I’ll take five and ten in Woolworth (hint: Duck Soup)

Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho): Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you: he really is an idiot. I implore you, send him back to his father and brothers, who are waiting for him with open arms in the penitentiary. I suggest that we give him ten years in Leavenworth, or eleven years in Twelveworth.
Chicolini (Chico): I’ll tell you what I’ll do: I’ll take five and ten in Woolworth.

- from the Marx Brothers’ film ”Duck Soup” (1933)

I made duck for Thanksgiving this year. There were only three of us, so a turkey would have been overkill, and I really love duck anyway. I froze the neck and wing tips while preparing the duck, and afterwards froze the carcass in anticipation of doing a soup with it. Last night was duck soup night.

That’s funny, you don’t look cornish….

I was surprised to read in Wikipedia that a Cornish game hen, aka Cornish hen, aka poussin, aka Rock Cornish hen aka Rock Cornish — is not really a game bird, but actually a typical chicken that is slaughtered at a young age.  In fact, even though it’s called a hen, it can be either male or female.

Seoul Food – Home style!

After all of the Korean food I’ve been talking about in my My Thursday Lunch blog, my lovely wife D decided to buy me a Korean cookbook. Yesterday was my first chance to try it out. In the afternoon, D, my son Jeff and I went to one of the local Korean markets, called Han Kook Market. It’s always fun going to an ethnic market and Han Kook is pretty nice. On the weekends there are always ladies cooking things for demonstration (I opted not to try the snail soup, but I’m sure it was delicious).

Whodunit? The butter did it!

I’ve been experimenting with different kinds of butters after reading an article in Saveur about some French restaurant that paid more for their butter than their fois gras (or some ingredient).  I always kind of thought butter = butter.  As always, there was much I needed to learn.  I figured I’d need to go to a specialty shop, so I went over to Monsieur Marcel’s in Farmer’s Market at 3rd & Fairfax.  I decided to try some French butter first.  They have a selection, but the one I opted for was President butter.

How the Julie/Julia project got it wrong

Like a lot of people, I went to see Julie & Julia last weekend.  Of course Meryl Streep was incredible (why’d she ever change her name from Mary anyway?) and overall the movie was a lot of fun.  I was curious to find out exactly what Julia Child had said about Julie and her project.  In the movie, it was reported that Julia said she “wasn’t serious” or something.

Publisher’s Weekly spoke to Judith Jones, Senior Editor and Vice President at Alfred A. Knopf, and Julia Child’s editor and confidante, who shared her recollection of Child’s feelings on Julie Powell’s blog:

Richard Feynman

If you don’t mind cozying up to Bill Gates (sounds yucky, I know), you can watch the amazing Richard Feynman giving some lectures.  I’ve read some of his lectures, but seeing and hearing him is really a fun experience.  If you have any interest in physics or science (it’s all about what’s going on.  are you interested in what’s going on?), give them a watch.  It requires you to install silverlight (it is Microsoft after all), and won’t run (for me, at least) on Chrome, but the interface is pretty nicely done.

And after watching the first lecture, I have to wonder if Douglas Adams had ever heard or read this lecture?  (i.e. listen for the number “42″ )

Roasted Chicken on the grill

I love roasted chicken!  I think it’s one of the easiest things in the world to cook, and it’s one of my ultimate comfort foods.  I often hear people saying how difficult it is to roast a chicken, to get the dark meat done before the white meat dries out.  I don’t know, it never seems to happen to me, even when I change the size of the bird, or the temperature or cooking time.  Sometimes I experiment with a higher temp for a shorter time to get a crisper skin.

New Kitchen Toys Part 1

I’ve been buying myself a few toys recently.  A few months ago I decided to get myself a pasta machine.

If I’m sprouting, this must be Brussels

Brussel Sprouts:  Originally Brussels Sprouts.  A green vegetable of the genus brassica oleracea gemmifera (cabbages) native to Belgium, having small, cabbage-like heads or buds along the stalk, eaten as a vegetable.

I love seeing these things on the stalk at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market.  They are other-wordly, like out of a Doctor Seuss book.

I love cooking Brussel Sprouts, but I’ve heard many people talk about how difficult they are to cook — that is, to time them so that they are done well enough and not a pile of mush.  Personally, I find that it’s more a matter of giving them the time they need, because depending on how fresh they are, they all seem to cook at a different rate, so my usual plan is to plan on timing dinner around how the sprouts are doing.

Marcella’s Chops

If I were talking about a jazz musician’s chops, I would be referring to his technique, as in, “Man, that cat has some amazing chops!  Listen to him blow!”.   Marcella often makes the point that she is not a fancy cook and that her recipes, for the most part, require very little technique.   For her, taste is foremost.  If you can do something fancy to make the presentation nice, go for it — but not at the expense of the taste.

Last night I made  a dish which demonstrates this quite eloquently,  Marcella’s Lamb Chops Calabria Style with Tomatoes, Peppers, and Olives from Marcella Says…. What a delight!