zoramargolis

From the Washington Post Thursday Home section: After the Rains, a Mushroom Boom

I love how they were "just seeing what was there", not picking, because it's illegal in a national park. They weren't picking because there was a Washington Post reporter along. You better believe that if the mushroom hunters were there by themselves and found choice edibles, they would've picked them.

I can just imagine what one of Agaria's martinis would be like with it. Hmmm bitters...

By the way, I found the Stirrings brand Blood Orange Bitters that I tasted at Agraria, at the Georgetown Whole Foods store, on the aisle where they have spices, salt, honey, etc. Aside from in a Manhattan, I have used it to add complexity to an apricot tart. Tasty stuff. I think I paid $7.99...

If you like the Cotes du Rhone, you should try the Chateauneuf du Pape, it is heavenly (even better if you can sucker a friend into opening one of his Reserve Le Clos du Caillou).

Are you offering, friend? I promise I won't think of you as a sucker, if you open one when I'm around. This CDR was tastier than many of the CNDPs that I have had...

Last night, celebrating a birthday (his, not mine) we opened a bottle I acquired a few months ago, on sale at MacArthur Bev: 2001 Le Clos Du Caillou Cotes du Rhone Reserve. OMG this was a gorgeous bottle of wine. Nose of berries and flowers. Silky on the tongue with layers of flavor--raspberry, spice and flowers. It must have been quite high in alcohol though, because we both woke up feeling a tad hung over, without having consumed any other alcohol before or after. And we usually easily finish a bottle of wine together without blinking an eye.

Last Sunday, at the Dupont market, I found some beautiful bright green young pickling cukes at the big West Virginia stand next to Adam, the milk guy. It took me a few days to find the appropriate quart-sized jar. All I had was small ones for making jam. Yesterday, I had what I needed, and I made kosher-style dill pickles, using my mother's method. Which is to put a tablespoon of kosher salt and some fresh garlic cloves in the bottom of a sterilized jar (I added some pickling spices, which she stopped doing after many years--coriander seed, mustard seed, red pepper flakes, bay leaf, a few whole black peppercorns and allspice berries), packed the cukes in good and tight. Shoved some fresh dill on top and filled the jar with filtered water. You tighten the lid and rotate the jar a few times to dissolve the salt. Then this is important--you loosen the lid a bit, and set the jar on some newspaper somewhere that a powerful scent of garlic won't be a problem. In my case, on my service porch. After a couple of days, depending on the ambient temperature, the pickles will start to ferment, and the liquid bubbles. If the lid is too tight, the jar could explode. The newspaper is there to soak up any liquid that exudes from the jar. When it seems as if the bubbling has died down, tighten the lid and refrigerate the pickles. These don't get processed, and must be kept refrigerated--like Bubbie's or BaTempte brand. If you eat them quickly, they are half-sours. If you leave them for a couple of months, they become full sours. If they smell off or seem slimy, there was bacterial contamination and they should be pitched. Clean jars and well-rinsed cukes are the best way to avoid this.

I ate a lot of these kind of pickles when I was growing up. We had an old refrigerator in our garage, dedicated to pickle jar cold storage.

Far be it for me to swim against the tide...

Hickory-smoked ribs: (Jonathan LOVED the succulent ribs at China Gourmet, and while I wasn't looking for Asian flavors on this all-American holiday, I did make some Chang-inspired changes in the usual way I slow-cook ribs. First they spent some time with a dry rub on them, then braised in the oven, in a beer and chicken stock with lots of aromatic veg and herbs, at low temperature for about three hours. They then spent two hours in the Weber kettle on indirect heat with pans of braising liquid directly underneath, and a slow charcoal fire banked to the side onto which I sprinkled a goodly amount of wet hickory chips. I turned and wet-mopped the ribs with braising liquid a few times, and then brushed on some homemade bbq sauce for the last few minutes.) The were falling off the bone tender, juicy. Absolutely the best ribs I've ever made.

BBQ sauce--tomato based (what can I tell you...I'm from the West Coast) with the usual plus a few surprise ingredients: cumin, chipotle powder, chopped grilled peaches, pomegranate molasses. Long, slow cooktop time. Excellent.

Garlic mashed potatoes

Cole slaw with coconut dressing (this was a pantry improvisation. I usually put crushed pineapple into coleslaw dressing, but didn't have any on hand. I did have some small cans of coconut milk, and added some to the mayo-yogurt-rice vinegar-sugar combo that is the usual basis for the dressing. I added onion and celery seed and whizzed it together. It worked! He liked it! So did I...)

Leftover apricot tart

2005 Turkey Flat Rose

Charcoal-grilled shrimp skewers

Lemon aioli (WAY too much garlic )

White bean salad

2004 Pazo Senõrans Albarinõ

Rustic apricot tart with vanilla ice cream

The generosity of Michael Landrum is quite breath-taking at times, like today. Really, if he didn't exist could any of us possibly invent him?

Nah. Not even Rocks.

Michael rocks! No kidding. He really is a remarkably talented, big-hearted dude, who has found a home here with us in the DR.com community. And aren't we lucky! It's no wonder that he has a lot of fans here. And here's to Phyllis, who must have been a very good and discerning cook, to judge by the quality of her kitchen accoutrements. Those who cook and who didn't show up early or at all, missed a real opportunity. This was a fun event. Thanks to Elizabeth and Steve for figuring out a great way to pay tribute to Phyllis' love of the culinary arts, and to assure that her tools will continue to create.

My crackpot concept is to open a falafel joint. It would be called "Falafel Waffle". I'd somehow make falafels in a round waffle iron thereby creating large, flat, half-moon shaped falafels that would fit perfectly into 1/2 of a round pita. I'm sure to make millions.

Not that far off from "World's Wurst" a California hot dog chain. Though you probably ought to call it Falafel Wawful for it to be analogous.

I don't have an ice cream maker. If I did, I might be tempted to try this flavor combo I thought of yesterday:

PIS'TOFFIO-- pistachios, toffee and ice cold anger

And for those gastronauts who are always game for eating exotica:

LEMUR ORANG PIE

I don't know why I just thought of this--I'm not making this up--my 8th grade Home Ec teacher at John Burroughs Junior High in L.A. was named Carmen Crumpacker. I swear to god.

I just returned home from a trip to Homestead Farm in Poolesville with 32 pounds of sour cherries--about 6 or 7 gallons worth. I noticed that they were selling for around $4 a pint at the Dupont Market last sunday. Pick your own was $1.89 a pound and it took the three of us about 45 minutes to pick 32 pounds and an hour round trip to get there and back home. The trees were loaded with ripe fruit low on the trees; the cherries were coming off in handfuls, amazingly easy to pick our buckets full quickly. They're only going to be picking for another week or so.

They've just started u-pick blackberries and gooseberries (?) and are selling early peaches and nectarines that they pick for you. I've never done anything with gooseberries. Maybe I'll have to think about that if I have any energy left after dealing with all these cherries.

Meanwhile, I've got a lot of pitting to do. I bought a fairly expensive European-made cherry pitter with a little hopper that is a bit quicker than the hole puncher-type pitter I've used in the past, but it will still be a major job. I made a huge batch of sour cherry preserves in 2004, which got raves from everyone who tasted them. I still had some left last year, so didn't make more. After a previous year's batch, that turned out runny and never thickened, I discovered a method not mentioned in any of the canning books or recipes that I looked at, or the instructions in the pectin package. In fact, it goes counter to the instructions given in the Sure-Jell packet. MY METHOD: DRAIN OFF MOST OF THE JUICE AND DON'T INCLUDE IT WITH THE CHOPPED CHERRIES WHEN MAKING THE PRESERVES. USE THE JUICE TO MAKE JELLY.

Especially this year, with all the rain we've just had, the cherries are super juicy. In fact, I may reduce the juice a bit to concentrate the flavor before I make jelly this time.

It's going to take a couple of days to pit all these cherries and make jam, and I don't have room in my fridge for them, so I have put them into a large ice chest. In this heat without refrigeration, they would start to ferment immediately.

First, though. I need to use some of them to make a cherry cobbler. Ooh, dang! Forgot to get vanilla ice cream when I bought the ice. Gotta make another trip to the store. J will be an unhappy camper if I serve cherry cobbler without vanilla ice cream.

view of entrance

Don't you love how they are able to use rosemary as groundcover and shrubbery in that climate? That's what is dripping down the walls that flank the door. I had a big rosemary shrub in my herb garden in Santa Monica, and used to throw a handful of the little blue flowers into my salads. There's a lot I don't miss about living in California (traffic, smog, earthquakes, horrible post-WW2 commercial architecture, etc. etc.) but my perennial herb garden is one of the things I do miss.

URL: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/06/2...n_QA/print.html

Unfortunately, Joe H is right here. I am guilty of highjacking the board at times for my own agenda and purposes (although never for commercial gain, I hope all can agree).

I have always felt that in these instances it is clear that I am using the forum, respectfully if at times heretically, as the paper upon which I write my treatises and as the nail I use to hammer them onto the church doors.

I endeavor greatly to pay my freight with access, entertainment, information--to the point of openly and freely sharing here what other restaurants would consider proprietory information and trade secrets--and by enjoining this forum as vehicle for community giving.

Also, like most of you, I do it because it is fun.

A major purpose in my use of this board, though, from day one, has been to subvert the status quo. To break the hegemony of established restaurants and the hegemony of the standard abusive, exploitative management practises and employment conditions, in favor of small, local, individually owned shops around which communities can be built.

In contibuting to the diversion of attention away from other, equally deserving restaurants and in detracting from the focus and integrity of this forum, I have both failed in that goal and failed this community.

For this I owe Don a sincere apology--if for no other reason than for being the precipitator of his judgement and values being called into question--for the misuse of his hospitality, as well as an apology to the board at large.

--Michael

Good grief, Michael! The stuff you write is not a problem--it is the most entertaining, creative, outrageous prose that appears on DR.com. I only hope that Don is collecting it in a separate place, so that at some point, he can help you get it published--perhaps as a sequel to "The Wit and Wisdom of Don DeFore" . Your unique and particular genius has inspired a cult, of sorts--the members of which are drawn to your persona and your establishment, but are only able to express themselves in comparatively mundane and repetetive ways, about the bisque and the diablo sauce and the reservation policy. I am only a bemused observer of this phenomenon, since I have dined at your establishment only once, at the DR dinner. The only reasons I haven't returned are my dislike of crossing the bridge at rush hour, and my husband's unwillingness to wait in line for a table later, after rush hour is over. If I do come by for dinner some night, I promise not to write about it, but only if you promise to vent more blasphemous screed for us to read.

I read this web site on Nina Planck with interest, especially in relationship to farmers's markets in Washington, D.C.

Does anyone know if she involved in the history of the Mount Pleasant market in any way?

I believe that she is the daughter of the folks who own Wheatlands organic farm in Loudon Co., who have been involved with the Dupont market/Fresh Farm group since its inception. About a year after the Dupont market got started, she left home and went to England, where she was instrumental in starting a farmers' market in London. I don't know what her involvement with Mt. Pleasant is, but it wouldn't surprise me to find that she had returned to her home turf in some way.

Maybe the meaning of BYOW could be expanded--to "bring your own wineglass." I know what your complaint is--an expensive restaurant with fine dining ought to provide appropriate winestems, which is true. I also know that replacing broken wineglasses is a constant issue for restaurants-- and a huge expense. I can understand why a small place would only risk their pricey Spiegelaus or Riedels for a very expensive bottle. However, since the size/quality of the glass you drink wine from is very important to you, it might be worth an inquiry about the wineservice when you call for a reservation. And if you don't like what they tell you--say something like "I plan to order a bottle of wine from your list. But would you mind if I bring my own special glass from home to drink it in? It will make it so much more enjoyable for me." Restaurants get special requests all the time, and that one wouldn't require them to do anything differently--except wash one less glass. I'll bet they wouldn't say no to that.

I was just in Montreal, and went into a store in Old Town that just sold wine accoutrements--they had carrying cases for winestems-- to take good glasses to a tasting, I presume, but that could just as easily be taken to a restaurant. If a store has it, I'm sure it could be found online...

Just a thought.

You found a bottle of Black Maple Hill whiskey! How you'd get that lucky? I've been searching for whiskey from Black Maple Hill for years ever since I read an article where several bourbon connoisseurs selected it over Bookers, Blanton, Pappy Van Winkle, and the rest. Which store did you purchase the rye? How was it?

---

Todd

wine-compass.com

Joe Riley at Ace Beverages on New Mexico Ave. sells both Black Maple Hill bourbon and rye. He does provide generous price breaks to Rockweillers, but even so, they were both too pricey for me to consider.

Jar of Maille cornichons ran out so I reached for the spare in my pantry. Gah. Balducci's brand cornichons are disgusting - little flavor and a foul mushy texture.

Come to think of it, every house brand thing I've tried there has suh-uh-ucked. Way to go, Sutton Place.

I like the house brand of cornichons at Trader Joe's--nice and crisp, and plenty of flavor. Less expensive, too.

Chowhound's new format is up. Large font.

As a former Chowhounder, I have received e-mails from several friends who stayed at CH after I gave up on it for a variety of reasons. Most of my chow pals seem to dislike the new software intensely. While the old clunky, slow format was one of the big reasons I had for leaving CH, it's now very difficult to get an overview of recent past threads--one must bookmark a thread in order to see right away if a new response has been added. I didn't spend enough time looking at the new site to form a strong negative opinion. It is the content and the tight-assed forum hosting that are my biggest problem with CH.

Zora--- I'm so jealous. But only for a few more days. I'm going to Montreal next week Next time you go to Montreal you should check out the Jean-Talon market. It's bigger than Atwater. Lots of amazing produce, artisanal cheeses, etc. and next time you have to try poutine- we used to call it heart attack in a box in college but it was so worth it.

Cousin-in-law Carol did tell me that there was another market she likes, even better than Atwater--I assume she was referring to the one you mention above. But it was Saturday, and parking was going to be less problematic at Atwater. Atwater is closer to her home, as well.

I might have tried poutine in another situation, but I didn't feel I could take the risk of despoiling a rare opportunity to eat seared foie gras. I figured that the dish I chose involved cheese curds and maple syrup, so I was getting enough gout de Montreal. Maybe next time.

We may be returning to Montreal more often, in the future. My daughter has decided that she likes Montreal even more than New York City, and I think McGill just went to the top of her potential college list.

I just returned from a four-day trip to Montreal. Stayed in a small B&B (called Boulanger Bassin) near Parc Lafontaine where amazing breakfasts were served every day by the owner--coffee, juice, fruit smoothies, freshly baked croissant or pan chocolat (he gets frozen dough from a baker friend and proofs and bakes them himself), fresh fruit, yogurt-granola-fresh berries and maple syrup, croque monsieur; fresh bagel, lox, cream cheese.

Montreal is a city of food-lovers. Zillions of restaurants, bistros, and coffee houses, and all were packed with people.

We had two great restaurant dinners--one at Au Pied du Cochon, where Jonathan had one of their amazing seafood platters (he had the smallest one-level platter with all manner of oysters, clams, scallops, mussels, periwinkles, crab, which was $45--the largest, five level which must be eaten standing up in order to reach it all, with all manner of shellfish, shrimps, crabs and lobsters goes for over $300--it could easily feed six. It was served on crushed ice with a choice of herbed butter, herb mayonnaise, and spicy mignonette. I had seared foie gras served on a buckwheat blini, with potato, cheese curds, smoky bacon and maple syrup. I couldn't quite pull the trigger on poutine with foie gras (poutine is the local kids' junk food favorite--it's french fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy). They didn't have foie gras cooked in a can, but there was duck cooked like that. Many fascinating dishes-- many different presentations of pork, duck, foie gras and fresh seafood in equal numbers. Packed with people; long wait for a table; slow service; huge wine list--almost all French; high prices; amazing food. A definite must on Duluth Street, near St. Hubert.

Our B&B host, knowing that we appreciate good food, recommended a small place called P'tit Plateau, on a hidden away corner on Marie-Anne, a block from St. Laurent, which is a BYOB with amazing French food. We were the only non-Montrealers there. I had foie gras again--poached this time, and a beautiful veal with morels. Jonathan had cream of english pea soup and juicy, perfectly cooked rib chops of young pork. We had brought along a 2003 Kangarilla Road shiraz/viognier from home, and it was a superb accompaniment. No corkage fee. Lots of places do this.

We had the requisite smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's, in the midst of a raucous street fair going on on St. Laurent while we were there. Delicious.

My cousin-in-law took me along to one of her favorite shopping destinations--Atwater Market, which is the old-world style market we all dream could be in our city. Good bread and beautiful pastries at the bakery, three or four butchers with all kinds of free-range poultry, local-raised beef lamb and pork, boudins and saucisses, all fresh. Charcutieres, cheese shops, vegetable and flower stands, a grocer with more primo olive oils and vinegars than Dean and Deluca, Balducci and Whole Foods combined, condiments and spices, pastas, grains (four or five different brands of Violone Nanno alone and equal numbers of several other types of risotto rice like baldo and carnaroli), just mind boggling. The fish dealer had a huge tank packed with just-delivered live lobsters--turned out the lobster season from the Magdelaine Islands in the gulf of St. Lawrence had begun. When Carol found out that we had never had Canadian lobster, which she claimed were much tastier than the ones we had eaten on the Coast of Maine--she of course had to cook some for us. We had dinner on two consecutive nights at her apartment in Habitat 67--the first was marinated, grilled lamb from Northern Quebec, eaten on the terrace while viewing a huge fireworks display going on over the river, which flows on both sides of the peninsula where Habitat 67 is located. the next night we had lobsters. Big ones. Steamed. With butter. I don't know or care if they are better than Maine lobsters. They were just fantastically succulent, fresh and delicious. Then local strawberries for dessert. I haven't stepped on the scale since I got back. I did do a lot of walking while I was there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

On a tip from Zora last summer, I started thinly slicing fennel and mixing it with sliced vidalia onions, cut up fresh figs, salt, pepper and olive oil, all roasted together in the oven till caramelized. The sweetness of the figs and the onions counters the really strong licorice flavor of the fennel and it's delicious!

Try adding a squeeze of lemon juice and a little bit of finely shaved lemon zest after roasting and before serving--even better...

What about having an "estate" sale one day, so that people can stop by and see the stuff? You might have better luck selling a lot of the baking pans and small miscellany that way, than you will by asking for people to commit sight unseen.

I hear tell of lots of people using various exotic rendered fats.

How does this work, exactly? Are people buying exotic fats from restaurant suppliers? Do people purchase meats JUST for their fat (which seems wasteful)?

I'm guessing that people actually cook something with the meat in question, and then SAVE the fat that renders off.

What's the best way to do this? How do you get the optimal amount of animal fat off the food and into your pot for saving? How can you be sure you're avoiding burning the fat? Once you're done cooking, what's the best way to get the fat out of the pan and into a container for saving it? What's the best way TO save said fat? Fridge? Freezer? How long will it keep?

Can ANY separated fat be used? I.e. fat that's floated to the top of a cooled braising liquid?

I once saved the fat off the top of the liquid from some balsamic braised shortribs I made. I stuck the gross-looking orange slabs in some tupperware and tossed it in the freezer. They worked great on the old indoor grill - I just stuck a slice on top of a burger and the fat oozed into the meat.

I render and save two kinds of fat--pork lard and duck fat (any available bacon fat goes on my dog's dinner, because I love her so much). When I buy duck legs for confit, I often remove the skin before salting the legs, then cut up and render the skin in the oven, which gives me both duck fat and cracklings. I pour off the fat as it renders out, so that it doesn't get too dark, and roast the cracklings until they are crispy. Then I cook the salted legs by submerging them in rendered duck fat (in the oven at a relatively low temperature for a long time, so there is no risk of burning the fat) to make the confit, which I serve with the cracklings. Duck fat that has been used to cook confit can be saved and used again, and will keep in the fridge for months, though it does become salty.

Pork lard can be made two ways--kettling or roasting. Kettling is best for lard that will be used for pie crust. It is made by grinding pork fat and cooking it in water. The fat melts and rises to the top--cracklings should be skimmed off, and the water can be boiled off, or the pot chilled and the fat lifted off the next day. Oven rendered lard has more of a roast pork-y taste and is best for savory uses, like in refried beans, tamales, or sauteeing meat, like schnitzel. I make it by buying fresh pork belly (not salted or cured) at one of the Korean markets, then cutting it into cubes and rendering in the oven. As with the duck skin, I pour off the fat periodically as it renders out, and roast the cracklings until they are golden and crisp.

I generally do not save and re-use fat that has rendered out during meat cooking-- sometimes I pour a little bit onto the dog's kibble.

One specific item - I can't seem to consistently get good grill marks. I don't move the meat, and it SEEMS like my coals are plenty hot enough... Should I invest in a heavy duty cast iron grate?

Let your grate get good and hot before you put the meat on. This may take 10 minutes or more. It's hard to resist the temptation to put the meat on to cook right after you've dumped the coals and set the grate in place, but you won't get good grill marks that way--more heat will hit the meat between the grids of the grill if you don't heat the grill enough before you start cooking.