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Bill Klapp

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Everything posted by Bill Klapp

  1. I repeat, with feeling: they break the pasta in Italy when it is necessary to do so. That is why they do not have to twirl it. That said, however, they will do a mini-twirl to the extent required to get the shorter pieces of pasta on the fork or, in the unlikely event that they are served full-length strands, they will cut them with the edge of a fork before eating. There is nothing here. No pasta police. Don't break the pasta is either urban myth or something that seems childish to some Americans. It is practical, and probably ought to be done all of the time when using standard-length dried pasta. Easier to cook, easier to eat, no loss of the pasta's internal texture...
  2. VERY carefully. Use a fork to tease one strand at a time away from the others, suck the entire thing into your mouth, then chew it and swallow it, just like you see cartoon characters do in old cartoons. Unless, of course, it is lasagne. If you try that with lasagne, it will make a terrible mess! But seriously...much of the artisanal strand dry pasta that you find in Italy has to be broken to put it in the pot (it is sometimes double the length of typical packaged dry pasta found in the U.S. and doubled back on itself). Fresh pasta is never served in long strands. When handmade, the result is generally strands no longer than half the length of a typical strand of dried pasta, and some chefs will even cut it into bite-sized bits. It is usually possible to take a bite without any or much twirling on the fork...
  3. Franci, did you have a source to buy these in Italy?
  4. Ah yes - the Seville orange are my favourite.Thanks to both of you. I have never had them, but believe that I would kill for them anyway!
  5. Garibaldi Biscuits, crunchy, thin, crackery cookie filled with a thin spread of chopped raisins or currants. Sunshine used to make a version in the U.S. called "Golden Fruit". Crawford's out of the U.K. fill the Bill now. Any of the Jules Destrooper cookies out of Belgium get the job done, too...
  6. I have not. Had a big problem finding fresh lemongrass, but have mature plants coming this week. What I found in the interim was finely sliced lemongrass in liquid in jars. Tried it for the first time last night, and it was really good. Not fresh, absolutely lacking the intense bite of fresh, but yet delivering a full lemongrass taste in the dish. Based upon that, I do not see why your product should not be workable. Dried and powdered lemongrass, on the other hand, are wastes of money...
  7. I think that the composition and thickness of the pot is everything when boiling pasta. I love the high-tech, layered carbon-filament pasta pots that you see in the high-end cookware stores in Italy. 450 Euro seemed like a lot to pay just to cook pasta, but for me, it has proven a better value than Modernist Cuisine. Not knocking Modernist Cuisine, mind you; I have it, too. It is just that you cannot boil pasta in it (with or without oil), you know what I'm saying? (Or maybe you can, if you put the plexiglas bookcase in with your sous vide circulator...)
  8. The thought had crossed my mind...however I live in an apartment, and the only garden is my balcony. Given the choice between Jerusalem artichokes and fresh tomatoes, I think I'll stick with tomatoes. Go with the tomatoes!
  9. One other thing...in the future, you may want to grow your own. The tubers multiply like weeds, and the sunflowers, while tiny and a little brownish compared to typical sunflowers, are pretty. I planted a row a few years back and have about a thousand right now!
  10. Melissa says they are not in season. I guess I was wrong. Any suggestions for substitutions in the Ottolenghi recipe? Not in season for Melissa, but peak season for any place that grows them for which it is now autumn. Here in northern Italy, as far south as North Carolina. I understand that may not help your situation! Also, I have not looked at the cookbook, but I am not sure why you would want to cook potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes together. It wouldn't hurt the former, I suppose, but it would be a waste of the latter. Kinda like cooking turnips and rutabagas together. Jerusalem artichokes are a great, low-carb SUBSTITUTE for potatoes. Good raw in a jicama way, but off the charts baked in an au gratin or scalloped recipe. I slice them and bake them in butter, cream and parmigiano...
  11. And it is a 1950s idea to boot!
  12. Many thanks for that and the links, but I have ordered it!
  13. Many thanks for the websites! I searched, but did not turn those up. That should solve my problem. I have plenty of bird chilies to play with, too...
  14. Bravo. The Times has embarassed itself further this morning by issuing an Editorial Board piece on this, calling for a total waste of money that the U.S. government does not have. A single producer, already singled out with appropriate warnings issued, and a total of 338 cases. The Times seems almost disapointed that there have been no fatalities. There have been single fast-food outlets that have made more people sick. There is no way of knowing how many of the cases resulted from undercooking or improper handling. Inspection of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation, but at the taxpayer's expense, hardly seems the answer...
  15. The advice about fresh ingredients is certainly right in general, but less so for Thai, where many packaged and prepared ingredients are used most of the time. However, I am living in a country where Chinese is the only widely-found Asian food (sushi is here now, but a Gianni-come-lately, to be sure). I have my own kaffir lime tree and Thai basil, and will grow lemon grass and Thai holy basil, from seed if I have to, but you really limit your possibilities in Thai cooking without lemon grass. It is for that reason that I have jarred lemon grass in the meantime. On the mushrooms, yes on the variety, and they are fresh, not dried, which was why I asked about freezing. I was expecting dried...
  16. I have enjoyed some success here. I was able to find a good stash of both the jarred lemongrass pictured above, as well as jarred galangal from the same producer. All of the things that I ordered came from a Thai grocer in the UK. I ordered fresh lemongrass, but it did not arrive yet, and also lemongrass and Thai basil seeds. Question of the day: I also bought tree ear mushrooms, which came packaged like a supermarket steak, as well as banana leaves, pandan leaves and fresh galangal. I know that I can freeze banana leaves, but is it OK to freeze the other three items?
  17. This is NOT a valid comparison. It simply isn't. This is a valid comparison. ----------- Why you (BK) would think that a "comparison" between one manufacturer with one process and a different manufacturer with another process would "demonstrate" the difference between brass dies and non-brass dies is beyond me. I must profess my bewilderment at your "comparison". This is about taste and texture, not a high-school science project. The means count for nothing, the ends when you are finished eating the pasta everything. The difference between the materials used for dcarch dies is the LEAST important factor, because dcarch cannot make an antique bronze die of the type used by Italian artisanal pasta makers, and, absent that, there is no experiment and no valid test there. He might be able to fashion a plastic die (or, more likely, one of some metal other than bronze) that could deliver the characteristic striations that bronze dies deliver, but frankly, the odds are stacked against any of us who try to compete with Italian artisans who have been doing this longer than any of us have been alive. Remember, this applies only to dried, water-and-hard wheat pasta. I suspect that what dcarch was extruding was, in fact, fresh pasta that is being dried to some degree. Not even the same type of pasta. Look again at what I said about the curing process, wheat varieties, etc. and dried vs. fresh pasta. All of that eclipses a simple, homemade plastic vs. bronze die experiment... Then simply say that there can't be a true side-by-side comparison between an antique bronze die and something else. Since the whole process and the variations thereof are more important, a direct comparison between an artisanal spaghetti and Mueller's spaghetti simply illustrates that the artisanal spaghetti is better overall. Although you did not say it directly, it was implied in your comparison that the example you cited would illustrate the superiority of a brass die - but perhaps that was not your intention. Huiray, I will say no such thing. The point is that there can be a true side-by-side comparison of the PASTAS produced using different dies. You cannot eat dies, so you need not worry about comparing them in any sort of pseudo-scientific fashion, and all of the faddish obsession with Modernist Cuisine and sous vide notwithstanding, while you can certainly apply science and technology to food preparation, it will inevitably be trumped by the wildly variable human palate. Taste being subjective, one is always free to prefer Mueller's spaghetti swimming in meat sauce. That is no reason not to strive for results that a majority, or at least a majority of like-minded (or palated) individuals, find to be superior; however, the final judgment of superiority will always reside in the mouth of the individual taster...
  18. This is NOT a valid comparison. It simply isn't. This is a valid comparison. ----------- Why you (BK) would think that a "comparison" between one manufacturer with one process and a different manufacturer with another process would "demonstrate" the difference between brass dies and non-brass dies is beyond me. I must profess my bewilderment at your "comparison". This is about taste and texture, not a high-school science project. The means count for nothing, the ends when you are finished eating the pasta everything. The difference between the materials used for dcarch dies is the LEAST important factor, because dcarch cannot make an antique bronze die of the type used by Italian artisanal pasta makers, and, absent that, there is no experiment and no valid test there. He might be able to fashion a plastic die (or, more likely, one of some metal other than bronze) that could deliver the characteristic striations that bronze dies deliver, but frankly, the odds are stacked against any of us who try to compete with Italian artisans who have been doing this longer than any of us have been alive. Remember, this applies only to dried, water-and-hard wheat pasta. I suspect that what dcarch was extruding was, in fact, fresh pasta that is being dried to some degree. Not even the same type of pasta. Look again at what I said about the curing process, wheat varieties, etc. and dried vs. fresh pasta. All of that eclipses a simple, homemade plastic vs. bronze die experiment...
  19. Two other big differences are, of course, the flour used and the curing methods employed in the artisanal pastas over here. Several producers (Latini being one with its Senatore Capelli durum wheat) are actually growing and milling their own strains of wheat. Dried pasta can get pretty complicated in the Old World, and the best of it is absolutely worth all of the effort, fuss and cost.
  20. Lisa, by way of a (weak) defense for i americani, most of whom grow up eating what is put on the table with little or no opportunity for discussion or debate, I would think that the sauce generally has a lot more flavor than the typical grocery-store pasta that it is poured upon (remembering that, outside of a few large urban markets, even De Cecco and Barilla are relative newcomers to America).
  21. And on this occasion (unlike so many others, I hasten to add), you are totally wrong! Lisa and Shel have this one right. It is not the bronze die alone, which is rough-hewn and adds striations to the pasta which catch the sauce like tiny rain gutters, but also the process. The universal use of a more elaborate, more time-consuming artisanal process would jack up the price of a relatively cheap industrial product considerably. You do not hear the complaints that you allude to because, as nickrey pointed out on the pasta water thread, most American restaurants (and home cooks as well) destroy the balance and subtle pleasure of pasta by supersizing the sauce element, and even now, relatively few have experienced truly great, properly made pasta. No grand scientific experiment is needed here. Find a top-notch, imported bronze-die spaghetti and cook it al dente alongside a comparable portion of comparably sized Mueller's spaghetti. Sauce both with no more than a couple of ounces of good Bolognese made with finely minced meat and just enough residual liquid to be moist. Apply the sauce to the center of each dish of pasta, then work it into the pasta with your fork. Take bites of each. The differences should be obvious, in flavor, texture and the overall experience. And if you finish both portions, I will be surprised if there is not noticeably more sauce left in the bottom of your Mueller's bowl, unless you ate a couple of forkfuls of sauce only along the way. Of course, many may enjoy wiping up the rest of the sauce with a piece of good bread, but in Italy, the bread typically finds its way to the sauces, juices or gravies of most anything but a properly-turned serving of pasta. The bread-and-sauce experience is better enjoyed as pizza! A note on fresh pasta: by its nature, it absorbs liquids and has a very slightly tacky texture, so the sauce integrating and adhering is rarely an issue, and it is usually handmade rather than extruded, so bronze dies do not come into play...
  22. You are right. Huge amounts are silly. Enough to safely cover the quantity and shape of pasta used. Centuries ago when Ronald Reagan and I were kids, we called that "common sense". No longer fashionable! By the way, on the subject of cooking water BS, I do subscribe to the idea that boiling seafood in the sea water that it was pulled from is a splendid idea. Unless the water is polluted. In which case you should throw out the seafood with the sea water, so to speak...
  23. "Like Water for Pasta"...could be a catchy book title! And a lot of pure bullshit surrounding Batali for his entire career, from the very first minute, after he emerged from a few months of working in the kitchen of a now-defunct osteria in the middle of nowhere in Italy to become the male Marcella Hazan. And America fell for it. Beef cheek ravioli is my fave. Unknown in Italy, and after Troppo Mario discovered that he could not get a steady, cost-effective supply of beef cheeks, unknown in his ristoranti, too. But still called beef cheek ravioli, I believe. But to the point, why would you want to risk an unevenly cooked batch of pasta, perhaps even with unimmersed sections uncooked and brittle, just for the want of water, a renewable resource most places where pasta is beng eaten? Texture is critical to great pasta, whether dried or fresh, and the artisanal dried pasta producers use ancient bronze dies and techniques to create pastas of unique shapes and textures which hold sauces particularly well. How much salt to add to the water is the only question to be answered...
  24. I was pleased to see that the Times obit was as simple and straightforward as the woman herself. Victor fixing the trofie and pesto with basil from their terrace brought a tear to my eye. His greatness and contribution should not be lost on anyone, either. If you read her autobiography, you come to understand that he was not always the easiest person on earth as spouses go, but they shared a passion for food, wine and life that we should all be blessed with...
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