Live Q&As

Because you asked so nicely... Slow-Roasted Duck Breast.

I'm going to turn to "Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home" -- one of Bonnie's favorite cookbooks of the year -- and my own ice-cream adventures for inspiration:

- some really good chocolate (Valrhona, Askinosie, Callebaut, etc.)

- nuts

- dried fruit

- fine sea salt

- variety of essential oils

How's that for a start?

Could be that the dough is so soft it would otherwise spread irregularly without the ball step. Or the dough might be crumbly (Mexican wedding cookies come to mind) unless you compact it and let the butter do its thing at 350 degrees. Also, making evenly sized balls results in same-size cookies, and that means they'll bake evenly. If you put on some good music, the task will go quickly enough.

I like the Oxo one quite a bit. The Super Benriner is great, too, but I have only tested/played around with it. (The Oxo I've had for years.")

I think you could use it in risotto (with mushrooms?) to great effect. The gameyness of the rabbit would make an excellent contrast to creaminess of the risotto.

You might even try it with a winter squash soup to really boost the flavor.

RUSSELL: If you're familiar with the online sync service, Evernote, they've just released a new app - you basically take photos of food, people you're with and the venue, and then add notes. This could be a used for your own meals too, a great way to catalogue your recipes, dinners or any food related venture.

SAM AND DON: This book is all about getting good, healthy and tasty food on the table in a half an hour or so. Definitely kid friendly, although there are some more adult oriented recipes as well, but the emphasis is on getting it on the table fast, without compromising on either quality or taste.  Jamie Oliver does it again!

Wait, is this Siri? I've not come across any apps that cater to this need, perhaps a gap in the market but one that I can see filling in the near future what with the introduction of personal assistants in our smartphones. I'll keep my eyes (and ears) peeled.

The only non hands on app I've used is Great British Chefs, it includes a voice activated page turner for each step of the recipe.

Yes, I thought the fish wrapped in rice paper was terrific -- but then again, I think Msr. J is terrific.

SAM AND DON: There are two great new Moroccan cookbooks this year. Mourad Lalou's 'Mourad: New Moroccan' and Paula Wolfert's 'Food of Morocco.'  These books are very diffierent from each other, and yet we recommend both. Wolfert's book  focuses on authentic, traditional preparations. It's full of cultural and historical information on the foodways of Morocco. Lalou's new book gives a respectful nod to tradition, but he's a modern chef in SF, and his book emphasizes technique. We've learned a great deal from this book.

I can't say I've seen it in stores, either. You'd be fine with chuck, IMHO.

Thanks! Obviously you have good taste.

Super-Size Ginger Chewies; Two-Bite Gingerbread Whoopie Pies.

The USDA has a whole list of recommendations for the shelf life of cooked ham. It breaks it down by many different categories -- cooked and left open in refrigerator, cooked and wrapped in refrigerator, etc. You should find the one that best describes your situation.

Here's a recipe we ran way back in 2000.

MARIOR KOPSIDAS' RECIPE FOR KOURAMBIEDES

Once, Marion Kopsidas was asked what she thought was the best Greek restaurant in town. She gave her own address.

When Kopsidas was asked if she would share some of her recipes for this article, she exclaimed, "What am I doing? I'm giving away my children!" 

But then she obliged and also gave some cooking tips: Always use good olive oil and unsalted butter (never ever use canola oil or solid vegetable shortening). Never take shortcuts or skimp on ingredients. Use fresh parsley, mint and dill rather than dried.

Kourambiedes

(45 pieces)

Kourambiedes were the traditional wedding treat of Sparta. "Everyone got one at my wedding," Marion Kopsidas recalls. "I don't like to call them cookies because they're not cookies--they're creations."

Kopsidas says the secret is to whip the butter until it's white. The excess of confectioners' sugar represents wishes for good fortune. She prefers to sprinkle the confectioners' sugar on wax paper, transfer the cookies to the sugar, then cover them with additional sugar.

2 cups flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature 

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar 

2 egg yolks 

1 demitasse cognac (optional) 

1 cup (about 6 ounces) blanched, coarsely chopped almonds, lightly toasted* (optional) 

About 45 whole cloves 

About 2 pounds confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter until white, about 10 minutes. Beating constantly, slowly add the sugar and egg yolks and mix until combined. Using a spoon, stir in the cognac and almonds, if desired, and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture and mix until thoroughly combined. Using about 1/4 of the dough, form it into a log about 1 inch in diameter. Cut the dough on the diagonal into 1-inch pieces. Press a clove into the center of each piece and shape each piece into a ball. Transfer the ball to the baking sheet and repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Bake the dough in the preheated oven until lightly golden but not brown, about 20 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven and immediately sprinkle the confectioners' sugar over the kourambiedes, being careful to cover the sides and tops of each piece. Set aside to cool for at least 1 hour. Using a small spatula, transfer each kourambiedes into a small paper pastry cup without disturbing the sugar.

*NOTE: To toast nuts, spread them on a baking sheet and place them in a 350-degree oven, shaking the pan occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes. Watch carefully because nuts will burn quickly.

We absolutely love Ottolenghi's Plenty, as well as his non-vegetable centric earlier book, Ottolenghi. I still can't fully explain why we find our selves so often going to his books when it comes time to make dinner. I also like Simon Hopkinson's Vegetarian Option - and he's another English chef who is not stricly a vegetarian himself. Dennis Cotter, chef of Ireland's Cafe Paradiso has a book called Wild Garlic and Gooseberries, which has been out a few years, but which is lovely, and his newest book, For the love of Food, will be released in the states in April. Finally, we can't skip Nigel Slater's Tender, a huge volume dedicated to cooking from a small vegetable garden. The book offers descriptions of the various families of vegetables, with seasonal and harvesting info, and then gives us numerous tasty recipes.

                  Don

Great. Appreciate it!

I would not pre-cook your apples, unless you like applesauce pie.  Different apple varieties have different textures and tastes. To my mind the perfect apple pie has fork tender apples slices in a base of saucy apples.  Stay away from Macintosh and Macoun for pies, instead look for Granny Smith, Northern Spy, Rome or various Russets.  Or if you have a Farmer's Market ask the farmer selling apples which varieties they like.  There are more and more heirloom and heritage varieties available these days, some of which make fantastic pies.  Mix together a couple of different types for your own unique blend.  If you want to learn more about apples there is a great book out this year: The Apple Lover's Cookbook by Amy Traverso.

Samantha

Well, I just loved the way Tiffany MacIsaac's Double-Crust Apple Pie turns out, and she cooks/cools her filling first. The consistency's perfect and you don't get that lumpy top crust with air holes. The crust recipe included is sturdy and tasty. It'll seem like the dough barely holds together, but hang in there. It works.

Thanks for the treatise!

Indeed, I'll quibble with the organic thing. It's true that there's a dearth of studies that show that organic food has extra nutritional value, but there's tons of evidence of the damage that pesticide use does to the environment -- and to humans, really.

The Environmental Working Group's Shoppers Guide to Pesticides can help you decide which fruits and vegetables are worth buying organic because of the different levels of pesticide residues tested -- even after washing, btw.

The 23 year old Pappy might be out of your price range, but if you can find the Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Years Old Lot "B," it's usually $50 or less. Other than that, I like Four Roses Single Barrel or Elijah Craig 18 year old or Noah's Mill. All of which are fairly prevalent on liquor store shelves.

Have a look at "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman.

There's an app for that, no seriously, Mark Bittman's HTCE is excellent, and a lot less cumbersome than the book.

It's tricky to produce one large custard from a recipe that calls for individual ones. I understand not wanting to spring for more ramekins, but maybe the disposable aluminum foil kind might be an option? Or try pouring the custard mixture into the wells of a large-muffin pan.

I'm a big fan of the slow cooker. One book I use religiously is Essentials of Slow Cooking by Williams-Sonoma. I like pictures too.

Thanks on two counts -- glad you liked our lists, and appreciate your interest in my own book!

Depends. If the grads are not on a strict beans budget, they might enjoy some of The Barefoot Contessa books, which are not so voluminous and whose recipes are never complicated. Or if they're prone to the geek side, a Cook's Illustrated compendium would be good. 

For my $$, I recommend a right-sized 2005 book that didnt make the splash it deserved --  Cooking School Secrets for Real World Chefs, by West Coast cooking teacher Linda Caruso. It covers soup to nuts, offers good advice and solid recipes.

Jim's not here today, but he offered a few barbecue cookbook suggestions on the All We Can Eat blog this week.

He may join us later in the hour; he's on deadline!

Yep, I'm a big fan of the bake-from-frozen method with balled dough. Can I suggest, though, that you look at professional pastry dishers? They're like ice cream scoops, but in very specific sizes. Love them.

You could try scaling up Joe's recipe for Angel Food Cakes With Tangerines.

Or maybe a souffle?

Hmm. Might try using a liquid sweetener (honey, agave syrup, maybe even simple syrup) so you don't have issues with the chocolate seizing during a reheat.

Ideas in Food was a close call...as you may have noticed, I included a ton of books in the recommended and hometown lists already. What did you like best about Ideas in Food, and did you have a favorite recipe in there?

Although Modernist Cuisine didn't actualy arrive until March, the publicity for it started in early fall of 2010, and the Ideas in Food book came out in December of 2010 as well, so I think of both of those as last year's books. But since you've asked... There's no doubt that the publication of Modernist Cuisine was an important event in cookbook publishing. The work that went into was huge. And it gives an overview of a field of cooking which has been getting more and more attention, even as it changes names: 'molecular gastronomy,'' 'modernist cuisine,' etc.  But the book was touted as being a first, and we can't help but think of the work and books of so many others that came before. Herve This, Pierre Gagnaire, Heston Blumenthal and of course, Feran Adria. Was modernist cuisine  more important than The Fat Duck Cookbook, which does such a good job of surveying techniques (we witnessed David Chang tear his hair out over just how good a book it is), or better than the 5 volume series of El Bulli books? I don't think so. Finally, it feels like a Microsoft product to me (it kind of is). Pretty functional but a bit soulless.

Ideas in Food proves that you don't need a $600 book to learn alot about contemporary cooking techniques. No pictures, nothing. But it's great.

Don

I do this too, and I include the hastag #recipe which creates for an easy filter from my emails.

There is no definitive site or book that I know of, although a number of reliable sources have published recipes from food trucks. Notably:

Bon Appetit

Oprah

Also, earlier this year, writer Heather Shouse published a delightful book, "Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels." It includes many recipes, including the Fojol Bros.'s recipe for butter chicken.

Check out Lisa's Oat, Nut, Fruit and Seed Bars. I think you'd be fine to cut the nuts.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home (on the top 10 list); Baking Style,  Tea With Bea and The Cupcake Diaries  (all on the hometown favorites list).  Yes, that's four, but I've listed them in order.

He's not saying either Anais or Toni is like the authors of "Notes." He's saying Anais and Toni's works are very different from one another's, in the same way that "Notes" is different from more conventional cookbooks.

I've been using our recipe for Chocolate-Dipped Peppermint Marshmallows as my guide for my chocolate dipping needs. It calls for adding a little vegetable oil to the melted chocolate. Make sure you chill whatever you're going to cover in chocolate. It will help the coating firm up once they're dipped.

Just to be clear, Canadian Mist is not a brandy, it's a Canadian whisky. I haven't been a huge fan of Canadian whiskys, but one I tried recently and liked very much is Forty Creek. If he likes Canadian Mist, I might try an American rye whiskey, like say Bulleit, Sazerac, or Templeton ryes.

Now, if he wants to try brandy, and specifically cognac, you're going to want to splurge a little. Pierre Ferrand Reserve, at around $60, is a beautiful spirit. If that's too steep, you can go down a notch to Pierre Ferrand Ambre, at around $35. You might also want to try an Armagnac, like Chateau de Laubade -- the VSOP is around $40 and the XO is around $60.

Yep, she's featured in several best-of lists this season.

I love Heidi's stuff.

Kosher Revolution's kind of interesting, although I didn't quite get what was revolutionary about it. Why don't you try checking into vegan cookbooks, like Big Vegan by Robin Asbell (on our recommended list)?

We will! Coming up on our All We Can Eat blog in the next few days is a nonfussy, delicious fried doughnut recipe from Washington caterer Vered Guttman, with tips included. Hers aren't filled, but she recommends the easier option of a sauce (in her case, a chunky merlot-cherry sauce) for dipping.

I'd make all of it. Definitely. And then take the short ribs out of the cooking liquid, refrigerate them separately so the fat rises to the top of the liquid, scrape it off, boil it down to a syrupy state and use it as a sauce when you serve them. For the ones you don't eat, take them off the bone and shred them, combine with more of that sauce, and freeze in freezer bags. They'll do fine, and you'll be that much closer to dinner down the road when you thaw them.

It's half and half! That means half milk, half cream. Cool, huh?

Almost?

And CI also recommends vodka in the pie crust dough, which is one of the secrets of Tiffany's recipe.

I'm not one to pass judgment on someone else's dinner decisions, but canned tuna risotto? Excuse me while I run to the bathroom.

Try what Bonnie Benwick just suggested to me: Mix the canned tuna with mac and cheese. I suspect you might like the results better.

And I'd add it at the end, just before serving.

I missed this mention on the chat -- and I'm with you. I think it's a great idea even for a meat stock to use trimmings from celery, onions, carrots, etc.

It remains to be seen if cookbooks (or books at all) will make it in the long run. There are so many factors involved. Publishers, while they might deny it today, clearly see the savings and ease of going electronic. But as to comparing cookbooks with online recipe sources, I think there remains no comparison. When we find a cookbook we like, whether it is handsomely designed or rather plain, what makes it distinct is not that it is a collection of recipes, but that those recipes display a particular point of view. We know that ten chefs, left to their own devices, will make the same dish ten different ways. It's because they have ten different visions. The same is true of good cookbooks.

I want to read and cook from a cookbook knowing that I have some idea of what the author is trying to say.  I think of some of the best cookbooks ever, like those of Elizabeth David or Richard Olney. No fancy design there, but there is a point of view.

Don

LOL.

Never had a bad catch from BlackSalt Fish Market and Restaurant in the Palisades. Special orders don't upset them, as the song goes.

So is David Lebovitz's. ;-)

Oh, wow. So many great things you could do.

- sauces from Rasika

- hot chocolate pops or chocolate-covered bacon from Co Co Sala

- pretty much anything from the Palena Market

- Jose Andres's book "Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America"

- charcuterie from Red Apron Butchery

- spiced nuts or cookies from Alchemy by Carla Hall

Other thoughts?

Sounds perfect for a sloppy Joe. (And I'm not referring to myself.) Or you could make a Mexican twist on a baked pasta dish like lasagne or stuffed shells. Or use it as a sauce for stuffed peppers. Anything that calls for a tomato sauce I think would be good. You could do Eggs in Purgatory -- crack a couple of eggs into it and cook them in the sauce.

Hear, hear.

I'm also making peppermint bark. If it helps I'll be using semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I was all set to include it, but I think it has a 2012 pub date, no?

I appreciate that. The French Laundry one seems to cover all the bases: beautiful, usable, inspirational.

I had a whole sugar cookie blog post. Pretty sure you can find what you're looking for in there!

A&H Gourmet and Seafood Market in Bethesda has it (also a selection of great paella pans), and so does BlackSalt in the Palisades (see my previous answer).

Do you or a friend have a Costco membership? I bought a ginormous bag of pecans there for a great price.

Jane Touzalin's Chat Leftovers is a treat to read every Wednesday, including today's on a heart-healthy soup for the holidays.

Your lentil and spinach soup sounds good. It also comes with a fringe benefit: It's tied to traditional New Year's Eve celebrations. Those lentils represent "coins" and the spinach "money," both of which are eaten for good luck at the start of the year.

If food drips/stains presented a sanitary problem for us die-hard cookbook users, then I think we'd all be dead by now. Wipe it off, let it dry, you'll be fine.

You're right! But other lists included it.

Strangely this is not a great season for bread books.  That is other than the revised The Italian Baker, which we adore.  Carol Field is so knowledgable, her recipes are clear and delicious, and there are not that many Italian baking books out there in the world. The CIA did put out the weighty and slightly ponderous The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Bread Baking, which is a great book for reference, or for those who like to geek out on their techniques (something I have been known to do upon occasion).  But when it comes to great recipes, a charming and respected voice, inviting photography and a fantastic layout two books from earlier in the year/last year come to mind.  Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson of the bakery by the same name in San Francisco, and Simply Great Breads by Daniel Leader of Bread Alone bakery in Upstate New York.

Samantha

If you look for recipes within recipes, as chef Bryan suggested to me, you can find things that are doable, such as a variety of vegetable purees (they like adding agar for body). Their caramelized and kimchi bok choy is fantastic but needs to spend 24 hours in a vacuum-sealed pouch.  It's the equipment needs that might be a stumbling block.

You think he's forgotten that he's on his own? Funny. But seriously: Mine is titled "Serve Yourself." The cooking-for-one part is in itsy-bitsy letters in the subtitle.

IMHO, slices of duck breast just aren't the same when the blush of medium-rare is gone. My advice is to prepare it that way and then cook a portion of it to medium and ask her to taste the difference. (Is it a texture thing for her or a food-safety issue? Just curious.)

I'll be playing around with a recipe from last year, perhaps throwing in a little bacon as inspired from this Whiskey Caramel Bark recipe.

This Peppermint Crunch Bark is a good one too.

There are more and more of these books available these days.  Here are a couple to get you going:

Culinary Reactions The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking by Simon Field

Cooking For Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks and Good Food by Jeff Potter

Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why it Matters  by Gordon Shepard

Anything by Herve This

Also for flavor pairings and the like there are The Flavor Bible and Culinary Artistry by the Dornenbergs and The Flavor Thesaurus by Nikki Segnit.

Have fun!

Samantha

Great!

Of course -- confit of rabbit leg is delicious. But it's not boiled, never. Confit is made by slow-cooking and then cooling the meat in fat. Traditionally its own.

Well, the short answer would be to buy Mark Bittman's "Fish" cookbook, which is my favorite of his.

He has a lengthy step-by-step process for deep-frying squid. It includes dipping sauces, which might be of some help for you too.

Have you ever checked out our Slow-Roasted Beef recipe? I've used it to make a very fine bone-in rib roast or two. At an even lower temp (170 or 175) it's almost impossible to overcook. Love the evenness of the interior.  It takes longer than your recipe, which might work better for your day plans. Using that method, it takes about 2 1/2 hours per pound to achieve medium-rare --- and i should say that it's on the rare side of medium-rare.

Does that mean you won't have time to let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes or so before you bake it? That would take care of it. If it's  just been refrigerated and not frozen, I don't think you'll have to adjust the time/temp by more than 15 mins.

Well, I tried calling Shenandoah, and its number is disconnected. That's not a good sign. It's apparently closed.

Check back with us next week, and we'll see if we can find any replacement brewing classes.

There are some terrific books dedicated to Sauces, including James Peterson's Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making, and Michel Roux Sauces. Both can guide you through the fundamentals of this speciality which has its own special station in classical French kitchens.  There are some other books out there which have sizable sections devoted to Sauces, including Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home, and Daniel Humm & Will Guidara's new Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook.   We're particularly impressed with the "building blocks" section of EMP, as it could be a book by itself (please do this publishers!). Page after page of sauces, dry rubs, infusions, vinegrettes, flavored salts and oils. Incredibly useful for all.