paul o' vendange

Wow, I wasn't aware of the pandemic we now have of demonic children. And we don't have to have kids?? I thought it was a required act, like registering for the draft here in the States. And to think I could've avoided the early morning eyes smiling to tell me, "I love you dad," or the daily renewal of my own life through the life of this precious, growing being, as in wonderment he looks to Lake Superior and declares it "pretty." Or the insane romps of ticklefests and bouncing on my back as I give piggyrides. Man, if I only had the sense to forgo this hell, and, additionally, not foist his goodness on this world. You know, your idea (and, I'm sure, that of your confrere, Minister) of "crating" 5 year old kids is not half bad. Most would've thought you made a typo in "create," but now that you've shown me the virtue of being parentless, I know what you mean, and couldn't agree more - crate the monsters, much like the kennel dogs. I'd feel sorry for you and Minister if you weren't so abrasively arrogant in your appraisals of children generally. Edited in the interest of civility, at least to an extent. Cheers, jrufusj. Paul

Minister - I rarely stray from the bounds of considered politeness, but in this instance, I will echo mnebergall's sentiments. I work my ass off. So does my wife. Together we own and operate a fine dining restaurant. Our little boy of 3 is, on balance, an exceedingly well behaved kid (says "please" and "thank you" to servers bringing him water and the like, and simply loves the theater of eating out). We love our son, and love being with him - and also love dining out (when we can, which is extremely rare these days). On the rare occasions when he's done what he's supposed to do at 3 going on 4, namely, throws a hissyfit over the lack of butter on each quadrant of a piece of bread, we give it a minute and try to redirect his energy - believe me, from our side, it's a drag to have to bail on a great meal for this - but, if after a minute or two we are unsuccessful, we will leave rather than spoil others' enjoyment. Trust that most parents are not insensitive jerks out to ruin your evening. Most just want a break. Your comments on battering a child are wholly inappropriate, beyond comprehension, and disgust me to the core. If getting a rise is what you sought, you have achieved it in this father. I can assure you your recommended control methods would not pass by me (nor my boy - as a father, and martial arts instructor, I've seen your kind far too often, and I have made it a point to teach children the value of defense, both of one's spirit and body). You might find your "five across the eye" would be better contained to other pursuits. Paul

Liver and onions, caramelized to extinction and the meat cooked to iron oblivon. Drowned in ketchup, no dice, sitting alone in a wash of tears over a stone cold plate. Though I cook professionally, I only begrudgingly respect the humble onion. Paul

Three of my faves, with favorite combos: Jerez, for a Jerez beurre blanc with lobster; apfel balsam essig (apple balsam vinegar, gotten from an open air market in Salzburg), for a riesling and vinegar-braised green cabbage with bacon and beautiful, blade-end Berkshire loin roast; rice wine vinegar for a million things, off the top a red pepper coulis for whitefish or delicately flavored fish. Oh, and a workhorse zinfandel vinegar - from Wolfgang Puck's idea, a good shiraz or zinfandel mixed with a good red wine vinegar, to mute the bite and bring up the complexity a bit. For a good many vinaigrettes. Paul

Been away for several days due to a move across country. Just wanted to say, Lisa, what a profoundly enjoyable piece of work you and your mother created in Lobscouse & Spotted Dog. "Enjoyable," to which I would add "important," except that as it is written with such lightness of touch it belies any encumbrances of grave weight (there - how's that for ponderous writing?). Thank you for the great piece of work, and for this blog. Paul

Brad, because it's so labor intensive (relatively speaking), I do it in quantity, as with my ravioli, and freeze with no drop off that I can tell, esp. as I vacuum seal. Paul

So..... freezing to death is humane and boiling to death is not? That's worth a chuckle! I suppose, given my options, I'd choose freezing but I still find the whol thing humorous. Owen, without knowing more of the actual physiology, at least the theory behind it has some basis - ostensibly, as cold blooded animals, their systems shut down with the cold, they essentially go to sleep, unlike us, where it hurts like hell on the way down. Sentience goes out the door, and they can thereby be killed humanely. So goes the theory. I don't see a distinction between any animal I kill and eat - all should be respected and, if I am going to eat them, I try to kill them as painlessly as possible. Paul

I don't roast them, as in dry-roast for 1 1/2 or so hours, but I do sweat them with aromatics, as with my shrimp/langoustine/crab shells, so that they develop a nice "roast" red character and flavor. Paul

i don't know if you were asking me paul but i am in boulder, colorado where the microbrewery to beer-belly ratio is quite high. the best porters i've had are in bars here. they have that mix of bitter-ness and sweetness you mention. the ones i'd tried in los angeles (where i lived before) tended to be much more on the bitter side. i take it the more bitter porters are closer to the traditional. i'll try the mass-market porters you mention--any thoughts on their particular characteristics? your own porter sounds very good--where is your brewery located? Hi Mongo - actually, I was responding to rgruby, don't know where he/she comes from... If you're in Boulder, my friend, I'm jealous, as you know you're in heaven. Avery Brewing is an outstanding company, one of my favorites. Most of the bigger craft beer companies (mass market? God, would that it were. If the mass drank craft beer, we'd all be a helluva lot happier ) I mentioned have a nice bite of black malt in them. I can't give the breakdown of malts used as I don't know them, but outside of Bell's, they all have a black-balance, and a great hop presence. My friend is the quality control director at Bell's, and he has told me they shoot for more of a traditional style Porter - not deep black/ashy, but a good dose of chocolate malt (d'oH! Forgot to mention in my initial thread that chocolate malt is usually seen in porters, whereas not typically in "textbook" stouts). Bell's is a huge dark ale producer, so my guess is that they wanted some relief from the deep black richness of many of their other products... As to my own efforts, they are contained to Ugly Betty, the 1/2 barrel hand-welded contraption I built and abuse regularly. I am a trained brewer and formerly worked for Goose Island Brewing Co. in Chicago, and at one point I sought to open the first production craft brewery in the Upper Peninsula. But life took a turn and we are fortunate to be soon opening a restaurant. I still have fun - I have a microlab dedicated to capturing, propagating, and storing yeasts, and I run biological and other assays on other brews - but, mostly, I put them on tap or cask for friends who come out of the woodwork regularly. Cheers! Paul

BBQ, my mom used to work for Martin V. Smith, who probably now owns half of Oxnard, if he's still alive. My step dad and I would fly out of Camarillo airport - he was an old navy pilot. Man, memories - I used to haunt those fields between Ventura, Camarillo and Oxnard all the time as a kid. Nothing better. I'd hike to Two Trees and eat fresh from the field. When my aunt and uncle bought their property, I think it was worth about $11,000, which he got on the V.A. bill. The man is a fiend for growing and he lost more avocados in ripe-drop than I will probably buy in a lifetime. We were in free avocados as kids. Ah, youth! Cheers, mate, from a fellow Ventura Count-ian... Paul

BBQ - You're killing me. We've shared the transcontinental voyage, it would seem. Born and bred Venturan, lived most of my life since then in less temperate climes (New England, Chicago and, soon, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). Put a call through to my aunt and uncle, who have dozens of avocado trees in the front and back yards alone, and satsuma plums; how to get the things I feasted on as a kid to us in "da U.P." Never had Silver Queen white corn, to my knowledge. Where can I get it? Paul

It's not so much that I just disagree as I find myself astonished. Rocco looks like a bloated, paunchy coke freak to me. But perhaps that's just me. It is most definitely you, Jinmyo. He is not a bloated, paunchy coke freak. He is a puerile, whining ninny. Let's keep it straight. Paul Edited for comedic effect.

They really have become blurred in modern practice. Porter used to be the working person's drink - hence, Porter, and as rgruby alluded to, it was called Stout Porter. It was typically made with black barley, amber barley, and, eventually, pale malt. The textbook difference is that stout has raw barley, roasted brown. Porter has barley malt, roasted black - "black patent malt." Under this strict regime, stouts tend to have a dry, coffee character, unless they are other than the Irish type stouts (Guinness, etc.), in which case they have various other malts added, i.e., crystal malt or even lactose (think English "Milk Stouts"), and may be quite sweet. Porters usually have a fair amount of crystal malts so, in addition to a certain acrid foreward taste contributed by the (essentially) burnt black malt, they can be quite sweet. Traditional porters also use black barley, which is, like roast barley, raw, unmalted barley roasted black instead of brown - for an even drier, ash-like or burnt-note taste. Move further afield from the textbook versions and all bets are off. In my porter, I use a modest amount of black patent malt, but mostly use de-husked black malt, typically from Germany or Belgium. By de-husking prior to kilning, this black malt is less bitter than true black patent malt, as it is in the husks where the tannic-substances mainly lie. I seek a very smooth, rich, roasty porter, and it is a big porter - 6.75% alcohol. I also use prodigious amounts of dark crystal malt. In my stout, for the dark component, I use a good amount of roast barley, but add a touch of black malt for depth. I don't know where you are, but if you are in the States, we have many wonderful Porters. Just a few: Anchor Brewing's Porter, Summit's Great Northern Porter, Sierra Nevada Porter and Bell's Porter are all good, and all different. Happy hunting! Paul

I don't worry about the eyes; maybe I should, and will, to see. To clean the gills, just hook your index finger around the bunch and yank them free. Great way to clean the fish, too, if the guts are still present. You may have to grab a remnant or two, but I rarely need to, as the gills tend to come away intact. Paul Oh, sorry, Nola, I may have misread you - I don't worry about the bony plates covering the gills (read somewhere - biologists - operculum?). I just make sure and remove all fins, and use my index fingers to pull the gills proper - the bloody three-or so u-shaped things themselves (rakers and filaments).

Edited to add: Whoops, misreading everything! Mon amie Bleu - I split all the fish heads I use, just to get more surface area exposed, but I don't use salmon. With salmon, I find that outside of the bones, everything so strongly flavored and oily in texture, I find it is disagreeable to use anything but the carcass bones. I'll share that I hate waste and am exceedingly tight about it - laughing to myself last night, making a lobster-Jerez beurre blanc (of sorts, adapted from Daniel Boulud), and some aromatics, as usual, crept up on the side of the sauce pan. I laughed because I noted how much time I always spend flicking each and every scrap of vegetable or herb back into the stock, no matter how tiny, for fear that whatever stock or sauce I make will lose the flavor of the wee tidbit. Truly demented, because I probably lose more in transfer than whatever is lost on the side of the pot. C'est la vie. Anyway, I have a good cleaver (F. Dick, 7.5#, I think it is), and pretty much bust up everything I make a stock out of. Doing that also allows me to get into the gooey/bloody areas, which contents I try to get rid of before making my stocks. C'est tous. Side: Great pics again, of your reblochon/magret! Paul

Make sure you remove the gills,they can impart a bitter taste.

I use heads all the time, unless I'm doing a salmon stock (I rarely do - but if I do, I only use salmon bones, no skin at all). I split the head lengthwise. As with my white chicken stock, I soak in ice water for 2 hours to float and congeal fat, blood, other impurities, then make sure as much blood/guts is removed from the head as possible before proceeding. I find that clarity is usually not an issue, if it is, I just slow the simmer way down and put the pan to one side, as with any stock. Or, build a raft/clarifier per Boris_A's suggestion. Too much good stuff in dat dere head to let it go to waste, IMHO. Paul

It depends on what I'm using them for. I boil many different kinds. I really do like Yukon golds, as they have a rich sweetnes, my guess is a higher component of converted starches than others, which I feel really lends itself to purees and the like. I use russets for the length and size in some things, i.e., potato wraps or crusts around meat or fish. Paul

Potato-crusted Loup de Mer, stuffed with ratatouille. With a red pepper coulis and braised/pan roasted fennel. Poached anjou pears with arugula and endive and gorgonzola-balsamic vinaigrette. Paul

Keeping with the nautical thing, are we o' scribe? Paul

Lisa, yesterday I picked up a copy of your tome - my father in law is an O'Brien nut, and loves food (and food history - last book I got him was the Food of France/Italy), so looking forward to both of us reading your oeuvre. Jealous of your locale! Used to live in Rhode Island (Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticutt - life of an itinerant actor - former member of Shakespeare & Co., with you, a belated b.d. to Will), miss clamming the bay; would love to spend a week or 12 in the Long Island vineyards... Keep 'em coming! Paul

And a full quarter of the WWW just wept bitterly. Bonne fortune, Lucy. J'espere que nous pouvons faire un autre rendezvous un jour. Paul

Johnnyd, if you knew Jacqui, you'd know why. I did say salty. -P

Beautiful. The heart of it. Paul p.s.: I once worked for a place called La Poubelle. Owned by Jacqui, une femme vraiment provencale. Crusty, salty - we had an open line, in a rush she'd bellow to a server asking "when's it coming up" that "this is not F$cking MACdonalds! My food is gud, ee takes time! Not quite as genteel as your Pierre, but her food was wonderful, she served it simply with great goblets of Rhone and Provence wines. You've brought home why I love French cooking (and eating), the daily simplicity of enjoyment, honoring it. Merci encore!

Lucy, in between drafts of our operating agreement and inputting hundreds of "items" in my food costing software (anyone use iPro?), I have been amply, spiritually refreshed by your work. I said it before in so many words, let me say it now plainly: that was one of the finest web experiences I've ever had. Thank you for it. As I also said, were it not for the fact we are opening a restaurant imminently, I'd still be terrified to follow in your footsteps. My hats off to the next blogeur. Yours, Paul