mrbigjas

yeah, i bet you're right, jsolomon--there's the real risk of the fries browning before they're heated all the way through, if they're too thick and i'm cooking from frozen. i'm also thinking there are two real problems with putting frozen fries into hot oil: 1. condensation from being frozen causing big ol bubbling/splattering issues 2. the oil temp dropping more drastically than usual because after all i'm putting a pile of frozen potatoes in it. this one could be solved by frying in more small batches.

so, it's kind of a pain to do the blanching, cooling and refrying of french fries in one evening. so i'm thinking, can i blanch the fries, then cool and freeze them, and do the second frying later? this would allow me to blanch a whole bunch of them at once, and then fry in small batches as we eat them. this is what they do in restaurants to speed things up at the moment of service, right? corollary question: if i did this, could i fry them from frozen, or should i defrost first?

yes it is. and after extensive experimentation* i haven't found that the hot/cold debate has any merit on either side. hot or cold works fine as long as you whisk it in well. *meaning sometimes i remember to heat the liquid, and sometimes i don't.

i'm really sorry to hear it, paul.

today i was at fair food and my wife asked what kind of meat sales they had going on. they didn't have any but mentioned that liver is always on sale. so i asked what else they had of that nature that wasn't liver, and ended up with three lamb's tongues, reasonably priced at $2 a pound. it's a little over half a pound, so now i just gotta figure out what to do with them. i reckon fergus henderson's recipe for lamb tongue with bacon and turnips will do... and i bought one of those fruitcakes from haltemann's. i'm psyched.

i know he was kidding around; the truth is i just wanted to say 'drinkin wild turkey rye like a schlub!' because it's a damn fine whiskey, after all, and there ain't nothin wrong with a WT rye perfect manhattan, which has been a staple around here since last week, when i bought a bottle.

pizza club colleagues, i realize this is not about philadelphia, but as a note for when you travel: any hype you hear about two amy's pizza in northwest DC near the national cathedral is COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED. i had a pizza down there this past weekend and i'm telling you it's totally the shiznit, full-on neapolitan DOC-qualifying wood-fired buffalo mozzarella plain tomato thin-but-not-crackery INSANELY GOOD PIZZA. if you guys care about pizza, and you're in DC and you don't go, you're cheating yourself.

well, there's using it for a pan sauce after searing a steak in it--add shallots, deglaze with wine, add a little stock, mount with butter. and for whoever upthread asked about using it for this purpose, i can assure you that a well-seasoned cast iron pan won't be wrecked by deglazing with wine. and neither will your sauce, as long as you're not sitting there simmering it for a long time.

i'm pretty sure jerk chicken is supposed to be fiery hot--the main ingredient in jerk is habanero (along with shallot, thyme, allspice, and a few other things). thanks for the report on golden krust--i've heard of them but didn't realize there were any around here.

thanks for the tip cinghiale, but i have to admit that i'm not a huge fan of stollen...

yeah, what cherie said. and welcome jwjon1!

i don't know, but i had a bite of one once and it really did taste like french toast. it was a weird experience indeed.

I did the same thing! I used some saffron I had saved for so long, waiting for that special recipe to come along, I was afraid it would go bad. SB (but at least the potatos were good) ← i don't see why this one would be a waste, actually. saffron flavored mashed potaters sound great to me.

thanks holly. do you remember, are they pre-boozed or would i have to buy one like, today, and start soaking it myself?

now that's what i'm talkin about!

yeah so in case you guys were wondering, i picked up a bottle of the chalfonte, and it was fine for steak au poivre. but i tasted it and it's not so great for drinking. if it were a wine i'd say it lacked structure--it's kind of all over the place. but it'll do for cooking, and maybe a mixed cocktail where there are other ingredients playing along.

paul, i really hope it doesn't come down to you having to bail on this project. it's been very enlightening (and kind of maddening) reading about this process--i was hoping it would end well...

ok let's pause for a moment for the standard jokes about fruitcake. ... ... ok thanks. now, can i get one in philadelphia? a good old fashioned one, heavy, dark, full of mysterious dried fruits, not too sweet, and all liquored up?

i'm picturing a cocktail with chunks of medium-cooked egg whites in it, and it's quite a vomitous concept. let's hope that usda-food-safety-guideline-based cocktails never come into vogue.

i didn't see anything but the occasional bottle of jim beam and this bottle of wild turkey that i picked up. but i didn't exactly go to the great stores--i was driving up connecticut so i went to circle, chevy chase and magruders. i didn't get a chance to stop at calvert-woodley, and i wasn't downtown either. tonight as a continuation of prohibition being repealed AND my half-birthday, i am going to drink a big ol' margarita.

Never came back?! Haven't you heard? Rye whiskey is the new vodka! ← ha! yeah, i keep hearing that, but i can still name most every brand off the top of my head, and i can't get a bottle of rittenhouse here in philadelphia, where the frickin rittenhouses were from (or in the three stops i made in DC, for that matter). it's an outrage, i tell ya--i live five blocks from rittenhouse square and i'm drinking wild turkey like a schlub!

i'm celebrating the end of prohibition with a rye* manhattan. isn't it the generally accepted theory that prohibition killed off rye as a whiskey? i wonder why it never came back. it's damn good booze. *wild turkey rye

took that cue from lacroix. i love it. for a non-dessert-eater like me, the option to have two apps instead is very attractive.

i will honestly never understand this reaction to most food, and especially something like grits. i mean, if someone tries to give you chitlins, and you are disgusted by the fact that it's an intestine, i kind of understand that. but grits? it's just corn. what's the big deal? and okra, which people also have this visceral reaction to. it's just a vegetable. if you don't like it, that's fine, but people are always all OHMAHGAH NOT GRITS OR OKRA THAT'S SO VOMITOUS OHMAHGAH OHMAHGAH and fanning themselves frantically whenever anyone mentions them. good lord. it's just grits. or okra. or beets. or whatever. vegetables are morality-neutral. they're not evil.

pico de gallo also has good menudo.