bigwino

Wow, Priscilla, what a great score. I'd love to hear a review. I've seen that it's a hotly sought-after book, but I've never heard details of why. I wish I lived near your library!

The reviews are in and larb is good! I definitely want to change some things around and do some different riffs on the recipe, but YUM! Next time I'll use more fish sauce than lime juice and add more heat. My wife also thought the addition of ground peanuts would be welcome. I think that's on the way to a different dish (what's it called?), but I like the idea. More larbing to come.

There are so many.... New England Boiled Dinner made by my mother with the GREY corned beef. None of that red stuff for me! The house reeked for days and the leftovers were just as good as the fresh stuff. I make it now myself and feel like I'm in first grade again. The Caesar salad made tableside at the Waterlot restaurant in Bermuda. It seemed so utterly fancy to me to have a salad built right in front of you. I was spellbound every time I went. (Well, I was very young). The first time at Benihana (or one of the knockoffs). I think I was in grade school. I distinctly remember thinking "I could do that". And I did. It got me started cooking. The nine course dinner at L'Auberge du Pere Bise in Tailloires, France. My first dining experience in a real high end restaurant. The layers. The flavors. The ingredients. Thank God for studying abroad! My friend and I had to split the bill across two credit cards and then lie to our parents that we each bought the other a birthday dinner. God, it was expensive. I don't come from a family that holds dining and food as important parts of our lives. I must be adopted....

Taking my first Larb plunge tonight. Can fresh galangal be easily exchanged for the powdered form? I'm thinking I can mash it up in a mortar and pestle. Any thoughts?

-39 C?!??! I'd be sitting on a woodburning stove with a cup of hot coffee in my pants eating something braised. No stirying near absolute zero!

I just want to second the advice on using an outdoor turkey fryer burner for the heat source. I know it's a bit extreme to have to go outdoors to do your stirfrying, but it makes such a difference. I tried using Cook's Illustrated's advice using a saute pan on high heat, but it isn't nearly the same experience as the turkey fryer burner. The burners are really cheap through Walmart or Costco or whoever and the heat is unbeatable in a home environment. Just remember - always use it outside. I did one last night in the 20 degree Massachusetts winter. You're only out there for about 5 minutes, so it's not a big deal if its cold. One more hint: I use a sheet pan to carry all of my mise-en-place out together and put it next to the wok/burner setup. It all goes out together in a nice package and comes back in the same way. Easy. For a cookbook recommendation, try Nina Simonds' A Spoonful of Ginger. Really solid recipes throughout. Have fun.

All this knife talk to ruining my productivity and severely effecting my finances. I just picked up a Hattori Santoku on eBay. Now I'm looking at cleavers and paring knives and god knows what else. I.... can't.... stop.....

Those are beauties! Congrats. Do you listen to the crackling of the crust after they've just come out of the oven. I actually get very excited when I hear that. The fresh baking bread smell has got to be one of the best smells to fill a house, no?

Pierre Sparr Cremant d'Alsace is a beauty of a sparkling rose. A deal at about $15 per bottle, too.

I dry-aged a rib roast last year for Christmas and I thought it made a huge difference in the flavor of the meat. I followed essentially the same suggestions as Alton, though I did it at the prompting of Cook's Illustrated. (Well, how much is there to "put uncovered meat in fridge. Wait.) I think I did 5 or seven days. You'll need a nice chunk of free space in a fridge for the meat, rack and tray to catch the juices. Highly recommended for flavor and for something to talk about at table. Here is a blurb from Cook's about dry aging. Here is their recipe for Prime Rib. Good luck! (Edited to add URLs)

The hit at our table was this creamed onions recipe from the NYT article with 10 chefs recipes for Thanksgiving. All of those recipes looked worth a try to me, that one was the least challenging to the traditional palates of my family.

I think a refreshing way to start someone into cooking can be found in Appetite by Nigel Slater. The only challenge may be the semi-British bent towards language and some recipes. I like his approach to cooking: stop worrying about times and measurements. Take some stuff, cook for a while, eat. Learn and do again, but different.... The anti-Cook's Illustrated. Anyone else read this book and find it refreshing and/or interesting?

Do you have any other guiding principles for your search? Cheap, expensive, ethnic, pub food? There are lots of choices in the area.

Well, I'm a complete cookbook whore these days, so it's hard to narrow it down. My favorite of the moment is ever changing. But I can try..... When looking for a recipe, I almost invariably go first to the Dean and Deluca Cookbook or one of the Cook's Illustrated volumes I have. I don't consider anything definitive, but these have always been very reliable sources for great food and solid baseline info on techniques and ingredients. I keep meaning to put my count on the "How many cookbooks" thread, but it keeps changing....

A couple of well regarded places are Le Soir (Boston.com Review) and Lumiere (Boston.com review) I haven't been to either, but have heard good things about both.

Nick, Sorry to hear you had a bad experience there. I haven't been in several months, but it hasn't been several years. I've had very good luck with many dishes there, including calamari dishes. The cook that is always there when I went was Asian, not from South America. Maybe they lost him and the quality has gone out the door? That would be a tragic loss. Geez, I feel really terrible that your whole family was involved. Well, hopefully you enjoyed some other parts of your Boston trip.

Hi Nick, Right around North Station are lots of bars and pizza joints, but that's about it. If you want Hooter's, that's your area. A short distance away is the North End, for Italian food. I like Monica's and The Daily Catch. A note on Daily Catch - it's SMALL and cash only. Killer Fra Diavolo and Puttanesca.

A Digest of Bon Appetit..... You'll be challenged to cull out the articles from the slim areas between the "Special Advertising Section"s. Those sections drive me nuts. Gourmet has been increasing the number of them, but Bon Appetit still takes the prize, I think. Does anyone else find those long sections of ads as annoying as I do?

I can't wait for my kids to be older so that I can make this cake for a Halloween party. Oh my, that is classic. Thanks Katie.

I would think that putting the ginger in sherry or vinegar would change the taste of the ginger. Aren't you kind of pickling it?

How about adding what the worst drunken meal you had was?

Here is an interesting article by Robert Wolke talking about the science behind the raw food movement. Basically, he sees no scientific basis for any of the claims made by raw foodists. I've never been able to get very excited about this movement. I like cooking things. They usually taste really good that way. Has anyone eaten at Klein's restaurant? Is it really delicious or simply novel in it's approach?

I have a friend that puts her's in a dirt-filled planter and keeps it (the dirt, that is) almost completely dry. It lasts forever. I keep it in the basement and it lasts quite some time (as in weeks) with no trouble. I've found that it tends to mold in plastic in the fridge.

Interesting thread. I always feel compelled to buy a pomegranate when the season arrives. Then it sits around for a while and I get to working on it and eating the seeds and ..... I'm always underwhelmed. Perhaps I'm picking a bad one? I wouldn't know how to differentiate. I've had the POM juice. It's good, but expensive. I think they're $3.00 each at my supermarket. They're not that good!

I think there are places where LTLT just doesn't fit. I think a chicken has got to be one of them. I just can't see myself rolling the dice on salmonella. Maybe if you threw some serious heat at it for a minute and then lowered it? Still, I think the nasties aren't just potentially on the surface in chicken, are they?