What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[~christina~]

Razor clams, dig em and eat em
http://www.channel4.com/food/recipe...ll/razor-clams-with-chorizo-07-11-15_p_1.html

pain in the @ss to clean these guys.

http://www.clamdigging.info/cleaningclams.html

sure it's easy right?? try cleaning a few of these while their curling up on you...

(I sure as heck am not eating them with their innards still in them)

 

[Evo]

It's wild in the grocery stores there, women are ripping into containers of camembert and squeezing it to test the "ooze". It has to "ooze" out of the middle just right, or you don't buy it. You see hundreds of opened cheese containers. It's not like the standardized psuedo camembert you get here. It's just a horribly rank, raw, taste of sour mold that makes me gag.

Of course not as bad as maggot cheese. The maggots actually jump out of the cheese as it's eaten and land on the people eating it, I was lucky enough to see film footage of it (it's illegal).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu

 

[turbo]

I was stuck in the deep south over a weekend, having made a proposal to a paper company in TX late in the week and having another presentation to make on Monday in Moss Point MS on Monday. I decided to ride out the weekend in New Orleans, and it happened to coincide with a music festival (duh!). I was in the French quarter looking for food and beer and there was a place offering oysters and beer for happy hour. I slipped in and found a place at the bar and ordered a dozen oysters, and had drunk a couple of beers, and when my oysters ran out, I was about to leave when a little Japanese girl who had showed up at about the same time that I did (white blouse, pleated skirt) ordered another dozen, and I did, too. I had to walk off that supper, but the music on that street made that easy. BTW, I have never had to doctor the taste of oysters, spice them with sauces, etc. They really are great raw, and a couple of times a year, my wife manages to find some (real) fresh examples to bring home for me.

 

[Evo]

BTW, I have never had to doctor the taste of oysters, spice them with sauces, etc. They really are great raw, and a couple of times a year, my wife manages to find some (real) fresh examples to bring home for me.

Fresh oysters taste like fresh seawater, no fishy taste at all. I MISS THEM SO MUCH!

 

[turbo]

Darn, those Kansas oysters are so stringy and rank!

 

[Evo]

Darn, those Kansas oysters are so stringy and rank!

Mountain oysters are NOT the same thing!

I have been watching WAY too many of those on Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern lately.

"Ooh, they're creamy inside"

 

[turbo]

I have grown up in Maine and have a proper respect for fresh seafood. When Japanese chefs showed up here about 20 years ago and started offering sushi, I paid attention, and had some wonderful meals as a result.

 

[scorpa]

Hmmmph well the gross oysters I had were cooked. I made my uncle eat them and he seemed to think they were great, although I think he would eat anything that resembled food (although I am not sure these did). They were really big ones though so maybe that is why they tasted so bad. They were just so awful, food should not ooze green gooey stuff.

 

[Evo]

I have grown up in Maine and have a proper respect for fresh seafood. When Japanese chefs showed up here about 20 years ago and started offering sushi, I paid attention, and had some wonderful meals as a result.

Maine has phenomenal seafood. I grew up on the gulf and we got our seafood right on the boats when they pulled in. I was spoiled.

 

[Evo]

Hmmmph well the gross oysters I had were cooked. I made my uncle eat them and he seemed to think they were great, although I think he would eat anything that resembled food (although I am not sure these did). They were really big ones though so maybe that is why they tasted so bad. They were just so awful, food should not ooze green gooey stuff.

I absolutely agree, I will NOT eat that green stuff!

It's just WRONG!

Unfortunately the majority of people in the world have never had a good oyster. They just can't get them.

 

[scorpa]

I had my oysters in Victoria BC, I would have thought they should have been good. Apparently not.

 

[Evo]

I had my oysters in Victoria BC, I would have thought they should have been good. Apparently not.

Believe it or not some of those places want to impress with gigantic oysters, which really are inedible.

 

[~christina~]

Hmmmph well the gross oysters I had were cooked. I made my uncle eat them and he seemed to think they were great, although I think he would eat anything that resembled food (although I am not sure these did). They were really big ones though so maybe that is why they tasted so bad. They were just so awful, food should not ooze green gooey stuff.

um...I think they shouldn't ooze green gooey stuff if they are cooked thoroughly.

The ones that I saw that didn't firm up were shall we say "bad oysters".

 

[~christina~]

Of course not as bad as maggot cheese. The maggots actually jump out of the cheese as it's eaten and land on the people eating it, I was lucky enough to see film footage of it (it's illegal).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu

Quote from Wiki
dangers of maggot cheese (below)

Risk of enteric myiasis: intestinal larval infection. Piophila casei larvae can pass through the stomach alive (human stomach acids do not usually kill them) and take up residency for some period of time in the intestines, where they can cause serious lesions as they attempt to bore through the intestinal walls. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and bloody diarrhea.

attempt at boring through your intestine walls...okay...

 

[Moonbear]

Quote from Wiki
dangers of maggot cheese (below)


attempt at boring through your intestine walls...okay...

I might risk wormy fish, but I think I'll avoid maggoty cheese, thanks.

 

[wolram]

Quote from Wiki
dangers of maggot cheese (below)


attempt at boring through your intestine walls...okay...

And they grow and grow and develop big teeth and suddenly burst out of your belly with
a big toothy grin.

 

[turbo]

Cindy McCain posted some of the "McCain Family recipes" on the campaign web-site and even submitted one to the New York Post back in January. The fly in the ointment is that they were lifted word-for-word from the food network. What a coincidence!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-weiner/mccain-family-recipes-lif_b_96666.html

 

[vincentm]

Vincent's Chile Verde con puerco dish

Ingredients:

1 Pork shoulder cubed (you can ask the butcher to dice it up for you)

12 Tomatillos

1/2 cup diced Onion

1 bushel of Cilantro

2 tbsp Flour

3 tbsp salt

1 clove Garlic

1 tsp of diced Jalapeno (optional turbo-1)Brown pork cutlets in large sauce pan for about 5 minutes add salt and onion powder, boil till fully cooked. Boil Tomatillos, diced Onion and Jalapeno then place in blender with chopped cilantro and Garlic clove with hot water used to boil the tomatillos. Once pork is finished place in sauce pan on medium heat, add Chile that you just blended with 1 tbsp flour, you can add the second tbsp if you want the chile more thick.

Cover and let cook for 10 minutes, serve with spanish rice and warm corn tortillas.

 

[turbo]

A whole bushel of cilantro? I love the stuff, but not that much!

And what's with the OPTIONAL jalapeno? Do you mean I can substitute habanero (100x hotter) instead? Sounds good, though. I've never made a chili out of 100% tomatillos because they are very expensive up here, but if I can get a deal on them, I'll probably give this a try.

 

[vincentm]

A whole bushel of cilantro? I love the stuff, but not that much!

And what's with the OPTIONAL jalapeno? Do you mean I can substitute habanero (100x hotter) instead? Sounds good, though. I've never made a chili out of 100% tomatillos because they are very expensive up here, but if I can get a deal on them, I'll probably give this a try.

Usually i add the jalapeño, it's not meant to be a really spicy dish, traditionally its just meant to have a tiny sting nothing more. Oh and no not the whole bushel, i just always happen to cook for an army even though it's just my wife and i, I'm always waking up and eating again in the middle of the night :P

 

[Evo]

Vincent's Chile Verde con puerco dish

Ingredients:

1 Pork shoulder cubed (you can ask the butcher to dice it up for you)

12 Tomatillos

1/2 cup diced Onion

1 bushel of Cilantro

2 tbsp Flour

3 tbsp salt

1 clove Garlic

1 tsp of diced Jalapeno (optional turbo-1)


Brown pork cutlets in large sauce pan for about 5 minutes add salt and onion powder, boil till fully cooked. Boil Tomatillos, diced Onion and Jalapeno then place in blender with chopped cilantro and Garlic clove with hot water used to boil the tomatillos. Once pork is finished place in sauce pan on medium heat, add Chile that you just blended with 1 tbsp flour, you can add the second tbsp if you want the chile more thick.

Cover and let cook for 10 minutes, serve with spanish rice and warm corn tortillas.

Ooooh, I am going to have to make that, I love tomatillos! I think I might cut down on the cilantro however. 1 US bushel = 35.239072 liters

 

[Moonbear]

A whole bushel of cilantro? I love the stuff, but not that much!

I wonder if he meant a "bunch"? The recipe sounds great! A new grocery store opened up here recently, and they have a really nice produce section with some of the harder-to-find vegetables and exotic fruits, so I'll have to see if they have tomatillos (sometimes the other stores do, but they never look very good and I don't trust them to be picked right since a lot of their produce is sold unripened and goes bad rather than ripens, and I don't think they know the difference).

 

[wolram]

Discovering red curry paste, it has the wow factor, i will include it in all my chili dishes from now on, i find a 1 to 1 with Tuboes relish is the magical number, boy this is a treat.

 

[vincentm]

I wonder if he meant a "bunch"? The recipe sounds great! A new grocery store opened up here recently, and they have a really nice produce section with some of the harder-to-find vegetables and exotic fruits, so I'll have to see if they have tomatillos (sometimes the other stores do, but they never look very good and I don't trust them to be picked right since a lot of their produce is sold unripened and goes bad rather than ripens, and I don't think they know the difference).

When shopping for produce my father (he's was a chef for 30+ years) taught me to pick your produce based on color and smell. A good tomatillo will have a nice bright green and a strong smell. when peeling them they're sticky to the touch, so you're going to want to wash your hands in between.

 

[Moonbear]

Discovering red curry paste, it has the wow factor, i will include it in all my chili dishes from now on, i find a 1 to 1 with Tuboes relish is the magical number, boy this is a treat.

I'm surprised you didn't know of red curry before. My first experience with it wasn't even an Asian dish, but served with fries on the request of my Welsh friend while we were at an Irish pub who insisted it was a staple in Britain (curry chips for the Brits). Then I had it in Thai dishes later, and really enjoyed those as well. It sure does sound like it would go well with turbo's relish on pretty much anything though.

When shopping for produce my father (he's was a chef for 30+ years) taught me to pick your produce based on color and smell. A good tomatillo will have a nice bright green and a strong smell. when peeling them they're sticky to the touch, so you're going to want to wash your hands in between.

Thanks! That's helpful since the produce managers/buyers around here clearly haven't a clue what they're getting, even with really common items (drives me crazy when I go to the grocery store and can't even find onions that have been properly dried...they look like they were packed up straight out of the ground and end up getting moldy/rotten quickly because the skins are a bit wet and the tops were cut off before drying too). We used to get onions to last the whole year from harvest to harvest, but buy them in the grocery store and you're lucky to get them to last a month.

 

[turbo]

Mmmm! The house smells great! I brined a boneless pork loin end roast for about a day and a half in salt, water, brown sugar, peppercorns and whole allspice with a few slices of candied ginger. (Boil the brine first, then chill it and dunk the roast in and add enough water so that it's covered, then into the fridge.) Anyway I rinsed that roast about an hour ago and dredged it in a mix of flour, salt, fresh-ground black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder, tossed it in a metal roasting pan and put it in the oven (preheated to 500 deg) for browning. Soon, I'll take it out, cover with foil and slow-roast it at 350 for a couple more hours, bake some potatoes, too. It's 76 deg outside, so supper is going to be out in the sun on the back deck, listening to the birds.

The purple finches showed up today, adding their songs to the goldfinches, juncos and others, so it's very relaxing to sit on the deck.

 

[Evo]

I was watching Alton Brown last night and he used a spice called "Grains of Paradise" instead of pepper.

A bit expensive, but I'm curious enough that I think I might buy some. He said he is absolutely crazy about them.

http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/grains-of-paradise

 

[turbo]

I was watching Alton Brown last night and he used a spice called "Grains of Paradise" instead of pepper.

A bit expensive, but I'm curious enough that I think I might buy some. He said he is absolutely crazy about them.

http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/grains-of-paradise

I'll have to see if I can get the local health food store to get some in. Their prices on spices are about 1/2 what the supermarkets charge, so maybe they won't be that expensive. $3/oz is definitely getting "out there".

 

[vincentm]

Mmmm! The house smells great! I brined a boneless pork loin end roast for about a day and a half in salt, water, brown sugar, peppercorns and whole allspice with a few slices of candied ginger. (Boil the brine first, then chill it and dunk the roast in and add enough water so that it's covered, then into the fridge.) Anyway I rinsed that roast about an hour ago and dredged it in a mix of flour, salt, fresh-ground black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder, tossed it in a metal roasting pan and put it in the oven (preheated to 500 deg) for browning. Soon, I'll take it out, cover with foil and slow-roast it at 350 for a couple more hours, bake some potatoes, too. It's 76 deg outside, so supper is going to be out in the sun on the back deck, listening to the birds.

The purple finches showed up today, adding their songs to the goldfinches, juncos and others, so it's very relaxing to sit on the deck.

I hate you When i get home, i'll post my dad's recipe for Pasta Aldente

 

[Evo]

I'll have to see if I can get the local health food store to get some in. Their prices on spices are about 1/2 what the supermarkets charge, so maybe they won't be that expensive. $3/oz is definitely getting "out there".

That's was the cheapest site I know of. Another site is selling it for $5.08 an ounce.

 

[turbo]

I hate you

Be nice! I'll save you a slice of that juicy roast and some gravy to put on your baked potato. Hurry. Supper is at 5:00.

 

[turbo]

The roast is juicy, but a little too salty, too. I didn't cook it yesterday because I was running a lot of errands and got back too late, so it spent an extra day in the brine. Stupid noob mistake. Won't do that again - I should have known better. It's still tasty, but I don't like meat to taste salty. The gravy is wonderful on baked potatoes, if a bit salty, too.

I've got a couple of fresh Atlantic salmon filets and tomorrow I'll brine them and hickory smoke them in a maple-syrup/black pepper glaze.

 

[wolram]

I discovered red curry paste , what an improvement this ingredient has made to my chili i think it is almost perfect now lots of bite but smooth.

 

[turbo]

I discovered red curry paste , what an improvement this ingredient has made to my chili i think it is almost perfect now lots of bite but smooth.

I may try to locate some of that. Undisclosed glutamates in processed foods can send me into anaphylactic shock, so I have to be real careful. Maybe I'll find out how to make my own. Safer than food-labeling Russian roulette.

 

[Moonbear]

I may try to locate some of that. Undisclosed glutamates in processed foods can send me into anaphylactic shock, so I have to be real careful. Maybe I'll find out how to make my own. Safer than food-labeling Russian roulette.

The one I have sounds safe. It's Thai Kitchen brand sold in the regular grocery store and the ingredients list is:
red chili, garlic, lemongrass, galangal (thai ginger), salt, onion, kaffir lime, coriander, pepper.

It's also labeled gluten free and vegan, in case anyone cares. It is processed in a facility that processes peanuts, if peanut allergies are a concern.