rj2008's Profile
URFA BIBER.
I buy all my Turkish spices from Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA (I mail order them) -- they have Aleppo, Maras, and Urfa peppers always available.
http://www.formaggiokitchen.com
SF to Mendocino and back
Hi,
We'll be taking a road trip to Mendocino and back this upcoming week. We will likely be driving up along Highway 1, and back on 101 (since we're staying in Sonoma on the way back).
We love eating at Pizzeria Picco in Larkspur whenever we go north, and we've touched on a couple places in Healdsburg (can't remember the names offhand though), but overall I feel our north-of-Sonoma list of spots to visit is woefully thin. I've done some searching here on the board and turned up a few favorites around Mendocino/Ft. Bragg, but thought I'd ask to see if there were any updated recommendations, particularly between SF and that area (e.g., in Petaluma, Santa Rosa, etc.)
In case this has been covered recently, a pointer to the thread would be much appreciated!
rj
Dungeness crab question
HD,
Can you explain a bit more? My prior guess was that raw crab meat is a little bit "liquid", and so when limbs break off, the stuff you see in the water is the meat that oozed out afterwards. It sounds like I'm wrong about this...
Dungeness crab question
That's interesting; this whole time I thought I've been steaming them at low temp, but I wonder if actually the water was at a stronger boil than I thought the times that it worked.
I'm going to give the strong boil a try next time I get them.
Dungeness crab question
Hi,
We bought a couple dungeness crab last week on Thursday from San Francisco Fish Co (in the Ferry Bldg). Each was a little over 2 lbs, and we steamed them for around 15 minutes or so.
Both crabs had the same problem. While steaming, several of the legs mysteriously fell off; the crab hadn't been moved at all, and the water was a gentle simmer. The weird thing is that they did not fall off at the joint: the legs just sheared cleanly slightly below the joint with the body. It's almost as if they didn't have enough calcium in their shells or something to stay together while being steamed.
I should add that the crab tasted a little funny, and not only that, the yield was extremely poor (due in part, I'm sure, to the fact that some meat leaked out while steaming).
Any thoughts on what happened? And how I can make sure this doesn't happen again in the future?
(BTW, when we put them in the pot they were definitely alive and moving.)
Thanks!
Deconstructed apple pie
I love apple pie, and at the same time have been constantly disappointed at the way that crust on even on the best apple pie tastes. It's never as crisp as a good tart shell baked blind...
...which got me to thinking: why not bake the crust of the apple pie separate from the filling completely? I know some recipes suggest this (e.g., Shirley Corriher), but I took it to an extreme. I used RL Berenbaum's recipe for apple crisp, but without the topping; and just baked the apples fifty minutes. Then I used a good pate brisee recipe, rolled and cut it into cookie size squares, and baked that until nice and crisp.
When I wanted some "pie", I took a serving of the baked apples and warmed them for a few minutes; then topped with a few of the pate brisee cookies and baked for a few more. (These last steps all in a toaster oven.) The deconstructed crust was absolutely perfect, just what I'd always hoped; and the apples retained much more integrity this way, instead of being steamed into a mush like I usually get.
Got me to thinking...what are the advantages (other than aesthetic) of having the crust around the filling?
