bloviatrix

Pan, I'm going with the 9-course vegetable tasting.

Katie, the charmoula recipe I use comes from a class I took with Levana Kirschenbaum (of the eponymous kosher restaurant in NYC) several years ago. A quick review of the recipe you posted indicates one difference between the two: I use evoo rather vinegar. The consensus yesterday was that the fish was "buttery".

I hope I'm doing this right, but here's Sherry Yard's recipe: Use heatproof bowls. 2/3 cup sugar 2 tbsp finely grated lemon zest Combine the sugar and zest. You want to work it so that the oils from the zest are released into the sugar (I find a fork works well although she suggests doing this in the food processor) 3 large eggs 4 egg yolks Add the lemon-sugar mixture to eggs and whisk for roughly 30 seconds. Then place mixture over simmering water and continue whisking until sugar dissolves (about 15 seconds). Add: 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice 1/4 cup lime juice And continue whisking until the temperature reaches 160 F. (every so often you should scrape down the sides). Take bowl off heat. 4 tbsp chilled butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes At this point you can either put the curd in a food processor and pulse after each addition of butter, or whisk the butter in by hand. Strain the curd and set in ice bath to cool. Cover with plastic wrap pressed down on surface so no skin develops. Refrigerate.

What a fabulous story. I'm so envious of anyone who has access to the family recipes. It's such a special part of your heritage.

We have left-over rainbow trout (I bought 4 trouts for Shavuot, but some of our guests aren't fish eaters) that's already been rubbed with charmoula and roasted, so we're having that along side the left over spinach noodle pudding. I just picked up some cherry tomatoes at the market, so I'm going to chop up some garlic and roast them. For dessert we'll probably go with the cheesecake and the ice cream, however, I poached some apricots which we never got around to eating so maybe we'll have those with mascarpone. Tomorrow's lunch with be a salad with sliced turkey breast and strawberry-balsamic sorbet for dessert. I also have a bag of cherries that I forgot to serve which will get eaten at some point.

I recently tried the blackberry-lime curd from Sherry Yard. I have to say I was underwhelmed. It had an unpleasant bitter finish. One thing that we briefly touched on in the other thread and I need to reiterate here is: Don't bother using the high butterfat butters. It overwhelms the flavor of the curd.

Part of the draw of being talked into joining Claire for this festival is that I haven't been a hippie chick in so long I want to make sure I remember how. No problemo. Stop shaving your underarm hair immediately and get busy on Ebay looking for some deahead style hippie chick clothing. Should be easy enough to find right about now - Phish just announced their permanent breakup And don't forget your hacky sack. Trumansburg is home to The Rongovian Embassy aka The Rongo. The place is a restaurant, but they've always known for the bands they book. I can't comment on the quality of the food, but I heard some excellent music there way back when.

I made the cocoa nib ice cream from the book. I was a little nervous about it since there were no eggs in the base but it was probably the best ice cream I've ever made. Best part was that there was that there was none of that nasty grainyness left on the spoon. Oh, tasted like chocolate milk. (btw, when you make this, try the coco nibs after they've steeped in the cream/milk mixutre. They taste really yummy.)

I wanted to be calm, cool, and collected and not say anything until I dined there. But who am I kidding?? I'm giddy like a child with a goofy smile as wide as Texas as I got a reservation for July 28th. I started calling seconds before 10. I used two phone lines and after about 10 minutes got onto the queue. As the reservationist was taking my name down for the waiting list she paused and asked if I could hold on for a moment -- lo and behold a table became available. The constant re-dailing of the phone only to get a busy signal reminded me of the days when I would call Ticketmaster to get tickets for a hot concert or calling a radio station contest hotline. Only, I never had any luck. Maybe this is my reward for all those years of suffering?

Regarding Per Se, I was just told by the reservation-taker that jackets are required for men. And t-shirts, jeans, shorts and sneakers are not allowed.

After 48 hours of basically spending all my time at one dining room table or another I think I gained about 50 pounds. We finished lunch today at about 3:30 and 8 hours later I'm still full. Anyway, I would like to take a moment to pat myself on the back. The cheesecake was fantastic. It was suprisingly light for 2 pounds of cream cheese. And the cocoa nib ice cream, which tasted like chocolate milk ice cream, was a total hit. And now, I get to go back into the kitchen and cook for shabbat. (actually, I have leftover fish, so I just have to make the sides).

Blovie stuck that article in front of my face and said "READ THIS!!" I pointed out that the blogs on egullet never get ignored. BTW, I'm getting little red boxes with x's and I really would like to see the photos of the pugliese.

We had a whole discussion about lemon curd here with quite a bit of focus on Sherry Yard's recipe.

If you look in eGRA you'll find my recipe for Strawberry-Balsamic sorbet.

This is good overview of the holiday. If you have any questions, ask away.

Es dahlink. It's a mitzvah. Chag Sameach to all.

No flour. My batter was 2 pounds of cream cheese, sugar, lime juice, eggs and a pinch of salt. Trix works. Or B. Whatever is easier.

My cheesecake is baking in the oven. I'm sure it will taste good. But, I've got to tell you, the batter was divine. Would it be inappropriate to serve bowls of raw cheesecake batter in the future? The graham cracker - butter mixture was pretty tasty as well.

I have a friend who owns a local kosher market and promised his girlfriend that he would dress her in sable if she'd marry him ... this is not a joke actually! Little did she realize that he meant the fish, not the fur ... she is now up to her ears in briskets .. oh, and a few huge diamonds! You know for some, having a loved one wear nothing but smoked fish might be more of a turn on than the fur. I love sable. I was one of those kids who brought sable sandwiches for lunch when I was in school. Mom packed all the components separately (onion roll, sable, and lettuce) and I would assemble. Chas v'chaleela the roll should get soggy.

This will tell give you more information about kashrus then you will ever want to know. Once you get past section 6 your head will start to spin so you can stop reading at that point.

Can't spare the time gravlax requires with my time spent on eG nowadays ... priorities, of course ....surely G-d will forgive me and overlook my "quick fix" of the store-bought lox ... just this once.... Anyway, now my culinary reputation is shot to hell .... ..vraiment, quel dommage ... I'll have you know that yesterday while going through the appetizing cases at Fairway I thought of you. I was looking at the packaged Gravlax and your ode to its joys popped into my head. As an aside, have you seen that they're trying to re-brand sable as smoked black cod? I guess they're trying to rationalize the $24/lb cost.

GG -- what, no gravlax?

Interesting idea. Alas, my turkey was kosher so I think brining would be overkill -- Turkey saltlick. In my experience "kosher" doesn't mean salted. It is food that has been blessed, and is fit to eat during passover. Brinning allows for moisture (in the form of water) to be absorbed by the proteins in the food while it is being soaked. Of coarse you need to monitor the time it soakes to ensure that the osmosis doesn't reverse and result in a saltlick. Koshering meat and poulty is a process that includes special slaughtering practices and then salting to draw out the meat. This is why many people buy kosher chicken and turkey -- the salting gives a flavor similar to bringing. This is the way meat is prepared, but it's very similar for chicken.

No-- I never heard of them before. I just looked at their website, and it appears they are in Grand Central Terminal. They moved to Atlantic Ave when they left this neighborhood. I thought the GCT branch was a second outpost, but maybe they closed the Bklyn location.

Can one order a la carte at Per Se? And if so, what are the portion sizes?