sladeums

Today we made Swiss Steak which we usually serve with a heavy, thick and dense bread dumpling. To this point we have always purchased frozen (yes, horror - I know) and I don't even remember the brand. I just need some tips on how to make these. Any thoughts or help is appreciated. Thanks.

Check a Target store. They also have a waitlist. If you find any near you grab a few, the prices just quadrupled on eBay: click here for Jones Soda Holiday Packs on eBay

Yes, but unfortunately in many areas of the country both poblanos and anchos are labeled as 'pasilla'. In these areas (and others, as well) you will find the pasilla labeled as 'chile negro'. It can become quite confusing unless you are able to identify the chiles by sight.

It seems strange that you would be able to find pasillas and not anchos. Are you sure they are actually pasillas and not anchos? In some areas the ancho and poblano are called pasilla. The pasilla is about 6-inches long and uniformly narrow. The ancho is about 4-inches long, wide at top and somewhat heart shaped. I tend to think that the pasilla has a much earthier flavor than the ancho...I'd just use standard New Mexico Reds if anchos are not available.

You can get the recipes from the show with Ollie Gates (sauce, rub and beans) here: click here for recipes from Martha Stewart cooking Barbecue with Ollie

Here is a recipe from Keller that may be along the lines of what others referred to in this thread: click here for Keller's Festive Seafood Cocktail "...This is Thomas Keller's signature appetizer, a wry martini. Minced and julienned vegetables replace the green olive, and tomato water replaces the martini mix. The presentation is dramatic, as are all of his dishes. Thomas served this starter on a round silver tray, with the intense-flavored tomato water in a cocktail shaker. He suggests drinking it like a martini. The tomato water may be flavored in many ways, such as with chilies, or infused with herbs. Take care not to overcook the sea bass--the tomato water helps cook it..."

about the middle of the page here: click here for BLB's Mini BLT's recipe

esperanza, WOW! thanks for that review...very impressive only on eGullet I'm at a loss...thanks again

no, thank you. You took the time and effort to document the meal, I just thought if there was not a "click here" link some may not have seen your work. thanks again

try this: click here for robert40's Per Se pix on imageGullet alternately you can navigate there by clicking the imageGullet link at the very top right corner of the page

Once you get epazote going, there's no stopping it.

If you don't receive any feedback from the restaurant's owner you can try these guys: click here for Casa Maya Mexican Restaurant They seem to have identical menus.

yeah, you could say there were some opinions: click here for The Wine Clip, Useful or Nonsense? thread click here for The Wine Clip Part Deux, The test results thread

If you want a strong cilantro flavor add it freshly chopped when serving the salsa. Cilantro does not hold up well at all once it's cut, cooked or mixed with other ingredients - it's flavor really lags after just a couple hours, plus the leaves get all limp and wimpy. I'd chop a generous quarter cup per about every 2 cups salsa - then garnish with a bit more. I don't can, though, maybe someone else knows some secret.

So very sad. Fortunately I still have a standing date with her every Saturday on my local PBS: with Master Chefs, with Jacques and Baking. The past several weeks she has made me smile so, railing on about tuna packed in water and looking rather pained when Jacques always insists on using black pepper instead of white. She was a real treasure...thanks for all you've given us Julia.

We (well, mostly my wife - but I found the recipe) used the recipe as written and had no problems. As I recall, this is a moist cake, not in any way dense or 'loafy'. I sometimes don't like carrot cakes, because they taste too 'carrot-y' and not very 'cake-y'. There should be a distinction between carrot cake and carrot bread. This was very nice with all of the citrus brightening up and playing well against the earthy carrot flavor. The optional candied nuts are a must.

I did notice that old Hires bottles are frequently listed on eBay (some full, some empty) - don't know about the shelf-life of root beer extract, though.

These places also sell root beer extract: click here for the Cajun Connection / Zatarains click here for Northern Brewer click here for Northwestern Extract

I made Elizabeth_11's recipe from recipeGullet for my sister's birthday and it was pretty frickin' great: click here for Triple layer carrot cake with citrus cream cheese frosting recipe

Here's another couple recipes that look to be drier. One here, scroll down the page: click here for Cochinita Pibil recipe 1 and one from the Cuisines of Mexico here: click here for Cochinita Pibil recipe 2

It reads fairly simply. Ingredients: center-cut veal shin bones soaked overnight, oil, S&P and flour. Method: remove the marrow, heat oil over high heat, season marrow and dust with flour, saute until crispy, remove and drain on paper towels. The recipe in it's entirety looks very do-able for the home cook with access to quality ingredients.

There's some nice Per Se coverage in the July/August Food Arts. - The 'Kitchen Spy' feature takes an in-depth look at the Per Se kitchen. - Corey Lee and Jonathan Beno demo cutting a "beef cap" from a boneless four-bone chuck end beef rib. - Two recipes: Fillet of New Zealand John Dory Cuit Sous-Vide, Fricassee a la Printaniere & Louisiana Crayfish with Sauce Nantua - and - Calotte de Boeuf Grille: Snake River Farms Beef Cap, Green Asparagus, Morel Mushrooms, Rissolee of Marble Potatoes, Crispy Bone Marrow & Bearnaise Mousseline

I think one other way of looking at it is thus: DK came over an English import and found all this wonderful undocumented cooking going on (prior to her most significant contribution -'The Art of Mexican Cooking'). She is not from the US, has no roots in the US and therefore no attachment to any type of US hybrid of cooking going on north of the border. She has no frame of reference to place Tex-Mex, except as a "bastardization" of a "poor folk" country cuisine that she happened to stumble across, and then later force herself into, apparently out of love and respect for it's merits. When she looks north of the border she can only compare the food she sees there to what she has experienced before...and it ain't the same. She found some cooking that had not been explored in it's natural form in the English language on a mass scale....she was lucky enough to be one of the first to do so from the Caucasian, English-speaking perspective - - but her learning and teaching did not account for the great "ethnic drift" that already had occured and was later a deluge on the heels of the book's publication. Some of the comments in her first big book, "Art of Mexican Cooking" spoke of the storm to come, but I can see how the established Tex-Mex style could seem to DK a cheapening of the simple fare she experienced in the homes and fondas in Mexico. This is what I see Tex-Mex as - simplified Mexican peasant cooking. Not simplified as in 'dumbed down', but simplified as in using the ingredients available to you to try to approximate a simple meal you would have made back home...plus, as in most immigrant cultures, cooking is the one thing that somebody surely knows how to do that is marketable... their food becomes barter and these dishes later become "commercialized" - - that is, the ingredients are suited to fit the taste of the customers or reflect local availability...maybe in this way a cuisine is born. I don't know. As far as I can tell, though, DK still does not "get it"....living in her nice little Mexican abode exploring recipes that may never have seen the light of day in the English language...which is great, that's what I appreciate her for. This, of course, does not mean that Tex-Mex ain't real - because it is...just that DK will probably never see it as such because she is coming from a WAY different place.

The recipe for Carnitas Caseras (home-cooked carnitas) in Diana Kennedy's 'The Art of Mexican Cooking' calls for (besides the meat and fat): onion, marjoram, thyme, bay, peppercorns, orange and MILK. The recipe she used was adapted from a recipe from 'Gastronomia Mexiquense'. There is no specification as to the fat level of the milk. This is the recipe I generally use when making carnitas at home and I usually use skim or 2% and I've always had good results regardless of which milk I use...you should be good with whatever. It is possible it may be better with full-fat milk...if you have no concern about the fat level use it.

If you enjoyed Nothing Fancy for it's stories and other non-recipe, yet food-related material you'd love My Mexico. It reads as a travelogue through various parts of Mexico - each chapter focuses on a specific geograpic area, discusses the people she got recipes and techniques from and then ends with a recipe relevant to the text. It's my personal favorite of hers - and even though the book has fewer recipes than some of her other titles, her recipes I do use the most are from this book.