresh off his boats. They will use good fish bycatch for the fish dishes and of course the shrimp are fresh. I think shrimp season opens sometime around May.

I finally made it to Sudie's in League City for a catfish lunch. A plate with 2 nice sized filets is $6.99. Not a bad deal. Here is my humble opinion... Generous amount of fries, probably meant to pump up the look of the lunch plate, and they were pretty good. Hushpuppies were good texture and well cooked but a little bland for my taste. Then I bit into one that seemed to get more than its share of onion and it was really good. Note to Sudies: Add more onion to your hushpuppies. Cole slaw was an unmitigated disaster. The dressing was sweet, too sweet. That may be just my personal taste but I hate sweet cole slaw. Then it was swimming in this milky liquid. But that wasn't the worst. I think that cole slaw is supposed to be made of shredded/grated veggies, not confetti sized little gibbles of vegetable matter. Note to Sudies: Get a shredder/grater blade for your processor for chrissakes! But now we get to the meat of the matter, the catfish. It was actually terrific. The fish had a nice texture and it was perfectly fried in a cornmeal crust that actually made a "crunch" when you bit it. The flavor was good, meaning not muddy. There wasn't a trace of greasiness, either. I can see calling ahead and picking up a few of these goodies to bring home and eat with my own damn cole slaw.

Yeah... Yeah... Yeah... I know that as an eGulleteer I am supposed to find that little ethnic place and buy real food handcrafted by that grandmother from Noddleania. But, when I have just driven over 50 miles to get to my office, I will have about 30 minutes to get something to eat and eat it before I race to that next meeting... Well, the fast food drive-throughs are about the only option. I think I have found an option that is really not bad: The Cows are busy in the garden - Chick-fil-a salads You can click on the individual salads for a description and nutritional data. These are actually pretty good. The greens and veggies are cold and crisp. The lettuce is mostly romaine and some spinach leaves thrown in. Chicken tenders (real ones), croutons, sunflower seeds and dressing are bagged up with the salad bowl in separate containers so that you can assemble your salad right before eating. If you choose the low fat dressing option, this doesn't look bad at all. AND... Unlike a certain sandwich we have discussed at length... The salads actually look like the pictures. At just under $5, I don't think this is a bad deal at all. I didn't really look at all of the nutritional information in detail because I quit worrying about salt and fat a long time ago. At least I am getting something from the vegetable kingdom. Any other good salads out there?

I didn't add any sugar (either try) and I ended up with just the right balance of sweetness to onionness, at least to me. I did start with strong white onions because they cook up sweeter. (See SSB discussion up-thread.) I am not sure pancetta wouldn't just do the same thing that the bacon did. Remember, I didn't say it was bad, it just wasn't as good as the version without the meat. (It did have demi glace so that argument may make no sense at all.) Anyway... I am going back to the original.

Now THAT is passingly strange.

Ack! I almost forgot about the sherry. Thanks. Uh oh... I am out of beef demi glace but I do have chicken demi glace from that last killer batch of stock I made. That will have to do. I am thinking that would be better than using the "Better Than Bouillion" jar stuff. Off to the store.

I found the whole thing odd. I will agree with Marlene that the bacon seemed to lead the onions astray. It was like the sum was much less than the parts. The reason that I think it was odd is that the bacon and onion work well together in Green Beans (Southern Style) that I developed some time ago. That calls for slow caramelization of the onions with the bacon as well. (Well, not as slow as crock pot confit.) Anyway... Back to EVOO and butter. I am actually throwing this batch out and starting over since I have a friend that I need to gift with a jar of this.

I just remembered that we discussed this one at length on this thread.

Please proceed, Brooks. Do we need to change your nickname to Bear Bait?