bloviatrix

BTW, when you get the Budapest, go immediately to a bookstore and buy a copy of the city atlas (assuming you'll be doing a lot of walking). It will be your saviour. (I have an excellent sense of direction, and this had to be the most confusing city I've ever been in)

We mostly use Barilla, although we've had quite a number of Italian imports -- I just can't remember their names. The one brand I refuse to use is Ronzoni. There's something about the glue they use in contructing their boxes that attracts roaches. In the past, whenever I used the brand I always found roach shells in the box. So the whole thing got tossed.

Now if only you could have worked the word organ-EYE-zation into the conversation.

Back when the Food network actually showed practical programming, I caught one of Gale Gand's shows. According to her, eggs are the culprit when batter curdles. It means they're too cold.

You can also make mini tarts filled with chocolate ganache. You can infuse the ganache with different flavorings. After all, everyone loves chocolate. In Baking with Julia there's a recipe for a mocha chip cookie with diced apricots. I've done the recipe as a bar cookie and it's always been a hit. And, if you have Payard's book, he has a recipe for apricot tea cakes (I can scan the recipe and email it if you want). They're quite sophisticated "cupcakes" that are simple to make. I've done them in advance and frozen them and they keep their moisture.

I've been asked to explain what a blech is. So, I'm going to try without getting too complicated and involved with the laws of shabbos. The laws of shabbos prohibit cooking. Food can be re-heated, but is not to come in contact with a direct flame. This is where the blech comes it. Think of it as a giant flame tamer that gets placed over the range top. A burner is kept on -- usually at a medium-low flame -- and the food is placed on the "flame tamer." This way, food gets heated but doesn't cook further.

If you hit City Bakery, you absolutely must try their Pretzel Croissant. Imagine a buttery croissant with lots of crispy bits with sesame and salt. Absolutely delicious!!

Here in NY we've been pretty fortunate. After a brief cold blast before Christmas, it's been running kind of warm (40s). This weekend, the weather has changed and it's finally getting cold. It's 30F/-1 C. I happen to have some heavy cream in my refrigerator. So I'm making a pot of penne ala vodka. We'll have hot cocoa (from scratch) for dessert.

Do the kids enjoy cooking? Or do you give them no choice in the matter?

Is there anyone besides me who uses a blech on shabbos? Because the soy-poached chicken is an amazing dish for the blech. Basically, you poach the chicken on heat for about 30 minutes and then you keep the chicken in the poaching liquid -- Ash says it can remain for up to 3 hours -- and it remains incredibly moist and tender. The poaching liquid contains water, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, sugar, garlic, star anise, cinnamon stick, fennel seed, and ginger and lightly flavors the chicken. Even better is the fact that the poaching liquid can be re-used. I chilled it, removed the accumulated fat, strained and reboiled. It's now in my freezer awaiting a second poach.

Food Network, the channel everyone loves to hate, will be premiering the new season of Iron Chef America tomorrow night at 9pm et/pt. William Grimes, weighed in on the show in yesterday's NY Times in Samurai of Cuisine, on a New Battlefield

The Spicy Black Bean Chowder with Pineapple-Banana Salsa was delicious. I got a bit hung up on the issue of the acid from the orange juice, but once I got it figured out (with the help of eG) the soup was really easy to make. I posted the recipe here. If anyone wants the recipe for the pineapple-banana salsa, just holler.

I thought I'd report on how the soup turned out... In the end I decided to that I would follow basically follow the recipe, but add the orange juice once the beans were properly cooked. And the soup turned out to be amazing. The soup was extremely rich and flavorful (I used veal stock instead of chicken). Very hearty -- one of those soup as a meal type dishes. The soup is served with a pineapple-banana salsa, which was cool and the contrast of the hot and cold was really nice. Furthermore, the dollop of yellow in the murkey brown of the soup looked pretty. Thanks everyone for helping me think this one out!

Just Thursday I was telling Blovie we're due for a trip to Israel. This further emphasizes that it's been way too long.

I did very well at Antiquarian Books of Boston (2 Milk St) back in November. Came home with 8 volumes of the Time-Life Foods of the World series and a couple of other books.

I have found this discussion to be quite interesting. Coincidentally, in hebrew the word ta'am means taste (relating to food) or flavor.

The apartment is smelling really good right now. Dinner tonight is made up of new recipes. We're starting with Spicy Black Bean Chowder with Pineapple-Banana Salsa. For the main course we're having Soy-poached Chicken on savory baby greens and roasted cauliflower. Dessert will be clementines. Tomorrow is supposed to be cold, so I put up a pot of chili using black and kidney beans.

Takashimaya has a tea salon in it's basement. I've never been, but I hear it's quite elegant. There's also a Japanese tea place on the UES. The name escapes me, but I'll post it as soon as I remember.

Oakapple, Bruni wrote a feature article about the abundance of raw fish in NY restaurants sometime in the fall.

I'm planning to visit the retail outlet of a rather good wet fish supplier tomorrow morning so at least I can share some pictures and a recipe or two with you if not the flavours. ← So there are dry fish suppliers as well???

The tomatoes get added at the very very end, so they won't be any problem.

I've been thinking about this a bit more. Instead of precooking my beans, maybe I'll just add the orange juice to the pot once the beans reached the desired tenderness. Do we think that would work?

I have been saying for years that the IRS should be looking into these arrangements between celebrities and the purveyors of high-end goods/services. I'm not a tax lawyer, but I sincerely believe that there is imputed income when a celebrity agrees to wear a certain frock or jewelry in exchange for a mention to the press members that call out "What are you wearing?" on the red carpet. These loans are not de minimus gifts; if celebs had to rent that stuff for the evening, it would set them back a pretty penny. Likewise, JV's catering service, depending on what is really going on behind the scenes, seems to be either (a) a personal gift to Donald and thus a non-deductible business expense; or (b) barter for a rent concession and therefore imputed income to the Donald. Moreover, assuming Donald and JV have partners, respectively, in the hotel and the restaurant, it also seems that at least one set of partners might be getting shafted here by the use of partnership assets for personal business. ~bloviator

He says 1 3/4 c black beans, soaked overnight and drained. I'm beginning to lean towards pre-cooking using Russ's method, but I wanted to get the collected wisdom of eG before I did anything.

Here's the recipe: 2 T olive oil 4 c chopped onion 1/4 c chopped garlic 1 cup diced celery 2 lb smoked ham hocks 1 3/4 c black beans 6 c chicken stock 2 c orange juice 3 T chile power 1 T minced serrano chiles 2 bay leaves 1 T thyme 1 T fennel seed 1 1/2 T oregano 1/2 t ground cloves 1 1/2 t ground cinnamon salt and pepper to taste 3 cups diced tomatoes 1/c c chopped cilantro Heat oil in pot. Add onion, garlic, celery -- sweat until they begin to get golden. Add everything but tomatoes and cilantro. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Partially cover pot and continue simmering until beans are soft. Let soup cool. Skim off fat. Remove bay leaves. Shred meat off ham hock and return to soup. Heat soup through and season. Just before serving add tomato and cilantro. Do we think the chicken stock will sufficiently dilute the orange juice?