What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[wolram]

How come you ladies are not as fat as barrels eating all this sweet stuff?

I mean 3/4 cup of sugar!

 

[rewebster]

hey--turbo

have you ever 'brined' chicken?

 

[turbo]

hey--turbo

have you ever 'brined' chicken?

I have brined turkeys, and they come out juicy and delicious. I imagine chicken would be even more tender. I don't eat commercially packed chickens or turkeys because they are injected with MSG and I'm very allergic to that. I have to be careful of pork, too because a lot of pork is now water-added (with MSG included).

 

[rewebster]

What?!

no chickens running around that garden keeping the bugs down?

-----------------

are they too much, or have you got a local supplier then?

 

[hypatia]

How come you ladies are not as fat as barrels eating all this sweet stuff?

I mean 3/4 cup of sugar!

Because you only eat one slice of it, and take the rest of it to work and leave it in the break room.

 

[turbo]

What?!

no chickens running around that garden keeping the bugs down?

-----------------

are they too much, or have you got a local supplier then?

There is a farm a few miles from here that raises free-range Black Angus and free-range chickens and we buy from them. There is another place that raises turkeys, nearby. We are currently about out of poultry and will have to hit one of these places and stock up again. I don't want to get into raising chickens, in part because I would have to keep them penned. Where we live, there are weasels, fishers, raccoons, and other critters that would love me to provide them free chickens.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Because you only eat one slice of it, and take the rest of it to work and leave it in the break room.

Aw shucks, our break room is broken. It's specialized a black hole. Any remotely edible object or collections thereof are sucked into a gravity well instantaneously. Put 'em down, poof! gone. The gravity well seems to reject plates, though. It ate fourteen pizzas last week, leaving just the cardboard boxes. Any attempt to measure entropy fails as it also eats that as well. I can accept no other conclusion All the data is gone, too.

 

[Evo]

Good lord, I'm watching some stupid show on the Food Network and this "chef" is supposed to fix dinner at the Pixar studios and one of the themes is the movie "Ratatouille". Everyone is pronouncing it rat tat too eee. ARRRGGGGHHHHH It only has three syllables, not four. It's pronounced ra ta tooy.

Ok, no one cares except me.

 

[turbo]

Good lord, I'm watching some stupid show on the Food Network and this "chef" is supposed to fix dinner at the Pixar studios and one of the themes is the movie "Ratatouille". Everyone is pronouncing it rat tat too eee. ARRRGGGGHHHHH It only has three syllables, not four. It's pronounced ra ta tooy.

Ok, no one cares except me.

I don't care about ratatouille so much because US citizens routinely mangle French words. What makes my skin crawl is when "W" claims that some group has "nukuler" weapons. I'm assuming that his handlers WANT him to sound like a redneck hick without a clue, because he has not pronounced the word properly in 7 years.

To get back OT, I called my father this morning to wish him a happy 82nd birthday, and since we sent him home with lots of food last Sunday, he saved the big slice of roasted brined pork rib roast, gravy, potatoes, Swiss chard, and buttercup squash for his birthday lunch. We can't buy him anything he wants or needs, but we can keep him supplied with tasty food. His cooking is abysmal! Actually, he cooks lots better than many women I know, but he's lazy about it. He'll buy some Ragu spaghetti sauce, and saute pork sausage, garlic, etc to add to it, along with oregano, basil, etc, for instance. If anything takes longer than 20 minutes total prep/cooking time, he's not motivated.

 

[wolram]

Which is the best cut of steak for grilling and how thick should it be?

 

[turbo]

Which is the best cut of steak for grilling and how thick should it be?

It depends on the butcher and the quality of the meat. For a time, we had a local grocer who got incredible cuts of beef. I used to get 1-1/2" thick cuts of sirloin strip to grill. The beef at the local supermarkets is so lousy that even "tender" cuts like T-bone and porterhouse sometimes disappoint.

 

[wolram]

The local store is advertising 10 day Aberdeen Angus, it is expensive but i thought i would treat my self.

 

[Ouabache]

...one of the themes is the movie "Ratatouille". Everyone is pronouncing it rat tat too eee. ARRRGGGGHHHHH It only has three syllables, not four. It's pronounced ra ta tooy.

Ok, no one cares except me.

oui oui, ra-ta-tuye .. though Merriam Webster has their own unique pronunciation

Wollie, on steak for grilling, whichever cut you decide on, i recommend getting it dry-aged. It naturally tenderizes the meat and upon grilling this steak yields a delightful texture

 

[Evo]

oui oui, ra-ta-tuye ..

Yes, that's much better! I had a hard time trying to figure out how to write it phonectically.

though Merriam Webster has their own unique pronunciation

That's awful.

 

[Andre]

i thought i would treat my self.

A real treat for steak would be to pre-heat marinated steak (w/bbq sauce for instance) in a plastic bag in water of a hot bath tub temperature, ~100F or something for about 10-15 minutes (it should not discolor, then it's too hot), then put it in a pre heated frying pan. Fry both sides for only one minute just until the first streaks of dark brown appear. That's the way to keep the fluids inside and to get the melting sensation when eating. Serve with brown gravy or other light sauce. careful with salt pepper or spices, don't kill it's delicate taste.

Don't forget to honor it with a glass of Burgundy.

 

[Ouabache]

Fry both sides for only one minute just until the first streaks of dark brown appear. That's the way to keep the fluids inside and to get the melting sensation when eating. Serve with brown gravy or other light sauce.

Gravy on steak
After going through the effort of marinating and searing, you'll miss the amazing flavour you've created, by hiding it behind a gravy or sauce.

 

[wolram]

How do you clean roasting tins? i have tried brillo pads, bleach, Mr muscle, gunk and petrol, nothing gets them clean.

 

[turbo]

How do you clean roasting tins? i have tried brillo pads, bleach, Mr muscle, gunk and petrol, nothing gets them clean.

There's a difference between "clean" and shiny bare metal. I wash roasting pans in soap and water and scrape them to get off the residue from the last meal, but I don't obsess about getting off the dark layer of "seasoning". Same with our steel wok. Cast-iron NEVER gets cleaned in soapy water. Use a nylon pot-scraper to clean out any residue, scour the interior a couple of times with sea-salt, and put it away.

 

[wolram]

Wollie[/i], on steak for grilling, whichever cut you decide on, i recommend getting it dry-aged. It naturally tenderizes the meat and upon grilling this steak yields a delightful texture

Is it safe to eat when gets smelly? i have left meat in the fridge before and chucked it out
because it was going green and smelly.

 

[Moonbear]

Good lord, I'm watching some stupid show on the Food Network and this "chef" is supposed to fix dinner at the Pixar studios and one of the themes is the movie "Ratatouille". Everyone is pronouncing it rat tat too eee. ARRRGGGGHHHHH It only has three syllables, not four. It's pronounced ra ta tooy.

Ok, no one cares except me.

The character in the movie makes RAT a tooey, because he's a rat. The mispronunciation is on purpose in the movie.

 

[Evo]

The character in the movie makes RAT a tooey, because he's a rat. The mispronunciation is on purpose in the movie.

Rat is ok, too eee is not.

 

[Moonbear]

Rat is ok, too eee is not.

How do you pronounce the "Y" at the end of your pronunciation, or the e at the end of Ouabache's version? I've always heard people pronounce it too-ee at the end. I didn't know there was some other way to pronounce it.

Here: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=ratatouille

 

[Evo]

How do you pronounce the "Y" at the end of your pronunciation, or the e at the end of Ouabache's version? I've always heard people pronounce it too-ee at the end. I didn't know there was some other way to pronounce it.

It's a single syllable like "toy", except with a u "tuy". So you could say Rat a tuy. The "e' at the end makes the "uy" sound longer, but it would be silent.

For example "grenouille" is pronounced "grhun wee", not "gre noo eee"

 

[Moonbear]

It's a single syllable like "toy", except with a u "tuy". So you could say Rat a tuy. The "e' at the end makes the "uy" sound longer, but it would be silent.

Hmm...well, it seems we have a different American version of the pronunciation then, since even the dictionaries don't list it that way.

 

[ZapperZ]

Thomas Keller of the French Laundry http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/dining/13rata.html" .

It does look consistent to what Remy was doing, since the ratatouille dish he was making used sliced, rather than diced, vegetables. I've only had ratatouille with diced vegetables.

Zz.

 

[Evo]

Check out this dictionary's pronunciation http://www.yourdictionary.com/ratatouille

ahahaha

 

[Evo]

Thomas Keller of the French Laundry http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/dining/13rata.html" .

It does look consistent to what Remy was doing, since the ratatouille dish he was making used sliced, rather than diced, vegetables. I've only had ratatouille with diced vegetables.

Zz.

Keller's dish is not traditional ratatouille, it's a new age version of it he calls "confit byaldi". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confit_byaldi Why they would have an American chef consult for French food is beyond me.

 

[ZapperZ]

Keller's dish is not traditional ratatouille, it's a new age version of it he calls "confit byaldi". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confit_byaldi Why they would have an American chef consult for French food is beyond me.

If that's the case, the French would have jumped all over it. But from reviews that I've read out of there, they thought it was a rather accurate depiction of the recipe and a french restaurant kitchen in general.

Zz.

 

[Evo]

Hmm...well, it seems we have a different American version of the pronunciation then, since even the dictionaries don't list it that way.

Yes, it's an American version, not correct in French. Southern France perhaps is closer since their southern accent makes them pronounce the silent e's, but sounds more like "uh". For example Antibe "an teeb" is pronounced "an tee buh" in the south of France.

 

[Evo]

If that's the case, the French would have jumped all over it. But from reviews that I've read out of there, they thought it was a rather accurate depiction of the recipe and a french restaurant kitchen in general.

Zz.

Does the picture of the confit biyaldi look like what was made in the movie? His recipe sounds great, but I wouldn't have recognized it as ratatouille.

(don't forget that I am French and grew up eating traditional ratatouille.)

This is a good explanation of why they didn't use ratatouille for the movie, it didn't look good enough. http://www.metropulse.com/articles/2007/17_31/kitchen.html

 

[ZapperZ]

Does the picture of the confit biyaldi look like what was made in the movie? His recipe sounds great, but I wouldn't have recognized it as ratatouille.

(don't forget that I am French and grew up eating traditional ratatouille.)

This is a good explanation of why they didn't use ratatouille for the movie, it didn't look good enough. http://www.metropulse.com/articles/2007/17_31/kitchen.html

It does look similar.

Still, I think this is within the premise of the movie. Remy wants to make something "traditional", but he's also serving it in an upscale Paris restaurant to an important food critic. So one certainly expect that an upscale version of a peasant dish would be something not uncommon.

We can't tell what exactly are the ingredients used in the movie, just that the ratatouille looks different than the common version in its presentation. I don't find that not unrealistic at all, considering how many upscale restaurants often reinterprets food classics.

Zz.

 

[Evo]

It does look similar.

Still, I think this is within the premise of the movie. Remy wants to make something "traditional", but he's also serving it in an upscale Paris restaurant to an important food critic. So one certainly expect that an upscale version of a peasant dish would be something not uncommon.

We can't tell what exactly are the ingredients used in the movie, just that the ratatouille looks different than the common version in its presentation. I don't find that not unrealistic at all, considering how many upscale restaurants often reinterprets food classics.

Zz.

Yes, that's what they explain in that last link I posted. Ratatouille didn't look good when drawn, so they went with a dish that had more eye appeal, the confit biyaldi, similar ingredients to ratatouille, just made differently, it's no longer a stew of chopped vegetables.

The biyaldi sounds good, I think I'll make some next week, I just finished off the pot of ratatouille I made the other night.

 

[ZapperZ]

Yes, that's what they explain in that last link I posted. Ratatouille didn't look good when drawn, so they went with a dish that had more eye appeal, the confit biyaldi, similar ingredients to ratatouille, just made differently, it's no longer a stew of chopped vegetables.

The biyaldi sounds good, I think I'll make some next week, I just finished off the pot of ratatouille I made the other night.

When are you going to send some my way? I haven't had a good ratatouille in years.

Come to think of it, I can't remember if I've ever had a good ratatouille.

Zz.

 

[Evo]

When are you going to send some my way? I haven't had a good ratatouille in years.

Come to think of it, I can't remember if I've ever had a good ratatouille.

Zz.

I will have to make you some. Mine is the basic traditional recipe, it's delicious hot or cold. As a girlfriend once said of my cooking "it's orgasmic".

 

[Ouabache]

Is it safe to eat when gets smelly? i have left meat in the fridge before and chucked it out
because it was going green and smelly.

I'm with you, if it doesn't smell good, don't eat it.
If you look through the dry aging description, they only use top cuts of steak and leave the thick layer of fat on. It's done under controlled conditions; high humidity (75%), and cool refrigeration 1-3 deg C.

 

[Ouabache]

Check out this dictionary's pronunciation http://www.yourdictionary.com/ratatouille

ahahaha

hahahah hee hee (reminds me of the voice on my cell)

So there is the native pronunciation of Français and then there is the English strangulation of it. How often do you hear the correct pronunciation of Detroit (détroit, deh trhwa')? When I lived near Chicago, I heard the local pronunciation of a suburb Des Plaines said this way, Dez Playnes

 

[turbo]

When I lived near Chicago, I heard the local pronunciation of a suburb Des Plaines said this way, Dez Playnes

As opposed to Tattoo's pronounciation?

 

[Ouabache]

As opposed to Tattoo's pronounciation?

precisely.. (though i also heard it called dess playnes)
Come to think of it, there are quite a few place names of French origin in the U.S. Many concentrated around areas of colonization, New France

Though I've digressed too far from our thread.. We are indebted to the French for having added to American cooking, the delicious flavours of the simple mirepoix. A trinity of ingredients and basis of many dishes. Who knows of some other cooking trinities?

 

[Evo]

I bought some great looking beef shanks. I was going to make minnestrone, but now I'm thinking I'd like something different. Maybe beef with barley and red wine, I haven't made that in a long time.

 

[hypatia]

That sounds so good, more so now that its turned cold again. I've been lazy about going shopping. A big chain of supermarkets closed and now my little shops are so full of people, it makes shopping not so fun.

 

[ZapperZ]

I bought some great looking beef shanks. I was going to make minnestrone, but now I'm thinking I'd like something different. Maybe beef with barley and red wine, I haven't made that in a long time.

Marinate the shank with red wine, rosemary, bay leaves, sliced onions, pepper corns, and smashed garlic for about an hour. Then remove the shank, pat it dry, and brown in a large, heavy pot with some oil. When browned on all sides, pour the marinade into the pot, and add beef stock if necessary so that the shank is at least 3/4 covered by liquid. Cook slowly (covered) on low heat on the stove for at least 2 hours (I recommend 3), or in the oven for the same length of time until fork tender. Season to taste.

Remove shank and strain liquid. Reduce the liquid over medium heat until syrupy (not thick like gravy). Serve shank with mash potatoes or, my favorite, polenta. Pour reduced marinade on the shank. It makes one of the best cold-weather meal that I know of.

Zz.

 

[Evo]

Marinate the shank with red wine, rosemary, bay leaves, sliced onions, pepper corns, and smashed garlic for about an hour. Then remove the shank, pat it dry, and brown in a large, heavy pot with some oil. When browned on all sides, pour the marinade into the pot, and add beef stock if necessary so that the shank is at least 3/4 covered by liquid. Cook slowly (covered) on low heat on the stove for at least 2 hours (I recommend 3), or in the oven for the same length of time until fork tender. Season to taste.

Remove shank and strain liquid. Reduce the liquid over medium heat until syrupy (not thick like gravy). Serve shank with mash potatoes or, my favorite, polenta. Pour reduced marinade on the shank. It makes one of the best cold-weather meal that I know of.

Zz.

Ooooh, yum! That's what I'm making for dinner! Thanks Zz.

 

[rewebster]

I don't cook as much as others to explore all these different meals--but they sound great and pretty tasty.---maybe someday...

 

[Ouabache]

Who knows of some other cooking trinities?

When I cook chinese style; a common theme is scallions, ginger & garlic Mmmmm.. I think i'll make some marinated chinese beef and broccoli today. (secret ingredient fresh ground szechwan peppercorns)

 

[wolram]

What do you eat with oily fish? i have tins of various fish unopened because i only ever have them with toast which is not very tasty, what for example would go with pilchards?

 

[Evo]

What do you eat with oily fish? i have tins of various fish unopened because i only ever have them with toast which is not very tasty, what for example would go with pilchards?

I used to make a great open faced grilled sardine sandwich. On one slice of bread, split the sardines in half and layer over top of the bread, place swiss cheese over sardines and grill until melted. I also would sprinkle a bit of home made Ranch style dressing over the sandwich after it's grilled.

 

[wolram]

I used to make a great open faced grilled sardine sandwich. On one slice of bread, split the sardines in half and layer over top of the bread, place swiss cheese over sardines and grill until melted. I also would sprinkle a bit of home made Ranch style dressing over the sandwich after it's grilled.

Sounds OK, could i use Chedar and chili relish?

I have started preserving chilis in olive oil, is that a good idea?

And what to have with my rib eye steak with melted stilton on top, i thought mushrooms,
but then i thought may be pineaple or pear would go nice.

 

[Moonbear]

What do you eat with oily fish? i have tins of various fish unopened because i only ever have them with toast which is not very tasty, what for example would go with pilchards?

I only eat things like that on crackers. I guess they might go okay in a salad. I'm not sure Evo's sardine sandwich with cheese is sounding all that appealing to me though. It sounds like a good way to get yourself extra elbow room in a crowded cafeteria though.

 

[wolram]

I only eat things like that on crackers. I guess they might go okay in a salad. I'm not sure Evo's sardine sandwich with cheese is sounding all that appealing to me though. It sounds like a good way to get yourself extra elbow room in a crowded cafeteria though.

LOL.
I quite like the idea.

I have sardines, makeral and pilchards in my cupboard, i guess because i keep reading that oily fish is good for you, but it aint if it is left in the cupboard.

 

[Evo]

I'm not sure Evo's sardine sandwich with cheese is sounding all that appealing to me though. It sounds like a good way to get yourself extra elbow room in a crowded cafeteria though.

Don't knock it until you try it. I was fed this and was absolutely amazed. It became my most requested snack.