JCC Tomo-spiced karkana ribenes - the foodies' thread

UPDATE: In regards to the recipe I posted for the brisket. Turns out, when you sub in a spicy something for tomato paste, because that's then infused in the gravy and you condense it down... it gets pretty spicy once it's done. It's good, but fair warning.

 

Hey, I tried your stuff, and I'm lousy at cakes in general. What you make doesn't only look good, it is good

 

Some pics, finally... apparently rather than emailing pictures, simply connecting my Blackberry to the PC and the pics come out okay...



So that's what the buffalo chicken tender + mozz sandwich looks like. Ideally, if you do it right, you'd get the mozzarella more melty on top than I did.

And the requisite leftover brisket sandwich:



So, to make the sandwich, preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

1) Cut a hero roll in half length-wise and spread a little EVOO on each side of the interior bread.
2) On the "bottom" half of the bread, mince fresh garlic to your own taste (mine was 5 cloves).
3) Put the bread in the oven on a pan, interior bread side up in the middle rack (with the middle rack being the top-most rack currently in the oven). Put the leftover brisket just out of the fridge, wrapped in foil, in by itself.
4) 200 degrees for 12 minutes; remove brisket and turn broiler on. Broil bread for 2-3 minutes tops (crispy, not burnt).
5) While bread broils, slice brisket and heat gravy in microwave (90s - 2m). Brisket should be "cool" or "lukewarm" -- not hot or warm.
6) Take bread out, load brisket on bottom piece of bread and lightly drizzle hot gravy. Ladle gravy on interior of top piece of bread and spread evenly for a thick layer.
7) Put sandwich together and cut in half, width-wise.
8) Consume.
9) If you are JoinTheSchwarz just ignore the bread because you're in America.

 

The look of the bread is causing me real physical pain. But at least you broiled it!

 

The baking at low temperature got it crunchy all the way through without it being like a hockey puck, then a quick sear; I actually think you would have approved.

 

I'm a big fan of buffalo chicken, by the way. It's probably my favorite pub food from America.

 

Heyyy so here's that cake recipe. I baked mine in an 11 inch springform pan because that's all I have at the moment in terms of cake pans, but you could probably go with a smaller pan to get a thicker cake or make cupcakes.

Peanut Butter Cake
1 3/4 c flour (I used 1 c cake flour, 3/4 c all-purpose
3/4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1 1/2 sticks (6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 c sugar (I did half brown sugar, half granulated because I like using brown sugar in my cakes)
2/3 c creamy peanut butter (this is one of those rare baking recipes where natural peanut butter would be a-ok to use according to the original recipe but I stuck with what I know for baking and used the commercial really not-so-great for you stuff)
3 large eggs
1/2 c sour cream (you could probably sub in greek yogurt if you have that on hand)
1/2 t vanilla

Combine your dry ingredients and set those aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the peanut butter. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then vanilla. Add 1/3 of your dry, followed by 1/2 of the sour cream. Repeat until all ingredients are added, making sure to fully incorporate between each addition and stopping to scrape down the bowl if needed.

Bake at 350 F. Time will depend on how you prepare it, but a good rule of thumb is to start at 10 minutes, then check on the cake. Gently rotate it and then add more time as you see fit (if it's super wet in the middle and jiggly, give it another 10 -- if it's looking close to done, give it 5 or less). Once it's done, let it sit in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer the cake from the pan to a wire rack to finish cooling completely before frosting.

I can't quite remember the frosting recipe, but I think this is it?

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick (2 oz) unsalted butter, softened
pinch of salt
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 c jam of your choice (I used seedless blackberry)
around 2 c powdered sugar depending on your tastes and the consistency

Cream together butter and cream cheese until fluffy, then beat in vanilla and salt. Add jam and beat to combine, then add powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency.

 

Well, the bread might not be ideal but dp4m 's sandwiches look pretty awesome!

Thanks for that recipe xblackout - that's next on my cake list.

I made two loaves of banana bread with harpua 's recipe (no offense Boba Nekhbet -- I had some yoghurt to kill so I substituted it for the sour cream, I'll try your recipe next time) and it was heavenly. I had to bake it for 2 whole hours instead of 1 hour 10 minutes though, and I'm not sure if that has to do with the fact that my bananas were particularly big or that I used wholemeal flour.

 

I also live in a high altitude and mountainous climate. so that may have had something to do with it.

.. and thanks.

 

The guilty snack to accompany afternoon coffee on the balcony (because, yes, the weather is that nice)



The cheese is anthotyro -- a very fresh, unsalted, creamy cheese from Crete.

The honey is real, unprocessed, aromatic honey from the mountains of Halkidiki.

The bread is... well, I'll leave that comment to JoinTheSchwarz

 

I want a Nessie ladle!



http://gizmodo.com/loch-ness-kitchen-sightings-are-about-to-skyrocket-than-1680723173

 

Unfortunately they are all sold out. I was going to buy one for my mom who kinda collects Nessie things.

 

What, forever? Surely, more can be made.

 

I thought when I looked before it said unknown when more may become avalible (which usually means never), but when I just looked again to make sure I wasn't making things up, it looks like it starts to say March but gets cut off.

 

**** you turducken, we got ourselves an, err cowpigamb. Of course there's no way we can actually cook the damn thing.

 

Holy ****.

 

If they sold out that quickly, I'm sure (I hope) more will be made. They'd be crazy not to restock..

 

OK so a while ago I posted about Michelin star restaurants but never followed up.

I've just spent 3 weeks in London and we went to 3 high quality restaurants, two which are Michelin-starred

Hakkasan Hanway Place (1 star since 2003)
We ate here as my fiancee is a big fan of Chinese food. We shared a lot of vegetarian dishes and I had one meat dish. The vegetarian dim sum we started with was excellent. I'm not usually a big fan of dumplings, but the texture of these ones were great, melt in the mouth, with an interesting set of fillings far from what I usually encounter. Highly recommend the bean curd roll.

I have to confess I don't remember what we particularly ate in terms of vegetarian dishes (except that the flavour balance was brilliant, coming from someone who's not usually a fan of Chinese cuisine, and that I accidentally ate an entire dried chilli in the stirfried vegetables) but I do remember the meat dish. Stir fried venison. I don't eat game much (except kangaroo) so the strong flavour in the stir fry was quite a change from the usual chicken/pork/beef that I have. Very tender, and the water chestnuts and celery provided good texture contrast. Above all, it tasted ******* great. Heartily recommended!

Gymkhana (1 star since 2014)
This is an Indian restaurant, styled like a Raj-era club. We got the set menus- these were great value for money as we couldn't even eat everything we got. The naan breads were perfect-crispy on the outside but still chewy on the inside. Rabbit curry was, as above, a different flavour than I'm used to (the reason I had it) but worked very well- a good hit of heat without being overwhelming. The food is as good as Indian food can be, I think. The real highlight here though were the cocktails- a huge variety of distinctive ones- one in a bottle with grate-your own cinnamon, and even alcoholic tea you pour over a flavoured gel to adjust the flavour. Innovative, interesting and delicious. I'd come back to this place and recommended the fixed menu- they were flexible enough to swap out dishes for us as well.

Bob Bob Ricard:
This place isn't starred, and the food wasn't innovative, but it was my conception of what a 'fancy restaurant' should be. Not white tablecloths etc, but an interior inspired by the Orient Express, fantastic service, and a button on the table you push to order glasses of champagne (dangerous...) We stayed with traditional dishes here- I had lobster dumplings (some Russian name) for entree, they were perfectly cooked and the sauce didn't overpower the flavour of the lobster. I'm not a big fan of the salmon roe- though that could be because I ate them singly and they were very salty. Perhaps better if I mixed with the dumplings.

Main course had the filet mignon, with foie gras and bone marrow. The best steak I've ever eaten. Perfectly cooked and I hardly had to chew. But we all know what a great steak tastes like (sorry vegetarians).

Had the signature dessert-Chocolate Glory. Lived up to its name with a variety of chocolate components and looked spectacular. It comes in a sphere of chocolate the waiter pours hot chocolate sauce over to melt and reveal the jelly inside. Presented in potato quality here:

I can understand why it's not starred- but it was a brilliant experience.

 

http://www.grubstreet.com/2014/09/new-york-city-michelin-stars-2015.html

Here's where I've eaten:

http://elevenmadisonpark.com/ (Three stars)
http://le-bernardin.com/ (Three stars)
http://www.jean-georgesrestaurant.com/jean-georges/menus/dinner/ (Three stars)
http://danielnyc.com/ (Two stars)
http://www.charliepalmer.com/aureole-new-york/ (One star)
http://dovetailnyc.com/ (One star)
http://gothambarandgrill.com/ (One star)
http://www.gramercytavern.com/ (One star)
http://www.lincolnristorante.com/ (One star)
http://www.themodernnyc.com/ (One star)
http://picholinenyc.com/ (One star)
http://telepan-ny.com/ (One star)

What's interesting to me about this list is ... I probably wouldn't consider most of those at their rankings, or at least my impression of how good a restaurant is supposed to be (let alone blame hudzu for this after I read The Perfectionist).

Jean Georges and Le Bernadin -- sure. Daniel probably. Picholine and Telepan, okay. (and I'm going to Telepan on Thursday!) But the rest... yeah. The Modern is the restaurant in the Met (the fine dining one, but still); it was good but nothing special. Lincoln is the same at Lincoln Center, though much better than The Modern.

Similarly, unless A Voce consistently went downhill since I ate there, I'd put it well ahead of several of the other one stars.

I don't know if Michelin is just pandering to US audiences, my expectations are wildly out of line, neither, or both...

 

That is at least five bridges too far.

 

You know I think I said the same thing to Divya. Haha.

 

I've been eating mostly nonsense recently, because half my family had the flu (cue buckets of soup for everyone) and there were the elections going on, so it's been very much a sandwiches-in-front-of-TV kind of couple of weeks.

I did try one night to make your peanut butter cake xblackout but it was a total failure. It was hard enough to hammer a nail in a concrete wall The batter itself seemed way too thick when I poured it in the baking dish. Should I try adding an extra egg?