zoramargolis

if breadline turns out not to be a consistently reliable source of stale ciabatta, then i'll buy two loaves and on the first day make this:

http://static.ecookbooks.com/recipes/a/abigtomatosandwich/

(however, it can make for considerably sloppier eating than the panzanella.)

This sandwich recipe looks really good. I bought a container of imported Bufalo mozzarella at Costco yesterday, used 2/4 balls last night with tomatoes and basil. And this would be a worthy dish for the rest. The mozzarella was good--better than expected. Very fresh tasting and creamy, packed in a tub of water. Four balls for $9.99 seemed very reasonable to me, given that I have paid $7.99 for one.

Marvelous Market also has ciabatta, albeit inconsistently.

One of the cheeses was a dark orange color that both Paula and I thought resembled dried mango. It had the texture and mouthfeel of a parmigiano reggiano.

Mimolette, perhaps?

Apparently, he has also introduced "the now famous Salad Bar concept" to the Washington, DC area.

Squire Rockwell

When we lived in Southern Vermont in the early 70's, there was a steakhouse that ran an ad on the local AM radio station, highlighting their superiority to another local place by proudly stating: "No need to trudge to the salad bar!" So of course, in the subsequent 30 years, whenever we have encountered a salad bar, we complain about being forced to trudge to it.

purchased on monday, the breadline ciabatta loaf that found its way into our bread basket was light but hard, not totally stale, the crust a potential tooth breaker. i am going to soak what i have left for a pesto, and it should do an okay job of serving that purpose.

If you have some super-ripe, juicy tomatoes, consider using the dry bread for panzanella. My daughter and her vegetarian friends went crazy for it last week.

I have never seen "smoked" Maldon salt-- Maldon salt can be found at Balducci's, some Whole Foods stores, Dean and Deluca and at BlackSalt market. You could put a dish of Maldon salt in a stovetop smoker to flavor it with smoke, I guess. Ditto for black pepper. McCormick's used to sell hickory smoked salt, although they discontinued it. You might check Penzey's to see if they sell smoked salt.

Where did you find this recipe?

It's become rather well-known here in D.C. that President Nixon, despite being from California, preferred to serve Bordeaux at the White House. He enjoyed the first-growths, and at certain dinners, he would have a waiter pour him Bordeaux with a towel covering the bottle so that no one else would see what he was having served to him. What the other guests got, I don't know for certain, but they weren't getting his first-growth Bordeaux. If that isn't an indictment of Nixon's character, then I don't know WHAT is

I think it was Chateau Margaux that Nixon always drank, if the story is accurate.

Joe--

Too bad about your dates. I don't think anyone would describe me as being thin -- I haven't fit that description for the past twenty years. Zaftig is more like it these days. Sour and astringent--nah. Spicy, with a tinge of bitterness--maybe. I prefer to be described as robust, flavorful and with lots of character-- the way I like my red wine to be.

I'm ditto-ing Dean about the Zins he likes-- and adding Hartford and Storybook.

Lucky you! I've never had a "dream kitchen" even though for many years Jonathan designed and built custom kitchens for other (rich) people in Los Angeles--the shoemaker's children go barefoot syndrome at work. The one kitchen that he built for us ($2K total for materials and appliances, so no granite counters or Aga cooker) that came close was in a loft we renovated. One of my favorite features echoes one of Elizabeth's-- a big stretch of counter. Mine was 4' wide by about 10' long extending into the space where a wall might have been. We had drawers and cabinets underneath on the kitchen side and drawers underneath part of the "living room" side. The rest of that side of the counter had space for 4 stools, so it functioned as a breakfast bar, and a place where friends could hang out, drink and nibble and chat while I cooked. People always gather in the kitchen anyway--with a designated place to sit, they are a part of the action without getting underfoot. And with that much counter space, I was able to have the Kitchenaid mixer, Cuisinart, blender and bread machine out and convenient to use while still having room to lay out plates and platters or do major baking projects.

The other thing that I loved that I no longer have was that every shelf in every cabinet was a sliding basket, and there were turntables in the corners. Lack of counter, pantry and easily accessible cabinet space is my biggest gripe about my current kitchen.

I had a quick lunch at the bar last week, while my car was being serviced down the road. I had half a Cuban sandwich, which tasted primarily of vinegary pickles and the gazpacho, which reminded me of the kind of watery salsa you get in a jar that doesn't have any chiles in it. I had an Allagash draft with it. The people at the bar who were eating burgers seemed happy with them.

Fresh creamed corn, grits and cheese

Mixed mushroom ragout (crimini, oyster, shiitake, porcini)

Green beans

Grilled shrimp (leftovers from Friday)

Heirloom tomato and basil salad

Ch. Vendange Manuelle Rose de Loire

Deconstructed/reconstructed peach pie (bottom crust, filling and top crust baked separately, then assembled just prior to serving, as suggested by David Hagedorn in the WashPost--worked out GREAT!)

Vanilla ice cream

Tomatillo and tomato are in the same family, Solanaceae (deadly nightshade), along with potato, capsicum pepper, and eggplant.

This proves nothing other than that I'm a taxonomy geek.

I was about to discourse on the taxonomy of gooseberry, but a quick check shows that there are several different fruits going by that name; one of them is indeed in the same genus (Physalis) as the tomatillo. Others are of the genus Ribes, in the family Grossulariaceae. Just goes to show how useless common names are.

Just goes to show that you can't generalize by family whether or not to refrigerate. But you can always count on a geek with a computer and a little bit of time to trump a former gardener with a sketchy memory ...

Should tomatillos be kept out on the counter with traditional tomatoes or can they be refridgerated? Also, at market today a couple of the baskets had purple ones. What's up with that?

Refrigerate. They are not tomatoes. I believe they are related to gooseberries.

Post magazine piece on Chef Richard.

A true testament to the resilience and indomitability of the human spirit that some possess. Michel Richard had a truly horrific childhood--family violence and alcoholism, abandonment and loss, psychological and physical abuse and neglect, and yet he has succeeded and prospered as an artist whose medium is food. I don't know that he ever spent any time in therapy to explore and work through the painful experiences of his past, but if the article is accurate, he has a deep ongoing need to prove his worth and seek the approval of his clients that would seem to have roots in his early life. One of my acting teachers, Uta Hagen, was very much against her students going into therapy, because she felt that great artists transmogrify their personal suffering, and that if one had successful psychotherapy, one wouldn't want to make art anymore. I don't agree--but in any case, the art that emerges from the soul kitchen of Michel Richard, ephemeral as it may be, lives forever in the sense memory of everyone who has experienced it, despite his apparent belief that he is only as good as his next dish. As my therapist used to say: "That's a feeling. Not a fact."

Send them down to the equator where they can be fired as cannonballs.

I might do that with a burrito from California Tortilla, but I think these truffles deserve a bit more respect. We are currently discussing with anticipatory deliciousness the other suggestions above. Thanks!

A friend returned from a trip to Italy and presented me with a gift of two truffles. They were separately wrapped in paper, in two vacuum packages. I opened one of the packages this morning, and the truffle inside is black, about the circumference of a flattened lime. It has a delicious aroma, not at all garlic-y, like the aroma of truffle oil that I am accustomed to.

I have never before had the opportunity of cooking with a fresh truffle, and I don't want to squander it.

Help me out, you guys. WWJD? (what would Julia do?) Or you?

So I had lunch at Kinkead's for Restaurant Week today, and had a soup that had duck confit in it (which was tremendous). I wasn't familiar with duck confit except by name, so I looked up a ton of recipes online and plan on making this one of my next projects (it's not fermented, but cured is close enough, right? ) A few questions:

1) Raisa or anyone else, do you have any particular recommendations for places to buy the fatty ducks necessary for confit? I live in Dupont and have no car, so something metroable is preferable, although I can zipcar if there aren't any metro-friendly options

2) Zora, how much fat do you generally get off a given duck leg? In particular, how many do I need to make in order to render enough fat to cover the legs?

3) Whenever I buy chuck roasts, I tend to trim off a portion of the fat as I'm cutting the roast into smaller pieces, and I have been saving the fat in the freezer. From reading around online, I've found conflicting reports on the culinary value of beef tallow (rendered beef fat)...most places say it has no flavor and thus doesn't contribute much, but then I've found a few places where people claim it is useful when frying, etc. Anybody tried this? If not, apparently tallow makes great candles

4) If I were going to make pork lard, would it be better to just buy the pork belly, or would it work to just save my pork fat trimmings for a while in the freezer and do the rendering once I've got a respectable amount? (or: how long will pork fat keep in the freezer?)

God I love stuff like this. Food project!

1. The best places I've found to get "fatty" ducks are Great Wall Supermarket on Gallows Rd. in Merrifield, or Super H on Lee Highway in Fairfax. They are both reliable sources of fresh ducks at $1.99 a pound. You'll pay 2 or 3 times as much for a fresh duck at Whole Foods. Frozen ducks are available at most supermarkets and Asian markets, cheaper at the latter.

2. For a "new batch" of fresh duck fat, I buy a whole duck and 4-6 legs. You can find duck legs for sale at Han ah Reum at the corner of Lee Highway and Gallows Rd. in Merrifield. They usually only have frozen whole ducks at HaR, so I buy the legs there, and get a fresh duck at Great Wall, down the road, which may or may not have legs that they sell separately. Render all of the skin from the whole duck and the skin from the duck legs, and you will have enough fat to confit all the meat. Then you'll have a nice big tub of fat in your fridge for future batches of confit. I boned out the breast meat, salted and smoked it in my stovetop smoker and then made duck stock from the wings and the frame. Be sure and smell the duck legs before you buy at HaR, to make sure they are fresh. I've gotten burned a couple of times.

3. When you make a beef roast and Yorkshire Pudding, the pudding is cooked in the rendered fat from the roast, so I don't agree that it has no flavor. However, the best use for rendered beef fat is to pour it over peanuts and sunflower seeds in a mold and then hang it up for birds to eat in your yard, in the winter. Cardinals and woodpeckers love it.

4. I have rendered pork fat trimmings to make lard, but pork belly works a lot better. The Asian markets where you get ducks and duck legs are the place to get pork belly. Cut it into small cubes and render in the oven. Fat will keep for a long time in the freezer, as long as it is well-wrapped.

My task for today is tomatoes, over 20 lbs of romas and heirlooms. I plan to cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake all varieties indiscriminately tossed with olive oil until I get a sense that they're ready for the next step. Never done this before so somewhat winging it. I do have a food mill (the el cheapo without inserts, only one set of holes, from Fisher). Think I will just bake the tomatoes with olive oil and salt, mill off the skins, and pack in ziplocks and freeze, and treat them as I would fresh tomatoes for sauce.

If you plan to use the tomatoes as if they were fresh, it would be better to blanch and peel them like peaches. The skins slip off easily after 30 seconds in boiling water, and the tomatoes don't get cooked. Then you can halve them, squeeze out the seeds and either pack them freezer bags or canning jars and water process them.

Miscellaneous what-I-can-find-in-the-pantry-and-fridge meal--I have a summer cold and don't feel much like spending a lot of time cooking...

Feta and watermelon

Roasted, herb-brined chicken

Roasted crimini mushrooms

Marinated white bean salad

Olives

Heirloom tomato wedges with olive oil, basil and sea salt

Fresh mozzarella from Blue Ridge Dairy

Charcuterie plate with La Quercia prosciutto and D'Artagnan chorizo

Charcoal-grilled red pepper

Breadline baguette

2006 Avondale Rose´

Paul's in Friendship Heights has weekly e-mail specials and weekly tastings. Also The Vineyard in McLean has an e-mail letter and tastings, and offers occasional sale prices.

I think we will be giving Black's a try. Is it the type of place I could bring the kids to for an early meal?

All of Jeff and Barbara Black's places are welcoming to children--they have two young ones of their own, and are very understanding about them.

Lesson learned- use cayenne pepper, not Texas chili powder.

Commercial chili powders are a blend of some form of spicy red chile (cayenne is one of those) sometimes with a sweet red pepper (paprika), cumin, salt and oregano. Sometimes other dried herbs or spices are included. I suppose that one could think of chili powder as a form of masala--Indian spice blends are called masalas, and there are a multitude of different ones for a wide variety of dishes--even tea masala for spiced chai. In making a vindaloo, you are probably following a recipe that calls for a blend of various flavor elements, like ginger, garlic and various spices (garam masala? cumin? turmeric? fennel seed? fenugreek?). You are creating your own vindaloo masala to flavor the dish. You could use fresh hot chiles, like serrano or thai chiles or dried red chiles or some cayenne for the heat.

The great thing about burritos are you can throw what ever you want in to it, wrap it up and chow down.

There's a mini-chain in L.A. called Stan's Oki-Dog that makes teriyaki burritos and pastrami burritos. You can put baba ghanouj or creamed chipped beef in a flour tortilla and call it a burrito, if you want. I'll pass.

Not that I haven't enjoyed the digression into tomato sauce and canning, but on a slight more topical note: can anyone speak to the quality of the vacuum-packed parmagiano (or grana, for that matter) that's available at costco for about half as much as anywhere else? It seems like a good option for grating purposes, if not for serving on a cheese board.

I've been buying it (Reggiano) there for years. You can't beat the price, and it tastes great, grated.

The pleasure police! Their motive is likely to be to prove that cheese is bad for you.

One of my favorite items growing up was masitas de puerco or fried pork chunks. Sure, you can get them here, but they are not the same. Good fried pork chunks are marinated to develop the flavor, braised to tenderize them, and then fried to crisp to crisp them up. They should be melt-in-your-mouth soft, surrouned by a crispy shell. All they have here is bland, hard deep fried pork bits it seems.

What you are describing sounds similar to the method for making authentic carnitas--minus the citrus marinade that is customary in Cuban cuisine, and roasting instead of frying to achieve crispiness. The chains (BF and C) call their pork "carnitas" but it is really just stewed, pulled pork--it lacks the extra step of roasting and crisping of true carnitas.