slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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Just a reminder: this is a thread about Spice Market and not about the journalistic ethics and the disclosure/non-disclosure of personal relationships in restaurant reviews. As it so happens, there is a nice thread already devoted to the latter subject, and I would request that any discussion not substantially having to do with Spice Market be continued over there. I'll move or copy a few posts from this thread to the other thread to frame the discussion if I get the sense that there is a real interest in continuing this fork of the discussion.
Thanks.
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Welcome to the Gull, Debra.
Sounds like you don't really need a recipe. Just use your favorite potato gnocchi recipe, maybe include some nutmeg, and serve in sage/brown butter. Sounds like a good plan to me.
The only comment I have is that gnocchi really need to me made a la minute unless you plan to bake them. Plus, they need to be eaten fairly quiclly after being prepared or they aren't so good, and they are not good as leftovers. Considering that, I am not sure they're a good choice for Thanksgiving.
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FWIW, I do something like FG's brisket technique. First I caramelize a ton of onions and puree them, then I make the liquid with the inion puree, reduced red wine and reduced veal stock. Since I braise at a low temperature in a big enameled cast iron pot with a heavy lid, I like for the braising medium to already be fairly thick. I am also likely to use a few sprigs of fresh rosemary. Slow roasted onions and carrots would be just the thing.
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I saw something in the recent Saveur that interested me. It was a recipe for a braised "BBQ" brisket, but I see no reason it shouldn't work with any seasonings. The brisket was browned, then braised until tender to the point of a knife, at which point it was removed from the braising vessel, cooled slightly and cut into slices. Once cut, the brisket is reasembled in a braising vessel sized just large enough to accomodate the brisket in one layer more or less the way it was before it was cut (i.e., with the slices "standing up on their edges" rather than piled up). Then the dish is braised again until the slices are meltingly fork tender. It struck me as an interesting solution to a common problem with long-braised brisket: that the brisket is so tender it crumbles apart when it is sliced.
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Good idea, Dave. And, if the beans are really fresh (i.e., not completely outgassed), the moka should be able to produce a reasonable facsimile of crema.
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Moka pot coffee and espresso are two entirely different products. Also, you cant steam milk with a moka.
I know you must hate this, but aren't they both hot water pushed through coffee. I'm not being a smart-ass, I really don't know.
Well... it's just not the same thing. The water isn't pushed through the same way, and that makes it come out different. The temperature of the water is lower and the pressure higher in an espresso machine, and these two elements are probably responsible for the difference. I take your point, of course, but in a certain fundamental way all coffee is the same. The hot water is forced through drip coffee too, after all... by gravity.
I also know that I would totally kick their asses if we compared home-roasted coffee in my machine to store-bought coffee in their machines.I just want to clarify- melkor's was home roasted...
Oh, I know. That's why I went off on home roasting. I've been using Espersso Monkey Blend from Sweet Maria's, but I just bought a doserless Rocky grinder, and I think I'm going to switch over to their Liquid Amber when I calibrate this thing up.
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Hmmmm... full dark caramelized simple syrup might be interesting to use in place of regular simple syrup for some drinks. Thanks for the idea.
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Where does my stovetop Moka fit in? It was about $18 and produces a rich, thick liquid. Just curious if the leap from under 20 to over 300 plus bucks is worth it.
Moka pot coffee and espresso are two entirely different products. Also, you cant steam milk with a moka.
It's no indication of right or wrong, but I have never met an Italian with anything other than a stovetop model.That's a good point, and true. But it is also worth making the point that practically every street corner in Italy has a little bar where you can get a shot of excellent espresso for a dollar or less.
I've had Melkor's Liquid Love and it's superior to anything I can produce but I have to wonder if it's his home roasting and freshness more than the machine.Home roasting, IMO, is the single most important thing one can do to improve the quality of espresso. Even though I lust after Melkor's and phaelon56's fancier machines, I also know that I would totally kick their asses if we compared home-roasted coffee in my machine to store-bought coffee in their machines. In my own experience, home roasting has pretty much eliminated the need to do the kind of "tweaking" to my Rancilio that phaelon56 mentioned above.
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Well, yea. But brewed bellybutton lint is better than what an awful lot of places serve.
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I'd be curious to hear how many people actually really like Illy. I suspect many people think they're supposed to like Illy because he's supposed to be the big espresso guru, but I run into a surprizing number of people who don't like it.
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Personally, I hate Illy, which I have always found sour, even in Italy.
In general, I think you will find the prevailing sentiment to be that the cheapest option for bar-quality espresso is the Rancilio Silvia/Rocky combination, which will run you about 720 bucks new (450 for the machine and another 270 for the grinder). Other options may be had for less money, but almost everyone I know falls into one of two categories eventually: a) don't use it all that much, b) want to move up to a better machine. This is not to say that Rocky owners don't get the occasional urge to move up, but I don't think any feel that the quality of their coffee/foamed milk and the nature of the things they can do with the machine is substantially limited with the Rancilio products as they would be with cheaper.
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Yea. Kind of puts the lie to their spokesperson Susan Magrino's statement to the Post less than 5 days ago to the effect that "it was 'premature' to say whether the menu would change."
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Sorry, Daniel, that is a bogus argument. As detailed upthread, "work someplace else if you don't like it" is not a viable argument against workplace safety regulations.
Now. With that, I am going to suggest once again that you skim through the thread. This discussion is long enough without becoming endlessly extended with reruns of the same arguments.
So... Daniel, jeunefilleparis, et al.: unless someone comes up with something new on this "government restricting personal freedoms" fork of the discussion today, something that reflects a grasp of the extensive conversation in this direction which has already ensued, I am going to start deleting. It's not something I would ordinarily do, but this thread is already over 400 posts and it runs the significant risk of losing all relevance if it becomes the same old thing over and over and over and over again.
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Daniel, Menton... I swear this has been covered extensively upthread. Rather than continuing to talk in circles, if this is something you care about please read through the thread.
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Daniel, go back and read through the thread, my friend. It is quite clear that the government has the right and responsibility to enact legislation to protect employees in the workplace. The laws do not force people to "give up their personal freedoms" by restricting smoking in the workplace any more than laws force people to give up their personal freedoms by restricting open masturbation in the workplace. People are perfectly free to smoke and wank... just not at work.
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Also the "Same period a year earlier" (April 2002) on which they were basing the comparison was when tourism was still in shock from 9-11.
An excellent point, Theakston. The article does mention the criticism that the "increase in tax payments and jobs must be weighed against the restaurant industry's emergence from the post-9/11 recession." I wonder how the observed 9% growth compares to the growth in previous years and how it compares to the growth that might have been expected were the ban not in effect. It's hard to "prove" anything in terms of the true economic impact, of course, because the ban didn't happen in a vacuum and there are other economic forces at work which affect the outcomes. I guess the main thing I took out of this report is that the bar and restaurant industry haven't gone down the tubes as many ban opponents were predicting. I wonder how the 9% growth compares to the growth in related/similar industries during that timeframe.
I have always tried to point up the fact that the smoking ban was for the benefit of employees and not customers. Just to tell a personal anecdote... I went out to a rodizio in Newark a few nights ago where there was some smoking. It was interesting to notice how much it irritated me now that I am used to smoke-free dining.
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It makes pretty good coffee of a certain kind. The big difference, I am given to understand, is that cold "brewing" doesn't extract any of the oils. So, if you want to make something that you're going to keep around for a while, cold extraction might be the way to go.
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Well, it is worthy of note that bar owners are critical of the report because the statistics are for bars and restaurants together. The implication by these parties is that the situation is not so rosy for bars as the report indicates. The implication of this is that restaurants have been doing so well that they have skewed the results up to the extent that widesperad difficulties in the bar business have been obscured. While I am sure there is some element of truth to this, and certainly it is the case that certain bars (and certain restaurants) have definitely been hurt by the ban, I have a hard time believing that bars as a group are doing significantly worse than the report indicates. For this to be true, restaurants would, as a group, have to be doing substantially better than the report indicates in order to achieve the same aggregate numbers.
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New York City released a study today showing that the restaurant and bar industry has prospered despite the smoking ban. NY Times. Some bar owners are dubious because the study lumps all food and beverage establishments together.
Some relevant excerpts for posterity:
The study also found that air pollution levels had decreased sixfold in bars and restaurants after the ban went into effect. . .From April 2003 to January, the city collected about $17.3 million in tax payments from bars and restaurants, a rise of about $1.4 million over the same period a year earlier. . . . The [tax] rates have not changed since before April 2003.
An average of 164,000 people were employed in restaurants and bars in 2003, the highest number in at least a decade. Since the smoking ban took effect last March 30, employment in bars and restaurants has risen by 10,600 jobs, taking into account seasonal fluctuation.
The number of the city's bars and restaurants - roughly 20,000 - remained about the same. . .
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The New York Post apparently spoke to different people, as yesterday's Page Six reflects. Some excerpts:
Alain Ducasse has fired his handpicked chef at Mix, the casual but pricey American-French eatery he opened last summer with partner Jeffrey Chodorow.Mix spokesperson Susan Magrino said, "Mr. Ducasse did not agree with the way Doug was managing the kitchen and the team."
Magrino shot down speculation . . . that Ducasse had acted under pressure from Chodorow. "There was no power struggle," Magrino said. "Ducasse is in charge of the kitchen."
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When this first broke, we made contact with the best sources close to the situation we could find, who asked to speak on background only, and have been able to piece together this preliminary story:
It is a matter of public knowledge, and is likely evident to anyone who has been to Mix, that the kitchen has been run by Doug Psaltis and is in every way a Ducasse kitchen. This philosophy extends from the tools (e.g., many copper pans, great stove, etc.) to the staff (the sous chef is an Italian guy Ducasse sent over, but who will not be the next chef), the ingredients sourced and the food produced.
The front of the house, however, is run by China Grill Management (aka the Chodorow organization) and there have been conflicts between the two management philosophies and goals for Mix. The people on the Ducasse side have long felt that the level of service has been disproportionate to the quality of food. The management level is no exception. Initially the struggle was to get the front of the house on the same level as the kitchen. But, now that there has been a clear change in the control of the restaurant, the management team has changed course and the struggle has been reversed.
Apparently a plan was devised to re-launch the restaurant into more of a money-making operation. Key elements of this plan included using only China Grill purveyors (those used in all of the organization's other restaurants), not continuing to replace the fine china and crystal and moving to cheaper products instead, redeveloping the labor structure in the kitchen, and revising the menu to accommodate more turns.
This, as one might well imagine, is somewhat inimical to the goals Psaltis has been trying to achieve at Mix. Psaltis' job has been to provide food that is aligned with Ducasse's ideals. He has been using premium sources for all of their products (which often are no more expensive, sometimes cheaper, than the purveyors that China Grill uses). And, as at any kitchen achieving the level of cuisine Mix has been producing, he has been dependent on a dedicated and talented staff. In this case, the kitchen featured many cooks who gave up higher levels elsewhere for the opportunity to work in a Ducasse kitchen.
Throughout his time at Mix (and before it), Psaltis has maintained that he is a Ducasse chef. He has worked to meet the demands of Alain Ducasse and no one else. When he felt the increase in pressure to run Mix more like every other China Grill restaurant, it was clear that there was no way that he would be part of that. Several of his cooks have now also departed.
The expectation is that the new chef and level of cooking will move closer to that of the other China Grill restaurants and, following the likely large turnover of the kitchen staff, the menu will likely change quite a bit.
As for Doug Psaltis, he remains loyal to the Ducasse organization and is actively discussing his next steps with Ducasse.
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More information here as we receive it
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I have a few impressions:
1. There is no reason to always go to the thinnest setting on the pasta machine every time. I reserve this setting for only the most delicate stuffed pasta dishes and lightly sauced narrower cuts of strand pasta. For tagliatelle, papardelle, lasagna, etc. I wouldn't go anywhere near that thin.
2. If the pasta is so damp that it's sticking together whenever it touches itself, if nests of pasta are turning into blobs of dough despite a healthy dusting of flour, if they need to dry before they can be be run through the cutter or, better yet, rolled up and cut by hand... then the dough is too wet. Pasta dough can absorb a lot more flour than you think, and what seems very dry when you first start kneading can actually turn out to be quite moist after the dough is worked for a few minutes.
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Pictures forthcoming once I stop futzing with them. Why must restaurants be so dimly (and yellowly) lit?
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Yay! Let's make fun of Gary while he's out.
Asparagus and cast iron frying pans
in Cooking
Posted
Strange. I never make asparagus in cast iron because I always drizzle on a little vinegar at the end, which would react with the iron.
Are you positive there was no acid in the pan?