[Hearth Kit Oven Insert]

I agree with Sammy. The hearthkit is fabulous for roasting chicken, and baking gratins and breads.

[El Bulli: 1998-2002]

You can count me among the waiting.

I received the email last week and noted that payment had been taken from my visa account

[Argan oil]

You will pay $25 here in the states for 8 ounces of decent argan oil.

If you have a choice, I suggest the toasted one. Try it drizzled over a mild goat cheese. It is delicious blended with toasted almonds and thyme honey and spread over small rounds of griddled semolina bread. This is called amalou or amlou. Three other ways to use it in a dribbling state: lentil and tomato soup; lamb and prune tagine; and over steamed couscous with almonds and dates.

[Carrot Tops]

The most popular spring couscous in central Tunisia is called Kuski Ffawwar. Celery leaves, wild fennel fronds, leeks, parsley and carrot tops are steamed for 30 minutes. The melange has a nice earthy flavor.

[Another question about canneles]

foodman:

Carolyn Tille tested the recipe using the silicone molds and the photos she sent me looked really crispy and crunchy with the custardy interior. I suggest you try them since they are relatively cheap.

On the other hand, the nordic mini bundt moldsdon't need beeswax, bake in a shorter time and provide plenty of that crunch to cream ratio that makes the cannele so special.

[All About Cassoulet]

you can find unsmoked ham hocks in latin markets. If that doesn't work for you then try any other piece of the pork that has lots of bone to meat with sinews...good luck

if only smoked is available, then soak the damm knuckle in many changes of water until it doesn't smell smokey.. try a pinch of baking soda on the first round...it might work..it wont hurt.

[All About Cassoulet]

Mikey: pancetta is perfect for cassoulet. It is exactly the same thing as cansalade, the local seasoned pork belly of Toulouse.

It is just smoked meats which are not used in any dish that I know of in the French southwest. I think in the case of cassoulet with the all the work that you put it into it one should try to follow tradition.

[All About Cassoulet]

In my opinion I don't think smoked bacon is a good idea in cassoulet. Here is why: In the french southwest meats are cured in brine or salt and the taste is mild and the texture is really fatty.

[Daube du Gardian]

I think it is a ragout or daube called a gardiane in the camargue dialect. It is made with a particular steer meat cooked in red wine, most likely a costieres from nimes. You judge a great gardiane if it has a very thick sauce.

[what do they eat in IRAQ?]

I have quite a few books on Iraqi cooking, but nothing compares to the self published Delights from the Garden of Eden, by Nawal Nasrallah. You can check it out on amazon.com

[The recipe that got away]

I sent the posting to Aglaia and she emailed " the restaurant continues, without Kiki, who is retired (or dead?) but the secret pie continues to be delicious it seems." So she did share..just not with journalists. Please keep me posted if you succeed.

[Wolfert, "Slow Mediterranean Kitchen"]

Kit: Your choices for a slow med dinner are terrific.

BTW:the photos were done in New York with the Saveur Magazine food stylist Julie Lee and photographer Christopher Hirsheimer. I couldn't get to New York for the shoot.

[How slow is slow?]

Mr. ExtraMSG:

To my mind, the creation of stale bread (by leaving it out on the counter to dry so as to acquire texture and absorbency) is the ultimate form of "slow cooking" around the Mediterranean, where bread is so revered that it'is frequently called "esh" or "life."

In many recipes, I remove the fat...but only after the food is cooked. As discussed in detail in my "Cooking Of SouthWest France," the taste of fat is water soluble, and thus the fat can be removed while leaving its taste behind. I ove this notion to a food scientist named Adam Drewnowski. I call it "fighting fat with fat."

So relax. I would never dumb down my recipes for a fat free version.

[Compiling Recipes]

Hi Andy:

First I want to thank you for hosting this forum. I enjoyed myself enormously. So many of the questions were really provoking. And thank you for your very good question.

Since I believe my books form a kind of "life continuum" of my interest in the Mediterranean region, I don't worry too much about leaving something out of a particular book...since I know I'll be writing another one. Meanwhile, I've never tried to write a definitive book on Mediterranean cuisines, or claimed that I have done so. And I've never really invented a recipe.

The photographer Ansel Adams said "the negative is comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways." As you know, a recipe can never quite capture the true taste of a dish. That's the responsibility of the cook. I just try to provide a good blueprint. (Sorry about the mixed metaphors here!) Personally, I don't see much point in writing about food that's been written about by others. The Mediterranean is a huge region. I like to think I can contribute best by breaking new ground.

On the other hand, if there's a recipe that interests me, and it's already in another person's cookbook, and I'm not all that crazy about his/her version, I'll try to turn up something better through field research and then testing in my own kitchen. Of course there's never just one way to make a dish. I continue to believe that if I search long and hard enough, I can come up with the best possible version. I hasten to add that I've been criticized for this; to my amazement, apparently some people prefer a pedestrian version to a version that takes extra time and effort, especially if there're any chef's "fingerprints" on the recipe.

In my view, every step in a recipe should work toward the final result, every nuance has a meaning, and in the end, something wonderful can occur. I have a food-writer colleague (I won't mention her name here) who prides herself highly on her writing, but then tells me "the recipes aren't all that important." I just don't see it that way at all. To me, the recipes are everything! But each to his/her own.

[Mediterranean Cooking Is Lazy Rather Than Slow]

Miguel: Thanks so much for your kind words about my work. Your Portugese market strategy matches that of most Mediterranean cooks I know: just a tiny string bag to carry home food for lunch: perhaps a chicken, a few vegetables and some fruit. Everything else is based on the larder: grains, nuts, salt-preserved meats, oil, preserved vegetables, dried fruits and all kinds of condiments. Quality fresh ingredients are definitely the key to great Mediterranean food! Something tells me I'm preaching to a believer!

[other authors?]

I modestly confess I'm one of the fortunate "happy few" who's managed to write only about what's interested me. Otherwise, I don't think I could have survived the vicissitudes of a free-lancer's life. I've also, I confess, sometimes "stretched the rubber band" while explaining why I think the Caucasus (Republics of Georgia, Chechniya and Dagostan) are mediterranean in regard to the spirit behind their cuisines. I like to think I've made a good case for this. Though numerous pairs of eyebrows have been raised, I believe the recipes are the proof. The food has a Mediterranean spirit, and this is the region where wine was born. No olive oil...but plenty of garlic and wine. Sounds "med" to me..

The bibliography in my new book should get you started on some new sources.

As for the books that I liked this year: Tamasin Day Lewis on tempered food; Paul Bertolli's new "Made By Hand", and last year, Judy Rodgers "Zuni Cookbook. Also the new book by Diana Kennedy and David Thompson's book on Thai food should be in everyone's library.

[The recipe that got away]

Hi Lesley:

Here's a fun story about "one that got away." For the past 20 or so years, I've traveled around Greece with my good friend, the terrific Athens-based food writer Aglaia Kremezi. On one trip through the Northern Zagora region (a beautiful area of gorges, forests, rivers, and mountains of layered rocks with a stunning monstery perched on a peak 3,200 feet above sea level) we stopped at a little restaurant in the tiny hamlet of Monodendri famous for its pittas or open faced fried pies -- thin, crisp, fragrant and warm slices of phyllo covered with a layer of shredded kasseri cheese and crumbled feta. The top had an unusual glossy sheen that seemed impossible if the pie was only fried.

No one beside the restaurant owner/cook, Kiki, knew how to make this pitta, and she adamantly refused to allow anyone near her when she prepared it. So when Agalai and I went there, we played "detective" while waiting for our pittas to come out. This took forty minutes, which, since we were the only customers, suggested a 40 minute cooking time. We also noticed that the menu included a few other items (pork chops, salad, feta, beer and wine), but nothing that would explain the huge crate of eggs we observed being carried into the kitchen. When Aglaia asked the waitress if eggs were on the menu, she told us 'no.' Eureka! Perhaps the glaze was somehow achieved with eggs!

When I got back to New York, I tried to reproduce the dish adding a thin egg batter to the top to duplicate the shine. After several trials, I came up with something that seemed fairly close to what we'd liked so much back in Monodendri. Meantime, Aglaia did her own experimentation, and presented her version in her next book. It was completely different from mine, and, I felt, equally delicious. A few years later a third Greek food writer also published what she said was Kiki's secret recipe. I tried that one too, it was very good, but not quite the same as the original. So there you are -- three serious food writers trying to reproduce a secret recipe, each coming up with a different excellent tasting "solution." Kiki, no doubt, will take her secret with her to the grave!

[Success and food writing]

Hi Adam:

Certainly one of the great pleasures of being a food writer is to meet and work with sharing people who share a love of food. There's nothing more gratifying than learning something exciting in, say, Northern Greece, than passing it along. Early in my career, shortly after embarking on my "culinary adventures," I found that most of the dishes I loved best could be best presented with a story -- about people, history, the place where I learned the recipe, as well as the whys and wherefores that made it work. I enjoy putting a recipe in context this way; it's a means of expressing the happiness I associate with a dish, and my enthusiasm for life (food being = to life). So I hope people don't think of my food as simply "complicated," but rather my attempt to reproduce what I learned and experienced in foreign lands.

As to my Morccan cookbook, I had no idea when it was first published that it would remain in print for over thirty years. Certainly I was fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time. Morocco was the first foreign country I lived in, the first one I ever visited as well! As soon as I set foot there I was wowed! Later, with the help of some of the finest cooks in the country, plus a marvelous editor in New York (who somehow convinced Harper & Row (it later became harper Collins) to send her over to Tangier to work with me!), as well as several "mentors" who helped promote the book when it came out, it remained, one book at a time, on the shelves by popular demand, as you put it, "a poppy in a field of daisies." I thank you for that very generous compliment, and hope it was earned. As to what qualities have enabled me to write as I have, please forgive me for not listing them here. My ears are already burning from this great Egullet reception, and I don't want to spoil that by bloviating and blowing my own horn. Something tells me you of all my correspondents will understand this best.

warmest regards,

Paula

[Another question about canneles]

I would ask you repeat that last line but I'm blushing..Thank you.

Aren't the photos beautiful? Christopher Hirsheimer did the photography. She (yes, Christopher is a she) did all the major work for Saveur Magazine.

[Clarified Butter]

Thanks, Suvir. I really enjoy participating on egullet.

Yes, I believe that Smen really does make a difference in Moroccan cooking. Its special flavor is incomparable, especially when added to couscous dishes and tagines. On the other hand, it was the first and only item I gave up when I adapted recipes for my Moroccan cookbook. You could say I "drew a line in the sand." My editor convinced me that Americans simply wouldn't go for it, and since Moroccan food is spice-based with salt-sugar or salt-sour overtones, I didn't feel too much regret over the loss.

In Turkey, sheep's milk butter is essential if you're going to make a really great baklava. Thankfully, I don't make baklava very often. And sheep tail fat is such an important part of Turkish kofte kebab that you immediately notice when you substitute butter or some other fat. But finding sheep tail fat here is impossible or nearly so, so I had to let that one go as well. I am, after all, writing for a North American readership. If I insist on ultra-rarefied ingredients, I fear I will turn people off the dishes and maybe even the cuisine. If I can find a mail order source then I go with the recipe and don't make compromises. I see an important part of my job as coming up with the best possible adaptations. This, I admit, can become a struggle...but then that's part of the challenge. By the way, the one fat I have NOT given up is duck fat. I simply can't roast a chicken or potatoes in the French SouthWest style or make a confit without it.

Sorry, I haven't answered your question on the whys and hows of fat travel; I just dont' know the answer.

By the way, Suvir, I wish you a lot of luck with your new venture. And when I get to New York I will make every effort to visit your new restaurant. I can feel your good will and sincerity in your postings, and am certain these qualities carry over to your food.

[Markets in the Perigord]

Hi Seth:

I was in SouthWest france last year. Did you notice the price of gasoline? yikes! These days most everything in Europe costs more than here. As for local markets, you were lucky to come across them, no matter how over-priced the products; the EU is having an awful effect on farmers right to grow their best vegetables and fruits. Thus the Slow Food Movement's reaction: its emphasis on the primacy of local produce. After all, in every region the soil is different, best for this vegetable, inferior for that , etc. But perversely, the EU is trying to force farmers to use hybrid seed varieties and chemicals, so the production for bio markets is far less than formerly. The farmers you meet at those markets are the ones who've stood up to the bureacrats. I believe that even if their prices are high and they are only growing what grows best in their soil, we should cheer them for that.

BTW, these days the farmer's market situation here in Northern California may be among the very best anywhere. Next time you come to San Francisco, go down to the Saturday market at the Ferry Terminal; I think you'll be very pleasantly amazed. Which brings us to French bread: the standards have defnitely fallen in France, though. of course, there are brilliant exceptions. By the same token, I have to say (chauvinistically) that the artisinal bread here in the Bay Area is fabulous. Actually, there is a huge movement in France to get their bread back on track. Did you know an American team won the coupe du monde a few years back for the best baguette?

[Another question about canneles]

Kim: thanks for the compliment. I really am proud of the canneles and as you know no one makes a recipe like that alone. You were very helpful with that little tip and I want to thank you again.

By the way, when I double I just mix the butter, flour and sugar in a mixing bowl, add the eggs, etc. The fine strainer does the real work. Let me know what you think.

Loufood: I've had canneles in Paris and in Bordeaux. Except for poujardin (spelling is off) I don't think there is a great cannele in Paris. The secret which I learned from a Bordeaux Patissier and president of the confrerie de patissiers is in the mixing of butter with the flour NOT adding the butter to the milk..

[Another question about canneles]

I had put the recipe up for the readers of the original cannele forum on egullet. Now that the book has been released, my publishers gently suggested I remove it from the site.

check your email: I sent you the recipe.

[frik]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Green wheat (frik in north africa, freekeh in Syria, fireek in egypt and firik in Turkey).

Absolutely.

When I lived in Turkey, green wheat was carefully and slowly cleaned to remove every bit of debris. THe Australians are merchandising green wheat using some very modern technolocgy for cleaning.

One of these days, I expect to see it in our supermarkets. It might already be at Kalustyan's. Check with Aziz. He always likes to be first in selling new products from the middle east.

[Another question about canneles]

Loufood: Your comments via the French chef were very interesting.

I asked our cannele expert at the Plaza Athenee about the cannele problems and here's what he offered. If using flexipans, beeswax is not needed - it's for unmolding only, not the crust.

Up until I tried SweetWilliam's version in an earlier forum I would have agreed with your expert. A thin brushing of the "white oil" gives the flexipan baked cannele a fabulous crust. By the way, I tried 3 different flexipans and only the one SweetWilliam suggested made good cannele..(the one from Bridges).

If using metal molds - he says they don't need to be copper - they should be hot, so the beeswax does not block too quickly - then two thin layers applied.

There are many ways to make canneles and get great results. I am not familiar with adding white oil (beeswax melted with butter and oil) to hot molds. I brush room temperature molds with the white oil, turn them upside down on a rack over a foil lined sheet, slip them into a warm oven for a few minutes to remove excess oil, cool and set in the freezer untl ready to bake.

All batter ingredient temperatures should be respected carefully - and the batter should not be overworked - that's what typically causes them to rise up too much.

Right about not overworking the batter. Actually, canneles are at that best when the batter has rested 2 days.

And the molds should be well spaced - 10, max 12 to a baking sheet - to allow thorough baking. And unmold hot.

Now this I agree with 100 %

Aprilme: the copper molds are lined with tin. To remove debris put them in a hot oven and let it burn off. Don't ever wash them after the first seasoning..Oh, maybe once a year. The more you use your seasoned molds the easier they come out.