Spot's Profile
Pizza with egg topping?
One of my favorite breakfasts is to re-heat a slice of pizza in EVOO in a frying pan, until the crust is again crispy, then put it under the broiler while I quickly fry an egg in the same pan with more oil. Pinch of red pepper flakes and I'm loving my morning.
Bought preserved lemons, what would you use them for?
We make them and use them all the time -- whenever a dish needs a little extra acid. Lately, I've been really noticing recipes and restaurants not quite getting that pitch-perfect hit of something a bit acidic (vinegar, lemon, lime, preserved lemon, etc.) that brighten and lighten dishes just before serving. More anon when I do my Seattle trip report....
Leftover red snapper ideas?
My dear wife made fish cakes -- zest of a couple Meyer lemons, their juice, minced scallions from the garden, a skiff of mayo -- tamped in cheap-ass Progresso bread crumbs, then sauteed and served over volunteer arugula (EVOO & Manadori balsamic) from the incipient garden. Nice snack. Thanks all for your ideas!
Leftover red snapper ideas?
Must be the weekend for seafood leftovers.
I've got about 2# of leftover roasted (w/ fennel and lemon) red snapper I don't have any ideas for.
It's beautiful meat, but what's throwing me a bit its nearly gelatinous nature. Picking the last meat off the frames last night was the piscine equivalent of boning cooked oxtails.
Any ideas? Thanks!
Moses Lake
On the way to and from Seattle we had a couple meals in Moses Lake.
Dinner at Pho Saigon was decent -- a little sweetened-up but more than serviceable, especially after a 7 hour afternoon on the road.
Lunch on the way home was at Tacos El Rey. Tongue, tripe, barbacoa, carnitas tacos. We ordered twice. Yum. A great spot; we'll be back, if only to try the massive bowls of menudo.
Both of these places are just fine, especially if you're not up for the usual road fare. I'd also like to add that the service at both was gracious and efficient.
SEA Here we come
Many thanks for everyone's input. We're set -- going to stick with both Coterie Room and Toulouse Petit. Time to start perusing menus. I'll post a trip report.
SEA Here we come
So, we'll stick with Toulouse Petit. I'm hoping a late Monday breakfast won't be too busy.
We had a splendid backroom, multi-course lunch arranged by a friend at Salumi our last visit and loved it. (I once had them send me a whole culatello for Christmas.) We'll have to swing by there again.
Branzino looks good but above my price point the way my family orders. Maybe for some Happy Hour meatballs.
SEA Here we come
Thanks, all. I'm still wondering a bit about Toulouse Petit, notwithstanding uhockey's review. Great deal, certainly, but it doesn't get much love here (or anywhere else, really). Also, Coterie Room was chosen more for its proximity to our digs and being new to us than for its menu, which looks interesting but not mind-blowing (except for those cracklings). I'd have thought about Tavolata if not for our pick of Staple & Fancy Monday.
SEA Here we come
Thanks.Looks like we won't make Quinn's at all, then. I had thought about Ba Bar -- banh cuon & pate chaud -- a perfect substitution. (There are 3 of us on Saturday, so I was thinking of just ordering a thing or 2 at each stop, if only to fortify us for spending a couple hours at Elliot Bay.)
SEA Here we come
Visiting from Montana next week for our son's college graduation, staying downtown (2nd & Virginia). Here's the plan, so far:
Friday early lunch: Bamboo Garden on the way into town.
Friday afternoon: grab room snacks and wine at DeLaurenti, maybe a couple crabs to pick.
Late Friday dinner: Since we'll not want to be driving anywhere, Coterie Room.
Saturday lunch: Capitol Hill crawl -- Quinn's, Pike Street Fish Fry, Terra Plata, Taylor for oysters.
Saturday dinner: Visiting family on Bainbridge Island.
Graduation (U Puget Sound) Sunday brunch/lunch: Southern Kitchen in Tacoma.
Graduation dinner: 12-14 of us at Sea Garden for epic feast.
Monday brunch/lunch: Toulouse Petit (thanks uhockey).
Monday dinner: Staple & Fancy.
Tuesday morning we stop at Mutual Fish on the way out of town and fill the cooler.
What do you all think? Past visits, we've eaten at Cafe Campagne, Shiro, Le Pichet, Steelhead Diner, Matt's, Revel, Spinasse, Long's Provincial, Green Leaf, Szechuan Noodle Bowl, among others. We always have a family meal at Sea Garden.
Ferry-friendly appetizers downtown
We'll be visiting next month, staying downtown, and are scheduled to head to Bainbridge Island for a family salmon dinner -- about 12 at table. We've been tasked with bringing hors d'oeuvre. I'm thinking of grabbing a bag of oysters from Taylor @ Melrose Mkt. that afternoon and loading up with assorted cheeses, charcuterie, breads, etc. @ DeLaurenti on the way to the ferry. No doubt tasty, but somewhat uninspired, and I'm not thrilled about lugging around a small cooler with ice and oysters. (We'll be walking.) Any better ideas?
My Beef...tastes like a cow.
The nose knows. If it smells like shit, that's what it is.
Nesco roaster question -- URGENT
Thanks for all your help. I get it now, and didn't before. I think the Owner's Manual's a bit misleading. We did the "burn off" in the garage, thought I'd torched a few tires.
Nesco roaster question -- URGENT
Thank you. How are you, then, supposed to brown meats in it?
Nesco roaster question -- URGENT
I just got one of these things. The walls seem to get hot, but not the bottom. Is this a defect, or the way they work? Kind of urgent since I'm cooking 4 gallons of chili for a fundraiser tomorrow. Many TIA.
I'm being intimidated by a rabbit...
Rabbit's a sentimental favorite, but for years I've rebelled at its price because we used to (late 80's) get whole rabbits from the Rabbit Ladies down the road from us for $2.50/piece, cleaned and with kidneys. We bought 12 at a time. I used to cut them up, salt and pepper them, then grill them slowly, basting with the liquid from a cooked mixture of a head of minced garlic, Matouk's hot sauce, juice of a lemon or two, and a stick of butter. Dumped the cooked garlic on at the end. Cotes du Rhone & paper towels. Steamy summer evenings. Bliss.
Where to find Totten Inlet VIRGINICA oysters in Seattle...
They're lovely. My understanding is that Taylor Shellfish Farms has a lock on Totten Inlet Virginicas, because they have a lease/own most of Totten Inlet's beds and are the only folks doing Virginicas, there. I've not been to Taylor's newish retail place in Seattle, but others on this board have.
What Are Your Most and Least Favorite Pasta Shapes?
Gotta say farfalle is the only shape I can't abide. At least for me, its wings are woefully overdone before its center gets to where it needs to be.
Kale? [split from SF Bay]
Pretty much exactly what I do, except I use a ham hock my butcher smokes, add a can of rinsed and well-drained cannellini beans, spoon the mixture over a piece of nicely toasted, good bread, and top with a soft-boiled/poached egg and a snowstorm of reggiano.
Using the rind of Parmesan cheese
I've found they don't add much to the result, or at least not more than a handful of freshly grated at the end, so I cut our parm rinds into small pieces for dog snacks, which my dogs truly adore.
"The Good Food of Szechwan" by Delfs, any fans out there?
Dry Fried Beef (which I do with venison and really dessicate) probably gets cooked the most, but I recently did the Red-cooked Fish Slices, with halibut cheeks a pal brought from Seattle. Killer. The Fresh Ham (tipan) has also been on for larger gatherings, though I probably haven't made it for a few years; it's a festive and delicious make-ahead meat dish, especially with high-grade pig. Oily Scallion Cakes.
"The Good Food of Szechwan" by Delfs, any fans out there?
Sorry, q. I've not compared. I just read 'em and cook what I'm liking. Try those you think you might like; see what you think.
"The Good Food of Szechwan" by Delfs, any fans out there?
A favorite! My family loves, loves his gong-bao chicken, also the eggplant with yu-xiang sauce. My mother-in-law has had this book since the 70's, and I finally found a copy about 5 years ago. Another mid-70's favorite is "Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook" by Ellen Schrecker (Harper & Row, 1976). Of course, I use them both a bit less now that Ms. Dunlop has given us some great books.
How do YOU roast a chicken?
I wanna try this. I'm unclear: is the bird breast down for the hour, heat-off period?
Venison Tenderloin
I believe there may be regional differences re terminology. In Montana, my experience is a backstrap is loin; in Michigan (according to my brother) it is tenderloin. I might be wrong. Didn't mean to be a jerk. The point in any event is cooking to rare due to a nearly complete lack of marbling...
Venison Tenderloin
Sorry: the tenderloin is always inside the ribcage; the loin is always on top of the ribcage. Let's forget about what a backstrap actually is. Cook it how you like. Not well done.
Venison Tenderloin
A slight word of caution: what you think is a tenderloin is (probably) actually a loin. Maybe I'm wrong. A venison tenderloin is sort of hanger steak size; a venison loin (backstrap) is closer (though quite a bit smaller and slimmer) than a beef tenderloin. Some folks confuse the two.
That being said and semantics aside: either roast it whole to 115 or cut it into medallions and saute to rare, make a little pan sauce w/ shallots, (white) wine, your favorite herbs, a knob of butter to finish, maybe a squirt of acid. Finish them off.
ISO Retro Chicken Curry Recipe
Okay, here you go. My Mom's been making it since the 60's.
Brown a cut-up chicken well. Remove. Add a finely chopped onion and saute until caramelized. Add a couple spoons of curry powder and saute for a bit more. Add a can or two of cream of mushroom soup. (Yes.) Scrape up all your brown goodies, then return the chicken to the pan and cook it off slowly, uncovered. The soup stuff/gravy should reduce to a nearly paste-like consistency.
Wait to make fun of my mother (and me for sharing this) until after you've tried this.
Favorite way with pork shanks?
Sliced, with buttered rye bread and hot mustard. Oh, and a nice pilsner.
