stellabella
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Posts posted by stellabella
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I visited Paris for the first time back in February. I was there for a weekend, and Saturday morning after I got dressed I headed straight for Laduree [via the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Couer]; I was so profoundly moved by the hot chocolate that I spent the next several months trying to duplicate it at home.
The first suggestion I have is for you to read MFK Fisher's translation of Brillat-Savarin's Physiology of Taste--he describes how to make hot chocolate and she adds her own foot-noted two cents' wirth as well.
The bottom line is that you have to use good chocolate. I haven't experimented with lots of different chocolates--for one I don't have access to purveyors and for two I don't want to get into buying stuff through the mail til I have paid off my home equity loan.
So what I've found works nicely is Lindt 70% cocoa, very dark, bitter, and only slightly sweet. Melt this bar in a glass pot over very low heat, stirring constantly. Add a little milk at a time, as the bar dissolves. Keep adding the milk til your hot chocolate reaches the desired consistency.
This is an intense high, by the way. Be prepared to ZOING afterwards.
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both of those sound good to me.
i made a simple two pan meal the other night.
I rubbed a fresh salmon fillet with salt, coriander and pepper, drizzled with EVOO, wrapped in foil and stuck it in a VERY hot oven for about 15 minutes.
cooked coarse corn grits with kosher salt and sun-dried tomato strips, sauteed bell pepper, onion, garlic and kale til tender in a skillet and then assembled:
polenta, topped with kale, topped with fish, topped with crumbled goat cheese. it was very good.
the next night i pan fried the left-over polenta and topped with tomato sauce & cheese.
i also make polenta crusts, in an iron skillet, fill with whatever, roasted vegs, cheeses, beans, etc., and bake til heated through.
the key i find is seasonging the grits as they cook with some flavored OO. gives them a rich texture, too.
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Ghirardelli Double Fudge Brownie Mix
I was wondering when someone was going to post about brownies, the number one dessert of all time. Before you call me a philistine, consider giving this mix a try. Believe me, I am a food snob [oops, edit, food-OLOGIST]--I could not believe I was actually using a mix--but these are very good brownies, and so easy it's criminal--I get the family size box from BJ's and keep it in the pantry for emergencies.
ON THE OTHER HAND when I want to treat myself with the respect I deserve I make scratch brownies following the recipe on the back of the Baker's chocolate box [using European butter, for example] but substituting the Baker's with another [better] brand of baking chocolate, whatever I am able to get. I add chopped walnuts and sprinkle the tops with powdered sugar. These brownies are very rich and very moist.
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you're every bit as cute i imagined you to be!
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thank you, suvir. i am so craving this cereal. i mean, i could try to make it but i'd be totally guessing. maybe you could guess for me--you'd be far more likely to get it right than i.
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jin,
honesty is always the best policy.
i bow to your indiscretions.
s
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Ed, I found another jar of cane syrup in the pantry and tried it against the other for comparison. it's:
old south kettle cooked
pure georgia cane syrup
grown and produced by ronny l. herring
ochlocknee, ga 31773
912-574-5151
old south is darker and thinner and less sweet, to me much more like molasses. but i am a cane syrup fool and generally like them all, depending on whether i'm in the mood for more or less sweet. i love fresh hot cornbread smeared with a little butter and soaked in cane syrup.
i got some Cajun Crystals cane syrup sugar--it pours well and has a nice flavor. this morning i had it on my oatmeal--very nice.
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all sound delish. how will i decide? i'll report back. thanks.
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I have very little experience cooking fish. We always grill it, or poach it. I thawed two lovely tuna steaks this morning and I want to cook them inside. How?
I was thinking of making a side dish with ginger/sesame sweet potatoes, brocoli, white beans.
Help? [be fairly explicit, por favor]
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I was served Indian Savory Cereal for breakfast at a yoga retreat this weekend--it was warm and spicy, contained millet, sunflower seeds, onions, tomato, peppers. The consistency was divine, not thick like oatmeal but thinner, like a hearty soup. Topped with yogurt & cayenne powder.
I loved it. It was reheated and served again the next morning and was still delicious.
Does anyone know how to make this?
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dear yvonne,
i balanced my chakras this weekend and found myself afterwards with a craving for meat so overwhelming that i stopped at wendy's and ate TWO grilled chicken sandwiches. they tasted really good to me. in fact, they tasted like the best grilled chicken sandwiches in the universe.
i say, eat what you like, like what you eat, be nice. a courageous heart and mind are far more impressive than a refined palate.
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i hated green beans and eggplant growing up. fortunately i've learned to love them again, since i've learned to cook them better than anyone else ever did. oh, the abuses eggplant suffered in the hands of my protestant farming family...
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LML, pardon me for going down the wrong road, if that is what I am doing:
Take deviled eggs [or not, but hear me out]. I make them at the tiny sandwich shop where I work; we sell them 3 for a dollar. What could be easier? I put the yolks in the food processor with mayo and some sweet pickle relish, from which I've squeezed as much moisture as possible, Lawry's salt. Then I stuff the contents into the Pampered Chef pastry tool and fill the whites. Viola.
Now, if you don't like deviled eggs, or if you think they are utterly heathenish food, fine. But lots of people love them; take them to a cook out and you will never bring home leftovers. And deviled egg lovers swap recipes like crazy. Everyone has a secret. Everyone knows how to make them the best. But the ones I make are the best and they are simple. And I didn't make up a special technique.
In my own kitchen I always want to try something new, but I increasingly find myself wanting to to turn out solidly, dependably good food, simple or not, fussy or not, unique or not, doesn't matter.
Innovation has its place, but sometimes the person behind the stove could do just as well or better sticking to the basic recipe.
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those who are against me will insist on reading it with the wrong inferences attached.
i am not against you, but i misunderstood you.
so it is a possibility.
i'm just sayin.
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I just finished reading The Human Stain by Philip Roth, and The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen--I can't rememer which one I read last. I am about 3/4 of the way through Wilkie Collins' Woman in White--it is taking me a while because it's so, well, so VICTORIAN.
Waiting on the nightstand are Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and about 2 dozen other books I can't name off the top of my head. I'm not sure what I will read next.
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Good night!
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There is no mountain, it's a plain.
Deacon, I'm with you, but I do believe there is ONE mountain: not everyone in this world has many choices available to him about where he lives, in what type of dwelling, what he eats, how often, what he wears, etc., etc., etc. But everyone in this world has choices open to him in regards to how he treats others. People who [as] consistently [as possible] make choices to treat others well stand atop the mountain.
So back to my original post: do you treat people differently, i.e. poorly, as a result of the foods that they eat? If you do, than you're a snob. Right? In fact, you're more than a snob--you're an asshole.
Could this possibly be true about any of us? I WANT to think, NO. Prove me correct.
Why don't we all just go to bed now?
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COMPOST PILE
i eat leftovers sometimes, but produce goes bad, cheese gets moldy, etc. all food that needs to be discarded goes right onto the compost pile. for a while my husband forbade this, until he was debunked by a biologist friend who assured him [i already knew this!] that:
--cheese mold is good for the decomposition process
--cooked food is already partially decomposed
--meat attracts critters, but if they don't bother you, don't worry about it
so i dump everything. for one thing, i feel a lot less guilty about waste. at least this way i feel like i am recycling the food, not just throwing it into a landfill. i realize that composting isn't a good alternative for city-dwellers.....
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Put some grease (oil, drippings or lard) in one 9 inch round iron skillet in the heating oven.
i always add about a tablespoon or a little more of oil to the skillet and swirl it around--you want the skillet to be really well-coated. when you pour the batter into the hot skillet the oil should sizzle.
jiffy cornbread mix is actually a pretty popular standard, suvir. i don't use it, but i would in a pinch--i think it would be fine to use as the base for cornbread dressing, for example.
i don't add sugar to my batter--i like the savory cornbread--and i think real sweet cornbread, eastern shore style, which is more like spoon bread, is gross--it just doesnt appeal to me.
cornbread hot out the skillet with butter and cane syrup is the best, IMO. and if you have leftovers you can reheat it and have it for breakfast the next day the same way, and it's almost just as good.
for savory cornbread, add any kind of grated or crumbled cheese, roasted peper, corn kernels, etc.
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steen's sounds good, but my husband found another one that we both think is the best we've ever tasted:
country made ribbon cane syrup
douglas syrup farm
rt 2 box 186
dekalb, ms 39328
601-677-9700
at the bottom of the label, in tiny letters: "we were here first"
but it's darn good can esyrup.
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many of the people who dissent know diddles about food, and as such do not have a valid opinion. You can recognize them because those are the people pushing the "everything is relative" or LML type arguments.
i see myself in here somewhere.
this summer while in london i had supper at the home of a distinguished faculty member from the London School of Economics. he and his wife both think circles around my husband, who is truly a very intellectual dude. they served us the most bizarre meal: poached salmon, soggy baked vegetables, and a dessert tart with a digestive biscuit and margarine crust, reduced fat cream cheese filling, piled with mounds of fresh fat juicy gooseberries, blackberries and raspberries. i sort of choked it down, but at the same time my heart nearly burst at the mere beauty of it.
i am afraid, steve p, that everything is relative, at least when it comes to food. and i have no intention of debating you about it. not because i'm a coward--and i like you & respect you a lot. but i love egullet too much to follow this conversation down the rabbit hole. once in a blue moon i eat canned chicken. i am who i am.
steven shaw, did that do it? now i have to bind my hands so i won't be tempted to post again.
i love you all! i really do!
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I had no idea that canned chicken existed.
oh, yes--you'll find it next to the potted meat. i ate a lot of that stuff growing up. but then, i used to be poor and very country, or, as they say in your parts, "local."
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"unfortunately," i find myself continuously craving the first sandwich, which, by every reasonable definition of what makes food "superior," should be inferior to the second, better-quality, better-prepared sandwich.
Maybe you're getting addicted to evil additives in the first sandwich
stephen, i don't know. it really has been bugging me lately. what makes one taste better to me than the other? if you knew me, you'd know that eating and LIKING the first sandwich is pretty inconsistent with everything i believe about food. what to do?
and i would never serve the first sandwich to my friend Miss J if she came for lunch--i'd actually cook, because that's the way i am.
Hot Chocolate
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
I'm assuming that Jamie Oliver's recipe is a joke, but mine isn't
Once you've had that European style hot chocolate, your life can never be the same.