Live Q&As

Thank you! You can still apply to the group, they welcome people who are interested in their heritage. Shana tova!

Do they have a baking stone? That would be at the top of my list. And an excellent bread knife. A bench scraper isn't a bad idea, especially because it can be used for a lot of things. Same with the rolling pin. This bread baker from King Arthur looks pretty cool too.

Have you actually eaten at a food truck or are you just raising rhetorical points in an attempt to bash food trucks?

Because if you've eaten at these trucks, you would realize that the variety of cuisines, the quality of the food and sheer innovation of the industry make these street-based bites often more attractive than the standard, ho-hum sandwich shop on the corner.

If you need suggestions, I'd point you to Chefdriven or Pepe (operated by Jose Andres, better known for the bricks-and-mortar operations that you prefer) or any of the Fojol Bros. trucks, including Volathai. Others worth chasing down: D.C. Empanadas, Basil Thyme, El Floridano, Goodies Frozen Custard, Phonation, Red Hook Lobster Pound, SUNdeVICH, Tasty Kabob, Rolling Ficelle and others.

That's probably too long a story for chat, but basically "shrimp and grits" was long a breakfast dish in Charleston, preferably using the tiny little creek shrimp of spring and summer. There's a recipe called Charleston Breakfast Shrimp in the Junior League of Charleston's Charleston Receipts of 1950, using bacon grease, onion, pepper, and flour in the sauce. Bill Neal of Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, began serving Shrimp and Grits in the mid-80s, but no one in Charleston was serving the dish before I opened my store and championed whole-grain grits there. I make a stock with the shrimp heads for added flavor. That recipe's in my book, along with several other versions. My book has just been released in a 20th Anniversary Edition with a new preface. Stone-ground, whole-grain grits are available from my commercial site.

We recommend "The Food Substitutions Bible" by David Joachim.

Remember that if you do want to add things like aleppo pepper to your pantry -- and I heartily endorse! -- you can order through online purveyors. Maybe around the holidays you can find special or free shipping rates.

Looks like there are 13 of them, at least in a specific chapter.

Freeze it, absolutely, with the sauce.  Leftover brisket is super for tacos, chopped up for shepherd's pie, homemade pasties/handpies, even adding to chili or stew. You might want to to refrigerate it for a day or so, just to allow fat to congeal at the top (easy to remove before freezing, if that's a concern to you). There are briskets of lesser sizes -- how many pounds do you usually buy?

BTW, did you see chef Adam Sobel's Holiday Brisket recipe? Might try it this year for Passover. The horseradish intrigues me. (Oy, have I ever typed a sentence like that before?)

I often freeze single portions of leftover brisket, but do freeze the sauce separately. It just heats up better. I wrap the meat in parchment, then foil, and pop the wrapped portion in the toaster oven at 350° for about 20 minutes (if defrosted.)

Also, most brisket recipes work really well with short ribs. Just take the meat off the bone and treat it like a small version of brisket.

Starting with my default answer here:  That depends.

Did you store it in a cool, dark place? Was it a fine, aged balsamic? You'll have to open it to tell....does it smell off/slightly rotten? If so, the mother's gone bad. It can happen, especially with balsamic that's less than top-quality. Is it looking cloudy at all? (You might be able to strain it and use it, if there's no bad aroma.)

I won’t lie to you, it’s going to suffer .… Maybe try to find an apple tart recipe with a puff pastry base. Those come parve and the main component of the tart are actually the apples, so you’re not compromising much.

I agree with Vered. One of the stellar things about the cake is its rich, buttery flavor, which would be lost with margarine or oil. Save this one for after the holiday!

I’m not sure if the quince in your yard are edible, but if they are there are many Sephardi dishes you can prepare with them, including a Rosh Hashanah staple: a quince jam. You basically cook the peeled and cubed quince with sugar and water for a long time, 1.5-2 hours, until it is soft and changes its color to deep orange. Use 1/2 sugar and 1.5 cups water for every lb. of quince.

I did a quick Google search and found a number of recipes for low-carb granola (is that an oxymoron or what?), like this one with coconut, pumpkin and flax seeds and this one with sunflower seeds, pecans and peanut butter.

Good luck and let us know if these recipes work!

I've made pear and apple butter by simply putting the fruit in a low oven overnight, straining it, adding spice, and doing the same thing the next night. Lazy man's work!

Check out this story from a few years ago by Friend of Food Nancy Baggett. Basically they're various types of mixes you can give as gifts. I also think any kind of jam or preserve would be nice. Check out some of the canning recipes we've run recently. I'm kind of obsessed with the Pear and Chocolate Jam.

Make my bourbon balls in today's paper.

Was it this one? I don't think  I've met an apple cake in The Post that I didn't like....

MARGIE SIEGEL'S APPLE CAKE

 Makes an 8-inch cake

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup matzo cake meal

1/3 cup peanut oil

5 apples, pared and sliced

Topping:

1/3 cup walnuts

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Mix the eggs, sugar and cake meal together. Add oil. Mix well. Pour half the mixture into a lightly greased 8- or 9-inch square baking pan. Spread a layer of apples over the batter. (If desired, add mixture of sugar/cinnamon, white raisins and nuts on top of apple layer.) Pour the remaining batter into the pan and cover with the rest of the apples. Sprinkle the topping over the apples. Bake 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees. To make a larger cake, double the recipe and place in a 9-by-13-inch oblong pan.

So, so glad you asked. It prompted me to get back in touch with our former Food 101 columnist Bob Wolke, who, I just found out, helped edit parts of the 43-pound "Modernist Cuisine," and wrote a pertinent section in the work as well.

Bob says it's a matter of convection.  When you heat water, it essentially stirs itself; warm parts at the bottom rise, cool parts fall down. That makes it heat up uniformly, in the end.  In a thick, viscous sauce, the little bubbles that form at the bottom cannot migrate up easily -- not buoyant enough --  so they tend to stay below, collecting into columns of steam that erupt/burst as big bubbles that splatter you, the stove and your backsplash. (He calls it blurping; MC called it belching.)

 The net:  Convection does not take place in a thick sauce. And when you see those blurps, that's not really boiling, he says. Boiling occurs when a  liquid achieves a high enough temperature to change into vapor/gas.  The temperature in a viscous liquid like tomato sauce is uneven and doesn't have the same pure boiling point as water. Don't you love that? I feel smarter now.

The best way to reheat a sauce without wearing it, then, is to keep stirring it, so the heat disperses evenly.

(This makes you a strong contender for a prize today, just sayin'.)

If I were you, I'd wait. Freezing is likely to turn the salsa weepy, mushy and not very fresh-tasting -- the opposite of what you want in a salsa.

I agree with Jane. But I thought I'd also check with Pati Jinich, a Friend of Food and the chef for the Mexican Cultural Institute. She says salsa verde will freeze well for about a week, but will go south if you hold it longer. Writes Pati:

"As it sits in the fridge, the spiciness winds down a bit."

I know I'm not the only one thinking of the icing on those Baskin Robbins cakes. So sweet and kind of slick but weirdly addicting. Haven't been able to locate a great recipe so far, but would a chocolate topping work? This Bittersweet Chocolate Fudge Sauce is quite thick and hardens when it hits cold ice cream. So you can drizzle that on in advance, although with a group of kids, they might like the magic shell effect of pouring the sauce on and seeing it harden.

All low-country boils should have corn, shrimp, and sausage.  And some added seasoning, especially if the sausage isn't spicy and smoked. OTHER ingredients are the odd ones out -- potatoes, crab, etc.

They're already dried on the vine, right? I grew a dozen heirloom varieties in DC several years ago in a community garden and ate them fresh and dried for months, but when I went to make my hoppin' John on New Year's Day and pulled them out, they were riddled with bugs. I have read that you can freeze them first to kill critters, and of course you can freeze about anything, but what happens when you THAW foods is the ticket. I have found the best way to put away cowpeas and butterbeans for the winter is to go ahead and cook them the way you want to eat them -- if you use a smoked ham hock, go ahead and cook them that way. THEN FREEZE THEM IN BATCHES. They're taking up freezer room already, so you may as well have them ready-to-serve.

I wouldn't want to lose them, either. They've become an integral part of the food landscape in Washington. But some of the truck owners are worried about their future here. See my blog item from yesterday.

Absolutely. On my blog there's a video of me catching bream, cleaning them, frying them, and making hush puppies to go with. My Fearless Frying Cookbook is a steal at $11. Perfect frying every time if you follow my instructions. I use peanut oil for pretty much everything deep-fried because it has a high flash point and is more stable than most. Here's a link to the page on my blog with the video.

I've been having good luck lately finding fresh okra at my local Harris Teeter. Also, it's very often available at the large Asian grocery stores, such as H Mart and Great Wall.

It's interesting to notice that althought the okra recipe in the paper was Southern, okra in tomatoes is a very popular Sephardi dish as well.

Thank you, hope you'll enjoy it at home as well!

Try substituting smoked paprika. I add about a Tablespoon to a large pot of vegetarian chili that I might otherwise start with two or three pieces of chopped up bacon.

Turkey bacon would work in the Spinach and Bacon Chili recipe. It'll render a small amount of fat in the pan, and provide the necessary chewy bits.

D'oh. Let's try that again. Here it is.

Try making the Slivovitz in today's paper. I've been giving it for gifts for years and no one has ever complained.

I like it on all fish, even when it's not "pub-fried." You can add to marinades and salad dressings, of course. A splash in a soup when you don't have fresh citrus on hand.

Weird-but-good combo for me: with thick slices of Asian pears. And I've been known to stir it into a mayo-based tuna fish concoction.

True, plus with delivery the food often is compromised: It's either lukewarm or the texture has been altered because it steams in on itself.

Scale. Great idea. 

Er, not sure I'm with you on the Rose Levy B. part, but this is a democratic forum....

I have to admit, the best Sephardi cookbooks I know are all in Hebrew. But books by writers like Claudia Roden, Joan Nathan and Gil Marks all have nice collections of Sephardi recipes in them (next to Ashkenazi as well, of course).

Also these Quince Honey Challah Knots. Wow.

The chatter was asking about quince bushes, not quince trees. They're very different (about 20 feet different!) but the fruit of both is edible. I had a quince tree in my Arlington back yard and it was a real education! The fruit is as hard as a rock -- cutting it was a risky business -- but once cooked, it becomes fragrant and delicately delicious. Wish I still had it.

Love them, love Shulie Madnick, their maker.

You can get Turkish ground coffee at Middle Eastern markets like Yekta in Rockville. And here’s a video on how the prepare it - you need to boil the coffee three times if you’re serious about your coffee!  

Absolutely. Fill a quart jar with clean blackberries. Add anywhere from 1-2 cups of sugar, depending on the sweetness of the berries. Fill the jar with vodka, brandy, eau de vie or grain alcohol. Some people just add wine. Wait two to three months, strain through a coffee filter and serve. Consider adding vanilla or other spices. Some citrus peel is also good.

I understand why these bricks-and-mortar restaurants wouldn't want the competition: They expected to have a captive lunch market. But now that they have competition, one hopes they would be inspired toward more innovation instead of what many have tried to do: Kill the competition.

It's not just enough to get stone-ground. You want stone-ground, WHOLE-GRAIN, and, preferably, HEIRLOOM corn grits. Why? For both nutrition and flavor. Grits sitting on a grocer's shelf, unrefrigerated, have been degerminated. That is, the germ, which is where the oil is, has been removed. We all know that fat carries flavor. This degermination process can be done several ways, but the most common is by soaking the corn in a lye solution. Of course, you need to keep whole-grain products like mine in the freezer, and you have to cook them longer (a slow cooker is great overnight or while you're at work), but the flavor is unbeatable. Also, unless it says stone-ground, the corn (hybrid varieties that are flavorless to begin with) has been ground between steel rollers which both grinds too fine and actually cooks the corn. Of course it lasts forever on the grocer's shelf, but it tastes like the carboard it's packaged in.

You can freeze peach puree in airtight containers for your baby for up to three months, but I wouldn't go beyond that. (I frequently stretch use-by dates, but I probably wouldn't where an infant is concerned.) Here's what to do with them now -- I love, love, love this very easy, free-form pastry that will use up four of your nectarines: Nectarine-Raspberry Crostata. It's not only tasty, but quite pretty.

Thanks! Assuming you’re talking about sweet biscochos, here’s a nice recipe to start with. I would add anise seeds, especially if your grandmother used to do that too.

The subject of produce prices is very painful to me. I still can’t understand why would tomatoes cost more than chicken -- summer or wintertime. And why the USDA who recommends we all eat more veggies give most of their subsidies to beef-related industries. I would try getting outside of the city center for produce shopping, places like H-Mart and other ethnic markets seem to be selling veggies for much less year-round.

My initial research shows that while they're similar, there are also differences. Shishito peppers are generally milder. I'm not sure about availability. Anyone have a scouting report?

Good question. For better or for worst, froyo has been marketed as a healthy, low-fat snack option, despite the fact that it can have a high sugar content.

My suspicion is that few or none of these froyo stores will carry whole-milk, full-fat yogurt (instead of the stuff that you have to add pectin to give the yogurt body in the absence of fat). Just out of curiosity I called a couple of stores quickly: Both FroZenYo and Pinkberry only sell low-fat or non-fat froyo.

Apparently not.

I can't imagine how you would get the smoked meat flavor without using meat. However, if you are into smoking foods yourself, you could smoke some onions and peppers (for that matter, you could put raw rice in your smoker) and smoke them. There's a smoky paprika (Pimentòn) from Spain that you could use to add a smoky flavor. Some people use Liquid Smoke in recipes, but it tastes weird to me.

I don't see why not, as long as the oil's in good condition.

You could puree and freeze (flat, in a freezer bag), or puree with other fruit, some honey and yogurt to make a smoothie. I've seen cantaloupe and pasta recipes that look interesting (almost said intriguing again. yikes).

Nice. thanks for pointing that out!

Here are some other drinks using apple brandy:

Apple Toddy, Calvados Sidecar, Corpse Reviver No. 1, Della Mela.

If you're interested in cooking with it, try our Cider Herb Gravy with your Thanksgiving turkey. And wait a couple weeks: Apple brandy will figure big in a pudding cake we'll be running.

Sorry, can't answer the Chartreuse question, and Jason seems to be running late. Maybe ask him in a future chat, or just try using it and see what happens?

Another excellent quince recipe: short ribs with quince.

Ah, yes. Here's a story on that exact strategy, written by our colleague Steve Luxenberg.

YES

You must let the beans boil for 5 to 7 minutes. After that, turn them down really low and let them cook, tasting them often, until they're done to your liking.

Here are some tips from Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo.

Yes yes yes! I've had to stand there peering at the rows and rows of nonfat and lowfat yogurt containers in the supermarket trying to make out one, just one, that is full fat. What I've found is that I can find it, but not in containers smaller than 16 ounces. So I buy it, but sometimes it ends up going bad before I can use it all. So frustrating.

And by the way, you'll need full-fat Greek-style yogurt for a great pasta recipe we'll be running next week.

Jane and I were just bartering over the tub she has in her fridge.

Well, I do agree that D.C. does seem to have a high percentage of workaholics. But even if we had all the time in the world, I'd still pick a food truck a couple times a week, just because I like many of them.

The trucks are particularly nice now that the weather is turning cool and you can eat your lunch in the park. Sweet, that.

That would be the Chocolate and Hazelnut Ice Cream Flauta from Pepe.

And the Food section said: It was good.

It really depends on the cookie. For similar type drop cookies, like oatmeal raisin or chocolate chunk, you could probably assume the same textural qualities will endure. If you've gone to the trouble of melting the butter, maybe go a little further and make true brown butter? Here's my technique -- in a small saucepan, let butter melt, cook and sputter on medium heat making little brown flecks on the bottom of the pan, and when it goes totally silent, that's brown butter.

Doesn't melted butter in a cookie promote that good chewiness? Or at least it helps dissolve sugar crystals in the dough...

Gave a quick search in our deep archives and didn't find it.  Send your email to food@washpost.com and we'll try to track it down for you.

I do it. Just let it cool, and go slowly, in 15-20-second increments.

Some quick research on the subject seems to indicate that pasta sauces (typically the commercial types) only hold four or five days in the fridge.  Your homemade batch is well beyond that. I'd say, to be safe, toss the sauce and make a new batch.

See the loong tomato sauce blurping q&a...you'd have to make sure the sauce really came to a full boil, and now we know that might be hard to achieve!

Strain it through a coffee filter and bottle it!

I do lots of dishes that way, especially dishes that require you to brown the meat  beforehand -- rabbit stews, beef stews, and the Eastern European classics like gyuvetch and kavarma.

How about these Boiled Cider Baked Beans?

If they have it in containers smaller than 1 pound, I'll be thrilled. At the Harris Teeter and Safeway in my neighborhood, they do not.

Good to know. We use ProQuest for the tough ones.

If you search online, you'll find that curdling almond milk is very common. Everyone seems to have different theories about it -- an incomplete emusion, a chemical reaction -- but one common thread seems to be that usually it doesn't mean there's a problem with the milk itself unless the carton appears to be bloated, the milk's color looks off or the milk smells sour. When in doubt, I always call the manufacturer and ask.

As any hummus cook would tell you, it’s hard to give accurate quantities (although if you’re talking about this recipe it seem quite right). Start with the recipe you have and taste it. Now decide if it’s too liquid-like add more tahini. I usually use more than the 2 tablespoons in the recipe, if you like it more lemony add that, or garlic and salt (especially since you like strong flavors). It’s your hummus!