carswell

Just checked Larousse Gastronomique, the book that first walked me through skate wing cookery, and am pleased to report that my memory's not playing tricks: Also, I've read somewhere that the reason skate is often served with brown/black butter is because butter forms an ammonia neutralizer when it browns. The reference is probably in one of my cookbooks, so chances are good I can cite chapter and verse if you insist.

It's great stuff. Bony? Well, cartilaginous actually. Muscilaginous? Kind of. The skin has a viscous coating but it mostly disappears within a half-day of death, so it's really not a huge issue in Montreal. And, anyway, you should get your monger to skin it for you. If you find yourself with an unskined piece, scrape away the coating, rinse well and poach for a minute or two to loosen the skin. Also look out for the nasty spines along the outside edge (cut them off before skinning). The classic prep is poached. (If the raw fish has an ammonia odour, add some white vinegar to the poaching liquid. If the odour is strong, brine it for a while). Serve with brown butter, lemon juice and parsley or black butter and capers. Smaller wings take well to dredging in flour (or flour, egg and breadcrumbs, in that order) and frying in butter or deep frying. Serve with tartar sauce or sauce gribiche.

Since when was Club des Pins across the street from Leméac? Methinks either you mean La Chronique instead of Leméac or you're confusing Jun-i with Ö Châ (or whatever the resto that has risen from Ginza's ashes is called). No?

Don't think anyone has claimed otherwise, ID. The talk of non-trans fats (i.e. artisanal lard) was in relation to homemade donuts. No. Like blork I've had one KK donut, hot from the glazier and a freebie at that. Curiosity satisfied, I've never been back. The machine alone is worth the trip, though.

Why? Is his word somehow sacrosanct? Other reputable chefs suggest a single blanching. Some recommend no blanching at all. I used to single-blanch but stopped when I learned the method described above, as the procedure is less involved and the end result tastes purer, wilder and less soggy. But I've never done a side-by-side comparison. The first local fiddleheads of the season turned up in the shops this week. Will try to conduct a test kitchen with unblanched, single-blanched and double-blanched 'heads soon. The more data points the better, though. Anybody else care to join in the fun?

Chambers Street Wines, where Louis/Dressner often holds NYC tastings, lists it on their website for $15.99. Doesn't look like the case discount applies to sparklers, though. You could always ask.

Good point, wattacetti. It's also worth mentioning that only West Coast fiddleheads have been incriminated in food poisoning cases, at least the ones I've read about. Anyhoo, we're fortunate that fiddleheads are one of the vegetables that taste better when not undercooked.

There's a past thread devoted to the subject. See Fiddlehead ferns: What to do with them? (you'll have to put up with some fiddlehead bashing, however). My favourite prep: Trim the bottoms. Clean away the brown chaff. Soak in water acidified with a little lemon juice. Drain. Cook slowly in butter, turning frequently. Salt and pepper before serving. This eliminates much of the greenness some people object to and intensifies their mineraliness (not in Webster's, so sue me). Plan to try grilling them this spring. Don't know why it's never occurred to me before.

Nah. They were just capitalizing on the buzz. I first saw KK donuts in supermarkets in North Carolina and other southern states years ago, long before their their stock began its nosedive. Like other animal fats, lard is underappreciated these days. Not only is it wonderful for frying and not only does it make the world's flakiest, tenderest pie crusts and fluffiest pastries, it's actually "healthier" than butter and many shortenings (aka trans-fat bombs). Of course, I'm talking about the artisanal stuff, not Tenderflake and its ilk, which are also trans-fat bombs and are riddled with preservatives. Agreed. And I attribute KK's lacklustre performance in Montreal to its failure to open stores in places that don't require a special trip in a car. A KK store in, say, Central Station, on the corner of Mont-Royal and St-Denis, with a service window on Ste-Catherine downtown or at the Jean-Talon Market would probably do a land-office business. There's nothing about a cold KK that's going to entice a Tim Horton's or Dunkin Donuts regular to switch.

Juni 156, av. Laurier Ouest (514) 276-5864

Dense second-hand smoke can interfere with the appreciation of aromas and thus taste. One of the reasons I stopped going to L'Entrepont was because it quickly became smoked filled on busy evenings to the point where it was absolutely impossible to smell your wine. That smoking deadens the smoker's tastebuds is less clear. Many top wine tasters are also heavy smokers. On an anecdotal level, when I gave up smoking, I didn't notice any improvement in my ability to taste and smell, though I did suddenly find second-hand smoke irritating in the extreme.

Le Faubourg Ste-Catherine turned smoke-free on May 1. Do I detect a trend?

St-Hubert BBQ chain goes totally non-smoking

While one may not always agree with them, Robert Parker, the Wine Spectator and other wine buyer's guides often include drinkability windows for the wines they cover. For a very general idea of where a region's wines are in their evolution, consult an up-to-date vintage chart. There are lots of them available online and in various wine publications. You can also search tasting note archives on the various wine boards. Also, many wineries have websites with tasting notes for their products. But why not post a list of the wines here or on another friendly board, like the Wine Lovers' Discussion Group (no registration required, just be sure to use your real name)? It's a pretty sure bet people will chime in with their thoughts. I wouldn't hold out much hope for the improperly stored wines. You've got nothing to lose by pulling the corks and trying them, though. Just make sure, as suggested upthread, that you have a backup handy.

Have never understood why wine and liquor bottles don't have a return deposit like beer and soft drink bottles/cans do. Mine usually go into a recycling bin. But a lot of people here just throw them into the trash. Of course, they do that with return deposit bottles too... Re your raised bed idea: breakage would be a concern. You know, from shovels, hoes and inadvertent kicks. And what would happen if someone fell on them? (I stopped biking with bottles and other glass containers in my backsack when I realized that the three or four times I've been thrown from my bike, I've ended up on my back.) Also, before investing much effort in constructing such a bed, I'd do some small scale experiments. How well would half-buried bottles stand up to the freeze-thaw cycle and UV radiation?

Sweat a chopped shallot in butter or bacon fat. When transparent, add 3/4 cup red wine. Bring to a boil and add 1 tablespoon canned green peppercorns. Continue boiling until reduced by about half. Ditto but use butter, deglaze with 2-3 tablespoons brandy. Add 2/3 cup white wine and reduce by 2/3. Add 1 tablespoon peppercorns and 1/3 cup heavy cream, simmer to thicken slightly. Ditto but skip the white wine and up the cream.

Since I was slicing on the diagonal, I ended up with thicker chunks from the ends of each stalk. Instead of throwing them out, I popped them into my mouth and was surprised to find them neither puckery nor searingly acidic. Another strange thing about the raw stuff: it has little of the rhubarb flavour familar from desserts. It's more a greenish citric burst and I'm suddenly wondering if it wouldn't make a nifty seviche. Hmm. The marinated fish could be served atop the salad. Or thinly sliced rhubarb could be mixed with the fish to add textural interest. But what'd really be interesting would be to make a rhubarb marinade. Anyone know how to juice a rhubarb? Lacking a juicer, I wonder if cooking sliced rhubarb in a bit of white wine until it fell apart and then transferring it to a strainer and pressing out the juice might work. Agreed. In fact, I planned for them.

Probably in a minortity here, but what I'd really like is to see a Montreal sushi bar doing exciting old things.

They used to be fried in beef tallow and they truly were delicious. Yep, though some beef-based flavouring is added, which gave rise to a lawsuit by outraged vegetarians a while back. See "McDonald's Confirms Its French Fries Are Made with Beef Extract."

Thanks for the correction, ludja. I've edited my earlier post as a result. Funny, though. I made the salmon and the salad last weekend and had a serving's worth of fish left over, so the next day I made a lunchtime salad with the same ingredients. The only differences were that I sliced the rhubarb and cucumber thicker, flaked the salmon into the bowl with the other ingredients and softened the lemon juice with a tablespoon or two of the salmon poaching oil. Not bad at all, and the thicker-cut rhubarb wasn't mouth-puckering in the slightest.

I'm fickle, bending north in the winter, south in the summer.

Given rhubarb's geographic range — the rhu is thought to derive from the Ancient Greek word for the Volga River, and the plant has long been cultivated from China and Siberia to the Middle East and Western Europe — it's always struck me as odd that there are so few savoury recipes for it. In her The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, Paula Wolfert has a recipe for a salad with raw rhubarb. From memory: Thinly slice a young stalk or two on the diagonal. Peel, quarter, seed and thinly slice a cucumber. Combine the rhubarb and cuke in a bowl and salt lightly. Set aside for 10-15 minutes, then rinse and drain. Meanwhile, rinse and spin a bunch of arugula. Shred some fresh mint leaves; you'll want about 1/2 cup. Combine the ingredients and dress with a little lemon juice. Paula serves it alongside salmon filet poached in olive oil. She's also said it's great with roast guinea hen. I make a pale-pink sauce for fish from white wine, shallots, rhubarb and cream; it's especially good with striped bass. I also have an English recipe (untried by me) for a rhubarb-flavoured béchamel sauce to be served with mackerel. The LCBO's Food and Drink had a pretty good recipe for pork chops with rhubarb, scallions and orange a while back. I've also taken that idea and run with it: shrimp with rhubarb, scallions, ginger, garlic, white wine and basil. Say the word if you'd like the details for any of these preps. I've also been meaning to adapt some Indian recipes. This one, for example. And it's always struck me that rhubarb might make a killer chutney or spicy pickle. You should also check out The Rhubarb Compendium, which has a few savoury recipes under the Miscellaneous Rhubarb Things and Rhubarb Salads links. Please report back if you turn up anything interesting. This is a subject that has long intrigued me.

A Pat Wells salad: arugula dressed in lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil garnished with pitted black olives, crisp-broiled thin slices of pancetta and shavings of parmesan. For an amazing synergy of flavours, serve undressed or lightly dressed arugula (micro is best) alongside a gorgonzola soufflé.

Thanks for the link, IFJ. After hauling out my Collins-Sansoni and plodding through half the page, I noticed there's a link at the top to an English-language version... http://www.stellafoods.com/e/set.html As I read it, the site indicates that stoccafissa is only cod (which, by the way, jibes with what Norweigans mean by stokkfisk): The herring seems to be a separate product. Have to admit this is the first time I've ever heard of herring in connection with Italian food. Any ideas about how Italians use it?

Neil, run, don't walk, to your nearest bookmonger and pick up a copy of Jeffrey Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything. The 16-page chapter on fries is worth the price of the book. There's more detail than I can go into here but his reccos include: - using a 50-50 combination of peanut oil and horse or beef tallow - using Idaho Russet-Burbank potatoes - using only long fries with a square cross section about 3/8 inch on a side - a ratio of 1 pound cut potatoes to 3 quarts cooking fat - not washing the potatoes (though little harm if you do or leave them soaking in ice water) - not blanching the potatoes in water (OK for European potatoes, not necessary for starchy North American spuds) - carefully drying the cut potatoes before frying - first fying at 260ºF for 9 or 10 minutes, stirring often - leaving the potatoes to drain in the basket while heating the oil to 370-380ºF - second frying for about 3 minutes - salting just before serving. He also writes that letting "potatoes cool to room temperature for an hour or two between fryings seems to make Idaho potatoes come out crisper in the end." I can vouch for the excellence of the results, especially the fries cooked in tallow. Haven't yet tried his french fries cooked in goose fat.