Steady Habits's Profile
Bittman's In/Out Pantry List for the New Year
Don't you love the Spice House, roxlet? That's where I get most of mine, too. Things that I go through quickly (Telicherry peppercorns, for one thing) I buy in larger quantities, but for most things, I get the 1/2 oz. refill or one ounce at a time, at the most. And every month when I order, because I'm ordering this way, I make it a point to try out two or three things I haven't cooked with before. Keeps things interesting and educational. I *love* their curries and being able to have several types of Cinnamon, so I can use the one I think is best suited to the dish. Love the heat in SH's Vietnamese Cinnamon!
Bittman's In/Out Pantry List for the New Year
I think you're right; they really do. I do not like imitation vanilla. Because of that, and because I do often notice what is to me a superior flavor when I buy what my spice purveyors identify as the premier variety in a given spice, I decided I should upgrade from McCormick's (real, not imitation) vanilla. So, for about a year, I spent the extra money and bought things like Niesen Massey, etc., but I never liked it's flavor, either "straight up" or in the final product as much as I do McCormick. Go figure. I know many, or even most, foodies don't agree with me, but there it is...my true confession. Never the imitation, though.
Bittman's In/Out Pantry List for the New Year
I just wanted to add to all your excellent comment that, IMO, the *texture* of cooked dried beans is SO much better than that of canned.
Cooking lesson from your favorite chef
I'd want an intermediate or advanced speed course on cuts of beef, lamb, pork and veal, how to use them each to best advantage and value; when it's all right (and when it's not) to substitute lesser cuts for more expensive ones in dishes, and what adjustments I have to make in those situations.
I have a basic understanding of the topic, good enough I guess for feeding my family, but I feel as though a whole new level of cooking could open up for me if I could *really* develop some facility on the matter.
The veal I made tonight was good, but need help with the sides...???
Now that you mention some of these things, *chives* would have worked well along side this veal--so, either mashed potatoes or some kind of gratined potatoes with chives. Thanks, FC. I'll have to remember that. I love chives, and forget to use them.
What is a chocolate truffle cake?
I think my impression is close to yours.
Chocolate truffle cakes I've had are layer cakes, usually with at least four to six thin layers of a chocolate genoise (probably sometimes using sponge, instead), with ganache used to fill between the layers. Sometimes the entire pastry has been topped with ganache, and other times the whole cake has been covered with either a chocolate glaze or chocolate fondant.
Then there is such a dessert known as a "flourless chocolate truffle cake", which isn't really a cake at all--no flour of any type, and at least in some of the examples I've seen depends upon mixing what is essentially ganache with a high number of eggs.
And, to me, what OP described in the original post sounds like a simple ganache, or ganache tart if used to fill a shell.
The veal I made tonight was good, but need help with the sides...???
Forget about *me* finding my way into my husband's heart via his stomach; *you* probably just have. He's Italian. Bread? Dipped in anchovy sauce? You're going to be his newest hero.
;-)
Seriously, thank you for the recipe and information. Other than in Caesar Salad, anchovies aren't something I know too much about.
favourite summer foods from childhood
Watermelon, strawberries, peaches, corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes--these all meant summer when I was growing up, since we couldn't only get them for a short time of the year.
How to correct too strong taste of cognac in dish?
Yes, that makes sense to me about the absorption. Sorry it didn't turn out to be as you wanted, but you have the right attitude about how we all have to learn by trial and fire it seems.
Thanks for letting me know.
The veal I made tonight was good, but need help with the sides...???
As it happens, I've got a special tin of anchovies that hubby had to have to snack on, but never wants to snack on. ;-) So maybe I'll make this for him, but I won't make veal for a little while. Can chicken or pork entrees stand up to this?
The veal I made tonight was good, but need help with the sides...???
For a girl who's never roasted broccoli, now you two are inspring me. How about tossing in some cauliflower, too, for the crunch?
The veal I made tonight was good, but need help with the sides...???
Thank you, Diane. I like to serve broccoli, because of its health benefits. I'm glad to know a good way to prepare it.
How long is old wine good for cooking?
Love that idea, critter. I usually freeze the leftover juice in canned tomatoes, or in the rare can of fruit I use (if it's the pure fruit juice, versus a syrup). I don't know why I never thought of it--more convenient for me personally than using ice trays. Thank you for the tip.
How long is old wine good for cooking?
I don't buy Two Buck Chuck, but I can't remember when I last bought a bottle of anything (intended for cooking) that cost more than $9.99. (Though, when cooking with Champagne, that requires a split, to stay within my guideline.)
And, I don't mix wines into others, but I also sometimes have a bottle of wine in the fridge for weeks. *Most*, though not all dishes, I'm only using somewhere between a half-cup to a cup-and-a-half to cook. Unless I used the same wine to prepare dinner everynight, which I would find awfully tedious, there's no way I can use up the bottle within the same time frame one would have to drink up a bottle.
Any way to make a lower fat but GOOD cheese souffle?
I've in the mood for one, but I'm not into using reduced fat or skim cheeses, unless they're supposed to be that way (i.e., I like cottage cheese, but I don't understand the reasoning behind skim Cheddar or non-fat Colby, etc. I mean, a cheese is either Colby, or it's not.)
Anyway, I think what I'm asking is...is there a way to make a decent tasting and textured souffle that relies on a temperate amount of inherently lower fat cheese, olive oil versus butter, and egg whites only? That sort of thing? Do goat cheeses work, and are they are they a healthier choice for this?
How would you define gourmet and....
Thank you so much for clarifying that, maria.
I guess the reason there is so much ambiguity about how the word is used is because it is ambiguous. ;-)
Path to take to being a very good Cook at home
1) Read (cookbooks, mags, boards) to learn: a) the purpose and process of the various techniques; b) about ingredients; c) how to choose the freshest or best quality ingredients at the store; d) how to tell when your pan, oven, ingredient or mixture is ready for the next step.
2) Watch on television professional chefs who also like to teach--credentialed chefs who are committed not just to entertaining and sharing recipes with viewers, but who constantly talk to us about the *science* of food--how to know when a shellfish is fresh, or what changes an ingredient undergoes appropriately when it's cooked in the right manner. Once upon a time I would have been talking about Julia Child, James Beard, or even Madeleine Kamman, whom I don't think is on television currently. Today, I'm talking about people like Jacques Pepin, Emeril Lagasse, Sara Moulton--they are chefs, first, and their celebrity is merely a consequence of that.
3. Practice, practice, practice. Put another way, learn by doing. Cook, cook, cook.
4. Do your preparation and mise-en-place. Pre-heat your oven, gather your utensils, measure out your spices, slice your vegetables and set them out in a logical sequence, butter and flour your baking dish, before you put anything in a bowl or cooking vessel.
5. While you're learning, don't skip a step, even the tiniest one, that's spelled out in one of the reliable, acknowledged basic cookbooks (e.g., Joy of Cooking). Don't skip an ingredient, unless the recipe offers substitutions. Pay attention to your recipe. If the recipe tells you to beat something with a handmixer for two minutes, set a timer and beat it for two minutes, not one minute and 45 seconds. If the recipe tells you instead to look for a certain change in the ingredients (e.g., coats a spoon thinly when cooked enough, or changes color to a creamy white), look for those changes, instead of following the clock inflexibly.
6. Measure twice.
7. Taste as you go so you can adjust seasonings. Add seasonings in increments; you can add more, but you can't take out.
8. Clean as you go. Keep your workspace organized, sanitary and as uncluttered as you can, to prevent confusion, mistakes and accidents.
9. Don't be afraid of the inevitable failures and disappointments, which you *will* have if you're going to take up cooking as a frequent activity. Embrace the occasional fallen cake or the burnt, rather than caramelized, onions, as opportunities to research what may have gone wrong, and how you can do better next time.
10. Enlist a candid but supportive family member or friend to be your honest taste-tester. You want someone who isn't hypercritical, but who also isn't reluctant to offer suggestions for improvement. Ask what he or she likes about a dish you've prepared, what he or she doesn't. Was the texture good? Was it too salty, not salted enough, just right? Did it *look* appealing? Hint: If your guinea pig tells you everytime you make something that it was "perfect", then you're missing an opportunity to improve your cooking. Now and then you will make something "perfectly", but few of us do that too often...
11. Congratulate yourself heartily on everything you do that you think turns out well. Keep motivating yourself. Learning how to cook, and how to cook *better* is a lifelong process, but every success, whether little or big, breeds more success.
12. Eat the final product with joy, thanks and gusto!
Uses for Mascarpone
For breakfast... spread on good quality but sightly stale bread...then spread favorite preserves on another slice (I like ginger marmalade, btw)... to make a mascarpone and preserves sandwich. Dip in favorite French Toast egg mixture and cook as usual.
Don't forget the maple syrup.
How do you organize recipes you find online?
I do as rovingfoodie does; copy recipes into a word document.
I keep a separate Word folder for Chowhound recipes, because these are recommended by those of you who have used them; I'm pretty sure they'll work and be good, so that's the first folder I look at on my computer when I want a new recipe.
If I decide subsequently to try it, I write it down in abbreviated form for the first test run.
If it passes, and is worth keeping forever, it goes in its full version into my double-extra-special leatherbound favorite recipes notebook (handwritten). My litmus test for deciding whether I want to keep a recipe "forever" is whether I think it would be worthy of being served at major holidays or family occasions.
ISO recipe for 'Pink Cloud Dessert'
Here's something that's very close, although it uses a different frostiing and doesn't include coconut. But you could fold in coconut to half of the batter and use your whipped cream frosting:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Peppermint-Angel-Food-Cake-279189
What's the furthest you've travelled - just for a meal
One night a long time ago, from LA to SFO, to get some decent Northern Italian. (Can't remember where, though.)
The veal I made tonight was good, but need help with the sides...???
As long as I'm oven braising, I'm all for loading up the oven with other baked courses. Then I can put my feet up and cybertalk to you guys while dinner finishes. ;-) How do you make your achovy sauce? (Hubby likes anchovies..a lot.)
The veal I made tonight was good, but need help with the sides...???
I want to smack myself on the forehead, cassoulady. Orzo! The couscous was good, but...orzo...that would have been *the best partner* for this dinner last night--great with the sauce--and I had it in my pantry, too. Sheesh.
And...I like to toss some peas into pasta as a side.
The veal I made tonight was good, but need help with the sides...???
Roasted veggies. Yum. I roast asparagus and cauliflower quite often, but never broccoli. I thought it would start to smell bad, or something. (I know that sounds silly, and I have broccoli often--love the stuff--but, honestly, Diane, for some reason I had that in my head. I take it I'm wrong?)
The veal I made tonight was good, but need help with the sides...???
Krystyna, I like the idea of something like because it sounds quick, has different textures, and I think the bacon accent would be perfect with that veal. But I admit to be intimidating by cabbage. My mother used to make it a lot; I didn't eat it then plus it looked complicated to me. (Don't know why; it just did.) The only cabbage I have cooked that I remember is baby bok choy, sauteed, with a few accents. It seems to me that there are a lot of cabbage varieties (like winter squashes). Are they interchangeable in recipes, or do you use certain types for specific dishes, etc., or different techniques?
I am so proud...I cooked !
So...did you save some for me? ;-) Okay; I know that was bold, but it sounds delicious! You should be proud. I've been cooking meals daily for decades now, and I'm pretty good at *some* of it, but it's still a challenge some nights to get everything cooked in the same general time frame and have it come out all right. So, good for you, that you successfully coordinated plural dishes, even thought you "don't cook". Ooops! Guess you have to stop saying that now, capeanne! You cook!
Question about Negotiating Price of Wedding Dinner in Vegas
Well...it was worth a try, anyway, but whether Las Vegas is struggling, I'm sure this particular restaurant *never* is. And you know what? As long as you can pay the bill, and you and your fiance agree, it *is* a legitimate priority--to have the wedding where you want it. Some couples put other priorities (food, budget, photography, date, whatever) first. Every couple should spend its alloted wedding budget in the way that makes it happy.
FWIW, my husband and I got married five years ago, here in Connecticut at one of the inns for which the state is known. We had thought carefully about whether we wanted a larger event, or something more intimate. By that point in our lives, we'd collected a lot of business and social acquaintances, but we opted for a very small wedding. I think in the end around 30 people--his children, our immediate families, our respective lifelong very closest friends. It was a garden ceremony on a pretty--but stifling--summer day, followed by a four-star luncheon and a leisurely afternoon inside, in the air conditioning. We had such a good time; our guests were able to linger at the luncheon tables, or go in and have a private drink at the bar, or sit for a while in the tiny but charming lobby with their shoes kicked off. At one point the proprietors brought out (unplanned and complimentary) cookies and ice cream sundaes. I think the owners had a special day, too; at least they told us it was an especially fun and relaxed wedding for them. I was thinking about this when you mentioned you thought this format--a small celebratory dinner--might be a lot of fun. I'm sure you'll have a very special memory to look back on. It's nice when you can spend your entire wedding with *all* of your guests, together...
And, if you decide to go ahead and contract for this, you'll have a unique wedding dinner, developed just for you, by the chef at Daniel Boulud. Not too shabby. ;-)
How do you cut back?
Lots of veggies. Scheduled meatless nights, like tonight--shells stuffed diced onions, mushrooms, broccoli florets, escarole, and a little parmesan, with a thick, satisfying tomato sauce; salad on the side.
Homemade soups (clear-based or pureed, never cream) a couple of nights a week. Soups are an easy thing to pack veggies and grains into and make tasty. (Hubby always likes to have salads as an entree a couple of nights a week, but I need something warm for dinner, especially in the winter.)
Molly's reminder of plenty of water is *really* important.
Question about Negotiating Price of Wedding Dinner in Vegas
O.M.G. I am so very, very embarrassed! I can't believe I just assumed for no logical reason that you are a man! I'm *always* on the case of the men in my life (er, hubby and kids) for assuming such things. Mea culpa.
Please accept my apologies for having a momentary blip of old-fashionedness about that, and then allow me to revert to old-fashionedness so that I can retract my congratulations and offer you, instead, my best wishes.
(A little inconsistency, I know, but a few habits die hard.)
