Wolfert

The following works for me: I start by soaking the chestnuts in cold water to soften the shells, about l hour before baking them in a preheated 450 oven. I drain the chestnuts, use a sharp knife to slit the rounded side of each chestnut, and set them them in layers in a covered pot. Bake for 35 minutes or so. Remove the pot from the oven; keep the chestnuts covered with a thick towel until ready to peel,a bout 20 minutes. This steaming period helps to detach the inner skins. I know it is a lot to go through. I, too, would love to learn an easier way.

Three comments I would like to add: In the French South-West kitchen, I learned that salt must be precisely measured when preserving meat and poultry for confit. If you have made confit and it came out too salty, the fault may have been the salt rather than the amount. Some salts salt more than other salts, I use Diamond Crystal Kosher and measure 22 grams per pound which works perfectly. I, too, wash off the spicing. I don't think it is necessary to leave any on when cooking in the fat. My technique is similar to Suzanne's and Malawary as well. Keep in mind Culinary Bear is using Muscovy legs. These take about one hour longer to cook than the moulard and two hours longer than the Pekin which might explain the lengthy cooking time and the easy breaking up of the flesh.

Does anyone have any experiences with Pierre LaSerre's SmartPot tm? Back in the early eighties, it was popular in Canada. La Serre promoted cooking 'boilable bag wrapped' fish, chicken or beef in water set at very low temperatures.

Don't blush, Suzanne. I think you just discovered a great way to make duck rillettes. How many hours did you go over?

Unglazed pots probably need oil; glazed don't because they are slippery. And this brings me to the chambra pots.I don't have the black stewing pot so I can't tell you how it would behave with a dough seal with or without oil, but I do have the skillet and aside from loving it for its unglazed properties, it has a very special texture to the touch---extraordinarily smooth which makes me think it has been rubbed with stones.

Hi Fifi, this would be wonderful to find out. All the daubieres, Chinese sandpots, and other pots that are used with a flour,water and drop of oil paste are glazed at least on one side. When not, the cook is instructed to oil at least one of the rims. Does this help?

I have a question: Did you mix all purpose flour with water and a drop of oil? (Oil helps to break the seal.) Some cooks don't use the oil but I find it helps. You can chisle a hole into one side of the flour and as soon as some steam gets out it will be easy to loosen the top. There is no formula because different flours take different amounts of water. A rule of thumb is 3/4 cup flour, 1 teaspoon oil and enough water to make a paste. It should have been easy to remove. The dhickpeas will only be better by the long wait.

Beginning in late eighties, editors from newspaper or magazines would call me and ask for my suggestions for the next 'hot thing.' I would always respond "nettles" and "milt," because I actually like both of these foods and rarely find them in the market. Let's say it was my selfish attempt to start a craze. Editors never included my suggestions in their roundups. Perhpas they thought I was being 'snotty.' Eventually, the word got out that I always said the same thing and I was no longer asked.

I agree about the purslane and sumac. I never had fattoush with pomegranates. Does it take away from the lovely asringent flavor of the sumac? I'm wondering if Suvir's salad tasted so special because the ingredients cut so small were quick to mingle and develop a dense and intense flavor.

The less water in your dough, the better your cookie will be. I suggest you make Greek butter-almond cookies with chilled clarified butter , ouzo, and pure extrracts to cut out the water completely.. 10 ounces unsalted AA butter will make 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons clarified butter.

Russ, thanks for the nice comments on my cooking. If only I understood why I do what I do. Thanks to you I often learn. Your book"Reading a french fry" should be on everyone's gift list this year. I have a number of different recipes to achieve moist flesh and crackling skin.One method I like is to take a 7 pound picnic shoulder which is a thick piece of meat with a complicated bone structure and treat it to long, slow roasting (45 minutes to a pound) to cook fully. I believe the flesh of this cut has more flavor when slightly overcooked--to at least 175 or 180 internal temperature. The method I think you might like is to remove the skin in one piece. Calm down, Russ.Score the skin in a wide diamond pattern, cutting about 1/4 inch deep. Rub with olive oil, coarse salt. Pat the meat dry. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place meat on a rack in a flameproof roasting pan, lay the pork skin over the meat, and roast, uncovered without basting for 2 1/2 hours. Remove the pork from the oven' place the skin, fat side down, under the rack and meat. Return to the oven and roast for 1 1l/2 hours longer, basting with the pan dripping every 20 minutes or so. Raise the oven heat to 350 and roast 1 hour longer. The total roasting time for a 7 pound fresh picnic houlder is 5 hours. Remove the pork to a work surface and cover loosely with foil; let it rest 15 minutes. Increase the oven to 400. Place the skin, fatty side down, on a flat oven proof dish, and return it to the oven to crisp and brown, 15 minutes. Slice the pork thin on the diagonal toward the bone. Arrange the slices on a warmed platter, season with salt and pepper, cover and keep warm. Cut the skin into thin strips and pass separately. In summer,I make a rustic sauce with fresh tomatoes, orange and lemon juice and fresh peppermint. Now, I would make a simple pan sauce and serve it with sauteed apples. some advance preparation: You might want to rub the pork flesh with a herb=spice paste and drill some holes into the flesh here and there in order to insert garlic slices. A few day in the fridge before coooking will only make it better. The skin which you have removed should lay on a towel covered dish in the refrigerator in order to dry out.

I have a correction to make about miloukhia in North Africa: In Tunisia the leaves are dried, ground and pressed through a fine sieve then used to make an extraordinarily rich blackish green sauced dish for beef or lamb called mloukhia.

What? For real? I've seen Molokhiya (or one of the seemingly infinite variant spellings)

Zeitoun, you're right. Mallow isn't Molokhiya or Jew’s mallow. Mallow is khobiza which is also viscous but very different in flavor and appearance. When I lived in Connecticut my local Middle Eastern grocer sold molokhiya seeds each spring to members of the local Druse community who wanted to plant their own for late summer harvest. I tried it but was very discouraged by the difficulty of removing each leaf from the stalk without releasing the substance at the joint that creates excessive gooiness. So I started using the frozen ones from Egypt which provided just the right amount of viscous texture to soup. Perhaps this hint from Egyptian food writer Nora George will help: It is important to know when using the frozen leaves that they should be cooked over medium heat and served immediately after reaching the boiling point. By the way, don't you think molokhieh should be a midday lunch dish because it provokes a siesta? Or am I just eating too much?

I think I can help. Ordinary Moroccan smen is cooked and salted butter made from cow, goat or sheep's butter. The butter is simply melted and strained a few times until very clear. For every pound of butter, add l tablespoon pickling or Kosher salt to the liquid butter. Store, covered, in a glass or earthen jar in a cool place or the refrigerator. This will keep a long time. Some bury these jars in the ground for a year or longer. The resulting smen comes up tasting something like blue cheese. A popular Berber smen made in southern Morocco which is used for smearing on bread, dousing couscous, and flavoring tagines is made with butter made from goat's milk. It isn't cooked but is flavored with a type of thyme that tastes similar to a mixture of thyme, savory and oregano. If you wish to find it, look for dried thymus satureioides at any herb store. This particular thyme is thought to prevent bad bacteria forming while good bacteria is creating the herbal flavor that is so coveted in Morocco. To make smen with this herb: boil a handful of salt and about 1/2 cup of the dried leaves in 1 quart of water. Strain the blackened liquid into a bowl and leave to cool. Cut up 1 puond very fresh sweet goat's milk butter into small pieces and add to the water, and knead until it has the consistency of mashed potatoes, pressing the mixture again and again against the bottom of the bowl so that every bit of butter has been thoroughly washed. Drain the butter pieces and then squeeze to extract excess liquid. Knead into a ball, place in the sterile glass container, and cover tightly. Store in a cool place (not the refrigerator) for 1 month before using. Once it has been opened, store in the refrigerator, where it will keep about l month.

I remember the recipe as well. It was first published in Craig Claiborne's column in the NY Times in the late sixties; recipe was credited to the late Ann Serrane. About the same time, I worked with Ann Serrane on a CBS international food\mail order project which didn't see much light of day. We featured her recipe in the first "party box as "French."

While the lemons recipe may have visited Israel at some stage I'm not sure if "Laban Ummo, literally means “It’s Mother’s Milk" did.... I'm not keeping Kosher, so I'll try it very soon. Looks and sounds great! Boaziko ←

What a great idea! I've always wanted to go to her restaurant. COUNT TME IN

I would like to make the point that middle eastern preserved lemon is usually stored in water while North African preserved lemon is topped off with more lemon juice. I think the former would be far less acidic with the yogurt.

Foodman's recipe appears to be world class; I can't wait to try his version. I'm a big advocate of dried mint, even when fresh mint is available the dried leaves are preferred for certain dishes in North Africa, and I assume in the Middle East. Dried mint leaves impart a special flavor to salads, stews, soups, and stuffings that you simply wouldn't get with the fresh. In some of the Turkish recipes I've worked with, dried mint is heated along with a little oil or butter then swirled into the dish at the last minute. It provides an exuberant and pungent flavor. Dried Egyptian spearmint is available at middle eastern stores and stores well. Just remember to crush and sieve just before using.

In Morocco, I used to purchase beets that had been slowroasted in a wood burning oven at the local market. They were large storage beets and extremely dense in texture, but they had the deepest color and richest flavor. I don't know a better beet for salads.

No, you don't have to use goat/sheep milk yogurt. Goat's milk yogurt, available in fine food stores and health food stores, has a tangier flavor than cow's milk yogurt. zUse goat's milk yogurt cheese balls for long term storage. In fact, you should be able to keep them up to 6 months in oil. Sheep's milk yogurt, which is naturally rich and dense, needs less draining. I've never made it with sheep's milk yogurt so I don't know the storage time. On the paper towel: cover loosely with another sheet of paper. Once shaped you can keep them under plastic wrap, refrigerated. For longer storage, let them dry another day on paper toweling in or out of the fridge. I add a few small dried red chilis to the oil. Keep the jar in a cool place or refrigerate.

Swisskase is absolutely correct. I'd like to add a few extra tips: scrape the outside of the cheesecloth once or twice to facilitate draining; crumble the drained cheese onto a paper towel and refrigerate until firm and dry to the touch; and use oiled hands to form small balls. Let them dry another day on papert toweling, then place in a glass jar and completely cover with olive oil.