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Improving my cooking skills (2003)


MatthewB

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Heather, is the basic bread recipe you're referring to the one in The Naked Chef Takes Off? If so, then I'm all set!

Yep, that's it. :smile: People hate Jamie, but his food works. Never had a bad recipe.

I will not be making my own fish stock. I will be buying some high quality base, and not feeling in the least bit guilty about it.

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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Heather, is the basic bread recipe you're referring to the one in The Naked Chef Takes Off?  If so, then I'm all set!

Yep, that's it. :smile: People hate Jamie, but his food works. Never had a bad recipe.

I will not be making my own fish stock. I will be buying some high quality base, and not feeling in the least bit guilty about it.

slacker :wink:

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Heather, is the basic bread recipe you're referring to the one in The Naked Chef Takes Off?  If so, then I'm all set!

Yep, that's it. :smile: People hate Jamie, but his food works. Never had a bad recipe.

I will not be making my own fish stock. I will be buying some high quality base, and not feeling in the least bit guilty about it.

slacker :wink:

We have a cleaning crew of four scrubbing our house from top to bottom today, and two showings. :blink: Our first open house is on Sunday. [steve Martin impersonation]Well, excuuuuuse me if I don't feel like throwing fish bones around.[/steve Martin impersonation] :raz:

The good new is that we've had an offer already. Too low, but an offer nonetheless.

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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People hate Jamie, but his food works.  Never had a bad recipe.
Word.
I will not be making my own fish stock.  I will be buying some high quality base, and not feeling in the least bit guilty about it.
What kind are you buying? I like Imagine brand stocks, but I don't think they make fish stock (or at least Whole Paycheck doesn't carry it).
Erin
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Good luck showing the house, Heather!

I am going to plan to make the fish stock, but I may say "screw it" at some point later in the process. I made some chicken stock last night, which needs reducing, and I still have that duck carcass in my freezer, and I have to get ready for Thanksgiving, so I dunno. Something's gotta give. I too would be interested in a good brand of fish stock.

And Erin: "Whole Paycheck"-- hilarious.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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Fish stock is really easy to make, it's the fastest stock besides a veg stock. If I didn't have it and was disinclined to make it, I'd just use chicken stock. I usually make fish stock if I buy whole fish out of the bones, and then freeze it, but admittedly fish stock is a little bit...fishy. It's not glorious like chicken stock or sturdy like my roasted vegetable stock is.

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See, I would buy a house with an aroma of simmering fish bits, but I'm dubious that the average person would. What should we bake right before our open house on Sunday? Cookies? Bread?

Yesterday we looked at a house in our town that had previously been divided. It has a full kitchen upstairs, and another one downstairs. I can't decide whether I like that or not.

My grocery had some beautiful fennel and mussels yesterday. Looking forward to the soup!

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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See, I would buy a house with an aroma of simmering fish bits, but I'm dubious that the average person would. What should we bake right before our open house on Sunday? Cookies? Bread?

Something with cinnamon?

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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You could mull some cider on the stove, Heather... I would think you could keep the scent going longer than bread or pie.

Dave, great idea with the clam juice/chicken stock. I have lots of aseptically-packaged chicken stock :raz: so I'll just pick up some clam juice. I never have enough fish trimmings to make stock--that kind of problem is the dark side of being single. :angry:

Erin
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I got 4 duck legs (cryovac but not frozen) labeled Grimaud Farms, California Muscovy. Slightly under 2 pounds, so I'll half the recipe. Question for those of you who've made it-did the vegetables taste greasy from just simmering in the duck fat?

I may join in for the Fish Stew, only I will be using ta, da... our fresh crab that's just in season!!!

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I hate to admit this, guys, but I'm starting to get cold feet about the soup. I've had stomach problems from time to time when I've eaten mixed shellfish in the past, and I generally manage this (since I do love shellfish) by eating small amounts at once and sticking to one kind of shellfish at a time.

I was planning to throw caution to the wind (and perhaps reap the proverbial whirlwind) with this soup/stew, but every time I look at the picture I feel a little queasy. And with Thanksgiving coming up quickly and family coming Tuesday, I'm starting to panic. So I think I'll pass. Sorry. I look forward to your reports!

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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I hate to admit this, guys, but I'm starting to get cold feet about the soup. I've had stomach problems from time to time when I've eaten mixed shellfish in the past, and I generally manage this (since I do love shellfish) by eating small amounts at once and sticking to one kind of shellfish at a time.

Seth, you can make this soup very successfully with only fish. I've done it and it still tastes great - and no shells to scrub. :smile: Although I understand about the company and holiday plans; it is creeping up on us, isn't it?

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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Seth, you can make this soup very successfully with only fish. I've done it and it still tastes great - and no shells to scrub. :smile: Although I understand about the company and holiday plans; it is creeping up on us, isn't it?

Interesting. I may just do this, and make use of Dave's chicken stock/clam juice solution. I'll not really be making Jacques' dish, but whatever. It's a slippery slope, isn't it? Will I be resorting to Sandra Lee next? :shock:

I tried out my new chicken stock tonight-- I braised some leeks with it. Mmmmmmmmmm, braised leeks with homemade chicken stock.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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So, anybody make the Mediterranean Seafood Stew/Soup?

I did, after a fashion. No shellfish and no fish stock. Still, for all that, it was really great. I thank you guys (special credit goes to Heather and Dave) for convincing me to make it. I never would have done it on my own. I'm sure now that I've tried it I'll make it again.

I used a little clam juice, my very concentrated chicken stock, and some water as a base. And I put monkfish and sea bass chunks in the stew. I wasted quite a bit of time and effort skinning the sea bass, which Jacques suggests you might want to do. I gave up toward the end, since I was struggling not to tear the fish apart as I skinned it. Then after the fish was cooked, the skin that remained just slid right off in the pot, as I should have known it would. Stupid.

I enjoyed the rouille, too. I cut the recipe somewhat, and found I couldn't mix it well in the food processor. I moved the project to the blender and it worked out fine. This has to be about the most stable emulsion in existence, right? With bread, potato, and egg yolk holding this thing together, I wonder if anything would make it fall apart. I also wonder if the wine in the soup base is enough acid to render harmless any potential bad stuff in the raw egg yolk. Julia and Jacques say absolutely nothing about it, which is surprising given all the caveats you see in mayonnaise recipes these days. Are there other acids I'm forgetting? The tomatoes? I guess it's salty, too.

I don't think I've communicated adequately just how pleasing I found this soup. I really thought it was great. I hope y'all enjoyed it as much as we did.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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First time ever-I made duck!!!

I had some concerns about the recipe in J & J being too greasy for my tastes, so I made the Duck w/ Zinfandel Sauce in Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook. The duck is braised in part Zin, part chicken stock, then the dish is uncovered and the skin allowed to crisp. The sauce has bay leaf, thyme and orange zest in it. It was good, but I have to say, I like the taste of chicken thighs much better. (That is a suggested variation of this dish.) I'm going to give duck one more try in that Mark Bittman Pan-Fried duck that Suzanne described in the duck thread.

On to the Mediterranean Soup tonight. This is one of my standards. Seth- I agree, it is a wonderful dish, and perfect for a cold winter night or one of our foggy summer evenings. It lends itself to improvisation to add whatever looks good at the fish market. I like it better w/ only one or two types of fish, and I don't like a lot of flatfish pieces in it; I prefer shellfish. My favorites are all crab or all mussels. I also like it w/ scallops, but they are so expensive out here it seems wasteful to use them instead of a flatfish like snapper.

I usually make a large recipe of the base, then freeze it in 1 quart portions without adding the fish. That's just right for the two of us-a perfect quick weeknight dinner. Heat the base, add the fish, make a little rouille or Aioli whiile it is heating and you're eating in ten minutes!

Edited by marie-louise (log)
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I usually make a large recipe of the base, then freeze it in 1 quart portions without adding the fish. That's just right for the two of us-a perfect quick weeknight dinner. Heat the base, add the fish, make a little rouille or Aioli whiile it is heating and you're eating in ten minutes!

That sounds like another great idea. I'll be trying that.

Glad you bit the bullet and made some duck.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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