LauraB

I made the Swiss Chard, Chickpea, and Tamarind Stew (pg 148) several months ago.  I followed the recipe exactly except that I served it over long-grain basmati rice and accompanied it with Greek yogurt and chopped cilantro.  With the rice, it was a complete meal.  It's quite simple and doesn't take very long (well, except for the the time to cook the beans and assuming you've already made tamarind paste, which I had).  The tamarind provided a tangy note and the caraway added a pleasant infusion of its flavor through the whole dish.  I liked it, but didn't love it (MrB loved it), although I did love how healthy and easy it was.

I made the Pureed Beets with Yogurt and Za'atar (pg 53) back in December.  We enjoyed it quite a bit.  I had to make a couple of substitutions: red pepper flakes for the chile and maple syrup for the date syrup, but otherwise made it as written.  I served it as a dip with crackers and pita, but did not bother with the garnishes.  The recipe says to serve at room temperature, but I preferred it somewhat chilled. The garlic was a bit overwhelming, so in future I'd halve the amount.  Also, the color of the dish in the photo in the book is a beautiful, dark aubergine.  The color of mine was more of a raspberry, which is fine for a dessert, but which I find less appetizing in a savory dish.  Next time I might cut back on the yogurt in hopes of getting a darker color in the final product.

Anyway, that experience led me to a discovery we still use today when the weather outside is really a bear. A two-burner, heavy, cast-iron grill for indoor grilling. We get great results with it.

I'd like more information about your indoor grill.

Poor Mister Bill.

(It rhymes.)

I'm afraid your clue had no meaning for me.  It was not a factor in my win.

Four Sisters Grill?

Is the entire menu available at lunch?  The website is a bit confusing: it has a one-page 'Lunch' menu that is very abbreviated and doesn't contain very many interesting dishes.  

City Perch?

Hopefully there will be a podcast or recording of this later. Would love to listen but can't when live.

Yes, after the show go to this page and you will find a LISTEN link where you can hear the show -- wait about an hour after the show ends for the link to appear.

For anyone interested, Kojo's show at 1:00 pm today (WAMU, 88.5) will feature Aaron Silverman (Rose's Luxury), Paul Ruppert (Crane & Turtle, Petworth Citizen), and Todd Kliman discussing the topic 'Cultivating a Culinary Ecosystem in Washington.'

Lol, I couldn't resist buying Irish Soda Bread this weekend and slathered that with Kerrygold. Warm bread and good butter....

Speaking of Kerrygold, I was at the P Street WF a couple of hours ago and they have Kerrygold on sale: $3.19 instead of $3.69.  I assume this is not specific to the P St location, but I'm not certain.

^I'm told that there are certain cultures where, if someone compliments something of yours, you give it to them.  Not saying that was the case here, but possibly.  

Lunch today was Charles Phan's Lemongrass Beef Stew that I made last week on the day it snowed.  Put the leftovers in the freezer and it made a perfect lunch on this dreary day.  I really like this dish, although, as written it's more of a soup than a stew -- there's lots of broth, which is fine with me because the broth is redolent of lemongrass and star anise.  I generally add more vegetables, including turnips and mushrooms and sometimes bok choy.  

lamb tagine with prunes and apricots, carrots and sweet potatoes, ras el hanout and saffron, dried lemon and preserved lemon

The tagine sounds wonderful!  Did you use a recipe, and if so, would you mind sharing?

Where did I dine? I think this one is going to need a clue.

Iron Gate?

What do you think about BreadFurst corn rye? I prefer rye bread with lots of caraway seed. And I found it very heavy. YMMV.

I like the bread a lot -- I tend to prefer a denser bread rather than light and airy.  Despite its density, I don't find it dry.  And, while I like caraway a lot, I don't really miss it here.  My one quibble with these loaves is that the crust is very thick (some might say 'crisp and crunchy') which makes it hard to cut into and to take that first bite.  From what I've read, that's a quality that Furstenburg is actually trying to achieve, so I guess he's succeeded.  I would love to see a list of the ingredients for this bread because there is a taste in it that is really reminiscent of coriander to me -- kind of a floral note -- which I find quite pleasant. Anyone know?

A slice of Bread Furst's corn rye bread, slathered with Kerrygold unsalted butter -- bread purchased just a few minutes ago at the Whole Foods on P Street! 

I want to echo the sentiments above.  The Baan Thai menu is fantastic!  We feel very fortunate to live nearby and we have gotten carryout and delivery from them more times than I can count.  They pretty much saved my life in January when I had a bad case of the flu and had no energy to cook and Mr.B was out of town for a week -- I ordered delivery from them 3 times that week.   We've been to Little Serow, Soi38, and Doi Moi and I'd put Baan Thai's food ahead of Soi38 and DoiMoi.  Their menu has expanded quite a lot from when we first learned about them and there is always something new to discover.  Our favorites are too numerous to mention; frankly, I'd be willing to just throw a dart at the menu and order whatever it landed on.  I do, however, have to laud their Green Mango Salad -- it's incredibly delicious -- and it's all the more amazing that it's so good after having been delivered.  Come to think of it, that could go for any of their food.

We ordered from them again last night and I really enjoyed my breakfast this morning of leftover Papaya Curry Chicken (Gaeng bpaa malagoh gai).

This is a PC/Apple interface problem. There's actually a good deal of info about it online and both companies (Microsoft and Apple) are aware of it and unwilling to recode around photo exif data. I've had the same trouble emailing photos from iOS to people running Windows.

I'd love to hear from any members here using Apple (macs, MacBooks, iPads, iphone) and whether some or all of the versions of this photo I've posted above are right side up for them. Thank you!

Interesting.  Viewed on my PC desktop, it's upside down.  I just viewed it on my iPad and it's right-side-up.  I still don't know where it is, though. 

Great news for those of us who live further south in DC and can't often make it out to Bread Furst: The Whole Foods on P Street will begin carrying breads from BF this Thursday!  

I just looked at Ina Garten's recipe, and a few things occured to me. First, I would add chopped fennel to the vegetables. Second, it has no bay leaves or bouquet garnie. I would tie up a leek green with a big bunch of parsley, fresh thyme, celery leaf, rosemary, and fennel fronds. Third, I would put in a healthy splash of dry vermouth or white wine. To add extra flavor, I would sprinkle on some porcini powder--which is a flavor enhancer I often use--or, soak and then chop some dried porcini and add the soaking liquid. For more flavor, some anchovy paste mixed in with the sauteed vegetables at the beginning of the process, or a couple of teaspoons of nuoc mam with the broth.

Will do!  Where do you buy your porcini powder?

Ribollita.  Used an Ina Garten recipe and was somewhat disappointed; it was a little one-dimensional.  Still hit the spot, though.  Perhaps vast quantities of grated parmesan helped.

That is a good question.  I'm really not sure.  It doesn't help that I can only use a tiny bit of onion.  I run into that problem a lot.

Interesting.  If it's this recipe, I had the exact same issue when I made it for the first (and last) time back in December.  I can usually count on Ina's recipes to produce a delicious result, but this one fell short of the mark.  Even on the second day it was just lacking in flavor.  I made a note that if I make it again (which I won't), I should increase the amount of pancetta and decrease the amount of bread and possibly use diced tomatoes in place of whole plum tomatoes (which didn't break down as much as I would have liked).  I don't think your problem was a lack of onions because I used the amount called for and still got a lackluster result.

In fact, if anyone has a Ribollita recipe that they like, I'd like to hear about it.  I've tried several and found them all to be disappointing.

On 3/6/2015 at 8:20 AM, porcupine said:

I replaced my Reverware with All-Clad (just the basic line) in the winter of 1998.  Granted I'm fanatical about treating them right (they never go into the dishwasher), but still they perform flawlessly, as good as they did 17 years ago, and I don't expect I will ever need to replace them.  I use the 8 qt pot several times a week, for pasta, blanching vegetables, stocks, soups, stews, braises that start on the stove and finish in the oven, just about anything I make in quantity...  it may be an indulgence but you can't go wrong.

Ditto, word-for-word.  (Although, I may have bought my All-Clad pots and pans in 1997.)  At the time they seemed very expensive.  When I think of the many years of service, multiple times every week that almost every piece delivers, it's probably been the best investment I've ever made.

I highly recommend the Ashby Inn in Paris, VA (Fauquier County).  We had brunch there in November and it was a fantastic experience. See my write-up of it here (scroll down to post #114).  As I noted in my review, the $45/person price included a Bloody Mary or their Ashby Imperial.  

To the West End Cinema.  Closing at the end of March.  We enjoyed many a film there that couldn't be found elsewhere in the vicinity.