BillJ's Profile

I put the meat in a large bowl of warm heavily salted water. In 20 minutes it's defrosted and brined.

Over a thousand of you have clicked through to my blog for the full recipe. Have any of you guys made it yet? Is pre-made dulce de leche too hard to find?

I quite like the Mexican style, but they're not quick at all. I found that it took weeks of pickling before the flavor really soaked in and over a month until they really tasted right. But once they did, they're darn good.

Personally, I find it hard to watch Top or Iron Chef without pausing part way through to head into the kitchen and throw something together. Snacking on some innovative creation of my own lets me appreciate the shows on a higher level with valid opinions on the goings-on instead of as a passive observer.

I made this recipe a while back and wasn't really wowed by the marrow but I did really like the parsley salad. I got my marrow bones frozen at Whole Foods and I wonder if the freezing or the (probably) factory-farmed cow they came from killed the flavor Bordain loves. I'd like to try it again if I can get ahold of fresh veal marrow bones to use.

Jeff's mini cornbread things got plenty of love. They were chorizo spoonbread and the judges liked them better than the chicken. My prediction for the season: chorizo is the new bacon.

And Fabio's dish was lame: classic Italian is not New American even if you gussy it up with a trendy molecular gastronomy trick.

I picked up a set of cheap thin plastic cutting sheets color coded the same way that I lay on top of my wooden cutting board. They're nice because they can all hang from one hook when not in use and I can curl them up to funnel whatever I just chopped into the pot.

I've got a couple of questions.

First on baking: I started using the no-knead recipe last year but have become confident enough to start kneading with my mixer and trying different recipes. Now I'm wondering about the other half of no-knead: baking using a dutch oven to hold in the steam. The high temperatures and long baking time in the no-knead recipe are worryingly more than most standard recipes call for and I could use some advice on how I should be making adjustments.

Second, I recently bought a small jar of foie gras, just a couple ounces, and I really don't know what to do with it. Is preserved far inferior to fresh and if so, how do I compensate for that?

Thanks.