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From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

I like it simple: French a rack of lamb and grill it on well-seasoned (i.e., not well cleaned) iron racks to 120 degrees internal temperature. Rest for 5-10, depending on how your drink is doing. Slice the racks and eat them with your hands; they're like grown-up lollipops!

From Serious Eats

The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?

Oh, I don't know re: communal tables. They're not that much different from those 'banks' in restaurants in Europe. Sure, the tables were separate from that endlessly long couch, but you'd still brush your neighbor's elbow if you reached out to take a hard cut at that overcooked pepper steak you just got served.

From A Hamburger Today

The Burger Lab: The Fake Shack

A very entertaining and informative post. And it's got life advice to boot: "
Note to self: always ask nicely before moving on to breaking-and-entering."

From Serious Eats

That's Nuts: Is Kung Pao Chicken Authentic?

@Lorenzo: in Hawai'i, peanuts are boiled with star anise, too. Very tasty.

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Recent Posts

From Talk

How 9 Cuts of Beef Got Their Name

From Talk

Expresso vs Espresso: A pro-Expresso Rant

From Talk

Cornish Hen - Internal Temperature?

From Talk

Peanut Butter Recipes (or other nuts)

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Recent Comments | Response to Comments

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

I like it simple: French a rack of lamb and grill it on well-seasoned (i.e., not well cleaned) iron racks to 120 degrees internal temperature. Rest for 5-10, depending on how your drink is doing. Slice the racks and eat them with your hands; they're like grown-up lollipops!

From Serious Eats

The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?

Oh, I don't know re: communal tables. They're not that much different from those 'banks' in restaurants in Europe. Sure, the tables were separate from that endlessly long couch, but you'd still brush your neighbor's elbow if you reached out to take a hard cut at that overcooked pepper steak you just got served.

From A Hamburger Today

The Burger Lab: The Fake Shack

A very entertaining and informative post. And it's got life advice to boot: "
Note to self: always ask nicely before moving on to breaking-and-entering."

From Serious Eats

That's Nuts: Is Kung Pao Chicken Authentic?

@Lorenzo: in Hawai'i, peanuts are boiled with star anise, too. Very tasty.

From Serious Eats

Snapshots from Paris: Perrier with Smaller Bubbles

Perrier is fine and it's all over France; perhaps the basketball-bellied American should get out more and stop spouting nonsense. One of the joys experienced in Europe was the marvelous selection of sparkling and mineral waters.

My favorite was Valser.

And I do like them "chalky."

Here in my area in the USA, it's San Pel, Perrier and the occasional find of Gerolsteiner.

From Recipes

Seriously Asian: Stir-Frying Vegetables

@ Chichi Wang: This series becomes more valuable with each new addition. Very well done. Thanks for the blanching tip for stir-fry.

From Serious Eats

Video: The Grill Sergeants, the Armed Forces' Cooking Show

Fun! Nice to see the military is making more than "SOS."

I remember reading a story about a chef drafted into the Navy in WWII. He was sent to a "cooking school" at the LA Coliseum, where he observed the finest cuts of beef being dumped into huge cauldrons to be boiled. That was dinner for sailors.

Sometime when I was in Europe in the 1980s or 1990s, a US military pastry team won a pastry olympics medal. Times have indeed changed.

From Serious Eats

Breakfast in Belgium

Wow -- never got offered chocolate for breakfast during the years in Bruxelles, but don't doubt it. For us, breakfast was usually an expresso (NOT 'espresso' -- see my recent rant/post on SE) and a croissant.

Occasionally, one of us would troop up to the French-speaking patisserie for something nice like a creme tart, or else troop down to the equi-distant Flemish-speaking bakery for some fresh white bread (never a baguette or baton at breakfast, please -- we were such snobs).

On holidays, solar eclipses or other rare occasions such as wins by the Belgian national football [soccer] team, eggs cocotte were the rule.

There was always, of course, chocolate muesli. Not "Mueslix" whatever the heck that is on the American grocery shelf.

Yea, the waffles are for tourists, but also for hungry Bruxelloises at Metro stops on the way home. :)

All in all, the Belgian breakfast is a complement and a compliment to the natural way of eating things to which all humans should subscribe, which is expressed here by way of mantra:

Small Breakfast, Large Lunch, Small Dinner.


@Solid Skink: despite the white bread, northern Europeans don't have the obesity problems Americans have, eh? There's a lesson in that, similar to the "French Paradox," I think

From Recipes

Cook the Book: Tomatoes All Dressed Up for Summer

"Do the books with the most beautiful covers and photos necessarily have the best recipes?"

Certainly not. Julia Child's French cooking books will win no graphic design awards.

Though it is certain that increased talent in the areas of graphic design, photography, writing and more liberal applications of recipe design mean that we have a much larger base from which to select books than, probably, ever before.

But I'll still take Childs, or Pepin, or that Belgian chef who I can't find any info about, over "coffee-table kitsch."

From Serious Eats

Juan Posada, Taco Truck Photographer

This is missing in El Paso. The reason? So many MEX restos, more than 400, I hear. That's not a band thing at all -- it's a good thing. But for those who suffer from Americanized Mexican food, this kind of experience is hard to beat. There are some vans in ELP, but they can't compete with what the locals want, and get -- sit-down food for cheap. I miss the vans from CA, but appreciate the sit-down world-class N MEX food in ELP.

From Serious Eats

Should Hot Dogs Carry Warning Labels?

I think non-profits should put warning labels on their advertisements.

Such as, "The X Project" is a non-profit organization marginally devoted to bringing awareness of X to the general public, but is more devoted to providing paying wages to its members and, oh yeah, trolling for hot dog lawsuits."

From Serious Eats

The Pastes of Provence: Know Your Tapenade, Pistou, Aïoli, and More

This is a great post. Why, it practically inspires one to be a home paste-maker. That one with artichoke hearts, for example.

Or... why not pastes with similar products from one's own region. Hmm...

From Serious Eats

Share the Meat! Propaganda Posters

@marchpane: Funny!

Love those propaganda posters. Wacked-out, wannabe hip and current artwork and layout, probably always constrained by bureaucrats.

But I have to say, no one (not even the Chinese) has anything on Soviet Russians for over-the-top Politburo-style sloganeering, backed up by hilariously-idealized figures.

From Serious Eats

Why The Hate For Alice Waters?

I guess I'd compare Waters to an artist, and I've know a couple of rather famous ones. They seemed to have an artificial grasp on reality, and suffered for it -- financially, health-wise and socially. But they were very, very good at their art.

Waters is an artist more than a cook, is my assessment, and in my mind, that explains her position.

From Talk

Cornish Hen - Internal Temperature?

HogFather: nope, no stuffing. I cut out the backbone and removed the breastbone so roasted them flat.

From Talk

Cornish Hen - Internal Temperature?

I'm thinking 170, based on today's experiment, I browned the skin in a pan first, which rocketed the temperature upwards, meaning the veggies under the hens didn't cook as much (I hate nearly-raw veggies, no matter how much they retain their nutrients). But would go 165 and assume some more cooking while tented.

From Talk

How does one handle when Chef friend's food is gross?

The chicken thing sounds very, very bad. Try to use as much tact as possible to alert him (he may not have done the cooking) to the state of the meal. Be positive for all things that are not a health risk.

Make sure that your feelings about what constitutes "raw" are to health standards before going foreward, however.

I have found that when I stir-fry chicken, it comes out (well-cooked) much more soft than in restos in the local area. One audience didn't appear to like it, though it was cooked throughout. Me, I was rejoicing over eating moist white meat, and practically doing knife-tricks with my cleaver in the kitchen in exuberance. But I think they were used to dry and hard "round-eye" chicken in a Chinese dish... at least the kind of Chinese dish the audience was expecting in the USA.

From Talk

Cornish Hen - Internal Temperature?

Thanks, twoojoe, and by touch, do you mean the chin, cheek, forehead touch to measure doneness?

(Sorry for the followup question and, yeah, the Cornish Hens weren't prohibitively expensive, but why bother messing them up if I don't have to?

From Serious Eats

The Kimchi Revolution May Finally Be Here

Kimchi Revolution? Not a minute too soon!

And it's not just the well-known cabbage. There are also cucumber, radish, and green onion. Who knows what else? (Well, someone on SE will come along who does.)

One of the most satisfying things to eat is kimchi w/ steamed rice.

From Serious Eats

A Waitress Sketches Her Clientele

Fantastic. I had to email her and write, "Ralph Steadman, move over." The satire and frustration are quite similar to his work.

From Serious Eats

In Videos: Camera on a Sushi Conveyor Belt

OK, I've never used this word in public before, but this is nifty.

Besides that, it's stylish and cinematic (!). There are all these little "movements," and interwoven pieces, like watching the cook's hands working, and the watching the mechanical pieces, and then the diners rolling by.

Way cool. Well done.

From Recipes

Cook the Book: Milk Chocolate Malt Ice Cream

Adam: this is going to be done tomorrow. We are drooling at the prospect right now.

Georgie Porgie: I've never really thought about it. I remember doing shifts on a cheap old hand-crank one (replenishing ice and salt as I went) as a kid. But...

David Lebovitz has one here.

Here's another one.

From Serious Eats

Inventor of the Doner Kebab Dies

Had no idea the Döner was only invented in 1971.

Then, I lived in Germany before it was invented.

Don't know how I survived.

I remember a Döner stand near the main rail station in one town I lived in (near, in a nearby small village). After arriving home on a Saturday night after an away football match, it was the only place still open. Man, the wonderful food I had there. A Döner with fries, or a Currywurst. With fries. Everything came with fries, or "pommes frites." The guys serving the food would ask about the match, the fouls, the riots, or whatever. That vertical spit of meat was like heaving hanging off a metal rod. It circled endlessly, and they would use an electric knife to cut off the charred, hottest pieces. They had a condiment tray under a sneeze-guard, and cases of beer lying about in the "dining room," and it was so casual and so tasty, that I can't forget it. Or find that atmosphere, or taste, in the US.

RIP, Döner Man.

From Serious Eats

Weekend DVD Giveaway: 'Bottle Shock'

Blended, co-op Red
Poured into five-liter jugs
Southern Italy!

The co-op sells wine
In the hot Italian sun
Through gasoline pumps!

They water down wine
Not to rip off tourists
For baby bottles!

There's a special jug
Fitting Italian fridges
Five liters, plastic.

One thousand lira
For the special jug, I see
Eight thousand for wine.

Room-mate wants red wine
Landlord making lemon hooch
I'd rather drink free.

From Talk

Slow Cooker Advice: What to Buy? Should I?

I have "Old Reliable," a Rival like yours. It's too small (though good for two people + leftovers). So, after many, many years (I think the Rival might have been a wedding present), I've been looking at this one. It's the right size, but freaking expensive, and I've heard that, owing to fear of litigation (?), the low and high settings on new crock pots are different from old-school one. Don't know how true that is -- since "Old Reliable" keeps perking along.

Would like to know what you decide on -- I too am keen on the "keep warm" function, and I REALLY need a timer.


From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

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Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

Grilled rack of lamb with mint sauce and cous cous on the side.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

I like how my MIL makes lamb in a stew with a tomato sauce like base

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

My favorite lamb recipe is roasted leg of lamb with mint jelly.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

I have a pretty good lamb chops recipe. I also have a leg of lamb recipe we use for dinner sometimes on special occasions. Lamb is BY FAR my favorite meat!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

Lamb stew. Based on the comments above, however, lamb burgers might have the potential of being a new favorite if I can find the right recipe for preparing them well.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

Lamb Tagine is my favorite lamb recipe. garrettsambo@aol.com

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

I really like lamb but have never cooked it. I love lamb chops with some garlic mashed potatoes. yummy. I would love to learn how to roast lamb for Gyros

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

Other than Gyros I haven't had much lamb. My husband is a big Lamb eater. I am slowly learning to appreciate it.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

I had some awesome lamb chops in Spain with lots of garlic. I wish I knew how they made them.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

rack of lamb coated in dijon mustard, garlic, and rosemary

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

my sweetie loves rotisserie-ing a leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic stabbed into it.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

Hard to decide between roast leg of lamb or lamb shanks. Love them both!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

Take butterflied leg of lamb. Add rosemary, garlic wine. Wait. Grill. Yum.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

I'm an Aussie who misses weekly Sunday lamb roasts (so much more expensive over here and more of a hunt to get the right quality). However, when I do cook up a lamb roast I am 100% for simplicity - garlic and rosemary and lots of roasted veggies in the same pan to absorb the juices. I also like some simple jus or gravy from the juices at the end.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'How to Roast a Lamb'

I used to make candied ginger and use the syrup for ginger ale. Then we made ground lamb patties with chopped candied ginger and mint leaves mixed in one night. Mmm...gotta do that again.

Recent Posts

From Talk

How 9 Cuts of Beef Got Their Name

From Talk

Expresso vs Espresso: A pro-Expresso Rant

From Talk

Cornish Hen - Internal Temperature?

From Talk

Peanut Butter Recipes (or other nuts)

From Talk

Vegetable Art -- Gaugin's Garbanzos?

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About TikiPundit

Website:

Location: Hawai'i

About: Friendly local Hawai'ian god.

Favorite foods: Poke, lomi lomi, any kind sashimi, laulau, rice, any kind bento, miso, Thai, good dim sum, French (yes, French), Greek, some Italian, American pizzas (not European), and better believe cheeseburgers.

Last bite on earth: Sashimi at the beach.