Craterellus's Profile
Searching for deep-pit BBQ
I recall seing this as a 7 year old at the Madera County Fair in Chowchilla, decades ago. Horrified I was, watching a tractor dig meat out of the ground, then handed to me on a plate. Looks like they're still doing it once a year in May. Mark your calendar -- See you there in 2011!
http://www.chowchillafair.org/fair/spring_festival.html
So I'm Thinking of Making Sausages...
Making your own sausages is a fun craft, and it is more of a joy with the right hardwear. After many years of use in sausage making, the KA grinder attachment is overpriced but works well. I grind 10 pounds of meat,-- with the meat cut into long trips -- in little more than 5 minutes. I do have the KA suasage stuffer attachment and I can't recommend it. I use a relatively cheap, non-commercial stuffer of the vertical - crank type. It's a pleasure to work with.
Tips and Tricks for Cooking Corn on the Cob?
Yes -- that's the one! A really hot grill is best for quickly getting some spots of carmelized color and flavor without dessicating, although everyone seems to wolf down the concentrated result of over-grilling just as fast.
Strange Pairings that Taste Uncommonly Good
Yes, it's the peanut butter and bacon and nothing else sandwich -- that's what what my wife knocks back when she really wants to indulge. Claims it's a survivor of childhood weekend morning treats. It must be a Silver Spring thing. I've tried it and its ok.
Carne Knowledge - is it really anything to get excited about?
For great carne asada, the cut of beef does matter greatly, as does the cooking method -- char grilled -- and the way it's cut. The NYT mentions the beef cut Flap Meat for carne asada, and I can second that eagerly. It's not hanger steak, skirt steak, flank steak, or flatiron steak. It is coarse, beefy, well-marbled, and fantastic al carbon. I buy it whenever I can find it, and fire up the grill
BLUEBERRIES: Is it my imagination??
Buy your produce locally for best quality, wherever you live. Local strawberry growers in CA that I frequent sell a great product bursting with flavor. The mass market strawbs and other perishable produce grown for consumers across the continent will be inferior for the most part. Imagine what ripe LI fruit would look like shipped to supermarkets in CA.
Who has a jar of bacon fat in their fridge?
Also guilty as charged. Who could know the age of the lower reaches of that jar? I peel off the upper strata as needed, sometimes dipping down into what must be the Paleozoic.
Gualala and nearby next weekend?
St Orres remains popular despite a menu that changes little over the years. I'm sure you know that their's is a 3-course $45 prix fixe menu with about 14 to 19 entrees to choose from. Count on about 8+ appetizers available ala cart. The dining room service may be on the formal side (for a remote outpost), but diners appear nightly in anything from casual evening wear to jeans and sneakers without anyone batting an eye. The chef/co-owner, Rosmary Campiformio, sometimes allows her dogs in the dining room during dinner service.
Not too casual for royalty, apparently. Why just last Friday Jordan's King Abdulla arrived for at St. Orres for lunch with his family, 12 Secret Service dining inside, 50+ Secret Service and Jordanian security guards surrounding the Inn, and 6 CHP on motorcycles leading the highway-1 procession. The King came and left on a Harley.
A search of this board for Gualala will turn up some discussion of other Gualala area joints. Nothing has changed much that matters. The Sea Ranch Lodge continues to do a good business, but I haven't dined there in a couple of years. Maybe someone else here can update us on dinner at TSR Lodge?
Northern California Road Food
Bones Roadhouse in Gualala does some good real bbq. The brisket and pulled pork go over well with my family. The service can be very slow, sadly.
Fort Bragg Recs please!
Try Eggheads for breakfast or lunch. It's small and often crowded, but for good reason.
http://www.eggheadsrestaurant.com/
Sausage maker
This has been my experience as well.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/416529
Birds of flight
Include Chukar in those rocky, arid parts of western states, although they tend walk as much as fly.
About Catalan "Moles"
Andrews names the other two allioli and samfaina. He describes allioli as an emulsion of garlic' olive oil, and -he says- (inauthentically but very commonly eggs), and as more frequently a condiment for dipping, slathering, or dabbing, than for stirring into a dish. He claims that the great majority of allioli served in nodays in Catalonia is made with eggs, but goes on to detail the method for a non-egg emulsion. Samfaina is said to be a ratatouille-like vegetable mixture which can be made into a sauce by pureeing (with or without cream or other dilution), but which is also eaten as a side dish or used as a coarse topping for meat, fish, or fowl.
About Catalan "Moles"
Very similar to Colman Andrews' discussion -- in 'Catalan Cuisine' -- of the four base pastes sometimes employed as sauces or condiments in Catalonian cooking, of which picada and sogregit are 2.
How does Irish moss taste?
And as a clarifyer for beer during the brewing process. We add it to the boil in small amounts to encourage protiens to precipitate out of the wort in the brewpot before ever pitching the yeast.
The Collapse of the Falafel
I have had mine disintegrate on occasion. Very sad. Here's an excerpt from Mark Bittman's The Minimalist column that addresses this. I have not made them since I spotted this last April:
>There are two keys to making good falafel. First, keep the amount of water you use when grinding the beans to an absolute minimum. More water makes grinding easier, but it also virtually guarantees that the batter will fall apart when it hits the hot oil. If this happens, bind the remaining mixture by stirring in a little flour.
For this reason, a food processor or very powerful blender is essential; you don't want a blender that isn't strong enough to grind the beans without adding too much water.
The second essential step is to get the oil hot enough: 350 degrees or a little higher. If you don't have a thermometer, just wait until the oil shimmers and then add a pinch of the batter. When it sizzles immediately, sinks about halfway to the bottom, then rises to the top, the oil is ready. If it sinks and stays down, the oil is too cold; if it doesn't sink at all, the oil is too hot. <
Gorgeous Tuna Steak
This recent thread might be helpful.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/415625
History of Coffee as a Savory Ingredient
Neither one really. It's a homegrown variant of a simple recipe gleaned from my younger brother's bookshelf 15 years ago. It was originally published as "Mom's Basic BBQ Sauce", and we tweaked it a bit. I just now found it posted at http://www.massrecipes.com/recipes/04/09/momsbasicbbqsauce15162.html.
Dropped the veg oil entirely, replaced 'strong coffee' with 'very strong coffee' or espresso, added some pressed garlic, added a little cayenne or chipotle (ground or en adobo), simmer 20 - 30 min instead of 5 min, then sieve out any solids.
Always offered on the side as an option.
History of Coffee as a Savory Ingredient
Strong coffee or espresso is a vital ingredient in our family's house bbq sauce.
Why is Cheese Forbidden in Authentic Italian Fish Cookery?
AJ's point really is at the core of the original tradition. This basis does seem most appropriate to the more delicately sweet, impeccably fresh fish.
cookbooks: hidden gems?
"California Rancho Cooking" by Jacqueline Higuera McMahan. The food is blended with a rich historical context of early California life. The 19th and 20th century descendants of Spanish settlers on Spanish Ranchos, that is. Their simple food combines Spanish and other European with native Mexican ingredients and flavors. The vignettes of family traditions that serve as recipe introductions still make me smile 20 years after I bought the first edition.
Newbies Making Sausage
I second the recommendation by martin1026. While it is often recommended for the home cook, the KA stuffer attachment has never performed well for me over 15 years of occasional use. Once the meat is ground, the small screw feeder must be squished/force-fed at a tediously slow rate, and winds up changing the texture of the finished product through the churning action of the screw (yes, even with the blade & die removed and mixture chilled). I had been coveting one of those commercial vertical stuffers for years, until I finally found a smallish affordable model at northenrtool.com, identical to the Grizzly model at Amazon. Now we always have 1 or 2 kinds of sausage in the freezer. The KA grinder itself works great. Cut and grind strips!
Tuna steak- How to cook & what with?
I noticed this relevant piece in this morning's NYTimes Minimalist column. Bittman offers an appealing recipe plus some background. The dish is called 'Grilled Tuna With Herbs and Olives' and the column is titled 'Not the Elusive Bluefin, but Just Fine for the Fire'.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/dining/27mini.html
and
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/dining/271mrex.html
For my humble part, I've had some success with Ahi/Yellowfin/Bigeye by following a method published way back in a 1998 Cooks Illustrated, where the tuna steaks are brushed liberally with EVOO and 'marinated' for an hour or so before grilling. They pitched this as a technique that produces a more succulent result at any cooking degree (except the extremes!). Somehow, the advance timing plus the specific oil chemistry of EVOO team up, penetrating below the surface within the fish protein structure. It's a Harold McGee thing. Whatever, I find it to be worth the tiny prep effort, especially since I always lube fish to some degree before tossing it on the grill or grill pan.
Saint Orres or Pangea for chowish vegetarian?
Maybe a bit late, but a few second-hand suggestions to consider. A close associate on the wait staff offers some tidbits from St Orres. Their dish 'vegetable strudel' is popular, delicious, and game-free. Their Stilton appetizer is popular. Their signature (if weird) cold fruit soups are accessable to vegites, but perhaps more relevant are the other nightly soups that while typically made with pheasant stock, the kitchten gladly and regularly accommodates requests for stock-free soups made to order. But give either of these restaurants a call and ask what they've got! These places will talk to you about what they are serving.
grilling whole chickens, new fave method
I use a modified chicken prep method, whereby after cutting out the backbone, I make a shallow incision into the cartilage at the top (neck end) of the breast bone, not more than maybe 1/4 to 1/8-inch deep. Slight hand pressure onto that top end frees up the breast bone from that end, and it can then be easily pulled completely out by hand. I then cut through the remaining skin joining the 2 halves, and the chicken lies much flatter with but a moment's effort. This also leaves the bird easier to cut up at serving time. Just a trick learned at Berkeley's Fourth Street Grill half a lifetime ago, back when they were hustling those Rocky JRs on and off of that searing, signature mesquite charcoal grill.
My white bean dip is too thin!
I'd go very easy at most on the oregano, in favor of thyme, and add a healthy pinch of cayenne in the background.
Bones in Gualala
I have dined at Bones Roadhouse 3 times since they opened a couple of years back, and I have tried and enjoyed the pulled pork twice. The brisket makes the grade -- very tender and not dry. Those chips are really thick and crunchy, but not like kettle-style chips. We have always included them on the table. The bbq I have had there was served sans sauce, which I appreciate. Their sauce on the side is a little more vinegary and less sweet tomatoey than my own sauce, E&J's sauce, or any commercially bottled sauce that I have tried, but I like it ok. The ribs and turkey breast have also been tried between my wife and 2 daughters. It has been awhile now, but I recall that they also received approval. Likewise the various sides, though I would need to interview my dining companions for the details. The place does real bbq -- the proverbial low and slow, and it is good enough to go back for. We will return whenever we crave bbq and I haven't fired up the backyard Q.
